Biggest Challenge

I am beginning to feel a little like I am the only person in the world who can not handle her work load. That this somehow makes me inadquete in all of my endeveors. I have not had a semester this challenging in my entire college career. It has been hard for me to keep up with every aspect of my life.

I have fallen behind in grading papers and entering the grades for my classes until the last minute when progress reports are given to parents. I have failed to keep up with my journal enteries for this class and have struggled to complete the assingments on time. I have not been able to enroll in schools for the military and might possibly have to miss the first four weeks in January at my teaching job because of it.

On top of all of that I have not been able to see Friends and Family and have missed several birthday parties, family fuctions and even church.

I say all of that to say that because this post is late and even though I have struggled with every one of my goals for my professional development plan I have not posted that either.

I think that the biggest challenge for me is time. I know that this is something that I may not be able to fix and I am not sure how I lost so much of it already this year.

As I look over my short term goals, I know that in order to make them happen before the end of the school year I will have to hurry to make all of the things happen and even though I would like to be able to say that I will finish alot of lesson planning over the summer, I am already getting calls for my time from both the army, the school board, my own college career, and my aunt who wants me to work in her daycare.

I also think that another big challenge is money and priority. Since I am a history teacher and the our OPI or state testing scores are based on our math and reading scores there are not alot of resources made available to me. I received my smart board due to a bond issue passing all of the history teachers were supposed to receive one, instead I received one and one other tested teacher did. Every other subject in the building has received a smart board, the only classrooms without them are the other 4 social studies teachers.

There was also an order placed for the airliners that accompany the smartboards, again math and reading teachers are the only ones who received this software.

I would like to use a live pen to demonstrate to students how to take notes because that seems to be the biggest problem that my students have. I know that in order to use this next year it is likely that I will have to purchase it with my own money much like I have purchased many of the other things that we use on a regular basis in my classroom. It seems the responsibility to improve technology has fallen to the teacher much like school supplies that the students are supposed to bring but teachers end up providing.

There are grant possibilities but the time that it takes to write a grant correctly is not something that I possess at this moment, which brings me back to the original problem that of time.

Stategy

One of the primary skills that students are tested on is their ability to interpret primary source documents. I think for this reason it would be beneficial for all of my students to use the internet to find primary source documents to conduct their research. In the book Technology and the Diverse Learner, they give an example of students using select search engines to find the documents. I think that this is a good idea but I know realistically that students have their own search engines that they are comfortable with and that it should be used with students that are gifted and talented. I would like to be able to use it with more than just the gifted and talented students because the students with special needs will be required to interpret the same documents.

I think it is what you do with it that makes the difference. I could have the students look for primary source documents pertaining to a certain concept like the revolutionary war document, then have them write their own meanings on the bottom of the document after they save it to a microsoft word document.

I think that the options are endless with something like this.

Technology Learning

I am sorry but I just landed back in OKC today and it has been a crazy week.

I learned from reading my critques that the sheet that I made was enough for the person to learn from. It was a little much to show them all of the buttons that were not listed on my handout in real life. I should include more information about what the program can be used for and give some options. I should also include how to download the program if you do not already have it on your computer based on the windows operating system.

Reflection #2

I think that the biggest technology problems facing kids today is the haves and the have nots. There are some kids that are exposed to new technology on a regular basis because of the schools that they attend and their home lives. While there are others who might have a computer but not have access to the internet at home or any exposure to some of the technology that is being used in more and more classrooms.
Since some of this technolgy is really new there doesnt seem to be a lot of studies on the effects of this technology on the future careers of students, I would have to imagine that those kids that were not exposed to things like a smart board or document camera or computer learning software will be behind the power curve when they become adults.

http://http://learningmatters.tv/blog/op-ed/technology-in-schools-problems-possibilities/3261/

In this article he talks about the schools that have and the schools that don't creating a gap, he also discusses schools keeping technolgy out of schools and other hazards hindering education.

http://http://www.4parents.gov/sexrisky/risky/tech_dangers/tech_dangers.html

This website discusses some of the issues that kids might encounter while they are online, that might be dangerous.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/52677.html?wlc=1266261830

This websites list dangers of letting kids use technology too much

Webquest

From what I can tell Webquest is not a web 2.0 website. It seems to lead its followers to websites that are considered web 2.0 but it is not one in itself.
Users on webquest can not comment on the posts that are put on webquest, they also can not edit the content that they are seeing. The website is very basic it simply complies a list of good websites that might help teachers in different categories.

Keeping kids engaged during the snow storm

I have put much thought into trying to keep kids engaged when there are snow days. There are many outlets that could be useful but most of them require the students to not only have a computer to use, they also have to have internet which in my school is a far stretch for many of them.
The district has been money to have teacher websites and grades available online, yet many parents don't have access to these sites so they aren't very helpful.

It seems though that most of our kids do have television and telephones. In our district we have a channel that broadcasts throughout the district. Teachers could use this to communicate with students. If the district would allow teachers to access the feed on the television. Each school could have a designated time to post things and students can answer the questions that are presented on television. I was thinking it would be perfect to ask review questions that the students can bring back to class. Even if they dont have their book they can call each other and determine an answer.

I also think that if the district were willing to provide teachers with a phone that can send and receive text messages then teachers could text their kids questions and give points to the first students to respond. They might be able to even present their questions in American Idol fashion so the students can text in their answer and the teacher would be able to show what most students chose and then explain the correct answer.

I think that these might even be things that can be done over the summer or over other breaks during the year. It might be a way to engage the students that you dont hear much from in the classroom.