How bad is this going to get? I don't think we have even started on how bad it is going to get! States have used their income unwisely, leaving themselves with huge deficits. So what is the first thing they want to cut to balance their budgets? Education. Teachers were laid off at Christmas time because school districts couldn't handle the financial cuts being made by their state legislatures. I thought I was in a fairly stable situation, being a teacher; but then again, maybe I should switch careers and become a member of the state legislature. Now that is a secure job! They may have wised up and won't vote themselves a pay raise for the next couple of years but I bet they don't worry about layoffs either!
My district is pretty stable. We stay within our budgets every year. Yet our budgets do rely heavily on funding from state and federal resources. Right now, the talk is to begin rifts by not filling the positions of teachers that retire or choose to leave. Any district that does that will find that their class sizes increase... In my district, leadership believes in smaller class sizes, yet that is being sacraficed to keep teachers on staff. It is a catch 22. I worry about having so many students, which will make it harder to reach them. Yet, I appreciate that my district is trying to keep as many of us as they can. It just seems disheartening that education is already being hit by tough economic times. I was hoping the value of having educated children to lead us in the future would be a factor in keeping teaching more stable.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
I found the website to be informative and not as commercialized as I expected. I would have like to see some printable charts containing the 21st Century skills available for posting in the classroom. Intel’s Teach Program: Thinking with Technology has those charts, but only on half pages. I will have to recreate them to post them in my room. Another thing I would have liked to see is links to lessons that exhibit these skills. There are activities and lessons, but I would like to see a seperate link in which all of the lessons are together. It would make the site more user friendly, in my opinion.
I was surprised to see that, while the site does not have a blog, it does have a place to submit articles for publication, if you sign up to become a member. Another thing that surprised me was that I could not find any information about Costa and Kallick’s 16 Habits of Mind. With Intel being a big supporter of this type of thinking and being a member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I expected to find the 16 Habits of Mind in more detail.
After visiting this site, the implications for my students and myself did not change from what the implications were from reading the print resources in our Walden course. The implications remain: 1) Our students are falling behind in the technology work force. 2) We have to find ways to increase technology use in our classrooms. 3) We have to teach our students to think globally, problem-solve and collaborate.
I was surprised to see that, while the site does not have a blog, it does have a place to submit articles for publication, if you sign up to become a member. Another thing that surprised me was that I could not find any information about Costa and Kallick’s 16 Habits of Mind. With Intel being a big supporter of this type of thinking and being a member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I expected to find the 16 Habits of Mind in more detail.
After visiting this site, the implications for my students and myself did not change from what the implications were from reading the print resources in our Walden course. The implications remain: 1) Our students are falling behind in the technology work force. 2) We have to find ways to increase technology use in our classrooms. 3) We have to teach our students to think globally, problem-solve and collaborate.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
APP2WhiteV
I am enjoying using my blog as a tool to seek information from other teachers and as an outlet for my own writing. I am still planning a blog for my classroom. Right now, the direction for my blog is unclear. I would like the students to showcase their personal narratives but, as of yet, have not resolved the issue of safety. Personal narratives are fraught with safety issues as students tend to use real names. We may have to edit names out of their stories. I prefer the thought of putting their stories into blogs in the form of a final draft over using a wiki. In a wiki, student work can be edited by anyone, which could ultimately change the voice. That is not desirable. In a blog, any feedback received by the students would be in the form of comments. This would allow students to make a revising decision rather than having it done for them. Knowing that their personal narrative will be available for the world to see will cause students to raise their expectations for themselves and strive for a better final product. Any suggestions out there? My grade level is junior high and my subject is Basic Writing. My students need to be publishing to a wider community and blogs could become an avenue for publishing.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Blooms Taxonomy
How do you teach younger students to work within Bloom's Taxonomy and understand the verbs? Someone in my Intel class tonight suggested pictures for each of the levels and some of the common verbs for the standards. Would this enable the students to realize what level they are working at?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
HELP!!!
I am sitting in my blogging class learning how to do this, eating sugar and laughing. Not getting anything done though!! :)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Cooperative Learning
I have located four basic tenets for cooperative learning. Let's find out if I understand what I am trying to teach my students... I have never had any training myself in how to use cooperative groups and I am not happy with just putting students into a foursome and saying work together; it has not been as productive as I would like. I would appreciate any help that I can get from the education community.
1. Students must be trained for cooperative learning to work.
But, so must teachers and that is what I am looking for. Training for students does not stop at the "Here's your group. Here's your task; get it done," philosophy that seems to be the norm. I need to teach my students how to respond to each other, how to encourage each other, and how to help the reluctant student participate. How do I do that? Where can I develop these skills so that I can help my students?
2. Cooperative learning activities must require participation of all members in the group in order to accomplish the task.
Here is the biggest area of teacher responsibility. Planning must be so detailed that problems are anticipated and prevented. That should ensure that all students are able to participate and even want to participate. Yet, it doesn't fall only on the teacher. Students must be trained to accept responsibility for their level of participation.
3. Students must be monitored to ensure equal access to participation.
Upon first reading this, I assumed that the teacher would be doing all of the monitoring. Yet, the more I think about it, the more I realize that is only part of it. I have to teach students to monitor their own progress, the group to monitor group progress and ability to stay on task, and then, I monitor each group, offer encouragement, and let the class know when a group or individual is participating above expectations. In addition, I have to monitor progress as a class for meeting deadlines. I am working on teaching students to monitor their level of participation as individuals right now. This can be done even if they are working independently, away from a group.
4. Students must know what is expected of them.
While this seems obviously, my students and I have been talking about this one the most. It is closely tied to #2. Without exceptional planning, students may not know what is expected of them. And, depending on the task at hand, the expectations may be different. Each task must have its own set of rules, underneath the expectations of cooperative learning. My students grasp that concept. Where we fall short is in student responsibility again. How do I teach students to take responsibility for their choices? When do they start asking for help or clarification if they don't understand what is expected of them?
Once again, I am asking for help. Please clarify any misconceptions that I may have about cooperative learning. Offer suggestions to help me solve my problems. Provide me websites that will help me plan better, offer good cooperative learning tasks to train my students with, and just talk to me. I hope for this site to become a powerful learning tool for myself. If I'm learning, my students are improving.
1. Students must be trained for cooperative learning to work.
But, so must teachers and that is what I am looking for. Training for students does not stop at the "Here's your group. Here's your task; get it done," philosophy that seems to be the norm. I need to teach my students how to respond to each other, how to encourage each other, and how to help the reluctant student participate. How do I do that? Where can I develop these skills so that I can help my students?
2. Cooperative learning activities must require participation of all members in the group in order to accomplish the task.
Here is the biggest area of teacher responsibility. Planning must be so detailed that problems are anticipated and prevented. That should ensure that all students are able to participate and even want to participate. Yet, it doesn't fall only on the teacher. Students must be trained to accept responsibility for their level of participation.
3. Students must be monitored to ensure equal access to participation.
Upon first reading this, I assumed that the teacher would be doing all of the monitoring. Yet, the more I think about it, the more I realize that is only part of it. I have to teach students to monitor their own progress, the group to monitor group progress and ability to stay on task, and then, I monitor each group, offer encouragement, and let the class know when a group or individual is participating above expectations. In addition, I have to monitor progress as a class for meeting deadlines. I am working on teaching students to monitor their level of participation as individuals right now. This can be done even if they are working independently, away from a group.
4. Students must know what is expected of them.
While this seems obviously, my students and I have been talking about this one the most. It is closely tied to #2. Without exceptional planning, students may not know what is expected of them. And, depending on the task at hand, the expectations may be different. Each task must have its own set of rules, underneath the expectations of cooperative learning. My students grasp that concept. Where we fall short is in student responsibility again. How do I teach students to take responsibility for their choices? When do they start asking for help or clarification if they don't understand what is expected of them?
Once again, I am asking for help. Please clarify any misconceptions that I may have about cooperative learning. Offer suggestions to help me solve my problems. Provide me websites that will help me plan better, offer good cooperative learning tasks to train my students with, and just talk to me. I hope for this site to become a powerful learning tool for myself. If I'm learning, my students are improving.
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