"21st-century school represents 'the will to change'"

When I briefly read through this article I was simply amazed at what the kids are doing. They are making actual movies in their school. The are taking a green back drop, then filming a scene from the movie they are doing, then they are digitally adding in the scenery through computer digitization. Absolutely incredible, alot more than we are doing!

CVCV

Venturing through this website I was blown away. What a great thing that is going on up in the Buffalo are. Buffalo Urban schools and the University at Buffalo are teaming up together to help students with their use of technology. While clicking on various headings I was taken to the part of the website where the students videos are posted that they made themselves. The first one that I checked our was from a fifth grade ESL students and his video was called "Ernesto BioPoem." This was the cutest thing I have ever seen and out of the videos I watch probably one of the best and he is in fifth grade. He took each letter of his name then used an adjective that started with that letter to describe him, then he acted it out. It was really cute. Next was "Mother to Son." The poem was visually done by an 8th grader in social studies class. The images used were great and this video was really really good as well. The next two weren't as good as the other previous two. The third one I watched was the poem "We Rel Cool" acted out by a 9th grade English class. The editing and recording was not as good as the other two. And the last one "Senior Tribute" done by the 12th grade English class was a great idea to capture the senior class one last time, but again the editing and recording could have been better. Nonetheless its amazing what schools are doing now.

Soo I was at the dentist....

and while I was sitting in the chair at 7am last Thursday I had on one of the news channels because nothing else was on at 7am and they had a segment that the new application to jobs is by video. I found this interesting because it is still new and they were not only talking about the good, they were talking about the bad. I'm going to try and see if I can find the clip somewhere.

Hobbs Chapter 2

Well these last few days of classes are going to be nothing but crazy and already starting off with hours in the library today is what my week will be like....so now onto Hobbs and slowly catching up with mt blogs.

The mission statement at Concord High School is as follows:

"Our community of learners will challenge and expect its members to realize their highest potential. Our community will create a positive learning environment through mutual respect and effective communication" (20).

Well, shouldn't that be the mission statement of every school? I feel like in school our teachers have lost their passion for what they are there for and just do their job to get paid, not to push their students to their highest potential to achieve all they can to go on to college, further their education and obtain a good job.

The block scheduling at Concord seems to be a great idea too. After being in high school going to the same classes everyday acting like a robot became boring very quickly. Changing things up and placing certain classes every other day give the kids to do homework and not worry about being bored for five days in a row, variation in my opinion is a good thing and I like the way they do their schedule.

The Media/Communication for English 11 classes is a great idea. It gives kids an idea of how English can relate to more than books and essays. This allows them to use their imagination and actually enjoy school because they are talking about things they like and they can easily relate to the technology because I am sure they use some sort of technology everyday some way some how.

My Shape-Shifting Portfolio

At first I had no idea what a shape shifting portfolio was, then I read the article a little bit and I was told what it is. A shape-shifting portfolio is, "a collection of skill - for example, educational, social, service, and sports experiences and achievements that can be arranged and rearranged in order to define and redefine oneself as a certain kind of competent person" (114). If i had a shape-shifting portfolio from high school it would be jammed packed with various things from starting the dance team from my high school, to being an Honor Roll Student and being in the National Honor Society, to being in Student Government, to being a dance teacher 5 days a week.

College however is much different from that. Both freshman and sophomore year my mom and my grandmother were diagnosed with cancer, so I was never at school longer than I had to be. If I could be home I would be, so therefore I have never really been involved in many activities except the Cortland Dance Company which I just joined this semester. However, a big chunk of my portfolio would be from this 307 class. I would be able to show that I work well with technology and I can do alot when it comes to technology. I can show that I can blog, podcast, make an iweb and other various things. Today in the real world, technology seems to becoming more and more crucial so I feel as if having that in my portfolio would be a great thing,

Project

So for this block's project Theresa and I are doing media literacy and how women are portrayed in media. I feel like it should be interesting and that we will have plenty to use for that. What sparked this idea was our discussion in class last week on how women are portrayed in variations of music.

Will Richardson's Blog

I found his blog on the degree that the University of Michigan is offering and how he feels that there is no need for one, all one would have to do is take a year of being on the Internet interactive world and they would be ok. Well, we want more technology in the classroom, then why not make a major for Technology Education and make it a mandatory class just like your English, Science, Social Studies and Math. This way, not only can the certified teachers teach the rest of the teaching staff they can also teach the students. I feel a degree in this could be very beneficial to our students and their learning. It could be a class in which students could really like and be able to engage in greatly because the majority of kids at the high school lever are technologically savvy. Just a thought on what Will said, but I personally think it would be a great idea to offer a degree in technology that way schools know that they are fully qualified for the position and now just someone saying that know how to blog and such just because they are an online junkie.