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.

Post 1

It is very interesting to see what the Baltimore County School District is doing with their technology in the classroom. It's technology that the students have to do such as blog or submit papers, etc... it's being able to watch educational shows while in the classroom. The article stated,

"'The vision is to make the curriculum more 21st-century and engaging," said Della Curtis, coordinator for Baltimore County's Office of Library Information Services (LIS)."

I think our classrooms do need to be geared more towards the 21st-century anyways. I can not emphasize enough that students get bored in your traditional classroom, so why not make the kids interested and do something they can relate to more. Video on demand is awesome because it is up-to-date information on a topic you are teaching. I know sitting in a classroom and if I were to watch a video from 20-30 years ago I would be bored and uninterested, but if I were to watch a video of something more recent I would give 100% of my attention to the video. I feel like many other school districts can learn from Baltimore and maybe we can make an impact in the school districts we will be teaching in in the near future.

David O'Brien

The article, "'Struggling' Adolescents' Engagement in Multimediating: Countering the Institutional Construction of Incompetence" written my David O'Brien was both interesting and informative. It is very true when O'Brien states that,

"Low achievement led to low perception about abilities, which resulted in increasing disengagement from reading, which, in turn, resulted in lack of practice, low fluency..."

If kids do not achieve to their own standards or to the standards of their parents or teachers then they will start to believe that they can't achieve good grades. Kids need to be able to want to do something and look forward to do something in school in order from them to get good grades. As teachers if we give them boring stuff to do they won't want to do it and achieve good grades. When students first realize that they can not/do not achieve their best they feel as if some outside force is to blame, not themselves. Why not base our teaching around where students want to learn and want to do good and know that they can do good. Maybe students aren't motivated or interested enough because we don't motivate or interest them. The Literacy Lab seems like a great idea. Getting our "at -risk" learners motivated and wanting to learn and getting good grades should be one of our goals as teachers. I feel as future teachers we can all learn a little from the Literacy Lab and getting our students to do other various tasks other than reading a book and writing a paper.

The Zine Project??

When I first saw The Zine Project I thought..."What the heck is that?" Then I read the very first sentence and it, "helps students and teachers consider the assumptions and expectations we have about how literacy functions in school and community contexts." Jacobi also states that, "Zines are typically single-authored, handmade, do-it-yourself, creative publications centered on themes and issues that explore the personal and the political, the extraordinary and the mundane." This is a process in which college students help high school students through the writing process. This is a great thing because maybe more kids would understand it if they were able to work on it one on one with another person.

Jacobi and Hobbes have the concepts of gender and racial stereotypes in the media in common. These are such huge issues today and I feel like people tend to shy away from them. It is important for us as future teachers to teach and expose these issues to our students.

Live chat

I would have to say in this live chat that I am reading, the first answer I would have to agree with is that the biggest problem with using technology in the classroom is the generation gap. many of the older teachers have no interest in learning how to use technology then teach it to their students and actually use it. They would rather stick with what they have been using for the past who knows how many years. This is what makes kids bored and not motivated to do good in school. A topic brought up that I never thought of are the glitches. As good as technology is it isn't always reliable, so now I can see why some teachers would not want to use techology.

Technology Counts

It is very interesting to read this article. Everything they talked about in the article we are doing in our 307 class. One very interesting fact that I learned from this article is that states have technology standards for students and teachers. It's weird because very rarely did we use technology in school and very rarely did the teachers too. I didn't realize how important technology is becoming until I read that standards are out there. This article also shows how easy it would be able to use technology with our students because the majority of our students use it outside of the classroom at home, whether it's surfing the web, using an iPod, a digital camera, whatever, they use technology and they use it alot.

The other article from a students point of view I can relate to easily. When I wake up in the morning it is to a song on my iPod. I have a dock so that I can listen to my iPod as if I was listening to a CD or to the radio. I got my music off of the Internet. When I am home I wake up to my cell phone which plays a song I bought off of Verizon Ring tones. Throughout the day I am listening to my iPod, surfing the Internet, IM'ing, checking my e-mail, talking on my cell phone and even texting. I am constantly using technology from the moment I wake up until I fall asleep, no joke. Going into a classroom where you are bored because it is very traditional does not motivate a student to do well in school. I thought it was great that instead of writing a paper his teacher let him make a movie. The amount of effort and time that was put into that was probably a great deal. The only thing is he will eventually have to write a paper, you do still write them in college and you should always be improving that. But that is something to keep in mind, if someone can be creative like that, let your student do it. Expand their horizons.

Our "Field Trip"

Our trip to Lehman Alternative School in Ithaca was very eye opening. Definitely something I have never seen before in many aspects. When Kristin and I first drove up I could not believe how small it is, but it is good to hear that everyone in the school likes intimate setting of the school, where it seems as if everyone knows everyone. Another aspect is how much of a say the kids have with the school. I feel like that can be very beneficial in a way that the school can adapt to the kids needs. Since they have a direct voice, they can hopefully see direct results. Also, it is great how teachers can adapt how they teach to meet the needs of the children. I would have never thought of using a clip of a movie to be able to school kids what characterization, plot, setting etc. are if they can not fully grasp the idea of me telling them what it is.

I feel as if alternative schools are underestimated. They have such high expectations for their students and the students live up to the expectations. Their are no number grades, it is just pretty much pass or fail due to homework and participation and their portfolios they do. I feel that takes off so much pressure off of students to have the straight A's. I don't know, I wish I could have experienced a school like that as a student and maybe some day I will experience it as a teacher.

After going to the school a handful of us went to dinner at Lost Dog Cafe in Ithaca. I know all about this place because we have one back at home and I work there every once in a while. It was nice to sit back and relax and not talk about school stuff with my peers (our conversation circled around how Theresa rear-ended me...love you Tee!!). Over all it was a great day and a great experience.