Final Reflection

I have to be honest.  At the end of this course I was left with more questions than answers.  While as a teacher a don't see that as a bad thing, as a student I did.  I am use to finishing courses and having a final thought or conclusion.  This course was difficult to do that with.  It wasn't until today, when I posted my final reflection in the CSE PLE course that I realized how my blog played a role in my teaching.  I find it interesting when you discover how unconventional learning really is compared to how organized we try to make it in public education.  Here are conclusions I came to about blogging after finishing my PLE course.

Blogging is a great tool to journal thoughts.  As a professional I can use it to explore my methods and practices and reflect on my experiences in the classroom.  When I want to vent, rant, or question education blogging can be very therapeutic.  I realize it can also be dangerous to expose myself too much on a blog as a public servant because it is public.  So there is a balance there that you have to find as an educator ethically in providing yourself with a way to reflect, but not degrade.  I am still trying to find that balance.  I am a person that is willing to put it all out there and that means when I blog it is frustrating that I can not do that and should do that 100% with my job.

Blogging is useful in a small classroom setting.  I attempted to use student blogs on an assignment with fifty students and then in a classroom with six.  While the activity was creative and meaningful, I failed at giving feedback because I was overwhelmed by the grading work load.  When I used it in a classroom of six students as a daily journal or reflection with no real structured assignment, I found it useful and directive in figuring out where I needed to go with my lesson planning.  Because I only had to read six entries, I was able to response to student questions and generate thoughtful questions in return.

Blogging is an important part of my PLE.  I didn't discover this until I took CSE PLE after this course.  I realized that blogs have an important role to play in my collaboration with other educators.  I'm on the hunt now for educational blogs that empower me to keep questioning what I'm doing and why I do it.  I also realized the role that RSS feed can play in my PLE.  I never got the hang of getting my news feed through my blog and in PLE I realized I don't have to.  My news feed can be delivered all sorts of way, but blogs are a way to specialize the news feed I want my readers to experience.

Overall, blogging in education is a commitment like all other forms of technology.  I use to think aggregators, RSS feed, social media, blogs, etc... were a one size doesn't fit all component of education.  For example, if I liked blogging then I just blogged.  I would focus on blogging and ignore all the other avenues of virtual information.  I am slowly realizing that I don't have to like all the new medias endeavors of the virtual world, but I also can't turn my back on them either.  Turning my back on these media forms will prevent me from being able to move forward and grow with my students.

RSS Feed

Feed 101 is google's explanation of how to use RSS.  I know this was an assignment two weeks ago, but I'm still stuck on RSS and how to use it on my blog.  My head hurts trying to figure out what the difference is between RSS and Twitter and how to use them both effectively.

There is a mommy blog (I know a four-letter word to many) called Momastery that resonates with me like the alpha wolf's howling at the moon.  Her latest post on Carpe Diem was the fist blog post in many months that I felt like reading all the way through.  I realized her RSS feed would be awesome to have on my blog, but not sure how or why.

My point, I swear I have one, is that RSS feed I believe could be really effective tool in a classroom especially on blogs and I finally found an explanation that made sense to me.  Also I am aware that Feed 101 probably has been staring me in the face since my blog started.

World of Warcraft

Debated today in Geography class.  It was the second debate with my students on nuclear development and the threat of Iran.  One period did awesome, the other period it was absolute crickets.

Painful, awkward crickets.  I take the blame.  Next time I'll just let them play World of Warcraft instead.

"Class how does the big scary dragon represent the need for nuclear disarmament?"

By the way I've never played or really watched World of Warcraft. Intense stuff.

Interactive Sequence

Blogs are a great way to have an interactive sequence with students.  Interactive sequence can be defined as how to get students discussing concepts and issues.  I have struggled with this throughout my teaching career.  How do you get 20 plus students in one room to start brainstorming orally about different topics and issues that are not necessarily meaningful to them?

1. All students have a blog set up for class.
2. Start with an anticipatory set, ie "Imagine living in a village or town where the nearest doctor is 2 hours away and you do not have a car, train, or any motorized way to get there.  How would you get to the doctor?"
3.  Have students write their answers or ideas down on the blog post and publish it. Give them a couple of minutes to do this activity.
4.  Then have a student make a comment on another student's blog post.
5. Allow time for students to read comments on their posts.
6. Lastly have students repeat answers of their classmates out loud.

The advantage of this instead of Think-Pair-Share is you will draw in the students who avoid verbal situations at all costs.

I have seen this system work today and I was so excited to find another discussion method instead of verbal Think-Pair-Share.  Let me know what you think?  How would you tweak my method?

What this generation is capable of...

Some say this generation is lazy.  Some say they don't get outside enough.  Some say they do not have the skills for the real world.  I believe this video proves "some" wrong.  Both these students are in my classes and did this video on their own time.  If we could take that amount of dedication and energy and apply it something they really love in the academic world imagine what they could do?  I can.

PS.  They both have A's in my class... because of their mad basketball skills.  Just kidding.

Fear in Evaluation

Tomorrow I will be video taped and observed during my nuclear disarmament lesson with my mock UN class of sophomores.  I know that in order for me to be a better more efficient teacher I need to be evaluated and open my door to observers, but why is it so scary?  I haven't been video-taped teaching since my FIRST lesson in undergrad.  It was horrible, I spent the whole time touching my hand to my stomach and repeating the words "Um, okay" and "Um, good."

I accept that I'm not a great teacher by any means.  Somedays I do really impressive things in my room and somedays I fail completely.  Most of the time I feel like I'm barely treading water, especially after my son was born and I found my energy level zapped in half.  But I want to be better and I know I can be better so this scary step of having others critique me is important.  It will guarantee improvement.  Anyway, after I have it done I will post that video on my blog for you to observe as well.  One of my favorite mottos is OWN IT good, bad, and ugly so I might as well start living by it.

EMUNDO! and Meetingwords- Two great resources

We used this website at our inservice on Friday.  I love it and immediately started thinking of how to use it in the classroom.   Emundo is similar to Facebook with all the control features a teacher would LOVE.  I personally believe that FB and Twitter should not be blocked from students and teachers using in the classroom.

Meetingwords is a chat room you can have your students access while they are watching a film or video clip or even when you are having a debate and want to allow students another venue to share their thoughts and ideas.  I had government students watch the last GOP debate and use Meetingwords during it to discuss what was being said.  In addition they has to keep track of the issues being discussed on a handout.  It was amazing how they could do ALL three and still find time to chat with their friends way in the corner of the screen LOL.