26. A Conversation With a Bad Teacher

In an article, written by Hana Maruyama, portrays an interview about a teacher, John Owens, who decided to quit his job in magazine publishing to become a teacher. Owens faced many challenges right off the bat. One of the greatest was being the school administration’s relentless focus on data. Hana states how the administration demanded teachers to maintain an 80 percent student-pass rate for their courses. At one point, Owens declined to participate in a workshop for writing teachers in New Jersey because he did not want to take time away from the students. Later, when he had problems with a parent, his principal not only refused to defend him but did not ask for his side of the story.

Owens states, suddenly it became clear to me that Ms. P and Co. weren’t so much interested in making me a good teacher as proving I was a bad teacher.  

In my opinion all administration should protect their faculty and integrity of the school. Administration should at least hear out the story from the teacher before deciding to go against their judgment. Teachers are the ones working with these students every day. I feel they should know the best outcome.

Owens’s career in teaching ended less than a year after the incident. He published an article and later published a book, Confessions of a Bad Teacher: The Shocking Truth From the Front Lines of American Public Education. 

Owens was asked questions pertain to his book my favorite being, You argue in the book that teachers have become scapegoats for our failing education system, in your opinion, why do we scapegoat teachers? Owens replies, I think we keep hearing from people like Bill Gates that the teachers are the most important aspect of learning. All these experts kind of slide over the fact that poverty has a lot to do with kids not learning.

I will have to agree with his statement, and also add the fact that the home life plays a major deal as well. Not all students are taught the same morals and values in their homes. I have always heard every time I tell someone I am becoming a teacher is the shake of theirs heads no. They add, the children are so bad these days and you are not allowed to discipline them. I feel some students need a little guidance in their life. It hurts to say but the manners of most children these days are declining.

25. Kids Can't Compute

An article by Mike Elgan, expresses how kids cannot compute. He explains how the most computer-savvy demographic is now probably aged from 25-55. He uses himself as an example of how these ages are the computer-savvy demographic. His first computer was a Commodore 64, which forced him to confront the basics of how computers work. His second computer was a PC, which required him to memorize commands and operators. Mike explains how these actions helped him gain the knowledge of what was “under the hood” of the computer.

Now days the computers do not force users to confront what’s going on “under the hood.” Mike states how kids grow up using iPads and iPhones have no reason to know or care about even the most basic facts of computers. Kids today are more focused on apps and services. He states how the young have agile minds, high energy and insatiable curiosity of youth, which is always a valuable asset.

The cause is that computers are now super-easy to use and getting easier all the time. The effect is that newer computers do not require skills or knowledge about how computers and networks function.

Mike believes the solution is hiring managers should watch out for knowledge, skill, and perception gaps. For young people is education. Software development should become a core part of the public education.

I agree with Mike on his thoughts of how the older generation knows more about the software, and how the younger generation has lost that knowledge. The reason for this is that technology of using computers has become more advanced, but less complicated for users. Maybe some background information on software could benefit the younger generation, but technology will only continue to become more advanced and easier to use as we age as well.

24. SAMR, LMS, BYOD

The SAMR (Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition) model offers a method of seeing how computer technology might impact teaching and learning. Every year another technology system grows greater and more gadgets are being used with in the classroom. Teachers are being thrown these things without the knowledge of how to operate in most cases. I believe the SAMR model has the right idea in mind. The model will provide the teachers knowledge of what gadgets to use according the level of students they will be teaching. It will also be the right gadget for the lesson at hand.

I feel students should have some type of background in an LMS environment. I feel that the LMS environment is a good option to have for students who may have children or a family, and are going back to college. I also feel it is good for students you can learn through the environment without having to actually attend the college every day. However,  in some ways though it is hard to understand the task at hand when all through high school you are used to having face to face contact with your teachers to help you. 

BYOD( Bring Your Own Device) has its ups and downs. In school systems, not all of them will have the money to provide devices to all the children leaving them to bring their own for the lesson. I feel in a way this is an opposing battles. When you have students you cannot afford to bring one, do you let the students who can just miss out on the opportunity? Or do you let them bring theirs with the consequence of the less fortunate students miss out on the lesson? There are ways to arrange groups which could help the situation, but I feel the school should arise a budget to have classroom sets if they want the devices integrated into the lesson.

23. Beyond MOOCs

This article from Educause begins by stating how everyone in higher education is acutely aware that universities today are under enormous pressure to reduce costs, adapt new technologies, collaborate globally, serve a diverse student body, include the under served, develop an international brand, improve rates of completion, anduch more. Each of these pressures represents both a threat and an opportunity. MIT's Eric Grimson focused on a few significant challenges facing higher education such as different students. Today's students are a different generation of learners. Another challenge is technology trends. Students expect the ability to acess information and communicate with others anytime and anywhere. The article expresses how technology provides students with the ability to personalize their learning, and also allows students to collaborate in new ways. Historically, the university has been a clearly defined place and the university community has been the people at that physical location. Now students can access a university's resources from any location at any time. The article states that if feeing MOOCs and other changes in the way that educTion is delivered requires rethinking the iT infrastructure. Institutions will have to define the capabilities they want, along with the types and applications and services they need.

I feel the article as a whole, has a good firm grip on what they stand for and can provide for the education programs. I feel like this could help in a way. The only thing that sends a red flag would be the cost, and knowing how the budgets are in schools today how can this become possible? 

22. Web 2.0 Sites

Madison: 
 1. *MindMeister- A concept map website, great for creating lesson plans. Can go through the map and allows to create a slideshow. 
 2. Spiderscribe- Another concept map website, does not have a slideshow available. Can insert locations, pictures. More for businesses to pinpoint locations. More for older audience. 

Erica:
3. bubbl.us- Concept map similar to inspiration, not as many tools. Very simple for children to use.
4. lino- Calendar, due dates, pictures, videos. Great for class scheduling and teacher's agenda. Also an app is available. 

Madeline:
5. photobucket- can upload photos and videos, know what pictures are trending like pinterest. can connect with people and share with others. 
6. quinturq- search engine like google but limits for kids, needs more updating.

Callie:
7. DuckDuckGo- search engine tool, children related. Easy for teachers to use as home search engine because it directs what the students should know. Has a reliable database for results when a topic is searched. 
8. gogoolingans- Search engine for kids and teens. This website is not very effective. Keeps you safe from online scams and identity theft.

Rebecca:
9. *Padlet- a blank wall where the teacher can type a thought or question and the students can go to the URL and respond.
10. text2mindmap- can be used to create concept map

Brittany:
11. *stormboard- create different boards and invite the students to go on. The students are able to vote on the different questions put within board.

Allison:
12. * Instagrok- mixture of a concept map and search engine. Go to websites and videos and gives cool facts about your search.
13. Kidtopia- Search engine, developed by a school library. It is a safe search engine for the students when researching a certain topic in class.

Victoria:
14. slimeKids- search engine that is more like a directory for different search engines. 
15. wikisummarizer- A website that shows a visual summary of every thing within the search. Also has tools that can allow you to edit your own. All the information comes from the website Wikipedia.

Tommi:
16. *Pearltrees- A combination of pinterest and concept, you capture your thoughts on a tree. You can create different categories and choose what goes within the categories.
17. Netvibes- You can create dashboards so you can keep the things you search from google. It also lets you save them. 

Mary Katherine:
18.  *Gloster- A website where you can create online poster boards. Has a variety of different boards to choose from such as a timeline, or any assignments.
19.  Audacity- A website where you can record an audio sound and edit them. One of the best editing or recording website out there. 

Lauren:
20. vimeo- create and share videos
21. wordpress- blog site where you can create blogs and view others. 

Dehanna:
22. evernote- take notes and organizes it for you, you can also search a word within your notes and shows all the documents on the word searched. 

Nicole:
23. compfight- like google images. free to download. 
24. diigo- great for communicating with other teachers. 

Emily:
25. blabberize- insert image and cut out the mouth to say what you want it to say. 
26.* easelly- graphic organizer, like concept map. 

Jordan:
27. *weebly- make own website and make your own blog. You can also put in audio and video. 
28.  storyboard generator- videos of personal stories of people to show in classroom. 

Tiffany:
29. *tagul- like wordle but not as limited. You select a group of word such as a paragraph and it stands out the words that are used the most in a cloud. You can change the cloud in different shapes, colors, and edit the text font. 
30. edmodo- facebook for teachers, has different categories within the site. 

Jacqueline:
31. *Socrative- teachers can use to create games and quizzes for the students. the website is free.  

Jonathan: 
32. podbean- like youtube, podcast. can post lesson and lectures.  
33. pixton- a website to make your comic. 

Jenifer:
34. *icloud- free word processing tool. It saves all date through your apple id. 

Amanda:
35. infogr.am- you can create charts, and has a variety of templates.     

21. Privacy put first

https://sites.google.com/site/privacyputfirst/