Okay, it’s a little one, but money is money. One of my feeders snagged this and I thought a few of you might be interested in it. The topic is Student Engagement. Here’s the hook-up!
Here’s another grant in case you missed it on the feed. Target is giving 5000 $800 grants toward field trips. Do what you can with that information.
This week has been a hard week to actually concentrate on one particular area. I have had so many things cross my desk at work. My husband surprised me and was sent home. He arrived at 0215 Wed. Good he didn’t have the house keys, that could have been disastrous. I always have the shot gun ready. But, I suppose I can try to think through a few things. Mostly thought oriented then applicable.
Two of my professors have me organizing technology magazine articles for several years. The only issue I have found in doing this extremely long and tedious job is that these articles are all interesting to me…lol Some even apply to my research action class (which I need to get a move on).
I also have been playing Monopoly City Streets, but they are doing a restart. I have made my allies and my enemies. If one particular competitor logs before I do, his buildings will be the first on my list to crush. If I run out of chance cards to do it, I have a few allies, that also view him as a threat. What’s sad, is that he’s from France and buying up in Morehead, KY. He also is purchasing up all over the world. I see the genius in that strategy, but I’m not here to play genius games. I’m going to keep it simple and defend my ground. Okay, let us move on….this opponent of mine can really rile me…lol
Like I mentioned, my husband is back. I went with him to check in the other day in order for him not to be AWOL. I had previously met the senior ranked soldier in charge and he was really cool. He was about to retire in 30 days at the beginning of the summer. He would be someone who I would say is wise. They may be Special Forces, but with time, came wisdom. Well…this time was different…he was still there and still awesome, but the guy to take over was back from Iraq. Lets just say I had to excuse myself before I opened my mouth. I don’t want to ever get my husband in trouble or myself. He informed me that the vice-principal for Carter County was there. Bet some of ya didn’t know he was SF. I didn’t know what he looked like and I can be very defensive toward soldiers, especially those that are rude with a touch of humor for their amusment. Men/Women act different in uniform then when they are in civies. The last thing I needed was to tell the vice-princ. that he has the IQ of a brick wall and then him interview me for a job down the road…lol
Hertz Car Rental: I mentioned this in my TX blog. The lack of technology that Hertz computers were capable of, but this is funny – this is a human technology malfunction. A brain to hand disconnect happened somewhere…lol I had to make a 200.00 deposit for my car that would be deposited right after I returned the car. 11 days later and no deposit. I called them today. They marked on the form that the transaction was done in cash. I never carry cash on me. Somewhere, there was a neuropathy backfire with my attendant I guess and she mistaken my debit card for 200.00 in cash. They said they would fix it. We will see.
There is more I’m sure, but I will have to think on it. It has been a very disorganized week…with the whole family back and all. Have a good weekend.
I was “page turn’n” and came across this blog: Free Technology for Teachers. What brought it to my attention was the posts inside it. I was doing random searches for action research and eventually ended up at this site. The first post on this site talks about a previous post that apparently turned out to be very successful. – 12 Essentials for Technology Integration– (ETI) ETI is really neat, especially the alternative to YouTube. I was diverted from my research route onto the ETI path for an hour or so. After being introduced to SnagFilms, I couldn’t possibly just read and run…it aloud me to watch National Geographic for free. Anyways, take a look and it might be something worth feeding to your gator; I let my demon have it.
This entry starts off on a personal note. I will say I am beyond excited, because I was able to speak with the in-laws and all is well with them, but they had something to share with me…a surprise! They wanted to send me to go see my husband over in Texas. As most the readers know, I have not seen him since he deployed for military training over five months ago. In all this excitement, I was able to speak to my father-in-law…a very rare privlage. Why do I say that? I more than admire him. His intelligence is so vast beyond what I have ever known any other persons (including all my professors). A short history on him would include: engineer for the Navy, Chief Engineer for GE (retired), and is now a physics teacher for a private high school (just so he’s not bored). He’s a vey silent man who sits and observes his surroundings. I thought he hated me when I first met him, but when we discovered we had a technology connection…it was smooth sailing.
That connection although, may have been compromised as of recent. While speaking with him last night, the school he teaches with is practically all paperless and every student carries a Mac Book /Pro (The screen on the Mac can be changed by just tapping -software- the side of the screen; therefore, many of the students are not even on the class sites). As an educator, a professional in engineering (submarines), and keeping a company like GE together, it is irritating when the students are all just lazely touching the side of their Macs as he walks about the room giving his lesson. The amount of disrespect is very annoying. I tried to find more information on the school’s site about their current technology trend, but they do not recognize it as an important enough value to make it a point in which to brag about. Unlike Kentucky, technology in California private schools is a little more readily available and not as special. Apparently the need to site it on the internet is not necessary.
One other oversite on the whole from “good” to worse in technology movement…the Mac keyboard. Their keys are soft coated; therefore, when a semester of teaching is over, and you have finished using a decent amount of time on the dry erase board, your Mac keys are also black. That was just the educator’s complaint that was thrown in there. There is a solution to this, magic crayola remover!!!
This post is a response to an article I saw earlier today in Cool Cat Teacher Blog (CCTB).The article stated that “… online students in college and continuing Ed programs score in the 59th percentile versus classroom students in the 50th percentile.” All of this of course coming directly from CCTB @ http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ . The site itself had retrieved the information from the New York Times.
When a student does not respond in the classroom, they will not respond online. Then of course the online notion of an all online school is going to seem bad. This may seem to be a radical statement or two, but let’s put them into context. When applied to the text of the article, we are referring to not communicating. If a student lacks to communicate in a physical classroom; therefore also proving to lack communication in an online classroom, failure is only immanent. But, there is the beauty of the online self worth. There is always the chance that online education allows students to be who they are and not what others make of them. As many of us have friends or it could be ourselves, our profile online is nothing more than slimming, intelligent, great personality, and more money than we can deal with…who wants to date? The students are less likely to be open for attack in such an environment. I’m not saying it’s not going to happen, because eventually everyone gets curious and starts giving up information, but internet safety is to be left for another post.
I have yet to explain the title of this blog, but this exact notion lends to my perception of Intellectual Anarchy. (Now that it has come up, I will explain it. I am honestly quite surprised no one has questioned me on it from my 685 class, Principles of Distance Educ. But then again, I may be behind the ball and they know what I mean. So, I will just explain it to appease myself and for all those in net-space who may be curious. ) Students are creatures of curious habit and learning is one of them. They actually will take the time to use every skill they have to figure out how not to have to learn. This is where I find this article very interesting. As a substitute, going on 4 years now, the notion I have developed, Intellectual Anarchy, would easily be remedied from bricks to clicks. Even if it was sitting in a brick building using clicks. –The irony of it-
The author’s notion to build a school of both brick (actual face to face interaction) and click (virtual classroom) I believe to be a progressive step toward improving the surmountable educational issues our nation faces. At the end of the article, the author leaves us with some thoughts:
I still have to wonder about the need for both bricks and clicks in an effective school: providing the social interaction, the face to face of a good school, and the differentiation that can happen in a good classroom as well as online spaces that truly reflect global engagement and involvement. There are such great things to be gained from both environments: shouldn’t we pursue the development of the ideal f2f and online environment?
My experience with Tapped In was good. I honestly didn’t like the look of it at first, but as I began to delve further into it, it slowly became more interesting to me. Eventually it was loaded with mountains of valuable information. My office address is: http://tappedin.org/tappedin/do/WelcomeAction?state=displayChatRoomFrame&controller=com.sri.opentap.controller.WelcomeAction
I have yet to do ‘tips and tricks’ since it obviously has not arrived yet, but as some have seen, we do have a couple PDs coming up. There is one tomorrow at 9pm that may be interesting just to listen in on. I do not have the education or career prowessto go toe to toe with a group of such skilled professionals, but it wouldn’t hurt to observe. I tried to maneuver around all the corners, including defacing Dr. Lowell’s Whiteboard, but I am sure there is so much more to learn in there.
I could see how ‘Tapped In’ could be used as an active site in the school system for students who need to contact their teacher over homework. Teacher’s could figure out many other ways to use the program in the classroom(and out) with the schools who have laptop programs.
Hello Everyone. In the picture to the right, you see my lovely little girls. Hopefully my husband will be home soon and I can have a full family picture (Army). Until then, I will be taking this course with my 4 month old daughter Leanora Camille and 8 year old daughter Sierra Rose.
I’m working on the third and fourth floor of Ginger Hall, but you can mostly find me in GH 301. I am a GA for the Ed. Dept. Later on in the year, I will also be working for Rowan County as a Reading Tutor w/ Project AIM.
But, I do have to say, that my first day back at school after a one and half years out, was fantastic. I got the opportunity to teach a junior level class which was also ITV. I couldn’t help but to keep raising my voice like the offsite campuses couldn’t hear me. They probably thought I was a loon, but I naturally talk loud and move about the classroom a lot. Tuesday, I get to instruct a senior methods math class. I can’t wait, to teach that is. I wouldn’t mind a different topic. The prof. is due back then and I’ll have to return to normal GA research duties probably…but while the fun lasted.
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Intellectual Anarchy 