blogs ... what are they good for?

I know I am revisiting this topic from the beginning of the class but I still have not found an answer I am fully happy with.

What place does bloging and social media have in education?

I still feel as though this is a social technology that is still being figured out. I have not come up with any creative use for bloging in education. I guess I am contributing to the lack of good ideas.



People tend to use a new technology the same way they did the old one regardless of new capabilities. For example I know teacher that use a five thousand dollar smart board the same way another would use a three hundred dollar LCD projector. People gravitate to things that are familiar using something new in the same old way.



Blogs and up to he minute media are something completely new for most people so an intuitive approach is lacking. Blogs represent nothing familiar so teachers don’t even know the wrong or old way to use it. Until I stumble upon a fitting use for blogs in education I will stay on the side lines.



All the best,

Mr. D

Is a school trip to DC worth it?

This week I have a simple question. Should the 8th grade go to Washington DC for three days on a trip? The history teachers in my school argue that the trip does not support the curriculum so it is a useless trip with little to know academic value. Also should a trip of this magnitude only support the history department? I guess what I am driving at is what does Washington DC have to offer beyond social studies. This is what kills me though. In this case the trip does not support a state test so they want to scrap it all together.

Room Use

Teaching technology comes with responsibilities that not many other teachers can relate to. I need to maintain an entire fabrication shop. This includes machinery, power tools, hand tools, and raw materials. I teach three different grades so i have different projects going on all the time. Unlike a math teacher i need to keep track of more than just text books and pencils. I need to know the condition of my classroom to ensure the safety of my students as well as myself. So hear is the problem. My district has an adult school that comes in and uses my classroom at night without telling me and i walk into a room that is not the way i left it when i left the day before. Its a lot like having someone ells clean your room as a kid. When you first walk in its like a feeling of something is just not right with this room. I am in the process of having them banned from my room. Does anyone ells have a story of other people taking liberties with a classroom that they have no business doing so? Please share.

Give me a credit/debit card already

I am a one man show in my school. I am a department of one. As the head of my department of one i need to order LOTS of crap all the time. wood, plastic, tools, kits, glue more tools and stuff for the three grades that I teach.
In order to make purchases i need to fill out a form have the boss sign it who then passes it on to the secretary of the business office (it collects dust for about a week on her desk) who has the business superintendent sign it and then she mails it out. (She stopped faxing them this year because she said it was to much work) This also limits the vendors i can purchase from because not all businesses will take a purchase order.
If i only had a debit card hooked up to the account for my department I could get materials faster and cheeper than i am now. The school does not want to stretch a buck with good ideas. The system is set up so that i pay more for items than i should. It would be nice if i could put down the hammer and chisel to make my orders and swipe a card.

Madeline Levine the author of the book “The Price of Privilege” came to my school and sis a talk for the faculty. She a great number of things and all of them made sense. It was the first meeting at my school that I really enjoyed. Below are some of the points that I remember from her talk.
A.P. classes are not a great idea because the put far to much attention on “Passing a test” rather then learning content. Kids are great performers and will do what they need to in order to pass a test. In the end they don’t really learn.
Let your kid fail. Unless you kid feels the sting of a failure they will not know how to deal with it. Parents are swooping in to save the day and make sure that all goes well with school. (Kids in my school call home for the parents to bring something they forgot like homework, projects, sports bags or anything ells they should have remembered) Learn to fail or fail to learn.
A kid’s world should look very different than an adult’s world. We are asking kids to live and function as adults but they are not adults physically or mentally.
Don’t project your image of what your kid should be… Get to know your kid instead. Parents are molding and prepping kids into an image of success they have planned out for them.

The great thing about her talk was that she essentially called the administrators and parents of the district a bunch of misguided idiots. The community I work in has been going down this path of over privilege for generations. It was nice to see a voice of reason be heard.

6th grade should not be in the middle school.

When I went through school the elementary school was k through 6th grade. The middle school was 7th and 8th. The high school was 9 through 12. The school I teach in now has the 6th grade in the middle school. I can’t shake my image of the 6th grade class as being elementary school kids. My school also has an advisory program to help support and coddle the kids along throughout the school year. I have the privilege of being a 6th grade advisor and I hate every minute of it. I am a technology teacher and I feel my role as an advisory teacher is a huge waste of my talent.

I have found the maturity level of my 6th grade students to be far below what is needed to perform and be productive in the middle school environment. They can’t handle the reasonability of getting to class on time, using a locker or even brining the proper materials to class. These kids are just not capable of functioning well in the middle school.

Is 5th and 6th grade a gray area? When does the elementary school stop and the middle school start. If I was going to use New York state education department as a guide than elementary school does in-fact go until 6th grade. Elementary teacher certification covers grades k through 6. What do you think? Should 6th grade stay in the elementary school?

Boring/pointless meetings

ON Wednesday of every week we have a one hour meeting. Some weeks its an hour and a half. My district is taking on what they are calling a global perspective, knowing and engaging students and information technology. I have interpreted this as the kids should be more worldly... the teachers are out of touch with technology... and teachers don't know the kids well enough. I am forced to sit through grand ideas of how the student body should be more involved on a global scale. In the end I am sitting through painfully boring meetings that do not have anything to do with my class. The thing that really pains me is that the district does not provide a clear idea of what they expect us to produce. Its like the super dumb leading the teachers. Seeing a superintendent ad-lib and just wing it is painful. Does anyone have any tricks for staying awake during very boring meetings? The one thing they don't tell you in college is that you will be forced to sit through this garbage.