Growing Frustration

So I like having a blog if nothing else than having a place where I can really just let go of my frustration. This week, while half-way over (yahoo!) has been extremely stressful and taxing. I have had to cover 4 chapters of AP material in 2 days with students are refusing to put in any effort. On top of this, I have a leadership that still has not clarified what they expect in a final assessment (although they have stated that we need to have one after the SOL), and now I have to begin encouraging students to study for a test they have not prepared for all year long. Does anyone ever hit those walls where you just want to quit on all of it? Not having the necessary support, feeling like you aren't being listened to, and just plain old frustrated with the job in general has just really wrecked me this school year. On Mondays I crave the weekends and on the weekends I crave a holiday. I know these are just rants, but it gets so aggravating sometimes. Serenity now!

Some Pondering

So, my friend and I are in the process of getting certified to scuba dive and the process really made me think. First, we sat through 2 nights of classroom instruction in which we were introduced to the proper way to scuba dive. These classroom lessons were approximately 3 1/2 hours each of the instructor talking at us and more or less repeating what was covered in the book that we read prior to class. After this, we spent two days in a pool doing a bunch of exercises that we covered in the classroom. This weekend, we covered the same exercises that we did in the pool, but now we are doing them at 30 feet. This really made me start thinking about the ITS program and the way in which we teach our students. For example, we put students in the classroom, give them technology to use as a way of learning historical information, but to what end? It is interesting to think about how we instruct students and we use the new technology and tools to help them situationalize the tool, but what about the information we are giving them. Will it help them or will they be able to actually use it? Oh well, these are probably just mad wonderings of an insane person. Hope you are enjoying your last few days of freedom!

Are We Filming This?

Digital Video Editing...the awkward frontier. I'm really not fully supportive of DVE. While I appreciate and understand its capabilities and recognize the thinking skills and effort required in order to make a good, functioning DVE lesson work, I just don't see myself using it in the High School classroom due to time constraints. I think it would be great if my students could create a series of videos called "An Interview in Time" where they could interview famous dead dudes or "My Favorite Fascist" and discuss why they feel one fascist leader is more fascist then another. Unfortunately, I think the current curriculum and SOL restraints make it nearly impossible to implement these lessons effectively while giving students enough time to plan and implement an effective video. Even in our class, it takes 2+ hours to make a relatively joke-like video and that is with teachers who are motivated to complete the assignments and interested in learning the use of this technology. With a classroom of freshmen who cannot control their mouths let alone the rest of their body, I do not see a project utilizing DVE actually working or fitting into the curriculum.

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater

So I had a wonderful event happen today and I figured I'd go ahead and share it here...Be prepared for venting! My AP World History classes (of which I have 4!) usually receive a reading quiz occasionally to ensure students are completing their reading assignments. Students were not performing well so I started assigning outline notes in place of quizzes to ensure students were reading. This is only the third time I've collected notes, but students have been turning them in more frequently. Today during class I noticed a student who rarely turns in homework (yeah, in AP!) had these wonderful outline notes. I realized this was a bit fishy, so I typed his notes into google, and what do you know, he copied the notes directly from a website! Now, I thought it was a random incident, but then I noticed 2 more in the same class. The worst part is the fact that the administration was like "well, just discuss with them why that is a bad thing." I guess my problem with this response is it does not address the fact that at 16, in a collegiate-level course, academic integrity should be a little more important than having a discussion about how they shouldn't cheat. I don't really know how to respond to this situation (apparently there are LARGE number of students who cheated on their notes) or how I should feel about this. I have a responsibility to help them pass this test and earn collegiate credit, but if they are willing to cheat, should I be willing to help? These are the days that try teachers' souls.

Technology for the sake of technology

So after reading about Podcasts and our exercise last class about creating podcasts, I honestly am starting to agree with Jeremy that Podcasts are not necessarily a resource I see myself using. While I see the collegiate use (recording lectures & allowing students a secondary method for note-taking), which is extremely helpful for the motivated student and I understand use of Podcasts for students in the elementary classroom (a new way to create projects and have fun while still learning), I find podcasts at the high school level to be a very time consuming activity that might not be effective. I often see High School teachers that have their podcasts on their websites, which are frequently recordings of their own lectures, however, I fail to see a high school student that is motivated enough to REALLY use that resource. Beyond the lecture recording, the high school curriculum is extremely focused and requires teachers to move very quickly, which is not necessarily helpful when using a medium that requires preparation, planning, and a deep understanding of recording software in order to be succesful. I guess my problem is that I am not completely "sold" on the idea of podcasts. I think they are fun and might be used effectively in the classroom, but I am not sure that is really true when you take who high school students are into account. What do you all think?

It May Be Offensive, But It Is Interesting...

Warning: This Post Might Be Offensive for Some! Please read on though!

So after perusing my usual sites, I ran across a CNN article about a new-ish website called Chat Roulette. For those of you who are not interested in reading the article, basically, Chat Roulette is a website where visitors can randomly chat via a webcam with anybody else in the world connected to the site. All the user needs is a webcam and then an account. They then are taken to a user, at random, to chat with. Some of the more interesting applications would be teaching students about other cultures by having students actually talk with people of other cultures. Some of the examples are musicians playing their songs to their randomly selected chat partners, people telling jokes, or just waiting for someone to talk with. Unfortunately, the internet is a two-headed beast. Frequently, the site will take you to individuals doing more inappropriate things such as stripping or things even more unfortunate to mention, ruining a potentially interesting technological application. The potential for amazing collaboration is evident from the second you hear about the site. Students could have digital pen pals, no longer requiring detailed and timely letters, instead relying on short chats where the student could learn about a unique and intersting culture. Imagine a Geography project about Morocco where a student has talked to an actual Moroccan! Unfortunately, these sites often lead to miscreants and appears to have the perverted community running rampant through it. Is it possible, as a teacher, to feel comfortable with something so potentially inappropriate? Is there an actual application that you would feel comfortable with? It certainly brings up some intersting syncronous telecommunication. If you are interested in seeing a cartoon, which started my search for information about the site, click the following link. Careful, you MAY find it slightly inappropriate.

Penny-Arcade Comic

Social Networking For Teachers?

Saw this on my favorite blog, Free Tech 4 Teachers, and it made me wonder just how far social networking is getting. Is there such a thing as too far? Is it smart, safe, and educational for teachers (especially at the High School level) to use Facebook or other social networking? What about the possibility of a net-based school district? Could this be the beginning of a an entirely new method of teacher development and "training"? Just some thoughts.

Wiki Wiki Wiki Yeah!

So the process of creating class-based Wiki's is an interesting and dangerous prospect. I recently decided to embark on this journey by having students create visual biographies of important enlightenment figures in either PowerPoint or Word. Students were then required to submit their basic assignment to a Wiki that I created on Blackboard. While this assignment was fairly simple from a structural sense, I also attempted to make the Wiki instructions as fool-proof as possible. I know that not all students have experience using different types of technology, especially Web 2.0 that isn't Facebook, but I assumed that including straightforward, dummy-proof instructions would help any students who had trouble. Unfortunately, I was ever so wrong about this. Students deleted other students' projects, did not add their own, or completely blanked the page. It was simply shocking to go through the history and see students completely destroy the Wiki page because of a lack of understanding. What terrifies me the most about this situation is that it means the Sophomores in my High School at the AP level cannot figure out how to add a link with explicit instructions laid out for them.

Even though the Wiki element of the project did not work as smoothly as I had hoped, it does not mean I am afraid of Wiki's forever, but it does mean another skill set that students should have that they obviously do not. It means that, in the future, if I choose to do a Wiki, I will have to run a tutorial (which I even did for the previous project!) showing students just how the Wiki functions. Obviously, the more complex the project gets (not just adding files), the more difficult the instructions get and the higher level thinking required in order to see success.

How Strong is Your Blog?

I took a long time deciding how I wanted to start this post. Originally, my goal was to discuss Web 2.0, its uses in the classroom, and how wonderful a thing blogging can be in the classroom as long as it is used correctly. However, I was watching the Daily Show yesterday and he began to discuss the Blog-o-sphere's reaction to his mannerisms regarding other journalists (See Video).



After seeing this entertaining bit on The Daily Show, it made me start thinking about the use of blogging and teaching students about the strength of language being used. One of the things my AP students never seem to grasp is that different words have different impact. Saying "could" or "possibly" while writing a historical essay tells the reader that you have no idea what you are talking about. With blogging, students can write and reflect on what they learn and practice using language with different strength depending on what the situation is. Blogs do provide students the opportunity to practice their skill writing, which is something that we tragically fail to improve as teachers. Whether it is the lack of writing at home, the classroom, or a combination, students are not adequately prepared to be skilled writers when leaving for college. Web 2.0 can help improve these writing skills, increase and develop a stronger vocabulary, and develop a flexible style that can be implemented based on what the situation calls for.