moar funny pictures

BestBuy just called to confirm that my tv has been repaired...and the tv repairman they are having repair my tv just called to inform me that he has not received the replacement part. FAIL!!!

Finally...my Jing Recording

It took me far too long to get all the software downloaded and working properly, but I finally got it and here it is. Whew!!!

Multiplying and Squaring Polynomials

Matching Jing recording is soon to come.

See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.

And here's my welcome video...in case you didn't see it on my YouTube Channel

How Cool?!?

I am embedding my video that I posted to YouTube on the channel that I created :)

The video is visually of a fiber-optic cone and the audio is a conversation my friend and I had about secrets and privileged information.

Art and Creative Writing

Another way to use photo-sharing sites in the classroom is to have the students search for interesting photos and use them to complete an assignment such as: choose one image and write the story behind it-what isn't the image telling us? Are the women in the photo happy? Are those fake smiles? Why is the duck alone? Is his family simply out of the frame? Is the duck lost?

Students could take multiple photos and piece them together to tell a story or the students could use the photos to practice drawing life-like images with perspective and shading instead of the same old bowl of fruit. However, it would still be beneficial for the students to be able to adjust the position of the light source to see how it effects the angle of the shadows. So, maybe they should start out with photos to practice drawing what they see, then switch to 3D models (such as the bowl of fruit), and then they could use photos/images found through photo-sharing sites or photos they took themselves and change the lighting themselves as they draw the picture to make it their own.

Why is the bicycle up there? You tell me.

Beauty

One idea is to use the photo-sharing sites to find images for collages instead of clippings from magazines, glue/tape, scissors, etc. Here is my collage on beauty that I made using images from Picasa, the free collage-making software from www.shapecollage.com, and Microsoft Paint...

...inspired by the Dove Evolution video


While researching our solar system for a paper I am writing I came across this article and thought it was interesting especially since I happened to make my collage around that idea.
"Hourglass Figures Affect Men's Brains Like a Drug"

Black Planet

1. Black Americans
2. 1999 to present
3. It is popular because it is good for networking with African Americans to find jobs, fill jobs, and start romantic relationships. It is geared toward African Americans who want to socialize with African Americans. It is technically still in use, but it would be more popular if there were no subscriptions and if it were compartmentalized. Dating sites should be separate from job sites. I would never post my dating resume next to my job resume. I should be hired based on my qualifications for the job, not my romantic interests and sexy pictures. I should be chosen for a date based on my personality and physical attraction, not my GMAT score or my career objectives.
4. Yes. Black Singles Connection is more popular for dating and blackcareerzone and blackrefer are popular job finding/filling sites for African Americans.
5. I created an account for Black Planet just so I could check it out myself and yes I will continue to use it for researching the black culture in America. When marketing, one must research the demographics and the black community is a huge demographic. However, I am completely uninterested in online dating sites and have no interest in using Black Planet to find dates. Another reason I will not keep my profile updated, or even filled out, is that my friends and family can already get ahold of me via cellphone, email, skype, and facebook. I have no need for yet another social networking site except, of course, the value of the marketing research.

My Opinion of Building Effective Social Networks

I agree with Steve Hargadon's 4th and 6th point. If a network is going to succeed it needs to fulfill a compelling need. If it does not fulfill a compelling need then why would people use it? Why would I post my status on Fb if people could not read it? Why would I use BlackBoard if it didn't help me communicate with my teachers and classmates? A social network that does not fill a compelling need will soon be abandoned or forgotten because it simply is not a necessary, or even interesting, part of our day.

It is important to set expectations and lead by example. If you are excited about the topic and show members how useful and engaging the network can be they are more likely to join and participate. No one wants to read a lot of text and a picture is worth a thousand words. So, make sure to add pictures to the network to help get people interested.

It is not always necessary to engage someone's interest. Sometimes you only need to be the resource or medium needed. I would belong to a social network in order to be kept up to date on things regarding work, my child's school, local and national politics, policy-making committees, etc. but many of these things could be done equally well, if not better, as regular websites. Social networking is not the best medium for all things. If I want to know what time a movie is playing or a phone number I would rather go to a regular website than join a network and ask someone if they know the answer. However, if I am on a committee of more than one person and we have to collaborate, I would appreciate having a social network that we could be in together so that we could post ideas, comments, information, etc. and the others see it and respond without everyone having to make themselves available at the same time.

Steve Hargadon said it well when he said, "Being polite matters. Setting boundaries matters. Improving the network matters. You have to learn from the users, let them know you are learning from them, and make things better. Be transparent and authentic. Facilitate, help, encourage, console, understand, and support. Help to create a culture or feeling or tenor for the network." -http://www.stevehargadon.com/2009/01/some-things-ive-learned-about-building.html

If the site has a flaw or an annoying problem it is highly important that it be fixed. If a site is not user-friendly but fills a compelling need it will be replaced. If there are no boundaries the users can get lost on a tangent and turn it into simply a social site or the users could turn it into what they actually need and want instead of what was created. It is important that users feel comfortable with the medium and are encouraged to participate and have fun with it. The more confident people are with a tool, the more reasons they will find to use it.

My First Wiki

My wiki is for math tips, practice problems, and studying resources since I am a math tutor. Currently the wiki has an introduction, some explanations, and some tips for doing math quickly in your head. Eventually, it will have worksheets, flash-cards, lesson plans, and links to other amazing resources for learning/teaching math. I would expect each student to be able to access the wiki and use it to study. They would be expected to add at least one trick/tip that they know and would like to share. If they did not know a different tip then they could contribute by finding videos or creating illustrations that help explain one or more of the tips already in the wiki. Once there is a question and answer page the students could post their questions and once I have answered them the information will remain as a FAQ page, yet another resource.

Technology and Teaching Today

"So I ran across this Smart Ease of Use video in the course of one of our threads in a PLP cohort and I have to say, I can’t seem to shake it. I mean, maybe I’m missing something here, but if this is a vision of “transformative” technology, we’re in some serious trouble. Worse, if this marketing piece actually does the job and creates sales of Smart boards, we’re in even bigger trouble.

Is this really a vision of classrooms and learning that we aspire to? Is it all about being “easy”? And what does it say when the manufacturer of one of the most popular pieces of technologies in schools presents this picture for what teachers and students should be doing in schools?

Help me…what am I missing?"

This new technology is not so new. I have seen it used in my own college courses and it is more frustrating than useful because the marker does not work as accurately or as easily as a regular dry-erase marker. The technology is not ready to work at the same pace we would like it to. A much simpler solution is to combine a PowerPoint presentation with a dry-erase board. The presentation should be projected onto a dry-erase board and then a simple dry-erase marker can be used to circle and highlight information being presented and quickly wiped away when the presenter is ready to move on to the next slide. I have seen this method work very well and recommend it to anyone that is presenting information that needs to be manipulated in front of the audience.

"What I’m finding more and more as I visit schools that are getting more serious about “change” is that they have someone at the top who is willing to focus on the learning and not on the other crap."

Great! Learning is what education is about! It’s not about funding and numbers...I mean it is, but the funding is simply necessary and the numbers will come when the students' learning is the focus. If the students are actually learning the material they will test better, naturally. If people are less concerned with politics (especially within the school) and more concerned with how well the students are doing then better teaching methods will rise to the surface because more people will be trying something new and then we'll know if that particular way works or not! How will we ever progress if we are stuck living in our heads? We need to experiment! We need to get a little messy! We need to adapt the system to fit today's growing needs and the best way to do that is trial and error (and analysis) so get to tryin!

"Right now, most schools are making what I think is a bad choice by not immersing their students into these online learning environments which are creating all sorts of opportunities for us to learn. In doing so, they’re implicitly saying that technology is an option. It’s not."

Imagine a business mogul such as Donald Trump or a major organization like Disney saying that they would have nothing to do with all this new fan-dangled technology and refused to acknowledge its awesome potential. Well, Trump would be poor and Disney would be out of business because companies like Pixar would easily be able to replace it. Ignoring technology, its global reach, and its potential is like continuing to believe the Earth is flat when we have satellite photos of the Earth as a sphere. We are so far beyond the question of whether or not technology is useful that it blows my mind people are still treating it as a choice rather than a necessity. That is like saying speaking and understanding English is a choice when doing business with people that only use English. It definitely is a choice and definitely is not necessary on a small scale but it one wants to be successful one had better make the adjustment and fast because the technology of today is already being made obsolete by the technology of tomorrow. The train's movin'...either get on or get out of the way.

ADDIE vs Gagne

Both methods require a clear objective, but ADDIE is more concerned with the overall design of the material presented rather than the method in which it is presented. It looks like using the ADDIE method could lead someone to using the Gagne method through trial and error. Both systems provide feedback and evaluate the students’ performance. The difference is that ADDIE is also evaluating the performance of the chosen teaching process while Gagne is only assessing the students’ performance. While the teaching method is important the students’ performance is even more important. The same teaching method might not work for every student and that is why I feel the Gagne approach is more suitable for young learners because we are teaching them how to learn and are focusing more on the individual rather than percentages of understanding. Individual feedback is incredibly important and once the students’ know how they learn best any material can be adapted to fit their learning needs.

ADDIE seems to be what is used in most K-12 school systems today while Gagne seems to be used more at the college level. I’ve heard many teachers complain that they cannot take the time necessary to ensure each student’s understanding of the material because they are required to cover too much material too quickly and then test the students on that large amount of material. They complain that the students are remembering the material long enough to be tested on it but are not retaining much of it at all afterward. This is my own experience with standardized testing as well when not used in conjunction with the Gagne method. Standardized testing is useful but it is not the most important part of a successful teaching process. I like the ADDIE model for training sessions for employees that only need supplemental information. The constant reviewing and feedback is very useful when trying to make the most effective training method for a specific lesson. It is not as effective when using it for an entire grade level’s curriculum because it affects too many students for an entire year or more. When providing additional training to employees any overlooked information or incorrect information can be easily corrected in a memo, but when an entire year of students have not been effectively taught the necessary tools, it is quite difficult to correct and can have a domino effect on the remaining years of their K-12 education.

Currently, I am not a classroom teacher but teach mostly one-on-one through tutoring. My best subject to teach is math because I have a strong understanding of the material and can provide many different examples to try to connect the information being learned to other information and situations the student has already experienced. While researching different methods for this assignment I realized that I use Gagne’s system to teach my students. When I begin with a student I start by getting their attention in a simple way and ask questions like: “what’s new?”…”how was your test?”…”what are we working on today?”…and “do you have any questions since I saw you last? Struggling with anything in particular?” Once the student has answered my questions I look at the day’s material and give my own opinion of it citing whether or not I have found it useful or if I found it fun/interesting for some particular reason. I can always come up with some personal opinion of the material covered because lower level math does not change and I’ve taken and mastered it all the way up to Calculus 3. I chose my method of teaching because it was what worked best for me as I learned material over the years. After getting the student’s attention and making the material a little less scary I explain what the day’s material is hoping to teach/express and I tell the student what we should be able to do with it including connecting it to everyday life, the material covered previously, and the material coming up. I then walk the student through the material and guide him/her through a couple of problems. I then ask the student to work through several problems on their own and I critique the work and explain what information I looked for and how I checked their work. By guiding the student through my analysis process I help them learn to check their own work and what they should be paying attention to when working through the problem initially. I always provide immediate feedback and encourage the student to practice and provide different examples so that I am assured of his/her understanding.

I generally work with teenagers between the ages 14-16 and occasionally I help a 20+ year old friend obtain his/her GED. Sometimes I am lucky and get the easy task of tutoring a strong student that is eager to learn and just needs a little extra time, attention, explanation, and practice, but usually I am teaching disadvantaged students that believe they are stupid or are not worthy of my attention. This is always a difficult thing to change but can be done through consistency and patience. Often, I must help a student catch up on the basics so that I CAN teach them the material they are supposed to be learning. Once students understand the basics they seem much less frustrated with the current material because it is less daunting. Instead of having to sort through the problem and struggle with multiplication, use of negatives, exponents, and variables to figure out the answer to a problem using the quadratic formula the student is able to simply struggle with the quadratic formula because they feel confident manipulating the numbers within it.

Teaching Philosophy

As the generations grow so does our understanding of the world, or at least our knowledge of the stuff in it. As the generations before mine learned more and more about each field of study, the knowledge available for each field of study grew as well. As technology grows, manual labor is less and less important while knowledge is increasingly important.

As each field of study grows and business and development needs grow so do the options of what people can study. The exponential growth of available information has created the need to teach our children more and more every year. Curriculum has become overwhelmed with necessary information and time available for the teachers to ensure the students’ understanding of each subject has decreased significantly. Because we are trying to teach our students too much in too little time with too few resources we end up doing a haphazard job and we need a new solution. We either need new teaching methods or a different time structure for school or both. One option is that parents’ could be responsible for teaching their children to read and write before entering kindergarten. There are many programs available to parents for just that purpose and it would free up at least a year of required education that could be replaced with something else such as math or music.

One problem I see in my own generation is that students are learning that things work but not how or why. Students can solve for x, but do they know why it works or that they use algebra every day when determining how much of something they need? Students learn that gravity on Earth is equal to 9.67 m/s2 but do they know why we experience gravity? Do they know that something in orbit is perpetually falling or do they just know that if we launch an object fast enough it will orbit the Earth? If we expect the students of today to become the inventors and creators of tomorrow than we need them to understand why and how things work not just that they work. People will strive to meet the expectations set forth for them. We need to raise the bar, provide the tools, and refuse to accept failure. This is our duty as the generation of today. We are all teachers whether formally or not. Our children and students are learning their values from us and the rest of society therefore it is up to us to show them what to value. The only effective way to lead is through example.

Also, it is important to teach what we know and admit what we do not. Ever ask for directions and have someone give you the wrong directions simply because they did not want to say “I don’t know?” Classes should be taught by teachers that are comfortable with the material so they can pass on an actual understanding of the material. Again, being able to explain how and not just that it works is imperative. I am especially great at math and am only so-so with chemistry. I love teaching math to others because I am so comfortable with the material that I can come up with dozens of different ways of explaining the material which helps the students truly understand it and be able to apply the knowledge. If I were teaching chemistry, I would be teaching straight out of the book and would not be able to explain how things work.

In summary, we need smaller teacher to student ratios, more active parents teaching, more effective technology and teaching methods, and a different time structure to allow for all the extra material the students are learning as opposed to when the current time structure was put in place. We need to put the right teachers in the right positions and make the effort and take the time to teach our students what is in the box so thoroughly that they do not struggle to think outside of the box effectively.

First Blog Eva!

Hello, Everybody :)