TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK...

I am feeling a wee bit under pressure as the due date for the CP draws near. You see, I have not yet taken Methods, therefore I have not yet written a MSMC lesson plan! I deliberately chose to take Methods as my last course so it would be fresh in my mind before I started teaching--now I'm not so sure this was a good idea! So, you can just imagine the time it's going to take me to pull this off--and that's not even counting the web component! I cannot seem to get started. I sit here, frozen, waiting for a great burst of inspiration to strike me, but I am still waiting!! And the clock is still ticking! Thankfully, I have my own personal Techno Genie, Tara, to help me. Tara has assured me, (repeatedly) that I can do this--even without having taken Methods, and she has promised to help me once I get an idea of what I want to do. Being in elementary ed gives one so many options. Right now, I wish I was in the secondary English program, which would narrow my choices considerably! Knowing that I was going to have to work extra hard on the CP, I tried to get all the other assignments done early, which I did! As promised in my last blog, here is my TwT final essay on Project, Problem, and Inquiry-Based Learning. I started this paper feeling very unclear about the differences between these three and now I feel like an expert. Hopefully, you will, too, after reading it! EssayonPBLProblemInquiry-BasedLearni.pdf

Moving on to the RGE Assignment...I don't know about you, but I had a terrible experience trying to use the rubric generator sites! I spent a ridiculous number of hours to trying to create rubrics using Rubistar and Tech4Learning’s rubric generator sites. (Teachnology’s site looked really good, but required a $30 access membership, which I declined, since I was already mightily frustrated with the free sites).

Despite my repeated efforts, I was not making any progress and, while trying to work with these rubric generators, all I could think is “Why am I doing this when I know I can custom create my own rubric, in Word, within minutes?”

Which is precisely what I did!

I honestly don’t know if my problems with the rubric generator sites were due to my lack of understanding or inferior instructions. All I know is that none worked easily or effectively. I kept losing work or, if it was still there, I could not find it. I could not customize anything to my liking, and could not work on the entire rubric at once, just bits and pieces that were not even in the viewable mode. This was a nightmare for me. I am a very visual learner. I like everything in front of me, including the tools I need, and I like to see changes instantly and as they will appear in my final version. From this experience, I do not plan to ever use a rubric generator. I don’t even see the point. The generators are not any different than creating a table in Word, they’re just more complicated and inflexible! As for the rubric examples, most looked like regular Word documents. And, to find an existing rubric, from the thousands listed, would take more time to search and review than to make your own. Am I missing the point here? This was a time consuming, frustrating, and ultimately, unrewarding experience for me. How about you??? Leave me a comment on your experience and let me know, was this my problem or the rubric generator's problem?

Moving on to Technology and Professional Development, I was especially impressed with Tapped In, Teacher's Domain, and pdpoint.

Tapped In's virtual buildings in a 2.0 environment provides educators with a wealth of resource and support services, such as: learning communities to share strategies, resources and support, participation in topical discussions,opportunities to conduct learning projects with colleagues and students, a Job Bank, and an email/message system in which conversation transcripts are automatically e-mailed and messages are saved for users who are not logged in.

Teacher’s Domain http://www.teachersdomain.org/courseinfo/teacher/about/?

Teachers' Domain has partnered with PBS TeacherLine to offer a special collection of Teachers' Domain professional development courses in Physical, Life, and Earth Sciences for elementary, middle school, and high school educators. I love this site! It is filled with wonderful lesson plans and technology resources that students will, both, respond to and learn from.

pdPoint

http://www.pdpoint.com/
My other personal favorite! This site makes being a "life-long learner" possible and easy! PdPoint provides teachers (and administrators) with ongoing, systemic professional development that is focused on technology integration, quality teaching and sound pedagogy. The beauty of pdPoint is that it offers a variety of methods (classes, workshops, books) that you can learn from at your own pace. It also provides you with incredibly comprehensive, and easy to use, management and reporting tools. And you know that if I think it's easy to use, then it truly is!

That's it for today! I intend to write one final blog after I've finished my CP...now, I must go and pray for inspiration!

Coming Into The Final Stretch!

It's hard to believe that we only have a few weeks of class left. I am working on my final essay and then I have to begin my Curriculum Project. Yikes, where did the time go???

TwT Essay

I am doing my essay on Project Based Learning: its association with problem and inquiry-based learning and the reality of incorporating these methods in the classroom. While I support the theory of these methods, it is indisputable that they are time consuming and challenging to create and manage. Hence, my paper. I am going to explore how these methods have been utilized in classrooms and examine the feasibility of the average teacher incorporating them within the confines of time, standards, and curriculum requirements. Bottom line: Is it all a lot of rhetoric or can it really be done? How do you do it? How frequently? What's the most effective way for both the teacher and the students? Which method is best/easiest/least time consuming?, what if you have very little available technology?. . . I picked this topic because I really want to know the answer to these questions and it wouldn't surprise me if others wanted these answers, as well! If you are one of them, you will find the link to my essay here on my blog, and on my web page, as soon as I have finished writing it!

Collaboration Project

My group, the Technological Terrors, did our collaboration project on the 1950's and 60's for an 8th grade class. We have not always been the best collaborators but, this time, we somehow managed to get our act together and really work effectively as a group without any notable problems. This was a fun project, though it was a little challenging for me in that our activities were geared for 8th graders whereas all my content work at MSMC has been geared to the elementary grade level. My collaboration activity was a history/ELA assignment titled, "A Look Back in Time". My idea was to have the students interview someone who remembered life during the 1950's and 60's, to gain a first-hand, authentic understanding of what life was like during those decades.

While I provided a list of possible interview topics, I gave students the option of creating their own. Students had to cover at least 5 topics and had to interview at least 2 people, preferably more and preferably of different ages, to gain different perspectives. They were instructed to take their topics over the 2 decades, asking if it stayed the same from the 50's to the 60's, or, if it changed, and in what way. This would enable them to see the evolution of certain things from one decade to the next, i.e., cost of living, entertainment (music/TV), politics, education, fashion, war, etc.

I was born on the last day of 1955, so I, theoretically, could answer these questions for a student. I would love to see their faces when I told them that:

I had only black and white TV with just 5 channels when I was a child; that there were no seat belts in cars; none of the technology they take for granted existed; that a milkman used to deliver milk to our door; that my school lunch cost a quarter; that girls were not allowed to wear pants to school until 1968, when I was in middle school, after students protested and won; that I remember being in 2nd grade when JFK was assassinated and we were sent home from school and everyone, everywhere, was crying; that I remember the first time The Beatles appeared on U.S. television and the entire country went crazy; when Vietnam became the first war to be televised, causing a massive uprising and sparking disagreement among Americans, not unlike the Iraq war today; when war protests erupted across the country and college campuses turned into battle zones; the advent of the women's rights movement; and when the civil rights movement evolved into the Black Panther Party and peace turned to violence...the list goes on and on. What I think is most important for students to realize is that this didn't happen in the dark ages, but only 40-50 years ago!

The students have to enter their interview data online, via the interactive time line, then print it out and post it on our time line wall. This way all students can read each other's results. Finally, the students have to pick one thing they learned, that surprised them the most, and share it in an oral presentation.

I really enjoyed this assignment and hope that my students would also!

Ah, Progress!

I was recently working on my web site when I suddenly realized the magnitude of what I've accomplished in TwT. I was beside myself with panic when I first set up that site. I was literally shaking! Then, just a few days ago, there I was, inserting clip art, music, links and color, just to dress it up, when it hit me how easily I was doing all this and how much fun I was having. I felt so proud and, at the same time, so grateful that I didn't give up, didn't just learn enough to get by but, instead, learned more than I ever dreamed and, in doing so, learned to love and respect technology! Who would've thought??? Thank you Dr. S. and MSMC! Without this class I would have remained a terrified digital immigrant and a less effective teacher.
I'll be honest, this class is the most demanding and challenging one I've taken...and all I have left is Methods (which I already know is akin to this class, but at least I'll be prepared!!). What made this class doable for me was the friendship and support system I developed with Tara (Techno Genies). We helped each other, whined to each other, and supported each other week in and week out (and sometimes day in and day out!). All I can say is "Thank God for Tara, her brains, her teaching experience, her common sense, her humor, and her innate kindness."

Until next time...