Today we were asked to look into Open Education Resources, and give our thoughts from the persective of a Learner, a Student, and a Teacher. So without further adieu:
As a Learner - OERs are easily most beneficial to the learner. For those that just want to brush up on a certain topic, or even learn something new, OERs will get you what you need to know. For example, say you wanted to reacquaint yourself with humainities... BAM . There you go. No need to thank me. Personally, I think that if I was ever curious about a new subject, or was struggling with a current one, i could turn to OER's both as a learner and a student
As a Student - Textbooks are freaking expensive. I would much rather just get them online and from an OER, or even for an e-reader like a Kindle on Amazon. I don't think I've even cracked open one of my books for this semester (except SEDU of course... 'Sup Mr. Smith) I would much rather not spend tons of cash on books and instead opt for an OER to use only when necessary.
As a Teacher - As a teacher, OERs are tricky because you want to give your students as much outside help as possible, but at the same time you don't want the internet to basically do your job. There has to be a balance. While i could possibly see myself using OERs as "backup" in my lesson plans, its the ones like this that interest me the most. They basically give you lessons on how to to teach. So in conclusion:
I
believe that teachers should always strive to create new and imaginative ways
to relate to and engage students. If a teacher is constantly changing up their
game in fun and inventive new ways, their students will be more willing to
learn, and will enjoy doing it. This is the kind of teacher I want to be. My
reasoning behind this is largely due to the teaching methods of my high school educators.
The drive for connection and innovation of three teachers in particular, is
what drives me to be a better teacher myself.
The
first of these teachers was Ms. Coley, my Algebra II/ Trigonometry teacher sophomore
year. Her classroom was the first time I ever experienced new classroom
innovations; namely the Smartboard. I
don’t think I’ve ever seen Ms. Coley use a chalkboard, and as far as I can tell
she’s still the only person who incorporates the Smartboard in her classroom.
Considering not many people in my class had seen a Smartboard before, we were
excited to try it out, and it became our first real taste of technology in the
classroom. However the best part of having class with Ms. Coley was easily Pi
Day. For March 14th, (3.14, Get it?!?), we had a variety of projects
to choose from, including songs and video presentations, which were always the
best. My friends and I wrote a parody to “Semi-Charmed Life”, and although we
had setbacks, it was my favorite project I’ve ever made.
Another
one of my most influential teachers was Mr. Palcsey, who taught English. I
consider him something of a role model, and why I chose to be an English
teacher myself. I don’t know how, but he found a way to make every story or
poem interesting and relatable. This, coupled with the occasional Simpsons clip
or Classroom Jeopardy game, really opened my eyes to the fact that there is so
much amazing Literature outside the realm of Harry Potter. I owe a lot to Mr.
P, and we still keep in touch, although now he’s simply known as Mike. (Also I have
a sticker of him on my laptop.)
You
know that one crazy-awesome teacher you’ll never forget as long as you live?
For me, that’s Mr. McLane, I knew he'd be . From the moment he threw himself at the blackboard in
the shape of an X to illustrate the desired variable I knew he'd be my favorite teacher. From his zany antics, to
his hilarious jabs at fellow-students, to his “Biz Buzz” number games, he
always found a way to keep the class entertained and awake. (He’d use a bullhorn
if you fell asleep.) It is near impossible to put into words Mr. McLane’s
talent for keeping the students interested, but when rumors broke out about his
retirement, the entire student body was up in arms. I can only hope I’ll have
even half the impact he left on his students.
Because
of these amazing teachers, I can tell you about Archimedes involvement with Pi,
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, or the importance of variables, and I’m
happy for the fact. Ms. Coley, Mr. McLane, and Mike are easily some of my
biggest driving influences.
10.)HyperPhysics: While I find this to be a useful tool for simplifying Physics, I still hate the subject with a passion. Last place Hayden, last place.
9.) Pinterest: While it really can only be used as an ice breaker, my girlfriend has sent me many a funny cat pic through Pinterest so circle takes the square.
8.) Smartboard: "I will always feel that math is best taught by a chalkboard or whiteboard, and a smartboard is nothing more than an advanced version."
7.) High School English: While as a future High School I'm all about finding the best tools to help students write essays, I feel like most of them will be turned off by the websites design...
6.) Pegby: I hate when people don't pull their share in group projects, and after some 1st Hand experience with Pegby, I can safely say it helps tremendously on keeping people on task.
5.) Wicked: As I stated in my own Cool Tool post below, I am a firm believer in the use of games to help teach students, and Wicked has games in a variety of subjects.
4.) Wikispaces: These numbers don't lie. 6 Million student teachers is more than enough to get my vote
3.) Prezi: Usually PowerPoints bore me to tears, but Prezi seems like something that could possibly regain some of that attention.
3.) Teachertube: Youtube by teachers for teachers, using the power of collaboration to provide students and fellow teachers alike with helpful techniques and lessons? Yes Please! (It even connects to Facebook!)
1.) StudentPublishing: What better way to get students to care about books then to HAVE THEM MAKE THEIR OWN! I want my own book..."Wiggles the Cyborg Gerbil" here I come!
I'll Take "Fun Way to Study Before the Big Test" for 400, Alex.
You have to admit, study games are some of the best and most entertaning ways to prepare for any exam. I remember back in High School, we played Literature Jeapordy for every test up until the 11th grade. (Too mature for games. Pfft.) Unfortunately we could only play with use of the chalkboard, but now, thanks to superteachertools.com, Classroom Jeapordy can now fit on your computer/smartboard screen.
If you've been living under a game show rock, Jeapordy is a game show in which contestants answer questions from a series of random topics trying to gain more points than there opponents. Classroon Jeapordy plays off of that, allowing teams of students to face off on in fiece competition of class subject smartitude.
Classroom Jeapordy runs slmost exacty like the show, displaying Categories, Points, and Team Scores just like the original. All the teacher has to do is imput the category and and questions and let the flashgame and the students take care of the rest. CJ will automatically tally scores and with student interaction, runs through the game by itself.
I will use the heck out of this tol in the classroom. There is no better way to prepare for the test by reviewing all the imortant information before hand in the form of one of world's most famous gameshows. Back in the day when my classroom got to play Jeapordy, my test grades would be substantially better than when we had to study straight from the book. However, I would want to space out the Jeapordy days to make it more of a special treat for students (plus thinking p a bunch of questions can be difficult for smaller tests). From personal experience however, the results don't lie. I mean who wouldnt want to help their class become the next Ken Jennings.
On today's agenda, we will be talking about everyone's favorite topic: Bullying
(Expects everyone to uncomfortably shift in their seats and debate reading further)
While I am sure dear reader, that nobody actually ever wants to talk about bullying, it is a very real and very dangerous threat, even if you have never experienced it firsthand. If you've been living under a rock for your entire life, bullying is the act of acting negatively towards another person, through either verbal, physical, or emotional means. Now you may be wondering, where is this "bullying" most likely to occur? The schools dear friend, the schools.
In fact, 30% of all students claim to have been involved with bullying, either as the victim or the bully, themselves. Considering that bullying can lead to depression, low grades, low self-esteem, and even SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, this is quite the huge problem. While teachers and parents, as well as many celebrities and corporations, have tried to end bullying once and for all, their efforts have had minimal results. Bullying needs to be taken care of once and for all.
Simply put, bullying must cease to exist, simply for the sake of the affected students and its well being. Everyone has a right to be happy, and if our students are becoming depressed and suicidal, something must be done before its too late.
As teachers we have to be able to talk to students we think are being bullied (although we should probably be sure. That awkward moment where you tell a kid they can come to you if they're being bullied and they have no idea what you're talking about.) More importantly though we have to be able to bridge the gap between the gap between teacher and student, so our kids can know they can communicate with us and trust us. Not only that, we have to be able to communicate with the bullies.Evidence shows that bullies act they way they do, due to social and emotional problems as well (ie. broken homes)So many instances of bullying could have been avoided if only the victims thought they could do so without being ridiculed by their peers, or if the bullies had someone to talk to about their own issues. There is far to much of a distance between teacher and student. We lost at least 5 students, who committed suicide in September of 2010, due to homophobic bullying. We cannot simply be in schools to teach, we have to be someone the kids can trust. We need to be a source of guidance, both in and out of the classroom. We need to be people who can build our students up, not tear them down. Most importantly we need to help make it stop and put and end to bullying.
For more information on bullying and what we, as teachers, can do to prevent it, I direct you here and schmere
But why wait until then? Do something now and upload a video to the It Gets Better Project
Twitter.... Still dont like it. While i can see the potential for comminication with students providing you make a separate account for such things, I can stll not bring myself to use it. Besides the fact that i never have anything interesting to say, I just don't see why Twitter is even a thing. Facebook does pretty much everthing youd ever need a twitter for. With a twitter everythings all separated and you need to click like 50 times just to read a chat between two friends. Twitter is just too scatterbrained for me,. Facebook has everything I need and could easily have the same, if not better implcations for education...
So for today in SEDU we had to create a Power Point project on a lesson of our choice. I, naturally, decided upon a lesson for a 10th grade Lit class, and for the most part, it went off without a hitch.
The thing about my high school was, as of last year we no longer had Snow Days. Instead we did class work over the internet and emailed them in. We were the first high school in PA to start this, and while it is completely terrifying and a chore for both the students and teachers, it provided to be an excellent vehicle for my Power Point. The hard part however, was finding a lesson to base said Power Point on...
Pdesas is a horrifying nightmare of a website, and I heard from a reliable source that it eats puppies for breakfast (WITHOUT ANY MILK!) Honestly though, it is so confusing and cluttered, navigation was near impossible. I legitimately spent most of my time looking for standard to write about, but once I had it (Comparing /Contrasting Works & Looking for Validity, Bias and Author's Intent) it was pretty easy the rest of the way.
I divided my PP project into two parts. The first, was about comparing a written work to its movie counter part. I originally wanted to use the Climax of the final Harry Potter movie, but I didn't want to spoil anything (nor could i find a good Neville/Nagini pic), so i decided on Wizard of Oz instead, which surprisingly has tons of differences. The Second part of my project was about a controversial issue, and I went with Prop 8 (focusing on the both the social and religious arguments.) While some people may argue that its "Taboo" to talk about such controversial subjects, I firmly believe that is our duty as teachers to not only teach students the three R's, but to get them to think about and prepare them for the real world.
When it came to actually presenting the project, I was pretty nervous. While I consider myself a confident speaker I tend to get tongue tied a lot and stutter. Luckily I was able to make it through with few errors, however, VALIDITY IS A TOUGH WORD TO PRONOUNCE! I must have stuttered over it every time... It certainly didn't help that it was a main point of my project.
Overall however, I think I did pretty well, I embedded a snazzy video and everything so I hope i get an equally snazzy grade.
