I actually got into a long conversation today with my mom on all of the problems that I have noticed in education today. I really think that the next person to serve as President needs to make some major changes. I have discussed many of times my thoughts on the No Child Left Behind Act and how I feel that things like teacher rewards and pay increases for things like grades only encourage teachers to focus more on teaching to the test. I also feel that children’s needs are not being met in the classroom because so much focus is directed towards test taking. One of the things that I have really noticed that is taking place in education is the increase in the workloads that teachers have and not enough time being allowed to really focus on making sure students are advancing with subject matter the way they should be. This is not right to me because in education I feel the students needs should come first. I recently heard John McCain talk about Charter schools and how there has been a big shift in parents wanting to send students to these schools. The reasoning behind this change was becauseCharter schools were allowed to spend their budgets how they best saw fit to help the students learn. McCain was saying how if elected he would make sure that public schools are allowed to do the same. I was glad to finally hear someone in this election talk about making improvements in our education system. If things like school budgets are affecting the way the students learn than there needs to be a change. One thing that I have seen and liked that is taking place in schools is the effort to incorporate technology into the classroom. I feel that with the rapidly changing society we live in, schools need to make sure that we are preparing the students for the future they will grow up in. The only problem here is getting a lot of the teachers on the same page. A lot of teachers are either not willing to change or are scared of it. I think as we progressively get younger teachers into the education system we should be training them to learn how to deal with the ever changing society. I really do like the mentor programs that are in place for new teachers and I think a lot of the older teachers can give a lot of great information as tutors to beginning teachers.
My Own Website
Well to be quite honest with you I really think I did a good job on my website. I want to actually keep this site for when I have my own class. That is why I made pages on there such as Student of the Week and News. They do not really have anything in there right now since I don’t have students yet but I will and I want to post about the good things that they do. I think that they would really like seeing their name in my webpage. I had quite a few more links than most peoples that I saw but that was because I posted pretty much everything from this class in my Tecs 390 page on my site. The rest of the site is really just for me to use when I have my own class. Sorry Cyndi. Not that I didn’t think this class and the things I did were important enough to list on my mainpage, I just felt that if I am really going to use this site in the future I wanted to create something not just about this class and the things I did. I think that my links could maybe be a bit more attractive and possibly give my page a better background. But I thought things like my calender were really cool.
My Classmates Websites
Well I have not seen Hunter’s website yet but I have seen a lot of the work that he has done up to this point, and have been impressed. I really liked what he created on his voicethreads and on his Irish card about his friend. I thought it was really creative and I liked what he had to say. I also liked the fact that he has got the chance to go out of country and make connections. I am sure his website will turn out really good.
I also liked Amy Brungardt’s page. I like the fact that she was able to find some cool backgrounds and change the colors on her links. Like Hunter I have viewed a lot of the work Amy has done over the course of the semester and I really liked all of the assignments she has turned in. I may have even taking a few ideas from her. Sorry Amy. I think she did a great job because she is so detail oriented.
I also liked Emily Baker’s website becuase it was really upbeat and really reflected what I would guess her personality is like. I liked the pictures of family right as as you get into her page. I also think she has done good work throughout the semester.
My Favorite Podcast Presenter
Well I touched on this in one of my other posts but definitely Eric Langhorst from Speaking Of History. I really liked him because he seemed like a down to earth guy who really loved his teaching job. I took a lot of advice from him to heart. I actually used one of his ideas over influential people in American history and used it for my Kansas History Unit. I liked pretty much everything that he had to say. He seems like a really active teacher outside of his classroom. He was talking about all of the trips he goes on and things he learned. This showed me that he was a very reflective thinker and enjoyed his job. Second to him I would have to say Vicki Davis. I really liked a couple of her podcasts because she used some really good analogies that relate to teachers.
Tools I Will Use in the Future
Where do I start? I will definitely use the voicethreads. I think they are a great tool for putting your words with photos. The fact that I had to buy a web cam for this class will definitely be a tool I use. I thought that the webcam was a whole lot of fun and I really wish we did more assignments on it. Maybe it’s just cause I like looking at myself. Just kidding. I really thought IM was a great tool even though we did not use it that much. I felt that it was a great way to keep in touch with anyone at anytime. I know it could come in real handy while I am teaching. Pretty much all of the tools we used in this class would be very beneficial to me in my teaching career. The only thing I might not have a lot of use for was the screencasting tool. I probably will not be creating a lot of tutorials. I might though, you never know.
Things That Make Me Think
Some of the things that really stood out to me in this course were the podcasts. When I started this course and especially the first week or so I hated listening to podcasts. It wasn’t until I heard one from Speaking of History by Eric Langhorst that made me go wow, there actually is someone out there with something important to say. This guy had so many great ideas that I had to use him at least once in every podcast reflection. I took some things from him that I probably will not forget. Some of his ideas for teaching history were excellent. Another thing in this course that I enjoyed was creating the books on Big Universe. I have always wanted to create my own children’s book and I was able to really easily with excellent graphics. The site was fun for people of all ages. I also really liked creating the voicethread for the virtual tour. I liked this because I got to give a tour of a place that I knew really well and had fun talking about. I was able to use my dad in that voicethread since he was a great resource for the city of Great Bend. I guess that’s why they call him the Human Resource Director. I also just really enjoyed creating my website. I did not know how fun that could be. You can see it on the website, but I Incorporated the picture of Kindergarten Cop on my page because that is what I feel like a lot of times. I am not a small guy and I use that intimidation in the classroom. I try not to scare my kids necessarily but I lay down the law if they are goofing off. Lastly I really liked working with the Toondoo cartoons. I had so much fun with that because I created my own Messin with Sasquatch cartoon, like the commercials have. It was a lot of fun and would be great for making educational cartoons for the classroom.
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