I'm a woman of many words IF I think someone wants to know what I think! I guess by blogging, the blogger is giving an open invitation for anyone to respond. So, I did! I voiced my opinion about leaving high school a year early to go to college because I've seen this idea backfire on more than one student and felt it needed to be shared especially since the other responders were all in favor of going to college a year early. Next, I tried to talk myself into being as brave with this digital learning idea as an elementary student. I first I was very hesitant to comment, but once you start, it does seem to roll off your fingertips.
As far as questions, am I the only one having trouble finding educational blogs? Many of the links we were given in Thing 6 and my other searches took me to blogs that seemed to have been abandoned! This made me think of the blog waste we are creating. If anyone subscribes to some great blogs on literacy, please send me their links. I am spending way more time than I have on these things and am not going to get done if I don't pick up the pace.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Thing #6--Feeding My Reader
Like at the table, I started "grazing" over my feeds an hour ago and am so intrigued by what I'm reading I'm not getting my work done...I'm "overeating!" Before I even comment on this "THING" I have to quote the Cool Cat Teacher blog and what she has to say about being a "learner."
Her idea that learners need to "view new knowledge not as an opportunity to dig in and resist but to learn and grow" speaks volumes to me! She continues with, "They are always teaching me something new that I didn't know and often pick up on the real stories that no one else is talking about. They are wise not because they know it all but because they know that they don't and have adopted a mindset of lifelong learning."
How wonderful to feel "wise" because I don't know it all! I know that as I read things a second and third time (or tenth or eleventh) over the course of my life that each time I view the concept from a slightly different perspective and use these multiple viewings to synthesize what I know. Too often, those in education who really need to stay in the mode of "lifelong learning", are mired in their current ways and beliefs. I see this even with relatively new college graduates! (For clarification, these are NOT the teachers who most often attend my staff development sessions or literacy classes.) My gosh, if you stop opening your mind to others and their ways of thinking at 22, how stagnant will your career be and how ineffective as a teacher will you become? If I ever feel I know it all, that's when I need to retire, not continue teaching!
Then she continues to talk about excellence. "Excellence means that WHEN a person makes a mistake that they correct their mistake. It means that they sometimes change their minds with valid reasoning. These people have as a goal for their life to BE excellent." I think this desire to be excellent comes with a passion for your job. It's not about being right, it's about being flexible and willing to converse about what you think you know and want to learn more about. Then it becomes about those you teach vs. you, the teacher.
Now it's HOURS later and I forgot where I was going! Better leave and get on to the next "thing" or I'll be feeding here forever.
Her idea that learners need to "view new knowledge not as an opportunity to dig in and resist but to learn and grow" speaks volumes to me! She continues with, "They are always teaching me something new that I didn't know and often pick up on the real stories that no one else is talking about. They are wise not because they know it all but because they know that they don't and have adopted a mindset of lifelong learning."
How wonderful to feel "wise" because I don't know it all! I know that as I read things a second and third time (or tenth or eleventh) over the course of my life that each time I view the concept from a slightly different perspective and use these multiple viewings to synthesize what I know. Too often, those in education who really need to stay in the mode of "lifelong learning", are mired in their current ways and beliefs. I see this even with relatively new college graduates! (For clarification, these are NOT the teachers who most often attend my staff development sessions or literacy classes.) My gosh, if you stop opening your mind to others and their ways of thinking at 22, how stagnant will your career be and how ineffective as a teacher will you become? If I ever feel I know it all, that's when I need to retire, not continue teaching!
Then she continues to talk about excellence. "Excellence means that WHEN a person makes a mistake that they correct their mistake. It means that they sometimes change their minds with valid reasoning. These people have as a goal for their life to BE excellent." I think this desire to be excellent comes with a passion for your job. It's not about being right, it's about being flexible and willing to converse about what you think you know and want to learn more about. Then it becomes about those you teach vs. you, the teacher.
Now it's HOURS later and I forgot where I was going! Better leave and get on to the next "thing" or I'll be feeding here forever.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thing #5--Lions and Tigers and RSS Feeds, Oh My!
Finally taking time to play with this, I'm having a ball! If I weren't in education, I'd be in interior design. I found this incredible slide show on the New York times. It shows a home in the Catskills and the eclectic decorating done by its owners. Take a peek...I could move in (with a few less of the anatomical pieces of the collection)!
Also of interest (what with FutureQuest) was the story on college options for less than "A" students. Not only did it provide names of the very colleges to look into, but it linked directly to their admissions offices. What a wonderful thing for those of you advising high school students who want to pursue college, but didn't really give it their best efforts in high school!
And finally, a real life example of bringing the family together with technology. My niece has been begging me to set up Skype so we can see and talk to each other regularly. This story tells of a birthday party for their 81 year old mother which some attended on Skype! If that's not one of the 23 things, I'll have to go for 24!
Also of interest (what with FutureQuest) was the story on college options for less than "A" students. Not only did it provide names of the very colleges to look into, but it linked directly to their admissions offices. What a wonderful thing for those of you advising high school students who want to pursue college, but didn't really give it their best efforts in high school!
And finally, a real life example of bringing the family together with technology. My niece has been begging me to set up Skype so we can see and talk to each other regularly. This story tells of a birthday party for their 81 year old mother which some attended on Skype! If that's not one of the 23 things, I'll have to go for 24!
Thing #4--Blog Reading and Writing
"The ability to learn continuously changing technologies for literacy may be a more critical target than learning any particular technology of literacy itself." This quote from EduBlog Insights is probably one of the best reasons for taking 23 Things! It's all new, all changing and we all need to learn and attempt to keep up with at least some of the changes. Literacy is changing as evidenced in the numerous blogs we were given to investigate. The very questions we were asked to respond to in Thing 4 deal with the new"er" genre of blogging as a form of literacy. So what do I notice. I notice that as I work with campuses and with our new TEKS on what are the new state standards, they only begin to address the modern era in communication. Think of how just 10 years ago, we received information. In a newspaper it was a sampling of international, national, local news with advertising thrown in. If we wanted to read a more targeted sampling of writing, we'd subscribe to an educational or trade journal. Even then, we might find one or two articles that pertained to our interests. Blogging seems so much more specific. You can really hunt out your favorite topics.
One of the key observations in this blog was about teaching readers of blogs, especially students, to be critical navigators of the information that is put out there. Unlike the journals of the past, many of these bloggers do not site research or back up their "opinions" with facts. This increases the need to have students investigate what they read for foundational evidence. Before I ramble on any further, I think I'll visit the Students 2.0 blog on "teaching brevity."
Okay, I get the gist. Be brief, say what I think about this in a few words and move on.
The whole structure of writing is different in blogs. Most of them are more conversational in nature, more journal-like. Depending on the author, some are much more philosophical while others are merely thought provoking or entertaining.
In most cases the writing is well done, focused and coherent, but much less formal than publications in the past. I look forward to finding new and varied blogs in the future.
One of the key observations in this blog was about teaching readers of blogs, especially students, to be critical navigators of the information that is put out there. Unlike the journals of the past, many of these bloggers do not site research or back up their "opinions" with facts. This increases the need to have students investigate what they read for foundational evidence. Before I ramble on any further, I think I'll visit the Students 2.0 blog on "teaching brevity."
Okay, I get the gist. Be brief, say what I think about this in a few words and move on.
The whole structure of writing is different in blogs. Most of them are more conversational in nature, more journal-like. Depending on the author, some are much more philosophical while others are merely thought provoking or entertaining.
In most cases the writing is well done, focused and coherent, but much less formal than publications in the past. I look forward to finding new and varied blogs in the future.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thing #2--Thoughts About Web 2.0
My name is The Weak Geek and I no habla Geekese! I just read the first paragraph of “a day in the life of web 2.0,” and I’m working on accepting this new language as a challenge and not giving up or giving in to frustration. I was excited to read about the teacher, Ms. S, because what she is doing for her students is what I dream of doing with my 3-6 grade literacy class for MISD teachers; she’s created a blog with all the pertinent course information that also serves as a forum for discussion.
For the last few years I have been using the old school method of having teachers journal, turn them in to me (or really high tech, they could email them to me), and I responded to each individual teacher. That way we had just a two-person conversation. With the blog, everyone can read the thoughts and questions of the rest of the class and increase the learning by working as a community to process the information.
Other aspects I love about Ms. S’s blog is that students have an authentic purpose for writing and know that others besides a teacher will be reading what they have to say. That creates tremendous buy-in for the activity. It is such a natural way to stimulate higher order and critical thinking.
Back to that language problem! I'm not sure I'm dreaming of creating a blog or a wiki? I’ve had minor introductions to wikis, RSS, Twitter, etc. Just enough to say I have heard the terms. We always talk to kids about the various ways you can know a word. I’m at that bottom rung. I can pronounce them and have heard them. Some I know a little about, but I certainly hesitate to use them in conversation at this point because my understanding of them is minuscule. I think that will be changing rapidly!
As I continued to read this article, I had a sensation of reading the science fiction genre. But I know it’s real (somewhere)! I want to make it part of MISD! So come on! Teach this old dog some new tricks. Can you imagine opening up what we do in our classrooms to parents and other teachers the way that was revealed in the article. How fabulous!
Thing #1 Reflections on Lifelong Learning
I'm quite perplexed because things are going pretty well at this point! (I know, I know...there are 20 more tasks ahead of me! Plenty of time to bog down during this quest.) Already you should find it evident that the 4th Habit, "Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner (don't say it or think it unless you want it to be true)," will be my biggest hurdle. Is it fair to say that it's in direct correlation to Habit 3 which says you must view problems as challenges to learn from rather than crises? Problems eat time and time is of the essence this summer. Lots of projects in the works. But you all can help me if I call, right? The easiest habit may be to "play" with what we are learning. (Another time eater!) I've already watched some updated videos that showed up as a link to the ones we were assigned to watch. I've used the whiteboard, too. Without a doubt, keeping up with the goals I've set will be most important for me. I'm really going to have to manage my time well to get everything done, but I'm looking forward to more successes on the "things" to come!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
