Focus the Nation

I found a link on the focus the nation page that sent me to a message board. I normally do not even bother reading them, because people who use them generally make outlandish claims, but I did find a section on coal mining and what has been done to reduce the use of coal. One person posting discussed how the US has shut down a lot of coal mines, since we do not need as much coal production. The interesting point brought up was, what happens to these people who used to mine coal? Where do they work, how do they get jobs. Today in America it is all about being "green" and "environmentally friendly" which I think is great, but as a nation if we choose to take these jobs away from workers we should at least help them out and get them new ones. It would be like if the US decided we did not need to educate children anymore since functioning school's contribute to global warming. I know for a fact that all the teachers in America would be in the same boat as these coal miners are. "Saving the world" sounds good and all but we need to be smart about it, and help those who inhabit it.

Three Things I learned about global warming

• By reducing the production of coal, the US has had to shut down many coal mines.
• By shutting down all of these coal mines, it has put many workers out of a job.
• There do not seem to be any guidelines the government follows to help out these unemployed workers. Thus global warming is detrimental to certain parts of the economy.

In math classes to raise awareness of "Global Warming" we could look at graphs of carbon dioxide emissions (and anyother "greenhouse gas"), for as far back as possible and study trends in it and analyze the data to see how much we are affecting the world today. We could certainly do a project on this or even a WebQuest if it can be related directly to the curriculum at hand. Perhaps a math and a science teacher can team up and learn about ice cores and other means of collecting emission data, and help the students to make conclusions and conjectures on this topic. I think it is important for students to see the scientific background regarding "global warming" instead of just learning and reading about what is written in the news and on television.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

"Whether or not we chose to utilize school has to offer is something that should be discussed between student and teacher -- not parents, students and teachers" ~ Mika (page 56)

This excerpt deals with the topic of when are appropriate times for a teacher to call a student's home. They talk about how teachers should work directly with students on behavioral issues opposed to just kicking kids out of class and getting administrators involved and/or teachers. Also these student conflicts at school can be a result of what is going on at home, either they have physical problems at home or the lack of an at home life causes them to act out in school.

Now, to get back to the quote at the top, I think parents have every right to have a say in what students are to get out of school, unless it is detrimental to the student. For example, if a student wants to drop out and they are still under their parent’s guardianship then their parents should have a say in what they do. On the other hand, if student’s parents have no will to allow their kids to get a good education, like they may need their child to work the family farm to keep it going, then a third party contributor should step in and not allow this to happen. We need to educate our children in America because without an educated society we will never move forward in anything, we will either stay neutral or fall backwards.

Web 2.0 Educator

I picked Peggy Sheehy. She is an 8th grade science teacher at Suffern Middle School. Her blog URL is http://rampoislands.blogspot.com/. She seems to specialize in getting students accustomed to virtual life and simulations, she has been using this program for I think three years now (as of 2008). She uses the simulation to get students engaged in what she wishes to teach them and pretty much lets the kids do the learning. I think that this is a very interesting piece of technology used in a classroom. I would like to learn more about this and just how exactly it can be utilized in educating students. The health teacher part seemed like a good idea, to give the students a chance to see what their bodies look like, and then what they could look like if they changed their body build. I do not think that using an AOL type communicator is beneficial for the students. All I think it does is kill their grammar and spelling. Also I think the secrecy aspect of this game is great, I think students would be able to be more of themselves if all the other students did not know who each other’s characters are.

Summary of the Blog entries:

9-19-2007- The writer talks about how the health teacher, Ms. Whiting, at his school uses “Second Life.” She uses the portion of the game that gives students a visual of body image. It allows the students to tinker and change around what the body image looks like for you in the virtual world. There aren’t really any specific details about what she actually does.

9-22-2007-This day the students learned how to use and log in to a virtual avatar called Second Life. It is a program where the students can interact with one another. The students must come up with “virtual” names that they will use for their avatar, and the only other people who know which student belongs to which name is the teacher. One student on the first day, thought this program was boring and hated it when they could not log on correctly. The next day the students were able to sign in and the one student who did not like it, was one of the most enthusiastic students in the classroom. He had spent the night before learning how to use it.

9-24-2007- The writer discusses how the students work hard at using “Second Life”. The students can build tools and other constructions in the virtual world, and a lot of the students log in from their homes. He thinks that this may be caused from his classes watching last years eighth graders use the program and fell in love with it. The goal is to have only “virtual” communication among students.

9-26-2007- This blog shows how students can log in from at home and still be able to attend class. Apparently all students have to do for this class is use “Second Life” and follow the goals and instructions from the teacher. The students communicate much like AOL instant messenger. However their spelling is less than par.

Type I and Type II Technology

Definitions of Type I and Type II technologies.

Type I: These are when types of technology are used to save time, energy and ease in the teacher/learner process.

Type II: These are when types of technologies are used to have the learner learn through the technology as opposed to just aiding in the process of learning.

Examples of Type I and Type II technologies.

Type I: 1) When teachers use overhead projectors to display the same information that they could have just written it on the chalkboard. 2) Using spreadsheets to calculate grades automatically allows teachers to spend more of their energy lesson plans/preparation. 3) Using the Internet to make Web postings for homework allows us to save on paper and helps keep the students work organized and accessible.

Type II: 1) Having laptops in the classrooms allow teachers to change everything they do from electronic assignments to visuals for topics being taught. 2) In math classes if all the students were to have a graphing calculator that plugged into their computer, then this would cause all math teachers to have to teach the skills needed to use and operate this device for class material. Also this technology would be very beneficial in helping the students learn with graphic visuals and reliable ways to check their answers on their own. 3) The use of a SmartBoard in a classroom can change the teaching style of a teacher. The SmartBoards have educational games stored on them and can be integrated into a lesson to help students learn the material better. A teacher could also store assignments and other important notes on the Smart board.


Reference: "Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning", Maddux and Jonson.

My MEL experience

• Student/teacher relationship: I have had good relationships with teachers who show a sense of humor and show that they are not always nagging students about schoolwork. Teachers I have struggled in classes with, tend to not have a sense of humor and assign a lot of work.
• Hands-On: I am always interested in seeing how things function and work. I am not sure how much knowledge I gain from doing such tasks. Science classes I never really enjoyed because a lot of the work was hands-on in a lab.
• Learning Styles: I have not had many classes where the teacher seemed to by trying to integrate different learning styles into their lesson plan. I have had classes where the teacher stands at the front and lectures the entire time.
• Autonomy: When doing certain group projects I have enjoyed having the opportunities to brainstorm ideas and create the topic in which we will do our project on.
• Connections: It is always beneficial for me in my math classes when teachers connect different ideas and topics that we learned from other classes. Even hearing names of mathematicians who have worked in the math being studied, helps me make stronger connections in my head with the material.
• Interest: When having a teacher relate material to any of my interests always makes it easier to listen and learn. I always enjoyed teachers who used examples with sports that related to material learned in class.

MEL Webquest

Step 1.

1. All of the information seems plausible. It makes sense that to enhance a student's learning a viable way would be to have them use more parts of their brain than just the “standard” parts we’ve been accustomed using to learn with.Survey Results


Brief Posting: I think this test was a pretty good judge at determining what my learning styles are. A few of the questions though I did not feel I could accurately answer, with the 0, 1 or 2 rating. Some questions I only fit half of the description but wasn’t really able to justify giving it a 0 or 1. However I think in the end my results were accurate. I strongly agree that I am a logical thinker and can learn both visually and auditory.

5. I would choose to target the visual learning style for this website design. Given that we are to make a website it only makes sense to enhance the visual concepts of the site to make it most appealing to the audience. We are to show off new techniques of the MEL and I do not think targeting a kinesthetic or aural learning style would be most beneficial to a website.

Step 2

I would choose to use the Comic Life product. It would be a good way to create a visual to depict what I’ll need to have on my website.

Step 3

See Entry Form

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust and Fairness “It feels like we are being punished when the teacher doesn’t know the subject well enough to help stud

“It feels like we are being punished when the teacher doesn’t know the subject well enough to help students…” ~ Andres (page 25)

This excerpt comes from the section of the chapter where the subject is discussing that teachers should know their subjects they teach. This part goes right along with what has previously been said in the chapter. In order to gain respect from students a teacher should show a mastery of the subject to show the students that they are dedicated to teaching.

This excerpt by Andres hit the nail on the head for me. When I was in high school I had numerous math teachers who did not have the material understood well enough to teach it. My calculus teacher, had never taught in a school before, he used to be an engineer designing roofs for houses. His inability to understand the material made it painful to sit there in class, it was much like a punishment to us (the class). Thus I thought this problem was a good one to note because I remember going encountering this vividly in my earlier schooling experience.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

“If they see drug dealers, they’ll think that’s why you’re so dumb. My street is so nasty, and its hard to walk by. You can see the needles.” ~ Veronica (page 7).

This excerpt of the book is in the first chapter in the section talking about “teacher tours”. This is when teachers can go on a tour of a student's neighborhood, (students in the back seat and two teachers in the front). This gives teachers an opportunity to see where their students live and how their surroundings are, good or bad. Students are encouraged to point out places of interest in their neighborhood.

This part of the chapter really stuck out to me. I thought it was a real good idea to have teachers go on tours of their children’s neighborhoods, especially when the teacher is not from their student’s surroundings. The quote I chose to use at the top by Veronica, really stood out to me because I cannot even fathom what it is like to see this, let alone grow up in an area like this. If this is where some children live and grow up then I have a lot to learn about the “real world” outside of the communities I have lived in.