Tell Tale

Growing up who really ever thought so much went into teaching? Outsiders looking in see the profession and say "alright, enjoy your vacations". Everything looks better from the outside. Most teachers I had, the younger ones, still had to work every summer to keep their head afloat (student loans, not looking forward to repaying those). In my high school as I spent my years there you could see a major turnover in the old to young ratio. More younger teachers were flooding the hallway in an effort to revamp the school as a whole.

Actually most older teachers were ousted from the profession altogether to make room for the younger teachers. Experienced teachers were loaded with hefty benefit and retirement packages to pave the way for the fresh crop. The deals were apparently too good not to go for so this was the case. The district just felt that their lessons and methods were dated and the school being as large as it was and the reputation it had was getting an influx of applications. As I noticed more experienced teachers leaving and the younger ones emerging I also noticed something brewing from that middle hierarchy.

Teachers who were once heavy advocates of reading textbooks and writing massive papers were all of the sudden bringing the class down to the library to get associated with a computer lesson and later on I don't think I had one class that didn't meet at least a couple of times in the library. Technology, as corny as it sounds, seemed to form the generation gap between teachers, nobody was really that much further ahead of another they all seemed to feed off one another to keep themselves surviving the struggle of a younger workplace.

Call me "old school" but I'm a laid back guy. I don't mind the thought of staying in one district for as long as I can. I understand the trials that can arise but if I could have it my way that's what I would do. I understand now that it is not at easy as it seems. You have to stay up to date. you have to learn just as your students do and survive the workplace struggle. Then again maybe I can get a nice retirement package!

Just a thought

As I sat here studying for a spanish quiz and thinking of all the work I had to get done I just thought for one second. There is all this talk flourishing throughout our class of a paperless classroom and a reinvention of the education practice. I just thought about what is the point of a paperless classroom? What is to stop a paperless classroom from creating nothing but online courses? Sure you can bring in the disciplinary actions, but with the evolution of podcasts brewing what is to stop simultaneous live podcasts from occurring? That could be way ahead of time, but I just really don't see a paperless classroom really taking off anytime too soon. Yes, at one point it may happen, but I am skepical of it's timeframe being upon us so soon. Just a thought, nothing really more.

If the World is Flat All I Have to do is Fold a Map to Travel

Textbooks are textbooks right? That's exactly what I thought. However, as it turns out I was nothing but terribly wrong about our Friedman book. As I traveled down to Florida for Spring Break to hang with my cousin I was overwhelmed by the amount of sightings and recommendations I saw of The World Is Flat. It was pretty much in every airport newstand with a huge display, but I didn't really think too much of it. Then upon arriving in Florida it was the talk of the town. Here I was trying to escape classes and school for a solid week only to be dragged down by these reminders.

I do like the book even though it is a bit dense with everything being broken down to simpler matters, but I think that is what people need. With the onset of technology every place we look those who are not savvy on the issue need a supposed guide to this new world. This book has answers and explanations that we maybe could not find elsewhere. This is pretty ironic if you think about it that it is in a text and not a web based source if you think about it. As I flew south and spoke with my uncle for a few minutes to catch up this book came up. He absolutely loved it and got my aunt into too (who doesn't really dig reading books to begin with). I just read the book, kind of liked it just read it for the sake of purpose, but after speaking about it I realized it really is everywhere you go from the explanation of Southwest's online boarding passes to perfect English speaking employees in India taking service calls.

You Have Killed All the Buffalo for the Season

I am on the fence about videogames in school settings. I never really felt Oregon Trail really served a purpose as a learning tool I thought it was more of a reward than anything else. With all the technological advances schools are receiving I am fearing more and more about being overly intrusive in a student's life. I think there should be a division between work and play and I wonder about the effects of intergrating so many elements from a student's personal and social life into a school setting.

On the other side of the argument maybe such integration will help students with their social skills making the educational environment more humble. Videogames, however, I just don't really see much educational value in them. I think entertainment will always outweigh education in a school setting because most students become bored with scholastics in a school setting. So how much will they actually retain from playing a videogame. I feel students will get more caught up in the entertainment value and forfeit anything educational that you can learn. Of course there will be some who will realize the value of what they are doing and I'm sure most will enjoy something they can relate to in order to make learning more fun and easier.

The Imagination

Last week at the conference there were some interesting presentations. One of which was on Teaching Through Drama. The idea always kind of interested me. In a shakespeare class I took last semester we were required to act out a scene from a chosen work and it went alright, pretty laid back, but it served it's purpose and the teacher really enjoyed it. However, what I learned through this seminar was to engage imagination even more so. Instead of acting out the work students would set up a scene in a freeze frame type of way. Then the rest of the class would close their eyes as the students set up the next scene and they opened their eyes when the others were ready. It was quite interesting because the students performing have to choose the best way to represent the scene without dialogue and with just a narrator. It gives the students a chance to both express themselves physically and others vocally while engaging their imaginations to be put on the spot. They were only granted about 5 minutes to prepare which really caused the groups to focus right away and get everything together. I thought it really was a great exercise.

The Power of Podcasts

An Interesting Thought

Music and college scholarships, how could I not look?