EDC 524 technological tools

There were quite a few technological tools we used in this class that I was not previously familiar with. I have not used any of them in my classroom yet, but I hope to at least try out some in my classroom next year.

The first I would use is Google Docs. I would use it to have an ongoing discussion on particular topics we have been discussing in class. It is a great tool because students can add their thoughts at any time and they do not have to write a whole lot to participate.

The second I would use is Moodle forums. I think it is a good tool to have students organize their thoughts and put them down in writing. With this, students are also able to comment on each others' thoughts or pose questions for others to answer.

The third I would use is Voicethread. This is great for the verbal-linguistic students in the class. It is the perfect way for them to share their thoughts and ideas on various topics. I like this tool because it is different from the usual way of assessing students. Students are always expected to be able to show their understanding of something in writing. This is a good way to change things up and get a little variety in assessing students.

The fourth tool that I may or may not use is blogging. I do not think I will have students create their own blogs because I feel 6th graders may be too young to appropriately blog. (Feel free to tell me if you disagree!) I would use blogs in my classroom to post assignments and inform parents about important happenings within the classroom. I'm not sure if I would be able to keep up with it throughout the year though.

The final tool that we used is Skype. Skype is an awesome tool that I had heard about, but never used before this class. I am glad that I took this class and was able to experiment with it. I have since added friends and family and plan to use it frequently for personal reasons. I'm not sure that I would use it with students. I think it could be used to communicate with classrooms in other areas of the country or world. I would not give students access to it individually because I could see it getting out of control. They would have access to communicating with each other at inappropriate times. I guess trust and responsibility would have to be established first. On the other hand, I think that Skype would be a great way for educators around the state to communicate with each other. It is also a great way for teachers and administrators in the same school to communicate and conduct meetings Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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conferences. It could also be used to communicate with parents, who may be unable to come to school to have a meeting.

There are countless opportunities to use technology in the classroom everyday. I cannot wait to try some new things out for next year!

My Take on the Future of ML Education

I hate to say it, but I don't think the changes we would like to see at the middle level are going to happen any time soon. The people in control who can ultimately make the changes (school boards, state departments, national legislators, policymakers, etc) are not aware of the needs of schools. School administrators, teachers, students, and parents should have more say in the formation of standards and age-appropriate curricula. These people see and understand the ins and outs of a school, as well as the needs of the students, and should be the ones making the most important decisions about what goes on in the school. Until that happens, not much will change for the better.

With all the new laws and reforms (NCLB, Race to the Top, etc.) that are trying to improve schools, the opposite effect is happening. Schools are under too much pressure to make AYP that the welfare of the students is given a backseat. What is best for the students does not help the school meet the preset standards for these reforms. Even though schools may be making AYP, it doesn't prove that they are meeting the social, emotional, and moral development of the students, which is just as important. As a result, administrators, teachers, and students are becoming stressed out and overworked with all the additional tests and test preps needed to succeed. If students don't do well on these tests, schools are wrongly punished. Does this make things better? Absolutely not!

Curriculum should be interdisciplinary. Subjects should not be seen as separate factors, but connected within the curriculum, just as it is in the 'real world'. I like how Marion Brady described it as a jigsaw puzzle. "The more pieces fitted together, the more sense the puzzle makes" (Education Reform: An Ignored Problem and a Proposal). Each subject is a piece of the puzzle and bringing all subjects together completes the puzzle. It is not only about the subjects, but their relationships that explain reality.

In regards to my own school, it is like most other middle schools. It carries the middle school name, but only a few of the ideas from the middle school concept. We have teams with common planning times and exploratories (art, music, tech. ed., computers, health), but that's about it. We do not have an advisory program, a curriculum that meets the social, emotional, moral developmProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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t along with the cognitive development of the students, or full use of technology in each classroom. The disciplines are taught separately, with little use of outside resources or active learning opportunities outside of the school building. There is a lot the needs to be done in order to be considered a true middle school.

my responses...

I still have not figured out how to comment on others' blogs...for some reason when I post something it says there's an error. So here goes...

In response to "Outliers":
I have wanted to read that book for a while now...glad to hear that it would be worth buying. One thing interesting is that a longer school day is beneficial to student achievement. I find it hard getting the students to work a regular school day, without extended hours at the end of the day. I just wonder how that is beneficial...

In response to "Advisory":
There is no advisory program established in the middle school where I teach. I think it would be tremendously advantageous for students and teachers to have some sort of advisory program. It is important that students get a chance to talk with their teacher about things besides school work. It is equally important that teachers get a chance to get to know their students on a different level. This is one thing I plan on suggesting at my school for the coming year.

In response to "The Numbers Are In"
Wow! Those are amazing stats...congrats! Hopefully all schools are able to reach those same stats in the coming years. That proves that communicating with parents is a very important part of achieving student success.

-Sarah LaJoie

School Lunch

"Proper nutrition is the key to helping young adolescents reach their full developmental potential" (Coming of Age, pg. 123). If this is the case, why are school lunches not that nutritious? Schools have gone from feeding healthy, homemade meals, to feeding students out of a can and box. Though these meals may save time and money for the school, in the long run they are not saving anything as far as the health of the students goes. I realize that they try to give students the full servings for fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, etc., but what about the massive amounts of fat and carbohydrates that they feed them as well? When looking at a lunch menu for my school, I noticed that the amount of carbohydrates and fats served in one day is what would be appropriate for one week! I couldn't believe what I saw.

The most difficult thing to take in all this is that for some students, the school lunch is the most nutritious meal they have each day! Something needs to be done to make these meals truly nutritious! What can we do....

In response to this week's blogs...

I am unable to post comments on individual blogs, so instead my second blog for the week will be a combination of responses to blogs for the week. (If anyone can give me suggestions as to why I can do everything else but post comments to others' blogs please help me out! Thanks!)

In response to the blog "I Guess I'm Just Mean":

Wow, I can't believe that parents would actually complain about an assignment like that! It isn't that hard to read just one book over the summer, especially with the rainy days we get. If you were requiring them to read a certain book that you picked out that was not interesting to the students, I would understand a little more...I guess. That is very unfortunate!


In response to the blog "Mind-stretching work like this requires no textbook, no equipment, no larger budget":

$500 is a lot of money when our classroom budgets are so small to begin with! I also teach science and it is unfortunate when we are not given enough money to perform all the labs and experiments we would like to do if we had a better budget. I like your attitude about trying new things and making do with what you have. Good luck to you!


In response to "Another black slash against NCLB":

I also have never heard anything good said about NCLB since it was passed several years ago. Schools are struggling now more than ever and NCLB is making it worse for everyone involved. I am patiently waiting for the day, hopefully in the very near future, that they get rid of NCLB and come up with a much better way of improving our nation's public schools.


In response to "You're going to need a bigger boat":

'A teacher's work is never done...'

Some days I wish I could just leave school and not have to think about it until the next day when I walk in the building. Most jobs are like that, but definitely not teaching!

Team Teaching

I am writing this to get input from other middle level educators on the issue of team teaching. A few months ago, the administrators at my school met with all 6th grade teachers to discuss keeping teams of 2 or changing to a team of 4 for next year. The 7th and 8th grade in the school both are teams of 5, each teacher teaching one subject (2 teachers for ELA). Because of the decrease in population size, classes are getting smaller and we went from 5 teachers to 4 for the 6th grade. We went back and forth on the issue, 2 of us wanting to keep 2 separate teams, 2 wanting to change to one team of 4. This means that we would become more departmentalized. I was on the side of keeping 2 separate teams. My reasoning for that was that it is better for the kids to have just 2 teachers to get used to and learn expectations from. Also there is better opportunity to integrate curriculum if one teacher is teaching 2 or 3 of the subjects. Finally, it is much easier to create deep, meaningful relationships with the students in your class when you have them for more than one subject. In the end, we decided to keep it 2 separate teams for next year and revisit the same issue a year from now.

I'd like to know what team teaching looks like in other schools...
What are your thoughts on this issue??

happy to be teaching at the middle school

I find it very interesting that I am taking a course in educating young adolescents at the middle level. Six years ago, when I was starting my undergrad degree in Elementary Education, I visualized my ideal future classroom. That classroom held 20 third graders all eager to learn. Throughout the four years of my undergrad education, I told myself (and others that asked) that I would NEVER, ever, teach middle school students. I could remember my time in middle school and how much my classmates gave the teachers a hard time. I never wanted to be that teacher. I had a negative view of young adolescents and their 'need for attention' in whatever way they could get it. I wanted to be an elementary teacher, where the students still loved their teacher and respected them. I never thought I could get middle school students to respect me.
My first teaching position was as a French teacher in a middle school (grades 5-8). I was responsible for teaching the 5th and 6th grade French. When I took the position, I still had in the back of my mind that it would only be for a couple years, until I could find a 'better' position in the lower grades. The following year, which was this past year, I took a job at the same school as a 6th grade classroom teacher. Again, at the beginning of the year, I was still thinking it wasn't going to be a permanent position. Now, having finished that year, I LOVE my job. I have come to appreciate this age group. I am able to have fun with them, joke around, and still they respect me as an adult in their life. They can be very creative and keep me on my toes with the questions they ask. I truly enjoy the challenge that I once thought I could not handle.
I now believe that my calling is to teach at the middle level. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Frequently, in passing, people outside of the school make comments such as "I can't believe you teach at the middle school! How do you do it?" or "I would never be able to teach middle school students!". In reply I tell them, "I never thought I would teach at the middle level, but now that I do I love it. It truly isn't as bad as most people think!"
Does anyone else get these comments from people? If so, how do you handle it?

-Sarah