The Final Blog Post

As a current high school educator, I can’t possibly be more excited/nervous for the changing in the landscape of education.  I've heard a particular joke at conferences more than once.  The joke involves a “Back to the Future”-type scenario where a man is catapulted from the 1950s into the future.  Obviously, I can’t tell the joke verbatim but the punch-line involves the man from the past finding refuge in the local school because that’s the only thing that hasn't changed.    The premise of the joke suggests that in an ever-changing world, our school systems have remained unbothered.  Well, it looks as though that is not going to be the case for very much longer.

I’m not quite sure that all schools are going to be able to handle the changes, but after reading the documents on Michigan Online Learning and Section 21F, it appears that the state is giving schools a heads-up and allowing them time to grow with this adjustment.  These changes will most definitely not occur rapidly across the board.  I’m sure the districts with the most money and support will hit the ground running and the lower-income schools will take more of a crawl-walk-run approach to the inevitable change.  Nonetheless, the change will be for the better.  Districts have to worry about many issues at this point, but training and preparing their staff should be a MUST at this point.  So far, my colleagues and I haven’t gotten any “official” word for what’s on deck for the future.

I've had to do my own investigating these past few years by pestering my administration with questions about the future of our school.  Per usual, I got a lot of beating around the bush, but I have heard buzzwords like blended learning, virtual study, etc.  More recently I sat down with my principal to pick his brain about the upcoming years.  He alluded to more concrete change in our talk.  Essentially, we will be implementing a blended format.  The school week would consist of 4 days.  Fridays would only be for students that require various intervention.  This would open up that weekday for upperclassmen to do a variety of things that include but are not limited to independent study, dual-enrollment, and co-op programs.   Clearly, we aren’t ready yet.  However, with the necessary infrastructure updates and teacher/stakeholder buy-in, this change will be beneficial to the students we teach and I am eager to welcome this transformation of our schools. 

Week 12 Discussion ( Part 2)

I cannot say that I have been completely on top of the developments in online education over the past few years, but I am definitely not in the dark about it.  Per my discussions with my own administration, I have become privy to how the landscape in changing and how it will affect me.  A few years back, my assistant principal informed me about the emergence of blended learning and just recently my principal and I had a brief discussion on how the online component will affect our weekly schedule.  Still, there is A LOT of specifics that I need to be on board with before I welcome the change that is certain to come.

As for the myths of online education, I knew that pretty much all of them were false.  I actually laughed out loud at the notion that “online teachers have easy jobs”.  The amount of prep work involved in teaching an online course scares me!  I found the “Q and A” portion of the Summer 2006 edition of Converge very compelling since it was almost 8 years old and the first question posed asked how schools would look in 10-20 years.  A lot of the responses are coming to fruition, especially in my school.  We appear to be implementing a blended format, with Fridays at school being optional or mandatory for struggling/apathetic students.  I like this idea especially because seniors in high school waste a lot of their time during that 8^th semester.  If they had an online component to learn at their own pace, they would have more time for other things like cooperative jobs and career building opportunities.

From the readings, the biggest thing that surprised me was the availability in regard to online instruction in the state-by-state breakdown from the 2011 edition of “Keeping the Pace”.  The numbers were surprising to me because those were the ratings 2 school years ago and they were higher than I’d thought that they would be today.  All in all, it is a super exciting and super stressful time to be an educator.

Week 12 Discussion (Part 1)

Outside of the information I read about for our wiki project, I have a very baseline understanding of online learning in Michigan.  Being a teacher at a private school, we offer both college preparatory and advanced placement courses.  In addition, we are currently in the process of becoming an International Baccalaureate school and are set to offer that curriculum in the 2015-2016 school year.  Essentially, our student body have plenty of options to choose from.  Subsequently, some students are taking online courses over the summer if they receive failing marks, but those students are few and far between at my school.  However, I know a lot of students in the public districts are opting to supplement their education with courses on Michigan Virtual Schools.  These courses are self-paced and are more flexible for students in regard to scheduling.  Now, I don't personally know of anyone in the K-12 ages that are currently taking this route, but from my limited research, this appears to be the direction of education.  Also, I know that virtual courses are designed for all levels of students, including advanced placement.  Other than that, I've heard a lot of speculation in regard to the future of K-12 online education in Michigan, but nothing concrete.

Week 7 - Post #2

The internet and all of its subsidiaries continue to make my life easier and easier by the minute.  The accessibility to information has always been my main reason for using the internet.  Having that said, there is a lot of information out there that can be extraneous and must be cross-referenced with other sources.  That’s how I feel about the internet as a whole, especially Wikipedia and YouTube.  However, I use both tools on a regular basis, mainly because of their popularity and convenience.  I need information quickly, so I thought it was neat when I read the “Teaching and Learning Online with Wikis” article and saw that wiki was a Hawaiian word meaning quick.

My feelings in regard to using Wikipedia and YouTube as references may be different than that of other teachers.  I urge my students to use both tools as networking instruments.  They can think off Wikipedia as a forum of facts, ideas and opinions from people all over the globe.  Now these facts should be cross-referenced if you are going to use them in a paper.  In other words, I have no problem with my students using Wikipedia, so long as that is not their only source of information.  Furthermore, Wikipedia provides an extensive list of references, further reading, and external links to advance your research.  To put it another way, if you are just using Wikipedia for a paper, you aren’t being very thorough.   

Week 7 - Post #1

As I began this blog assignment, I figured that it would be an easy 15-minute task that I would go through just to receive credit.  That was not the case.  I spent well over 2 hours perusing through blogs, websites, and twitter pages.  I was pleasantly surprised by what I found and excited to put it to use and share with colleagues and family.  Here is what I found:

1) http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/stem-education

I chose to feature this blog mainly because it pertains to STEM, which is an acronym for the concentration areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  The blog contains solid information on the present and future of the 4 subjects and is particularly of use to me because I teach the upperclassmen at my school and they are constantly asking questions and seeking opinions on those fields.

2)  http://blog.mrmeyer.com/ and @ddmeyer

I saw Dan Myer speak at a math conference last year and he was really impressive.  His blog contains a bevy of resources and ideas to use in the mathematics classroom.  His presentation dealt with perplexing students with math and I collected resources that he shares with us a year ago.  He has great ideas and thoughts on the future of education stating that he wants to help “move from education's print past to its digital future”.  I kind of killed two birds here because I also followed him on Twitter.

3) http://www.edutopia.org/blogs/beat/game-based-learning and @edutopia

Two birds again!  I started following Edutopia on Twitter and immediately did some digging.  My initial thought: What an awesome resource!  I literally spent an hour reading through the “Games-Based Learning” blog.  My students are constantly complaining about how learning math and science isn’t any fun.  Well, this blog offers up the ideas and techniques for all subjects, not just math and science.

4) http://www.edutopia.org/blogs/beat/brain-based-learning

This is another blog that caught my interest after I started following Edutopia.  The blog is not just for teachers, but rather all stakeholders in education.  I got held up on the entry entitled “Student Responses to Common Core Instruction and Assessment” because of my interest on the topic, but anyone can get stuck at this blog for hours.  Another great resource!

5) @aimsed

This organization caught my attention because they were tweeting about teacher frustration with developing math activities aligned to the common core.  They should be a good follow and offer loads of help in regard to the understanding of math and science.

6) @AlgberaFact

I must start looking for resources like this on Twitter so I can disseminate this to my students because Twitter dominates their lives!

 

7) @WeAreTeachers

A good follow for educators due to the innovative ideas and professional resources.  I also surfed their website for a bit which is very similar to Edutopia.  There is  a community menu on the site that will lead you to their blog (http://www.weareteachers.com/community/blogs/weareteachersblog)

All in all, I just scraped the surface of what is out there.  Honestly, besides setting up my RSS reader, I haven’t done much with these tools until now.  I created a Twitter account about a year ago to research it as a resource to communicate with students, but lost interest in that endeavor.  There has been some trepidation associated with Twitter, but I am appearing to overcome it.  As previously stated, my students are fluent in Twitter-talk and I want to do my best to become more familiar with the platform so that I can put it to use in the near future.

Week 4 Post - IT6230

Currently, I am teaching 11^th grade mathematics at De La Salle Collegiate High School in Warren, MI.  The courses that I instruct are both Algebra II based, but one is a college prep and the other is an honors level.  In my initial research of Web 2.0 tools and the SAMR Model, I overwhelmed myself with ideas.  I have also been bouncing thoughts off of colleagues, so I hope that this week’s blog isn’t to scatter-brained.

Through researching the SAMR, I differentiated between the SA and MR phases by thinking of them as categories.  The S and A levels are part of the enhancement category and the M and the R levels are part of the transformation category.  I find that right now, I can use the substitution level of the model.  In this level, there is no functional change to my instruction.  Our school went Google a couple years ago, so I can create a class website using Google Sites.  My website will be very beneficial to my students, especially if they miss class.  All the classwork will be posted on the calendar and the students will have access to an online file-cabinet that has worksheets and handouts available for download.

The augmentation level is similar to the substitution level, but the technological substitute offers functional improvement.  An idea that I had for this level was using Google Forms to create shared documents or spreadsheets with my students.  The documents can contain something as simple as a writing prompt that every student must respond to.  This will allow me to check for understanding quickly and receive/give prompt feedback.

The modification level involves considerable task re-design.  This level and redefinition are really occupying my thoughts of late, as I have many ideas flowing.  For the modification level, I can use Google Chrome books (we have a few class sets) in a cooperative in-class project.  The students can work collaboratively on sophisticated math problems.  Then, instead of using the traditional paper and pencil, the can create step-by-step solution manuals using slides/video applications.  As a segue to the redefinition level, the same cooperative style approach can be used to assist the students in creating learning portfolios (using a book creator app) or a series of instructional videos (using something like Educreations).  All in all, the brainstorming has begun and hopefully it will result in my students achieving more in the classroom. 

Week 2 Post - IT6230

I have been utterly confused by what generation I belong to since I was aware of the classifications.  Being born in 1981, it’s safe to say that I was at least at cusp of the transition between Generation X and the Millennials.  That must make me a hybrid between the two, so I will not represent either in this blog.  Additionally, I will not try to act like I am privy to what’s going on inside the heads of these brand-new Generation Edgers.  Throughout my teaching career, I have only instructed the Gen-Edgers.  Although, the assigned videos were very well produced and entertaining, the nature in which the young adults and kids were portrayed was a little hyperbolic.  The exaggeration that this generation of kids are highly narcissistic and apathetic to "traditional" learning is completely asinine.  Social media and media in general may paint that picture for us adults, but I vividly remember being a teen in the 90s and hearing similar things said about my peers and me. 

Don’t get me wrong, some days I leave my high school a little rattled from being surrounded by teenage/young-adult angst, but I’m certain that the consensus among teachers hasn’t changed much over time.  The two articles by Prensky and McKenzie offered two distinct views.  Actually, McKenzie disses Prensky all throughout his article, but I thoroughly enjoyed what both authors had to say.  I perceived that Prensky was going for a more satirist theme, and McKenzie wasn’t having any of that.  However, the overarching idea of both articles deal with change in the classroom and how teachers should respond to it.  Prensky describes us as “immigrants” with thick “accents” that our students can’t decipher.  Although his views made me chuckle throughout, I don’t necessarily subscribe to them.

What I do subscribe to is that teaching and learning is a two-way street, and it has never been more obvious to me.  Today’s students in 2014 require different pedagogy than those students did 10-20 years ago.  However, re-inventing the proverbial wheel isn’t necessary.  Teachers aren’t as stubborn as they are made out to be.  I haven’t meet many teachers in my near decade of teaching that aren’t willing to integrate technology into their curriculum.  I have been to numerous conferences that offer a plethora of different strategies and ideas to reach these new learners.  Furthermore, the transition in technology offers the opportunity for educators to learn from their students.  I know that at least 25% of my tech-savviness can be attributed to my high school students giving me a hand with various new technologies.  All in all, these videos, readings, and all other forms of media should serve their purpose as motivation to educators in regard to keeping their instruction as modern as possible without losing focus of their educational roots.  Students today can receive the best of both worlds, and it’s up to the educators to facilitate that.