Day 15

I missed day 14 but managed to get caught up on a webquest and storify.

Today we were learning how to integrate the iPad and Apple TV into our classrooms.  Not sure if this will help my situation with us getting Mac Books next year.  My kids will have them as well.  Of course, I suppose that's kind of a beautiful problem to have seeing as how this time last year my new technology amounted to a new textbook. 

We also hit Prezi really hard and I ended up making one.  I think I will like using it.  It seems more user friendly than Powerpoint. 

Cut some glass in art class today.  Very nervous-making. 

This is what my pieces look like before they are put in a really hot kiln.  Really anxious to see how it turns out.  I do not excel at glass-cutting.

The Dreaded 13.

Triskaidekaphobia is a real thing.  I do not have this condition (fear of the number 13).  In contrast, I embrace and celebrate this dreaded number.  There are enough legitimate things in the world to be afraid of, why waste time with something that has only the power you give it?

So, on to the topic at hand:

What did I learn today?

-I learned that I can use baseball cards (of which I have plenty) to teach literacy.

-I learned that the possibilities for crossover between me and language arts are endless.

-I learned that my art project is evolving into something I am quite happy with.

-I learned that I can scoop articles and build a nice portfolio of web resources using scoop.it

-I learned that canvas is something useable IF I can get approval to get my kiddos a google account.  If not, I always have coursesites.

-I am not as terrified today of teaching in the fall as I was yesterday, but that is subject to change.

-Maybe I am over-thinking the whole formative assessment thing.  Perhaps it is simply a matter of establishing a baseline.  I think going down to 7th grade will make that process more fluid.  My last bunch of 7th graders required a lot of baseline support as I recall....and there are numerous similarities between this group and those.  Of course, I was in a much darker and confused place then as opposed to now.  Far too much brain fog and belief in my own invincibility in those days. 

-I learned that the arguments that people put forth against common core is probably some of the best evidence out there for EXACTLY why we need common core.

Day 12

Lots going on today.  Heard a presentation from the Federal Reserve.  Very entertaining and informative about how to integrate economics into class instruction.

Began working on lesson planning.  Lots of work involved...more so than I usually do, but that's another story. I am planning a lesson for the first few weeks. In its genesis and i'm already nervous about it.

I am in a different place now and I want to stay there.  But I am afraid that once I go back, i'll fall back into familiarity.

I don't want to be that teacher anymore.

Art project is coming along nicely.. here's an update.

Finished out the day talking via Google hangouts to Professor Chin Chi Chao of Taiwan.  It was pretty mind blowing to be communicating instantaneously with someone via video on the other side of the world.

Day 11

Went over MStar and began lesson planning today. Gonna kill two birds with one stone and get my first lesson planned for 14-15 school year. I can adapt to MStar sufficiently, but I fear that we may have opened the door to corruption by using it to introduce merit pay. If it is just tied to MStar, it's not as problematic as tying it to test scores...I don't know what the answer is.

We also talked about how to address the issue of district "No device" policies. How can we introduce tech into the classroom if the latest tech (from several years ago) is not allowed in class? Classic case of the law lagging behind society.

Updated the website, that's going to be a nice portfolio once we finish it. Read a great article at the Baltimore Sun today about Common Core: http://goo.gl/yIsLfJ

Check it out! I just used google url shortener!
 

Day 10

Today we exploded all over the internet. We had training in Twitter, Google Drive, Aurasma, QR Code creators, Google+, and a host of other blogs, screen recorders, video makers and things to make our lives easier and our instruction more 21st century. Here's the problem though... The rules are behind the technology. When schools have a strict "no device-if you see it, write it up" policy, what are you to do? Suppose we could start with a "do what you can where you can" idea.... Use the lab more, put more things online and in app form so the kids can access it outside of school. It is a lot to process and will require a bit of salesmanship on my part where administration is concerned.

Day 9

21st Century Skills! Very similar to the "coachability" thing I have preached for 7 years. It is basically the whole "are they good team players? Do they take directions? Do they take critique? Can they work with others?" A lot of kids don't have these skills anymore and have to be taught. LaShonda and I had a great idea for a service-learning activity to help her kids with the pre-consolidation process next year. I think one at my school would focus more on the transition from elementary to jr high. Of course, if the whispers of consolidation with West Lowndes are to be believed, who knows? Mr. Joblin's brochures activity was top notch. I am definitely going to use that one next year.

Day 8: Economics and Service Learning

Day 8 found us at Lloyd-Ricks-Watson for a session on economics and service learning. The session on economics was very useful and touched on many key points that I frequently hit on throughout the year (what economics is, what it isn't, how understanding it can help us make better individual and collective decisions). There were two separate session on service learning. One face to face and one via teleconference. The first dealt with a project here at MSU that takes students to the Delta. The other one, at USM, has middle school kids going to nursing homes to learn about senior fraud, which robs people of about $3 billion a year....mostly through relatives and caregivers. The main difference between service learning and community service is that service learning is far more in-depth about causes and effects and solutions, where community service is a one-time deal. There was also a session on the extension service's personal finance programs for middle and high schools. Two points of note: During the personal finance discussion, things got a little interesting when discussion generational poverty and the reality facing people living in poverty. It is one thing to teach a skill set when it comes to dealing with money, it is another matter entirely when you have a whole lattice work of perception based on social class. How do you tell a kid in poverty to abandon his family and give up his relationships to "better himself"? "How," he might ask, "is making myself lonely 'bettering' me?" Things also got interesting when our morning facilitator brought up belief and how it impedes positive change here in Mississippi (but you could extrapolate it out to pretty much the whole South). How do you teach people about science and politics when "their pastor" is who many of them trust to basically think for them about such matters? It just about got real...and then it vanished with a poof.