Web 2.0 Educator

The Web 2.0 Educator I choose is Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis. First I choose her for her awesome name but then as I read through some of her blogs I found her to be so intelligent and funny! I love the lay out of her blog and I can not believe how many adds she has! Go her! She post poems and quotes and funny but knowledgeable things, and seems to be a huge advocate for technology in the classroom and a Mac lover like myself. I think that I will enjoy her blog a lot!

Type I and Type II Technology

While reading the Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning by Cleborne D. Maddux and D. LaMont Johnson I was able to understand their terms greatly. In my own words I would consider Type I to be the misuse of technology in the classroom, mainly because the teacher is unsure or unwilling to learn how to use the technology. Because of this students are at the disadvantage. Examples of this would be not having an available computer in the classroom, not teaching computer skills as a class in elementary school because the sooner you become comfortable with technology the easier it will be in the future and the last example of Type I would be not upgrading the technology in schools. I understand that it is a major expense but it will eventually pay off, students will be able to use faster internet for better research, better programs for their projects and new techniques that could be used in the future work field. It will engage much more of the student population. Type II is a lot more familiar to me and my generation. I consider Type II to be using new programs and new technology on a daily bases, teachers teaching students new thing and students teaching teachers! Type II is having the world wide web at out fingertips, much like it is now. I was never in a school that did not have multiple computers in each room for all students use. We had a MAC lab in elementary - high school and our high school refurbished old air box computers, gutted it out and put new hard drives and MAC programs on all of them. We had a computer for over half the population of the school! That is a ton of computers! We were on the cutting edge of technology, being a school about ten years old. We had a great facility and teachers that kept up with technology. My example classes were Video Production where we made movies ALL the time, and I was anchor for the school news that we filmed and edited daily to show over the TVs in each classroom. I also took a desktop publishing class, that may sound boring but we did projects on almost every program that was offered on the computers. Other teachers and people in the community would have us putting their news out and we were getting graded on it! The last class that is a great example of Type II was Web Design. So many people took this class and were making their own webpages for school news, sports updates and homework that teachers wanted put on the web. This class alone sent 14 kids to NESCOM (New England School of Communications) in Bangor in just my senior year! I think that integrating technology has to be done for every student and we see this in our classes this year with blogging our homework! There should not be a future school that does not offer the highest technology that they can afford!!

My MEL experiences

• Student /Teacher relationships: The best example I have for a great student and teacher relationship is from my 7th & 8th great english teacher, Ms. Henry. She was great in trying to get to know all of her students individually and making her room a comfort zone. I can not remember a time when she was not positive with any student. She understood the drama that is middle school and established a great life line for students to talk to her when they were feeling down or confused. Another great trait of hers was having a sense of humor and making all of our projects FUN! She was always starting new clubs and getting people involved with each other that may not have done so on their own.
• Helping Students Succeed: The figure states that having high expectations will help students succeed and i could not agree more. My high school history teacher Mrs. Luce always pushed us and set the standards high. This was not because she thought that we would all fail but she wanted us to work hard, learn and feel good about ourselves when all is said and done. Another great example is from my Algebra 2 teacher Mr. Langivine was always trying to keep my spirits up with math. I am not a great math student, and have a hard time learning by coping notes so he would meet with me one-on-one. I would get discouraged but he would constantly tell me that having a good attitude can only help my and my learning.
• Hands-On: Doing hands-on activities is a great way for many students to learn as I read in the article, it is more engaging and exciting for students. I had a lot of opportunities for hands on learning when I was in high school. This occurred a lot in my chemistry class with Ms. Merril (LOL). Due to the nature of the subject it is important to have many activities so that we can see with our own eyes how science is working. What she did above and beyond was having us changing lab partners for each activity and having extra credit things to do at home to make students understand even more!
• Learning Styles: This was something that we covered in great detail in Dr. Grace's class today. This is such a strong aspect that needs to be known in all classrooms but the sad part is that it was not practiced much in my high school. Just giving out standardized tests over and over again shows nothing and students gain almost nothing. This happened a lot in my middle school years. I am not a strong test taker but I know from my best friend that this was an awful approach to education. She is extremely smart but when it comes to tests she becomes fearful. Her mind goes blank and she forgets what she had studied the night before!
• Connections: This is very important! I believe that if teachers can connect what they are teaching to something in their lives that has happened it is going to take away the excuse "when will I ever use this in my life" that seems to come from many students (including myself!) Fortunately I just had an example of great connections during Dr. Grace's class. She is able to recall times in her career and schooling that puts a real life situation to everything that we are learning.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

On page 22 in chapter 2 the part that jumped out at me was "If teachers don't like students, the students can also tell, and it affects their learning". It is going to be difficult for a teacher to like all the students that they have in their classes, but a teacher is in the wrong for letting that show in front of other students or through grades. One example in the book is "My friend said one little thing, and now that's the end of her. The teacher wrote her off, so she has a 65 now and I have a 90 and we have done nothing different"(22).

I have seen this a lot in my high school. There were many teachers that had children going to the same school and if their kids did not like someone or if it was a past boyfriend or girlfriend it would reflect in their grades. I am embarrassed for these teachers and the unprofessional approach they took to teaching. This is going to greatly impact my teaching because I will always try to remember that students are KIDS and do not always make the right choices but they should not be punished on their homework or class participation if it does not involve that. Teachers are teaching high school not attending it!

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

The part of this chapter that JUMPED out at me was the "Who are you? A Questionnaire for Students on the First Day of School" starting on page 9. The author is focusing on the confidentiality that needs to happen between students and teachers, unless a student is going to harm themselves or others. Showing the questionnaire as it would look for students is a great tool that we can all use in the future! By having this information the teacher is able to deal with different situations with out involving more people then need be.

The reason that I chose this part of the chapter was for a special reason. I had to fill things like this out all the time and it is really nothing new to see this as an approach for teachers. What is so different about this questionnaire is the question on the first page (9) "Who would you like me to tell when you do something especially well?" This jumped out at me because rather then starting the year off with a negative question such as "disciplinary contact number" the author shows the students the excitement and trust in their upcoming year and assignments! This is such an awesome idea!! If I were a student taking this quiz I would feel very conformable around the new teacher! :)

Learning Style Inventory Results

Learning Style Survey and results from learning-styles-online.com

This graph is SO accurate! I am a very social and also very physical. I prefer working in groups and my weakest subjects involve logical thinking such as math, and all of this is shown greatly on this graph.