Class Reflection 1-26-12

It's 5:12 and I am sitting here in class refreshing my memory of what we covered last week, remembering how to log in to my blog and google account took a couple tries... I'm sure I will remember it for next time;)

Also going to need to remember frimoth.com, looks like I will spend a lot of time here for the next two months.  I am happy to say that we are going to look at wordle.net because I have actually seen it before:)

Wow, the first two videos are impressive with the numbers and so true.  We have to stop staying where we as adults are comfortable and start working in the realm of our students.  Through our discussion we are reminded that we do need to manage the technology.  We still are responsible for thoughtful instruction and holding high standards for our students. Technology in the wrong hands can be a dangerous or scary thing.  In the correct hands it can do great things... guess it is a lot like money;) It is just frustrating when people have a lack of understanding and create barriers to positive use... again several parallels to real-life, real-world issues.  

The best part of class is the rich discussion and hearing different perspectives and examples from other schools and realms.  It is so easy to get stuck into our realm of doing "the things we do" without ever being aware of other issues in other districts/positions.  

I am leaving class tonight with excitement about my final project because I can work on a project that is relevant to my job (Thank you) and hopefully have an impact on the technology that is being used in our district.  I have some lofty ideas about technology and I am hoping through this class I can do a temperature check to see how realistic/informed some of my ideas are. 

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Response to Videos 1-19-12

In response to the two videos we watched tonight... there are a lot of thoughts going through my mind.  I really enjoy the TED talks in general because the new/different ways of thinking are not only shared but cherished.  I have several of these videos that I watch (in the car on the way to the beach while my husband drives) and I always look forward to seeing whats new in the TED world... that being said, thank you Mr. Frimoth for sharing these videos in class.  Not only is Sir Ken Robinson a funny guy, he brings up some good points.  My favorite part was the very end where he reminds us (not only educators, but people in general) that kids share and spread their dreams with the world on a regular basis and we do need to tread softly.  We, as educators, need to remove barriers to our students dreams and find ways to educate them to reach their dreams.  Remove ourselves from the source of information and think of ourselves as facilitators to finding and understanding information.  

Learning to change and changing to learn, another thought provoking clip on the ideas in and around education. We, educators, have to start getting comfortable with the idea that we have no idea what our students will be doing as professionals in the future... they don't know either;)  We have to change our approach to the world, methods and that might be a little uncomfortable for some if us... doing what is best for kids is not always what is most comfortable for adults... like those 2 am feedings.... 

Anyhow, I could ramble on about my thoughts on the topic.  Bottom line, we have to continue to challenge ourselves to learn and grow with the world around us to keep up and prepare our students for the future.  What can I do in my current role and future roles to influence this shift in a positive way? Time will tell. What I know is that I will continue to challenge myself to march forward towards this goal.

Blogging .101

Here we go... sitting in class learning how to create my new blog.  Seems pretty simple, but we will see how it goes.  It is fun, but I want to figure out how to change change the font, and make it pretty... This should be a good class.  I am forced to start thinking about what my class project should be.  I am thinking I will continue to work on our school web page... it's ugly right now.  Go look at it, you'll see that it is functional on several levels, but not pretty...   Clatskanie School District.  Yep, I should think of some things to fix on the page... will work on that right away.