Monday, July 2, 2012
ISTE and Tech Overload!
I just got back from ISTE and what an incredible conference! I am still in tech overload but am so glad to have spoken and shared and learned from people much smarter than I am! I am still very shocked that humanities has not done more flipping and they are the ones who seem most resistant to it. If you are a humanities teacher and have some questions, please let me know how I can help!
I have some pretty big goals for July - I want to create two vodcasts and get them on Itunes ( more information to follow), as well as get my next two scripts in to Ted Ed so that they can animate them and get them posted. I also have some updating to do on my online World Literature class and my poor MacBook officially crashed yesterday so I am having to limp along and only ask it to do one thing at a time. Maybe I will get an early birthday present.....
I would like to leave you with one thought - if you could change one thing in your classroom that will make your job easier, what would you do? What is stopping you?
Will update more as July goes on..,
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Heading to TIE!
I am very excited to speak at TIE this year about the blended classroom and using it to make a difference in my student's writing!
I also have created an Edmodo group called Rocky Mountain Flippers (group join code is sdghe0). If you are in the Rocky Mountain area and are part of this educational movement, please join the group and the discussion!
I also have created an Edmodo group called Rocky Mountain Flippers (group join code is sdghe0). If you are in the Rocky Mountain area and are part of this educational movement, please join the group and the discussion!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Standards Based Grading
We have been piloting this in the English department for two years at our high school and the kids and parents love it. I just attended a presentation by Dr. Marzano and my decision to stay with standards based was further solidified. We have a great technical document and powerpoint that we have given to our parents and students. I will post them if anyone is interested. But I do believe that this is the way to go in education. It is not inflated grades, but a snapshot of how a student is progressing towards mastery of a standard. It has changed our conversations about students and education and to be honest, you could not pay me to go back.
Standards based grading document
Standards Based Grading PPT
Standards based grading document
Standards Based Grading PPT
New Links and Resources
Due to popular demand, I have uploaded some of my videos that I have used in my blended classroom to my webpage. Please check them out and give me some feedback!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Ted Active Hangover
It has been a week and I am still struggling with how I can explain my experience at Ted. I had the opportunity to meet and interact with such amazing people from all walks of life and parts of the world.
What most took me aback is the negative attitude of people when they found out that I was an educator. I am not saying that they were mean, but they had an opinion about how the educational system needed reforms and were very defensive about it. They were shocked to see that I agreed with them - which allowed us to have a real discussion about education.
I am still shocked about the misconceptions about education. But here are the ones that really set me off:
1. Teachers are over paid - really? I live in Colorado where we pay 49th out of 50 in teacher salaries. Also Colorado is not the cheapest place to live. I know many of my friends who are on government assistance trying to stay in the education filed. I also know many of them who have become single parents who have to leave the classroom just to keep food on the table for their kids.
2. Teachers only work 8-4 - I wish! School starts at 7 am and ends at 2:30pm. During the day, we have meetings that take up most of our planning time. So when does a teacher get any grading or research done to help them in the classroom? At home at night and on the weekends.
3. Teachers have summers off - shocker! I teach until the end of the first week in June and report back the second week in August. During those 8 weeks, I try to get all of my personal appointments for myself and my family made, planning for next years courses, and sometimes teach a summer school class because I have one in college and one in high school. Most teachers that I know have some type of a second job or extra responsibility that helps them pay the bils.
4. Declining test scores are a direct result of teaching - unrealistic! Our standardized test scores are used for teacher evaluation, but not for students. The students have no interest in doing well on the tests and some have tanked certain sections so that the school would fire a certain teacher. How backwards is that the test that they take has no impact on them? How do we make it real for them when in actuality, it means nothing to them and they have no consequences for their actions on the tests.
5. Schools need to cut spending - impossible. My department asks that all students buy the books that we teach in the classroom for many reasons. One of them is that annotating texts is an important skill that the students need to start understanding. But realistically, I could not buy the books for the kids to use if they did not. Over the past three years, my department budget has been an average of $300 for eight teachers teaching over 900 students. We need more! We need paper, pens, pencils, folders. and expo markers. We also need technology to keep the kids engaged and prepare them for the world outside the classroom. We also need to provide training and support for our teachers to use the technology in appropriate and challenging ways.
These are my top five, but there are more. The sad statement is when my daughter told me that she wanted to be a teacher, I was more sad than happy. I have no idea what the system will look like when she gets out of college. I can hope for a better future, but I don't see it happening.
What most took me aback is the negative attitude of people when they found out that I was an educator. I am not saying that they were mean, but they had an opinion about how the educational system needed reforms and were very defensive about it. They were shocked to see that I agreed with them - which allowed us to have a real discussion about education.
I am still shocked about the misconceptions about education. But here are the ones that really set me off:
1. Teachers are over paid - really? I live in Colorado where we pay 49th out of 50 in teacher salaries. Also Colorado is not the cheapest place to live. I know many of my friends who are on government assistance trying to stay in the education filed. I also know many of them who have become single parents who have to leave the classroom just to keep food on the table for their kids.
2. Teachers only work 8-4 - I wish! School starts at 7 am and ends at 2:30pm. During the day, we have meetings that take up most of our planning time. So when does a teacher get any grading or research done to help them in the classroom? At home at night and on the weekends.
3. Teachers have summers off - shocker! I teach until the end of the first week in June and report back the second week in August. During those 8 weeks, I try to get all of my personal appointments for myself and my family made, planning for next years courses, and sometimes teach a summer school class because I have one in college and one in high school. Most teachers that I know have some type of a second job or extra responsibility that helps them pay the bils.
4. Declining test scores are a direct result of teaching - unrealistic! Our standardized test scores are used for teacher evaluation, but not for students. The students have no interest in doing well on the tests and some have tanked certain sections so that the school would fire a certain teacher. How backwards is that the test that they take has no impact on them? How do we make it real for them when in actuality, it means nothing to them and they have no consequences for their actions on the tests.
5. Schools need to cut spending - impossible. My department asks that all students buy the books that we teach in the classroom for many reasons. One of them is that annotating texts is an important skill that the students need to start understanding. But realistically, I could not buy the books for the kids to use if they did not. Over the past three years, my department budget has been an average of $300 for eight teachers teaching over 900 students. We need more! We need paper, pens, pencils, folders. and expo markers. We also need technology to keep the kids engaged and prepare them for the world outside the classroom. We also need to provide training and support for our teachers to use the technology in appropriate and challenging ways.
These are my top five, but there are more. The sad statement is when my daughter told me that she wanted to be a teacher, I was more sad than happy. I have no idea what the system will look like when she gets out of college. I can hope for a better future, but I don't see it happening.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Ted Active
I am overwhelmed and honored to bet here with such amazing people: Aaron, Jon, Mike, Karl, Deb, Stacy, Paul, and RJ. I am also so happy that Ted has seen the importance of education and is willing to put money into it (something that the state of Colorado could learn from). I am off to make some Tom's shoes to donate and then more learning lies in store!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Cool Ideas from Flipped Conference
Make sure to check out the sessions on the amazing ways to use technology in the classroom to make your job easier and to help the students succeed.
Like using facebook groups to send out reminders to students or a Google Calendar to set due dates!
Like using facebook groups to send out reminders to students or a Google Calendar to set due dates!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)