Archive for March, 2008
Childhood Dreams
This is an inspirational video of a man named Randy Pausch. He is a professor at Carnegie Mellon and is dying for pancreatic cancer. He gave his last lecture on campus on September 18, 2007 and this is the lecture found on YouTube. Pausch tells his students what he has learned about life from looking at death. If anyone has had a bad year, needs a lift, or just wants to hear a man’s childhood dreams, then this is the video you must watch. This video shows how in every situation you face whether it is bad or good, you must keep going and fulfill your dreams. Randy Pausch is an extremely educated and creative man who wants to share with everyone his upbringing and family as well as some helpful tips to go about life and everything that life throws at you. Even though this video is long, watch it and watch it till the end. You may cry at times, laugh at times, but I promise you that you will take a walk in the right direction and move forward in life, just at Randy Pausch wants his family to do.
Add comment March 23, 2008
Plagarism
“Perhaps the relationship between the Internet and the perceived rise in plagiarism is not so much one of writers’ disease and textual promiscuity as it is of readers’ access to the plagiarized texts. It is from this logic that online plagiarism-detection programs are derived: If unethical writers have access to text online and plagiarize from it, then gatekeeping teachers can also access the plagiarized text and catch the offenders.”
“Understanding Internet Plagarism,” makes me chuckle when I read this. This essay allows readers to see into plagarism and even adds a little humor on the topic. Plagarism has been around for ages, even back when Shakespeare supposedly stole his work from another source. Now many teachers are using plagarism detection programs to sort through their students work to determine if this the work is done by the student and only done by the student. The essay shows how you can simply buy an entire paper online for a particular fee and how people think they can get away with it. This detection programs can put phrases into the program and can pull up where students have plagiarized from.
I cannot believe that students are still trying to buy papers online and think they will not get caught. I remember years ago when students in my English courses in high school were buying papers online, and teachers then had access to this special detection softwares. You would think after all of these years, people would actually realize how technology is constantly increasing and plagarism is much easier to detect. Schools constantly discuss plagarism in schools and even have the topic of plagarism in most school’s handbooks, so why are students still doing this? I guess we will never totally understand this answer, but I feel it is laziness and some are just looking for a way out and feel they will never get caught. Think again, cause you will get caught!
Add comment March 23, 2008
Comics and Video Games
As I looked at the “Understanding Comics,” I must say I was absolutely amazed at how comics work. I know I may seem extremely out of the loop because I have never read a comic before, but I find it utterly amazing at how comics are read and how comics are interpreted. I first learned how to read a comic as to which square to look at next as I read. I even saw how different images can be interpreted differently with the many different characters. I really loved reading this as it looked like an exact comic, but showed the differences in comics and made you want to read it again.
After I read about comics, it made me think about the whole argument in class about video games and if they are a waste of time. From listening to students who play video games constantly and who love reading comics, I’ve discovered that these particular students are very creative and enjoy discovering new games and new creativities. Before this course, I felt as If video games took up too much time and were potentially a waste of time, but now I feel that they do serve a purpose just like comics. Video games and comics are a form of literacy and do serve a purpose in education. Comics allow people to want to read in a much different style than just reading a book and can make reading more enjoyable. Video gaming allows many to experience how to use a video game and learn strategies to win each game. I must say that I think I am going to start reading comics and take part in video games.
Add comment March 23, 2008
NJ Teacher of the year in 2006
This Youtube Video on the “NJ Teacher of the Year” is an excellent video to look at and see what teachers could also do to improve teaching. This is an inspirational video showing a physics teacher at Bergen County Technical School who is an example of an excellent teacher. Students share their words of how this teacher makes everyday an enjoyable day in the classroom. The school is extremely proud of this teacher as students want to take the physics course and strive for excellence. This school has one of the highest enrollments in the AP physics program. The school believes they have such a high enrollment from the great teacher who teaches physics. Take a look at this video and see what you can incorporate into your classroom.
Add comment March 23, 2008
TaskStream to the Rescue!
Feeling Stressed? Scared of teacher burnout? Did you know that there is a great site out there designed to help teachers as well as future teachers prepare lesson plans? Well if not, then you should really consider signing up for TaskStream. This site can be found by going to taskstream.com and looking at all of the wonderful features. All you need to do is sign up with a username and password so that you can log on and pay a fee for the months you wish to use this. This can make a teachers life much less stressful as the site is very user-friendly and is easy to find those pesky standards that teachers must add in to their lesson plans. Once you create a lesson plan, there is an option to send the lesson to other readers such as the school or professor that needs to review the lesson plan. This is an effective way to ensure you are creating the lesson plans in the correct way and takes less time to create. So do not hesitate and take a look at the features and examples on taskstream today. You will be happy once you did!
Add comment March 23, 2008
youtube on ventstress.com
As the semester is rapidly moving faster and faster I found myself becoming more stressed with all the work. I work full time and am taking five classes. It’s surprising to know that when I mention this to most college students they look at me like I’m crazy. Unfortunately, I have no choice in the matter. I’m curious to know how many students work full time and have a full school schedule as well. I feel as though if I didn’t have to work as much my performance in school would be a lot better. As I was searching the internet for ways to relieve stress I came across this you tube video that describes a site called ventstress.com that you can go to that helps with techniques to help with stress and many other issues you may have. Hope this becomes useful for anyone who is becoming overwhelmed with all the work J
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXkvRRtTvI4
Add comment March 5, 2008
Text Message Alert System
The massacre at Virginia Tech last April sent colleges nationwide scrambling to improve how they send alerts to students during crises on campus. One widely adopted solution: text messages sent to cell phones. But while hundreds of campuses have adopted text alerts, most students are not embracing the systems, reports The Associated Press (AP)—even in an age when students consider their mobile phones indispensable.
Omnilert, a Northern Virginia company that provides an emergency alert system called e2Campus to more than 500 campuses, reports an average enrollment rate among students, faculty, and staff of just 39 percent.
Another industry leader, NTI Group (now a subsidiary of Blackboard Inc.), reports even lower participation—28 percent for the 300 campuses that use its Connect-ED emergency alerts.Across the country, colleges “are really struggling with how to get the enrollment numbers up,” said Steven Healey, Princeton University’s public safety director and an expert on campus security.
Other companies who provide the services declined to release detailed enrollment figures to AP.
The University of Missouri’s Columbia campus tried a giveaway—students who signed up for the alerts were entered in a drawing for an iPod Nano—in hopes of improving its rate. Just 15 percent of the roughly 28,000 students have requested text-message alerts or cell-phone calls during emergencies.
“I found out about it a long time ago and never signed up,” said Kaitlin Foley, a first-year student at Missouri from Omaha, Neb. “I was too lazy.”
The low participation, and fresh concern following the deaths of five Northern Illinois University (NIU) students by a gunman earlier this month, led University of Missouri president Gary Forsee to issue a new plea.
“Alert systems are only as effective as our ability to make contact with you,” he wrote in an eMail message to each of the system’s four campuses, encouraging students to enroll immediately.
Even at Virginia Tech, where a gunman killed 32 people and himself last April, four in 10 students still have not signed up for emergency text alerts. The campus also employs other alert methods, including eMails and online instant messages.
Campus safety experts point to several factors to explain the lack of interest among students, including feelings of invincibility and reluctance to give out personal information.
Others hesitate to pay the fees—generally a matter of pennies—that some cell-phone providers charge to send and receive texts. Colleges generally pay $1 to $4 per enrolled student to the companies that set up the alerts.
“It will take time to earn their trust,” said Bryan Crum, an Omnilert spokesman. “That day will come once they see how it can personally benefit them—and once they realize we’re not out there to sell their personal information, and that 10-cent charges once or twice a semester is worth the price of personal safety.”
Add comment March 3, 2008
Myspace & Facebook Dangerous for Teachers
“Teachers, watch what you post online”: That, in effect, was the message the Ohio Education Association (OEA), the state’s largest teachers union, delivered to Ohio educators in a memo it sent last month.
The memo strongly discouraged teachers from using social-networking web sites such as MySpace and Facebook to create personal profiles or communicate with students.
“OEA advises members not to join [these sites], and for existing users to complete the steps involved in removing their profiles,” the memo said. “While this advice might seem extreme, the dangers of participating in these two sites outweigh the benefits.”
An investigation by the Columbus Dispatch into educator misconduct underscores the reasons for the union’s concern.
The newspaper’s recent probe has revealed questionable or inappropriate content on at least three MySpace profiles belonging to people who say they are Ohio teachers.
One says she’s an “aggressive freak in bed,” another says she has taken drugs and likes to party, and a third describes his mood as “dirty,” the Dispatch reported Nov. 10. The guy with the dirty mood, who claims to be a 35-year-old middle school math teacher in Cleveland, reportedly listed students among his MySpace friends.
The profiles could be the work of malicious pranksters, but the three examples appear legitimate, with all types of personal and professional information, including full resumes, the Dispatch reported.
If those three postings are from teachers, they’re inappropriate, said James Miller, director of the Office of Professional Conduct at the Ohio Department of Education. Even worse, he said, “It does sound like something that could be ‘conduct unbecoming’.”
That’s a broadly defined violation of educator behavior that can result in license revocations, suspensions, and written reprimands.
Teachers need to review what they’re sharing online, Miller warned: “It’s their right to have it up. But I’d make sure it’s appropriate for my students to look at.”
The OEA sent its memo to teachers on Oct. 16, two days after the Dispatch launched its investigation. However, union officials said they had been planning the memo for months.
“The fact that a student can attempt to contact an OEA member who has a profile on these sites lends itself to the possible interpretation of an improper relationship,” the memo told teachers. “Because of the high standards placed on school employees and the risk of job and career loss, the OEA recommends avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.”
The union also worries that students will create “impostor” sites, pose as adults and engage in conversations with teachers, or use online communication to make allegations later against educators.
“[There are a] lot of potential problems of false allegations, false pages, postings that have absolutely nothing to do with the intention of the teachers,” said Rachelle Johnson, the union’s legal services director.
Anything posted on those sites can be used as evidence in disciplinary hearings by districts and the state Education Department, the union warns.
OEA says it drafted the memo without help from the National Education Association (NEA), the national organization of which it is a state affiliate. Attempts to reach the NEA were unsuccessful as of press time.
Add comment March 3, 2008
Lesson Plans
Lesson plans are not made to be thrown together in a few minutes. They require time, research, and detail. Lesson plans should have more than less until you have really gotten the hang of it. I’ve also learned that they are essential to have in the rare occasion that you need to miss a day of school and a substitute needs to know exactly what to do. I recently went into a classroom that had a substitute with no lesson plan and the classroom was chaos. I felt so bad. There was nothing left for the substitute to do, but sit around and play games. The children were poorly behaved and the substitute was stressed out.
In the future I will always remember to keep lesson plans on hand for days that I can’t be there and have plenty of detail for them.
As for right now, I’m enjoying writing lesson plans that are clear, concise, and successful.
1 comment March 2, 2008
More time to teach…
The video at this site, gives a few beneficial pointers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iaj0EyxCfvQ&feature=related
After watching the video I realized that ignoring a student at certain times is OKAY. I learned that you could never fever one child or one sex over the other, children do notice. I don’t think it’s necessary to single students out in front of the class either. That causes more aggression from the student. Classroom management is important. Work can not be accomplished when there is no control in the classroom. A teacher should have set ideas on how to handle different situations before entering a classroom by themselves for the first time. A lot of my advice I have received from my cooperating teachers at the different observation schools I have attended.
GOOD LUCK!
Add comment March 2, 2008
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