EDM613 Wk4 Project Post - Publishing Assignment Part 3

I’ve decided to send my report to the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education. I chose this one because it really spoke to my AR report. One of the categories the journal looks for is research, specifically research supporting technology use in schools that will affect the training of computer-using teachers. I hope to reiterate the importance of utilizing the computer as a tool to communicate with the world. Teachers need to discover the world of social networking as it can enhance their classroom.

After deciding to go with this journal, I had to rewrite my article to slant it more toward teacher in-service computer education, rather than just a reflection on my AR report. This made the editing process a little difficult because my report was in a format that outlined my project. I peeled away different aspects of the report and replaced them with insights into why teachers should incorporate my ideas into their curriculum.

I knew my article was going to seem biased, so I didn’t worry about that. Instead, I tried to support my opinions with research, data and structured hypothesis. I really tried to pretend I was attempting to persuade the teachers at my school, in hopes that would establish the correct tone. This will be my first splash into academic publishing, and I am nervous.

As I stated in an early blog, I am a creative writer, so this assignment has scared me since I found out about it. I feel I painted the picture I wanted to communicate. I think readers will understand what I’ve done and be able to appreciate my ideas. I hope the editors feel the same way.

EDM613 Wk4 Response to Kimberly Coast

BP-Week 4 Media Asset Creation: My choice- My Dream Teaching Environment

What is my dream environment where I want to educate?

My ideal environment to teach students would be a classroom made from an old planetarium. I watched the movie Meet the Robinsons with my children in the theater when it first came out and that home really impressed me. I think having my own school in a planetarium would rock! All the ancillary rooms would function as workshop rooms (classrooms) and the main planetarium observatory would be the main classroom. Each seat would be set up with connections for the students to plug in their laptops and school would be held as a great instantaneous collaboration. Students would have the collective meeting at the beginning and end of the day in the observatory and during the middle part they would go to the ancillary workshop rooms specialized in each of the academic disciplines. The morning collective group time would be for presentation of the problems of the day and the end of the school day would be for presentations of results.

Each of the classrooms would be set up with wifi, camera presentation presenters, ceiling mounted LCD projectors, long tables with stools in the central work area for collaboration, desks along the walls for quiet individual working time, audio system ceiling embedded, and smartboards for each classroom. I also think that a holographic table like in Ironman would rock! When are they going to make THAT reality!?! Several of the rooms would be converted into weight training, spin, and dance classes. Two large auditoriums would be necessary for music instruction, as well as adjacent practice rooms. The outer grounds would also have wifi and students could work in more of a natural environment with beautiful Japanese gardens, Italian pergolas and sitting areas, and wide walkways where students could walk and stay healthy while completing school work. There would also have to be a large outdoor amphitheater for music performances. I don't want school to be confined to the four walls of a classroom alone. I think that this school would have to be private and I want to be the principal in charge of curriculum and instruction. :)

What stands in between my dream job and me? Not much really. :) With the economic situation currently I bet there is a struggling planetarium somewhere that would sell for something reasonable and I bet there are private investors who would also like to see something like what I dream of creating. I need to get an administrator's degree to lend more credibility to the process, but aside from that I think a great investment marketer could help make that a reality. The holographic table could be our first project if it hasn't been made reality yet. :)

Do I deserve my dream job? I think that I deserve the dream job and environment because I can make it a reality. I think we do deserve what we can make happen. I also think that sometimes I get way better than I deserve because the right situation presented itself at the right time and I was lucky enough to be there. I also think that I can make things happen. The skills that I bring to the project are varied. I am very creative, dynamic, organized, energetic, and capable. I am credentialed in 5 subject areas. I have had many life experiences that have equipped me with practical skills. I have traveled the world and worked on numerous mission trips for 21 years. I'm not afraid of anything and I can get my hands dirty. I can build, draft plans, create landscaping plans, haggle/negotiate, plant, fund-raise, advertise, lead, direct, and provide vital encouragement and oversight to fellow workers. I have also taught every subject and have coordinated individualized educational plans. I think that I can make this happen. :) Who is on board???

Posted by Maestra Coast at 11:48 AM

1 comments:

Tom McNamee said...

I think you and I need to open a school together as you have described virtually the same set-up I would like to create. The bottom line is that we both know how important it is for students to determine their own education; it doesn’t work when teachers are trying to force-feed information. I love the idea of a main room for the beginning and ending of the day then various rooms around it for exploration. 

I also love how you have incorporated all the multiple intelligences into your plan making sure there were areas for music and kinesthetics. I don’t think we give students enough credit; I think they would be able to handle the freedom outlined in your vision. I also think they would rotate through the rooms as needed and interact with the various media tools. Perhaps the best part of your school is how hands-on it is. It requires constant participation, ensuring the students are always doing something.

May 29, 2010 2:11 PM

EDM613 Wk4 Response to Ashley Burch

WK3 Free Choice - Jessica's "Daily Affirmation"
link to video

Little Jessica was just so inspiring, I had to blog about it. I feel like she relates well to The Art of Possibility. In my case, I look in the mirror sometimes and say: I miss my life, I miss my family, I miss my sanity, I miss my pets, I miss my art, I miss my hobbies. I feel like I have been in another world just struggling to get by each month. I can’t wait to get where this little girl is at, where the freedom of joy of life is at hand. I’ve learned so much at Full Sail and can’t wait to apply it in and out of the classroom.

Reference:

Dmchatster (Prod.). (June 16, 2009). Jessica’s “Daily Affirmation” [video]. Retrieved May 22, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg

EDM613 Wk4 Wimba make-up

Often times I don’t understand how my students can simply not turn something in. It frustrates me that they lack the motivation to at least try. Going through this masters program, while working full-time, coaching and having a one-year-old has reinforced my frustrations. Through the first 10 classes, I have maintained an A+ turning in every assignment. This month was the first time I wasn’t able to turn something in.

I was just too busy to get to the Wimba sessions to review my publication report. I did send it to a couple of my critical friends and they gave me some good advice. All of them told me to simplify my article by creating subtopics and lumping information into manageable chunks.

Looking back, I realize that I wrote with a stream of consciousness approach. I knew I wanted to write in first person, but my colleagues pointed out that I allowed that to influence my article too much. My first draft of the article was very conversational and I did what I yell at my students for – talking to the reader. I went back and cleaned it up, but still feel unsure. It’s been hard for me to pull in everything I’ve done and all the different comments I have into 2000 words.

When I went back to edit it for the final time, I tried to take a scientific approach. I focused on what I would want the reader to know, rather than what I thought was interesting. I toned down my opinions and spoke more to the process and data – all ideas my critical friends told me to think about. Like I said, I don’t think it’s perfect, but it’s a lot better than what it was.

EDM613 Wk4 Reading Post

Chapter 10 of the reading was all about responsibility and taking ownership for one’s actions. This year’s ninth graders need to read this chapter because according to them, they never do anything wrong. Placing blame on others is counter-productive for those who wish to correct problems. The book explained that each individual ultimately has some stake in everything that happens to him.

In education, this concept is extremely important when dealing with struggling students. Those with bad grades instantly look to deflect the responsibility and blame the teacher, the learning environment or anything else to avoid pointing the finger at himself. The unfortunate thing is that nothing can be achieved until the student first accepts some of the blame.

Only after students admit that they need help can they begin to work toward fixing the problem. However, this realization doesn’t come until late in their junior year, in the senior year or not until college. So many students fail multiple classes in their first two years of high school because they simply don’t have the support system in place to guide them to success. Teachers are too busy to provide the proper mentoring to those needing help. Without support from home, friends or other outlets, students begin to give up and live with the failure.

Chapter 10 does a good job painting the picture of the stereotypical person who simply learns to accept defeat. People are so quick deflecting that they never spend time reflecting. I try to spend at least one day a month going over goal setting and reflecting on past work with my students. I try to instill a sense of responsibility in them to try to create a sense of ownership over their education. When students can admit mistakes they realize it’s ok to make them.

Failure in the learning process is so important because we learn more from failure than success. When failure is viewed the correct way, it becomes a powerful tool. This chapter outlined that concept – stressing the need for people to understand their actions and consequences, not just agonizing over the bad that comes from them.

EDM613 Wk3 Project Post - Publishing Assignment Part 2

This week I have been focusing on compiling all the information for my publishing project. I have decided to just worry about writing the report before finding a place to send it to. I’m afraid if I find a place first, I will back myself into a corner as far as how I need to write the report. After I compose a good draft, I will then go out and find publications that match what I’ve produced.

I want to write my report as a casual first person reflection because that’s what I’m most comfortable with. This week has been crazy for me. My tennis team has been doing great, which means we keep advancing in the playoffs, which means no time for my homework. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to really work on it and will only have a couple of days to pull things together before it’s time for me to present.

I am feeling both stressed and relief simultaneously because of the email sent out this week discussing the directed focus of the report. While I am glad it doesn’t have to be an in-depth review of the AR report I am a little worried at how open-ended it can be. The range is quite large, but I will try to focus on what I initially set out to investigate – can using social networks help in teaching literacy. I will eliminate a lot of the discussion from my AR report and focus on the bigger picture, incorporating some things that I, myself, didn’t actually use in my AR project.

EDM613 Wk3 Response to Therese Josephson

Therese's post:

One of the things that I struggled with early in this program was how to actually implement some of the things that I was learning. I think that it is a great step forward when teachers move out of the box and assign students projects that involve Web 2.0 tools and the creation of media.

But I have never really assigned much homework in orchestra class, and don’t feel that just because I know of better ways to do it, that I should begin so now. I’ve said this before. We are hands-on already. Our focus is on improving our musicianship by playing our instruments, so that’s what we do. Play our instruments.

When I can present content with multimedia that I have created, I do so. And I’m seeing that students are far more engaged and retain the information more easily when I do this. This is exciting!

But what about having students be the creators? At the beginning of the program, I couldn’t see taking significant amounts of time away from rehearsing to do this. And, honestly, I still can’t. But I think I’ve found a solution--My student technology committee. There is a small (but growing) group of students that meets with me before school once a week to create projects that we can use in orchestra. We started with some simple games using an online template. But I think we are all most proud of our latest project.

The kids did most of the work--I offered only a few suggestions and did the voiceover because they asked me to. They were so excited to show this to their classmates, and the other students really enjoyed it.

I think that as we continue to embark on new projects and share them, more students will join us. So now, I can help students create multimedia in a way that they enjoy without losing out on the core of what we do--playing our instruments.

My response:

I agree with you – sometimes it’s been difficult trying to incorporate some of the things we’ve learned in this program. I also think it can be overwhelming, trying to bring in too many different new things too fast. I like your idea of creating a student technology committee. Sometimes what we as teachers think is cool is actually very uncool.

Having students play a bigger role in forming their curriculum is a step in the process that almost never happens, but should. If one of the biggest problems in education truly is that students don’t feel connected with what they are learning, then it makes perfect since to include them in the planning. The issue, however, is that there’s never enough time.

I try to allow students as much freedom as possible in terms of what they need to do. I’ve come to realize it’s unrealistic for me to think they can have a major in say in the overall curriculum. So, I allow them as many choices as possible. Whenever they need to write an essay I give them at least three choices. I allow them to pitch project ideas and accept almost any type of book for independent reading. I really try to mix up my assessments so that I am covering all the multiple intelligences; making sure that each student does some work with each type.

When it comes to technology, I am constantly throwing out web 2.0 tools and other applications that I find to see what the students like so that I can incorporate them into future projects. I also encourage them to try new things, telling them that they will never be marked down for thinking outside of the box. I am constantly trying to get them to experiment and be creative.