Technology in todays writing classrooms.

This is an interesting article about using technology for writing class. I think it is interesting that they make the point that most professional writing today takes place on the web and is looked at differently than traditional writing. I feel this is a little obvious and not as timely as it was meant to be. If you look back in time writing for business has always been more functional than what is taught in schools. I am in advertising and many of the rules of traditional writing are thrown out the window when it comes to a good ad. Punctuation, bah just put a exclamation point. I feel that technology has just brought writing to a wider participation level. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media have given an audience to everyone who cares to put down their thoughts. This is great, everyone gets a voice and an outlet for their opinion, but it also makes it even more important for traditional writing skills to be learned because even if you have something good to say, if it is poorly written, it will not convey the intended meaning.

"why and how they learn" Keys to good learning!

Research is an interesting thing. If you ask the right questions you can always get the answers you want.

In this article by Sarah D. Sparks she discusses research that backs up the theory that if learning is difficult you will actually learn more. This makes sense to me because it means to me because if something is harder and you spend the time you are spending more effort. And by spending more effort you are getting more in return from your education. Making the connection of why and how you learn goes along way to making connections to what you are learning and why it's important. I like research like this because it supports my basic educational philosophies. I have never been a great student but I have always learned more by spending the time and energy to learn while I go, as appose to cramming at the last minute. Unfortunately I only do this when the subject is interesting to me and I like what I am doing. At the middle school and high school level it is hard to engage students in every subject. The question then becomes how do we get students to enjoy studying the hard way in subject they don't care about? If we can answer that questions we have solved all of our educational woes... except funding:(

Primary sources and the use of technology to bring them to the classroom.

This is Brilliant! Primary sources help get student's "hands dirty" while learning. This article in edweek.org is about using primary sources while teaching history. I think this is awesome. It gives students first hand insight into historical events. I also think that it can be used in other subjects. Using historical material while teaching literature can go a long way to give students what writers are going through while writing. For instance Oliver Twist can be accompanied by historical artifacts showing the conditions during the era can help students understand what Dickens was talking about and connect students to the characters through common threads. I also think this can be used in math. A quick google image search for pythagorean theory primary source brings up thousands of images for proofs of the theory. These might not be primary sources but they can help illustrate the uses for the theory. The great thing about using this in math is that numbers have been used for a long time and even ancient texts can be deciphered because of the visual nature of math. Hopefully I can use these examples to show context and make connections for my students.

Local news in Education Week

This search for the key word "Oregon" on Edweek.org brings up over seven articles linked to Oregon education. There is so much going on around the nation that it is surprising to see that much information on the local level. Everything from new laws being enacted to policies to the reactions of certain political parties to specific teachers political activism.

The first one that caught my eye, is the one about charter schools. I am particularly interested in them so I try and read everything I can. This one had an alarming title stating that the house voted down a charter school bill. But after reading the short article I think that the right thing was done. To much regulation has been a trend lately just for the sake of doing something different. I wonder how much money is wasted on trying to introduce new laws that never make it past the house? Especially when it is trying to "fix" something that is not broken.

The other article that I thought could have a huge impact on the future generations is the one from December that talks about Oregon setting a precedence by allowing the use of spell checks on writing exams. Now I am probably not one to speak because I am a terrible speller but I do believe that where maybe I failed as a student to learn how to spell. Students today should not learn to rely on technology to   get around learning a basic skill. I use spell check constantly, almost every day. Without it I would not be able to do my job, but I think students should learn to spell correctly then be allowed to use spell check. Similarly they should learn to do long division before being able to use a calculator. These are just basic skills and if we get a generation or two that don't know them. They will become the property of an elite few and we will get generations that will lose their independence.

I am happy that Oregon is staying in the news with regards to education because it means we are at least not staying stagnant. I will continue to keep up to date on not just national educational news but local news that will have a great impact on me in the next few years.

What to do with the rest of my life?

I have been trying to decide what I want to do when I graduate in just over a year. The local economy and school district don't look to promising and I have been thinking a lot about different opportunities. There are many articles about Teach for America on Edweek.com, and I have been thinking lately that I need to look into this organizations. This search brought up more than ten articles with both positive and negative that I thought where very interesting. It looks to me that several alumni from the program have gone on to do some good things, but that it may be a very difficult first couple of years. The overall success rate according to this article does give me some hope compared to the 50 percent of regular teachers who don't make through the first couple of years. 61 percent is a slightly bigger number and maybe the experience would do me some good. I am still open to anything at this point and the more experience I can garner the better.

Common Core Standards, Common Curriculum, What does it all mean?

This article about a group of people with vested interest in education have decided that America needs to have standards. Last year many states adopted the Common Core Standards making the primary goals for every school in adopting states very much the same. This group of leaders wants to take that a few steps further and diagram exactly what each student should learn each year.  This sounds a little to me like E. D. Hirsch. He was a educational philosopher from the 1980s who was an advisor to Ronald Reagan during his presidency. Have we really started to come back around to thinking that school is for skill building and not for creating citizens? Especially since today every bit of information you could ever want is on the internet. Our resources could be better served, teaching students how to create new resources, find the answers to life's mysteries and ask the hard questions.

Data Mining not just for Amazon anymore.

This article in Education Week talks about using the seemingly extraneous information that can be gathered while a student is interacting with technology to determine how the student is doing. I think this is awesome but leaves off a very huge part of the equation, paying for students access to technology. I also feel that a good teacher is doing just that as he or she is interacting with their students. Of course the teacher can gather every minutia of information that every student is putting out but maybe this information can help teachers identify students who need help or who are excelling at their subjects. The example given of the students who use clickers to answer questions is an interesting one to me. Sure it lets every student participate, but as the article points out it would be difficult to immediately interact with that much information. Further, I believe that school should be more than just being able to answer questions on que but to have that social interaction of standing up before your peers and demonstrating your participation. The more we focus on every detail of academic achievement the more we lose sight of the goal of education, to empower better citizens.