Web 2.0 Educator

I chose to read blogs by Berci Mesko, from Hungary. He won the award for Best Individual Blog. In one blog, he talks about how teachers in the U.S. are using new technology to help students with conditions such as ADD. They can have the students measure the amount of time they are paying attention to the teacher versus the amount of time they are distracted by cars, trucks, people, and other things going on in the world around them. This technology can help teachers understand how best to help students with ADD.

Most of Berci Mesko's blogs focus on new medical discoveries that teachers and students can use in class. He posts links to allow people to find out more about the medical discoveries he posts in his blog so that people can see that the information is accurate. This is a great resource, especially for science teachers.

Focus the Nation

To learn more about Global Warming, I went to see An Inconvenient Truth. I learned that:

• Carbon dioxide amoutns increase in the winter when the trees have dropped their leaves, and increasing in the spring when the trees grow new leaves that breathe in the carbon dioxide.
• The temperature of the earth appears to be proportional to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• Apparently, Global Warming is definitely being caused by humas. This is not a theory, it is fact. No one in the scientific community disagrees with this. At least, that's what we're going to tell people so that they will agree with us.

Contrary to Al Gore's statement, there are scientists who disagree with the theory that humans are causeing Global Warming. Some sources that present the other side to the Global Warming dispute are:

• http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/162241/17_200_Scientists_Dispute_Global_Warming
• http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,02502.cfm
• http://www.ncpa.org/hotlines/global/pd112700c.html

As a teacher, I do not want to tell my students what they should believe, but rather, I want to teach them how to look at many different sources, many different opinions, and to decide what they believe for themselves. If I were to address Global Warming in my class, I would have each student do his own research and come to his own conclusion. Then, each student could write a letter to the editor of a local or national newspaper, or to write a letter to the State Representative or Congressman explaining his opinion, and some solutions if he believes they are necessary. This way, my students coulud make their own decisions instead of merely parroting opinions they hear from teachers, parents, and the media.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I Technology is where teachers use the computer as a reward for doing good work, or as a way to do the same things they have been doing with worksheets, except in a more high-tech way. Type I Technology really does not use the technology as effectively as it could be used. Type II Technolgy is where the teacher uses the technology in new and interesting ways to help students learn. The computer is being used in creative, yet practical ways to increase the students' interest, motivation, and learning.

Some examples of Type I Technology are having students answer multiple choice questions on the computer, having students read a story and answer follow-up questions on the computer, or havign students do math problems on the computer.

Some examples of Type II Technology are having students use the computer to create a PowerPoint presentation that will be presented to the class, having students create different types of graphs reflecting statistics about a country or region they are studying, or having students use the Internet to do research for a project.

http://www.haworthpress.com/web/CITS

My MEL Experiences

• Student/teacher relationships My Geography teacher was one of the best examples of Student/teacher relationships. She was extremely energetic, and she would walk around while the calss was working and talk to everyone, not just about schoolwork, but about things that were bothering us, friends, extra-curricular activities, music, and anything else that came up in conversation. She is the type of teacher students enjoy having in class, and staying after school for.
• Autonomy At the end of my freshman year of high school, my teacher had us do a project about what we thought love is. The project came after the class read Romeo and Juliet, and we could do anything we wanted as long as it was about what we thought about love. I made a picture book with pictures I had taken of my Barbie dolls modeling the different characteristics of love. This is still my favorite project, and it is the one I had the most fun doing.
• Context In my AP Human Geography class we studied cities at the end of the year. To make it more interesting we had to draw maps of how we thought the city we lived in looked, and we looked at the city the school was in using GIS maps. It made learning about how cities are designed more relevant to us.
• Hands-On In my Geometry class we had to make a 3-D model of a cube with a triangle on top to show that we understood angles and different planes. It was kind of frustrating because I do not work well with most art related projects, but it got the point across.
• Interest During my sophomore year, our teacher was pregnant. She went on maternity leave while we were doing our unit on genetics. While she was gone, the teachers formed this elaborate project wehre they pretended that she had been kidnapped. We got together in groups and pretended we were teams of FBI agents investigating her disapperance. We got our own badges, and we did tests on hair samples, blood, ink, and we interviewd other teachers, and even the principal to find out who had kidnapped our teacher. It was one of the most complex projects I have ever done, but it was also the most fun.

Learning Style Inventory Results

I think the results for verbal were accurate; I definitely work well with anything that is verbal. What surprised me, though, was that my visual score was so low. I like to see things done before I do them, so I thought my visual score would have been much higher. I was also surprised to see my social score be so much higher than my solitary score. Although I love being with people, when I am tired or stressed I prefer to be alone. The results that I definitely think are accurate are my logic, aural, and physical scores.

The Web site this information came from is http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory

Chapter 2: Advice for Teachers from High School Students

There are a few parts of this chapter that jumped out at me, but the one that jumped out the most is the part where the author talks about what students want to know on the first day of class. Students want to know what the homework load will be like. They want to know what material will be covered, and if the class will be fun or interesting.

What really surprised me about this section is that students are saying this is something they want teachers to do. This makes me think that teachers don’t do this already. It seems strange to me that a teacher would not tell students what the class will be like on the first day. Maybe I have been in college for too long to remember not having this done, but it just seems logical to do this.

Chapter 1: Advice for Teachers from High School Students

I found it interesting that students want their teachers to know them well, but not so well that they feel like friends. Students want their teachers to know what they are thinking by what their facial expressions are saying, and to acknowledge those thoughts. Even though students want their teachers to know them well, they still want that line that lets them know that the teacher is not their friend to exist.
What drew me to this passage was the fact that students do not want their teachers to be their friend. I have heard people in other education classes asking about the line between being the teacher and being a friend. Then answer I have always heard is that a teacher should never be friends with his or her students. I agree, but there was always part of me that wondered if the students wanted a teacher who was more like a friend. Now I know for sure that they do not. I suppose kids feel similarly about their teachers and their parents. The do not want their parents to be their friends; they want them to be parents. Apparently, it is the same with teachers.