Week 7 -- EdTech is OVER

Week 7 is finsihed -- at least I hope it is! Even right up to the last minute there was confusion over assignments that were in our original list that weren't in the assignment drop box. If that sort of detail can get ironed out the next time around I think the experience will be more pleasant for everyone! There needs to be a clear list of when everything is due and it needs to be correct right from the start! All of the confusion added a whole layer of stress that just didn't need to be there! I enjoyed learning all about the technology side of teaching and I will take away a lot of great ideas, I just wish the class could've been executed a bit better.

As for the content of week 7, I love the idea of digital portfolios and will definitely try to incorporate something like that into my classroom. But the lesson on Excel was just a waste of time. I've never touched the program before and I still don't feel like I have any kind of grasp on it! But I did get very good at following instructions from a video and learned how to pause and rewind so that I could get all of the steps correct!

Have a wonderful holiday season and see you all in January!

Week 6-ish

I'm a bit late posting my reflections about week six since I am in the midst of grappling with week 7, but oh well. I am excited about investigating what kinds of games I would like to use in my classroom -- I think they are a logical extension of the board games I used to play in school. It was interesting learing about the Google game and I was a bit disappointed that my web presence is so small, but I'm sure that will change. I added a couple of meta tags to my website a couple of weeks ago, so now if you Google Jarvis Academy my site is the second result -- so that is cool! The APA stuff is interesting but a little tedious! In the free-wheeling world of Web 2.0 does anyone really care if you put an ampersand between the two authors when you cite them?! I think having some sort of citation is necessary but all of those rules are ridiculous for most elementary school settings.

I am still frustrated at having to figure out most of this stuff on my own and wished that the class met a few times, but I'm glad it's almost over. I hope we aren't on to Web 3.0 by the time I actually get in a classroom and all of this stuff we're learning isn't out of date!

Week 5

I think I just finished everything for week 5! That feels like an accomplishment. I still have to post my PowerPoint outline to other people's wikis but that won't be hard. I think I am finally caught up on everything for this class and can start week 6 on time. I am so glad to have the PowerPoint done. I don't know why that flummoxed me so much! (Now there's a word you don't see everyday).

Today I am looking forward to a little family time. I am going to take my boys to see the Jungle Book puppet show put on by Tears of Joy. I hope it will be fun. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Where Did Week 4 Go?

This class is almost more "fun" than I can handle. I've just started some of the week five stuff, but I still have my PowerPoint to complete. I did 3 slides last night, but found myself oddly transfixed by the how-to videos online. I thought the copyright stuff was a bit confusing and the articles that we were asked to read and skim weren't really helpful to me as a teacher. I was thankful that some of the other students posted links to articles that I felt were more relevant.

The confusion over due dates and assignments is still rearing its ugly head. I don't like when it says one thing under the weekly course content and then another thing when you go to actually post the assignment in the drop box. The copyright stuff under the weekly content said to reply to one person, the assignment drop box said reply to two! And the directions for doing the podcast seemed to change from when I first looked at them to when I actually needed them. I am also sick of writing a discussion post and then having to write a reflection on the same thing! It's getting pretty repetitive. I do think it would be more helpful if this class required us to meet for an hour once a week and then do the rest online.

Okay, now I've gotten all that off my chest I feel a bit better. Better get back to that PowerPoint.

Podcast -- I did it!

Podcast script! 

Hello, my name is Kim Jarvis and I am currently pursing my masters in teaching at Concordia University. I hope to become a second-, third- or fourth-grade teacher.

There are a lot of reasons why I’ve decided to become a teacher. First off, I love being around children – my own and everyone else’s. They have so much energy and curiosity about life that I think they are a joy to be around. I love the things they say and the unfiltered way they look at life.

Secondly, I want to give all kids a chance to succeed. I have had the misfortune of being around some teachers who really didn’t want to be in the classroom any more – they were just miserable and they made their students miserable. I have vowed to NEVER be like that. On the other hand, I have also been around fantastic, enthusiastic teachers and as a result I have seen their students grow in leaps and bounds. That has inspired me to want to be THAT kind of teacher.

When it comes to my teaching philosophy I just want to be a positive, uplifting influence. I want students to enjoy being in my class and develop a thirst for knowledge.

I think one of the most important attributes to have as a teacher is to be flexible. You need to be willing to go with the flow. Be organized and prepared, but don’t stress out too much if you don’t get everything achieved in each lesson that you set out to achieve. I think I am pretty flexible and good at figuring out when to cut my losses or try a different tack.

You also have to be patient. Kids are kids and you have to be patient with them. If you fly off the handle all the time you will just make them and yourself miserable. I think I am pretty patient most of the time, but I know there will be times when I will feel like pulling my hair out.

I also think it is imperative to listen to your students’ parents –they know their children best. If you can have a good line of communication with the parents it will be easier to talk about the good and bad aspects of their child’s class work or any problems that might come up. As a parent, I have been in the situation where the teacher really did not want to speak to the parents, it was painful trying to ask her a question and she seemed cold and aloof. I couldn’t wait for the school year to be over. On the other hand, I have also been in a situation where the teacher was open and friendly and I felt she really had my child’s best interests at heart. As a result, I felt good about sending him to school every day and I volunteered in her classroom as often as she needed. She is exactly the kind of teacher I want to be.

Basically, at the end of the day you need to be honest, sincere and passionate. As a teacher you are a major influence on a young child and I think it’s important to take that responsibility seriously. You need to be passionate about what you are teaching or else they will see right through you – if you don’t value the subject matter then neither will your students. You also need to be honest and sincere with them, their parents and yourself. If something is not working, you need face it head on, not shy away from it.

I hope that I can live up to these attributes as I embark on the teaching journey. 

Week 3? Or Maybe 4 -- Who Knows!

The frustration level among members of the cohort seems to be running pretty high -- me included. I knew it was too good to be true that we had extra time on week 2 and now it's come back to bite me (and lots of others) in the bum because now I have week 3 to finish and week 4 to start. Tonight we were sent a handy list of the weeks and topics but for some strange reason the due dates REALLY don't match up with the week numbers! I guess it doesn't really matter -- it's all got to get done sometime, but I am having a hard time keeping up with a full-time job, running after 2 kids, completing all of my school work and trying to keep my house in some sort of shape. I can't even remember the last time I vacuumed! I don't even want to think about the relatives coming for Thanksgiving! Thank goodness my husband is picking up some of the slack! I've done everything for week 3 except the podcast -- I just have to write the script and then figure out how to record it! Piece of cake, right? I guess I'd better get back to that rather than blather on here!

Ed Tech Week 2

I'm a bit late in blogging about week 2, which is really week 2.5 ( I was going to write 1/2, but realized the more techie way of doing things is to put in the .5! ) By the way, I was automatically upgraded to Firefox version 2.18 and now I'm having all kinds of issues using WebCT -- so be careful! I also can't seem to find any assignments in the drop box for week 4 and the due dates for week 3 and week 5 are the same -- Nov. 23. I thought all of that stuff was supposed to be sorted out?! Some of the other students have mentioned that it has, so now I'm wondering if it was just sorted out for the people on the other discussion board?

I enjoyed exploring Wikipedia and was amazed at all of the junk that was on there -- good and bad. It was interesting to look at the history of the pages and the discussion boards -- and how nit-picky the contributors were! And I have been working on my web site but it is still a work in progress. I didn't have much trouble getting it set up, but I am having trouble coming up with meaningful content! I have been a bit frustrated by the zones that Windows Live uses -- I can't seem to get them to change shape the way I want them to but I think that might be a Firefox issue as well. I'm going to try finishing it using Explorer and see what happens.

I have really been thinking a lot about how all of this educational technology stuff applies to my kids. I must admit that as a parent, I haven’t exactly encouraged my kids to sit in front of the computer or video game console for hours on end and I limit their TV viewing. As a result, my 10-year-old is totally afraid of the computer. Once in a blue moon he will ask to look up a web site but he does NOT want to play games or learn to type his school reports. What would a teacher do with him in a totally plugged-in classroom? I’m worried about him and his ability to cope with all of this technology. My five-year-old, on the other hand, is much more curious about the computer and was allowed to play games on one in his pre-school. He was given a Webkinz toy for his birthday (in August) and finally today he asked if we could go online and play with it. I agreed and we delved into the Webkinz world. After signing up we finally got to the games and played an educational trivia game for about 10 minutes before he announced that he was done, finito. He wanted to go back and play with his Lego. That seemed like a good balance to me. But I was amazed at the Webkinz world and all of the bells and whistles there were -- for me, it was hard to take it all in!