Motivated Lawn Care and Snow Plowing

Teaching with Technology

Paul — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 21:21:45 +0000

It is very hard for me to focus on certian goals, as far as for using technology in my area of teaching because i am not sure what subject area i will be teaching. I am thinking about doing algerbra in the high school level, or social studies in the high school or middle school level. I would really like to use different kinds of technology in my classes though because i believe that students have many different learning styles: if you can give them a varieties of ways to learn, than you will successfully reach the students that don’t learn well from just listening to a teacher ramble on about the subject matter. I found a wonderful site that will keep me informed and even help me out with ways to teach my students using technology: this link is titled “Online Education, Journals, Magazines, Organizations” in the alloted links section on my site. I also have one more site that gives me a vast amount of organizations that i could join to keep me up on the technology, this is titled, “Educational Technology Organizations.” My last tool comes from the district that i hope to teach in. The Kent ISD has a EDUCATERS tab that you can click on and it brings you to a list of tools and information that will help you with teaching in that district. I have provided you this link titled, “Kent ISD.”

Constructivism in my Classroom

Paul — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 04:59:13 +0000

Well i am going to be clear and to the point. Construcivism should not be used in my classroom. Why? I teach American History… yes, there many other classes out there that constructivism fits very well with; like religion… the teacher could be very successful in providing students with important questions and having them figure out what is important to them and how they can relate the learning to their own life, but with American History, there is no way to use this type of teaching. History is based on factual learning. The only link that i have provided on my blog will take you to a site that supports my veiws on this topic. I will quote a small portion so that you can find it easily in the second paragraph. “American history when taught with constructivist strategies could lead students to “wrong” conclusions about the United States and its role in the world. If allowed to question historical decisions and analyze the actions of historical figures students might not come away from their studies with the proper patriotic understandings of our past.” This issue is almost non contriversial because it is very clear that when a student must learn facts about something that actually occurred, he/she can not tell a true story of something if they do not know the actual facts of who was there, when, and why it took place. Constructivism and technology are also very closely related…. a student can make sence out of something and it will be considered true, no matter what the response and on the internet there are so many people that have posted sites based on lies or just unfactual events, but are considered true to many. If i were teaching any other subject, i might consider this approach because i do believe that kids have to think on their own, but with history, it is impossible for them to make their own facts or reason when it is already provided to them.

Distance learning

Paul — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:58:13 +0000

Online learning is a very good key to success especially in our technologically edvance culure today. It does have a few drawbacks, but not much more then an original classroom. I think it motivates students to do their work because it is more relaxed and usually less time consuming. I wouldn’t change anything about it because i trust that the people who have set it up know what they are doing, and there will always be flaws because nothing is perfect no matter how hard we try. Compared to live sessions there is less student to teacher oriantation. I would deffinately take another online class because it motivates me to get my work done by being able to sit by the computer and explore my education with no limit.

Important Applications

Paul — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 17:41:59 +0000

In this post, are a list from greatest to least important computer applications to be taught to students. Word, Power Point, Graphical Organization, Excel, and Imaging software. They are in this order because i think that a student should first learn how to successfully type a paper first, (earlier middle school is when they should learn this). Power point, in the 2nd position because this is what many teachers would like to see on most group or personal presentations, (8th grade). Graphical organization is third because it is an aid to the kids’ learning, (2nd or 3rd grade). Next is excel beacuse though it is a very helpful tool, i have not had to apply it to anything yet, (9th grade). Imaging software is last because it is a nice thing to know how to do, but it is not essential, (9th grade).

Tragedies and Students

Paul — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 19:38:30 +0000

The question is; when a national tragedy happens, should you talk to your students as a teacher about these issues? Yes, i believe it is essential for a student to realize what is going on in the world. Also it is key for a teacher to provide them with the information so that students don’t get false and biased info. A great place to locate resources is www.nasponline.org. This is the National Association of School Psychologists. This site can provide teachers with the corrct way to respond and educate children about national disasters. I think the main thing that is learned from a tragedy like hurricane Katrina is that, many things are out of reach in terms of prevention, so we must always prepare ourselves mentally and physically for these tragedies. I think that there are a lot of things to learn from a national tragedy, but i don’t think that a teacher should take too much time out of their curriculum to tach on that spacific subject. To make sure that the teacher is providing correct and unbiased information, the tacher must do plenty of research before teaching to the students. The teacher should not use information from something heard on a radio station because many of times the people on the radio can be very biased, instead the teacher should take information from reliable web sites and from news broadcasters.

Howdy

Paul — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 04:03:54 +0000

Hey, well I am going to Grand Valley and I am so busy right now; the only reason i have time to post a blog is because it is for school, but when i get the time i will probably mess around with it. I have school on Mon, Wed, Fri… from 9:00-2:50 then i go to work at UPS at 5:00 at night. I then wake up on Tues. and Thurs. at 7:00 to work for Motivated Lawn Care and Snow Plowing. Then go to work at UPS at 5:00 again and have GVSU Mens Volleyball practice right after that from 9:00-11:00. Fun stuff. Better go ttyl

Paul — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 03:58:22 +0000

Paul — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:48:40 +0000