High School Stinks

After reading Shelly Wright's Just Curious blog post it brought me back to something I came across in my internship.  I'm a secondary school teacher so this was much more evident in high schools.  When students enter high school they have been in school long enough that all they want to do is get through with the best grades as possible.  The only message students get from school is that high school stinks.  Teachers are a big blame for this since they make their classroom lectures boring and their students aren't engaged.  Shelly explains in her blog that students don't ask questions all they really want is the content and to learn the content and write the exam.  She posted a TedTalk video by Chris Lehman called "Education is Broken."  Chris explains how students are just to stay the course and do what they are told over and over again.  So the point is, we as teachers need to make a better attempt, that school does not need to be boring and that school can be interesting and fun.  Use a variety of teaching strategies and keep our students engaged.

Chill

Since my last weeks post I found an interesting tool called Socrative from Richard Byrne's Blog: "Free Technology for Teachers" I decided to check back there and see what new programs he had found.  Richard's newest post was on a program called "Chill."  As Richard explains in his blog, it is like what Pinterest does for pictures, Chill does for videos.  It is a website where you can store and collect all your favourite videos from various sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, etc.  I went to Chill's Homepage and browsed a few videos.  Their homepage shows which are the most popular videos right now.  There sure were a lot of videos about Steve Jobs, but there were also videos on anything from how Facebook began to a girl saying any word backwards within three seconds which was also pretty cool.

I think any kind of teacher who may be willing to implement new technology instruments into their classroom or any kind of technology tool that could help them organize their work or anything to do with teaching, Richard Byrne's Blog is the place to go.  He blogs about four posts a day so there is definitely no shortage of info on his blog.

P.S.  I hope everyone enjoys their last February Break ever, sob :(

Socrative

I was reading a blog done by Richard Byrne, his blog is called "Free Technology for Teachers."  On his recent blog he was discussing his favourite tool on which he used to survey an audience.  The tool is called Socrative.  It's a tool teachers can use in their classroom as long as each student has some kind of device such as a cell phone, tablet or laptop.  With technology these days and almost every student in a secondary school having a cell phone it should be a feasible tool to use.  Basically what happens is a teacher poses some sort of question, whether it being a multiple choice or true or false question.  The students can then respond and give their answer just by hitting a button on their phone.  The teacher is then able to see the responses of each student.  It is some what similar to the clicker system used at the University of Saskatchewan.  I don't know how many people had a class that used the clicker system but I had a class in my first year that used this clicker system.  It is definitely a better system for larger audiences but it could work in the classroom for one specific reason.  I find a tendency that some students are afraid to raise their hand in class and answer questions because of the fact they are afraid to give a wrong response in front of their peers.  By using Socrative they can give their answer without the fear of their peers knowing whether they chose the right response or not.  Their answer is confidential except to the teacher.  This way the teacher knows who is understand and who isn't.  I recommend everyone to check out this new tool.

Today's ETAD 470 Class

Today is groundhog day.  Yay, early spring, if we haven't got it already, it's so nice out!  I really enjoyed my ETAD 470 class today.  I learnt a bunch of new different web tools that are educational like slideshare, prezi and livebinders.  I liked how Professor Ross put us into groups and made us present the different web tools to the class.  It nice to actually research your own tool and present it to the class.  I think you learn a lot more when you do your own research and then teach it towards your peers.  Its also enjoyable to have your colleagues present information to you as well.  Its nice to have a little change rather than taking information in from the professors lectures as usual.

School is now in full swing and things are starting to get real busy.  I'm having to complete 2-3 assignments per week and thats not even counting mid-terms!  I am definitely looking forward to February break.  I'll be sure to make the most out of this February break because it could be the very last February break I ever have.  It sounds like the school system may remove the February break and then have students start school after the labour day long weekend and even get a few extra days off during the Christmas break.