"Waiting for Superman"

Having never seen "An Inconvenient Truth" I didn't really have any desire to see David Guggenheim's latest emotional documentary, "Waiting for Superman."  However, considering my present career path, the topic of the movie did spark my interest.  I have not had a chance to see this movie yet, but have done some checking into its premise and its ideas for solutions for the educational system.

The film looks into the lives students having to deal with the lottery system, in which the school they will attend is determined by a simple lottery drawing.  Those "lucky" chosen students will get a chance to attend a top-performance charter school.  Those who aren't chosen will attend their local school, even if it is below-standard. According to a commentary on the film, Orlando Sentinel writer Mike Thomas says that the "villains" in the film are "unwieldy bureaucracies and teachers unions, which bargain for contracts that stifle excellence and protect incompetence.  The priority is job protection, not education."

Having grown up in an middle/upper-middle class small city, I have no experience knowing what it's like growing up in an inner city school system.  The obstacles and daily-life stresses that those students face are probably more than I can understand.  Without actually being there to go through that experience with other students, it's hard for me to say how those "unlucky" students handle life.  But I have to wonder, as soon as they find out they aren't chosen to go to a charter school, are these students then filled with a loss of hope that they have any chance at success?  Do they lose determination, assuming higher education is out of the question?  It seems that these lotteries leave the majority of students with a sense of loss before they've even begun.  And as far as the film's "villains,"  I hesitate to pass judgement without knowing more, but I would really have to do more research into the real root of the problem.  But creating a film to "point the finger" at some by rousing of the emotions of viewers doesn't seem to be a "fair" tactic.  Hype is easy, taking time to study the facts and make informed decisions is much harder.

I am interested in checking out "Waiting for Superman," and would encourage others to as well because I do believe America's education system could use some serious attention, but I would advise viewers to simply "take it with a grain of Kryptonite."

Link to Orlando Sentinel Mike Thomas Article

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

This is the name of an article we read this semester that really caught my attention.  In it, the author challenges and ponders whether or not the internet is really the benefit so many claim it to be.  He acknowledges its usefulness in our daily lives, but questions whether it is harmfully effecting the way we think.

This is a question that I too have considered more than once.  I was never one to enjoy reading too much as a child, or even through school.  When given a book to read for homework, I could barely get through what was assigned.  I didn't see it as leisure time, but rather, as work.  Could this be because of the decades in which I was growing up?  At the time, the internet wasn't quite as involved in daily life as it is today, but it was certainly well on its way.  We had AIM to communicate with friends and search engines to look up what we needed for school, although since many people still didn't have computers or the internet in their homes, we still used the library for school research projects.

As I have gotten older, I have become more interested in reading books simply for enjoyment, but not as much as I might like.  Instead of getting lost in the story of a book, I find myself getting lost online in a seemingly never-ending trail of websites, videos, tweets, and e-mails.  Sometimes to the point where I'm astonished to find that 2 hours have gone by and am ashamed that I spent that much time looking at friends' Facebook posts or MSNBC's "The Week in Pictures," each site inevitably leading me to another.  And interestingly enough, when I finally shut my laptop and go on with my day, I don't usually think very long on all the information I absorbed in that one sitting.  Compared to reading a good novel, when the information tends to remain in my thoughts for days or weeks to follow.

So, is the internet a bad thing?  I don't think so.  I do think it could be dangerous, though.  Not dangerous as in life-threatening, but dangerous as in crippling.  Crippling our minds by not using them to their full potential.  I may love it when someone asks me a question and I can say "Oh let me look that up real quick on my iPhone!"  Or if someone happens to bring up a topic that I happened to come across surfing the web earlier that day, I can spout out some fact about it.  But the things that seem to really press in on me, the things that make me contemplate my beliefs about life, society, or relationships--these things seem to come from something in which I invest time.  The article notes that even Socrates saw a danger in people not retaining information, saying that they would be "thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant."  Maybe it's true: what you put in is what you'll get out of it;  if we do a quick Google search, we'll get a quick answer...that we'll probably forget real quick!  But if we take time to invest in something, thinking as we read, we will probably see a longer-lasting effect of the information in our thoughts.

Now I have often wondered if there was any hope for me, since I was raised in the more tech-minded generation, and the article seems to think that there is.  The author quotes neuroscience professor James Olds and reveals that "The brain has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions."  I believe that I have seen this in my own life.  When I push myself to get started on a novel, I can't put it down and often move on to another once I finish.  But if I get "out of practice" of that way of reading, and spend much more time on the internet, I find that by the time I try to pick up and read another book, I must almost reprogram and convince my brain to push on until doing so becomes easy again.  Like the author of the article, I'm also curious to see the results of long-term psychological research relating to this topic.

The internet has opened up many doors for many people.  It has been a way to spread ideas at a rate never before though possible, and it allows us to more easily connect with the rest of the world.  But what about our part of the world? What about our families and friends that are right here?  Are we neglecting them to gain information about things that would not otherwise effect our daily lives?  That's a question that would surely bring some interesting debate, and I would definitely like to hear points from both sides.  As for my own personal life, I would like to see myself just put down my phone and sign off my computer, and get back to a more "simple life."  I recommend checking out the article, though, to get more information and decide for yourself!

"Wonderful Weather" Podcast

This podcast could potentially be used for addressing the 2^nd Grade Science VA SOL Standard 2.6.  In this podcast, students will be reminded of what they have previously learned about this topic.  They will also become familiar with new terms.  Some of these terms will only be touched on briefly, so that students can easily recognize them later.  Other terms will be discussed more thoroughly so students can give an in-depth explanation of their meaning.  The main focus of this podcast is precipitation.  Students will understand what precipitation is, as well as be able to identify various forms of precipitation.  Students are also asked to ponder how precipitation affects their daily life, with some prompting examples provided.  I believe that this podcast would be useful, not as a planned lesson, but rather as a review.  Students who were absent on the day this material was covered could simply view it when they return to class, filling out the same graphic organizer as the rest of the class.  This podcast would also be useful as a review for students before taking any relevant quizzes or tests. 

I enjoyed making this podcast, however it did become very tedious toward the end of the process.  Once all of the pieces were together (images, music, vocals), it took quite a while to have them all lined up exactly how I wanted them.  I also had difficulty posting it on both YouTube and this blog.  Overall, creating this podcast was a learning experience, and I believe that I can use this knowledge in my future classroom.

A Newly Converted Blogger

Me, blogging?  Yea right.  Being one who previously viewed blogs as a nothing more than a technological soapbox for those who couldn't get anyone else to listen, there was no way I could ever see myself taking the time to create one.  Was I really that desperate to have someone know my opinions on Lady GaGa, Obama Care, or the latest Twilight movie that I needed to create a whole website dedicated to it?  Not me!  No blogs, no thank you.  Or so I thought...

I have recently learned that blogs don't just have to be for voicing your opinions to the world (or anyone who will listen).  They can be a fun way for friends and family to keep up to date on their most recent happenings in life.  They can be an easily accessible way for corporations to let their employees know what's going on and what they can expect from their company.  And most importantly, for the purposes of this blog, they can be used as an educational tool; a way to let parents know what their students are working on; a way to display students' work; and a way for the class to communicate.  I used the link about Edublogs provided on Blackboard to identify some ways blogs can be useful in education.

So the big question--is this something that I think I will EVER use in my own classroom?  Definitely.  I think that blogging is a fun and extremely easy way to get parents and students involved and more interested in what's going on.  I can just image how cool it would have been if, when I was an elementary student, I could have gone online and seen my project posted on the web.  How exciting!  Just knowing that it was going to be on there for parents and classmates to view would have made me want to work even  harder on it!  So, that is something that I would like to incorporate and use as encouragement for students to complete each project to the best of their ability.  Maybe for some projects, only those who are selected as being the best will be posted--hopefully this will encourage them to try harder as well.  I will need to keep a close monitor and possibly create barriers for who can post what.  A strict "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" policy will have to be practiced when students respond to classmates' works.  I also think I will use the blog to involve parents and let them know what we are doing in the classroom; a newsletter outlining what the students are learning and what they will binclude a calendar for upcoming events, assignments, etc.  Another approach, and a fun assignment, could be for the students and I to work together to create a blog post about a specific topic (a unit we are studying, a field trip we recently took).  This way, it will be a collaborative effort and it will be something different that they will hopefully get excited about.  They can determine what is included (with guidance) and they could even bring in pictures, drawings, videos, etc. that can be posted.

Getting creative with blogs in my classroom sounds like a FUN way to approach some otherwise boring  tasks!