Ipad to projector

Just learned about this nifty little tool called Airserver.  It allows you to project whatever is on your ipad to your computer screen and then obviously to your projector...all wirelessly.  This will definitely help sell ipads in my district and make it so they can use them better in the classroom. To download just click on the link.  I promise it is NOT a virus.  Pretty cool!

http://www.airserverapp.com/en/Download/Referrer/505630

Lit Trips

One of the arguments that I have been faced with as an educator is whether or not to entertain students as a way of reaching them.  This is my conclusion...yes I should.  Technology has been shaping the world and how our kids respond to learning.  I don't have to go through the litany of tech tools that entertain students. In saying that, if we want to be effective teachers, then we have to be open to using technology to entertain our students as well.  One old, but very useful tech tool is Google Lit Trips.  It based on the idea of taking a book and tracing the journey of the characters using Google Earth.   There are basically two ways of delivering Google Lit Trips:  creating a GLT as teacher or having students create them.  This provides a entertaining way for students to really engage in a book and truly relate to the places that the characters have been.  How wonderful it is to be provided with such a powerful tool that can virtually take them to a place that they probably have not traveled to before.

Moving Forward

First off, I will diligently try to be more on top of my blog.  So now that the election is over, where does education rank in the view of Barrack Obama and his administration.  If we are going to get serious about education reform, we have to get serious about asking tough questions and placing responsibility where it belongs....ON THE STUDENTS!  Sure, there are without a doubt, some teachers that can be doing better, but that is not the majority.  If we want America to be at the top of education then the questions that have to be addressed is: Why do we still have summers off?  Why does schools have fixed times and not flexible times?  When will teachers be regarded as doctors and lawyers and be paid accordingly?  Why do want all of our children to be standardized tested?  Why do we allow politicians to make decisions about education?  Fund the schools and let individual school districts decide how to best deliver education.  I believe that competition is still what makes America great and allows the markets to work.  If education was left to individual school districts to make the decisions of how to run their district, then I could see how vouchers and school choice would be beneficial to parents.  Currently, it doesn't matter because, overall, students get the same education no matter where they go. 

Another School in the Wrong

If you haven't read about the students whose Valentines day cards got confiscated, you need to read this story.  I realize that there is a separation of Church and State amendment, but this is wrong.  It is one thing to take away things that can cause harm (ie. guns, knives, things with obscene language), but to take away a note that has a Bible verse on it is ridiculous.  If there is one thing that needs to be embraced, it is God and the message of love.  Why are we so tolerant of every other religion and culture, but when it comes to Christianity then that is offensive!  We are a country founded on the principals of Christianity, so that religion should be tolerated more than any other.  Schools are so ridiculous anymore.  It's no longer "Christmas Break" it's "Winter Break."  What will be next?

Black History Month

I was teaching a class and we were discussing Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights as apart of Black History Month.  One of the students asked me "Is there a white history month?" This question got me thinking...Why do we celebrate Black History Month in 2012?  What will be next?  Will there be a LGBT month?  I may be alone in this, but I can see how this could seem like a put down to the Black community to have a month devoted to a race.  If we want to have racism end, we have to stop categorizing ourselves into races.  We have to think of us all as humans.  I can see categorizing ourselves based on the country you live in (American, Canadian, etc), but I don't think we are advancing as a society if we continue to place ourselves into categories.  I see this categorizing on everything from registration forms to job applications.  It just shows me that our society values the segregation and not unification.

The age of being connected has long been here.

What year is it?  1995? 2000? No, it's 2011 nearly 2012.  I have come to a point in my career where I am tired of excuses.  There is no reason what-so-ever that you can not get onto the internet on an almost daily basis if not mulitiple times a day.  I hate to break the news to you, but the internet is here to stay and will only evolve and get better.  So, why am I mentioning this.  Well, it's simple.  If you are teacher, you should be posting your homework, announcements, newsletters, and just about anything that has to do with your classroom on a webpage so parents and students can access information. When I hear, "what do I do with those parents that don't have a computer."  Or I hear, "what do we do with parents that don't have an internet connection?"  I
am almost shocked.  I say are you going to let the 85% of people that do have internet connection suffer for the very few that don't? 

I guess my pet peeve is that you need to be connected!  How can you apply for a job? I almost want to say: "How do you pay your bills?" but I know you can still write a check and mail it in.  Oh wait...the post office is broke and will probably shut down in a couple months or years.  I guess you better get connected and use online bill pay!

Why is Professional Development so hard to do successfully 1

We all have had to sit through some expert talk about a topic that your school or principal determined was important for the success of students. Usually this is because the school looked at the data and saw that the students struggled in one particular area (usually writing, math, or reading....it's funny how it is never science or social studies, or physical education because half the students and 75% of the staff is overweight!) Enough about that rant, the fact is that professional development is broken in most schools.  I would argue all schools, but I do not know how all schools function and if they found the magic spell to make professional development work.  One of the buzz words around the educational arena is "differentiated instruction."  You know delivering the curriculum in a way that all kids will understand (how's that working for you?).  The idea is great, but would really only work for very small group learning or ideally 1 to 1 learning.  So how does this relate to professional development?  PD has to be individualized to meet the needs of each teacher, otherwise it can be irrelevant.  And if it is irrelevant, then as a school you are wasting the time of your teachers (or some of them).  This is where online PD can be useful...to be continued