Blog #1 - Educational Technology Philosophy (blog reflection)

What makes a great teacher? 

http://www.greatschools.org/improvement/quality-teaching/what-makes-a-great-teacher.gs?content=79

How is having a written philosophy helpful?

Having my philosophy in writing will help me think about it actively, critically, and continually. Up until now, I just tried to use technology wherever I could to enhance education, but I think my philosophy is way too wordy. I think I need a slogan more than a philosophy. Growing through technology?

What are some potential uses for blogging?

I want to start a “what I’m reading” blog so my students know that I’m reading just like they are. Unfortunately, most of my students don’t have computers at home and don’t get free time on the computer at school, so it will have to be a “print” blog (bulletin board).

We could also have a PTA blog or Facebook page. We just need to be cautious. We had one teacher have to resign this year already for what she posted online. She was our “Teacher of the Year” last year…

I’ve been thinking for some time of starting a “parents” forum for our school, where parents can get ideas from other parents. Perhaps the staff can also suggest support materials for parents. This may be a can of privacy worms we don’t want to open, but I’ll try to work out the kinks.

In November’s article, I would welcome videocameras in every classroom. Then we wouldn’t need visitors from downtown to come disrupt class. They could just watch from their offices and criticize us from afar. We have issues with students believing everything on the internet is true just like my mom believes every hoax e-mail she gets about everything from Obama being a Muslim born in the middle east to spiders nesting under the toilet seat. The good thing is that I think the students will listen. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell my mom about http://www.snopes.com/, she never listens!

Mr. Downes article about 5th graders blogging reflectively is wonderful. I would love for our 5th graders to be able to do that. It would be great if we could have a computer teacher who could explain AUP’s or get the students to learn how to type by 5th grade so they would be able to blog without it taking up an hour of instructional time. It would be nice if all the computers worked. That would require a campus tech. Show me the money… Then there’s the matter of the district allowing time for anything that isn’t exactly what they have listed in their curriculum roadmap (that they could compare us to constantly via the cameras).

What are my expectations for this class?
Lots of work to try and keep a job that is probably going to be cut at 10 pm on Monday night. Do I keep going? Do I go back to working in special ed? Do I go back to being a software engineer? I expect a lot of questions out of this class, and some cool new skills that I will probably be using in a different job next year.