Ms. B’s Thoughts

I’m having one of those days where I am wondering if I am crazy for thinking the way I do about learning…and teaching…and the changes we are experiencing in education.  As a special education teacher, I am in the position of reading a gazillion number of tests to my students each and every year.  UGH…I can barely contain my disdain and humiliation that I feel as a teacher giving these, albeit, as a third party, to my students.  Rote learning and the memorization of facts, presented in matching, T/F, multiple choice, and the token final essay.  Maybe it is just so apparent to me, and my other special education colleagues because we have this unique viewpoint of the assessment practices in place in our school, but the testing regime our students are put through is quite frankly, ridiculous.

• Healthier Testing Made Easy: The Idea of Authentic Assessment | Edutopia
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• Election 2008 Science and Technology Policies – Candidate Proposals – Automotive, Environment, Gun Control – Geek the Vote – Popular Mechanics
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• Techlearning > > Getting the Picture in Word > April 29, 2008
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• Meaningful, Engaged Learning
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• Engaged Learning
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• WebTools4u2use » Webtools4U2Use
  Used by librarians–great resource for web tools
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• U Tech Tips » Blog Archive » Advice on starting a wiki for your class…
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• National Archives Experience
  Great resource! WOW!
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• SkreemR Mp3 Search – World’s Greatest Mp3 Search Engine – Find music, podcasts, ringtones, interviews and speeches.
  Mp3 Search Engine
  (tags: Audio mp3 iTunes multimedia music podcasting)
• ClassTools.net: Games for Education
  How incredibly COOL! Must play more! Can embed in wikispaces!
  (tags: HISTORY graphs games education teaching video wikispaces)

A list of 15 Green Search Engines from ReadWriteWeb.  Very cool!  (Blogging from Diigo!  Practicing again to see if I can get the hang of it!

Through my co-teaching position, I have created wikispaces for a few classes and have attempted to organize the Miner Wiki-World through www.negauneeminers.wikispaces.com.  Students have been receptive so far to having all sorts of information at their fingertips, both in school and more importantly at home.  I started a wiki for the Global Awareness committee and am going to be working with two talented young freshmen Zach and Casey.  I’m excited because they are tech smart and after blogging with them in class last semester, I have missed their enthusiasm after a semester switch into a different English 9 class.  They have both joined the Global Awareness wikispace and are ready to help get it up and running…they were excited to see how straightforward the space was to edit and embed widgets.  It is fun to talk with students who know what you are talking about.  This web language and the skills needed to recognize how things work is a new language.  I’m glad I am working with them and more importantly, I am glad they are freshmen with 3 more years of learning and collaborating ahead of them!

• Official Google Docs Blog: Introducing Speaker notes and YouTube videos
  (tags: PPT Web2.0 GOOGLE_APPS ed361)

• YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.
  How cool! Embed videos into Google Presentations!
  (tags: ED361 video)

McKenna Joy VanAbel: Loves to write, draw, organize, build, play, socialize, learn, read, race, compete, lead, chat with me when she is going potty. She has a logical number crunching, money counting math loving mind.

Beau Mark VanAbel: Loves legos, chocolate milk, climbing trees, fishing, playing with his sister, taking a tub, riding his bike, Noah and Owen, babies and little children, Grandpa John, snowmobiles, swimming and when I sing his lullaby right next to his ear.

Shane Albert VanAbel: Loves shorts, especially the silky kind, socks ALL THE TIME, fruit snacks, yogurt, cereal (wet), drums, basketball, soccer, monster trucks, the orange F-8, telling stories, people, friends, Tessa Standerford, rock music, singing songs, giving hugs, snuggles before bedtime and laying with me on weekend mornings.

TGIF: for the weekend = time with my babies!

• The Fischbowl: I Have Absolutely No Way to Become Better as a Teacher
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• Childhood’s End: Growing Up Too Fast | Edutopia
  (tags: Learning pedagogy reference research resources KIDS)

I need to write more…make that I want to write more. I don’t write because I feel any outside pressure to better myself, or increase my blog postings. I write because I have so much flying around in my mind I sometimes think really great thoughts just zip off into some other world…at least I think they are great thoughts. Also I like to write because it helps me sort out all those crazy thoughts…both professionally and personally. It calms me. It organizes some part of my being that always seems to be on hyperdrive.

So what’s the new part? Daily anecdotes. That’s what I am going to shoot for. Write and get it out there. Right? Good advice comes from good people.

Gearing up for the 2008 UPWP Summer Institute, I am once again reminded of the power of writing, collaborating and learning with other people. We are in a transition phase–melting the old with the new, trying to preserve the spirit of the project while gently easing it into the 21st century. We are not alone in our pursuits. The National Writing Project has national wide goals for all of the local projects to infuse technology learning into their projects. We need to take steps toward incorporating the vision of technology use at the national level into our little (but vastly rural) UPWP.

Change direction.

Rain yesterday and it is clearing away the mud and muck, leaving behind a beautiful green. It is so refreshing. The cycle of the seasons is a process that amazes me each year of my life. This year my children are adding another dimension. I can see their rebirth as they jump in the puddles, anxiously watch the snow banks melt and drag their bikes out of the shed. The excitement of summer vacation is stirring inside me…I can’t wait for our adventures!