Final Reaction to Fires in the Bathroom

I do not believe that reading this book had an impact on what I got out of this class. The entire time I was reading it I was thinking about what to put in my blog. In order to actually care about the material in the book I need to be convinced that it is not a busy work assignment. The chapter readings were lined up with the readings from the CIA part of the class and I think that the course was trying to put extra stress on future teachers to see if they can handle it. It is too bad because the book is a good one and actually shows some insight into high school children and their thought process but the main points were tainted by the assignments.

My contributions to the WebQuest wikis

I added a real world situation, a new audience idea, and a role to the new category page of the Webquest audiences page. I thought the real world situation could be a citizen trying to get a law revamped or changed with congress. The new role is a concerned citizen that has seen too many fellow Americans affected by a poor law. The new audience idea is that the class are all members of congress that will need to vote depending on the argument made by the concerned citizen.

Maine Memory Network

I appreciate a site like the Maine Memory Network because I enjoy looking for things that might be related to my family tree. In high school I might not have enjoyed it as much. That is why in my future math class I would offer the assignment as an option. That way students with an interest in history would get to enjoy it while students who are yet to appreciate history are not forced through it in math class. Trying to find examples of math being used in the history of Maine might be a good assignment. Sudents may also be able to see how the geometry of buildings has changed or stayed the same over time. There are ways to use a great reasource like this in every type of class.

"How to Help Someone Use a Computer"

I recently read an article by Phil Agre that gives some tips for those of us that help people with their computer issues. A couple points stood out to me as important.

The main point I thought was important when helping someone with computer issues was "If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious". This seems to be obvious, get it? But it is not, it is easy to forget that what seems second nature to you is completely foreign to someone that has not used a computer very much.

Another great point was making it clear that if you don't know exactly how to fix the problem you say that. Then you can demonstrate how you work through computer problems to the person with the issue. Instead of them seeing the solution, they will see the process that generates the solution.

Copyright and Fair Use

Being able to create lesson plans using clip art or music but not being able to share the lesson with other teachers seems to defeat the idea of copyright laws being slack for teachers. If the information is okay for one teacher to teach from what changes if another teacher uses the same lesson?

Using a Disney movie to entertain small children while parents are meeting with teachers seems like a harmless act. The school is not profiting from it and the children are not going to be selling bootlegged copies. It seems that the “public” viewing is stretched too far.

A teacher can use movies to get kids interested in the lessons but it is against the rules to create a compilation of the parts of the videos that you would use. It seems that just by combining more than one video it would do very little to change the use of the material.

I kind of agree with the rules if a school purchases a version of software then teachers cannot purchase alternate versions and also load those on the computers. However I think a school should be able to purchase the software title; no matter how many versions are released they should get the updates until the title of the software is no longer being upgraded.

If a school loads a software program that they bought onto a server more than one user should be allowed to use it at once. There is no chance of them making copies of the program that way and it is cutting down on the amount of waste produced when multiple disks have to be provided.

Having more students than software could be a problem from year to year based on class size. Making back-up disks is allowed but using them to make sure every student has access at the same time is not. It seems old fashioned to only allow one person at a time to use software that has been purchased legally.

Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

One of the best ideas of chapter ten is setting up internships for student to see how the skills they are learning in school will impact their working career. It would also help students develop new skills and habits that might tie into schoolwork but they would have been unable to attain these skills in a class.

The best use of this that I have seen is in Mt. Blue High School, they actually have a branch of Franklin Savings Bank in the school that students can work at to learn bank telling skills. That is functional use of math and computer skills as well as professional social interaction. People will be in the work years of their lives for much longer than they are in high school so it is important that they leave school with the ability to perform a job.

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

The eye popper in this chapter is an idea that we hear a lot. It talks about the young teacher learning to balance that desire to be liked with the authority of being a teacher. Basically a teacher cannot be the student’s friend. You need to be an adult that kids respect and trust, not their best friend they gossip to.

I feel I have a slight advantage over the traditional college student in this aspect simply because it has been more than ten years since high school. I do not feel I need to be friends with students but I do think it is very important that you develop a relationship with your students so they know they can trust you. Not just trust that you are looking out for their best interest but also that you would not take advantage of being in a position of power.