I would like to comment on that…
Here are links to 10 comment posts
Morgan says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
As I was going through everyone’s blog to add them to my blogroll a few items in your post stood out to me. I, personally, think it is important for teachers of all subjects to be semi-competent writers. In my short high school-teaching stint the importance of Lexile was drilled into us at every faculty meeting. I always advocated for testing the faculty’s Lexile to determine what the comprehension levels of the teachers were. Also, we had what was called a “long-term writing project” for every class which was meant to prove to students that writing would be required in nearly all aspects of life; not just high school English class. This was definitely an excellent article!
Morgan Says:
This article as well as your response bring up a lot of things from my stint as a high school teacher at a boarding school. If you can remember the fights at a public school where students are only there from 7am – 4pm (approximately) and then imagine the fights that occur at a boarding school when everyone is ALWAYS together you might get an idea of what I am trying to get at. Students were constantly “bullying” each other on MySpace and Facebook before school, after school and even during school because there was a laptop requirement at our wireless campus. Interestingly enough, the “IT GUY” decided to solve the problem by blocking MySpace and Facebook. In my opinion his attempts were rather unsuccessful because only teachers could not access MySpace and Facebook from their log-ins but students could continue to bully. Personally, I believe everything should be done to eliminate outside distractions inside the classroom.
23 October 2007 @ 11:13 am
Morgan // Oct 23rd 2007 at 9:03 am
After reading your post I had formulated some questions so I turned to the complete article for the answers. Unfortunately, I was unable to extract the answers from the article. The concept of the new school sounds rather exciting for the faculty and the students and Microsoft as well. I wonder, even though the school is meant to be a model for other districts to take ideas from, why the capacity is only 750 students. Surely students from the area who do not attend the school will want to go there too, but with a freshman class consisting of 170 students there is not a whole lot of room for growth. Also, it is stated in your post as well as the article that it is a low-income area. Is the school expecting the students to have access at home to the technology needed to complete their homework? Nonetheless, I am sure it would be an interesting school to walk through and experience.
# 1 Morgan Says:
September 24th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Your articles on technology should be interesting. It is amazing how much technology has changed in the classroom. I was always extremely annoyed when the teacher couldn’t work the VCR in class. I definitely thought there should be a “fundamentals of the VCR” class in college to eliminate wasted class time. One time I had a teacher that tried holding down the screen with the Overhead Projector cord and nearly electrocuted herself. On the otherhand, newfangled classroom technology may sound complex but it has the ability to be quite accomodating. One example of this is for students who have disgraphia. On an edublog (or something similar) these students have a much easier time completing assignments than writing them out on paper. To them picking up a writing utensil can be completely discouraging.
Comment by Morgan
December 4, 2007 @ 8:40 am
In my Applied Linguistics class this semester I have learned that when it comes to second language learning there is no right or wrong answer. There are so many aspects within and outside of the classroom that affect second language learning that it is difficult to say what works and what doesn’t What works for one person may not work for another. This is an interesting article and I must agree that bilingual education is an effective option…but so so is immersion.
I, for one, had always appreciated student journalists…until this summer. Just like Christie, I wish I had taken part in my school’s paper when I was in high school, but I did have the opportunity to teach a semester of journalism last year and despite not really knowing what I was doing, I learned a lot! Last summer, however, they gave some girl the opportunity to write feature articles in my local paper bashing the Coast Guard Festival and it caused quite a stir in our quaint little town. I must admit, I secretly still appreciate student writing…but I appreciate common sense too!
Comment by Morgan — December 4, 2007 @ 12:00 pm
meliser Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I must admit I am not a HUGE fan of blackboard. It is a lot of work keeping up with all of the changes that are made on blackboard (sometimes hourly, it seems) but I am not saying that it’s a bad idea. The school I taught at utilized a program called Edline. It was similar to blackboard but a bit more user friendly. Since I taught at a boarding school and the students’ parents felt generally out of touch with what their kids were doing they could sign on to Edline and see how their child was doing, what they had for homework, their daily schedule, what their $40,000 was buying them…but let me tell you, it was A LOT of extra work for the teacher!!
Morgan on 12.04.07 at 9:17 am
I agree..the only time I could see someone using myspace or facebook for academic purposes is when their friends aren’t on MSN messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, their cell phone is dead or has been taken away from them…and they need to know if they had any homework because they weren’t paying attention in class. ..and this is an extreme case, clearly!
meliserYour comment is awaiting moderation.
When it comes down to it….rules are made for a reason. Rules are made to prevent things from happening and they are made to rectify what may have happened in the past. I am not sure if it is fortunate or unfortunate that we live in a time when teachers and students “hanging out” is not exactly acceptable. Some may think that if this is allowed there wouldn’t be anything to rebel against and then things would be ok. When I started teaching I was almost 23, and the administration at the time was COMPLETELY against teachers and students having ccontact outside of the classroom. We could meet after class but only until 3:30 and someone would walk around and monitor. Teachers were not allowed to go to the dorms, for any reason. The following year we had new administration and you could bring the students to your house for a slumber party if you wanted. You just had to “sign them out.” There was one teacher in particular that would take a bunch of students to dinner then to the mall then they would hang out in their pajamas and watch movies, etc. Even though something like that was permitted….how ridiculously unprofessional!
