Ajpelfrey's Weblog

Social Networking

ajpelfrey — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:40:40 +0000

I am a bit hesitant to create a social networking account. Surprisingly, unlike most people who enjoy the perks of technology, I have never had any desire to be involved in MySpace, Face book, etc. Even while still in college, I felt that there were more productive, less public ways to talk with friends. As a teacher with many students who use both sites I am fearful of interacting with students in such a relaxed environment. I am creating a MySpace account, although I will honestly say that I probably won’t use it very often.

Homeschooling

ajpelfrey — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:30:54 +0000

This year, I have the priveledge of teaaching a student who was until this year homeschooled by his mother. Not only did his mother homeschool him, but his six brothers and sisters. She provides their education at home until middle school, then they are given the choice to attend public school each year after that. I am not sure if this says something for homeschooling in general, but I have never met a student as well rounded, polite and generally intelligent.

I know that there are pros and cons to homeschooling from a teachers point of view and from a students point of view. My student has often said that the best part of attending public school is his classmates. Although socializing is not the top priority of any school, we cannot deny the fact that the lack of social skills can destroy the future of even the most intelligent student. With out social skills, it is difficult to work in jobs that require interaction with others and difficult to get a job at all because of limited interviewing skills.

All in all I can say that homeschooled students get more in some ways and must give up things in others. So, it depends on the values of the family and the student.

Education and the Preservation of Culture

ajpelfrey — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:20:10 +0000

Education does a lot for the preservation of culture. As long as we teacher arts and humanities, social studies, literature and history, we are working to preserve our culture. By sharing the past with our students, they are able to understand the evolution of our culture and in turn, they understand themselves. To really understand the culture, students need to understand all of the people and other places that have influences us. History, especially lends itself to teaching students about culture; they are able to see where traditions, languages and even food came from. Today, technology also aids us in keeping our culture alive. We have endless information at our fingertips and we are educating our students in the ways to best take advantage of it.

The Purpose of Education

ajpelfrey — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:09:43 +0000

I have read several definitions of education. All of them seem to have one thing in common; they center around the idea of developing knowledge and skill. With such a simple definition, that seems fairly clear cut, why all the controversy and disagreement about what education really is, or rather the purpose of it. I have been playing the waiting game for weeks to find out what my job was to become, not by my choice of course. Senate Bill 1 has dramatically changed the content that I will cover for the rest of the year.

Many years ago, few teachers would have been so interested in the activity of our senate, however, these days our state assessment drives instruction. So, I revisit the question, what is the purpose of education? The purpose of education used to be to produce capable citizens. Students were taught the things that they needed to know in order to be productive members of society. I am not saying that students don’t learn these skills today, but it seems to me that the true purpose has become blurred. Sadly, I don’t always think about how successful my students will be when they graduate from high school or college or what I can do to ensure their success in the real world. Because the importance of testing has always been stressed so strongly to me, I am more likely to think, what can I do to get this student to proficient?

I hope that with the changes that Senate Bill 1 have provided will echo in the ideas that too many of have about education. I hope that we will all find the true purpose in education, for the sake of our students.

Culture and Technological Innovation

ajpelfrey — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:44:13 +0000

In our culture we are constantly demanding something new and better. Take cell phones for example, (as a teacher, I love this one) my students’ cell phones do more than my home computer and still they talk about the newest one released. We are never satisfied, always searching for something a ittle more exciting when it comes to technology. Its all about culture. You can’t turn on the television of any popular search engine without an adveryisement for some new device. Because the consumers want it there will be someone out there testing, trying and inventing the next new thing.

When it comes to education, I think that we follow the same trend. We are always searching for the next big thing to assist us in reaching our students. Once again, its our culture. If it is out there, we will see it and want it.

Mob Rules

ajpelfrey — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:03:52 +0000

I found Mark Pesce’s post, “Mob Rules” very interesting. The antecdotes were my favorite and helped me o make connections between the rules and education. The idea of the fisherman made me think of myself in a similar situation last week. I was in the middle of a lesson fueled by technology when the school’s power went out. I thought about passing out an “emergency worksheet” but I changed my mind. I went on with my lesson, minus the technology of course. Just like the fisherman, even the removal of my main form of communication could not destroy my network. Sometimes I wonder if I rely too heavily on technology, but this proved that technology is just a support for something that I can do on my own.

Equity in Education

ajpelfrey — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:47:35 +0000

Who wants equity? It is my experience that no student needs exactly what another recieves. Yes, I do treat stuents differently based on their needs, not on their gender or race. Do special education students recieve exactly the same instruction and assessments that gifted studemts recieve? Not in my class. All of my students have the same opportunities and the same resources available to them, but in order for them to be successful they are treated exactly the same. I believe that NCLB has hindered the idea of educational equity in some ways. Although we supposed to be “closing the gap” how is that possible in a classroom of students who recieve cookie cutter instruction and assessments, where students are not given options in the ways that they show that they have met their objectives. I believe that we have the responsibilty to our students to treat them fairly….not teach them fairly.

Media Literacy

ajpelfrey — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:27:32 +0000

After viewing the presentation at http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/1301, I immediately added Alex Couros to my ‘gator. I thought it was very informative, I especially enjoyed the section on scams. At a time when many of these issues are becoming increasingly important to our students, we should be informed. Cyber bullying has made its way into the school where I work and it is a scary thing that is beyond the control of even the best teacher or administrator. It made me think about how much our culture has changed since my time in middle school (I am sure that was the plan, Lowell). Culture is not only affecting the ways that we learn and teach with technology, but also the way we discipline. I am certainly not blaming technology, people have been bullying and scamming for years; I guess that the www has allowed people to do so in more creative ways.

Production Models and Learning

ajpelfrey — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:07:39 +0000

We can learn a lot about learning through studying production models that have been successful. One of the most important strategies behind these successful production models is that of selecting a reaching a targeted audience. The best example of this comes from a post by Marc Pesce’s: Unevenly Distributed: Production Models for the 21st Century, which shares a story about a producer, Rhonda Byrne who was forced to resort to a slightly different production model than she had originally planned. When the television station that had agreed to air a television program she decided to release it to DVD and began targeting specific audiences that she believed would be interested. It was a huge success and more than likely, if her original plan had worked out, the program that was so popular to the targeted audience would have been a total flop among the general population. This idea shows that we must reach a targeted group when lessons are being planned; what seems amazingly interesting to one group, is probably equally boring to another. I am not a strong believer in learning styles, but I think that this is proof that in order to be successful in teaching we must met our targeted audience’s interests.

Thin Walled Classrooms

ajpelfrey — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:17:07 +0000

Thin walled classrooms ar a prime example of the type of teaching that I wish to do, that is the kind of teaching where I am not always the teacher. I have heard of classes becoming involved in small projects in which the students comunicate with other classrooms and serve as teachers to each other. But the idea of a thin-walled classroom is much bigger than that. It seems to be an e-pal program to the extreme, where the relationship between teachers an students evolve and change. The idea behind this is that students have and become online mentors. Two classrooms, in two different countries could correspond, teach and learn from ach other. There are no boundaries in this sort of classroom that allows students to learn through exploring instead of listening to a lecture, trapped within the four walls of a classroom, hence the name thin-walled.