Tests

So for one of my classes, our project is to create a test (with so many objectives written and everything) but we have to have a certain number of questions, so i based the objectives around something that i would be interested in, the gothic and transcendentalist periods. it's becoming more and more clear how difficult it is to come up with a set amount of multiple choice, true and false, etc. for a unit that would be fit more iwht a few essay questions...it's just a little frustrating to try and stretch it to fit the assignment guidelines he gave us -_-

Is it a bad sign that i still get nervous talking in front of people?

I don't get overly nervous or anything, and i always make sure that I'm prepared for what ever i'm doing, it's just the fact that giving a formal presentation in front of people makes me cringe. I don't enjoy getting in front of people who expect me to have every word that im going to say planned out, it just bugs me. I like the setting of informality in a class, it makes it more relaxed, i can't be the only one, right? I know that you still have to have control over the class, but there has to be a way to mix informal and formal class for a high school, because high schoolers are a little more difficult to control than a college class. It's just something that i've been thinking about lately, I like informal classes because they're more relaxed, but at the same time, i don't want every class i teach to be hectic if i can't control them.

Satire

This is more or less for fun, i saw my friend post a link to this site http://scoopertino.com/ which is just a bunch of fake articles about new products or events, much like the onion for those of you who are familiar with that. I guess the way i'm relating this back to a teaching point is how important would you guys feel a satire unit would be? did anyone have a class where that they talked about satire in? The few days that we got to study satirical articles in high school was probably my favorite topics we covered, i feel like it's important to understand the background of satire and early works of satire, so i'm just wondering if anyone thinks they would spend more than a couple days covering in a school context

mixing styles

I always feel like it's a really good idea when you attempt to to do kind of hybrid between two different styles of activity, as in using two types of activity in a single class. I feel like it really helps the thinking process when trying to comprehend a concept or story or even dialogue when you get to look at it in multiple angles. I feel like when i'm teaching in a school, i'm going to use as many of these activities in my class, so this class is particularly helpful in that like. what do you guys think? how often would you use most of the things we've gone over? once a unit, or more or less?

I hate to be that student...

...but i usually am that guy that always forgets to keep up on assignments like this. For instance, i don't even remember when the last blog i wrote was. I don't deliberately ignore these, it's just when i have time to write them i usually forget all about them and when i remember that i have to write something still, i have no time to write them or i'm already working on something else.
So i guess when i end up teaching that will help me, i have always been forgetful about this kind of thing, and i remember having teachers that just refused to accept that fact that i forgot to do an assignment, and i know that i don't want to be like that. I want to be the kind of teacher that's accepting of the fact that students will make mistakes like i do, because being called out in the middle of a high school class because you forgot your homework is one of the most embarrassing feelings

writing

I know i talk about it almost every chance that i get in class, but writing has always been important to me. the reference i wrote our past paper on is about exactly that as well. it spoke mostly about how little writing is done in the classroom anymore, to the point that it startled me. i didn't realize the extent to which writing has been kind of blown off to make more time for the other two "R"'s (reading and arithmetic) mostly because of the standardized testing that takes place in schools now. i feel that's really wrong to do. so i pose a question: does anyone else feel we need to have a revolution of the standards? because writing properly is one of the most valuable skills someone can have no matter what feild theyre in.

just a random thought

As important as i think keeping ourselves updated on trends online with students as we grow older, I feel like it's important to keep something in mind: the students are probably going to know a lot more about the technology they grow up with than we are. We even encounter it ourselves, i know i've mentioned it in a past blog, but a class i'm in now almost assumes we don't know anything about basic programs we've used to write papers and make presentations since middle school, but we're basically talked to as if we don't know anything about what we're dealing with.
i feel like if we're going to try to incorporate a "new" tech into a classroom, we shouldn't assume that the students know nothing about it, but instead inquire through a survey or class discussion what they DO know about it, so that we don't spend an entire class explaining how to use something that they have been using for years.
just a though though.

Fakebook-thing

This idea for a lesson really interested me, mostly because it's something that has a lot of range for use in the classroom. I have seen a bunch of internet comics that use the concept of a fake facebook to make a page for famous people, but i had never thought to use it in a class before. This and comic life are two programs that i'll almost definitely use when i'm a teacher simply for the fact that there are so many possibilities and freedom for the student's project and it would be a fun way to show comprehension of a story. Other than that, i can't really think of a good way to incorporate it for classroom use...thoughts?

Philosophy in high school: thoughts?

When i was in high school, the only real idea of philosophy I had was that old greek guy Socrates and a vague concept about the ideas of philosophy like "nothing is real." Then I got here and took a philosophy class my sophomore year here and I realized what i had been missing. It really does make you think more "out of the box" and that's kind of what critical thinking is all about.
I just thinking how helpful to would have been to be exposed to that line of thought before I got to college, anyone think the same?

Newsletter

For one of my classes, we have to do this newsletter assignment. It's also an education class, and deals with technology in the classroom, but it approaches it a lot differently. For instance, this newsletter assignment is about basically making a school paper like they use to bring around for students to buy. I like the idea of it, but it's also really...meaningless.

We've all known about the different tools that tools like Word offer to make your document look nicer, and that's basically all this is. I haven't gotten anything new out of doing this project. When the professor announced the assignment, my first thought was "alright, this could be kind of neat to work on" and then i read the instructions and all we have to do is make a couple borders around somethings and change the page color (more or less). I didn't have to use one tool in Word that i wasn't already acquainted with from high school, which made me think about high school a little bit.

Remember back in the day when we got those assignments that no body liked to do, but it seemed like every teacher thought it was a great idea? That's pretty much how i felt about doing this assignment. Which made me think "wow, when I'm a teacher, i never want to put my students through this feeling." So i guess that's why i seem to get excited about project that are more open range, with a lot of freedom of what you can do for it, because you can actually do something you enjoy, instead of just putting a border around a document.

comical

Of the presentations that we had today in class, i feel the one that i am most likely to use is the Comic Life lesson that Ryan presented. Altered of course, because i feel like 12-14 class days is excessive to spend on one simple project. i feel that humor belongs in the classroom though, i plan to incorporate it as much as i can once i actually begin teaching, and the comics idea is a good way to let the students have fun with a project they're doing. If you don't enjoy doing something, the quality of it is going to be far lower than if you put your heart into it.  

in class use of tools

Friday we talked a little bit about students who may not have access to the internet or the technology in the classroom at home. I think that it is important to keep this in mind, but we can't simply rule out the use of these technologies because of that. I think that class time should be regulated in such a way so that the class can go to the computer labs of the school, and it makes take time, but it's important to introduce these changes/new tools to the students. A class to introduce the tool, another to answer any questions and straighten things out, and another class or two to do their assignment.

Flash Fiction

Yesterday in writing for non-print class, we kind of talked about flash fiction, but not really. I almost felt like I should have spoken up more while we were on the topic, but it really didn't relate to what seemed to be the main goal of the discussion so I just kind of let it go. I figured this would be a cool place to talk a little bit more about it (assuming I'm doing this whole blogging thing right).

Flash fiction is one of my more favorite types of writing, as I said in class before writing use to be one of my favorite past times. It's just really simple to get started because you really don't have to go really in depth with anything. When you're done, you're done and what you see is what you get. If some one reads it, it almost leaves a lot to the imagination, so the reader gets to fill in a lot for themselves. I think that's what i like about it so much.