Why Wireless? Good question.

The article I choose to review and reflect on would be the “why wireless” article from the month of November, solely because that is my birth month. I found it very interesting that a high school would allow there internet to be wireless for the students’ personal devices. This is probably because I am one of the people asking “why”!? Why would you offer a link to further distraction to teenagers who are already wanting to be anywhere other than in the classroom anyhow. I am still skeptical of the whole thing. I know for a fact that if I were to of had my laptop in class that I would of not given it a second thought to see what was going on with my Facebook or my Myspace. I can say this because I do it to this day even though I am paying for school now.
The article, however, did give me another point of view. It allowed me to see that with the internet so readily available to students, if an unanswered question came about, it would be no problem to get in groups and get if figured out. I can understand the necessity of the internet that is coming more and more everyday. I know that teachers today, just like teachers before, do not have the answers to every question and having a tool that would basically eliminate that problem from ever occurring is wonderful. I firmly believed, though, that the only way to get the full potential of this idea would be to have some strict rules and maybe a couple site blockers. Which I am sure are already in progress.

Image With Title & Alt Tags

Technologically Illiterate Teachers

After reading the article "Is It Okay To Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?", I was baffled, to say the least. The analogy that a teacher who is technologically illiterate today can be compared to a teacher who was unable to read 30 years ago really enticed me to absorb as much technology as possible. I can surely remember sitting in high school and clearly knowing more than my teacher did (when it came to computers and whatnot), but I never thought to much about it. However, I can see how far technology is taking us and being unable to use it to its full potential would be like not having a mouth. I can foresee that technology is something that the everyday Joe should be familiar with, so why not the teachers who are educating are future leaders?
I know exactly what the article is talking about when it describes how people who are technologically illiterate play it off as coy or 'no big deal'. I can to some extent see how people would much rather just laugh it off than to try and learn or do something about it. However, when it come to teachers and school officials, I find it unacceptable. How can we make children want to learn if we are unwilling to ourselves? I just feel like, perhaps, teachers who are not willing to try and better themselves are only providing excuses for students to do the same.

International Blogging!

The first international classroom I found using blogs in the classroom would be a class from Australia. The teacher, Mrs. P, calls her site ALL STARS and it's for all her year 4 and 5 students (from what I can gather, it seems to be the equivalent to American middle school). This teacher uses her blog site to keep everyone informed on what is going on in the classroom. The new school year just started for them in January, so there isn't much up for this year. She has links set up for each student's personal blog and some interesting site to visit. The picture I have up is the only picture that showed some aspect of the classroom. I could not find a bio or a picture of the teacher. I could not even find out the name of the school, all I know is that they are located in Australia. Here is a link to their website http://allstars.edublogs.org/.

The other international classroom blog site I found was Mrs. Kelso's "The Almighty Bloggers", a classroom for 11 and 12 year olds located in Auckland, New Zealand. The first thing I noticed on this blog were the pictures posted of the class learning how to sail! (I have to admit that I am jealous!) There are a couple other posts containing information about various things and an interesting way to multiply. There, of course, if a list of the students and their blogs. There is also a link to some "related sites" but that's about all for this site. There was also no bio or information on the teacher. The picture I have is from the class learning how to sail, and a link to this blog is http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=71175.

Blogging in School!

When searching the internet for examples of schools who required their children to blog the first interesting site I came to was Mr. C's Class Blog. They are a fifth grade class from Noel Elementary School. The teacher uses the same blogger as we do for class. He puts up important information, such as vocabulary words and specific blogging assignments. He also has great pictures from different activites in class (probably for parents more than anything). He even adds a little bit about himself and what he did over the weekend. Then, of course, he has some "imortants links", like links to the school, diferent class links, and links to each one of the children's blogs. The picture I posted is one from his main website.

The next class I happen to find, interestingly enough, is another fifth grade class taught by Mr. Monson. This is for the class Nettleton Science, Technology, and Reading Magnet School. He does not use the same blogger we do, he uses blogmeister, however, the format is still easy to follow and navagate. The most noticable detail would be the class schedule, which is very detailed and I am sure that parents enjoy. He has posted some information about himself and how he got his start. There are classroom assignments listed and links to all of the student entries. There is also a long list of links that are related to either the school or the assignments or to the events going on. The picture I have is of Mr. Monson that he has posted in his "About Me" section.

Powerpoint Presentation

My PowerPoint presentation will include some of the things I love about life and some of the things I don't love about life. There is a lot more to me, but there are not enough slides in the world to cover every aspect of my life. I am pretty easy-going up-spirited person and I think you can see that from the presentation. I am simple, a couple of my favorite things in life would be the people I care about the most! & I am sure that most of the things I do not enjoy will be shared with quite a few people in the class. I hope that everyone likes it because I enjoyed making it.

a little about me..

My name is Amy Moseley! I am going to USA to become a math teacher. I am majoring in education and doubling in mathmatics. My overall goal, however, is to teach high school and go back to school at night and achieve my masters and teach college. I like going to South because it's close to home and I don't plan on moving too far away from Mobile. I've lived in the same house my entire life except for one short year when I attempted to move in with one of my best friends. Needless-to-say, she and I are not friends anymore and here I am back home. I would not have it any other way, I love my family.
When I am not at school, you can find me at Wintzell's Oyster House. I wait tables theres and will most likely be there until I graduate. I absolutely love it (for the most part) because I meet so many different kinds of people. Other than work and school, I don't do too much. What an exciting life I live! :)

ACCESS granted!

Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS) is a plan that was brought about by Governor Bob Riley and Dr. Morton to help bring a higher education to high school students, who otherwise would not be able to achieve it due to lack of resources. The plan is an Internet based set of course that high school students can take over the Internet. High school students can earn credit for classes that they may not have available to them. It achieves this by having teachers who are certified to teach these subjects become e-teachers from feeder schools to other schools that will receive the education. It opens the door to many different opportunities for students like dual enrollment courses, advanced placement courses, advanced diploma options, and much, much more.
Depending on what the school system and the Alabama Department of Education can determine teachers will receive great resources to help fulfill all the needs to this huge project. They will get cameras, new smart boards, Internet service with routers, and specialized training for the e-teachers and the receiver school. It is an extremely expensive plan, costing about $100,000 per school. I know when I was in high school I took 2 dual enrollment courses (that I received college credit for) and 2 advanced placement courses (that I did not receive college credit for) but I can only imagine how far ahead I would have been if sources like this would have been available to me.

a picture for you to view!

This is my dog, Pookie. She is the best thing in the whole world!

ALEX in my classroom?

I have to admit that I was somewhat relieved to be introduced to this website. While I am sure that in the future I will be taught how to create a lesson plan, and whatever else I may need, it was nice to be able to see a glimpse of the future. Being able to see different techniques of getting a concept across is great. Everyone has a different approach of doing things and if I were stuck or did not feel I was being very clear this could easily open my eyes to a different way. My field of study is math and I am wanting to teach the high school level, so I went threw some of the math lesson plans for algebra and algebra II. There were fun projects and all sorts of interesting ways to make a child's learning experience a little more enjoyable. I am just excited to see what will be out there in just three years (when I graduate) and even further down the road that will be there to help me out even more.

Meet ALEX

The Alabama Learning Exchange (Alex) is a helpful database full of information from teachers all over Alabama. This information consists of lessons plans of teachers from all subjects imaginable, and also every grade level from kindergarten throughout high school. Along with the lesson plans there are some examples of what to instruct. There is a place to log in and create your own lesson plans to add to the database. The website itself is very easy to navigate and self-explanatory.
The resources it has available for the teachers are just wonderful. There are links to websites with instructions for eligible grant money. Just thumbing threw the website I came across numerous things that sparked my attention. I found a super helpful "Tips and Tricks" link that basically went over everything we are going to go over in this class. It is so exciting to think about all this technology at our fingertips. I wonder how different my learning experience, as a child, would have been, had this kind of source been available to my teachers.

Shift Happens, Indeed.

This short film has really opened my eyes to the world that we live in today. I can only imagine what is to come. Although I do not have any children, I know I would be very upset to find out they were not being properly prepared for the future ahead of them. I am sure that one day it will be virtually impossible to live without being able to operate a computer or some specific piece of electronic gadget that is invented. It is a somewhat scary thought, however, thinking of one piece of machinery having more knowledge than the entire human population. Will people become even more mindless as they rely on that computer, or whatever it is, to do all their thinking for them? Yet, there is truly no way better to stay in contact with people all over this planet. I found the statistics that were shown about myspace to be very interesting (especially since I am so fond of it). It is impossible for me to imagine the actual number of people that are a part of the huge network. Also, it surprised me to read about the number of jobs a person will go through by the age 38 because I am only 21 and I know I have had at least 10 jobs already. I just really hope that I am fully prepared for what is ahead.