crazy concepts of a pre-service teacher

Truthfully? I’m all fired up about all this technology that’s growing out there. I do feel that it’s out there too. Maybe a more accurate description would be that it’s outside of me. In my world, it’s the virtual “other”. But, I’m getting there – slowly, but surely. I’m learning and growing and cautiously experimenting. There are so many things that I haven’t even thought to discover…but I’m willing.

Which brings me to my point: shouldn’t we all be willing? I keep telling my classmates/colleagues/friends/acquaintances…okay, why not just call them students? I keep telling the other students in my life – okay, I neglected to include my professors – because I keep telling them all to check out these new things. Jump on the bandwagon, get with the program. Plug-in. Just slightly. Seriously. I mean really: I’m not addicted to technology – I like to be “unavailable”. But, I’m also intrigued by the possibilities.

Surprisingly, I keep hearing the same old excuses when I ask people if they write a blog, if they have a PLN (personal learning network), if they’re on twitter, etc.:

• I’m too busy
• I’d never get to it
• I’d feel guilty
• It would distract me from my work
• I wouldn’t know what to say anyway
• I’ve never heard of that
• Technology’s not for me
• Why would anyone be interested
• That’s just for kids

Honestly, you’d be surprised by the number of excuses people use not to get involved. They don’t see it as an issue either. More than anything else, I’m disappointed in my professors. They don’t seem to see the need to share with others. The worst part is that the people I most admire seem to be the least involved…yet keep talking about the importance of technology. I doubt they even realize how hypocritical they sound. If nothing else, I could use narratives from them: little nuggets of wisdom (both from the good times and the bad). I think there is the belief that the contents of the blog need to be life shattering, or mind blowing or something. They don’t. They don’t need to be ultra-perfect. Maybe that’s it: may they’re afraid that someone might see that they’re human. That can be a hard thing to get past.

So…if I could have one wish for today, it would be that everyone would realize how much we can positively influence one another virtually and just how important such opportunities really are.

This evening I chose to take a few minutes to go through the many emails that I receive in my gmail account. In doing so, I also decided to look through the mass teaching emails that I get from various organizations. In all honesty, I don’t go through them nearly as often as I should. With classes, any reading beyond what’s required occurs far more rarely than I’d like, but alas – that’s simply the way it is.

So, I was reading through the eSchoolNews.com e-letter that I regularly receive and was surprised to see a blurb about a Canadian student at Ryerson University who was nearly expelled for creating a study group on Facebook. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Of course, I had to read more! If you’d like all the juicy details, check out the article in The Windsor Star.

Anyway…back to my state of shock. How could this be happening? Why would an instructor want to rain on a student’s technological parade – particularly when it is being used for good and not evil. I quickly discovered why: apparently, the professor had specifically indicated that students should not work together on their homework assignments and the study group invited students to share the solutions to their Chemistry homework online. Before moving to the discussion of expulsion, the University did offer the student an opportunity to continue using the virtual study group as long as the request for homework solutions was removed. Of course, the student chose not to make the adjustment to the website, standing up for his rights. In this instance, I’m not so sure that he was doing that. It seems to me that this situation could have easily been avoided particularly since the professor requested that students not work together on their homework. Any thoughts?

For those you of who may not have heard, there is a new charter school opening up in Upper Manhattan in the fall of 2009: The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School. I think the creation of this school will place a new lens of criticism on education in this country. In all honesty, for many reasons, I hope the project is successful. With any luck, I hope to work at this school eventually or one like it. If you’re interested, the New York Times has even run an article on them recently.

I would like to provide a listing of what makes this school so special. Essentially, I find it most impressive that they are working this hard toward hiring and keeping the best teachers available to their students. Keep in mind that these specifics come directly from their own website:

• a professional work-day that includes daily peer observations and co-teaching
• three preparation periods on most days (in addition to lunch)
• one subject, one grade level, four different groups of students
• professional development structure is based on an observation model
• each teacher observes his/her partner teacher 1 period per day and is observed by his/her partner teacher 1 period per day
• whole-school service time for teachers daily, 7 hours per week
• a work-year that includes an annual 6-week Summer Development Institute
• a mandatory sabbatical once every five or six years
• a $125,000 annual salary
• the opportunity to earn a significant annual bonus based on school-wide performance ($25,000 possible the first year increasing each year by $5,000 increments)

In all honesty, the news of this project intrigues me. I cannot help but wonder how this will affect the world of teaching, our students, and our professionalism. How will this change how teachers view themselves as well as how parents and other professionals view them? I must say that I am really impressed by the amount of on-going professional development that has been built-in to each teacher’s schedule. It also intrigues me that this organization has decided to bring Latin back into the school schedule. This will certainly assist in improving students’ understanding of language. Of course – the rate of pay is unbelievable. In my mind, good teachers are well worth this level of pay. After all, we are professionals and we are shaping the future of this country.

Good evening, or good morning as the case may be. It seems that we all have our preferences when it comes to night and day. Currently, I am much preferring night. It is Saturday, it is the weekend. It’s funny, weekends should be a time of relaxation; but for me, as a student, they are filled with more intense studying than is completed throughout the week. This should be an oddity, but for me it hasn’t been – not since I went back to school.

I have something to add to my educational wishlist for future students: affordable education. In making this request, I must confess a few different things. First of all, I’m a non-traditional student (which basically means that my brain is a bit older and must choose what information it retains – although that doesn’t necessarily mean that I get to choose how long I can retain it for). Second, because of the expenses, I am forced to take more than a full-load of courses. You may ask why I am whining about this – after all those extra courses are free of charge, no additional cost. What this means to me, despite the fact that I maintain an excellent GPA (currently a 3.75), is that I do not learn the information to the extent that I should and I am forced to rely on a method that is based loosely on the cramming of information all of the time. In all honesty: I don’t like this. I feel as if I am cheating myself. I also feel that I am unable to really focus on concepts, ideas, and subjects that interest me. Worst of all, I recognize that I am beginning to associate schoolwork with things that I would rather not do (primarily because it is all so overwhelming). For me, spending a few hours an evening not studying (or god forbid I should take a whole evening or two off during any given week) puts me behind in my homework. In fact, I don’t think I have been caught up at all this semester. Somehow, I have managed to fake my way through it and often wind up reading texts after the required timeline. I am not proud of this, but it is my reality. Why not wait until summer or break? For me, breaks do not come; they are filled with playing catch-up. And summer…well, that consists of even more classes.

So… again, let’s work on affordable education and loan limits that will allow students to complete their education and prevent students from having to work while going to school. I cannot tell you how often I hear students annoyed that they have to give up a shift in order to do homework or work on a project. This bothers me. A lot. Shouldn’t they be focusing on their education and gaining life experience? Shouldn’t they be volunteering and doing meaningful things for their community? Shouldn’t they be more than slaves to the almighty dollar?

Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

There’s stacks of great supporting material too! Take time to view our some helpful introductory videos, read through our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.

If you’ve got 4 minutes and 55 seconds, we’ve also put together a video introduction that you might like:

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.

And finally, if you like Edublogs but want to be able to simply create, administer, control and manage hundreds of student and teacher blogs at your school or college, check out Edublogs Campus… it’s like Edublogs in a box, all for you.

Thanks again for signing up with Edublogs!