Mr. Hesen’s Magical History Tour

Throughout this semester I have learned a great deal about incorporating technology into the classroom, as well as developing interesting ways to create meaning out of content area lessons.  One of the biggest misconceptions that I brought into this semester was that because we live in a technologically-based society ALL of our lessons had to be tech-based.  What I’ve learned this semester is that technology works for some lessons, but not others.

I’ve also discovered that not all schools in Wicomico and Worcester Counties have equal technological potentials.  Because of funding or other reasons, there is a great digital divide among the counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.  As a result, students are not being exposed to technology at an early age and many are missing out completely.  Many of the schools here do not have the same capabilities within the same wing of the building.  As a teacher I intend to use the technology available to its fullest and continue to learn additional methods and strategies to incorporate technology in my lessons.  If my school does not have adequate facilities, I plan to write grants and look for outside sources of money to purchase and utilize the newest forms of technology.

As teachers we don’t always have to resort back year after year to the same PowerPoint presentation.  Instead, we can incorporate small features, like video, audio, and pictures to add novelty and meaning to our content areas.  Using technological gadgets that students already own and incorporating them into lessons is also a valuable approach.  With little know-how and time spent, a teacher can really enhance his or her students’ learning experiences and effectively appeal to the students’ multiple intelligences and learning modalities.

Technology has played a major role in our lives this semester. More importantly, technology use in the schools drastically affects student learning and understanding. Unfortunately, teachers are underutilizing available technology in their classes and area also having problems with shared classrooms.

Stephen Decatur High School (SDHS) is Worcester County Public School’s pride and joy. A multi-Blue Ribbon winner for several years, SDHS is the epitome of what a school should be. SDHS has one problem though; many of its teachers are tech-illiterate. Along with document cameras and state-of-the-art projectors, teachers at SDHS severely underutilized their technology. Moreover, school districts, like Worcester County, will be moving toward hiring freezes and budget crunches, forcing highly qualified teachers with technology experience not to apply. Phil brings up an excellent point by mentioning the fact that many schools have all of this technologically advanced “stuff” at their disposal, but choose not to incorporate it into their lesson or don’t know how to.

Another problem that I have been a part of recently is the equal availability of technology throughout the school. For example, a teacher that I subbed for at a Wicomico County school this morning mentioned that she couldn’t use a PowerPoint presentation in her second period class because there wasn’t a computer terminal in that particular classroom. Another math teacher voiced her frustration when she found that a document camera in her shared classroom was replaced with an old overhead projector. Problems like this exist all over the place, not just in Wicomico County and can deter teachers from creating technology-based lessons.

We’ve been talking a lot about technology this semester and I’m sure that we’ll continue to talk about it even more after we graduate. I think that as teachers we need to be more proactive with learning new forms of technology and how to employ them in our classes.

More books?  Apple computers?  Graphing calculators?  A ham sandwich? NO, NO, NO, and an emphatic, NO!

According to the April 6, 2009, edition of eSchool News students don’t necessarily want more of anything; they want technologically advanced ways to understand material they are taught in school.  Project Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization focused on improving public schools, maintains that teachers and administrators should “listen to what students say they’d like to see in their schools.”  Project Tomorrow reviewed the results of their national Speak Up Survey.  The group surveyed 280,000 K-12 students, 28,000 teachers, 21,000 parents, and 3,000 administrators between October and December 2008. 

Project Tomorrow’s report focused on five areas where schools can improve the incorporation of technology:  increasing the use of mobile devices; creating different types of spaces for learning; incorporating Web 2.0 tools into daily instruction; expanding access to digital resources in the classroom; and getting beyond the classroom walls to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  Students argued that they would learn more if lessons, research, and projects could be accomplished on their mobile devices.  According to Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, “there’s an acceleration of students’ access to mobile devices, with the largest increasae being seen in middle schoolers.”  Most sixth through twelfth graders offered the idea of a digital textbook, digital representations of their content area classes that can be personalized with electronic highlights and online tutors at all times of the evening.  Students were also interested in “A Day in the Life Of” podcasts to find out more about interesting professions. 

So, what does this mean to us…?  Well, I guess it depends on where you teach.  One of the things that I have noticed substitute teaching and observing in Wicomico and Worcester counties (and I’m assuming the same goes for Somerset) is that there is definitely a large gap in the technological capabilities between the schools in each county on the Shore.  Having said that, I would assume that administrators and teachers would have a harder time adopting specific programs with mobile and alternative technologies with such tight budgets.  Just with the clicker technology I discussed in an earlier blog, I would be a bit hesitant to use some of the technology addressed in the article.  I would really have to know who my students are and how best to meet their needs before attempting something like this.  Maturity level also plays a huge role in the implementation and ultimate success of using technology like this in the classroom.

According to the March 24, 2009, edition of eSchool News, a large number of Republican governors stated that their states will not accept a large portion of the federal stimulus funding, placing their schools in the middle of a heated political debate that will surely affect their budgets.  The GOP’s key mover, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, claimed that she would accept only 69 percent of the estimated $930 million of federal funds that her state sould ultimately receive. 

Governor Palin’s $160 million rejection shocked and disappointed Carol Comeau, Anchorage Superintendent of Schools.  Comeau stated that “we believe that we can make very good use of thefunds, not only in job preservation but also in adding new positions to ultimately use these funds to increase student achievement for our neediest children.”  According to another interview, Comeau said “Anchorage schools were in line for $12.9 million in special education money and a similar amount for Title I programs that serve economically disadvantaged children. The latter money, she said, could give educators latitude to try ‘innovative best practices’ to help students at risk of failing.”  Several other GOP governors around the country also followed suit. Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal, also declined $100 million to expand unemployment benefits for education professionals.

With the current budget cuts, potential hiring freezes, and job losses throughout the United States, one would think that $930 million would reduce the sting of this recession. It seems that Governor Palin, with a potential run at the federal government in 2012, doesn’t want to rock the GOP’s boat, so to speak. Luckily for students and teachers in Alaska, Governor Palin decided to leave the power to request funds to the Alaska Legislature…so as not to blemish her fiscally responsible record.  Unfortunately, it seems that politics have won again; however, on October 2, 2008, during the vice-presidential debate, when asked about education, Governor Palin replied: “You mentioned education and I’m glad you did. I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. We have got to increase the standards. No Child Left Behind was implemented. It’s not doing the job though. We need flexibility in No Child Left Behind. We need to put more of an emphasis on the profession of teaching. My kids as public school participants right now, it’s near and dear to my heart.”

It seems like Republicans and Democrats alike need to stop thinking about their political agendas and begin focusing on what really matters to his or her constituents.

On March 10, Dr. Pedro Noguera spoke at Salisbury University and offered students and faculty a needed glimpse into inequality in American schools.  Dr. Noguera is, without a doubt, correct that there are serious racial inequalities in our schools. With approximately 90% of American children educated in public schools, inequalities, whether racial or economic, are difficult to miss; however, it is rare for a group to come together to discuss and attempt to remedy the problems.  Dr. Noguera looks at our public school system through the lenses of and educator and a sociologist.  As an educator, Dr. Noguera sees schools as a potential haven for learning; as an urban sociologist, he sees how schools are affected by external social and economic factors.  Together, these powerful points of view are motivators for school reform.

Dr. Noguera spoke briefly, albeit tangentially, about the use of technology in schools.  During his time in Oakland, California, Dr. Noguera created an alternative learning center for high school students.  The curriculum centered around the students’ desire to “get out and work.”  Dr. Noguera worked with a local recording studio and Bayer, the pharmecutical manufacturer, to develop two original vocational programs for students to develop the skills and qualities of professionals in the music and biotechnology industries.  I am very curious to learn more about these programs and to find out more about the successes and shortcomings of these programs. 

Although Dr. Noguera’s talk did not focus on technology, I argue that his brief discussion of his experiences in Oakland speaks volumes to the role of teachers in the community.  On the surface, teachers play several roles: educator, mother, father, disciplinarian, friend, etc.  Dr. Noguera hinted that teachers must also be inventors, community leaders, and must have the ability to “think outside the box.”  In urban and low income schools districts it is essential that teachers think past the standard curriculum and work with the schools and communities to create learning environments conducive to the students’ long-term needs.  Oftentimes students are not interested in Aristotle, Roosevelt, and Keynes; however, if teachers can offer alternative methods of learning and enrichment, students will have the ability to thrive.

The Code of Hammurabi

Imagine that you lived in Ancient Near East during Hammurabi’s reign (1796-1750 BCE).  Click on the “Code of Hammurabi” link above to find out what kind of laws you would have lived and perhaps suffered under.  Do you see any parallels to the Ten Commandments?

“In Search of Answers, Teacher Turn to Clickers” - NPR’s All Things Considered, March 2, 2009

Last night on NPR’s news program, All Things Considered, I learned about Turning Point Technologies’ ResponseCard, a remote clicker that students can use to answer PowerPoint-based discussion questions.  Dr. Conor McLennan, a psychology professor at Cleveland State University (CSU), uses this technology as a way for students to answer lecture questions anonomously, thus minimizing anxiety.  He simply asks students a question, posts the question (normally multiple choice) on a screen, and students answer the question by clicking A, B, C, or D on their handheld device.  Many teachers argue that this new “clicker” technology improves the quality of education by measuring how engaged students are in the material they are learning.  Allison FiFolt, a senior at CSU, mentions that she feels like she’s “on a game show because you get to compete with everyone else.”  McLennan constantly polls his class to determine the students’ interest levels in this new technology. 

I’m skeptical of this new “clicker” technology.  Although using clickers in the classroom appeals to students’ various learning modalities and relieves a certain level of anxiety, there is little-to-no chance for students to reflect on their correct or incorrect answers.  Reflection, as we have learned, is a major component to the learning process.  I also argue that clicker programs reduce students down to a number, which is great for administrators and research teachers gathering quantitative data, but for classrom teachers, I feel that clickers permit a certain level of disconnect between students and teachers.  On the plus side, Turning Point Technologies is currently developing clicker models that permit open-ended questioning and more interaction.  Fortunately, the company is marketing this technology to college campuses (the program runs through iPhone and BlackBerry and we know that high school students SHOULD NOT use cell phones in class).

Composed in 1939 and recorded two years later, Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” remains one of the most popular Great Depression-era jazz recordings.

Imagine you’ve just lived through the toughest years of the Great Depression.  How does Ellington’s song make you feel?  Why do you think Ellington makes references to Sugar Hill and Harlem?  What was going on in Harlem during this time?

Puck – May 23, 1906 – Depicts U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wrestling with Standard Oil trust tycoons, John D. Rockefeller and Henry H. Rogers.

What conclusions can you draw about Progressive Era reforms from this political cartoon?

Check back here each week for a different primary source post!