I just think its crazy how state education officials have ordered Detroit Public Schools to implement a financial restructuring plan. This plan will cause half the schools in Detroit to close which in turn will make class sizes as big as 60 students! Robert Bobb, the districts emergency financial manager is preparing a list of recommended school closures and is also discussing layoffs. He is focused on the deficit elimination plan, but his last day with Detroit Public Schools is June 30th, and then another financial manager must continue to implement Bobb’s plan. This plan is supposedly shrinking the district to 72 schools with about 60,000 students in 2014. In the last decade Detroit has lost about 84,000 students, leading to a loss in state aid of more than $573 million.
Overall, Detroit (and the state of Michigan) needs a long-term solution that will resolve these issues. Unfortunately, no one has a better solution than to close schools, lay off teachers, and increase class sizes.
It’s difficult enough for a teacher to manage a class of 30 students so what makes them think that this increase in class size will work? I feel as if they’re only digging a deeper hole..
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Twitter in the Classroom
Through the educators I follow on Twitter one of them posted a tweet with this article in it: http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/03/5-ways-twitter-has-changed-education/
"5 Ways Twitter Has Changed Education" is a great read which helped me view Twitter in a different way. In summary, it lists that Twitter gives students access to information, helps communicate between school and home, it gives educators real-time professional development instead of waiting around for their schools to set something up, creates a personal learning network, and it captures conversations that used to be deemed 'disruptive'.
Looks like I'm going to be using Twitter as an educator! Check out the link and read for yourself why Twitter is ever evolving in our classrooms.
"5 Ways Twitter Has Changed Education" is a great read which helped me view Twitter in a different way. In summary, it lists that Twitter gives students access to information, helps communicate between school and home, it gives educators real-time professional development instead of waiting around for their schools to set something up, creates a personal learning network, and it captures conversations that used to be deemed 'disruptive'.
Looks like I'm going to be using Twitter as an educator! Check out the link and read for yourself why Twitter is ever evolving in our classrooms.
Prezi
http://prezi.com/mzjpkudk1elw/visual-literacy/
Check out this link to visit my Prezi (For some reason it wouldnt embed correctly).
Many of my classmates in a different class used Prezi last week as a new technology to explore. This week I chose to do the same. Prezi reminds me of a PowerPoint presentation, but more confusing. Maybe I'm used to PowerPoint more, but it was even difficult to start creating a Prezi. After watching the tutorial numerous times I decided to add my own information. Last week I made a website on visual literacy, so I decided to use that information for my presentation.
Prezi is an interesting tool because it's a new way to present information. I learned about Prezi a couple weeks ago, but never had the chance to explore it. After seeing other presentations I realized that students might like this more than a boring PowerPoint presentation. Prezi presents the information in interesting ways, making it seem like a short video.
Im still a little bit confused, but I finally figured out how to input my information into the Prezi. Instead of having a toolbar for creating and editing there is a little bubble in the corner instead. This bubble is pretty much your editing tool, and it doesnt seem to have as many features as a regular toolbar would. After putting in my information, I realized that I had to make a 'path'. This 'path' is the order in which your slides will show up (this took me awhile to figure out). Unlike PowerPoint, you dont put your information on one slide, but rather put EVERYTHING on a background grid-like page, and then you click on your information one by one in whichever order you want to present it. I thought this was super confusing. At one point I was looking for a new grid sheet for my next slide, not realizing that everything went on this one. After making my path, and watching my Prezi I had to go back and edit it multiple times because some of my other information was in the way when the slide came up. I had to make sure my information was spread out enough so that it wouldnt show in other slides. This got super frustrating and annoying because in a PowerPoint I would never have to worry about something like this. Finally, all my information was in, my path was correct, and the slides showed up okay. I wanted to add pictures but I was already annoyed and frustrated at this point.
Dont get me wrong, I like Prezi but I didnt enjoy creating one. Personally I believe that a project like this, or very similar to this, would be extremely beneficial to an entire class of elementary kids anywhere around fourth and fifth grade. I think that at this age, children are old enough to understand how to use technology in order to get a thought across and even to use technology to teach about a certain topic. Allowing the children to explore a new technology will help them out in the future, as well as their classmates because they are also getting exposed to the technology when the students present theirs.
Check out this link to visit my Prezi (For some reason it wouldnt embed correctly).
Many of my classmates in a different class used Prezi last week as a new technology to explore. This week I chose to do the same. Prezi reminds me of a PowerPoint presentation, but more confusing. Maybe I'm used to PowerPoint more, but it was even difficult to start creating a Prezi. After watching the tutorial numerous times I decided to add my own information. Last week I made a website on visual literacy, so I decided to use that information for my presentation.
Prezi is an interesting tool because it's a new way to present information. I learned about Prezi a couple weeks ago, but never had the chance to explore it. After seeing other presentations I realized that students might like this more than a boring PowerPoint presentation. Prezi presents the information in interesting ways, making it seem like a short video.
Im still a little bit confused, but I finally figured out how to input my information into the Prezi. Instead of having a toolbar for creating and editing there is a little bubble in the corner instead. This bubble is pretty much your editing tool, and it doesnt seem to have as many features as a regular toolbar would. After putting in my information, I realized that I had to make a 'path'. This 'path' is the order in which your slides will show up (this took me awhile to figure out). Unlike PowerPoint, you dont put your information on one slide, but rather put EVERYTHING on a background grid-like page, and then you click on your information one by one in whichever order you want to present it. I thought this was super confusing. At one point I was looking for a new grid sheet for my next slide, not realizing that everything went on this one. After making my path, and watching my Prezi I had to go back and edit it multiple times because some of my other information was in the way when the slide came up. I had to make sure my information was spread out enough so that it wouldnt show in other slides. This got super frustrating and annoying because in a PowerPoint I would never have to worry about something like this. Finally, all my information was in, my path was correct, and the slides showed up okay. I wanted to add pictures but I was already annoyed and frustrated at this point.
Dont get me wrong, I like Prezi but I didnt enjoy creating one. Personally I believe that a project like this, or very similar to this, would be extremely beneficial to an entire class of elementary kids anywhere around fourth and fifth grade. I think that at this age, children are old enough to understand how to use technology in order to get a thought across and even to use technology to teach about a certain topic. Allowing the children to explore a new technology will help them out in the future, as well as their classmates because they are also getting exposed to the technology when the students present theirs.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Article about the ipad..
Another informative article about ipads in the classroom.
"This will be especially valuable for recession-hit school districts, such as Detroit, scrambling for ways to solve ballooning class sizes"
http://www.fastcompany.com/1733662/how-the-ipad-2-will-revolutionize-classroom-education
"This will be especially valuable for recession-hit school districts, such as Detroit, scrambling for ways to solve ballooning class sizes"
http://www.fastcompany.com/1733662/how-the-ipad-2-will-revolutionize-classroom-education
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Screenshot!
I took this while I was making my project for my integrated technology lesson! Screenshots are too cool.. Instead of always having a hard copy of an example I want to show my students I can always make it online and take a screenshot!
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