Problem Solved

As a private school we utilize the public schools bus routes. We have three bus routes that each have about twenty students that ride them. Our students are the first ones picked up and dropped off both in the morning before school and in the afternoon after school. In the morning there is a teacher on duty to supervise the bus students because they arrive earlier than the other students are allowed to arrive. After school there is a teacher who gets the students on to the bus and checking them off for safety reasons. I was, am, one of those teachers who was in charge of the bus duty after school. What I had to do was to check the students off on the corresponding bus sheets. Make sure that all the students that are supposed to be on the bus get on the correct bus. The problem is that the bus company was putting pressure on our principal and her in turn putting pressure on the teachers in charge of bus duty to get the students out and on the buses earlier because they were running late for their public school routes.

The principal started to help with getting the busses loaded. As the students were walking out the door she would yell out the names of the students and the teacher doing the bus duty would flip through the three pages of buses and find the students to check them off. This helped the students to get on the bus faster but the lists were not accurate because there were too many students running past and names being called out to get everyone. At faculty meetings it was discussed changing the time school starts or gets out in order to accommodate the bus students and bus company’s schedule.

I talked to one of the other teachers who does bus duty and we talked about why it was so hard to get the students out and on the buses in a timely manner (or by the time the buses needed to leave.) The biggest problem was flipping through the different pages to find the students on each bus. It was nearly impossible for someone new to it and still very difficult for those who knew which student got on which bus. We sat down together and put all the separate pages of bus lists on to one page. Instead of having to flip through pages all of the students are on one list. By doing this we save at least 5-10 minutes getting the buses loaded.

Life is full of complex problems ...

I really like what I do for a living, I love my job. I just wish that I was earning a living doing it. Teachers in general do not make the money that they deserve, but private school teachers earn even less than the average public school teachers do. (Read: I make next to nothing.) This, my friends, is a complex problem that I have been dealing with for the past four years.

The ideal solution to this problem would be to find a public school position similar to the one that I currently hold in the private school. This seems as though it would be any easy problem to solve, but as many of you know it is not easy finding a public school teaching position. (Or maybe it is and I am just doing something wrong.)

In the past I have tried different strategies. My first year I applied for any and all public schools within driving distance for any and all teaching positions that I thought I was the least bit qualified for. This seemed like a good strategy getting my information out to as many school districts as possible, but it unfortunately I was unable to find a public school job.

The next year I started going to job fairs and narrowing down the districts and positions that I applied to. I thought that the meeting face to face with districts letting them get to know me would be better than applying for a million positions online. This seemed like a good idea, but nothing really came of it.

The following year I did was even more specific about where I applied. I cleaned up my resume and spent more time on application essays. I ended up getting a couple interviews. I thought about how other people I knew were getting jobs and realized that the majority of them were getting jobs through networking.

This year I have worked on my resume even more and have started networking with other teachers. I have gained more experience and have joined professional groups. I am going to hopefully be finished with my masters program this summer and I will have then earned an advanced degree.

As much as I do I realize that there are a lot of people and circumstances that are involved in me getting my dream job. There have to be jobs to be had in the area and districts that I am interested in. Those districts and principals have to be interested in me as well.

I don’t think that this problem has been solved yet due to a lot of factors. At first I don’t think I was doing a very good job of searching and applying for jobs. I also did not have experience or any idea what I wanted. I didn’t have good contacts or good interview skills. I am working on all of these things and hope that my luck in finding my dream job turns around this year. Wish me luck!

Secondlife

Second life was an interesting experience. I had never been in a virtual world like that and think it is kind of neat all the different things you can do there. At first it was hard for me to move around and figure things out, but once I was on there for a while it became easier. I think that there are a lot of things I would still have to learn if I were to go on and use it again.

Although we were given a few different choices of places to go, my group chose the ICE place and SL Louvre, I didn’t really see the educational value in doing these things unless the lesson was on how to use second life. Which I think the main goal of that class meeting was to learn how to use second life, but I don’t know how to use it in the classroom.

It seems like it would be a huge liability to have your students sign up for a second life account. I’m not sure how, but I am sure there is some way to shelter them while they are at school and using it for educational purposes, but once they have created an avatar what is protecting them once they are at home and log into second life? Maybe I am off base, but I have a feeling that Second Life is more appropriate for college and possibly high school students (but that might be a stretch).

After doing some research I found that there are a lot of areas in SL set up for education and I would like to explore them some more. There seem to be some cool historic places that are set up and some things that look like they would be really great for ELL students. I, however, don’t think it would be an option in my current position for a few reasons: the bandwidth, the security issues when at school and the liability issues outside of school.

Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 refers to the next generation of the internet. Until recently people were just passive consumers of the internet, just going and getting information. Web 2.0 tools allow the consumer to be the producer by having them create content. Web 2.0 websites include (but are not limited to) social networking, blogs, wikis, and media sharing. There are a lot of Web 2.0 tools out there and the trick is finding good ones that are valuable in schools. The following is a list of some of my favorite Web2.0 sites that I use at school either with my students, collaborating with other teachers, or for preparing lessons.

Wordle
Wordle is a website that allows you to create word clouds by typing in text or linking a website. The site takes all of the words that you typed in and creates an word cloud. The more times that the word is used in the text or on the website you linked to the bigger that word is. You can choose the font, the general layout, the color palate. You have the option of removing words that you don't want or removing common words. I don't like that you cannot arrange the words yourself or make the words into shapes (try imagechef to do that).
I have used this in my class to have the students move around and make word clouds for their classmates giving each of their peers a compliment or positive adjective. I have also used it to make report covers for the junior high students. The eighth graders each year make a collaborative power point of their memories, and this year they put their memory paragraphs into wordle.

Google Docs
In general I LOVE GOOGLE, but Google Docs is a great tool that which is linked to any google account. Google Docs allows you to create, store, and edit documents similar to word docs, spreadsheets, and power points. What is great about Google Docs is that as long as you have an internet connection you can have access to all of your documents so that way you don't have to worry about a flash drive or anything like that. Also, Google Docs is great because you can share your documents with other people and collaborate. This is great because then students working on group projects can collaborate from across the classroom or from their homes across town. It is also really nice because you can import office or any .doc in Google Docs however sometimes the formatting gets a little messed up. I'm not sure that Google Docs is not yet sophisticated enough to replace office, but it is still very useful.

Google Sites
I think I might have mentioned that I LOVE GOOGLE! Google sites is a simple wiki/website creator. Like Google Docs Google Sites is linked to any Google account. Google Sites is really simple that is easy for students or inexperienced teachers to create a website. Not only can Google Sites be used as a website it can also operate as a wiki allowing multiple people to collaborate on one site adding information and sharing comments. As the owner of the site you get to determine who can do what on the site. I recently used this to start creating my own website for school. I know that Anne had used this with her students to do a collaborative project with a class from across the world on Challenge 20/20. Google Sites is a little limiting in that you are limited to their templates and people collaborating must have a Google account. (Note: You can sign up for a Google account using any email address.)

Zamzar
I don't know about your schools, but at mine YouTube is blocked. I understand that there is a lot of questionable content on YouTube, but there is also a lot of really great stuff on there. (TeacherTube is a great alternative) Getting to the point, Zamzar is a file conversion site that you can use to convert YouTube videos into a number of different video formats. You can also convert all different types of image, doc, and video files. Zamzar will take a file or URL and allows you to choose the file format you would like and then emails you the newly converted file. The site is free up to 100mb and for bigger files you have to have a paid subscription.

Backflip
Backflip is a social bookmarking website similar to something like Delicious which is like bookmarking something on your computer but instead of just bookmarking it locally it is on the web so you can access your bookmarks from anywhere with a computer and internet connection. I prefer Backflip because of the way that it is organized. You create different folders like you would on your computer. Mine, for example, is broken down by websites for classroom teachers to use, ones for students, and ones that I use. Within each of those folders it is broken down by grade level. It allows you a brief description and an option to publish your folders so that other people can look at your directories. Mine can be found at www.backflip.com/members/misspelsor but I am still developing it (Have any good websites that I should add?) There is also a button you can add to your web-browser to "backflip" any page that you visit and really like. The only drawback that I have found is that sometimes their site takes a little longer to load.


Picnik
Picnik is a great photo editing site that has a lot of free features and also a paid subscription option. At school we have taught the students how to use PhotoShop which is great as well, but is not something that everyone has. This past school year I had my students manipulate their school photos in Picnik. There are all kinds of filters that you can apply, stickers, text, and a whole lot more. You can upload images or you can link you your Flickr, Picasa, or PhotoBucket account. I still used Photo Shop with my classes, but it is also nice to let them know that they have access to free things on the web too. (Foto Flexer is another great photo editing site.)

Ning
Ning is a social network organized by specific interests. This is not something that I have used with my students, or something I am sure I would, but it is great for connecting with other teachers. I belong to a Ning of Elementary Computer Teachers where I can go and ask for help or suggestions, share neat projects that I have done for others to do, or see what everyone else is doing. Nings are nice because, depending on how they are setup, require that you have permission to join a group and its limited to only people with similar interests.
There are so many more great Web 2.0 tools and to find more go to Go2Web20

Evaluating Web Based Materials

Evaluating web based resources is very similar to evaluating any resource. You must look at authority, objectivity, authenticity, reliability, timeliness, relevance, and efficiency.

Authority - You want to know who they author is and why they are writing the information. It is also important to consider the author’s background in the field in which they are writing.
look for author information on the website ... is an author even given?
Objectivity - You need to think about where the information is coming from and if that source has a bias. You need to acknowledge if the information is fact or opinion and if other theories or opinions.
One thing you can do is look at the URL. If it is “.com” it is a commercial site; “.edu” is educational; “.gov” is a government site; “.org” is from an organization; “.net” is miscellaneous; and “.mil” is maintained by the military.
Authenticity - You want to know if the information is a primary source or a secondary one. See if the information has been reviewed by others for accuracy.
is it peer reviewed or a place with comments or feedback?
Reliability - Is the information that you are looking at accurate? Think about who is sponsoring the website (school, organization, business) the information and what their motive is (sell, inform, persuade.)
is there a bibliography? a corporation or
Timeliness - Look at when the information was published and if the links are current.
is there a copyright or publish date?
Relevance - Decide wether the information on the site is relevant to your research. You want to think about wether it is at the appropriate level with appropriate information. See if the site covers enough information and is in depth enough.

This is something that I have struggled a lot with since I took my position as elementary technology teacher. Both in looking for sources to teach and in reviewing sources the older students used for projects. I think it all comes back to realizing that just because you found it on the internet it may not be true.

One debate on this topic that I find really interesting is the debate over the accuracy of Wikipedia. Judging from this criteria it seems that Wikipedia would be a good source. It is intended for informing and is maintained and peer reviewed constantly. Although some people may have a bias one way or the other in most instances it represents multiple viewpoints. There are links that cite where the information is coming from and a lot of time links about who wrote the article.

Internet - Friend or Foe?

The Internet is a great tool that can be used in many ways to enhance learning.
Teachers can use the Internet to find more in-depth information to enhance their everyday teaching, to collaborate with other teachers, to provide opportunities for students to use the Internet to practice skills and learn new ones. Students can use the Internet to do research for projects, practicing skills and learning new ones, social networking, playing games, and all kinds of other things. Without a doubt the Internet is a great resource for anyone. It makes it possible for you to learn anything, find anything, share anything.

Just like any tool if it isn't used properly it looses its effectiveness.
As a teacher it is important to show the students how to use the Internet wisely, effectively and properly. There is a lot of information on the Internet with very little safeguards to ensure that the information is reliable and valid. The internet is growing so fast and anyone can post anything they want which leads to a lot of incorrect information, therefor teachers need to show their students how to figure out who posted the information? where was it posted? why was it posted? and when was it posted? Not only is there a danger of being misinformed on the internet there is also the risk of running into inappropriate websites and clicking on ads.

As a teacher our job is to teach the tool.
The Internet is a pond of murky water, but within that murky water there are some really great fish (or resources). This pond has become an integral part of our everyday life, a tool which all our students must learn how to use. It is like teaching a student how to use a dictionary. They may think they know how to spell, but if they don't know how to look something up in a dictionary they won't know if they are spelling correctly or to find out how to spell words they don't know about. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.

All in all ... the internet is a great tool that comes with a lot of responsibility.