this is  linked to us because of the online course work.  Educational leaders met today at 3:00 EST to discuss “Connecting Students to Advanced Courses Online, a guide for district and school administrators who are working to provide students with greater access to online advanced coursework. The panel will discuss several topics, including what services to expect from online providers, how to ensure course quality and how to match students with appropriate online coursework.”  This sounds like it is going to start guiding schools into offering courses online at the high school level.  At least that is what I got out of it when I read it.  I didn’t get to see the meeting that they hosted online, but may try to listen in on some of it if  they post it later.  This is something I hadn’t thought of doing, but it seems like a great idea with so many of the colleges going to online classes…. but as for the same questions we have, cheating.  I feel that it is more relevant at the high school level since almost all of my students cheat in class, so I know they wouldn’t hesitate to cheat on the internet.

Channel one idea

I have talked about watching channel one before and I assumed that everyone watches it or at least knows what it is.  It is the news channel that comes on everyday of the week for about 10-15 minutes. It talks about issues in the news that concern our students.  Anyways, it mentioned grading the parents.  (Did anyone else see that)  I loved all the feedback that came back from it.  They said things like the parents have other things to worry about and should NOT be bothered with it.  I almost wanted to laugh out loud in front of the students.  I am a parent and I spend 7 hours a day with everyone else’s kid and still come home and work with my son on home work and spending time with him.  They said that it was working in one part of Pennsylvania but it didn’t work somewhere else because the questions were to specific or personal.  like:  how much time do you spend with you student and do you help them on homework.  I am beginning to think that teaching is the fall guy for poor parenting.  We have to stop giving our students food because their parents haven’t raised them with good eating habits so we have too.   The students don’t get enough exercise so make the school make it mandatory for 4 years of gym.  We have students that can’t learn or sit in class so they are classified with an IEP or 504 for the teachers to work with.  I am sorry to get so mad, but the parents feel that it is our job to teach their kids: respect, good character, courtesy, honor, discipline, and then what ever subject they may actually be teaching.  I would love to know how many new programs have been implemented in the last 5-10 just to accommodate poor parenting. We now have Character Counts in the elementary schools; no food in our classrooms at all; No sweet tea served during lunch; and new guidelines just for our school cafeteria to keep our students healthy.   Can anyone add any more?? I would love to keep an ongoing list.  If you want to watch the Channel One video go to www.channelone.com to watch it on livewire.  Thanks for letting me rant.    

blog questions

I am very frustrated with my blog and why I waited to the last week to ask I don’t know, but does anyone know how to bring up a blog that you have already read.  Once I read them they disappear the next time I long on and several time I have wanted to look back at one.  I assume you can’t unless you have starred it, but I didn’t think it would hurt to ask.  Any takers??

Time Line

Ok, for the slow people (like me) is this our last week?  And do we have anything else due besides our project due and when is that due?  I just want to make sure that we are all on the same page, and I don’t really know our schedule like I should.  I do want to point out that I do plan on using what I learned in this course next semester in my classes.  I am going to work on getting a wiki up and running over Christmas that is password protected to post pictures and give the parents places to comment on what we are doing in class.  I also plan on taking the students into the lab every Friday to do a podcast over definitions or maybe just a “diary” type of what happened to them in math class that week.  I will also look at doing a class blog where they all give me their addresses and I add them to an aggregate for the students to use to post questions on over a weekend or as a way of communicating with each other or me when ever they want to.  If I get their blogs, then I will be able to monitor what they are doing or question for the students to post the answers to on their blog.  I sure hope that I can pull this off well and am not creating too much work for me.  We’ll see!!  Hope everyone else is getting lots of ideas too.  Any math ideas or ideas in general you wan to share with me I would love it.  THanks    

Discipline Disaster

http://dancingnancy533.wordpress.com/2007/12/08/are-you-smiling-now/This blog by Nancy is the greatest link to discipline I have found yet.  THanks Nancy!! I have not only read that blog, but many of the links to links to links (if you get my drift).  I recently had a chat with one of the other teachers in the building about some of the students that we have in common.  She was asking me if they were just as unruly in my class as in hers.  Well it made me feel a little better knowing that she is having trouble too because this is her 33rd year teaching. It also discouraged me because of the same reason.  Just thought I would share.  

Answers

Well I found an answer to one of my questions that I talked about with the global testing.  I asked if the US even took the test.  On channel One the next day after I posted, they had the answer.  Yes, the US did take the test but placed lower than 16 countries in math and lower than 25 in science or vice versa, I can’t remember.  So we obviously aren’t number on in those two subjects.  This makes me wonder why we think we are number one in education and if we are supposed to be one of the riches countries and all the other countries are so poor, why are they beating us in education?  Maybe money isn’t everything.  Or maybe it is  the reason we are doing so badly.  We are so spoiled that we don’t want to have to work for anything, we just buy it from China or Japan.  Great.  That is a country to be proud of there.  Don’t get me wrong I love my country, but I am a little disappointed in the downhill slide that we are in.  

Project Progress

I have been just putting the finishing touches on my project and I think I am done. I will wait and see what the rest of the group members feel about it before I become totally finished. I am nervous as the end gets closer that I won’t have enough points for an A or B. I just need to get the classes so that I can eventually get a masters degree so that after 28 years in school, I might be able to take a break. ( that is counting elementary, middle, high, undergraduate and graduate)

Testing

I read this blog by Jill Mahoney about the test scores in Canada and several things stood out to me. First, the test was written by the same age students that are taking it, but these students are from 57 countries. THis is a smart move, in my opinion, because it measures the knowledge of our 15 year old globally and you know the test is at the level of each student in the 57 countries. Second, they only take one part of the test every three years. They are not being TESTED to DEATH like some other country I know.. US. It cycles between reading, math, and science to keep the world moving together. THis also gives a country time to revamp it’s educational system if they score badly. Third, the last question I have is did the US take this test? Out of all the tests we are required to take, this is one we opt out of, I’m sure. From the blog, if we did take it we didn’t rank in the top 11.

Mixed up

I just wanted to do a little commenting on some of the blogs I have been reading. I don’t have a particular comment on just one, but together as a whole I have thoughts. One big thought is what do you get a mac user or a tech person for Christmas. A lot of the Muhlen (I think that is how you spell it) blogs that I have been reading are based on mac and what mac has to offer. I am looking myself into the Microsoft office for mac because I need the word, Excel, and Powerpoint to do lots of our assignments. THen I read about OpenOffice with Kim (I think that was you) being able to do things with that and I think Muhlen blogged about that also. Nate told me about it last week, but was unable to download it on my macbook. So I am confused on what works with mac and what doesn’t. I have Parallels so that I can convert over to a PC, but don’t have Windows to run it yet. (waiting on the money, that is expensive.) So, I think that is enough for one blog. I don’t like to ask too many questions or have too many topics in one blog. Any advice for a mac user would be great on what to get so that I can do word, excel, and powerpoint. THanks

Gas Prices

I spoke with my Grandmother in New York the other day and we got to talking about gas prices. It is .27 cents more up there then down here. I don’t understand. Don’t we all get our gas from the same people at the same cost. So why do they pay more just because they live in New York. I think that we need to get together and say enough is enough. Of course, I can say that no problem, but acting on it is another story. I wish there was a way to get the price of gas down. Just a thought, I know it is off the topic.