My Blog My Vision 5/1/07

My Aha's!

Prior to this class I was scared of not knowing how to utilize technology in the classroom. I felt I was a fairly computer literate person, but had no clue how to incorporate that into a classroom or which programs could be used for educational purposes other than typing up notes, quizzes, and tests.
After completing this class I feel much more comfortable. In no way do I think I am an expert after one short class, but the fear has greatly diminished and I feel like I have a good head start.

I see the purpose of blogs, but feel that personally I will probably accomplish the same results by utilizing a regularly updated website. The ideas behind a blog will be very helpful though. Such as providing the assignment in case a student loses it and having a summary of the class for parents to follow along and actively engage their children in conversations about school.

I like developing an educational philosophy. Prior to this class my opinions on teaching and students was a fairly jumbled mess in my head. Now my thoughts and opinions are organized and written down for myself and others to see. I hope to continue updating my philosophy as my experiences grow and my opinions develop.

Overall I was very happy with the class, what I feel I gained from the class, and how I feel I developed as a future teacher due to the class. :D

My Blog My Vision 4/24

Throughout the textbook Romano has showed us his great vision for education and his ultimate goal of technology dependent curriculum. In these last three chapters he discusses several potential problems with the implementation of this curriculum as well as ways he thinks we can overcome these problems and an intermediate he called the technology enhanced curriculum.

What stands out to me the most is his discussion about standardized curriculum. How is it that something fairly standard in most other major countries is so foreign and terrifying for our educational system? Is it really that terrible to expect students to learn certain materials in a specific grade? Do our teachers not already do this in an informal aspect? I know my teachers always have. Nothing was set in stone, but they usually expected you to have learned certain things the previous year. More than likely they interact with the other teachers and know what you should have learned, but in my mind this is the start of standardization. If teachers can communicate within a school and know what is expected from year to year is it really that horrible and scary for them to group together among a school district, county, state, or even country? We are seeing a start with this with the current state testing systems, but as one of my classmates pointed out in her blog its difficult for the teachers when students transfer from a different state just before the big test. How can that student be expected to do well and is it fair that that students scores (which may or may not be good) are counted in the school's performance numbers?

Is Romano realistic in his ideas? I believe so. No one can argue that things change. There is no stopping change, it happens every day around us in nature and culture and schools, etc. The key thing I looked at when deciding if his ideals are realistic was time line and implementation. First, Romano talks about an intermediate plan of technology enhanced. He understands that most changes must happen in small increments. The other main point for me was that he does not place a time limit on how quickly he believes this will happen. I guess my point is that it will happen we just do not know when. It may be in our lifetime it may not, but I do believe eventually we will be a technology dependent education system.

My Blog My Vision 4/17 (cont)

I forgot to comment on Second Life. Sadly my pc wont run second life. It keeps crashing after logon which according to their help section seems to mean I do not have a good enough graphics card. I will attempt to get online at school tuesday morning as this will be my first chance at a different pc.

From reading the website and listening to Dr. W. and Kai in class it does seem to be a very powerful learning tool. Maybe I can explore it myself this week :)

My Blog My Vision 4/17

It is intriguing to me that high schoolers can do good in online classes when we have discussed many of ourselves not doing well in college online classes. I believe the difference between our failings and their successes brings up the topic again of quality.
From November's chapter is seems clear that the teachers in these online high schools know what they are doing and are really trying to make these classes quality learning experiences. I agree that these classes are not for everyone and that students should not take a full load online. We all know that not all students learn in the same way, hence it makes sense that not all students are well suited for online learning just as not all students are not suited for classroom learning. Despite saying such, the importance of face to face interactions should not be overlooked. Children need to learn how to interact with other kids in order to function well in life later on.
Overall I believe online learning is another great tool in our teaching toolbox, but do not believe that it should ever become our only tool.

My Blog My Vision 4/10

I think primary sources can fit easily into a biology classroom. Students can learn about how and when different aspects of science were developed from the primary sources rather than a boring textbook that only lists off names and dates. Engaging the students with primary sources is shown in the sample stories to result in more animated education.
As more and more primary sources are available electronically this resource easily fits into my educational technology philosophy as another great "technology" driven resource.

Please read-shes one of our own

Hey guys,

One of our fellow students needs our help. She is a masters student in the biology dept here at TAMU-C.

Sheree has been providing a safe home for her one lion for 17 yrs ever since he was 10weeks old with a broken leg. Recently the county has changed rules regarding registration of exotic animals and now due to the sheriff dept's errors she is not in compliance and is fighting to keep her big cat. Please read the article. If you feel inclined to lend your support you can email the journalist or contact Sheree (www.roselanekennel.com) or the sheriff's dept.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/ellis/stories/DN-kauflion_08eas.ART0.North.Edition1.442b1e2.html

My Blog My Vision 4/3 Part2

Perceptions

1. The mind coupled with a computer infinitely amplifies its capacity to perform the basic cognitive functions. Yet, there is no configuration of microchips that replicates the intricate, vital interface between mind and emotions-a basic limitation of computers.

Very simply this perception to me means that computers have their limitations. I think everyone agrees that they have limitations, however with proper use they can be very beneficial. To me this perception is a warning to not become overly dependent and obsessed with only using computers for teaching.

2. Computer technology has been adapted to amplify the capacity of professionals in virtually every aspect of society-with the exception of the teacher. Rationalizing this reality becomes increasingly difficult, since teaching and learning is an information-intensive process.

Technology is everywhere and the younger generations are very attuned to this technology to a level that it is almost a staple in their lives. It is sad that the one aspect of society that is lacking in computer technology is the classroom. I think as the percentage of teachers who are computer literate increases we will see the integration of technology in classroom that has begun to be expected.

3. There is a generalized intuitive feeling that computers should have a vital role in teaching and learning. What is lacking is a sharply focused definition of that role and a strategy for integrating computers into education alongside books and chalkboards-in a mode that secures the teacher's central role.

I believe everyone agrees that computers should have a major role, but no one seems to know how to make it that way and how to balance traditional learning and technology. Some teachers have found a method that works for them, but most are lost and fearful and confused. The reason I am taking this class is to hopefully transition from lost and confused into understanding.

4. Interactive multimedia, stored and retrieved by computer, represents a linkage, or convergence, of print literacy, video literacy, and computer literacy. Its growing importance in contemporary society suggest it be identified by the term the new literacy. Its full potential in the classroom is significant and still to be realized.

The evidence is everywhere to suggest computer multimedia is the new thing. Newspapers published online, journals and journal databases online, even CNN online. Even back issues at your fingertips in case a friend told you about a story you missed. Sadly we point out yet again that it hasn't reached its full potential in the classroom yet.

5. There is ample evidence that after more than a quarter century of high expectations, dedicated effort, and substantial expenditures, computers have failed to improve what happens in the classroom. Additionally, it appears there has been no serious attempt to analyze and thereby learn from this failure.

The part of this perception that grabs me the most is the failure to analyze the failure. Are we not taught from a young age to "learn from our mistakes." Why then has there not been a great effort to see where we went wrong in regards to computers in the classrooms and fix it? Almost everyone sees and understands they haven't been the huge success they were predicted to be, but no one seems to want to look back and understand why.

6. The fundamental role of computers in the classroom is to extend the capacity of teachers to provide individualized tutoring to learners, thus compensating for the disparity in each individuals capacity to achieve.

Computers are one more tool in a teacher's tool belt to ensure all students are presented with a method of teaching that caters to their learning style and thus accelerates their learning.

My Blog My Vision 4/3 Part1

As I read the text and other blogs and see people talking about television and computers being used early in their education all I can think of is its absence in mine. We were lucky to have an occasional film played in class and even then the teacher usually had problems getting the TV and VCR to work. Computers were nonexistent in the classrooms. The only place I recall having computers was in the computer classroom where we were taught the basics of word, excel, and PowerPoint (I need to point out the book taught us as the teacher was fairly clueless). The most ironic thing about this is that I graduated high school in 2000. So my high school was 96-00 and my school district was considered to be one of the most technologically advanced for the area!! SO I can definitely understand where the expectations for technology fell FAR short of the realities. I think one main problem was the inability and apprehension of the teachers. Most of my teachers were a little older and had not grown up with computers and were fearful of trying to learn how to use them.

My Blog My Vision 3/27

Perceptions
1. “All human activity is driven by information; the more demanding the activity- the greater the need for information. Thus information can be termed the fuel that powers the teaching-learning process.”

I find in many cases someone tells you they “want to learn more about…” Whether they have this urge or you the teacher have to give them this urge, it boils down to this perception that information drives learning. As a teacher it is our responsibility to provide this tidbit of information that “hooks” the student into wanting to learn everything there is to know about the subject.

2. “At a fundamental level, it can be assumed that all learning is initiated by information perceived by the senses: specifically, what you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel.”

While some students can learn just fine from a book, most students will learn better with hands on learning. This is the basis behind laboratories in science and agricultural classes. The visual learning doesn’t have to be limited to labs. Current technology allows for more classroom visuals and pc-based learning.

3. “The master teachers of the Information Age are those who develop the capacity to navigate the worldwide oceans of information and selectively retrieve that which can provide and enriched experience for their learners.”

Many times finding accurate relevant information is like finding a needle in a haystack especially for those unfamiliar with technology. It is the teacher’s responsibility to assist students in finding the information. Giving various links to relevant information will help students greatly without having to hand deliver the information. This is also an area to allow students to explore and learn beyond the lecture. If we are briefly covering a topic and a student is interested in more details they can follow the suggested links and learn on their own.

4. “How teaches manage information has a major impact on the outcome of the teacher-learning process. Technology facilitates and amplifies the teacher’s capacity to provide learners with information of higher fidelity in an individualized, interactive mode. Thompson said that the successful teacher primarily manager information, not students.”

There is never one sure way to teach or to communicate with students. Depending on subject, individual students, facilities, and many other factors the teaching will change and vary. I think any teaching method where the students’ benefit is a good one. Romano broke teaching down into four necessary tasks: planning, communication, guidance, and evaluation. You must plan your teaching methods, communicate the information, guide students in their learning, and evaluate their performance and progress.

5. “A verbal description alone of anything that can be seen must be considered a compromise; a compromise made every day in classrooms in an age when technology makes it unnecessary.”

The technology exists to allow teachers to show students rather than simply tell them. And yet many teachers continue to simply tell. Romano put this very simply in saying that when doing such we are compromising.

6. “In great part, the effectiveness of the communications phase of the teaching-learning process determines the outcome. Additionally, there are three critical factors that determine how well learners assimilate the information made available: fidelity, relevancy, and accessibility.”

In order to maximize each of these three factors options must be given to the student. Using the snake example from the book the teacher could provide internet links to pictures and videos of snakes, tell the students where they can see live snakes, and have a 3D model in the classroom. These different options will help students with all three factors. Information will be accessible at will at a later date, repeatable as many times as desired, many different levels of fidelity are offered including the real thing, and most student learning methods should be covered by the multiple options. It is now the student’s responsibility to take advantage of the choices and information offered to them.

This class has been great for me so far. I have been terrified of going into the teaching field and being a plain Jane boring teacher who doesn’t know how to integrate technology into her classroom and falls short of my own expectations not to mention my students’ expectations. With each chapter of the book, class session, and journal article critique, I am becoming more and more sure of myself and less fearful.

My Blog My Vision 3/6/07-Fears and Hopes

1. How will you overcome these fears and use technology for empowerment?
I think the demand for instant response and instant gratification is one that has been developed in our society in the past decade or two and isn’t something we can change overnight. However, we can calmly circumvent it. Laying out timelines and making sure students know and understand the anticipated pace should help. If an email necessitates a delayed response we could send a quick emailing letting the student know we received their question and are working on a quality answer. The worst part of email is being left hanging and wondering if the message was even received.
Feeling of socially isolated and less active as well as loss of caring and sense of community can happen and as we have talked about already do in many of the current web classes. This can easily be fixed with chats, discussion forums, group activities, and blogs. The teacher has to actively create a sense of community and encourage/demand interactions.
Being I am in Biology I do not anticipate dependence on technology of loss of reality. Since biology is based on and dependent on wildlife, plants, animals, etc, the likelihood of being dependent on technology is slim. I am not saying it can’t happen, but only that with minimal effort it can be avoided. Class outings, use of hands on materials for learning, in field activities, and many others are ways to keep from being dependent.
The last fear listed is actually not a fear for me even though it would eliminate my desired career. Colleges becoming obsolete. Would this be that bad? If we could teach students enough material at younger ages as well as teach them how to teach themselves and have them want the information enough to actually go learn on their own without school would it be that horrible of an idea? There are many adults out there that would love to learn new things but don’t know where to find the information or are terrified of the idea of taking a college class. If we had the readily available resources to learn on our own imagine how smart our society would become and the advances that could be made in every field.

2. What barriers do you identify with as outlined on page 22 of the Romano text?
Let’s face it. A vast majority of the educators teaching today are very old school and at best know how to check their email, use the basic of Microsoft word, complete their grade book, and some can make a basic PowerPoint presentation. The teachers that do know how to use more technology are usually the younger teachers or the few who have braved learning new stuff. And most of the younger teachers have not been taught how to integrate technology into the classroom. Many of the barriers Romano listed tie into these sad facts. I personally feel I have a fairly good grasp on technology and after the first half of this class know more skills that would work great in the classroom. However prior to starting this class I had almost no clue how to use technology in my classroom. I believe the main barriers that must be overcome are awareness of what are out there, workshops to teach educators, and not allowing teachers to throw the towel in after one failed attempt.

3. How have the skills you've learned in this class contributed to realizing your fears and/or hopes?
Since I am not teaching yet I haven’t been able to realize any of my fears or hopes yet. They have changed since the start of the class. Put simply I am less fearful about crashing and burning. I feel I can apply more technology into my classroom than a simple PowerPoint presentation now. Blogs, websites, skype, interaction with parents, distant connections, and hopefully after this week interactive PowerPoint presentations. All of these things and more are easing some of my fears and increasing my hopes.

4. What changes will you make regarding shifting control, mentoring, collegiality and collaboration?
I have never wanted to be a teacher who simply lectures and then hands out assignments. I took this course in the hopes of avoiding this dull fate. I believe I have tools now to avoid it and to develop a lesson plan that allows for shifting of control and mentoring and collaboration.

Other online resources

After we played around with dreamweaver the first day I started looking for what I felt was the best free website hosting service. This week in class Charlie shared with us www.envy.nu. If you have your pages already designed using a program such as Dreamweaver this seems to be a very nice service to use. If you are not looking for complete control and like using templates then you might want to consider the service I have found.

It is Microsoft Office Live. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx
It was free a week ago, but I see they are now doing a promo where you get $50 advertising credit when you sign up and there is a new account fee of $5. This is still very cheap and here is why. You get your own domain name free of charge. My website is www.thunderstruckkennel.com and I did not pay a dime! You also get custom email free! and you can create more than one email as well. So my email is clara@thunderstruckkennel.com.
Now there are a few limitations. I do not think you can upload your own pages. I do believe you have to use their builder. but they have a great variety of templates and color choices, etc, etc, etc. And they offer some additional services with an upgraded account.

If you are just creating a website for the sake of this class and your portfolio then the $5 may not be worth it to you, but if you want to create a website for school, personal, home business, etc then you should check it out. However for those of us who do not have daily access to dreamweaver or even want the hassle of the more complicated programs, but still want a professional looking result it does the job.

Oh and I forgot to mention: NO ADS!!!! (or pop-ups). The only add is a small logo for Microsoft office on the very bottom of the pages. check my site and and see what you think. But pardon the mess I barely had time to get it started and have many incomplete pages.

My Blog My Vision 2/20/07

At times I am a complete airhead. I didn't even read the guidelines for this week's blog. Crazy me. Well better late than never.


1. Since my goal is to teach Biology on the college level, I am not going to be able to apply the things I learn as quickly as some of my fellow students who are teaching at this moment. However I see great possibilities for many of the concepts these chapters discuss in the classes I could potentially be teaching. Many college students live far from home and their families have almost no idea what is going on in their classes. Having a website and discussion forum would be a great way for the parents to learn along with the students. I know my mother was constantly asking me questions because she was as interested if not more than I was. Video conferencing with other schools that have similar classes or with experts in the field we are studying is another possibility. Although most of the text this week was directed at K-12 education, most of the ideas are readily adaptable to the college level.
2. Since I am not teaching yet I don’t really have a current plan for technology. I took this course to help develop a plan. I think I have learned that more than ever its not just about having the technology but knowing how to use and integrate it into the classroom in a meaningful manner. In my personal experience many time the school and classroom had sufficient technology to do more than we did, but the teacher did not know how to use it or what to do about applying it. So before adding any new type of technology I will make sure I understand how to use it and apply it instead of just “winging” it.
3. The main message I received from both of these chapters is that it is about quality and not quantity. I covered this a little bit already. For example: It doesn’t matter how many tractors show up to the tractor pull if none of them can move the weight sled (FYI truck/tractor pulls are a blast. Lol). Back on track. It doesn’t matter how much technology we can cram into a classroom if it isn't applied properly the students are not going to gain anything extra out of the experience. They may even get frustrated and gain less from the whole experience.

Class 2/20/07

As usual I learned something new during class this week.

Unfortunately, I was a little bored with the first half of class and the continued use of Microsoft Publisher. I missed class on 2/13 and spent quite a bit of time during the week exploring and learning about Publisher in an attempt to catch up on what I missed. When I read the information on the 2/20 class and saw it said continuing with Publisher I assumed (I know I know never assume) we would be given instruction on some additional features. If I had realized we would be having free time with Publisher in class I probably would not have used it as much during the week.
On the topic of Publisher itself I am very happy to have this program. In my past versions of office I did not have Publisher, and when I changed to Office 2003 I did not notice its addition. Now that I know its here I plan to use it all the time both for myself and my husband's business. To me it seems similar to using Word and templates in Word but much much easier and without some of those weird quirky problems that Word can have.

The basics we learned of Dreamweaver were nice. I have built a website before using the tools that Earthlink provides its members. It was a very basic cookie cutter style builder. Dreamweaver so far appears to have all the options of simply using HTML but designed so you don't have to know the HTML in order to get the same effects. I look forward to using this program and wish it was cheaper so I could buy it for myself. It would be nice if we received a discount through the school on programs. Main TAMU has an agreement with some large software companies to allow students major discounts when buying various programs. I wonder if we can take advantage of this since we are a TAMU owned school.

My Blog My Vision 2/13/07

Sadly I missed class this week due to being ill, and its been a game of catchup all week for school and my personal life. At first I didn't think I had missed much material that was new to me. I have always thought I knew how to use Microsoft Word very well.

As I started going over the lesson for the week, I agreed with my initial thought. I know how to change between the different layouts, how to view and edit headers/footers, how to print (you can also press Ctrl + P to bring up the print dialog box), how to insert, draw, and edit tables, etc, etc.

Then I reached the editing and tracking changes portion of the lesson. Where has this been all my life? Is this a new feature of the newer Microsoft Word or has this been there all along? Does anyone know? How was this feature left out of my training? As I started playing around with this feature, I have fallen in love. Over my years of schooling, friends and I have edited each others papers on a regular basis. This always required printing the paper, writing changes or edits, and then going back and making approved changes on the computer. The editing and tracking feature could have changed our entire process and most likely saved time. I look forward to using this feature on a regular basis from now on.

Yet another glaring gap in my Microsoft Office education is Microsoft Publisher. I have used various purchased programs and "free with your new printer/scanner" programs to do the same thing. I have also used Microsoft Word sometimes freehand and sometimes using downloaded templates (that's a feature I didn't see covered that would be good to teach everyone. I will bring this up in class). I feel that Publisher is easier to use than Word Templates. I have created business cards for my husband using word and will be creating newer better ones using publisher in the near future. For me this program makes my life easier when creating any type of publication for print. I also wonder how it ranks as far as building websites. It has the option, but I haven't had time to play around with that feature as I was too busy exploring the publications for print it has to offer.

Class 2/6/07

Class last Tuesday was pretty much awesome. And I do believe the entire class felt just about the same way as I do.

RSS and Bloglines is great. Now if we could just get every website out there to have an RSS feed it would be great. Can you imagine? No checking say the school's website to get updates you simply get on your bloglines and see if they have anything new right along with checking everyone's blogs. It definantly has made checking the class blogs alot easier. Sadly for everyone else, I havnt been on my blog until today (sorry guys).

Del.icio.us is also a great innovation. Over the years through my multiple computers and multiple reformats of those computers as well as surfing the web at friends houses or on campus, keeping up with favorite bookmarks has been a huge hassle. I had even started simply emailing my self links which clutters up your inbox. This will all stop now. I wont loose my bookmarks, I can access something even when I'm not home, my friends can easily access my bookmarks without me having to email them the link, I wont have to spend an hour or two saving all my bookmarks before reformatting my PC, etc, etc. I was so impressed with this website that I called two friends on the drive home and shared the information with them. One friend will especially benefit as she does not have internet at home and uses various PCs when shes at family and friend's homes.

If all our classes this semester continue to be as informative as these first two, I anticipate a great semester.

Class 1/30/07

In class on Jan 30 we learned about MAPping the internet in order to validate website. My group had the quite humorous Tree Octopus web page which was pretty obvious that it was fake. It was very interesting to run through the various exercises and dissect the website to learn about it. I feel I learned valuable tools that I will be able to apply in the future to determine a site's validity.

We also talked about how search engines order their hits. I feel this will be helpful in the future when I am searching for things on the internet. In the past I thought all websites ordered according to the page's relevance. Searchenginewatch.com is a very helpful site for learning about the different search engines. The one thing I haven't seen that I wish I could find is a listing/chart of the major search engines in one column and how they order their hits in another column. I may end up compiling this myself and posting it on here. If I am just missing it, someone tell me where it is please :)

New Addition

Ok, Im completely off topic for this class, bu what can I say. I love animals and Im excited about this new addition to our family. Announcing Malbut's Smoky Bandit!! Yeah I bought a new stud dog. Isnt he GORGEOUS!!! Not only is he pretty but hes a sweetheart. FYI, I am offering him to outside females if anyone knows of someone needing a merle stud.

Week 3, Group 1, Skills and Definition

Definition

The implementation and utilization of electronic medium as an aid in education to create reflection, empowerment, and individuality among students.

Wants

Microsoft WordMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft Powerpoint-
More advanced options
specifically integrate video
Microsoft Outlook
Beyond the basics
MoviemakerCreate and develop a website
Specif javascriptHow to efficiently use PhotoshopCommunicating with Skype on the internet
Effective online learning communities

Shares

Microsoft office except access-Charlie
Excel-Jeremy and Clara and Brent
Word-Clara
Inserting pictures/designs into a document and being able to write over it with text-Brent
Dreamweaver-Charlie
Photoshop-Charlie
Web CT-Charlie

My desired skills

I am grateful to say I am fairly computer literate. Here is what I would like to learn:

Microsoft Powerpoint-the more advanced features.
Photoshop or similar photo program-I know how to use paint pretty good, but its a very limited program.
Websites and Blogging-I would like to become more familiar with some of the better sites with customization options.
Not quite a skill, but I want to learn about different educational software that can be purchased for classroom use.

What I'm already good at:

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Powerpoint-I can make a presentation, but they could definately become more polished

Educational Technology

I searched the internet and the journals looking for definitions of educational technology. And I came up with multiple long winded definitions such as:

"Technology is the technical means people use to improve their surroundings. It is also a knowledge of using tools and machines to do tasks efficiently."
http://www.bergen.org/technology/defin.html

"Policymakers and the public often pose questions concerning the effectiveness and cost of technology in education, implying that technology is, in itself, an educational activity. In fact, as in business, technology in education is a tool; a means to an end with endless specific implementation possibilities"
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR682/ed_ch1.html#RTFToC2

"Educational Technology - also known variously as e-learning, instructional technology and learning technology - is the use of technology to support the learning process. Although the term can refer to all kinds of analogue technologies, eg photographs, film, video, audio recordings etc, it is usually used to talk specifically about digital computer technology. "
http://edtech.twinisles.com/

And last there is the one I like the best from Wikipedia
"Educational technology is the systematic and creative blending of "idea" and "product" technologies with subject-matter content in order to engender and improve teaching and learning processes. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology

But what does educational technology mean to me? To be short and blunt, I view it as the technology we use to aid in the education of students. I believe this to be a simple but informative unconfusing definition. Any sort of technology that is utelized in the education of students should be considered, at least at that moment, to be educational technology. That technology could have other noneducational uses, but in that application it was educational.

My Philosophy Rough Draft

Teaching Philosophy Rough Draft


All teachers have past experiences that shape their life and the way they teach. These past experience whether good or bad impact their beliefs, habits, preferences, and abilities inside the classroom. These combine into what is referred to as a teaching philosophy. Just as each person is unique, each philosophy will be different. It will become obvious that my philosophy is a combination of pragmatism, realism, and constructivism.

We educate our children in order to empower them with knowledge to obtain gainful employment and make good, smart, fact based decisions. It is the teacher’s job to create an environment suitable to the learning process and facilitate learning by the students. It is therefore the students’ jobs to apply themselves to the learning process and all the resources provided to them in order to learn as much as possible. The teacher should challenge the students without overwhelming them and the students should provide feedback so the teacher may properly gauge their level of understanding.

I believe that there lies in most children a natural desire to learn and it is the teacher’s responsibility to teach in a way that grabs the students’ interest and plays upon this desire. Students however are human and as every human is different, all students will not learn identically. Subsequently, it is the teacher’s job to provide variety when teaching so that all students are supplied with a learning method they can relate to. When carrying this out, there will be some redundancy that will further aid the learning process without apparent boring repetitiveness. For example, a teacher could first lecture over the material, then provide visual aids, and finally assign a hands-on activity. Students will not only see the material three times, but they will hear, see, and do the learning. This leads into my next point that material needs to be learned instead of memorized. Students who memorize material will usually forget that material shortly after being tested on it. For classes that build upon themselves, this is dangerous to the student’s performance in the latter part of the term. I feel lecture is an important part of teaching. Lecture alone is not a sufficient teaching method, however when properly combined with visual aids and hands-on activities it can become an invaluable tool.
Perhaps it is my background in agriculture and sciences, regardless I believe in the importance of hands on learning and laboratories. However, the presence of a laboratory section does not mean the teacher should purely lecture. For classes where a laboratory section is not feasible, small in class activities or homework assignments that require performing a task can be very beneficial to the student. If access to a computer lab is available, there are many computer based activities or simulations available. Activities will not only enhance learning, but allow an avenue for students to explore.

With my interests lying in the sciences, I see great opportunities for employing technology in my classroom. Naturally, employing the internet as a resource is almost a given anymore. However there are more and more technology based learning aids being developed especially for our laboratories. Nevertheless simply providing opportunity will not ensure learning. We must hold our students accountable for themselves and their learning. In turn it is their responsibility to demand quality teaching from us their teachers.

Introding ME and my ideas

Hello!

Well I have put a mini introduction in my profile, but let me fully introduce myself.

I am a Biology Masters student at TAMU-C trying to graduate this spring. I grew up in Wylie, TX however I am a transplanted Texan having been here 17 years (out of 24). I completed my bachelors in Animal Science/Pre-Veterinary Medicine in May 2004, also from TAMU-C and have been working on my masters ever since. I live in Sherman, TX with my husband of 10 months (yeah newlyweds!) and all our critters. Let me explain our animal situation for those city dwellers who think I'm crazy. Like most little girls I was a horse FREAK, I just never grew out of it. I haven't been doing much riding since I've been in school mostly due to not being close to them, but now that they reside across the street from me I am starting back with the hopes of getting into showing again. We have outdoor/barn cats to keep down the abundant mouse population we have in the country. And we own two different breeds of dogs that we breed. We have Doberman Pinschers and Miniature Australian Shepherds. While trying not to have too many pots on the fire, I do have goals of showing my dogs in conformation and obedience classes in the future.

My goal once I receive my degree is to teach on the college level. Although I wouldn't mind teaching at a major university, I would love a short commute and will therefore apply at Grayson County College and Austin College which are both close.

My reasons for taking this class are fairly simple. To begin with the class made my short list due to it fitting the criteria of being a graduate level class that didn't conflict with my other classes and was something I was interested in. I decided on this class mostly to improve myself as a teacher in the ways I use technology in the classroom.

When working through activities this semester I anticipate finding meaning in things I believe I can apply to my classes. I realize this is a fairly short and blunt sentence, but until I complete more assignments and start to see what I'm getting out of them, I didn't really know. From the assignments I have completed so far I have found I relate with several of the philosophies but my views don't seem to be closely aligned to any one philosophy.

I look forward to this semester and hope it will benefit me as much as I anticpiate