is my teacher #4.
John Spencer:
I use blogs, wikis, Google documents, microblogging, concept maps, shared spreadsheets and various multimedia platforms in my classroom. On some level, I could arrogantly claim, "I'm a teaching 2.0 teacher using the best of web 2.0 to enhance my instruction."
However, I'd be lying.
Web 2.0 is great. Collaboration can be amazing. Blog comments can help further dialogue. And yet . . .
The greatest tool is actually Web 1.0. Here's what I mean:
At least once a day, I have the students research a subject. It might be as simple as "find a real-life situation where one would use percent increase or decrease" or it might be "find two examples of war propaganda and describe which elements they used." Other times, it's more open-ended, where I say, "Begin with inquiry, research, show the bias in your sources and summarize your answer."
The power of the internet is still the fact that it is a place where one can find millions of sources of relatively accurate information. A shared document is not much different from a round-robin exercise. A blog isn't too different from a journal. A concept map is basically a more versatile web. Slideshow presentations are basically poster boards on steroids.
However, the greatest tools are often the most basic. Spreadsheets are still one of the best ways to organize information. Word processing with spell check is still a powerful tool compared to paper and pencil. The old-school internet, include all that text (gasp!) is still an amazing source of diverse information.
It's not that I'm opposed to Web 2.0. It's just that the obsession with all things 2.0 can easily move from "what works best" to "what's the newest tool around?"
My Comment:
Hi Mr. Spencer,
My name is Teri Hampton. I am an elementary ed. major at the University of South Alabama. I am currently in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 (Microcomputing Systems) class. You can view our class blog at http://edm310.blogspot.com/ and you can view my blog at http://hamptonteriedm310fall2010.blogspot.com/.
I also think we should not get so wrapped up in web 2.0 that we forget web 1.0. Although web 2.0 has so much to offer us, I constantly find myself using the basics.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
John Spencer:
Best. Day. Ever.
It's cold and it's dark and it's the time when staff lounge energy drops down and we muster up any possible passion before Winter Break. A few teachers begin talking about the "perfect day" and imagine an afternoon at a Hawaiian beach.
It has me thinking about the perfect day, so here's a list of what it would look like:
4-6:30: Read and Write
6:30-7:00: Eat breakfast with my family
7:00-7:30: Listen to NPR, Sufjan Stevens or sit in silence
7:30-4:30: Teach. Listen. Ask questions. Create works of art.
4:30-5:00: Listen to music
5:00-6:30: Play catch or "get you" or hide and seek with my kids and maybe watch a sunset and break break
6:30-7:30: Run and Pray
7:30-9:30: Talk to Christy. Listen to Christy. (I can't say anything more here or Christy would kill me)
Or maybe the perfect day might include hanging out with a friend instead of going to the gym or maybe it would include working out in the garden and spending the day with the kids.
Here's my point: As cheesy as this sounds, I get to live the perfect day on most days. Whether it's the summertime or the school year, I get to have days that are meaningful, challenging, fun, creative and affirm who I am. If that's not a perfect day, I'm not sure what is. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Hawaii is nice. I'm sure the water looks pretty. But after a game of catch, the sunset is gorgeous and after an exhausting day, no tropical paradise can compare to Christy.
Perhaps this post has too much of a Hallmark feel to it. It's just that after going to a funeral and thinking about how I would live my last days, I'm pretty sure that I would want to live them similar to how I live each day now.
Note: On most days, the 4-6:30 time slot is also used for assessing student work, commenting on their blogs, etc.
My Comment:
After reading this post, it made me feel a little ashamed. I sometimes (most of the time) find myself concentrating on all of the things that are not exactly as I would like them to be in my life rather than on all of the wonderful things in my life. I am so glad that you appreciate these truly meaningful things. Thank you for sharing this post. I will think of it every time I start to concentrate on all of the bad things and hope that it will help me remember all of the good things.
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