1. The more I learn about technology, the more I think it is important to get it in our schools.
2. I am already nervous about teaching and I won’t do my student teaching for almost a year at the earliest.
3. The more I learn, the more I want to pass on information to others.
4. I wish I had applied myself more in high school – I got good grades but never went the extra step beyond.
5. I hope I can be an inspiration for my students to take the extra step beyond what has to be done.
6. As nice as summer vacation is, why do we spend 9 months teaching students and then give them 3 months to forget it and not use their skills? Why not give four different three-week breaks (one after each marking period)? Or, go for a shorter school day or four day school week?
7. Homework should be important and relevant, not just something to make students hand in. I’ve seen too many students start to hate schoolwork because of the 3 hours of homework they get each night.
8. Everyone says teachers don’t get paid enough. I do agree, but I have never met anyone who went into teaching for the money.
9. To be an effective teacher, you must be passionate about what you teach. Students sense that excitement and it gets passed on.
10. Snow days can be a wonderful surprise, but they can also cause a schedule and lesson plans to fall apart.
11. There should be more emphasis subjects other than what is required for standardized testing. Arts, music, and other similar subjects are the first ones cut when budgets get tight.
12. Why are schools struggling so bad financially? Educating our children is investing for the future.
13. I wish people realized teachers are not done with work at 3:15 when school gets out. They spend a lot of time outside the normal school day working and summer vacation, even though it may be relaxing and many teachers use it to prepare lessons, is well deserved.
14. I have had 25 First Days of School so far. I get excited for each one and know I will be excited for every one I have ahead of me.
15. Why is so little focus in school on the health of our children? Gym class is seen as unimportant. School lunches are terribly unhealthy.
16. Students will ask questions and wonder why they have to do things. Tell them the truth.
17. If we are preparing students for jobs that haven’t been invented yet, why are we using the same educational system that has been around for decades?
18. With all the technology and resources out there, why are textbooks the main source of information and learning in the classroom?
19. Schools should be places where students can grow as individuals. You should not be sent home because of the color of your hair.
20. Filters on the Internet are in place for a reason, but wouldn’t it be more effective to teach students right and wrong and let them make their own decisions? The filters aren’t in place at home or other places they can get Internet access.
21. If schools have the resources to integrate technology, are teachers ready? I can think of several teachers I have had in the past who would not welcome the use of technology. As a future teacher, it is important to stay on top of the newest things and use it to improve my lessons.
22. As helpful as technology is, it cannot be a substitute for a good teacher. YouTube videos and other content should be enhancement tools, not the main source of learning for students.
23. Each student has different strengths, weaknesses, and interests. Can we create our classrooms so they adapt to fit the individual students as much as possible?
24. Someone else wrote a random thought on the school day fitting schedules of adults not children, and I agree. Some students are waking up at 6:00 to get ready and catch the bus. That is way too early. The school day should be more accommodating to the students who are supposed to learn and thrive.
25. I didn’t realize it would be so difficult to come up with 25 random thoughts on education. But I also know I’m going to be thinking of other ones for the next few days because I’ve been thinking about this so much.

Right now, I am currently in this class and 361.  I have not done any observing for any classes so far this semester and have not taken any other methods courses.  But, I did a few classroom hours for Judy’s 231 class last winter.  After the experience at Bothwell and at a Youth Center in Lake Superior Village, I took a job working at the Youth Center.  I left the Center a couple weeks ago, but I think a lot about how the things I’ve been learning in 361 and this class could have helped the students there.

Many of the students who come to the Center are struggling in school.  A few of them have AD/HD, and others have more severe learning disabilities.  A couple kids are on the autism spectrum, and there are even some physical handicaps.  I think knowing the things I’ve been learning in 361 would have helped me understand the kids a little more and maybe be more of a help with homework and other activities.

I was amazed at the different things the kids at the center were bringing home for homework.  It had been a long time since I had done a lot of the math, science, or language arts.  There were times when I had to look through the book to remember how to do certain things.  Through this class I have found several websites that would be a lot of help with homework.  Now, if only new computers were on the way…

One thing the students seemed to be really interested in was Google Earth.  Incorporating that into a math problem with area and distance would make things more interesting.  I found a section in the Help part of Google Earth that tells how you can use it for problems like that.  Here is the link to help on measuring: Google Earth

Another helpful resource for homework would be an interactive Periodic Table.  One good one I found through an article for this class is for an Interactive Periodic Table.
Another website I think would be helpful for students learning Language Arts is one we talked about in class.  Lexipedia not only gives meanings and information for a word, it also acts as a thesaurus and gives other forms of the word entered.

I think the different apps available for iPhones and iPod touches are amazing and I think it would be great if schools had the resources available to start incorporating more of them into the classroom.  Even some of the games are learning/word games and could help build skills.

I also think students should learn more about designing their own websites and blogs.  That information will be necessary for most jobs out there and students should learn that at a young age so that technology can develop over time.  Some students at St. Mary’s Central High School designed their own web pages and I thought they were very interesting.

Here are some students using technology and enjoying it.  Over time, technology has evolved very quickly and our schools are struggling to keep up and incorporate it in the classroom..  It is important to teach our students about technology because the world we are preparing them for is full of it and constantly changing!

I thought the article for this week was very interesting because it brought up a lot of good points about how young people are using technology.  They are using social networks, are constantly texting, watch television shows on the computer, and do have a different attitude toward work, life, and technology.  I kind of fall in between Gen X and Gen Y.  And I think I would classify myself on some sort of middle ground when it comes to technology usage and knowledge.  I am definitely not as up to date as people even 5 years younger than I am.

The fact that the younger generation relies so heavily on technology will start to become more and more apparent in our schools as time goes on.  Younger teachers coming in will have knowledge of new technology and will want to pass that on to students.  They will use blogs and Facebook and who knows what sort of other resources will be available in the very near future.  Also, the parents of the students will eventually be from Gen Y and will want to see technology integrated in the classroom as much as possible.

Change takes time.  It is important to show current teachers what resources are available and how technology can be implemented in the classroom.  But, it is going to take time before teachers who may be Baby Boomers or even part of Generation X incorporate technology as much as it can be.  This may not ever happen with these generations.