Technology In Classroom

I remember taking trips to the computer lab to write papers. I remember the internet was censored. You couldn't even check your e-mail. Technolgy meant typing a paper or logging on to a website that the teacher wanted you to go to. I think that technology in the highschool is very limited. It is not open to the research part of it. I notice that in the highschool I am in now, they use the computers to do research but not when i was in highschool. You have to do it yourself, and on your own time. Technolgy was used but we weren't allowed to touch it. The overhead, was the teachers, the tv, was the teachers, everything that had anything in the classroom was the teachers.

Technology

Technolgy = having to adjust your lesson plans because something is going to go wrong

Johns Indy Teach

I keep him grounded
When he takes off I go right along with him

With yeah old mud,
clinging to me forever, for fear that if I am washed his luck will turn

With every step I feel the urgency to move faster
the pull to keep going

When we first got together I didn't know if I could handle a pro
but through time I have shown my self to be worthy of taking a good beating,

And putting up a great fight.
Together we are winners, and without me he can't play.

I'm the untouchable, just like him.
I was built to win.

Created to enhance the performance of any foot I touch.
I am the ultimate cleat. I am the ultimate athlete.

Amandas Indy Teach

Original Lines:
I grew up Happy
But every copy of "Oh the places you'll go" needs to be burned
Law fun Interrogation
You Provided the World
Another afternoon of cliche speeches and name reading
I am from Dandelions

My Poem:
You provided the world
I grew up happy

Sometimes your "Law fun interrogation" was a bit over the top at times
But your copy of "oh the places you'll go" needs to be burned

Another afternoon of cliche speeches on Friday's before I made my evening plans
The redundant name reading of the places I could not go, was endless

The poem I wrote "I am from dandelions" is still plastered on the refrigerator
Displayed in all its glory.

You provided the love
I grew up happy

Sometimes your hugs were a little too tight
But every one was full of unconditional affection

Another afternoon of laughs
Displayed in the living room window for all eyes to see

You provided the love and in turn you gave me the world
My Mentor, My Guidence, My Mom

Letter

Man...Ashley let me tell you what happened to me this weekend. So basically remember how we were talking about not coming to class on Monday. And neither of us did. Well I am just telling you to be careful what you wish for. So anyway I went home this weekend, and I really didn't feel like coming back to school at all. So I am running around around town trying to visit everyone and burn as much time as possible. So I go out to eat with my dad and that was cool. So next I was headed to my sisters apartment to see her new cat. I pull out of the Denny's parking lot and I hear something scrapping against the ground. ITS MY MUFFLER! It feel off out of no where. Well I can't say no where because my car had been running loud all day but still. So I immediately call my dad and tell him to come back. And he comes to help me in his 2007 red H2 HUMMER! I was pissed because why am I riding around in this piece of shit and he gets to ride in a brand new truck. WTF but anyway I couldn't come back to school until the next day. So I missed all my classes and was behind on all my homework. So i am just warning you. Be careful what you wish for.

Hoping...

Hoping to change the world some day
Hoping the smiles will always stay
Hoping that school will prepare me for life
Hoping that someone takes my shift tonight
Hoping to talk to my friends currently lost
Hoping to see my mom get better
Hoping to catch the tears before they fall
Hoping to get my back off the wall
Hoping to get A NEW CAR SOON
Hoping to have time to clean my room
Hoping to finish this semester in one piece
Hoping to get some much needed sleep
Hoping that I get good grades in my classes.

Tick Tock

Time passes so fast,
Even when it feels like it goes so slow

Stress Free eyes
are now weathered by long nights of study groups and papers due

Security of home is now gone
In order to make a home 4 myself

How much time will it truly take
I would love to go back to that new years day

When smiles came easy, and homework did too
When time was simplistic, and it didn't run out

When my mind wasn't full of graduation doubt
When time was just time, Just minutes on a clock

When I didn't need time and time didn't need me.
Tick Tock Tick Tock once was so easy

Found Poetry Project

Words I chose:

Saturday
Mind on a ride
Basement Party
Reunion
Fall in love
Generation dance
Sing
Soul

This basement party was a lot different from the one's I can remember
It wasn't about food for your soul
But food for your mind
A reunion of changed faces, weathered with age
Meet again for the first time in years
Since walking across the portable graduation stage in the gym
Things sure have changed since Saturday morning watching cartoons down here
Listening to loud calls from above "you guys better not touch my beer"
All the questions about where have you been and what have you done have been answered,
An old generation dances with the thoughts of being young
Singing old songs that have already been sung
Trying to fall in love with youth again,
At the basement party, with classic, unforgettable, friends

Fire Write

To whom this may concern,
I am writing about the healthcare issue plaguing America today. If you’re wondering if I have a job, the answer is I do. I do have a job, but I am not insured. I actually have 2 jobs to be more precise. I work a 40 hour week between both jobs. I am working a full work week, just not at one location. I use the same social security number at both jobs, but yet this countries feels that I don’t deserve to have medical insurance. I am working the “full-time” hours to have medical insurance. My solution to this issue is that it should be the number of hours worked per week, not at what place. There are millions of Americans like me who are working 2 part time jobs, which equal 1 full-time job because our employers refuse to give us part-time workers the luxury of being full-time slaves. So I believe the federal government should provide health care for us non-technical full-time workers. Or make the employers split the medical care, if we are working two part-time jobs that meet the full-time requirements. Something should be done immediately to relieve us hard working Americans who are being swept under the rug by medical care requirements our employers cannot provide. I am a working citizen, I am not looking for a handout, just an alternative to the massive problem I am battling on a daily basis.
Thank you for your time, Michelle Randall

Why do stars shine?

"Who needs a friend"

One day the moon and earth were having a casual conversation about the sun. The moon says to the earth. You and the sun are like best friends, the sun shines on you and the people come out to play. You and the sun have the people to play with and watch but who do I have. The moon turns away from the earth with a sad look on his face. I wish I had people to play with, nighttime is so lonely. He turns back to the earth and says, "I never get to talk to the sun because whenever he comes out I always have to go away." The earth says to the moon well I could give him a message for you if you would like. The moon now has a huge smile on his face. The earth says, "what would you like me to tell him? The moon begins to think hard. He wonders, "what could the sun do for me? He turns to the earth and says some company would be nice. The earth says, "is that all?" Yes, that's is all just a little company. says the moon. Mother earth says, alright, I will tell Mr. Sun first thing in the morning.
The next morning mother earth tells the sun the moons request. Mr. Sun says, no problem I never knew Mr. Moon was so lonely. I have just the thing that will give Mr. Moon exactly what he needs. Mr. Sun spends the whole day talking to his son Ray. Ray I would like you and your millions of brothers and sisters to keep Mr. Moon some company at night. So when you travel outside the earth, stay in the sky and become Mr. Moon's super stars. Do you think Mr. Moon would like that? Ray answers yes. Mr. Sun says don't worry you will have all of your brothers and sisters up there with you to keep you company. Ray smiles. Your right, I'll go as soon as you go to sleep.
When Mr. Moon comes out for the night, he notices Ray shining brightly next to him. Hello I'm Mr.Sun's son Ray. I have come to keep you company during the long nights.

Nature Free Write

"Man, it took me all day to cover that driveway," says old man winter. Every year you humans find new and better ways to keep me from doing my job. I am supposed to blow snow everywhere, sorry if it gets on your private driveway. I thought I was spreading winter bliss, but year after year I get more and more complaints. And yes, they do hurt my feelings from time to time. Comments like I can't wait until spring, and let's not even talk about ground hog day. What's wrong with a few more weeks of winter? More time for ski trips and snow ball fights. I'm just saying where is the love?

Indy Teach

I felt that my Indy Teach went very well today. I went over the 45 minute (sorry about that) time period. I just really wanted everyone to understand what literacy is and how to incorporate it in their classroom. I feel like I left out so much stuff that I wanted to talk about. I guess this is how teachers feel, when they really want to make a point and the bell rings. By doing this Indy Teach I learned that 45 minutes is too short! I also learned that when you present you students with information that makes them think, you will get the responses that you are looking for. At first I was nervous about presenting my information because our class is very intelligent. We have some of the brightest people I have encountered at WMU thus far. After I realized that everyone wasn’t going to chew my head off, I was more comfortable and was able to focus on developing Allen’s main points in her book. I really enjoyed this teach, it taught me a lot about myself as a future teacher.

Reflection on day 1 and 2 group 3

The past two days of this class have been very interesting. Talking about stereotypes was cool on the first day, but then talking about them on the second was a little different. We focused as a class on the more racial side of stereotypes. I have to admit this always makes me uncomfortable because I am the only minority in the class. I think that today focusing on racial stereotypes from my personal perspective made me of course think of myself, because I am a minority. But today I got the opportunity to see racism geared towards other minorities which equally turned my stomach. It feels good to be able to not think about my struggles as a minority and think of someone else's for a change. I think group three did an amazingly respectful job of presenting a very sensitive subject. And I realized that racial stereotyping doesn't only affect the minorities it affects the entire society as a whole.

Dear Disney

Dear Disney, I have recently watched the movie Peter Pan and I am confused about your true intentions for incorporating the song what made the red man red. I am trying to understand why you would use a song that mocks the Native American culture. What should I tell my children when they ask me if this song is a true representation of Native Americans. So I am asking you, is it? Where did you get your facts from? How do I know that my children aren't directly being exposed to the biases and stereotypes that your company obviously supports. I am just a concerned parent, trying to understand what type of biases your company supports and if I as a consumer should keep supporting your company.

Concerned Parent

Response to Group 3 Day 1...

GROUP 3 YOU ROCK! I loved group 3's activities on Wednesday. I don't believe I looked at the clock once during their teach. The first activity was fun. It made me smile to think back to highschool, and picture the jocks and band geeks. Anytime a teacher makes a student smile, they are doing something right. I loved the fact that group 3 allowed us to work with different people outside of our traditional groups. (We are starting to form "classroom cliques" of our own.) I really enjoyed the chance to talk with different people. I liked the fact that we got the chance to brainstorm on HUGE white pieces of paper. Its something about poster paper, that triggers THINK in my mind. The markers were a plus as well. This activity made me think of all the biases I have obtained over the years. I started to wonder...Where did I get these from? I don't believe they were ever taught to me. I think they are just passed around from child to child like a bad cold on the first day of winter. It is good that I have the chance to think about these stereotypes I have, since I am going to be a teacher. Will I use these biases on my students? if I never acknowledged them, I might have. That's what scares me. How many biases do I really have about people? And how do I deal with this? This is something hopefully group 3 will touch on during their day 2 teaching. I really enjoyed day one, and I am thankful to group 3 for bringing this topic of stereotyping to the forefront. I look forward to day 2.

If i were a boy...

If I were a boy life would be simple. First of all no periods! My wardrobe would consist of long sleeve shirts in the winter and short sleeved shirts in the summer. Piece of cake! If I were a boy, I would be good at math. If I were a boy I would not have to worry about how my hair looked, or what shoes to wear. Nor would I ever have to experience the pain of wearing stiletto heels all day. Boys have it easy; they never have to worry about getting a job, because men can do EVERYTHING! Plain and simple boys just have an easier life.

...

I have really enjoyed the Indy Teaching so far. They have opened my mind to an array of teaching styles that I have not had the pleasure of being introduced to yet. Also I have really enjoyed working with group 2 on our group teach. This assignment allowed me to think about the future when working with colleagues on a desired goal. I learned a lot about my classmates, more than just their names, and I look forward to learning a lot more during the rest of this course.

Group 1 HW

I really hate grammar, but reading these few pages in Noden’s book gave me a little bit of confidence that I may be able to understand grammar personally as well as teaching it. I liked the concept of the “5 brush strokes,” and I realize how important grammar really is when dealing with how to effectively communicate my ideas to others through writing.

Indy Teach

Indy Teaching Planning-
Main Ideas-
1. Focus on setting up a “literacy friendly” classroom environment.
2. Bring the students into this environment with the idea that they are active contributors to their learning experience.
3. Use new and old ideas to maintain literacy among a large spectrum of different learning abilities.

Possible Essential Questions-
1. Why focus on literacy at the middle school and high school level?
2. What is the importance of a classroom focused around literacy building and reading
comprehension?
3. Why is it important for students’ to take responsibility for their own literacy?

Activities-
Identify what indicates a “good book”-
1. Give students a variety of short stories written for different reading levels.
2. Ask students which text they enjoyed more and why?
3. Compare the “level” of the text, to the content in the text? (I.e. was the text more enjoyable because it was easy or because the content in the text was interesting?)

Pick a literacy issue-
1. Students are broken up into groups of 4 or 5 students.
2. In these groups students are given an example of a literacy issue that may occur in their particular classroom.
3. Students must assess the issue and give examples of how they would address the literacy problem.

My Link

If anyone would like to learn more about teaching in inner city schools, this is a website I discovered last year while writing a paper dealing with urban schools. I found this website very straight to the point and helpful. Their mission is valid and important with today’s picture of inner city schools.

Technology in the classroom

This quote is from the article "Unleashing Potential with Emerging Technology."

“I write as much for getting my ideas out as I do to see the comments and responses of those who are listening and reacting. In school, writing is about handing something in. Here, it’s about having something to say.”

When reading this statement it reminded me a lot about my high school experience with writing. I had a hard time finding real relevance in writing papers during class. My papers were always better when written on my own time. I feel like the pressure of writing something sporadically, led to a misunderstanding of the meaning behind it. Incorporating technology in my future classroom before reading this article was not a priority on my list of things to do. Now I see the relevance it has, because incorporating technology is geared towards helping the students bring personal skills into the classroom that they acquired outside of the learning environment. By doing so this strengthens the classroom environment because students are bringing relevant learning skills from home into the school.

I am from

I am from a huge oak tree with green leaves
I am from wooden swing-sets and tire swings
I am from new bikes on birthdays
I am from short nights followed by long days

I am from apple fight that end with cries for mercy
I am from smores, with generic chocolate not Hershey
I am from tattered clothes that don’t last a week
I am from playing tag in-between the laundry sheets

I am from small fights that are made up with forced hugs
I am from fly swatters used to kill every form of bugs
I am from let’s share, to no let’s not
I am from “move your feet lose your seat” to keep my spot

I am from long nights at the table because I would not eat my food,
I am from “no one goes outside, until you clean your room!”

I am from dirt between my toes
I am from insect repellant sprayed up my nose.
I am from sorrow when the sun goes down
I am from lonely nights when my siblings are not around.

I am from old cars that seem brand new
I am from the “bunny method” taught to tie my shoe
I am from family pictures that last so long
I am from a beautiful family that keeps me strong.

Where I'm From

Where I’m From: Inviting students’ lives into the classroom.

“In my classrooms at Jefferson High School, I’ve attempted to find ways to make students feel significant and cared about as well, to find space for their lives to become part of the curriculum. I do this by inviting them to write about their lives, about the worlds from which they come (19).”

Making students feel significant is a task that all teachers take on in the beginning of their careers. I can relate to this quote because in high school, I had a teacher who used these same tactics in our 11th grade honors literature course. Being able to bring my personal life into the classroom was a relief. At school students are expected to turn off home life and turn on learning but it is not that simple. Having assignments that revolve around sharing experiences at home let students know that it is okay to combine the two in order to have a beneficial learning activity. This style of learning also allows English educators to learn more about the individual students’ home life. Understanding where students are coming from and what type of environment they have to deal with on a daily basis allows teachers to assess the individual needs of the student. Opening up the students solitary “worlds” permit’s the teacher to understand and evaluate students writing more effectively, in order to uplift the educational experience for both the student and teacher.

Best Practice/ Being a Writer

What is best practice?
Best practice in my opinion is the surveillance and upkeep of the education system. I use the term surveillance because best practice teaching, skims the traditional education system, keeping the good parts and repairing the bad. When I think of the best practice teaching system I like to relate it to an auto mechanic. The educational system could be described as a classic used car that needs that only a certified mechanic can fix. To the untrained eye the educational system today looks unfixable. To a trained mechanic, such as best practice teaching the solution is simple. Incorporate 7 tenants of teaching to be used in the classroom. Reading-as-thinking, representing-to-learn, small-group activities, classroom workshop, authentic experiences, reflective assessment and using integrative units are the 7 aspects of best practice teaching. Non-Best practice teaching in my opinion is teaching one dimensional. Learning requires more than a book, caulk, and an overhead projector. Of course these are tools to be used but not obsessively. They get the ball rolling but are not enough. Creating a 3-dimensional classroom environment that enables students to incorporate most of their senses while uplifting cognitive abilities is a goal that best practice teaching strives to accomplish. The area of best practice teaching I believe would be most effective in an English classroom is using authentic experiences aspect to allow students to link life experience with the literature. By using this aspect, students will be able to authenticate the literature with personal situations, which will enable them to retain the information more effectively.

What does it mean to be a writer?
From the article “crafting a life,” Murray gave me the impression that writing is all about the aspiring author. There is no real definition, or blueprint to a writer, it is whatever one person desires to be.
(Quote from article)-“The reason I continue to write is not so much for publication, for fame, for money, but for surprise. And in surprise, understanding; and, in understanding healing (15)”

This statement is exactly how I feel after accomplishing the task of writing a paper or writing project. The surprise element of writing always hits me immediately after completing the assignment. I say to myself, “I can’t believe I got it done.” I now realize that I am capable of writing more than what I thought I could. Not only that, I realize that my writing is better than what I believed it could be. When looking back on one’s own writing, confidence grows. A person who once may have doubted their abilities now embraces them. This chain reaction of surprise to understanding to healing is a process that every writer goes through. It takes strength to write but going through this process allows writers to continue to press on, knowing that understanding is coming. The healing part of the process is the long awaited exhale when a final period is placed on a piece. This gives one the satisfaction of knowing that something that has absorbed so much time and effort is now complete and finished. These are three stages that allow potential author’s/writers the time to reflect on their work through the element of surprise which transforms unto understanding and healing all geared towards making a person a better and more confident writer.