Teacher education

Tami
November 7, 2006 at 10:33 pm

Rock on! I occasionally miss classroom teaching, but for the most part, I am happy with the flexibility I manage to have each day, now.

I taught middle school for eight years before retreating with tail between legs and staying home with my kids. It wasn’t the students–I relished days like the one you described, and the rewards were many–but the bureaucracy and childcare expenses (financial and developmental) that finally did in my teaching career.

It was fun while it lasted, though, and I’m grateful there are blogging teachers out there that I can occasionally live through vicariously. Thank you for sharing your day!

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2 Comments.
Sarah
November 5, 2006 at 3:03 pm

Wow. You’re going to have a great time teaching those kids tomorrow! I can tell your pretty passionate about this topic, and that will surely show through.

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3 Comments.
Mrs.Chili
November 1, 2006 at 4:10 pm

I highly suspected that, at some point, someone would come in to observe a class, yes, but I didn’t know it was going to be that day, nor did I know it would be that person.

I’m glad I didn’t know it was coming, in a way. I think I’d over-think myself, knowing I was going to be observed, you know?

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8 Comments.
Mrs.Chili
October 26, 2006 at 7:09 pm

Claudia; ME, TOO!! I was beginning to feel a little put-upon and was wondering what the hell the Universe wanted from me. I’m happy here, though, and am offering up much gratitude.

Snob: YES!! BOOKCASES!! It’s VERY exciting. Even though they’re not built-in (they’re IKEA – Billy beech, if you were wondering), they are LOVELY! Husband used a bit of the kitchen to make a corner seat between them, though, so they almost look built-in (we bought a big hunk of wood to frame the oven that, it turns out, we couldn’t use because the oven just BARELY fit in its spot and didn’t need the framing).

I moved more books down this afternoon, though the JoS is staying upstairs for the sake of holiday harmony. Oh, and it turns out I’ve got two copies of Twelfth Night, too, though I’ve (thankfully) not found any more duplicate grammar books. There’s only so much geekiness I’m willing to cop to, you know?

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Please note that I received this e-mail query in my inbox yesterday evening. After a few quick e-mails with the individual, and realizing that it is over the holidays and many of the people that she contacted may not be checking their e-mail, I committed to posting her query here. If you are able to assist her with these three questions, please contact her directly at evelyn.wright@murray.k12.ga.us

Hello!

I am a student in the Lesley University Technology in Education specialist degree program. I have the privilege of taking Qualitative Research over the holidays.

I am working on an assignment and I need your help. My research involves an inquiry into the pros and cons of teaching online from the perspective of the teacher. I am contacting teachers at different virtual schools throughout the country and I would like to hear from Illinois. Please help me to complete my assignment and learn more about the best practices of online education by responding to the following questions. Your valuable time and consideration would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance if you can help.

Please share an anecdote that sums up your experience of online teaching.
Based on your experience, what would you say are the strengths of online courses? What about weaknesses?
Please feel free to add any further comments or recommendations concerning online education….

Thank you.

EvelynWright
Lesley University: EAGSR 7103, Qualitative Research Methods I

Instructional Technology Specialist
Murray County Schools
Chatsworth, GA

Again, if you teach in a K-12 online learning program, please contact Evelyn directly at evelyn.wright@murray.k12.ga.us .

Educator Announcements – December 19, 2008.

Note that this showed up in my inbox yesterday, but with all of the shoveling I had to do I never got around to posting it. It actually corrects some information that was posted in Educator Announcements – December 18, 2008 .

The broadcast sent out yesterday had an error in the date for the extended deadline for Call Proposals announcement. It should have read:

The deadline to submit a proposal has been extended to February 2, 2009. The Program Review Committee will contact those whose proposals have been accepted by February 29, 2009.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Please see below for the full text.

Marking your calendars now for the 2009 VSS Annual Spring Conference – Learning: Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere Apr 21-23, 2009
Innovations in Online Learning: What’s Working in BC and Beyond
Call for Proposals
Extended Deadline

The deadline for the Call for Proposals for presentations in the K-12 Public School stream of concurrent sessions has come and gone. A large number of interesting submissions have been received and the selection committee is proceeding to review each one carefully.

However, in recent days, we have been contacted by a number of people and organizations that were interested in submitting a proposal but were unable to meet the deadline.

Consequently, the conference planning committee has decided to extend the deadline so that those who were hoping to submit a proposal can do so and the conference will benefit from a wider range of submissions thereby increasing the relevance and selection of concurrent sessions for participants.

The deadline to submit a proposal has been extended to February 2, 2009 . The Program Review Committee will contact those whose proposals have been accepted by February 29, 2009 .

This is your opportunity to share ideas, learn from others, showcase successful programs and best practices for developing and delivering online programs/courses.

Organic Mama
March 16, 2007 at 5:43 pm

I am sorry it has taken me so long to comment here. What I loved about this exercise of applied standards is how aligned we are in our perspectives. Grades should damn well be earned not given because “Well, it’s not THAT bad…?!”

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5 Comments.
Ja?ari
March 4, 2007 at 10:19 pm

Just wait a couple of months when it will be Star Wars day:
May the Fourth be with you
Maybe I should have held onto that one. Oh well, after a month and a half it’ll be fresh material again.

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6 Comments.
Ja?ari
March 4, 2007 at 9:35 pm

Being insolent to one’s teachers should be immortalised in the UN charter of human rights. We mostly called them ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’, but only inasmuch as it was a sarcastic play on the formality of the English school system. Most teachers had their own nickname with us. There was Skippy, the maths substitute teacher who moonlighted as a taxi-driver, and Herr Mannel, the Germanic deputy with a facial scar worthy of the villain from either a Bond film or an Agatha Christie play.
To be completely honest, we had a good enough rapport with our teachers to be able to have fun in class while not compromising the learning environment, mostly.

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11 Comments.
Kizz
February 23, 2007 at 8:41 am

I have a really clear memory of being in NINTH GRADE and learning that it’s a lot not alot. Previously I thought there were loopholes like alright/all right and aside/a side. Still, though, that was in NINTH GRADE. Sigh. I would like to know what kinds of teachers they had that they think that you aren’t reading the whole of whatever they’re writing. Those teachers? Owe you a drink.

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Success Warrior
October 4, 2009 at 2:29 pm

I’m fearful what the response might be but I’m with Angela on this. I’m barely squeaking assignments in on time. That said, I do check often to see what the assignments *are*. =)

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3 Comments.
Mrs. Chili
October 2, 2009 at 8:36 pm

No, actually, Falcon, that’s kinda where we went with this.

It’s not so much justification (though I think that rational people would argue that it IS that) as it is an individual’s sense of justice and honor. Honor among thieves, perhaps, but a code nonetheless.

Kiki was zeroing in on the idea that while Jax was still condoning a murder (let’s not forget that – it was murder), in his mind, it was okay because even if the guy didn’t do what he was being killed for, he was still a bad guy who deserved, in their twisted world, to die. If the Mayan in question had been a probie, say, or a wannabe who hadn’t actually DONE anything yet, Jax would never have consented to the hit. As it was, he condoned it because he knew a) the target in question was a low-life and b) it would bring his friend (the husband of the murdered Donna) some peace.

Wrong? Oh, yes – on SO many levels – but I fully appreciated the connection that Kiki was making. It’s a connection I think she’ll have an opportunity to play with again as we begin to think about forgiveness and its limits (and possibilities).

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Jason
January 22, 2009 at 12:16 pm

Hi, I’m Jason, and I just recently ran into this blog. I began reading your posts, like the other 70,000+ visitors to this site, and had a rather random question to ask you.

Generally speaking, do you think good public speakers tend to be poor writers, but poor public speakers tend to be good writers?

In your experience teaching both writing and speaking classes, have you noticed any significant correlation?

p.s. I love your ‘writing voice’, how you write so calmly and methodically. I wish I could do the same.

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3 Comments.
Redroach
December 12, 2008 at 4:38 pm

Enjoy that feeling. It is often fleeting and far between, but damn it feels great.

Sounds like you had a good semester

TV

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7 Comments.
Laurie B
November 11, 2008 at 11:26 pm

If I were to pick up a book for a paper I was working on and found that kind of note, I would consider it a hate crime. I would ask the library staff to call the police and the LU would be forced to call a “hate crime” media notice. At least something good could come of it.

Sadly, overly zealous religious fanatics call it “evangelizing” . I interpret that as them saying”I am right and you are wrong, so shut up.” Why oh why do religious folks think that we all march to the same psychotic drummer. Heck, I’ve got my own to dance too, I don’t need theirs.

On the other hand, if there were Post Secret note in the same book, how would I perceive as the difference? Same tactic.

In my world, the post secret person would be reaching out and hoping for an inclusive reaction. The “Jesus is the real thing” people would need to get a call from the police.

Just my gut instinct and having a Bro in law that could be the one that would be leaving the Jesus notes..not at your LU but in the place he lives.

Got back to you by way of your recommended “Piece of Doom Cake”….smart guy.

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This was posted on one of the NACOL forums.
MIT adapts free online courses for high schoolsNew secondary-school web site contains OpenCourseWare resources for teaching STEM disciplinesFrom eSchool News staff and wire service reportsThu, Nov 29, 2007 http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?…76-1d460f3866e9

Primary Topic Channel: 21st Century skills

A new MIT web site gives high school students and teachers access to STEM

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created a new web site with free online resources that aim to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction at the high school level.

“Highlights for High School,” which builds on MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative, is designed to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists and to serve as a valuable tool for high school teachers. OCW publishes educational materials under an open license that encourages their reuse, redistribution, and modification for noncommercial purposes.

“Strength in K-12 math and science will be increasingly important for America if the nation is to continue to lead the innovation economy,” said Susan Hockfield, MIT president.

“Highlights for High School will provide students and teachers with innovative tools to supplement their math and science studies,” Hockfield added. “We hope it will inspire students to reach beyond their required class work to explore more advanced material through OCW and also might encourage them to pursue careers in science and engineering.”

Highlights for High School features more than 2,600 video and audio clips, animations, lecture notes, and assignments taken from actual MIT courses. The site organizes these resources to match the Advanced Placement physics, biology, and calculus curricula. Demonstrations, simulations, and animations give educators engaging ways to present STEM concepts, while videos illustrate MIT’s hands-on approach to the teaching of these subjects.

On the web site, students can access materials that will help them strengthen their writing skills, develop sustainable solutions to challenging world problems, and learn how to build new things, such as robots, electronic devices, and furniture, MIT says.

Students also will find introductory MIT courses, including chemistry, computers and electronics, engineering, math, and physics. Introductory math classes, for example, include courses on problem solving, mathematics for computer science, single-variable calculus, and linear algebra. Engineering courses include such topics as toy-product design and how and why machines work.

Thomas Magnanti, former dean of the School of Engineering at MIT, chaired the committee that developed the site.

“As has been well documented, the U.S. needs to invest more in secondary education, particularly in the STEM fields. MIT, as a leading institution of science and technology, has an obligation to help address the issue,” he said.

Highlights for High School represents MIT’s first step in adapting the successful OpenCourseWare model to secondary education, the university said. The web site organizes the course materials currently featured on OCW-including syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams-into a format that is more accessible to high school students and teachers.

An estimated 10,000 high school instructors and 5,000 high school students in the United States already visit MIT’s OpenCourseWare site each month, and MIT says it expects Highlights for High School to make its course materials even more useful to these audiences.

MIT operates more than 40 K-12 outreach programs, including the Edgerton Center, MIT’s Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science program, and its Educational Studies Program.

Now that MIT has launched Highlights for High School, the university is considering a broader plan for an open-courseware secondary education program-OCW SE-that could include creating a teacher-in-residence program to develop new open curricula with high school educators and organizing an MIT secondary-education mentor corps.

Links:

Highlights for High SchoolMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyMIT OpenCourseWare

Thanks Allison for bringing this to our attention…

Tags: NACOL , virtual school , cyber school , high school , education

nhfalcon
June 1, 2006 at 7:39 pm

“If I can get you close enough, can you nail this sucker?”
“Yes sir. Now that I know what to listen for, I’ll bag him.”

I LOVE Jonesie’s tone of supreme self-confidence when he says that line: “I’ll bag him!”

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3 Comments.
Wayfarer
May 24, 2006 at 11:44 am

I’m all nervous about this and it’s not even my interview! Can you wear a wire or something and set up a live feed? Can we all go and sit outside the door? I totally can’t be there, but I totally WANT to.

This is worse than the season finale of “How I Met Your Mother”!

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1 Comment.
Kizz
May 13, 2006 at 10:49 am

WOO HOO!

Sorry so short, I have to run to go pat myself on the back for not say, “I told you so.”

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4 Comments.
Kizz
May 5, 2006 at 4:03 pm

Emma or Clueless are really good Jane Austen movies/adaptations and do good stuff about societal pressure. The Matrix isn’t lighter but it’s actiony.

It’s a fun topic, fun to continue to explore.

Congratulations!

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3 Comments.
Mrs.Chili
May 2, 2006 at 9:30 pm

Yeah, the waters turned a bit treacherous toward the end there. Part of it, I know, was my inexperience in navigating my boat, but much of the tempest was completely beyond my creation or control.

I’ll tell you this, though – I learned A LOT (one might say a ‘boat load’ if one were so inclined to lousy puns). I don’t begrudge the experience. Besides, the end result was that I ended up in a near-perfect placement; one that I could never have had otherwise.

The Universe provides.

And thank you for your good wishes!

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