blog post 5

The Purpose of this video was to tell society that the current view of education is out dated, and is no longer beneficial to the majority of society. We have broken apart the education in to the academic, the successful, and the non-academic, the unsuccessful. The current education system was designed during the industrial revolution, where the purpose of education is completely different than today. This backwards education system has lead to a variety of problems, the biggest being that through the use of drugs such as ridlin we have numbed our children to get them through education. We think that they are the same, just going through different stages, and we do not take the time to learn what will make learning an aesthetic experience but rather we just spit out facts and assume that the theory of evolution will compete with "draw something" or Facebook just because one day possibly it may help you get a job. We have taken on the assumption that the most common thing students have in common is their age so it is pointless to try and find a unifying factor to make learning more enjoyable for the whole. A solution to this problem could be to step away from the standardized thinking and test and lean more towards divergent thinking, which according to the speaker is a way to increase creativity in our students. Divergent thinking allows the student to answer questions in different ways, and think about the possibilities. By allowing the students to come to a conclusion in their own way, not the way that will be on the test, they are able to give their own meaning to a problem. It allows those who understand things a little more different to finally sit through a class without being lost the whole way, because they can create their own understanding. This theory is vital as a future educator. Don't compleaty forget about the test and allow the students learn about whatever they want, because then you will loose your job, but allow them to think about different ways to solve a problem. This means that not only have they gotten the answer, but they have gotten the answer in a way that is meaningful that provokes not just vomiting up answers but understanding of the topic.

you want to do what now?

I remember the day that I told my mom that I was switching my major. I knew she would be upset, but I would have never dreamed she would be that upset! She told me I was settling and taking the easy way out. I was being lazy and I didn't have the gumption about me to stay in the pre-dental or communication disorders. She didn't understand my lack of drive and why I would ever want to stoop to that level when I had it in me to become a doctor. It was, and still is, a constant fight between my mom and I about what I have chosen to do with my life.
It's not just my mom who sticks their nose up at the teaching profession. When I tell people what I am doing its not "good job, you will love that, you would be a good teacher" but rather, "why would you do that, besides summers off."
People don't realize that we have 2 majors that we have to cram in, a semester before everyone else. People don't realize that outside of the classroom we dedicate our lives to PD's, community service, and thinking about future lesson plans. People don't realize that getting up and teaching in front of a room of high schoolers is hard, without thinking about the 3 other test you have in the upcoming week.  People don't realize that us teachers do the same undergrad work as a doctor,and we continue going to school for the rest of our lives.
I am proud of what I have chosen to do, and I wouldn't change the decision I have made, even those weeks where I am so burnt out ad frazzled that I don't know which way is up! I don't want to sound like I have a chip on  my shoulder, I just want it to be known that teachers are not slackers, we don't get the summers and weekednds off, and at the end of the day our degrees should have the same respect and meaning as everyone elses. 

Reflection and justification of assesment

JUSTIFICATION: 
As a future teacher I know quizzes are inevitable, and one day I will probably grow to love them; however, as a current student I hate them. Keeping my hate for quizzes and their uselfulness as an assessment tool in the back of my mind I began to design this activity. I also kept in mind that we had gone over the material almost a week ago and it was getting to the nitty gritty part of the semester where we are all learning different things that will all be on a test next week. I also kept in the back of my mind that as students we recieved  a bunch of information in a short period of time. Not only did we have to teach ourselves and seven other people a new statistical method we also learned seven other methods. I looked at this task as a way to assess knowledge without torturing students and making them rack their brains for numbers that more than likely they don't remember; however, they needed to remember the key points of the lecture.

There was a quiz portion that assessed the students basic knowledge of the t-test. They had to chomp a few numbers, but the main point of the questions were to determine if they understood what the final number meant. One of the corner stones of the lesson was that you can use a t-test to determine if 2 means are statistically different or not. To do this you have to take a p-value and be able to use the sample size, a confidence interval, and a significance table. These tools make it simple to determine if you ned to worry about the difference in your means, or if it is in a word, normal. The first quiz question measured the students ability to do all of these. It was a "warm-up" question and hopefully served as a reminder of what was taught the week before.

The next question required a slightly different level of thought. The students had to connect the confidence interval and the sample size to the t-test. The table given is not designed specifically for the t-test, which is typically used to test sample sizes larger than 30 at a .05 confidence interval. The students must not only explain what the highlighted number meant, but they had to connect it to the t-test rules. By asking the students what the numbers meant would show whether or not the student understand the rule, and is not just following it because that is what they were taught.

The "group work" part of the assessment was the students chance to really show they had a firm understanding of the concept, and if they did not they could talk to their peers; which sometimes can teach what the teacher can not. By being forced to not just give a yes/no answer they had to show understanding of how the tools were used to either confirm or deny a given hypothesis.

ANALYSIS: 
As a whole the class was almost meeting expectations ( a 2 on a scale of 5 or a low C). What hurt the grades the most was not lack of understanding, but rather lack or reading or not answering a question completely. The "students" would answer the first half of a question, which sometimes demonstrated a higher level of understanding than the second half, but leave the second half blank. All six people did this for at least one question. Because of this I relied heavily on how they responded during the group work activity, which is easy for a group of 6 but would be more difficult for a class of 30.

The successful parts of the quiz were defiantly  tied to the discussion part of the quiz. I made it to where every group was different in the reasons why one was better than the other, but each group still re-enforced the idea that a larger sample size and a higher level of confidence would be a more reliable test. I also believe that the the quiz was effetctive in gaging the students understanding, because in grading it is obvious who really understood, who memorized, and who didn't get it at all.

The not so successful parts of my quiz was the questions. People only answered about half the questions, and they were asking questions that I thought were very clear on the paper. The questions were not long, so I believe it was the wording I used that made the questions harder to understand. I did not mean to make the quiz as hard as I think some people thought it was; it wasn't supposed to be cake, but I think for some the quiz was at a higher level of understanding than some were at. I should have reviewed the topic more than I did and done a better job of making sure the instructions were clear.

Overall, I believe the quiz did a good job at assesing understanding, but the questions themselves were confusing to the majority of students. I would do a better job of explaining and reviewing, but I would defiantly keep the group work portion, as it clearly showed who understood at a deeper level and who didn't.

Blog post 3

This is a semester full of technology! I am enrolled in two online classes, which force understanding and extreme patience with technology (and I am personally proud of the fact that I have seriously decreased the amount of time spent yelling at my computer). I have known how to use blackboard for years now, but this semester it has become my lifeline. I check it just as much, if not more than my e-mail, which is a lot! this semester I have learned how social networking can be used for more than posting pictures of your cat and telling the world what you had to eat for lunch. I have use Facebook, Twitter, and online advertising to help me plan and increase participation in an event that I am planning (on that note if you are interested in participating in an event to help cure childhood cancer, then contact me!). I have not been introduced to anymore technology, per-say, but I have learned how to use existing technology in a whole new way.

All the new things that I am learning, about the internet namely, are transforming me from a 1.0 to a 2.0. Currently I am a 1.5. I use the technology that I have been introduced to, and I see many future applications in my carter; however, I still find myself reverting back to my old ways when I get frustrated or first introduced to the new technologies. I need to learn all the new ways, because the students that I teach will be 2.0 and I need to be able to engage them with technology, which I will not be able to do if I have no understanding of it or its uses. Plus these technologies are just plain cool! In my future classrooms I want to have my students use Facebook, video chat, Google-plus, and blogs to communicate among themselves and with me! These new advances will make the classroom more inviting, engaging, and if used properly will supply the student with skills that they can apply in their lives outside of the classroom.

blog post 3

When I took my first SKyteach class last semester I was introduced to the 5E lesson plan for the 1st time. At first I resented it, mostly because I failed every quiz that was given about it; however, I learned to appreciate the model. I still don't follow it to a tee, and I don't think that it is even possible, but the way the 5E model suggest you teach a lesson is brilliant. It takes into consideration that there is more to teaching and leaning than just standing in front of the white board and yammering on for an hour. The more you think about the model the more sense it makes. It may not always be called "engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, or evaluation", but the majority of successful, enjoyable lessons follow a model that allows the students to do the majority of the work. 
Enjoyment needs not to be confused with ease. The model comes with its fair share of challenges. There are some topics that are very hard to make engaging, and even harder to elaborate on. The topics that are naturally hand on or easily lend themselves to hand on activities are great; but those topics, such as the Calvin cycle are more difficult to let the students lead. There are multiple temptations to just write on the board and pass out a nice worksheet that may or may not have an engaging question or two. The 5E model is both challenging and unique in this way.
In order to be a successful in implementing the 5E model in the classroom you need to know what components you are comfortable with and which you need to work on. Below is my personal ranking from most confident to least confident:
1) Explanitaion

2) Engangement

3) Elaboration

4) Exploration

5) Evaluation

self reflection of inquiry 1

As I watched my video and began my reflection there were multiple thoughts going through my head (besides "oh my god my voice sounds horrible!Do I really sound like that in real life??) The biggest thought was "I didn't bomb it, I didn't do great, but I didn't bomb it... maybe I don't suck." I am a perfectionist, and it doesn't work very well with my tendency to word vomit when I get nervous. After presentations there are approximately 742 thought that go through my head and about 738 of them are "you should have done this"; "next time you need to work on this"; "that mistake you made that got pointed out NEVER make it again"; and finally there is always this thought, "did I as stupid as I think I did?"  Watching the video, even though it was awkward and I seriously hate my voice, gave me some confidence that I think will improve my teaching. Now don't get me wrong, there is still plenty I need to work on and I will beat my self up over those flaws; however, it is nice to know that I am not as bad as I think I am. It got me out of my head, which in the long run will help tremendously. Below is kind of my self graded rubric which I composed after looking at scores, reading comments, and watching the video. 

 

Inquiry	The experiment was relevant to my subject and level, I will just have to keep in mind that this will have to be a long term (over a week) lab. I will have to plan other instruction for the span of this lab, but I will try to keep the instruction osmosis related in order to keep the students from getting confused. If I could do this inquiry over again I would have picked a topic that revealed more ‘useable’ data, but now I know what works and what doesn’t when I perform this lesson in a classroom.
Teacher presence	I TALK TO FAST! When I get nervous I tend to talk to fast when I get nervous! I know this is a bad habit that I have been trying to break, but I am working on it (trying to reduce my suckiness!) I tried to make eye contacts, but I noticed that I didn’t do as well as I thought I did. I interacted with the “students”, which I enjoy much more than I enjoy pure lecture. I need to work on being more eloquent and ‘making my words matter’. When I need to work on slowing down and making sure that my point is understood before moving on to the next slide or idea. I need to work on not jumping around so much, and follow steps and not bouncing around. I do have a loud voice that you don’t have to struggle to hear.
Introduction and experimental procedure	I engaged the students in the introduction, but again I should have slowed down and used more time to gain the attention an interest of the students.
Data collection	For this particular inquiry I did not have enough time to reach a conclusive hypothesis. I should have timed the experiment better and collected more stats to accurately convey the experiment. I also should have used a more accurate scale to collect the data.
Analysis and interpretation	I used Vassar stats to analyze the data. After plugging in the numbers multiple times into Excel and not getting statistics that made sense I used the Vasser stats website that analyzes the data. The data both confirmed and denied my hypothesis, forcing me to make two separate null hypothesizes. I believe given more time, like mentioned above, the statistics would have been more accurate.
Product	The red doesn’t show up very well against the black and the pictures. The slides contained to much information per slide. I could have done a better job. I didn’t just read the conclusions of the inquiry off the slides, but rather, I used to the slides to supplement my instruction. I depended on the Power point more than I wanted to ( I hate when teacher read off a powerpoint and the powerpoint is the teacher).

blog 1

1.Technology, when used correctly can be useful; however, one should not become dependent on technology. As a teacher this is a challenge. With calculators, the internet, smart phones, I-pads, and the mass availability of this technology we are faces with the challenge of “why do we need to do this.” I know I asked this question as a student “Why do I need to learn how to do this when I can just use a calculator, computer, look it up etc….” and I know that I will not be the last student to ask this question. It is imperative for our students to know that while technology is useful and makes our live easier it is to be used as such, not as a replacement for actual knowledge and understanding. Anyone can plug an equation into a calculator, but unless one understands why and how to use that equation the answer is completely useless.  That being said technology allows us to increase our understanding in ways that were not possible in the past. We have access to mass amounts of information literally at our fingertips and for the curious mind there is no limit to what you can learn. The problem is that the majority of people, and I am guilty, do not use technology to increase our understanding or knowledge, but to update our facebook status or tweet about the coffee we just had. As teachers we have the power to reverse this trend and optimize the use of the technological advances that have been made. We must inspire our students to increase their knowledge and understanding and make use of what they have to do so.

2.As a product of the technology age I am used to and comfortable with technology. We always had computers in our schools and in my home, I have a smart phone that doubles as a computer, and I use social networking (maybe more than anyone person should). I am not a computer wizard and if my computer does not work properly there is a good chance that I will be yelling at, but when everything is working smoothly I know how to use my computer to get on the internet, use office, access different things within my computer, and keep my computer clean and healthy. On a scale of one to five, one being inexperienced and five being brilliant with computers, I would give myself a four (Journeyman uses technology with competence). There is still things I can learn, but I know enough to get through a lecture in a classroom.

3.While at WKU I have used or had modeled many different technologies. The one that I have learned to rely on is the computer. I have used the computer to take classes, do homework, notes in class, to analyze data, and to read labs. I have also used the projector, microscopes, calculators, smart boards, and   smart pads. I have a TV interactive class and two online classes. I have used my own personal technology to help, or hinder, my attention in class. I have been exposed to many different types and ways to use technology at WKU.

4.At  WKU I have used mostly the computer. I have used it both inside and outside of class. The computer and knowledge of it is vital to success at WKU. I have used the Smart board in one of my SMED 101 full teaches along with projectors. I have used microscope in almost every lab I have taken along with an array of different lab technologies. In my math classes I have used calculators to help me ( the math impaired ) to get through the class. I have become dependent on multiple technologies at WKU.