Technology Based Lesson Plan

Upon completing my technology based lesson plan, I have a few comments regarding my experience. Although lesson plans themselves may seem to be time consuming and unnecessary, they do in fact serve a purpose in the education process. Teaching is made much easier if lesson plans are thoroughly written and thought provoking. Completing lesson plans for the sake of completing them will not serve the teacher a great deal purpose because of the lack of planning.

In terms of the technology lesson plan, one question that I have is, why are there zero standards for technology in New Jersey? It seems that administrators and supervisors are constantly and consistently stressing the use of technology within the classroom, but without standards, it is difficult to implement certain types of technology within a lesson. Maybe the reason falls under the assumption that not all schools have the same technology, but I believe the it is a topic that should be focused on in recent years. If superiors are stressing the use of technology within the classroom, then standards should be created so teachers have some type of baseline to follow. Comments?

Social Networking in Schools

Although the video was removed from YouTube about social networking in schools, I would like to give my opinion on various websites such as Myspace and Facebook. There have been many horror stories about these two websites being used inappropriately by adolescents and adults.

Some criticisms about the two websites is that they are dangerous because some adolescents release too much information on them. Another problem that can arise from the social networking sites is that they allow another means for bullying. Many students have moved past verbal and written threats and now use on-line techniques. This is unacceptable inside and outside of schools. The major problem that I see becoming very prevalent is that adolescents do not understand the severity of these threats. Like many other problems that arise in schools (bomb threats, bullying) students are unaware of the repercussions of their actions.

On a positive note, social networking sites can actually serve a purpose! One assignment that I am planning on using in the upcoming weeks is having the students create facebook and myspace pages for important people in history. I am very anxious to see the creativity with these projects. Let me know if anyone else has other suggestions for these particular sites.

Reaction to the "If We Didn't Have Schools..." Article

This was a very interesting article that had a few valid points, but similar to other critiques of education, many of the presented ideas merely seem to be a pipe dream. For example, Thomas Carroll, explains that 21st century teachers are old fashioned and need to be taught how to teach in the 21st century. I agree that teachers need to use up-to-date materials and programs within the class room, but problems arise from this. One, many colleges or universities do not have the funds or professors with the capability of enhancing this technology. And two, majority of schools across the country do not have money in the budget to "experiment" with new ideas and ways of teaching. Teaching has become a profession where immediate results are necessary or else people will lose their jobs and schools will lose funding.

As a high school teacher, the one section that hit home to me was the idea of a virtual high school. One of my professors at St. Peter's believed that, within 50 years, all high schools would have high school credits available on-line. In theory I believe that this idea is a positive to education, but interaction between teachers/students and students/students is necessary to enhance learning. This is one of the ideas that could be a very successful option for some students across the country, but it needs to be implemented perfectly. Many problems may arise from technological problems, testing, cheating, to a complete lack of effort on the student or teacher's part, however, some of these problems can be alleviated with excess money in a school's budget

One quote that stuck out in my mind was when Carroll says, "It is estimated that $7 billion a year is being spent to equip schools with infrastructure, networking activities, and hardware. The investment of resources on this scale is comparable to the space program." Maybe government officials, such as Carroll, should remember that there would not be a space program without teachers.

Moodle/Web Page

After completing the Scholastic Web Page I was impressed at how easy the web page was to execute. It reminded me of the WebQuest assignment because it forced the creator to use step by step instructions in order to complete the website. My one complaint of Scholastic was that it was too structured. I found that it limited different aspects to what teachers could use on the website.

Some may be curious as to what "Moodle" is. I'm not too sure if it is an actual word, but it is the name that is given to the system that teachers at my school use to create their personal web page. As a teacher, I love the idea of teacher's having the website at their disposal. It allows me to post many different aspects of the course that may help students. Listed below is the link to the Moodle web page. Log in as a guest and you do not need a password. My two web pages are listed under World History and U.S. History 1......feel free to take whatever you want.

http://www.paramuscatholic.com/moodle/

Webpage Article

Although the article was short and to the point, it made me a little more reassured that creating a webpage is not as difficult as it seems. I remember creating a website about five years ago for an undergraduate education class and significant knowledge in HTML language was necessary. I never realized the amount of time, knowledge, and effort it took to create a webpage. Throughout the years, creating websites, in addition to other technological innovations, have improved greatly. I am thinking of different ways to create my webpage and I am also looking forward to seeing all of yours. If you have begun, do you have any suggestions for the beginners?

Oregon Trail

http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html

Anyone remember this game? I'm 26 years old and distinctly remember how much fun I had playing this game in elementary school. I thought that some of you may enjoy taking a trip down memory lane for a few minutes......or hours. This is also a great way to get younger students interested in actual events in U.S. History. Do not try to cross the rivers.....your wagon always tips over!

Brain Pop

This is a website that is geared towards elementary school students, however, it has many different videos that can be used as supplemental material in middle and high school classrooms. As a high school history teacher, Brain Pop can be utilized in a number of ways in my classroom.

In terms of videos, the website uses easy language and cartoons that outline major events in our country's history. The positive of the videos is that they outline major events that have occurred in the past. The negatives about the videos are that they do not focus on specifics on these events, primarily because elementary students are not able to analyze specific themes in these events in addition to the cost. I was surprised at how expensive the subscription is......almost $1000 for the school!

Overall, I will continue to use some of the free material that Brain Pop offers, but will not be able to subscribe to utilize all videos. I guess that is why some people have created websites like YouTube and TeacherTube. I hope everyone enjoys the website as much as myself.

Inspiration--Kidspiration

I am not too familiar with this website/computer program, but it sounds like it would be extremely helpful for teachers and students of all ages. After clicking on a few of the links that took me to examples of lesson plans in different subject areas, I noticed a great deal of flow charts and graphs. I am unsure if the website offers other materials for teachers to use because the users need to sign up and d/l programs. Let me just say that I have had enough viruses in the past, so I will not be d/l any programs from this website.

It seems that the flow charts would be great for supplemental materials for high school students because, at times, some of the Asian dynasties are very difficult to follow in terms of the leaders or emperors. Does anyone have any other suggestions for how these could be implemented in the classroom?

WebQuests--Part Deux.

Well I have successfully finished my first WebQuest of my teaching career and I believe that it will not be my last. After watching the intro videos, provided by Dr. Luongo, I thought that this was going to be an easy step-by-step assignment without the headache, but at times I became rather frustrated.

The WebQuests, like many other multimedia creations over the past few years, takes some time to get adjusted. I was unsure of how the various topics on the left-hand side of the page would coincide with the finished WebQuest itself. One aspect that was confusing for me was the Teacher and Student pages. The introductory videos did not explain the similarities and differences between the two pages (if they did, I was unaware). Another facet of the WebQuest that is in need of improvement are the text boxes. I found, at times, words would be connected without spaces, even if the space bar was used. In addition to this, when copying text from Microsoft Word, the spacing issue occurred again. Lastly, my grading rubric was used from a Microsoft Word document and it would not load properly. The student must scroll down to see the rubric, even though I tried everything to avoid this. Did anyone else run into these problems?

On the positive note, I was pleasantly surprised and proud of the finished WebQuest product. I believe that WebQuests can be a major asset to any classroom, regardless of the grade level. Teachers do not hear that much these days. There are very few tools that can be used in a first grade classroom as well as a tenth grade classroom. I was also very impressed with the reading level that was provided for the teacher.

I believe that with more polish, WebQuests could successfully be implemented in my classroom. Does anyone believe that WebQuests could not be used in their classrooms? I am interested in hearing your thoughts. Look forward to seeing all of your WebQuests in the future.

Web Quests!

I just watched the four-part series on Web Quests that Professor Luongo recommended on the syllabus. I am very much looking forward to creating my first Web Quest. If it seems to be feasible for my students to use it for a major assignment, I will more than likely use it in my curriculum for next year.

In years past, I have given the students one project per marking period, but I have been looking for new ways to differentiate instruction and I am crossing my fingers that the Web Quest is the best way to do so. Also, students have always asked numerous questions regarding the project, so I am hoping that the Web Quest will alleviate most of these questions in the future.

I am curious if anyone that has ever completed a Web Quest before can give me some pointers? The video did an above average job at explaining what a Web Quest was and the basics of setting one up, but I was wondering if anyone has any tips or pointers in reference to the Web Quests? Are there any problems that I should be aware of with the website that we are using or hints I should be aware of before I begin? Any advice is appreciated. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

NJCCCS--Not As Bad As You May Think!

A great deal of public school teachers hear the word standards and their skin may cringe. Standards, however, do serve a positive purpose although it appears that they may be a wasted of time. For example, standards would have made my life, and the lives of teachers in my department much easier this school year (I work in a catholic high school if you did not read my intro).

When it came time to make the midterm, all of the teachers in our department created separate midterms. When we found out that we needed one midterm for our department, we ran into many problems because each teacher taught different topics/chapters. If we had standards, or some type of set curriculum, we would not have run into this problem. The social studies standards keep the various topics easy to read for the teachers, parents, and students. I believe that students need to be made aware of the standards because they need to understand why they are in place.

Although we do not currently use the NJCCCS at my school, I will not be dreading them if/when I move back into the public school system.

Internet Safety Video

The song alone got me hooked from the beginning, but the content of the video fell short...way short. There was not a great deal of information that would tell or show students how to be safe on the internet. A great deal of the information in the video reminded me of my parents telling me not to accept candy from strangers. This video gave the common sense approach. For example, the one piece of information that they stressed multiple times was to report someone if you are being harassed.

I believe that students need to be instructed how to use websites such as facebook and myspace properly, however, it is difficult to do so. Many students do not understand the repercussions that these websites may have on their lives. Aside from students meeting people that they have never met before, slander and threats are becoming all the more popular. Students should be taught the seriousness of posting comments, pictures, videos, etc. on their websites. I am anxious to hear what other people have to say about this video.

Introduction

Hello everyone. My name is Mark Rindfuss and I am currently teaching World and U.S. History at Paramus Catholic H.S. in Paramus, New Jersey. I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (go Steelers) and grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. After graduating from the University of Delaware with a degree in History Education, I decided to make the move to Hoboken. I heard great things about St. Peter's College from co-workers and finally decided to enroll in the Administration and Supervision program. I have had nothing but positive experiences thus far in the program, but eagerly looking forward to graduating this summer.

I hope everyone enjoys the class and I am looking forward to blogging with all of you.