Lifelong Learning

I first started the wikki part of this course back in November and created a wikki space only to find out that they are blocked at school making it hard to use them as a real portion of our classes.  Wikkis are an awesome way to improve our students communication skills. If you can collaborate with other schools throughout the state, country, and world then you can also change the world by changing the attitudes of students one by one.  As a math teacher, having students see that they are not any different than other students in other places and that high school is a large competition to get into colleges.

I looked at a number of the wikki spaces

http://reich-chemistry.wikispaces.com/Best+examples+of+wiki+use+2007

http://acrospire.pbworks.com/ –  This is another site that has some great ideas for math classrooms

http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/?t=anon  — This site was awesome and gave me so many good ideas for a wikki for my department

I enjoyed setting up the Google Reader and putting my favorite fun sites in it as well as many sites that will help me as a teacher.  It will make it easier for me to scan through all of the days news and gossip without moving from website to website.  Even better, I can link to all things Orange ( Tennessee Volunteers) and know what is happening with my teams.  This is a fabulous way for me to keep up with the rest of the world since I get to work in the dark and leave in the dark most days. 

After adding numerous feeds to my new Google Reader, I found this article to to be timely with the focus on bullying.  The idea of a day of silence so that students can think about what it is they are saying and how it may affect someone else when they say it could have some amazing results with some of our students.  Children do not understand how to filter before they speak – everything in your mind does not have to come out. 

http://students2oh.org/2008/05/06/experiential-learning-the-day-of-silence/

Reading through the blogs of other people was quite interesting: 

   For instance Patrick’s blog about 5th grade.  I enjoyed the idea that he improved his writing and reading skills via blogging.  The comments back from other people were great as well.  I can see how this facilitating learning for Patrick through both reading and writing practice.  It also encouraged him when people commented back to him. We want to do a blog with our students however all blogging websites are blocked in our school. It is a struggle to get people to see how these can be used to increase learning in school but we will eventually implement this type of learning in the classroom.

         Then there was the blog by Mr. Meyers on not giving homework in math !! The blog was enlightening and informative yet written with a lot of humor.  The blog was great and made me think about homework and how much homework is good to give as well as whether it should be given at all.  I thought I was the only person teaching math who had those thoughts and feelings.  The commenting on the blog added as much as the blog itself.  His philosophies on homework and the students that actually do the homework were great and seeing a number of people agree with him and disagree with his ideas was great.

         The blog by Anne Davis from Georgia State University entitled Rationale for educational blogging should be read by everyone who opposes blogging as a valid way to learn.  Blogging can improve reading and writing skills by all.  Reading blogs and commenting to them is a great way to allow students to express their opinions in response to the thougths of others.  It can only improve how we read and write. 

        Most of the blogs that I read were very similar in their layout until I came to the blog for a Math class.  It was called a scribe post.  I can see it as being a great way to set up a homework blog for students.  It would be a great way to get my students to consider doing homework.  It is a different style of writing but equally beneficial. 

      While the blogs I read were all different yet similar, the one that stuck out to me was the one created by high school students from all over the world.  It was great to see how many comments and how a blog can grow and improve with the growth.  Students seemed to want to add to the blog and share their own experiences with each other.  The more I read the more I realize that blogging is a great strategy to use in education with students and adults alike.

    My initial thoughts about Web 2.0 and the ideas being presented in this class are WOW!! My students would love to blog and to create a Wiki.  I took the time to find wikispace and blog space to use with my students.  We even went as far as to mention creating a Wiki about Math 1 and the students were excited.  The fact that it was Math related didn’t even seem to matter to them.  The idea of creating anything similar to a ‘My Space’ and getting to be creative sounded great to them.  Then my fellow teachers and myself tried to lookat the links we created in a wiki space only to find out that at our school wikispace is blocked as are all blogging sites.  Now my thoughts on using anything that is web based are different.  I am learry and uninterested.  The hoops one must jump through and the time it takes to get through the hoops makes it impossible to consider the ideas that I am learning. 

In the everchanging world, it is essential that you become a lifelong learner.  Being an effective teacher, it is imperative that you are always learning and always trying new things. There are many habits that are necessary for the lifelong learner.  The three habits that stick out for me are beginning with the end in mind, view problems as a challenge, and use technology to your advantage.

The first habit that has meaning for me is beginning with the end in mind.  This habit is the easiest for me.  Every day, I create lessons for the students with the end in mind. I know that the best way to teach students is to know where you are going and make a plan to get there.  Beginning with the end in mind, one can answer any question  that puzzles oneself.

The second habit that has meaning for me is view problems as a challenge.  This is both the most important and the most challenging habit when you consider all the things that can happen in a single class period, single day or even while trying to do this blog.  Learning to think on your feet and solve problems quickly and efficiently as nothing more than a bump in the road is a habit that I try to work on regularly. 

The third and final habit that has meaning to me is use techology to your advantage.  This is another habit that is both important and challenging.  Technology while great when it works can be unpredictable at the most inopportune times. 

All of the habits of an effective lifelong learner are important.  As you can see, the three habits that I relate to the most are an important part of my life as a learner and educator.