Rainy Moods

So today I was researching markup.io in class today, but I found it to be a terribly frustrating classroom utility. All I was beginning to get frustrated after experimenting with the tool, and I started thinking of the usual things that cheer me up-- craft beer, ponies, poetry, and rain. Who does not love curling up next to a window on a rainy day with a nice book? So I started making connections in my head with a few random ideas. And I began to realize that www.rainymood.com would be an excellent classroom tool.

Now this site may have a depressing title, but it remains extremely simple. All the site does is play relaxing rain noises in the background, emulating a rainy day. I would use this in the classroom to indicate that it is time for the students to complete some type of assignment individually-- this could be used for silent sustained reading in class or anything similar to this. The noises that rainymood.com makes do not tend to be as extreme as some songs that I have seen teachers play, while I study. I recollect listening to a great deal of Juanes when I took Spanish courses in high school. Using such a site repeatedly ought to condition the students to focus on individual work when the rain sounds are playing. I know it may be a simple tool, but I know I will use it for silent reading at a later point in my teaching career.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Comic Life: A Bridge for Graphic Novels

I was reviewing the lesson on Comic Life in the text that Bear Grylls presented a few weeks back. I never got a chance to play with the idea of how Comic Life can be used to teach the basics of graphic novels, which is tragic due to my obsession with graphic novels. I typically considered using Scott McCloud's texts alone, prior to having students read something by Miller, Moore, or Spiegelman. Yet one could easily create a transitory lesson to ease students in the analysis of graphic novels. Using a project with Comic Life will create a much more interactive form of learning the basics of comics. After hearing all the positive things that Fockler and Bear Grylls had to say about Comic Life, I decided to mess around with it-- and I know that this program will be implemented in my lesson plans for units on graphic novels. The simple learning curve of the program makes it quite accessible to students, allowing me to teach it in one class period. I am probably going to harass a few people I know who are teaching graphic novels now, and suggest they look into Comic Life as well.
Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Podcasts & Assumptions

After reading the article and a few excerpts from the texts on Podcasts, I am still unsure of whether or not I would implement one in the classroom. I have an inherent skepticism towards how practical using a podcast as an educational tool would be, but this depends on the context of the classroom. In Kadjer's text, one of the teachers discusses how long it takes to teach these tools to students, and that time remains one of the most valuable/limited resources in the classroom (I think it is on page 78ish? I do not have my text on me to check) . Assuming the students were familiar with the technology behind podcast, I would see no issue with using podcasting. Even if some of the students had experience with the technology, then one could create groups with this in mind, guaranteeing that every group has at least one student who knows what they are doing.

Although I believe there are time issues with using podcasting as educational tools, and I would assume that other forms of technology can be implemented to produce better results. But ultimately I need to practice more with these technologies to understand how they will work in the classroom.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Prezi vs Power Point

Recently I felt an urge to find a poem that I read years ago, and I could not find the poem myself. Being a needy individual, I immediately proceeded to whine to all of my friends about the situation. One friend sent me a link to a copy of the poem, which was on a Prezi made by a student for an English class. I recently discovered Prezi, and have yet to truly mess around with it for presentations for classes. Prezi has not grown to be as widely used as PowerPoints, but for those of you who do not know-- Prezi remains a website very similar to PowerPoint. Many people adulate Prezi for various reasons, and I am sure I will come back later to worship this website, but now I need to point out some negatives with the site.

Since Prezi remains a website as opposed to a computer program, one requires access to the internet to use this for presentations. This may seem like a minor flaw, due to the fact that wi-fi connections are available in more and more places now. Unfortunately, I think I speak for most students when I say that I cannot rely on SRU's internet. I have consistently run into issues with SRU's internet at the library, and dealing with the lag puts daydreams of drilling holes into my head with a power drill from Home Depot. This issue causes me to avoid using Prezi for presentations at SRU, for I know that my computer works. And I trust most of the school's computers to work, even if the internet is lack luster.

Regardless of my personal issues with Prezi, it would be great to incorporate in a lesson, especially for students who do not own Microsoft Office.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

http://prezi.com/

Skype in the Classroom...

I have used skype over the past few years for many different purposes. I mainly use it for online gaming to communicate with people I play with regularly. I know Mummble and Ventrilo are better programs for voice chat for gaming, due to the fact that both programs lag less. But my laptop never seems to lag much when I run skype behind a program. I have yet to experiment with Oovoo, and probably will later next week. I find myself feeling more prone to use skype though, due to the fact that the majority of my friends use it as well.

Skype in the classroom could be used for various lessons. One could have the students communicate with international students, keeping a penpal that would help them learn about intercultural communications. I would personally use an assignment like this outside of the classroom in a computer literate community though. One could also create a classroom Skype group, where the students could ask other students questions about the homework. This would be more effective than a message board, assuming that the majority of students already use Skype to communicate with friends ad family.

I will probably design a lesson with Skype later down the road, but I need more time to contemplate what I will specifically use it for first.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Funding for Schools...

Recently I have been researching how funding is determined for schools. A major issue in the contemporary educational system seems to be that financial issues trump educational issues in the form of budget cuts. So I figured I would research the concept of funding, in order to better my knowledge of the issues. I found a link pretty quickly that seems to explain the very basics of funding. Funding occurs on three different levels, state, local, and federal. The website I examined talked about funding from Ohio, and being from the Cleveland area, I figured I would stick with it. In Ohio (and many states) it seems that they use a formula that is meant to determine how much it should cost a school to provide their students with basic education. The formula attempts to find a cost per student based upon class room size, average staff salaries, and average maintenance costs. On the local level a portion of the property tax is taken for school funding, which is greatly influence by property values of that district. I am unsure of how fair it is for a portion of the funding to be based upon property values of an area. And apparently the Ohio Supreme Court agreed with me about a decade ago, when they prohibited districts from collecting money based upon the growth of property values. This supposedly causes an problem known as "phantom revenue," but I have no idea what that is. The website explained it by saying, "In other words, the state charges districts for the "growth" in property values when computing their local share even when they don't collect "growth" in local tax revenue. This phenomenon, known as "phantom revenue," varies with growth in values varies among districts." If someone could explain this to me, it would be greatly appreciated. The Ohio Supreme Court also ruled that state funding for school's must match the rate of inflation-- so both should increases somewhat simultaneously.

Outside of the basic aid that the state gives the schools, the state gives supplemental funds to the schools. These supplemental funds are based upon the need for special education and also the resources required to teach students from low-income families. I am also unsure of whether or not it should cost more to teach economically disadvantaged students, and need to contemplate this idea further. There is also a guarantee provision, which ensures schools receive no less aid than the previous year.

Unfortunately, I cannot put all of this information in one blog entry, and will attempting to paraphrase the process of funding tomorrow.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Resources & Competency?

One issue I have noticed with the use of technology in English classrooms is the fact that not every school will have access to these resources. Typically one views computer literacy as only being capable of using various technologies in a competent manner. But I would like to argue that in order to possess a greater competency of technology, one must be able to teach lessons concerning the technologies without actually having access to the technologies. Naturally this does not remain ideal, but not every school has the same resources. Also note that technology often fails us, and when it does we must be able to find a way to improvise. If I plan on teaching a lesson on how to evaluate internet resources by using Wikipedia as the subject of my analysis, then I ought to be able to teach the lesson without access to computers. This can easily be accomplished by printing out the article and analyzing in class with the students. Now not every lesson can be modified in such a manner, but one should learn how to quickly improvise when teaching, in order to become a more effective teacher.

Economy & Education

One of the major issues in the contemporary education system that I have been contemplating this week revolves around monetary concerns. Typically economic issues trump environmental or education issues. This claim can be evidenced by an analysis of the current events in western society revolving around education and the environment. Back at home in Twinsburg, Ohio, my old high school is attempting to rework their budget, and may make detrimental changes due to the budget cuts. They have discussed multiple solutions over the previous months. One example would be to remove block scheduling, which would require less teachers. For those who do not know what block scheduling is-- it consists of four class periods a day that are about an hour and a half long. For the first half of the year, students will take four classes, and after winter break students will take four different classes. This type of scheduling has multiple strengths, preparing students for a schedule that more closely resembles collegiate life, while also giving teachers and students more time to focus on one subject. The only real weakness I have found with block scheduling involves AP testing, but that is moot point for my current meditations. If THS decides to get rid of block scheduling, then they can have one of those periods be a study hall, allowing for one or two teachers to supervise a larger number of students in an auditorium, gymnasium, or cafeteria. This would lower the average teacher to student ratio per period, allowing for THS to fire teachers without tenure. Other solutions consist of restricting busing for students who live within  a mile or so of the school. And there has also been talk of requiring the students to pay for extracurricular activities.

I am unsure of why economic issues tend to trump educational issues, but in order to shift education away from education and towards a craft, one ought to be able to separate the two types problems. It seems as if the standardization of education is a result of putting economic issues on a pedestal, which can be evidenced by high-stakes testing. I unfortunately do not have a solution for this yet, but I am sure something will come to mind shortly.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings

Craft Beer...

I like my education the way I like my beer, a craft. I have been studying the craft beer industry for quite some time and I am constantly baffled by the people in the industry. Our society revolves around monetary pursuits. Everyone always seems to tell me, "The customer is always right," Yet I feel as if companies just say that, because they think they should. Unlike other industries, the people I continuously encounter involved with craft beer absolutely love their work. They put love and passion in what they do, hoping to give good beer to good people. To these brewers, beer is an art that involves an emotional attachment to the creation of the product. Education ought to be no different.

This point may seem rather self-evident. Anyone who does their job ought to love what they do. But the issue for me here is the standardization of education. When one standardizes the beer industry, you end up with companies such as Anheuser Busch and Coors Miller, producing mediocre products. For example, Keystone Ice remains a lager style like any other Iced beer. Nothing too special. But the can specifically says "Ale" on it. I addressed this minor issue with a friend who worked in the industry who responded by saying, "They just don't care. And they can get away with it, because people just don't care." I would argue that the standardization of education is causing a similar apathy for students. The standardization of education rarely places students in a position where they remain able to pursue an erudite interest that they love.

Unfortunately, I am not yet at a point in my career where I have a plan outlined for how America can change education to a craft. And this plan will have to wait till after I receive my doctorate most likely, due to my other academic pursuits.

Cheers,
The Jesse Jennings