Blog Post #13

High Hopes

I watched the video Back to the Future and I must say I really enjoyed it. When I saw that it was 17 minutes long I was sure it was going to be an uneventful presentation. When it started with Mr. Crosby introducing his class and sharing his story about the first survey quiz, my opinion remained the same. He took a survey in his class and asked his students these questions. What city do you live in? What state do you live in? What country do you live in? What is your address? What is your home phone number? I would argue that any student at the fourth grade level should be able to answer these questions, and I would venture to say most people would agree. After this is where the video really caught my attention. Mr. Crosby started talking about adding more technology into the classroom, without actually pushing the point across. He focused more on the project and fun in the class (which is exactly what his students do as well). His class was able to build a hot air balloon. This was really great stuff. Here's the really good stuff. From the balloon experiment these students learned so much. Before the assignment, the students had been keeping up with their own blogs daily. They were able to use apps such as Flicker , Blogger, and Skype to expand their horizon and reach out to the world on an intellectual level. The idea behind this class's High Hopes project was to send up a goal or hope on video in the air balloon so it would fly up to the sky and thus become "high hopes." Through the use of the internet they were able to reach out to kids all over the world and show off their projects. When other students saw these projects, they wanted to know more and share their own high hopes. So with high hopes from around the world, this fourth grade class that didn't know where they lived made a hot air balloon, videos, and got to "shine." To really make this project great the teacher attached a gps that kept up with the location of the balloon. It really impressed me how this little project grew into a fantastic learning process that ultimately taught the students how to learn. When students know how to learn, they will want to learn more, and that is good. Thank you for the lesson Mr. Crosby. My heart goes out to Celeste <3.

A Vision Of Students Today 

I watched this video three times before even attempting to write this blog post. The problems and thoughts expressed in this video are of a wide variety. A few include "18 percent of my teachers know my name," "My neighbor pays for class, but never comes," "I spend 2 hours a day on the cellphone," and "Over 1 billion people make less than 1 dollar a day." On one side I believe this video uses this gathered information and claims that technology would solve these problems or at lease help all of these issues. Then comes the ending of the video and I second guess myself and think that they are now having a negative aspect on technology. My view is somewhat neutral, I believe that these problems are at a stand off.
When I say stand off, I am trying to express my view of most of these problems being unsolvable by simple answers, some being easily solvable, and the others just to be personal problems. I read the notes from the video recorder, Michael Wesch, on this project and he sounded a little bedazzled with the video as well. It was brought to his attention that students these days have their mindset that they can "sneak" past education. Michael says that "getting by" is viewed as acceptable by students in the classroom. In one section Michael talks about an scenario where a student is having trouble with a question, goes and asks the teacher for advice, and the teacher replies, "You're over-thinking." Michael then makes the brilliant comment, "What kind of environment is this in which “overthinking” is a problem?" This goes along with a blog post I was reading about confidence and creativity. Ms. Diane Dahl is a teacher at an elementary school who believes that creativity and positive mindset will help anyone on their path to success. But back to the problems in the classroom. When it comes to ones dealing with the size of the classrooms, and teachers knowing everyone's name then I would argue these problems to be ones that are not so simple to solve. I do not believe technology would help with the teachers knowing names because it would take away face time. Schools as a mass are raising their class size to overwhelming amounts. I have taken one auditorium style class in all of my four years of college and would say I am no fan. Students need individual attention like we did in elementary school, only with less help and less "babying." The next one deals with students not going to class even though he/she pays for the learning experience. Once again, I would argue that it really goes to show the students mindset that they can just get by with doing the minimum. I blame the sizes of the classroom though. If teachers had smaller classes then they would be forced to be more stern on keeping up with the class, or could make it so that students would actually want to come to class. The semester in which I had my auditorium class I had a fantastic teacher who should great enthusiasm for the subject of geography. I am positive that if she were to teach a class of 20 as oppose to 200, students would benefit so much more from her. The next point and a few others deal with personal problems like phones and sleep. This issue is purely time-management. All these problems that are mentioned, combined with the messed up school system make for one rough times that we must stay positive and creative. We also must realize that the school is only one of our resources for learning. I really do not know how to end this section because the video and the summary post by Michael really put my mind to a halt. I wrote this quote down on my wall and I think it has a lot of truth behind it, "And there’s the rub. We love learning. We hate school. What’s worse is that many of us hate school because we love learning."

How Will You Teach Me in the 21st Century

to Know
to Be Able to Do
to Have Experienced

I would argue that this students answer to the question, "what he believes needs to be taught in the classroom," would be information, learning styles, and the how to's to life. I agree with him that students need to expand their horizon and learn as much as they can, and in order to do so they must first learn how to learn. With all the technology presented to us in the world, this Full Sail University student wants us to utilize it. When I make my own list I would answer with these statements.
I want my students to know all that they can.
I want my students to be able to do everything they need to do.
I want my students to have experienced a quality life.
If I were making a video I would add different locations and traveling into the push for learning.

Checklist for Teachers 

I think Ms. Dorothy makes some really great points and gives credit to the position for a future teacher with high regards. I also would add personality traits and creative natures to the equation. It is a good idea for teachers to know more about technology coming into the field. With a better start, more progress can be made on the way to helping a student to success. I would argue that a teacher can easily be taught how to use different soft-wares, internet sites, and apps to help in their career, but can not be taught how to really reach out to the students. I would like to imagine that a principal would pick a fun, knowledgeable, and qualified over one that has no personality and knows computers. With all this being said, I would conclude with saying a teacher with all these aspects will have a very successful career path. Thank you Ms. Dorothy.


The Worm Food

I really admire this certain teacher for helping a blind student have a great time learning and allowing him to be in the spotlight of his peers. I think this video really helps encourage kids to want to learn and help out with the classroom. This video turned a really gross job into a fun project where the kids were able to learn how to use technology in the class. Since I have to tell you what I believe Miles is advocating, I would say that he supports the view that kids need to enjoy learning. I am open to hear other thoughts because this certain post left me a little confused. I do support the students enjoying learning and being in school.