forward is not always forward

When you are looking at a new way of doing things you need to make sure you are not just repackaging the old ways. We have on line testing. Some classes they are embedded test where the student answers the questions on line. Any long answer are checked by a human teacher but multiple choice and matching are done by the program. That's great.

However ( There's always a however) for all the middle school subjects that is not the case. They print sometimes 22 pages of paper. Fill them out by hand and scan them back to us. The Core classes come back as one file ; four subjects ; up to 27 pages.
Real assessment cannot be done through only multiple guess - because as a student I used to be really good at that! I can get a D on a subject I barely know. It cannot be done with matching and true/false so there will always be that need for humans to express their learner mastery to other humans for the deep learning or in Maslow's concept the higher learning.
But there's a great value to working smarter not harder. Grading is a very hard part of this job. And really at the lowest level of technology is does not have to be hard as it is it the current form.
Scantrons!! what are they from the fifties!! That would make everything is much easier. It would take away 3/4 of my grunt work. And it is grunt work because I groan every time I have to do it.
So as we are developing this new virtual learning we are building the ship as we sail but there are some anchors of our old ways of thinking that we need to jettison.

not about on line teaching but geeked about my new toy!!

So I have always maintained the Ipad is not quite the creation device. It's a consumption device. Reading the web books shopping. Not really taking notes.

I also totally believe the mouse is dead. I said that when the first Ipad came out.

There are new window machines with touch screens and the windows8 operating system is a touch based system. But those new laptops with touch screens are 700+ to 1000. And the hardware is nothing special. Nothing i could game on. that proves the mouse is dead and is a creation device.


sooooo all that added up I got a new ipad four. The retain is beautiful. But the creation barrier is gone due to the new case/keyboard I got. It's a chiclet or island keyboard. It's much faster then the spongey soft rubber one I had. The speed is there and the size in not an issue for me.

So 600+ for the 32 GB and 100+ for the Zag case with keyboard. Same price as the laptops but I have all my apps and reading books in a small size.

My goal is paperless for the next term. Google drive will greatly help.
My issues are
how to download something straight to google drive. I installed it on my PC so I solved that problem on the PC. Now I just have to get around it on the ipad.
printing - google drive will solve
writing report - still using the PC for the really heavy lifting. But definately lifting more with less ( less paper and less size on the ipad)

geek geek happy happy joy joy

toys!!!

So I finally got myself the new I pad I have benn waiting for ! I went from a first gen to the fourth!
I made a similar upgrade with the keyboard. The old one was a soft but slow one. This one I hpe with be faster once I get use to it.
My goal is to be paperless this term. Not sure how handouts will work in all that.
now my desk has two laptops, two iphones and two ipads. Three phones if you count the one I gave to mike.
TOys are good!

First day of break 12/22/12

Well it's the first day of winter break. I got up like I do every Saturday and emptied out my Connexus mail box.
The rhythm of traditional school is gone for me. Virtual Learning happens 24/7. I will change my work habits over the break. I have to clear all my tests off the deck, write some rubrics, map some course ware  but I will not answer every message and I will not be harpy on students for weekly interactions. I figure it will be a more test run at summer school. I am willingly to be on call all summer. We would have to define that role but I have hear their will be no interactions. I would check my message every day. Grade tests as they come in and answer phone calls anytime needed.  For some extra money it would be worth it. I could handle 100 kids if the interactions were gone.

So I think I am converted.

Reflecting on this job. I like the working at home. I like the taking a shower at nine as my morning break.
It's too much grading. The program should have embedded tests for everything other then compositions.

Next year I want more money. The salary is the only thing that would make me leave this position. I really like Carol - my boss. It's very important to me that I respect, like and admire my boss.

Developing the learner

Sometime people say things to you once and twice and you still don't get it until it occurs to you:
Vickie said to us ,"You are developing the learner. "

I realized I don't see my students as "people" or "bodies" with stereotypes around them. To me these people are pure constructs of their learning. I don't see the classroom misbehavior. I don't see their skin color, their clothes, their social class. Honestly some of them I don't even know if they are male or female.
To me they are truly only learners. Our relationship is based on teaching only. It's really not until I got here that  I realized how much of a teachers' relation with their students is NOT about the learning but the conflicts and judgments that come from both parties.

Teacher waist so much learning time to misbehavior and power struggles. It's ridiculous! 

Online teaching has ruined me. I could never go back to discipline  classroom management  oh and grading papers I mean the paper ones.

Ahhh learning in the new world.

vision- a new learning model

Carol said to me that she wanted to focus this experience for the families as a teacher to family relationship. She wanted to keep the school as an organization to a minim  I believe this is a new model but a really value one. I could see getting a student in sixth grade and following through the next three years with them. Or really I should say the next three levels because that might not be three years. 

I need a new word

I need a new word for my parents. Because in my teaching world they are parents, co-workers, and people I supervise ( supervisees). They are teachers I mentor. Co-workers I can educational decision with. Learning guide is  term the program uses but it does not have meaning to the outside world. It needs defintion. I need a word that when outsiders hear it they will say Ahhh I get it.

I build out of parent-teacher-collague. "Par-teach -ah league " I think I like that.

I find this this role I am more intensely connected to my parents. The relationship is more like a rocky collague dynamic then iint the traditional role. Tension comes from unknown our role borders of the roles.
The tension can come from my invasion into their homeschooling world. The tension can come from their resistant to do their job as a Learning Guide or to share personal information that greatly impacts the learning.