For this portion of the "Comment for Teachers" assignment, I commented on the "Intrepid Teacher" blog of Jabiz Raisdana (found here). This was yet another very interesting professional blog from an actual educator in the classroom of today.
The first post I commented on was titled "Big Wheel Keep on Turning." The post listed and described some of the assignments, reasons for assignments, and the basic overall progress of the class. My comment read as follows:
"Hello,
I am one of Dr. Strange’s students at The University of South Alabama in EDM 310. My blog can be found at http://www.arthurfarisedm310.blogspot.com. I will be commenting on three of your posts on this blog as part of our class-wide “comment for teachers” project. I am very impressed that you have such limited resources at your disposal, yet are able to provide your students with a technological education. I think that the shift toward for technologically based media for education is inevitable. It’s good that you have your students using gmail and collaborating online to become more knowledgeable. Many of the things that you have your students doing is exactly what we are doing in Dr. Strange’s class. Keep up the good work, and you’re right it is great to be doing something that you love."
The second post a commented on "Nature of War," detailed an assignment that Raisdana was using to get his students to think about the deeper concepts of war. He posted a video of one of his students actual presentations, it is very good.
I commented with this: "Incredible. I think it is overwhelmingly important to teach students to do more than memorize dates, facts, names, ect… They need to be taught to actually analyze the overarching themes, and critically evaluate events and data. You have done an inspiring job of that with this assignment. The sample video you posted is amazing, it illustrates that your students are really evaluating and making deeper connections with the condition of war. This is really great and exciting work."
The third and final post I commented on dealt with the compatibility of new technology like the Ipad, with the older way of reading and writing (See video at the top of this post). I commented the following:
"In my opinion, the key problem here seems to center around some of the recreational activities that technology is often used for these days. For kids, I believe this makes them only associate the devices they are using with games. Some of these games and technologies seem to condition the user to only respond to very quick “flash in the pan” emotions. The problem here is that reading literature, and comprehending words and language can be a somewhat demanding and slow process. I worry that apps like these teach kids to be averse to slower and more complex thought processes that really are necessary for true lingual evaluation and learning. As long as the true intellectual process of interacting with words is preserved to some degree in these apps, I think they could be useful.
A.W. FarisEDM 310"
Each day my students do 15 minutes of silent reading. I just read a blog from a teacher who devotes 30 minutes. That is a significant part of the day, but I think tomorrow morning we will increase the time. I have five computers in my room and students can use them on rotation once each week during reading. Many like to read on line but I am not very happy with how that works. Sustained personal reading is something I think young people should do on their own time. It is one of the only things I think should be "home work". Unfortunately we need to include it in our school day. They need that sustained, reflective reading.
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