What is Happen to Our Young People?

As I grow older and see the changes that are happening around me with our young people, I start to wonder if the world have change that much. We are now seeing children killing each other for shoes, phones, and other material things. Being very disrespectful to their elders and adults period.
They are not aware of what is going on in the world or what has happen in the past. I asked a question in class today. Who was the president that was involved in Watergate? Out of  twelve students not one knew the answer. Richard Nixon was the answer. Some of the students had no idea who I was talking about or even if he had ever been president. "Fredrick Douglas once said that if we forget the past we will make the same mistake again", This statement is so true today, because we are making the same mistakes we made in the past. We are killing each other for nothing but, few things that money can buy if you are willing to work for it.

Why Schools in America are Behind Other Countries in Technology

After talking to some middle school students today 11/14/2011, I now know why we are behind other countries. Students stated that they only use technology in the computer lab in the morning and not in any other class. The question is are the teachers using technology in their curriculum to instruct the students to use higher order thinking skills? As a country we have to invest more into the training of teachers to help them devolop the skills they need to be able to prepare student to be college ready and to complete with other countries in the global market.

Teacher cuts

At a time when we are talking about getting our students ready for Diffusion of Innovation to increase their knowledge of what is happen around the world and to help them to more created thinker. We are now face with teachers being cut for the classroom. The very place that we need more teachers and less. Can you imagine going into a classroom with 30 to 40 students with one teacher. You can believe that the only things that will be happen in that classroom is management and behavior issues. The teachers will not be able to use their created skills to engage the students.

Reflection #8

How have my Philosophy changed after taking this course? I have always known that is was important for me as an educator to be able to teach my students the skills they needed to be able to complete in this ever changing world. Now I am able to also learn from them and let them be able to be a part on their own educational process and to help them to be critical thinker. I can now share in their joy as they discover the power of their own abilities. I have became their biggest supporter, as well as the supporter of my co-teacher. I no longer have to be the center of attention, but I can now be the supporter as my student are learning just what they can do and help peer teach their co-peers. They are so busy working on their project and helping each other that it makes learning fun. I have invited other teacher to share in this process of sharing information in the classroom and what a different it make when the students feel that they are a part of the learning process. To share with you some of the things that are happen in my classroom 1. I have a student that I was told could not do any work I was at the board working with Mimio and he ask if he could help me with the lesson and I say yes, this student explained the whole assignment to the class, he was so proud as well as I was. This is just one example of what happen when you encourage and support your students. I no longer lecture my students instead I work with them and support, and motivate positive thinking.

Reflection #7 Technology Plan and Assessment

Objective of lesson :

I have focused my Lesson Plan on Window 7 for beginners. It is my job to teach young men to go back to their home school and be equipped with the current Technology skills to keep-up with there classes that are using the latest technology; with this in mind, I have to expose them to technology that is useful not only for school purposes, but to also be able to utilize these skills towards their jobs/careers. Some of my students have not been in school for several years; therefore I have to check for prior knowledge.  We are now working with Windows 7 starting from the beginning with creating a document in words.

Expected Outcome:
Each student will be working on individual computer to create a story in Microsoft Window 7. The student will be using desk top computer to create this document in the computer lab. With the use of the internet for a research tool for resource information and critical thinking skills to formulate ideas for the finish story that will be presented in class.

Assessment Tools

Evaluation : Students will evaluate themselves using a KWL chart.  The teacher will check for student prior knowledge, what the student want to learn from this project and what the student have learned. The teacher will give feedback; add suggestions or comments after reviewing the completed student charts.  The teacher will also be assessing the whole project from start to finish through observations and checking students chart as to what their strengths and needs are. Students will be assessing their growth as they complete the project.
KWL CHART

RubricThe teacher will assessing the students’ progress by using a rubric that offer the teacher an opportunity to evaluate the student's understanding of a specific topic by levels of performance on certain criteria.  Rubrics allows one to evaluate the depth, concept of information, creativity of a essay, presentation, skit, poster, brochure, project, lab report, portfolio.  Rubrics are scoring criteria that are summative, formative, educative, and evaluative.   For the students, a rubric clarifies the often mysterious grade at the end of a unit, project, paper or presentation by giving insight and direction about what is important about that activity and it makes assessment more meaningful, clarify expectations, and gives better feed back to the students than a piece of paper with questions and students chose the answers.
 Here is the rubric that will be used in this lesson to assessment the students to see if they understand and can apply the information.

My first episode

http://www.screencast.com/t/BpwzKOBPOxyX

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

This video speaks volumes to my soul as an educator.