My second… 1st blog

During this past well deserved week off, I found myself just sitting at my computer quote unquote surfing.  Like I do every day, I check my email, read some news on MSN, and check out the latest updates at spring training for my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles.  When I was finished that, I just started googling different things, regularly and in images.  I found many people with my same last name and just wondered… are they related to me or not?  If I had the time, the patience, and a base to walk on I would try to figure out.  That’s a hobby for another day.  So while I was googling, I forget how I got there, but I found a blog about the Baltimore Orioles called the Camden Chat.  This is An Unofficial Baltimore Orioles Blog and Fan Community.  I started reading different  different passages and responses, most of which are just a sentence or two if that.  I signed up and instantly replied to an ongoing gripe.  As I was writing, I thought this would be great if only my team was any good.  They are predicted to finish in last place in their league.  This website is going to be filled with complaint after complaint until, well… a long time. 
I wonder — as I read other people’s posts, some questions of which I have pondered before being a life-long fan of this team… do you think anybody in the head office of the ball club reads this?  do the players?  Or is it just fans like me?  I wonder this because some of the post can be hurtful, but I guess when you are a fanatic of a team, the love for that object is stonger than, well… almost anything.
I have only posted once, but plan on becoming more of a full timer as the season draws closer and the games start. 

HIGH FIVE…

    A “HIGH FIVE“, that’s what I gave my wife earlier this week, along with a kiss (of course).  Now what could my wife have done to deserve a HIGH FIVE?  Did she just hit a clutch 3-pointer to beat our rival in basketball?  Did she just close a deal at work that will net us and her business a lucrative amount of money?  Did she… well you get the idea.  The answer to all of those questions is — NO.  But, she did do something that will put a smile on the faces of our family and could put extra money in our pocket.  
    During our Valentine’s Day class, before our break, we talked about Information Literacy and the first 3 standards.  The next part of class was the video on the acronym DISCOVER.  As I read these standards as I do with most of my readings and work for school, I try to compare it to my work and to my life.  Standard #1 simply says:  The student who is information literate accesses information effectively and efficiently.  The acronym DISCOVER stands for:
Define
Inquire
Search
Collect
Organize
Verify
Express
Reflect
    Now back to how I started this blog.  What did my wife do that pertains to this class?  As some of you in the class know, well at least a few of you know; my wife and I are expecting our first child later in 2008.  She is using the internet to look up different reports on strollers, cribs, toys, safety tips, and the list goes on.  Actually, like I said, earlier in the week my wife got a HIGH FIVEfrom me… because she found, through internet use, best infant car seat on the market.  It’s not the biggest or the most expensive, but it was voted to be the best on the market.  I can’t tell you off the top of my head who voted it, but my wife did a lot of research on this and just heard from a friend at work that they bought the same one and loved it. 
    She defined what she was looking for.  She inquired on the subject.  She searched out the information.  She collected a lot of data.  She organized the data.  She verified it with the co-worker.  She expressed the information to me.  Now I guess all we have to do is reflect on it, when we purchase and use it.  
    This was all done by a woman who did not grow up using computers as the children do today.  Imagine how much can be done, if all of our students DISCOVER.
    You would have given her a HIGH FIVE, right?
 

Post # 4

While sitting in class listening to Dr. Ransom speak of all the new technology there is available for today’s child, I can see myself using these techniques when my educational journey is complete.  I say to myself, “wow, that’s a good idea” or — i would have done a whole lot better in school, if only they had half of today’s technology.  
But…. what can I do now?  I mean, I do work in education as a para-professional at Monroe #1 BOCES, but not in a traditional classroom.  I work in the Physical Education Department at Alternative High School, so there’s not much opportunity to use these technological skill in my job, but I am looking for spots to slip it in.  One of those chances came this past week.  The all dreaded January report cards came out.  Believe it or not, we had many students either teeter-tautering right around a failing grade.  Just before the end of the marking period a few of the students, as most struggling students do, came to the teacher and me and asked if there was anything they could do to help their grade.  Our first answer for them was the straight forward truth.  “Show up to class on time, stay in class for all 35-40 minutes, and participate.”  (It sounds to easy.)  The teacher and I thought about it and decided to grant extra credit.  We told them that we would come up with some work for them to accomplish.  We took the subjects (activities/sports) we covered in class (the gym) and turned it into a classroom setting for them.  We gathered information off the Internet, printed it for the students to read, and made up a worksheet covering this information.
This is where I took some of last week’s learnings of WORD and made up the worksheet.  It was a fun experiment.  I just wish there was more for me to do to use this in my job.  The teacher did ask me to put together another packet of information on Archery…. maybe I’ll try doing something in EXCEL.
~cheers~

…using Word…

On my drive home Thursday night from class I thought about most of what we went through in class.  I thought about a  one credit class that was mandatory in my undergrad at SUNY Brockport on computer use.  The class was offered multiple times each semester for what I want to believe to be 2 hours a week for half the semester.  Each student had the choice to opt out of the class and test out of it.  On the test, each of us had to show how to do a lot of the things we did on Thursday night, such as insert a picture with the wrap around writing, hyperlinks, power point a long with many, many other things.  I of course, who was commuting to campus 45+ minutes per day and didn’t have time for another class, opted out of the class and chose to test out.  I was told by other classmates that the test was easy and I should be out of the test in 30-45 minutes.  Well, after showing up 10 minutes late, I found myself being a solo-act an hour and forty-five minutes in.  The proctor of the exam finally asked me if I needed any help.  At first I said played it off, acting like I knew what I was doing, but after looking around the empty room, I told the man that I had no clue what I was doing.  He “walked” me through most of the test.  I ended up passing the test and got my 1 credit, but without that proctor’s help, I would have had to taken it again the following semester.  Now that I think back on that helpless moment in time in my life, I wish I would have taken that class a little more serious.  If I would have done so, I would have been able to complete the classroom assignment in a lot shorter amount of time that I did. 
It’s amazing to see how many things you can do just by using Microsoft Word, probably more than I will ever use in my life.

The possibilities for the young students now days…

The possibilities for the young students now days…
… in technology are extremely amaizing from when I was growing up.  It wasn’t until I was in college until I learned how to use Power Point or Excel.  Now days, Microsoft has alternatives to their programs to teach and assist children ages 3-10 to use WORD, EXCEL, and POWER POINT and communicate with their teachers and peers.   Along with these programs by Microsoft, their are other programs such as Storybook Weaver and The Amazing Writing Machine which give these children a head start on yesterday’s youth.  
My question to those in the technology field is simple.  With all the changes to programs, new programs, and updates; what will happen to the common man who was use to watching the 11 o’clock news, going to a physical classroom to learn, or even write a personal check for his utility bill?  I guess what I want to know is, will it ever end? or is this just the beginning of a Technological World ?? 

…learning to blog…

How can I write this? I feel like Frank from Mercyhurst in that little cartoon and story Dr. Ransom talked about. After listening to the introduction of this class, and hearing of all the papers, projects, and activities that will be completed by me by the end of the semester, I feel a little overwhelmed and a lot of nervousness. A few of my classmates in other classes told me that I would enjoy this class because they did. Since last night’s first class, I’ve had a chance to talk to one of those classmates and she told me not to worry about all of the work that has to be done, but to just work on one thing at a time and let things flow. She said she was the same way after the first class, and all things worked out pretty well for her. She also told me that she too likes the iMac better now.

Although I do feel like Frank from Mercyhurst, I feel confident that I will come to understand this “new to me” technology and use it in my career as an educator.