A cool speech I came across... "What do I make?"

A couple days ago my mother sent me this incredible e-mail.  It was of a principles speech at a graduation.

I thought I would share it because it made me smile and it also made me happy to see something that makes sense about what a teacher really gets 'paid'. 
I also LOVE the part that talks about how keyboarding isn't everything and writing is so important. The timing of me reading this couldn't have come at a more appropriate time!

Hope you enjoy!

From A School Principal's speech at a

graduation...

He said

"Doctor wants his child to become a doctor.........

Engineer wants his child to become engineer......

Businessman wants his ward to become CEO.....

BUT a teacher also wants his child to become one of them..!!!!

Nobody wants to become a teacher BY CHOICE" ....Very sad but that's the

truth.....!!!

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.

One man, a CEO, decided

to explain the problem with education. He argued,

"What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life

was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest;

"You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?"

Teacher Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied,

"You want to know what I make?

(She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.

I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't

make them sit for 5 min. without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.

You want to know what I make?

(She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)

I make kids wonder.

I make them question.

I make them apologize and mean it.

I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.

I teach them how to write and then I make them write.

Keyboarding isn't everything.

I make them read, read, read.

I make them show all their work in math.

They use their God given brain, not the man made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need

to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they

were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life

( Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money

isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because

they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ALL YOUR LIVES,EDUCATING KIDS AND

PREPARING THEM TO BECOME CEO's ,AND DOCTORS AND

ENGINEERS..........

What do you make Mr. CEO?

His jaw dropped; he went silent.

 http://agogodavid.com/2012/04/from-a-school-principals-speech-at-a-graduation/

Always up to learn: Using Daybooks: Jill Puchacz and talking on paper

Always up to learn: Using Daybooks: Jill Puchacz and talking on paper: I started using daybooks in my classroom and I have had a mix of responses, some students love using them and other say they would rather us...

Using Daybooks: Jill Puchacz and talking on paper

I started using daybooks in my classroom and I have had a mix of responses, some students love using them and other say they would rather use a lap top or text their thoughts on their phone.  Even though I understand that using a paper and pencil is archaic to them, I find it important and almost freeing to leave the phone or computer behind for a few minutes a day and just write.

I wonder how I could get kids more excited to use paper.  I model it for them and show them how I write and that its okay to be messy and spell incorrectly.  They have such a hard time writing for the sake of writing because they were never taught that.  How do I teach them that writing isn't only for when you need to pass in  a paper for class, but as a way to organize your thoughts and sometimes find out thoughts that you didn't know you had?

This goes back to a post I made a while ago about being a digital native or a digital immigrant.  How do we express the wonder of using paper?


Jill Puchacz

Online Courses

So after all of the time I spent learning about incorporating technology into learning, I have realized that even though I was raised in a highly technological age, I am much better not using technology to learn.  I took my first online course this term and I am finding it very difficult to navigate.  I have found that the conversation in classrooms gives instant feedback and allows for a lot more open discussion.  Online learning involves a much more strict and less flexible conversation structure because it seems to require a large amount of information all at once and then a long time waiting for any response.  It also seems hard to clarify thoughts because I can't see faces and see expressions or hear intonation to have a better idea of what people really mean.

I think I am too old school to learn in this new school.  I can incorporate technology into the classroom, but I think face to face learning is more impacting, at least for me.

The final Blog post for this course

This class was such a great experience.  I thought that I was going to be board and not learn anything that I didnt already know.  Although we did cover a good deal of things I did know how to do, I was really happy to learn about things like the online k-12 conferences and all of the digital manipulative that are out there for all different activities. 

I like having a blog for my education work and hope to continue posting throughout some of my other courses.

I also am thrilled to know how to put together a Web Quest.  I know that I will use that in the future without a doubt. 

Incorporating technology into the classroom is a lot easier than i thought it would be and a whole lot less overwhelming too.  You don't have to use technology for everything but being able to use it in a way that makes sense to your students will be a lot easier for me.

Thank you for everything Prof. Chamberlain!

Students and Plagarism

In today's world it is so easy to do plagiarism even if you don't mean to.  There is so much information at your fingertips it can be easy to forget to cite a source.  However there is and always will be a problem with students claiming others works to be their own because they don't want to take the time to do it themselves.
As a teacher I want to be able to know my students work is their own because grading the work done by someone else means your student hasn't learned it.  There are always the options of cutting and pasting parts of papers into a search tool online and seeing if the work comes up as someone else.  There is also a time tested way of knowing your students work.  If something seems off about a paper or assignment... it is most likely because it is. 
Ways to fight it off might be to do portions of the assignments in class and trying incorporate tasks into the papers or projects that could not be accomplished unless there is an understanding from the student. 

Overall this subject is such a taboo in my opinion because everyone knows it happens but no body wants to admit that it does. And even worse, no one wants to accuse a student only to find out they were wrong about it.

I think what a teacher needs to do is just be aware of how easy it might be to fool them and to always be on guard.  

Teen access and Parental involvement

I read an article that studied how much teens really use technology these days, and although the figures were not surprising, I was still a bit annoyed with what I read.  I understand that technology is everywhere and use of the internet and using cell phones are very important in our society, I feel like parents are using that as an excuse to not do their job.
If you are a parent, it is your job to be the gate keeper for your children.  If you buy your teen a cell phone, you need to take the time to be aware of the calls being made, and the text messages being sent and received.  I don't care how responsible you think your 13 -17 year old is, if they are given complete freedom in communicating with people, they are not going to be communicating in a way that you would probably approve of.  Again... I am talking about 'the rule' and not 'the exception'.  I am sure there might be a teen here and there who might have the ability to police what he/she says and is completely respectful in all communications... but I have yet to meet that teen.  
According to my article, 59% of teens between  13-15 have their own cell phone, and 74% between 16-17 have them. I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was 20 years old.  I am only 26. I know that things change very quickly but I feel like it is important that the people using the technology are responsible enough to use it, and I don’t think that is the case.  Growing up, I did not have a cell phone, there was a land line and my parents answered the phone.  They were the gate keepers to who my sister and I had contact with.  They knew who we were talking with and where we were going, for the most part.  When we were out with friends and we wanted to go someplace else, we had to go home and ask our parents if it was okay, now a child can call from their cell phone and the parent really has no idea where their kid might actually be calling from.
I understand that giving a child a cell phone or their own lap top might be more convenient for a parent but its allowing for much too much freedom at too young of an age.  And as we see from all the bullying that is happening via text and via the internet... its true.  Children cannot handle that much freedom.  They need to be taught how to control themselves and how to interact in situations.  My article talked mostly about teenagers, but I want to make the point that kids as young as 6 and 7 have their own cell phones… and that’s not event hat uncommon.  My nephew just got his first cell phone when he turned 8.  I was astonished and still can’t wrap my head around why a 3^rd grade child would possibly need their own cell phone. 
In regards to internet use, I can honestly say that it is amazing to see that a 7 year old can have a better understanding of how to use a mobile device or computer than I do, and I also thing that it is wonderful that they can command such an understanding, I just hope that parents don’t mistake their understanding on how to use a program for maturity and social understanding. 
Recently I was on Facebook and browsing the pictures of a current Pop singer, and I was STUNNED when I began reading some of the comments that were made about pictures of some of her young fans.  There were amazingly cruel words written about two young girls… by other young girls.  Making fun of everything from their hair, weight, teeth to clothes.  I know that girls are mean, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to say such mean things about people.  The girls making comments probably have never met the girls in the pictures which made it feel safe to them to say what they probably thought was funny, because to them, the people in the picture aren’t real, they are just people in a picture.  But putting myself in the place of the girls in the picture, I can’t imagine how hurt I would have been.  I can only imagine that they were incredibly excited to have been posted up on their singing idols page, only to be verbally beaten down by a faceless entourage of comments.  Policing our children is SO important.  And not only policing our own children but being aware of what others are doing around us.  

This article was punblished for the National Crime Prevention Council and put together by Harris Interactive.  Released February 28, 2007 By the National Crime Prevention Council.  The link to the article I used is:

http://www.ncpc.org/resources/files/pdf/bullying/Teens%20and%20Cyberbullying%20Research%20Study.pdf