The Final Countdown

2008-11-22T18:34:00.000-08:00

Well here I am again...I have struggled for over a year trying to blog on a regular basis. I am still not certain which direction I want to take this. I continue to struggle to actually write a post. I still wonder, does it matter? To that I seem to answer yes every time. I would love for my students to blog. I want to teach them that they have a voice and that they can blog, not just for an assignment. I think to do that then I too should be blogging too. I should be proving that case in point. So, I am still haunted by the fact that I struggle with it myself. I find it very difficult trying to write for a non-existent audience, in hopes that it will become existent. What do I have to say that would make people want to read my blog? Well, I'm not sure..but I will start with a little of where I am at in life right now.
I am the 7th grade Communications teacher at the DuBois Area Middle School. I love my job, although some days it can be down right crazy in my classroom. During the last portion of my class the students are engaged in 4 different projects at a time. They work through digital photography, podcasting, digital television, and scratch programming. I have my students for a 12 week rotation and I try to cram as much in as I can. Now, I am at the end of the first rotation and I am getting ready for the next group to start Tuesday. On Monday the students leaving my class will fill out a course evaluation for me. I hope to get some more insight as to how they think that the class went. What did they learn? Did they learn what I thought they would learn? Now it is time to prepare for the next 12 weeks. Will I do everything the same as the last 12 weeks? Absolutely not. I will change a few things. First, I will be trying out Edmodo with the next group. I am hoping to get them to Communicate and share their learning beyond the walls of my classroom. I will be using Classblogmeister again. Hopefully a little more efficiently this time. I hope to incorporate the students' use of the class wiki. I would like it to be a place where they can add their work as a digital portfolio of sorts. Most importantly one thing I will not change is the way I try to get my students to create a classroom community and accept each others' differences. I try to get them to work together. In real life we sometimes have to work with people who do not see eye to eye with us. I try to get my students to work with various groups in my class. Plus, I end each class with my final countdown. In doing this I am trying to get my students to look at the positive side of life. It is very easy to grumble about what is wrong...but I challenge them to think of the good things. We do this final countdown in what I call my community circle. My final countdown consists of 4 things.
1. A statement of appreciation of someone or something in class today.
This can be so and so helped me, I liked this... I appreciated that we got to..
2. A statement of appreciation of someone or something that you are thankful for in general
3. Something good about your day
4. Good clean funny joke (if they do not come up with one ...they get my cheesy joke of the day!)

Sometimes it is a riddle or a silly book. Sometimes the students groan and sometimes I get an eye roll or two. If I have students in my class to make up work or some of the 8th graders in as my helpers, they always ask if they can do the community circle.

So this being the week of Thanksgiving...What would you answer for the final countdown? What are you thankful for? What is your good clean funny joke?

Need a little help from my friends...

2008-07-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Again I sit at the laptop staring at my blog. My goal is to blog on a regular basis. I have been trying to do this for quite some time. Many nights I open my blogger account and start a post. I often don't know where to go or what to write. My brain is always filled with so many ideas and I am not sure which direction to take. I would like to use this blog in my learning of web 2.o, but I would also like to share little things about my life. I continually ask myself, if no one reads it does it really matter if I write? The answer is yes! I know this BUT, when I am simply writing for myself and I have so many other things to accomplish in a day it is very easy to say...I'll do it later. I can't think of what to write now...I'll try again later. Sometimes I just allow myself to get side tracked with Twitter or Plurk. I follow links that others have posted, I watch videos, listen to Edtechtalk shows. I am learning so much. Yet, here I sit again. I am learning so many things that sometimes it is hard to decide what to write. I feel like my brain is going to explode some days from taking in so much information. This time I am asking for help. I am here on my blog setting a goal to post at least one time per week. (baby steps) I ask that if you read my blog that you will leave me a comment. Motivate me and encourage me to grow. Please if you think that I need to make improvements, let me know. I ask that you be polite in your criticisms. I want to learn how to use this tool to grow in my learning and to become a better teacher. I also set the challenge to other teachers starting to blog to join me. Leave me a link to your blog. I will also comment on your blogs as a part of my weekly goal. I challenge all the veteran edubloggers to also take the time to help the newbies. Help guide us in the right direction. I cannot do this alone...I have proven that. I need the collaboration. I learn more through the collaboration. Thanks for your support.

Straight Outta Commlab

The Final Countdown

Need a little help from my friends...