I watched this movie three times. I thought it was very thought provoking and certainly opened my eyes to some facts that I simply had never thought about. For example, I have always view the United States as the richest, having the largest military, as being the center of the world's business and finance, with the strongest education system and having the highest standard of living. Yet, Mr. Fisch points out that in 1990 it was not the U.S. but rather Great Britain. He also points out that in 2006 1.3 million students graduated from college here in the United States, while 3.1 million graduated in India and 3.3 million graduated in China! These were just a few facts that made me stop and think. I agree with Mr. Fisch that it is not a competition for who is the fastest or who has more, but rather an easy way to point out that our world is getting smaller and smaller day by day. We need to stop and ask ourselves as well as others: What exactly is it that our children/students need to be successful in the 21st century?
I agree with Mr. Fisch that we are in deed living in exponential times. Technology has improved and has certainly made this giant world feel so much smaller. Living in times like these we must ensure that our children and their children will have the abilities to be a success in this new world that we live in. The Fischbowl Blog in ppt is a wonderful link to share. Mr. Karl Fisch has also created ShiftHappens , a website that anyone can join to continue the conversations provoked by the "Did you know?" powerpoint. I highly recommend sharing this information with others and begin discussing what exactly can we do that we are not already doing to prepare our students for out future.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
ALEX and ACCESS
ALEX
ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. I found this site to be extremely user friendly with multiple uses. I can certainly see how this could be utilized by not only educators but students and parents alike! Although there were several reasons why I found this to be a great resource, my number one reason would be because of its versatility.
As an educator I have seen how so many of us can view lesson plans or learning opportunities in such different ways. Because of that I was tickled to see that I too could share my knowledge in hopes of assisting other educators in the same manner that I would. Not only would I uses this resource to assist in lesson plans, but I also loved the idea of being able to post questions to all of the other educators enrolled with the Alabama Learning Exchange. I signed up to be a member so that I would be able to fully utilize the website. In doing so I was able to bookmark lesson plans that I searched. This would enable me to bookmark multiple lesson plans then later go back to review and compare said lesson plans. I then would be able to modify and combine these plans to create an entirely new plan to suit my class better.
As a parent I know how overwhelming it can be to assist your children in their school work/homework. Sometimes you may feel that your child knows more than you or perhaps you may be lost as to where to go to find information to help your child grasp a certain concept. ALEX offers wonderful links that I know would be helpful in educating not only the student but also the parent. I wish I would have had this tool to offer to previous parents that were struggling with helping their children. These are web links that can be offered to the parent via the teacher. At which point the teacher could obtain specific websites from ALEX geared towards the troubled area for the parents to utilize. The teacher could also give the parents the ALEX website and allow the parents to fully examine this wonderful tool on their own.
Another way to utilize ALEX would be for the teacher to allow their students to use the one of the many websites given to help with various concepts, either as a supplement, for remedial work or for enrichment purposes. One of the sites I found helpful was Coolmath. There are games on this site that the students can use to learn, help with remediation or to enrich what is already taking place in the class. They can even continue to use these games at home with siblings or parents! After all, what kid will pass up on playing a computer game?
ACCESS
ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide. This is a great way to help our upper school children to achieve more than what we may possibly be able to offer them directly in our school system. This website is set up so that students can be offered more classes via the Internet. Students may also take AP classes that may not be offered in their school through using ACCESS.
One thing about ACCESS that I hope they will someday change is the fact that it is really only for grades 9 and up. I am an elementary educator so this website would not be all that useful for me. However, you can sign up for this as a parent. With that being said, as soon as my children reach that age you better believe that I will become a member because I can certainly see how it could open up so many more avenues for my children to follow. Who knows, maybe one day I too will become an E-educator!
ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. I found this site to be extremely user friendly with multiple uses. I can certainly see how this could be utilized by not only educators but students and parents alike! Although there were several reasons why I found this to be a great resource, my number one reason would be because of its versatility.
As an educator I have seen how so many of us can view lesson plans or learning opportunities in such different ways. Because of that I was tickled to see that I too could share my knowledge in hopes of assisting other educators in the same manner that I would. Not only would I uses this resource to assist in lesson plans, but I also loved the idea of being able to post questions to all of the other educators enrolled with the Alabama Learning Exchange. I signed up to be a member so that I would be able to fully utilize the website. In doing so I was able to bookmark lesson plans that I searched. This would enable me to bookmark multiple lesson plans then later go back to review and compare said lesson plans. I then would be able to modify and combine these plans to create an entirely new plan to suit my class better.
As a parent I know how overwhelming it can be to assist your children in their school work/homework. Sometimes you may feel that your child knows more than you or perhaps you may be lost as to where to go to find information to help your child grasp a certain concept. ALEX offers wonderful links that I know would be helpful in educating not only the student but also the parent. I wish I would have had this tool to offer to previous parents that were struggling with helping their children. These are web links that can be offered to the parent via the teacher. At which point the teacher could obtain specific websites from ALEX geared towards the troubled area for the parents to utilize. The teacher could also give the parents the ALEX website and allow the parents to fully examine this wonderful tool on their own.
Another way to utilize ALEX would be for the teacher to allow their students to use the one of the many websites given to help with various concepts, either as a supplement, for remedial work or for enrichment purposes. One of the sites I found helpful was Coolmath. There are games on this site that the students can use to learn, help with remediation or to enrich what is already taking place in the class. They can even continue to use these games at home with siblings or parents! After all, what kid will pass up on playing a computer game?
ACCESS
ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide. This is a great way to help our upper school children to achieve more than what we may possibly be able to offer them directly in our school system. This website is set up so that students can be offered more classes via the Internet. Students may also take AP classes that may not be offered in their school through using ACCESS.
One thing about ACCESS that I hope they will someday change is the fact that it is really only for grades 9 and up. I am an elementary educator so this website would not be all that useful for me. However, you can sign up for this as a parent. With that being said, as soon as my children reach that age you better believe that I will become a member because I can certainly see how it could open up so many more avenues for my children to follow. Who knows, maybe one day I too will become an E-educator!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
First Post
Hi everyone my name is Victoria Wiik. I graduated from the University of South Alabama the first time in 2000 with a degree in Elementary Education. Unfortunately I allowed my teaching certificate to expire. So, now I am back in school so that I can get back to my calling.
My first year of teaching was here in Mobile, Al at Orchard Elementary. It was a wonderful and challenging experience. I was a Jump Start teacher which means that I taught the 5th grade repeaters. I took the job ready for the learning experience and boy did I get it!! Despite the dilapidated portable they stuck me in I had a wonderful year and would never trade it for the world!
I then moved to Savannah, Ga where I taught 3rd grade. This is where my heart fell. I knew after my first year of teaching 3rd grade that I was teaching at the level I wanted and needed. I taught at West Chatham Elementary for three glorious years and was exposed to an entirely different education system than Mobile's system. Was it better? In some ways yes but the politics were still there.
I was ready for something more and began searching the net for other options when I stumbled upon an international teaching website. I was immediately interested so I went to jotting down numbers and taking notes. After making a few phone calls, brushing up my resume, purchasing airline tickets for the job fair in the city of brotherly love and of course packing my bags, I found myself making a contract with the International School of Belgrade. Yet another glorious teaching experience that I will go back to in due time!!
My first year of teaching was here in Mobile, Al at Orchard Elementary. It was a wonderful and challenging experience. I was a Jump Start teacher which means that I taught the 5th grade repeaters. I took the job ready for the learning experience and boy did I get it!! Despite the dilapidated portable they stuck me in I had a wonderful year and would never trade it for the world!
I then moved to Savannah, Ga where I taught 3rd grade. This is where my heart fell. I knew after my first year of teaching 3rd grade that I was teaching at the level I wanted and needed. I taught at West Chatham Elementary for three glorious years and was exposed to an entirely different education system than Mobile's system. Was it better? In some ways yes but the politics were still there.
I was ready for something more and began searching the net for other options when I stumbled upon an international teaching website. I was immediately interested so I went to jotting down numbers and taking notes. After making a few phone calls, brushing up my resume, purchasing airline tickets for the job fair in the city of brotherly love and of course packing my bags, I found myself making a contract with the International School of Belgrade. Yet another glorious teaching experience that I will go back to in due time!!
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