Michael+Thaxton

Hey everybody,



I'm Michael Thaxton and I am in my first year of my Masters in Curriculum and Education. I earned an Undergraduate Degree in Secondary Education with a focus on the German language as well as an Undergraduate Degree in German Studies and the University of Cincinnati. I completed my student teaching during fall quarter and will be applying for my teaching certificate very soon. I am 21 years old and the oldest of 4 kids. I have lived in Cincnnati my whole life, growing up in both the West Side and in Milford on the East Side. I played all sorts of sports throughout middle and high school. I started playing water polo as a sophomore and ended up being part of the State Championship team my senior year. As an Undergrad I spent a lot of time playing Ultimate Frisbee on the University's club team but I don't have much time for that anymore. One thing I should mention now that I'm thinking about it, in German you capitalize every noun and I've found that I have started doing that in English as well so if you see words that don't need to be capitalized, I'm sorry. I'm also an Eagle Scout which describes a very important part of my life. As far as a job goes, I currently am a tutor for UC SES (Supplemental Education Services). I work with Cincinnati Public School students to improve their Math and Reading Comprehension.

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Reflective Blog #1

I've heard the word Constructivist thrown around so much in my time at college that it seems that this theory is the one that most of the professors at the University adhere to. I believe that each of the articles has a valid point to make in the debate between Objectivism and Constructivism. Jonassen looks at the two as polar opposites which I think is a fair assessment. Constructivists provide the tools for their students but let the students make their own interpretations while objectivists deem it important to simply impart knowledge on their students. As Cronje suggests, I do think that there is a need for both Objectivism and Constructivism in the classroom. Let us say that we are teaching a unit on World War II. We give the students readings to familiarize them with the situation of each of the major countries (Germany, France, Britain, U.S.). We then ask them to determine why they think that the Allied Powers were originally fine with appeasing Germany. So far we have a constructivist lesson but as the class discusses, they are missing a key reason as to why the countries chose appeasment. If we truly adhered to constructivism it is quite likely that the students would not arrive at that key reason. A teacher would likely include that key reason near the end of the bell which allows the students to both develop information for themselves but also to develop the information that the teacher wanted them to develop.

I think that these articles are related with the 6th standard of NETS, Problem Solving and Decision Making Tools. Technology can be a very helpful tool when students are attempting to create their own knowledge. It is also useful to help students express their opinions and views on a topic once they have constructed their own beliefs.

Discussion Question: With so much attention paid to standarized tests and preparing students for those tests, how much time can we afford students to construct their own views (which takes longer) as opposed to simply imparting our knowledge?

Reflective Blog #2

FINALLY!! In every single class I have taken at the University I hope that at some point I will read an article that actually gives me ideas regarding the particular topic that I can actually use in the classroom. I've had enough theory and these two articles were more than refreshing to read. Most of the clasrooms that I have been in only have the teacher's computer which I would still think counts as a one computer classroom. Fortunately those particular classrooms were also equipped with a projector of some sort so the entire class was able to view whatever the teacher wanted to show. I think that most teachers in a situation are a bit scared about sharing their computer with students. Honestly, I think I would be too. Aside from a class in which I was a student, I do not have experience with using a single computer as a station among other stations. It worked rather effectively but I believe that it would make for a huge amount of planning for the teacher.

Both articles mentioned that one way of utilizing a single computer is to have the students do their research very quickly and then print materials off and read them at their desks. I think this is a great idea but might need a little more explaining than either author gave. There would need to e another activity for the students to do while they were waiting to do their research. Also the possibility of students needing to return to searching after finding that their article did not contain the information they believed it did was not addressed.

The Standard that I feel works the closest with these articles is: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility with a special focus on letter b: address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources. Each student deserves to work with technology in the classroom especially because we cannot ensure that they have access outside the classroom.

Discussion Question: If we went with the strategy of students quickly researching and then printing things off how would we be able to monitor how much time students are spending on the computer and ensure that they do actually find something in the small amount of time they are given?

This week we're focusing on different ways that we can effectively use what is arguably the most diverse and useful tool that we as teachers have at our disposal, the internet. We look first at the evolution of the internet from version 1.0 to 2.0. When the internet started it was just a platform for finding information about a variety of topics in a much faster setting than books and other references. However that was about the extent of it. "Today's read-and-write web (Web 2.0) allows for information presentation and participation in creating information" (Rosen 2008). The other articles expand on this premise that the internet can now be used for constructing information as opposed to simply finding and reading it. Because of this change educators are beginning to take advantage of the wealth of opportunities that lies on-line.

Since we discussed how the web is now a read-**write** platform the Hsua article looks at one of the most common uses, blogging. The biggest advanatage of blogging as I see is that it opens students up to look at their classmates thoughts. To me blogging replaces the journal writing of the past in which the only readers were the teacher and the writer. With blogging students can learn in a collective and safe online environment. The other article details the usefulness of webquests in modern classrooms. Webquests "can be used not only for content learning but also to conduct research in an authentic, problem-solving environment" (Ikpeze 2007). While I haven't used blogs in my class I have used a webquest. This webquest lined up perfectly with Ikpeze's quote because the students were not simply working with the vocabulary but they were doing research to find a German youth hostel which is something that they would likely have to do if the traveled to Germany. One of the things that I was most worried about was making sure the students had enough time to complete the activity in class given that students work at different paces. Fortunately everything worked out wonderfully and I believe that my students took away an understanding of how to look up information on youth hostels.

Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity is the standard that I think works the best with these articles. More specifically a, b, and c of the subcategories. If we are going to use a Constructivist approach as much of the research as well as the University recommends, then we have to allow our students to create their own knowledge. These articles and substandards both remind us to work with our students on things not detailed in the curriculum, namely reflecting and developing problem solving skills.

Question: While webquests are very goal oriented and the teacher can control where the student goes, how can we __ensure__ that students have a valuable learning experience with blogs? What do we do if they are missing a particular point that we want them to discover and/or discuss?

I've always been a little curious as to how I would go about incorporating podcasts into my teaching. After reading the article on this topic I can see that there is a plethora of ways that teachers can employ podcasts in a fun, educational way. It could be a huge benefit to students to go back and revisit a particular lesson that they might have struggled on. Thinking a little more in depth about this though, I would think that teachers might have to alter their instructional practices to fit what can be done on a podcast. It's much more difficult to reference something the teacher might have on the board and the teacher needs to constatnly remember to mention outloud where the class is so that someone following along later would be able to keep pace. That said I think that both teacher and student created podcasts have the ability to be very helpful in our changing educational system.

Using video in the classroom is something that I am fairly well accustomed too. My mentor teacher was a huge fan of using video as a means of project based assessment. We had access, through the school to a few digital flip cameras that the students were able to use to make moviesabout a wide range of topics. Though not all of the students were incredibly excited about the prospect of being on camera, there were lots of students that had a lot of fun with it. I would recommend separating these students so that each group contains at least one. I found that their enthusiasm for making the video was contagious and it made the other students excited about the assignment. I also learned through experience that it is very important to allow creativity but to have very clear guideleines as to what is expected. The most important thing is for them to have FUN doing the assignment. From their perspective sitting in class is pretty boring so this is a great way to get them excited about something to do with your subject area.

These two articles deal primarily with the first of the five NETS standards because of the incredible importance of student creativity in these two articles. Whether they are making a podcast or a video, we as teachers need to makes sure that they are being creative and having fun. I would also argue that teacher podcasts fit nicely with standard 3a in that the teacher is modeling how to use podcasts effectively.

Question: Is there a way around making videos or podcasts in a district that may not be financially sound or is there a good alternative?

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I assume that they mean interactive whiteboards to be similar with what we know as SMART boards but I was unable to find a description of exactly what they identified as an interactive whiteboard. I have had the luxury of being in a class with an interactive white board during my time at high school. Though I believe it to be just a coincidence, the teacher who had the SMART board was also my favorite teacher. He recieved this new technology my junior year of school and was therefore relatively inexperienced with working it. That did not stop him from trying out new things. Looking back it was clear that he practiced before class to ensure things worked which is absolutely necessary with as large of a technological leap as he made. As these forms of interactive whiteboards become more common I wonder how long it will be until they become a staple in the classroom.

I can see the potential that wireless mobile devices has and there is quite an upside, but to me at least this still seems like something that needs a little bit more thought as to how exactly teachers can use it best. The first problem is simply the cost. Providing devices to entire classrooms seems like it would ring up quite a bill. There is also the issue of making sure that the students are on task and not goofing around while the teacher is working. These issues do not deviate from the issues of simply having computers in the classroom. It leaves out the potential issues of students not being connected to the internet, running out of batteries, or dsitracting their peers by walking around while working. One thing that I do like about these systems is the classroom response aspect. They can be very helpful for a quick quiz or a jeopardy game or even when a teacher wants to poll student opinions.

The first article connects with Standard 3a in that the UK teachers had not spent a great deal of time figuring out how to work their new interactive whiteboards. Since digital devices are so very diverse and have a wide variety of applications I can see how they could fit under each of the first three Standards depending on what they were being used for.

Question: We seem to be adapting tools from society to teaching (like the ipad or phones), will companies eventually make a product designed for teachers? What would you like it to be?