summer

Professional Development with regards to technology would depend on the district I am working for and what they offer technology wise. The district I work in now has a wonderful technology department and just passed a huge bond for more technolgy; not all districts are this lucky. My goal is to keep up on recent technology trends and the best educational resources for the subjects I will be teaching. I will take advantage of what is offered in the district and what is offered at the local ISD. If journals are not available at school then I will take the time to look them up online. I will keep in contact with the medial specialist in the building I am working at, look to her/him for suggestions and advice. There are always classes at the community college. Organizations are MACUL and MAME are I can look to for many resources. Other school districts are usually really good about helping fellow educators.

1. Authority - I didn’t see an author or anyone that takes credit for the website.

2. Affiliation - some links to the site have some great information and the domain is .edu

3. Content - I think there is some great information, but the content is definitly high school and beyond. I am not able to access the site from where I work (it has been blocked). So I am sure someone has objected to it.

4. Audience/Currency - It did seem the majority was up to date, but the only date I found on the site was when some quotes a bit of a magazine from 1998. I help students do research and I find it frustating when there is no date on the site.

5. Design - The site loaded fast (I use dial-up). The graphics are good and it was very easy to navigate. I liked the fact that it presented both sides of MLK, Jr. One link said it was under construction.

I agree with many of the ways of Constructivism and believe it helps the students with thinking on their own, creating their points of view.

Constructivism makes the students research and think about their own points of views. It works on prior knowledge of the students. The seventh and eighth grade classes they use this almost weekly, they appoarch the student with a question and make them give their point of view, it usually has to do with real world issues, meaning hunting, dams, cloning and etc. . . It is called “Critical Issues” and they must write a paper on their own thoughts and feelings with supporting statements. The students need to know we can change things with a small voice even if it is just a few of us at a time.

The students are left on their own to come up with what they think/feel on their own. Some of the more advanced students create a more lengthly paper and some of the lesser advanced students only come up with a few short papagraphs. I don’t remember doing anything like this when I was in school. A lot of this has to do with prior knowledge of the student.

I have always liked this project because it makes the students think for themselves. All students need to realize that within themselves they have an opinion, weather it be right or wrong with the world; it is their own feelings and they need to find something to support it. I think it is a good way to get them ready for college.

The students can create a way of the solving a problem and coming up with a complex answer to the question asked of them. I believe a lot of this has to do the the MEAP, but that is OK, because it is making them think outside the box is good. The younger we make the students believe they can use their own thoughts and maybe come up with a solution, the better we all can be. We as educators need to emphasize the students thinking capabilities and make them think on their own; without that we are a nation that just puts information in their brains and doesn’t explain and doesn’t let them know their opinion is important. We need to teach everyone that they have thoughts and opinions and they can take action on them.

One of the main problems with this is some students have very little prior knowledge on some subjects; so how can we educate them and not be bias?

We all need open their minds and not so give own opinions!