Tuesday, October 13, 2009

My Contributions to the WebQuests Wiki

When doing my contributions to the WebQuest Wiki I added three new Webquests from different sites. The first one I added dealt with the geometry of monuments, it was a Design type webquest, dealing with the waay to design monuments around geometry. The next one that I added was about the book "Lily's Crossing" it was a Journalistic tpye that made the student use their idea of the setting to find editorials that would happen during that time frame. Lastly I added the Alaskan Expedition, this one was Compliation and dealt with the finding of information so that students could make a good judgment on whether or not Alaska should join the union.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

How To Help Someone Use A Computer

One thing I must tell myself is "if it is not obvious to them, it is not obvious" to myself. I personally would be the first one to ask: Is it plugged in? Something I must always remember when trying to help someone with a computer is to never ask "yes and no questions", these do not provide adequate answers to begin to be able to help someone fix a problem on their computer.

I learned that when I try to problem solve with my students, that I am not looking what is wrong, the student does not learn that way. I am guiding the student towards the possibilites of what could be the answer to their problem

Copyright and Fair Use LR

The question that I have decided to create a long response on is question number two. As long as no one is using the software simultaneously, than it is completely allowed for the school to only have one license. If this was the case though, who is the one punishable if the school exceeds the limit. The student can not be at fault since they had absolutely no idea that they were violating the law. The school can not be responsible if they are do not catch the mistake quick enough to see the student on the software. I also have thought a license means it is only allowed to be on one computer, according to this you could put it on 10,000 computers as long as only one is using it. I personally am against this, I believe that a software should be only allowed to be uploaded to three different computers, after this they should have to buy the software again. A couple questions I have are: How is this law enforced? What happens if a school goes above the amount of licenses they own? How easy is it for the school to be able to buy another license?

Copyright and Fair Use SR

On number seven I learned that it is legal for teachers to put up items on the web that are copyrighted as long as they are behind a password. I did not know this I always thought it was totally against the law to put anything back up on the web even if it is behind a password.

On number fourteen, I thought it was allowed for kids to watch a movie in the domain of a school. I did not know that it has to be part of the school's cirriculum and it must also happen within a closed classroom.

On number nine, I did not know it was allowed for teachers to use music in the classroom and in their cirrculum that they obtained off of the internet. Now thinking about it though as long as it is obtained in a legal manor, fair use laws allow teachers to use it in a closed classroom.

On number fifteen, I always thought the law allowed students to be able to watch any movie clip in class as long as it is for an educational purpose.

On number one, I am glad that it is allowed for teachers to make back up of their CD's on their computer in case of an accident. It is good to know that we are at least allowed to protect ourselves from the possible consequences of a student.

On number twenty, I thought it was completely legal for school's to reproduce students works and allow it to be distributed. I also thought it was legal not to make a profit off of this, rather a breaking even point so the school does not lose money.

On number seventeen, I thought that it was against the law for students to take pictures of businesses and post them on the internet. I thought that the business had to provide a written statement to the students telling them that they were allowed to do this.

On number eleven, I thought that it was illegal to alter the publication of another company. As long as it does not go out on the web though, and it does not lead to someone different becoming profitable off of the item, it is completely within the Fair Use Laws.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

In this chapter I learned that teaching does not need to be within the walls of the classroom. Students can and do truly learn anywhere and everywhere. We as teachers need to enforce this philosophy and tell students we wish for them to not just take what we teach them and have them sit on it we wish for them to go out in the communitiy and learn even more.

I will tell students that I wish for them to apply the things I teach them in the classroom to one event in the local town which can be montiored. This will show the students that this is not something that is just on paper, it is in the world also. The more the students know what they are doing will effect the world around them, the more they are willing to put in for effort into the project at hand. A student who is most achieving is on that can bring the academics of his school into the world around him.

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

The thing that stuck out the most in this chapter is the fact you can not judge how successful of a teacher you are by how well the students like you. I have always judged success on whether the product I presented was liked, whether it is myself or anything else I do in life. To take a step back and not be the front burner will be difficult but it is not impossible.

My high school teacher use to tell me that you will not a be a good teacher till at least five years in. It will be when you realize that you are not the point of interest, it is the stuff that you are learning is the point of interest of students. A student should not be going into a class saying yay, Mr. Freeman is the teacher. They should be going into the class saying yay, we are going to learn more about geometry. I feel this is going to be very difficult for me but, I know in the end I will be able to do this, I have to.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers that are Still Learning English

The main idea I learned from this chapter is to not focus on the little grammetical mistakes that are made. Instead the teacher should make sure that the student is learning the main context of what you are teaching instead of focusing on the little picture, focus on the big one. A student needs not to be graded on the little things that in the end mean nothing, they need to know how to do the big thing.

In my own class I will never ask a student to make sure all of the smallest thing are correct. When correcting a test in math for example I will not care if the answer is right, that does not matter in the end. What really matter is that the student used the correct equation, if a student messes up in plugging numbers in that is very small. That is why I will always give more points for the work shown than the actual answer that is shown.