1st Blog of 599

About a week and a half ago I had what I would write in this blog made up in my mind. It was after I spoke to Louis about what my culminating experience would be. He made me realize that what I originally planned was too vague and in his words, "nebulous". I admitted that I painted a hazy, not well defined goal and consequential plan. It sounded good, but admittedly, I wrote it loosely so that I may have some "wiggle" room.

So, off I went to make my culminating experience well defined and very specific. I thought I would create an "online gradebook" using Engrade. Respectable, but not having the bite that I would like, I now find myself wanting to change, partly due to the fact that my district has online grading for some schools and wants to put it into practice throughout my district. I do not wish to put in the time transferring everything into Engrade and then possibly having to transfer everything into yet another software package. The clock is ticking... I have to make up my mind and stick with it... Time to talk to Louis again...

CED0565 -Final Post

• How has your definition of leadership altered or been reinforced? Your definition of teacher leadership?

In the wake of taking the classes for my Masters, I have found myself saying certain things more and more to my classes.

Things like:

1) You can be part of the problem or part of the solution. No other choice exists.

2) Who would you rather listen to, someone who complains about everything or someone who offers a solution?

3) The simplest, yet most complex math problem to figure out is: You were born with how many ears? With how many mouths? Figure it out. (This one, I use when some student won't stop talking)

4) There was an old owl, who lived in an Oak...

the more s/he saw, the less s/he spoke...

the less s/he spoke, the more s/he heard...

why can't we be like that wise old bird...

A new one that I will be trying out. A quote from Rosanne Barr on CBS Sunday Morning...

Nobody can stop you from getting better at something, except you.

Nobody can stop you from making something right, except you.

I added the "except you's"

I had forgotten for a while, how much influence I could and should have on students. In this sense, I have had a rebirth in my opinion of teacher leadership

• Has your opinion of your leadership potential changed?

No doubt, it has changed. How can you realize your potential unless you try new things and feel you make a difference. We accomplish in proportion to what we attempt. We may fail at many things many times, but, if we never try, we will never succeed at anything.

• Do you agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within"? If so, what will you do to help?

I have brought more work upon myself. Just what I needed. This past Friday in an "early release" of students / staff development, we, teachers, were asked to come up with some solutions to improving WKCE scores.

Being a math teacher, I came up with the idea and volunteered to make screencasts that I will send to other teachers to offer students example problems and their explained solutions. This will be the first of the changes I will choose to spearhead.

565 5th Blog Chrome homepage fee

Did anyone else loose their Google Chrome homepage?

I don't know if I did something to change it or not, but I lost the homepage that I had set up just how I wanted it. Now, it seems, Chrome is asking for a one time $5 charge for apps under the guise that it is for verification of usage and working against fraudulent behavior.

Perhaps it is so some hacker doesn't set up a macro to create an extraordinary amount of "free" accounts. This would bog down the system. I can afford the $5. I just don't like the idea of paying for something that was previously free. Also, I have 3 Google accounts, my personal one, my district one and my Stritch one. That makes it $15 if I want to set them all up the way I want.

Any thoughts or similar experiences?

565 4th Blog What I've learned or maybe relearned?

I must admit I haven't had time or made the time to look at my Stritch account in a while. Logging into Angel was fun (trying a number of different passwords 'til I remembered it!).

To the subject of what I've learned.

#1 Write down your passwords to all of the different applications in a safe place immediately after installation.

#2 Taking on an "overload / extra class" during the last few weeks of trying to finish your Masters is not recommended.

#3 Simulations covering the topic of school and district improvement ("the game we played in class") can be very frustrating.

#4 Assume your students know nothing unless they demonstrate to the contrary.

3rd Post 565 Best Invention of All Time?

The countdown is on. About 2 weeks of freedom left. My mind is full of what I need to do with those 2 weeks. I was going to use this summer to create a lot of content to engage my students.

I started looking at some things that were successful last year. If you have the time, look through some of the TED videos that weren't part of our work in this program. If you want a great one that I showed to my students, here it is (a little more than 9 minutes).

The way I used it with some of my students last year is I asked them what they thought was the most important invention of all time and why? Then I showed them the following video. It would be a great way to start the year!

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/hans-rosling-and-the-magic-washing-machine/

Take a look at the site that houses the video, gapminder. It is great for stats, social studies, health and other subjects!

2nd Post 565 Information Overload

As I stated in the title, I am the victim of information overload. When my students tell me their heads hurt from thinking so much (yes, they have said that to me!). I ask them: "What happens when someone goes into the weight room and lifts way too much for too long?" Answer - the areas of their bodies that were out of shape and exercised too much now hurt from atrophy. I do feel like I have been using my brain a lot this summer, though.

I have several new plans that I want to do once I get back to school. One plan is posting some of the great quotes I have read in the readings for this class and elsewhere. I will ask my students to tell me what they think the quote means. Another plan is to do "pop-up" drills of multiplication and division tables, then throw in some integers and fractions. I will be teaching freshman again (I had a vacation from them for the last 3 years!)

Having stated these plans and brainstorming on others, I have a practice of telling my students that, plain and simple, my job is to "make them think". I will continue to do this.

1st Blog of 565 - How I lead at my school or job

Quite a few of my colleagues come to me for help when encountering new technologies. Whether the problem that they are having relates to navigating, trouble-shooting, or just plain what it's used for, many times I find myself answering questions.

Knowing that I worked for a while in the private sector, some of my colleagues will also ask me about applications of which I know. Like me, they also often hear the question "When am I ever gonna use this?".

I have also been on several committees to select new text books for math classes in my district.

When I see an application that can help save others time and energy I will create and share it.

(Example - See Google Spreadsheet to tally the responses in the Leadership and Virtues questionnaire from session 1 work that I shared with everyone).

Furthermore, to the new teachers, I have always offered help before being asked and suggestions after.

Ohhh! How could I have forgotten to add this? I have taken the position for the coming school year as the "Online" Algebra 2 content teacher - the first one in our district. And, in fact, I have 2 online students right now who were approved to take the class early. On that note, I did agree to teach them on my own time, because I figured it will help me get the class set up before the regular school year starts.