Today marks the last Friday of no classes, probably forever in my life. I only have 2 more days of classes, and one exam before I finish my time as a student. I still have a 7 week practicum to complete before I graduate, but I have completed all my projects and presentations for class and only have a test left. It's exciting yet sad at the same time. The friends that I have made in these last 2 years are going to be spreading in many different directions, and we will have to say good bye, which is the sad part. The exciting part is that I am almost finished being a student, which means I am branching out to be a 'real' adult!
Fear and the scary part of venturing into this new part of my life also comes into my mind at times. The unknown of my future looms ahead of me. Even though I know I am going to China this fall, I really have no idea what that will bring, the adventures and new experiences that will come with that opportunity. Leaving my family and friends for a whole year, and many other firsts. I am pretty excited that I will be getting a pay check soon, for my teaching work, instead of paying for the privilege of working!
Today has mostly been a 'domestic' day as I like to call them. Baking, cleaning, laundry, you know what I mean. I need to do a bit of studying for my upcoming test and exam, but that's not too high on my priority list. I also need to get some planning done for my upcoming practicum, again not a lot of motivation but I will get to it!
Tonite is our grad social, which will hopefully be a lot of fun. My Baba is also coming out to spend some time with us which is nice. I am looking forward to some family time this weekend and a chance to read some of the books I borrowed from the school library.
Hope your upcoming weekend has some time of relaxation and fun!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Summary of Main Points
*An education student was given the assignment of selecting a lesson plan from a credible site online and presenting it to her class
*she was encouraged to adapt/modify the lesson to suit her needs, but was also
allowed to use 'as written'
*she chose to use it "as written"
*She taught a math lesson focused on showing the difference between forming combinations when order mattered and when order didn't matter using ice cream flavours as her demonstration
*After completing the lesson, her professor pointed out that all of the answers given in her lesson were mathematically incorrect (the answers given in the lesson plan were actually the opposite of the correct answers (her peers had actually given the correct answers, but she informed them that they were incorrect based on her 'answers')
*The student claimed she had taught the lesson exactly as she had found it on the website (and she was right, the site actually had the same errors)
*The significance of the error would have been huge in a real elementary class (students would have been confused about whether order matters when forming
*Both the student and professor acknowledged and recognized that even though the lesson plan had come from a reliable site, errors could still be found.
*The professor contacted the authors of the lesson plan site and they fixed the mathematical errors on that lesson plan and several others on their site that also contained errors
*Moral of the story is...teachers should never just deliver a lesson exactly as seen on the internet (or anywhere for that matter) without first working through the questions/assignment/task first. AND just because something is on the internet does NOT mean it is correct
*she was encouraged to adapt/modify the lesson to suit her needs, but was also
allowed to use 'as written'
*she chose to use it "as written"
*She taught a math lesson focused on showing the difference between forming combinations when order mattered and when order didn't matter using ice cream flavours as her demonstration
*After completing the lesson, her professor pointed out that all of the answers given in her lesson were mathematically incorrect (the answers given in the lesson plan were actually the opposite of the correct answers (her peers had actually given the correct answers, but she informed them that they were incorrect based on her 'answers')
*The student claimed she had taught the lesson exactly as she had found it on the website (and she was right, the site actually had the same errors)
*The significance of the error would have been huge in a real elementary class (students would have been confused about whether order matters when forming
*Both the student and professor acknowledged and recognized that even though the lesson plan had come from a reliable site, errors could still be found.
*The professor contacted the authors of the lesson plan site and they fixed the mathematical errors on that lesson plan and several others on their site that also contained errors
*Moral of the story is...teachers should never just deliver a lesson exactly as seen on the internet (or anywhere for that matter) without first working through the questions/assignment/task first. AND just because something is on the internet does NOT mean it is correct
experiences of our own
Mike Nantais suggests we might want to use this kid's experience as a launching point for some reminiscing of our own...
Throwing it Out There
Hi Group (and class):
I want to throw this question there...hopefully to evoke some more discussion.
Does anyone have a personal experience they can share that relates to using an internet resource without assessing its accuracy or credibility? Some life lessons persay that could be related to our article?
I want to throw this question there...hopefully to evoke some more discussion.
Does anyone have a personal experience they can share that relates to using an internet resource without assessing its accuracy or credibility? Some life lessons persay that could be related to our article?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Vanessa's First Impressions and Ideas
My first thought about this article is that the student didn't seem to have very good critical thinking skills, and she wasn't following good teaching practices. I thought it was common sense that you should try an assignment before giving it to your students. I always do that so I know what the answers are before working it out with my class-I hate looking like I don't know what's going on. In this lady's case, I would think she would want to be extra prepared, since she was presenting infront of her classmates and faculty. I can understand that sometimes in your own classroom things get a little crazy in life and I might pull something off the internet and hope that it works out but that is definitely NOT the right way to use resources from the internet.
This article points out the importance of practicing what you teach. We are constantly being told in the Ed faculty that critical thinking skills are the most important thing we can give our students. I would assume that the woman in this article had received similar prompts from her professors, yet she didn't use any critical thinking skills when she received the lesson. This would be a good case to use as an example in a class where you are teaching your students about critical thinking in relation to the internet. The fact that this lesson was taken from a very respected and credible website and yet still had these huge errors helps illustrate the point that just because it is on the internet does NOT mean you can believe it.
I want to play the devil's advocate for just a moment. As much as we critique resources from the internet and say that they contain inaccurate information, the same can be true for written sources. I have had many textbooks and exercise books throughout my time as a student that contained errors. So basically, I'm saying that critical thinking skills need to be utilized with all information sources-it's not a new phenomenon that can be linked specifically to the internet.
I would also question this specific student's math abilities if she didn't question the answers since my basic math brain is shouting out..."THIS DOESN"T MAKE SENSE!"...but the answers to the math problem are really besides the point of this article.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and other opinions about this article...lets keep the discussion going!
This article points out the importance of practicing what you teach. We are constantly being told in the Ed faculty that critical thinking skills are the most important thing we can give our students. I would assume that the woman in this article had received similar prompts from her professors, yet she didn't use any critical thinking skills when she received the lesson. This would be a good case to use as an example in a class where you are teaching your students about critical thinking in relation to the internet. The fact that this lesson was taken from a very respected and credible website and yet still had these huge errors helps illustrate the point that just because it is on the internet does NOT mean you can believe it.
I want to play the devil's advocate for just a moment. As much as we critique resources from the internet and say that they contain inaccurate information, the same can be true for written sources. I have had many textbooks and exercise books throughout my time as a student that contained errors. So basically, I'm saying that critical thinking skills need to be utilized with all information sources-it's not a new phenomenon that can be linked specifically to the internet.
I would also question this specific student's math abilities if she didn't question the answers since my basic math brain is shouting out..."THIS DOESN"T MAKE SENSE!"...but the answers to the math problem are really besides the point of this article.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and other opinions about this article...lets keep the discussion going!
Article Details
As part of our reading club assignment, we need to include the bibliographic information about our article and the details of how we searched for it.
Vasko, F.J., and Peterson, W.J. (2007). Can teachers trust the world wide web for classroom lesson plans? TechTrends. 51(5), p 53-54.
We found this article through the ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) database. Our search terms were: Education AND Society AND Internet
Vasko, F.J., and Peterson, W.J. (2007). Can teachers trust the world wide web for classroom lesson plans? TechTrends. 51(5), p 53-54.
We found this article through the ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) database. Our search terms were: Education AND Society AND Internet
Friday, January 23, 2009
Yet to Come
Hi Group. I just wanted to let you know that I am not abandoning the group. I just haven't gotten around to reading the article yet. That's my job for tomorrow. I'll be sure to have some thoughts posted soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)