Merit Pay and Teacher Assessment
Posted on October 24, 2008
Filed Under Ed Tech | Leave a Comment
I keep reading about more and more districts looking at using merit pay to reward the top teachers for the work that they are doing. This is exciting to some and scary to others. The main item of contention in my opinion is the way that teachers are assessed. Most districts that are currently rewarding teachers are doing so based on the results of their students’ standardized test scores.
For years good teachers have been saying that they don’t mind being held accountable for the work they do, but that pinning their abilities to their students’ performance on a test is unfair.
Finally, research is showing what teachers already know.
http://tinyurl.com/58tzb6
~Tim
Web 2.0 Powertools
Posted on October 23, 2008
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This past Saturday I had the privilege of giving a workshop on web 2.0 powertools for the San Gabriel Valley Computer Using Educators (SGVCUE) affiliate.
The workshop included discussion on teacher’s obligation to teach 21st century literacies, the academic uses of blogs, RSS, wikis, and podcasts in education. The discussion focuses mostly on the use of such online tools in the area of professional development.
Click here to view a video of the presentation.
or you can download the PDF slides with active hyperlinks here.
To find out more about the SGVCUE affiliate and register for upcoming workshops like the one that you see here visit www.sgvcue.org.
~Tim
Tech Literacy Exam in 2012
Posted on October 16, 2008
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eSchool News is reporting on the first national Tech Literacy Exam that is expected to hit schools in 2012. A third party firm has been choosen to select the materials that will be covered as well as deciding on what grade levels should be assesed.
As much as I have been frustrated by what standardized testing has done to education, I am interested to see what changes this will bring to the integration of tecnology into the classroom. Will we see more teachers wanting more training in technology? Will we see more technology specialists, or tech trainers being hired at the district level?
Lots of questions… looking forward to the answers.
Tim
Hardware Tip: Freeze your screen
Posted on August 22, 2008
Filed Under Ed Tech, Tools and Tips | Leave a Comment
Many teachers that have a digital projector in their classroom use it to display a static image for an assignment or a quiz. You can use you teacher computer while still displaying a static imae by using the “freeze” or “pause” button on your projector’s remote.
Simply bring up the screen that you want displayed and press “freeze” on the remote. You can then use your computer for other things while the kids work and the frozen image will remain until you press “freeze” again.
Enjoy!
~Tim
Technology is a tool, not content
Posted on August 13, 2008
Filed Under Ed Tech, Professional Reflection | Leave a Comment
Yesterday started my second year as the computer applications teacher at Cedar Middle School, where I have 7 classes teaching academic somputer skills to 7th and 8th greaders. Last year we did some simple project involving word processing, presentations, digital animation, web research, and typing, but I was never real content with the design of the class and the assignments.
I have continued to struggle with the design of the class as I have been preparing to kick off this new school year. I remain unsatisfied with designing word processing assignments just for the purpose of demosntrating the ability to format text, tables, and pictures. And I know that as a teacher if I cannot get excited about a project or assignment there is no possible way that I am going to convince 200 kids that this is worth their time as well.
As a second job I am also an adjunct professor in the Education Technology MA program at Azusa Pacific University. I teach classroom teachers how to enhance their students’ classroom experience by using technology tools to enrich lessons and engage students. In this context I have often regretted that I do not have a regular core content classroom in which to practice embedding technology tools into content lessons as I am teaching my university students to.
It finally occured to my today as I was researching various technology content standards in search of planning inspiration that the solution to both of these issues may be one and the same. I realized that I have been trying to plan learning experiences for my kids that were designed to teach the academic use of technology tools without really doing anything academic with them, for example, making a multimedia presentation for the puropose of making a presentation. Then it hit me. Computers, word processing, spreadsheets, the internet, and multimedia presentaions are all tools, not content. In life we do not learn to use a hammer and nails simply to use the hammer and nails, we learn to use them to build a tree house. We do not learn to use the barbeque just to know how, but to cook hamburgers for friends and family. In other words we learn to use tools to accomplish or create something else separate from the tool itself. In other words I need to design learning experiences that meet core content standards as a meaningful context in which students will learn to use technology tools.
Tomorrow I will begin to research social studies or language arts standards that may be the basis for academic research on the internet and a well formatted paper typed on a word processor. I will look for math or science standards that may be taught by organizing data in a spreadsheet and building formulas to handle calculations. Students can reinforce what they are learning in their academic literature classes by building multimedia presentations that storyboard or summarize novels that they are already reading.
I am realizing that technology education, or even the teaching of non-technology academic tools, should not be taught in a sterile, stand-alone environment, but embedded into core content rich learning experiences. Students will be excited about the tools only when they see what the tools can do for them.
Let me know your ideas, or suggest alternative views. Any examples of technology embedded in core content lessons?
~Tim
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