I have to say that I loved the sarcasm that Dr. McLeod is expressing in this post. He has hit the nail on the head! Yes, it is important that we protect our children; that is our job as parents. However, we must also teach them to succeed in the future! If they are not learning the value of technology today, will they survive tomorrow?
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Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). He has received numerous national awards for his technology leadership work, including recognitions from the cable industry, Phi Delta Kappa, the National School Boards Association, and the Center for Digital Education. In Spring 2011 he was a Visiting Canterbury Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Dr. McLeod blogs regularly about technology leadership issues at Dangerously Irrelevant, Mind Dump, and Education Recoded and occasionally at The Huffington Post. He also just completed his first book, What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media.Go to A Bio on Scott McLeod for links to all of his blogs, Facebook, etc...
The iSchool Initiative
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Travis Allen points out the cut-backs being made by public schools, and that there are teachers being let go due to these cut-backs. Right now, if we took away the cost of paper, pencils, books, expensive copy machines, etc.. the schools would be saving about $600 per student. The iSchool would cost about $150 per student. I would have to agree with Travis. With my husband being a teacher, and myself planning to be a teacher, cut-backs and teachers being fired are the last thing I want to hear about happening. The iSchool is a great way to not only bring technology into the classroom, but eliminate some of the cut-backs. Teachers salaries have already been cut several times over the past few years; they are already underpaid! Why is it that the people that we depend on to teach our children are not important enough to pay a decent salary?
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
Woah!! That was absolutely amazing! 185 people that have never met in person made something so beautiful using the internet, that is putting technology to work!
Teaching in the 21st Century
I think Kevin Roberts means that teachers are still going to play a large role in education and technology. Sure we can incorporate the use of technology into education, but if children are not taught to use it properly, is it really helping them? Roberts says that we need to make sure that they can put it to work. I do have some concern in the extent to which technology will take over. As a future educator, my question is, will we still be needed? I believe if we stay ahead and continue to learn ourselves, we will always be needed. No one is ever done learning, therefore no one is ever done teaching/coaching.
Reading Rockets
This website has tons of valuable resources that help teachers, especially first year teachers. While going through this site I decided that I wanted to focus on the resources for first year teachers. I think that for me, and my fellow classmates, this is important; considering we will all be teachers within the next two years.
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Reading 101 is one that I could see being a great help. This page also has a resource page with additional links that would be helpful. Survival Guide for New Teachers is another link I see helping me through my first year of teaching. It gives advice on everything from working with veteran teachers, to working with parents and your principal. All things that we must know how to do. What To Expect Your First Year Teaching also has great advice on handling certain situations. To be honest, I could list all of the resources on this site. I must agree with Anthony that this website is wonderful. If you want to be a teacher, or if you are a teacher, you must visit this site.
Hi Natasha,
ReplyDeleteIt is scary to hear about all the teacher cutbacks and how we are choosing to become teachers during this time. I have often wondered the same thing, why is it teachers are not important enough to pay a decent salary? It is mind blowing to me how little teachers are paid compared to other professions. I guess for me, you cannot put a price on that “AHA” moment that a child has and knowing you are the one that made it happen. You bring up some great points in your blog and I definitely agree with you when you say, “no one is ever done learning, therefore no one is ever done teaching/coaching”. Even as teachers, we are still learners. Many times I hear people blaming teachers for their child not “getting it” and I seen it in writing somewhere, (although, I do not remember where) Teachers; do not blame them, train them. I think this is what it is all about, having great teachers that are lifelong learners, as well as building children to be lifelong learners.
I too, like the Survival Guide for New Teachers. I think Working with Parents gave some great tips for getting parents involved. It means a lot of have the parents on your side, especially as a new teacher. I think parents and teachers that can work together make a tremendous difference in a children’s learning and makes for a great year of teaching.
Great blog post!
Thanks
Cassie
Natasha,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the sarcasm that was in Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?. I loved it as well. I believe that sometimes it takes people be sarcastic and rude about something for people to get the idea. With us students that are trying to get a degree and get a job in the teaching field, teacher cuts is the last thing that we wan't to hear about. Like what you said with the iSchool initiative, it is cutting out all the supplies that normal classrooms have and therefore the teaching jobs are being cut as well. The sentence that you wrote that says, "Why is it that the people that we depend on to teach our children are not important enough to pay a decent salary?" is a very good question. I seem to find that every one I ask never has a good answer for it. We need to get some answers as future teachers.
I enjoyed reading your post!
Best wishes,
Sara Cardwell
Natasha,
ReplyDeleteYou need to clarify when posting a direct quote from a website. I see that you got your information on Scott McLeod from scottmcleod.net but you did not put quotation marks around the part you took from this website. Otherwise, good job on the alt and title modifiers and clickable links. Interesting post!