I have great amounts of gravitas

Here is a lovely video I made with Brenda. Or Brenda made with me. Something like that. Lots of frames in PowerPoint were used.



Somehow, it didn't pick up the very ending where the student says, "Wow teacher, you are so smart!" Because Doris Day really is terribly smart.
**No feathers were harmed in the production of this film.

Capsule Night

Tonight was Capsule Night, otherwise known as Meet The Parents. Scary!
Thankfully I got a bit of confidence when the first parent who asked me, "How is my student doing in your class," was one of the few students who I not only knew, but I knew where he sits and his exact grade on the recent test. Nice kid. And nice mother, too.

There were two sets of parents or guardians who asked about students who I honestly couldn't place, but thankfully there was the seating chart there, helping me out. Also, I faked it a bit. "Oh yes, of course." Sigh. I wish I was quicker on the memorizing names and faces thing but it is one of my weakest areas. Vocabulary recall of any type is a weakness in fact. I got around it in French class back in the day by using previous words for a response. "Is the gas station one street over and on the right?" "No, the gas station is one street over, take three rights, and go one more street over." All because I can't remember the words for 'two' and 'left' but it all worked out somehow.

But really, the whole meeting parents experience was a bit frightening. Parents are scary, what with their pointy, evil fangs and whatnot. Well, they seem scary to me anyhow. Next time will be easier, right?

We did have pictures flashing by up on the big screen which kept the parents occupied, and we demonstrated the lab we will do tomorrow which was pretty cool. Nice, shiny graphs made on the computer by the electronic equipment the students use... Technology bond in action apparently!

Anyhow, that's all for now. Wish I had a claymation to post like the cool kids who signed up for the last tech workshop.

My first parent meeting

This week I spent time at my new school. It was quite enlightening in many respects. The amazing number of passionate arguments all relating to the tardy policy, the amount of fun that can be had at a teacher's meeting, and the number of last minute technical issues were all surprising to me.

I also met my very first parent (at that school anyhow) when I visited the office to get my parking pass. She is a lovely woman who works for the school in some capacity which I have now completely forgotten. I think I need to work on my memory. Anyhow, I am much more excited about this than I would have guessed. I mean, who gets all worked up and giggly about the prospect of attending teacher's meetings for goodness' sakes? I would be more embarrassed about admitting that if it wasn't so amazingly obvious. It isn't like I haven't taught before. I even subbed for the first two days of school last year so there isn't anything too new here. Or was it the year before? I can't wait until someone invents an external hard drive with extra memory for the human mind.

Classes start on Tuesday at the high school, and have already started at the graduate school level. And I am already behind. Yikes! I should go do something useful now.
(-:

I Heart RSS Feeds!

I am so terribly over-impressed with myself. I've been confused about RSS feeds and newsreaders and exactly what they do and how they work and apparently my whining was noticed. A friend of mine gave me a careful, detailed explanation of how they work, saying, "The RSS feed itself is, for all practical purposes, magic." After that helpful description he did give me advice and I managed to set up all of my fellow classmates' blogs onto (into?) a newsreader. Which has something to do with the magic of RSS feeds. Which I still don't understand. (added note: David explains them brilliantly in his post here).

Anyhow, the idea is that I will be able to see who has updated their blog! So helpful since we are required to post on someone else's blog for our class. Plus, my classmates are brilliant and interesting and they write so well. But darnit, I can hold my own with them, at least when it comes to drinking coffee and reading fan fiction.

As for the taxonomy chart and this whole business of discussing how you were discussing something, well... I think I still have a way to go before I figure out how to do it.
Ta!

A shortage on Oil of Olay

Wow, I just read a lovely blog posting somewhere about this exciting online multiplayer gaming environment where the set up is a world which is low on oil. Or some such. The blogger was freaking out because a few of the game incidents have actually started to happen.
In any case, there are some lovely teacher resources listed on the site.
Blogs and online games as teaching tools.
I love modern life!

MyTube?

During an in-depth discussion of teaching styles, there was an argument about music in the classroom. According to one of my fellow students, for a social studies class, playing "We Didn't Start the Fire" (which was played in classes of several of the MAC students) is no more relevant than "Lick it like a Lollipop."
Immediately the second song was looked up on YouTube so the discussion could be more insightful. Ahh, isn't it wonderful how we are learning the science of teaching? I'm not certain why I am so easily amused, but there you are.
Cheers!

Now for something completely different.
These are things I haven't yet figured out:
My picture is backwards (look at the writing on my imaginary SmartBoard). No clue how I can fix it though I feel like I have a good idea why the computer takes pictures backwards.
I can't figure out how to post a document and link to it. I wanted to post the syllabus or something but in a different page rather than as a new post, and then link backwards to it but no luck.
I still don't understand RSS feeds.

In a class of its own...

EDUC 504 is looking to be an interesting class though I think I am going to be struggling to catch up. I am just as clueless about cell phones and texting as I am about rainbow parties. Which I am not at all certain I am delighted to know about, now that I think about it... Fear the information shared while eating lunch in the lounge at the Ed building.

Speaking of texting, I do know that the kids I have talked to about it think that it is a fantastic way to cheat on a test. They can all text with one hand without looking and do it right under the desk so no one sees. Amazing skills!

I keep wanting to say things like, "I remember back in the day when the internet was all text. And it was uphill both ways!" Because I do, and it was. So I know all about IRC and MUD games, ftp and telnet, but I have no idea what RSS feeds are. Really though, all of this wasn't so long ago, but it seems like ages when observed through a technological lens.

Blogging will be interesting though I am not certain what sort of format is appropriate for this venue. So far, I seem to waffle between completely informal and only slightly casual. I do hope this isn't intended to be a formal presentation of my thoughts because I will be doing quite a bit of deleting.

I am including a picture I drew in class of a possible classroom set up with some nice technology I would like to have (SmartBoards are your friend):