A Mad Scientist

I received great news Friday.  A local businessman and a god friend has decided to sponsor my classroom tech project.  He has donated the necessary money for me to purchase 10 laptops for the class.  I am very excited!

Here is my plan.  I have created four websites for my class to publish and communicate what it is learning.  The key here is that the students will be creating the content for the sites.  It is theorized that students learn 90% of what they teach… far more effective than any other strategy available.  Also, I hope to really communicate to the families and community what we are accomplishing in my room , and more broadly across the district.

I will use this blog, amadscientist.edublogs.org, for students to post a message to have others respond to.  I will use the wiki, amadscientist.wikispaces.com, to communicate student learning and knowledge.  I will use the website, amadscientist.com, to host student created podcasts and vodcasts, and also to host my general lesson plans.  Finally, I will use the forum to create a student virtual learning community.  All of this will be protected by requiring all posts and information to be approved by me digitally before it will display on the web.

As for my overall technology plan for the classroom, last year my parents sponsored my classroom and bought me a SmartBoard with Senteo remote response system.  This revolutionized my teaching as it provided me and the students with immediate feedback and a way to interact with our lessons.  This year my class sponsor will add 10 laptops to increase opportunities for students to publish their knowledge.  Next, I will seek a class sponsor to increase the amount of funding for classroom experiments.  We do a lot of hands-on experiments, but I still feel that we can do more.  Also, I am looking to replace the furniture, but that is not really technology.  If you are interested in helping to transform my classroom, please let me know.

I am very excited about the new school year.  My name is Mr. Farrell, and I am the 6th grade science teacher for team one.  This is my third year teaching, and I look forward to having another successful year.  Over the summer I have attended numerous professional development classes that have helped make me even a better teacher than last year.  I will also be finishing my Masters in Education in the spring of next year.  I love to teach, and I love to learn.  Your students are in good hands!

What should you expect in my class?  My lessons involve five parts.  First, on Mondays we will get a preview of what we are going to learn, and discuss what we already know.  Part two on Tuesdays is when we take notes.  Part three is on Wednesday and we will perform some hands-on experiment or project that directly relates to the lesson.  Part four on Thursday will be a review and test.  Finally, part five is on Friday and we will either review the lesson to improve our grades or work on another fun experiment if the grades are good.  Of course, each lesson will be a little different and we may spend more or less time on each lesson.  Most important, If a student is struggling on a lesson I will allow them to make-up their grades.  Every child should have A’s and B’s in my class if they promise to work.

Okay, I really love the exposure I am getting to all these technologies available to teachers.  However, I am concerned about the amount of time that it will take to maintain a blog, wiki, website, and various social networks… not to mention a class,  personal life, and family.  Please give me a few ideas by posting to this blog.

I have been waiting all camp for day 3!  I want to create podcasts and vodcasts.  More importantly, I want my students to create podcasts and vodcasts.  Really, who wants to listen to the teacher?  This would be a great active learning and engaging method of teaching.  I was already excited about this.  However, after today’s presentation I discovered my imagination was limited.  A student can really create a  powerful  and creative  vodcast.  For our audio/visual learners (99.9% of our students), they will grow in leaps and bounds.

Wow!  There are a lot of tools out there.  With all of these technological tools a teacher can easily be overwhelmed.  So this is what I decided.  One, not every technology is best for every instructional goal.  For example, if you want to teach a student how to work within Microsoft Word, then a screencast may be the most effective tool because it allows a student an audio-visual feed to follow.  Creating a static web page may be less effective in this scenario.  Two, all these neat tech tools could be a flash in the pan, or you could find their best use and apply as technology intergration in your everyday lesson plans.  It may take time, but once you have created something digitally you have access to it for a very long time.  

I am finally here. Right now, other participants are signing-up for their blog page, so I thought I would briefly tell you about my opening impressions. I am totally excited! We will be blogging, wiki-ing (if that is the right term), and all kinds of tech geek stuff. Being a wannabe tech geek, I am loving this. Time to go, blog at ya later.  Tech Camp Home

This is only my second year teaching, and my first year teaching sixth-grade science.  I was decidedly nervous about getting the results from the 07-08 TCAP.  However, I gathered the courage to see the sixth-grade counselor to get the results.  The verdict is… 74% of my students passed the science portion of the TCAP.  Memphis City Schools averaged a 66% pass rate.  That means in my first year I outperformed MCS by 8%.  I am not satisfied with the results.  My goal was to have every student score advanced, and I am very short of that mark.  However, I have a strong start to build upon.  I have taken numerous professional development workshops to help me become a better teacher.  I will also complete my masters in education this following year.  I wish to become National Board certified.  These steps are meant to improve my teaching, and I am confident I will meet my goals in the future.

This is my first education blog, and I am very excited!  I recently was accepted into the Memphis City School’s Tech Camp ‘08 which is meant to help teachers forward their use of technology within the classroom.  Students love technology, and exposure to the various forms of technology will help prepare them for a successful career in any field.  Needless to say, this camp is very important in that it will help me provide a better experience for the students.  Save this blog to your favorites, so you can watch how these students will grow.