Editing Project

I will be using Final Cut Pro for my video editing project.

Chapter 11

In eleven the main idea is the First Amendment. The fact that students “do not possess unlimited First Amendment rights in public school.” They have their full rights off campus, but the schools have a duty to intervene when necessary.

            Chapter eleven was too much law jargon for me. Students are obviously not allowed to do and say whatever they want whenever they want. When they are in school or on public school property the school has to intervene for legality reasons. Obviously, even though the students have freedom of speech they are not allowed to use vulgar, profane, or lewd language in the educational environment. At home it is the parents job to intervene and monitor their actions.

Chapter 10

            The main focus of chapter ten is cyber bulling. Different ways to prevent, deal, and hopefully stop it from happening.

            This is an interesting topic to me. I think you can prevent students from seeing certain things at school by blocking them, but if there is no parental involvement nothing can really be done outside of school. In part of the chapter it talks about how we have to take tests before we can drive. How before shop class you have to learn the rules and procedures of the equipment. I think this idea is good if you can start it in Kindergarten. It might help some, but it kind of boils down to the fact that when the students go home and don’t have anybody monitoring what they look at or do I’m not sure anything will change.

Cyber bulling is also a problem because almost everyone has a cell phone. Even elementary students have cell phones. If the students are not made to keep them off and put up they can access facebook or any other social media site where they can continue bullying. This can happen at lunchtime, recess, or while a student is sitting in class. Unless you can ban cell phones at school and make sure to block social media websites on all computers (which they do) how can you stop this?

            The chapter keeps going on about ways to prevent bullying. Most of the ways it talks about preventing it were ways they had when I was in high school. The cheesy skits are not making an impact. They are usually boring and don’t really do much. Having an older peer might work, but they would have to be a very strong willed person to be able to be a leader in high school. I still think parents make this biggest impact up to a certain age. At that point parents have to hope they raised a child with morals and compassion who will find like-minded friends.

            My personal opinion on this topic is to have cameras monitor the students with the teachers. Make sure no one is ever hidden behind a computer. Maybe no cell phones at school. Period! If you need to talk to your student call the office. I don’t really know of a way to monitor this after school hours. I don’t know for a fact, but I would say most cyber bulling happens outside of school hours.

Chapter 9

            Chapter nine is all about contract laws and protecting the school system and students. Laying out the rules for using technology in the school system.

            This chapter talks about how if you use a contract in the school system it can be changed to fit certain situations. I find this kind of a touchy situation. If you say no cell phones in school then mean no cell phones in school. If you have a parent who is overseas or in jail they can call the school and ask for the student to come to the phone. More often than not the cell phones are being used to text friends or to play games when you are bored. I would have totally been the student playing a game because I was bored. When I was in school you would get in trouble if it was seen during class. My phone was in my backpack unless I had free time. Then I pulled it out and hid it under my desk to play a game or text a friend. It is a form of communication and great piece of technology, but when ANYONE is free to have it in class it becomes a distraction. I don’t care how responsible your student is. My high school principal was basically an uncle and my mom and dad would have been called and he would have taken my phone. I was a pretty responsible student, but I was still a student.

Chapter 8

In eight the chapter talks a lot about different kinds of assessment. Such as: Parent, Teacher, Peer, Ipsative, and real-world assessment. The chapter also talks about how the world is going to have to change how we assess because of how technology is changing.

            One thing that really stuck out to me was assessing without just testing. I was, and still am, someone who is terrible at taking test. I get nervous and second-guess myself. Had I had a different kind of assessment, say the teacher was to ask me the questions, or my peers, or I was able to make a project, I would have done a lot better. The teacher would also know that I knew the information even though I just bombed the test. I thinking testing can be good on certain things, but when you put all your value into it you cannot be getting a very good account of what is going on. I know I am not the only one who stinks at taking tests.

            Another area that stuck out to me was the part about assessing parents’ progress. It talks about how you should consider making a checklist for the parents. I send home a checklist of just letting your child read to you twenty minutes a night so that we are able to get them to the reading level they need to be on for second grade. I would say fifty percent of my parents don’t read with their kids. I understand you may not be able to read with them EVERY night, but you have to work with me if you want your child to pass. I am not a miracle worker and can only do so much during the day. I don’t think parents realize how important and influential they are in their child’s life. It is really hard to motivate a first grader to want to learn to read when their parent cannot read or read well.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 talks some about how in k-12 education something is always changing. “Someone is always trying to change it-someone is always proposing a new program or a new practice.” Three also talks about adult education, how adults want to learn and what.

            First in chapter 3 when it talks about something is always changing and someone is always proposing something new. This statement is true. It is also kind of annoying. I’ve started teaching right when the school system has decided to adopt a new form of learning and a new form of evaluating. I’m glad I started when I did.  I can imagine had you gotten use to the way things were running and had to change this year it would be a big pain. From older educators, who have now retired, I’ve been told to expect this a lot. The school system always wants to try something new. Trying something new isn’t bad, but when you don’t give the people involved time to understand it and adapt to it you don’t get any benefits. You have to give the program time to work before you decide yes or no. The biggest complaint I’ve heard about the school system always changing is that you never can get use to something.

            Three talks some about how adults want to learn and how. This hit home to me. If I’m not interested in what you are teaching I clock out. I like that in graduate school, so far, I’ve been able to choose the classes I want to take. Being a working adult I feel I know what I need to learn and how it will benefit me. For this reason I pick classes that I can actually use while teaching and that I won’t be bored in. I don’t need a theory class where a teacher yaps at me for three hours. I need classes that I can actually apply to life.

Common Core

I honestly don't know very much about common core. I do know that this is the first year NPS has used it so there are a lot of people who don't know about it either. I think if I had gotten to go to new teacher training I would have gotten a massive folder that kind of outlines things about it. Nobody seems to be against it, it is just a new method of teaching. Just like the pass skills that were before this it outlines what should be taught in each grade.