A Swansong For This Beautiful, But Bittersweet Blog

I will miss this class. Sitting here, waiting to take my mother out to lunch on this Mother's Day of a Sunday. Thinking about this blog of all things, among other things. I had been deciding whether or not I end this blog on a whisper or a battle-cry. But I've found neither satisfying. All I know is that I will miss this class. It was a different cup of tea, one that I'm not  used to but enjoyed nonetheless. A most technological brew with a side of croissants stuffed with stress. But I'm not a sentimental type. Not one for tears or good-byes or French styled "Au Revoir"'s. I enjoyed the blogging part of it all. It was the assignments that I struggled with, learned a lot from. But the blogs...whereas the assignments were the backbone of the curriculum, the blogging was the blood. The veins. The heart. I enjoyed getting into my little Magic School Bus and shrinking to the size of an atom when traveling those same bodily paths, especially when I had something to rant about. Brag about. Talk about. All of it pertaining, to some sense of the word, technology and schools and the students and the technological curriculum hereafter. It was a fun ride. Especially when I read a lot of my fellow peers' comments and commented on their blogs in response. Discussions were brought up. Issues engaged. Reasons clarified. It was...an oasis of sorts, that oasis in the desert known as college. Now that winter is over and summer approaches, I wonder how I will spend my days. Especially now that I no longer have a reason to blog about anything...or maybe I do. Maybe this was the start and, since I enjoyed so much of it, I'll make a blog of my own. One with thoughts and decisions and actions and books and poems and literature and movies and television shows and video games. One where I don't have to do it for a grade. Not that all the blog posts I did so far were for a grade, more for my own particular enjoyment. Maybe a Tumblr. Maybe something. Like I said before in previous posts, this class was my very, very first online college course. And even though the taste was bitter at first, I grew to tolerate and in time, enjoy it. All I know is that this technological fruit that I bit into got me hooked on the feeling of gunk in between my teeth, now I want to explore it. So this isn't a goodbye. Not truly. I will miss the virtual professor, the virtual discussion via comments, the virtual avatars of my already physical colleagues. So basically, in the simplest of terms, I will end this CURR-316 blog with a "hello" rather than a goodbye. Because we're knocking on the door, all of us would-be educators. All of us Abeers, Ann-Maries, Chris's, Danielles, Jessicas, Ashleys, etc. And it's only a matter of time before that door opens and we kick the teeth out of any adversary that stands in the way of us and educating our future students. So hello to all of you. I'll see you again on the other side of that door.

Oh No, I Forgot To Cite The Article!

Here's that article I read and thought and argued about before shelving it in a pile of dusty papers. I had mentioned it in the previous blog post. Sorry for the cliffhanger!

'Online Course' Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/education/colleges-adapt-online-courses-to-ease-burden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The Times Are A Changing

So recently I've been viewing other people's blogs and noticed this trend of reactions to online articles regarding online education. This phenomenon worried me because I thought that the final project was the end of it all and that this was an interactivity I missed doing. But then, after checking on the blog home page of Prof. Phillips, I realized that no such assignment was given. Just a trend of interested students taking the initiative via active learning. Well, let me join the band wagon. I researched an article regarding the whole 'online classes' movement and let me go on record saying, I'm not sure I feel as strongly about it as my fellow peers. It just doesn't sound appealing to me. I understand what the experts are saying, how online courses are financially friendly to the down and out students and their existence makes higher level learning that much graspable. But based on my experiences in this class (which is my first online course), no offense Prof. Phillips, I feel like I would have had an easier time learning the subject if this class was a hybrid. I just engaged in a lengthy discussion with my roommate about the nature of online courses and his opinion and mine were as different as lard and dirt. He stressed that to think independently and learn on one's own (as well as teaching yourself due to the easy access of online informative resources thanks to the internet), is a necessary skill. It may not be an easy one, and that not everyone is capable of performing efficiently for an online course, but it is one of those rites of passages college students have to go through in order to mature. I told him that I think it might be easier for students if online classes were introduced to students earlier, such as high school, because of the type of generation our future kids are being born into: the tech savvy, prodigal sons and daughters. And if that is able to happen in the future for those same kids, then they will have an easier time transitioning to this sort of teaching learning when they reach college. Because, I'm pretty sure everyone can agree with me, there are many of us who've only just experience online classes this semester. My roommate said: [insert inappropriate joke here] before agreeing with me. That the whole point of secondary education, besides further teaching kids the basics of the world around them and how to act and think within those social and professional boundaries, is to prepare those same kids (at least the majority of them, there many kids out there who are unable to progress further on) for college. So why not prepare them for online classes? Just add it amongst the sea of things we teach them that they'll probably, in the most part, forget in the summer between senior high school year and freshman college year, and learn later on down the road in that same area of learning. My roommate also said that he believed online classes are not meant for the type of subjects requiring complex understanding in regards to principles and laws, such as Mathematics and Science. Those types of subjects need that pupil-instructor relationship we all yearn and dread. We both agreed in that respect and even went further to say online courses benefit the "written/visual/audio/discussion" side of learning, the ones that can be easily imbued in the form of text. These classes are English and History and even Art. The two of reached that consensus, while taking on hordes of zombies in a mid-final study break, and discussed the different ways online courses can approach those types of subjects. The article I read advocated that online courses are "undeniably chipping at the traditional boundaries of higher education." And I can agree with that in the sense that this sort of teaching is unorthodox. Students are expected to have information spoon-fed to them in the forms of lectures and summative and formative assessments based within the confines of the classroom. Online courses pick up those same students, stick them in the wilderness, and force them to survive on their own. The article also went into a tangent of [insert run on sentences with *yawn* statistics regarding students and colleges and the success rates of online course] and I'll just go on record saying: students are never the same. They're as unique and diverse and wild as those bubble gum ball machines you find in the malls around you. You'll never get the old school, traditional pen and paper and iron-willed attention span that can handle the lectures of a college level classroom in order to learn. You'll never get the rising dawn of technological experts who want nothing more than to complete online courses for the sake of independent and active learning as well as the convenience of it all. So why stick to either side of the spectrum? Before you go all in for the "online class" phenomenon, why not lead up to that or cut it into half. Indulge the students with hybrid classes, have that equal balance of traditional and new age learning. I know that I, as one of many students going through the same thing, benefit from learning on my own, but I also appreciate other parties talking in the background. Offering up their own opinions. And before you go into that whole "Oh, but online discussions happen all the time. Look at the comment sections!" cop out, hear me out. You can't savor all the doubts and the back-pedaling talking that happens in face to face conversations within the classroom. You can't properly connect with them and challenge them face to face with an opinion of your own. Real life learning is different from learning from the other side of a computer screen. Hybrid it up in the college classes department, give us the sweet and sour of both entrees. That's just my opinion. Because before you know it, we'll be as wrinkly as prunes one day. And despite all the holographic technologies and robots and space cars, I'm pretty sure we'll take that deep sigh and say "Where the hell did the time go? I wish I could go back to the good 'ol days, when things were SIMPLER." That will be the moment when we', or at least I for the most part, will truly know the times have changed.

Final Project

So the lesson plan that I modeled the matrix after was actually a final in my CURR-312 course, Educating English Language Learners, from the past semester. We were supposed to adapt to a prompt given to us fitted for a specific ELL student also assigned to us. The child I had was Han, a 15 year old Korean transfer who understood little English and had many limitations in speaking and putting it to use. Needless to say, I was able to make many accommodations when teaching Emily Dickinson to Han instead of adapting the whole lesson plan in general (which would be unfair for the rest of the kids in class) and even added a couple additions of my own. In the student bio given to me, it just happened that Han was an avid learner of Mathematics and expressed not only an adeptness at the subject, but a passion for it as well. I used that to my advantage as well.
    I wanted to make sure that Han, along with all the other kids in class, benefit from the lesson as much as possible. In order to accomplish that, there needs to be all kinds of examples (preferably visual and audio) in order for the material to be presented to the students in an effective manner. The lecturing serves as a backbone, but things such as showing the class pictures of Emily Dickinson, examples of her poem, and other parts of her biography that are important to know on the Smartboard or visual projector makes all the difference for an ELL. Han needs to have the material communicated to him in ways that promote easy transition into the English language. Using technologies that have promote large displays of visual learning are encouraged, whereas audio examples such as a documentary of Emily Dickinson or live readings of her poetry (Youtube) are a good idea as well.
    Class discussions, where students can jump in without fear of assembly line questioning and raised hands can help Han. All of the students receive the same exact amount of information in the lesson plan at the same exact time. So everyone is learning Emily Dickinson for the very first time, at least in this class. Ergo, no student should be the wiser. Engaging the class in discussion has the potential of making Han feel at ease. This can be aligned with the technologies being used to present the material such as the Smartboard, internet, visual projectors, etc. All of the NETS-S fit because of how the various technologies allow students to communicate and collaborate with one another. To able to use said technologies effectively and productively can be found in the way students can approach Emily Dickinson and the meter found in her poetry via class discussion and group activities. Even the presentation of students' meter poetry will be transferred from the laptops to the Smartboard so the class can observe and facilitate constructive criticism.
    Han, having lived in Korea for most of his life before moving to the United States, is still learning the English language. I have been told that he understands the basics, but complexities involved in literary material may cause issues. So, I thought of resorting to pairs rather than large group activities. That way, Han can have an easier time chiming in an opinion of his own rather than being lost in a sea of proficient English speaking voices. Also, he can form social relationships easily if the work involves one on one time with another peer. In regards to the meter aspect of the lesson, I chose that specific aspect of poetry in order to exploit Han’s strength in Mathematics. Hopefully, he can help his partner better understands the principles behind meter if that they struggle with all of the trimeters and tetrameters and other form of syllabic regulations in meter. All of this, of course, will be done on the laptops handed to each pair of students so they have access to online resources that may help them with the activity. I chose CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4  because of how it aligns students to dissecting both of the poems and forming their own conclusions regarding the similarities and differences of Emily Dickinson's style of poetry and that of other poets'. Then the CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1 forces those same students to engage in discussion with the rest of the class on their findings. The laptops will allow these pairs to better go about doing the task due to the online resources and word document use for composing the compare and contrast of it all.
    The sharing of the meter poems will toughen Han in terms of public speaking. Now that he is in America, he has get used to the fact that all students have to present projects either in groups or solo. This part of the lesson plan starts Han off somewhere easy at first, that way we can build his confidence up in increments. Having Han pair up with another student will boost his social confidence and even encourage him to talk more. This whole lesson plan, when integrated with technology, will benefit the class as a whole. I aligned this part of the lesson plan with CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.4  because of how the pairs will have to communicate the example of meter poetry they formed. The writing standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.4 and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3c are aligned because of how the pairs of students have to use communicate what they learned in class through the same laptops from before. This lesson plan is not just for Han, but for the greater good of the class.

Lesson Plan Matrix: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wbo8gfuG7mlwkfWdgZzRaY1MzvxnBm_ZtnUzF_BN90g/edit?usp=sharing

Dialectic Dynasties of Destiny: The Reason Why This 'Blogging' Thing Rocks

Grammars of English. Pursuits of English. Two classes that I will remember, not necessarily for their content, but for the way they were conducted. The manner in which lessons were put out there, the "here's an ocean of knowledge. *Push* Now swim, don't drown. Swim." type of mentality. The kind of mind-infiltration we attempted when reading a text. It was unorthodox. It was time-consuming. It was bloody difficult. But one thing I will always recall during my darkest moments, in terms of academia, is free-thought. That unshackling of the mind that allows one to voice out thoughts and opinions and all kinds of views/beliefs, without fear of authority or structure or censorship. That's what I always try to do when submitting a post on this CURR blog. And I feel like the technology that allows me to do this, not the laptop, not the internet, not the Word Document where I write down my thoughts, not even the keyboard itself. But the ability to be free. Now this could be both a good thing and a bad thing. A double-edged sword so to speak. No safe way of handling it. I have to be careful with what I say. Have to avoid any offensive remarks and such. Sometimes it's hard to revert back to the filter. But technology allows you to do that. To test the boundaries of creativity and logic. To research and create and comment and enjoy. How I try to blog is to not treat the blog as something that needs to be done. That would be an insult to the blog. The blog has feelings, you know? But it's a conversation. I rant, spell check happens, I proofread (eh, at times I attempt to), publish. Edit. Publish. Edit. Free thought allows me to act foolish, but foolish in a good way. Foolish in a way that allows me to convey what I want to say in a laid-back, stress-free sort of way. Along with TNR, STS, and hanging out with friends, this CURR blog is one of my favorite things to devote time to. Because as a future educator, I have to think about these things. My head may be filled with all these crazy thoughts, but I try my best to connect them to some part of education. Because for all I know, there's some kid out there feeling the same exact wacky way. And hopefully, they're feeling good about it. I want to implement the blog for a class. Trying to balance out rules as we speak: no racism, no sexism, no derogatory/offensive material, no inappropriateness. I'm thinking about it, the easiness of doing it. How having a blog is the same as having a journal. Except, you never have to worry about losing it. Never have to worry about forgetting to do it. Honestly, it takes a couple of minutes for me. And I suck at technology. Imagine how a tech savvy kid will feel about it. Vent out about a text. What confused them. What intrigued them. What angered them. Comment on other people's stuff. Get into discussions. It sounds really fun on paper, or on blog post rough drafts, and it might be harder to do in real life, but imagine the risk. Imagine it paying off. I am, I'm imagining kids having to do this blog for class and being interested in it, and making a personal one just for fun. One blog for school. One for very, very, very personal stuff. This could be a way of technology being incorporated in the classroom. Science teachers can do it. Math teachers can do it. Instead of assigning papers that will probably get misplaced or lost on purpose or forgotten, have the assignment online. In a fun, engaging sort of way. Don't have the whole class steered towards it. Oh no, that will be anarchy (although...hehehe, agent of chaos). But devoting some part of the curriculum to an online activity. Trust me, and other people who's experienced this, as a former high school student and current college student, online assignments are easy. They may be a pain in the butt, but compared to doing a worksheet in class, it's pretty fun. Sure, some kids may forget. But you'll always have that mass of students who have integrated into technology so well, that such work will be second nature to them. Going back to free-thought. Technology has allowed me to exercise that brand of thinking. And since free-thinking is such an integral part in understanding sophisticated philosophers like Plato and Rousseau in Grammars or Pursuits, maybe it'll do kids some good getting them into it at such a young age. Using something that is constantly being pioneered and advanced in the years to come. I have a lot of fun talking about nonsense, and I'm 21 years old. I'm constantly fighting back the maturity attempting to smother my immaturity. Imagine how much a younger kid will enjoy blogging about class.

May The Road Rise Up To Meet You

I've been going on runs lately. The first time since many, many years ago. And as I tortured my body in a way that seemed to give me satisfaction (weird, yes. But then again, I'm a weird kind of guy), I couldn't help glancing at my watch. I've done it in the past whenever I used to go on runs, but the watch I wore back then had died and I gave it a proper burial (underneath the woods behind my old house). This is a new watch that I'm wearing, recently bought from Marshalls, and the whole time I'm running, I'm keeping track of my splits and forcing myself to go faster in the final meters of my run even as I'm coughing up my lungs on a silver platter. The digits were everything to me back then and I had conditioned myself to hold them true for so long that it was no surprise to me that my eyes always wandered back to my wrist. The time meant something, the soreness of limbs after the trials of minutes and miles were just the perks. As I drowned myself in water afterwards, I started thinking about classes. In college that is. How many times I've seen someone turn to their iPhone or just regular old, crappy phone for the time. How many times someone's asked me what the time was and the frown that followed my: "Time for you to get a watch, BBBBOOOOYYYOOO!" It never really occurred to me how few of us "responsible, hardworking adolescents" actually wear a watch. Some of you reading this might be one of the few outliers in the pack, or the majority of you may wear a watch. Even you professor. Time is a factor always being taken into a count for tasks and decisions and deadlines and appointments and such, so it makes sense that we human beings always want to be on top of time. In a none inappropriate way that is. I've engaged in lengthy discussions with my peers in this course regarding the future generations to come. The kids being handed an iPhone by their parents or the kids glued to the television screen. A buffet dinner for Apple and Microsoft and all the business corporations breadwinning their own dinners because of how technologically assimilated these kids will be. I wish I could say that I'm overreacting, but I'm really not. How many of these kids will actually wear a watch. Will they follow in the footsteps of their predecessors: digging in their pockets, asking someone else, texting someone else about what time it is *slaps forehead*? It depresses me just thinking about it. I love watches. Especially the old-fashioned stop-watches linked to a chain to a vest to a collared dress shirt. You know, the ones from the times when people rolled their own cigarettes. Those watches amaze me. The clockwork amazes me. I only wear a digital one because I'm reckless and careless and I'll probably break the timeless treasures. And the last time I wore an actual watch, with the dial on the side, I forgot to take it off before diving into a lake. Soooo, that was the end of that. Watches are such a little part of our society. Some people wear them for fun, completely forgetting their function, just as an accessory or a piece of jewelry. You know the people that I'm talking about, the cream of the upper crust wearing ivory and gold and all kinds of fancy watches. But they're the ones constantly texting on their phones. I may sound prejudiced or playing right into the palms of stereotypes, but that's just from experience. Rarely will I see a kid with a watch. And if I happen to do, they'll probably have a really sick looking one. And I'll feel particularly envious and the jelly developing inside of me will be a nonstop thorn in my side. Because I envy the youth, the apathy of pre-high school years. All I want to do when I see a watch on a kid's wrist is: have adventures! Don't grow up! Please, you don't know what college is like! Go on a run and feel the dryness of your throat and the shortage of breath and the evisceration of lungs. Be active before the world of technology swallows you up and makes life so easy for you that you never want to lift a finger ever again. That hard work and dedicated efforts will seem more like chores rather than obligations. I'm ranting right now, but I'm really passionate about watches. Especially the cool looking ones. I'm waking up tomorrow at 6 in the morning and running until my body deems the time appropriate to implode. And I know the answer to this before I even ask it, I will not be able to keep track on the number of times I look at my watch during this run. Just warning you, it's not going to happen.

Interactivity #5

    The 9th grade English teacher in Montclair High School that I interviewed is familiar with the NETS-T in the world of education. She mentioned how they are present in her school district, but the school that she works is assimilating to the ideas in a gradual manner. The reason being that the kids in her class are being born with technological privileges, it is better to have those old world roots grounding them to reality. This surprised me because the teacher had said how many of the schools in the surrounding area were adapting into the NETS-T, but she herself advocated in small doses. In a personal statement, she said that she still wants her students to read from the pages of real life books rather than a Nook or an online source. She does not want the education of her students to be dependent on technologies that always require a power source when the power source should be in the mind.
    My interviewee mentioned how she adheres to the NETS-T when assigning long term projects for her students that require research and a depth of understanding. Being able to use digital tools and resources are what she places firm emphasis on, as well as being able to play on the creative strengths of her students. She mentioned that she divided her class up into groups and had each group work on a website for their midterms. The website would be dedicated to a man thematic element within the text they read for class, they needed visual and audio examples of the theme both in and out of the text. It was a tricky risk; she said that she had to time to activity with their Computers elective because their teacher already cemented the basics of website creating. The activity had to be green-lit with the other educator of course, but it was a cooperative success when they did.
    Another statement that my interviewee said that surprised me was how she tries her best incorporating real world issues into her English lectures about conflicts within texts. She said that TED talks and documentaries online about racism and sexual violence and war atrocities correlated to novels such as Night and Invisible Man. This surprised me because it was the exact type of thing my old English teacher back in high school used to do. He made us watch a historical about Prohibition while we were reading The Great Gatsby. Needless to say, her statement brought back a hint of nostalgia.
    Talking with this teacher during the interview was a real eye-opener. Her responses were very honest and passionate. She looked reasonably aged, so she has experience under her belt. I was delighted at the way she talked about the subject and how some parts of it could be used in cohesion with the NETS-T. My interviewee mentioned how the teacher needs to spearhead the classroom when it comes to technological resources. Powerpoints are not always dependable she said and she said that videos are her favorite thing to do for her students because so long as the content is relevant and interesting, her students will snap awake. I want to be just like her when it comes down to it. Don’t overwhelm students with too many technological standards, but don’t be too old-fashioned either. I’d tell people that NETS-T are the future of education, but there needs to be a gradual assimilation to it rather than a full out ‘spelunk’! There has to be an equal balance in between. What I’ll remember most about the interview is how I asked her if she wanted any parts of the interview kept confidential. To which she scoffed a reply: “Why would I do that? Censorship dulls the soul.” That’s my kind of woman.

Link to Google Doc Spreadsheet:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsF0VfDFs-btdFcwNHFROXo1ckRKcDAySFZac09HUHc&usp=sharing