Utilizing Technology

I use technology many ways in my everyday life, as well as utilizing it in my role as a teacher.

The most important way that I use technology right now, as a teacher-in-training, is to complete my school work. I research, write, and relay my work to my adviser using my handy-dandy laptop. Additionally, I post to this blog using the internet. I started the blog this fall. When I first started writing in it, I was posting mainly academic pieces, but as time has gone on I have used it more for reflecting on my day to day activity at the school. I blog, because I know I wouldn't take the time to sit and hand write reflections as often. There is also a community of bloggers, including other teachers who blog, so I feel a sense of accountability to keep up with my blog, and to read others. If I didn't write about my experiences I feel like I might not remember many of them in detail in the future. By having the blog to document how I was feeling, I can reflect on how I have changed as a teacher in the last month, year, or few years. I do not use names in my writing to honor the privacy of my students and their families. I would change the names in a story if I felt like it was important to the flow of the piece.

My first exposure to using technology, from a teacher's perspective, was in my Introduction to the Teaching Profession class my Freshman year in college. The teacher would use Blackboard, an online teaching tool to post grades, meeting times, discussion boards, assignments and quizzes. It opened my eyes to the breadth of resources there are for teachers on the internet, and through technological applications. During one unit, we studied web programs to use in the classroom, provided by the site www.4teachers.org. It has programs to help teachers organize lesson plans, write quizzes, write rubrics, share lesson plans, plus many more tools. I haven't found that website especially useful thus far, but I will keep it in my toolbox for when I teach in a more traditional school.

Another exciting experience using technology this fall has been while working with the 7th and 8th graders at the Free School. They are planning a two week trip for next May. It has to have a service component and they have to fund raise all of the money. I have been helping the students research options for their trip online. They need to find ideas like places to volunteer, where to stay, airplane tickets, and how to get a passport. I have taught them how to use Boolean operators to refine their searches. Another element of planning the trip requires technology: the fund raising. I helped one student write letters to potential donors for a fish fry fund raiser and I helped another student make fliers. I grew up using the internet, and word and flier publishing programs, so I am able to show the students some features that they don't already know, although they have all had exposure to the internet, and writing programs in the past.

Recently I started working for the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO) helping with outreach. I have been compiling a database of alternative education organizations, networks, schools, etc. for us to make a mailing to promote the conference that AERO holds. Making a database of these education organizations has been so easy, and is very easy to translate into mailing labels. I have been researching the organizations by using the internet, and have found out about many useful organizations. I will hold on to my database to refer to organizations in the future that relate to my teaching career. The biggest idea that I have learned by doing the organizing for AERO is that there are a very large amount of people in the United States, and the world, who hold similar values to me regarding education.

winter time

It has been getting colder and colder here in Albany! My first winter in the northeast. There is definitely more snow and ice than I am used to so far. I will walk into places and be the only one bundled from head to toe. I worry that my Kansas-ness sticks out like a sore thumb.

The cold weather brings everyone inside at school. Everyone inside at school brings conflict with it. Energy at school escalates so high when everyone is feeding off each other. We have had many council meetings lately (conflict resolution meetings), some of them have been short and sweet, but others have been epic. A notable council meeting recently was called on two boys who have been bullying a lot of the younger children. The teachers don't generally call council meetings on the students, but they might encourage a student who is having problems with another to call a meeting. The bullying had been going on for a while, but no other students had called one on them. So I was relieved it finally happened.

I am excited to be going home in two weeks. I was feeling a little homesick and it will be so nice to see my family.

"The traditional approaches treat mathematics as a cumulative logical development....The new approach would present what is interesting, enlightening, and culturally significant...Every topic must be motivated. Mathematics proper does not appeal to most students and [their] question, "Why do I have to learn this material?"is thoroughly justified (Kline, 1973, pp. 178-179).

Girls Group at Grafton

Last Friday the Girls identity group took a day trip to the wilderness land that the school owns. It is near Grafton lake and the Grafton Peace Pagoda that I mentioned before. There were about 12 girls from 3rd grade to 8th grade, as well as myself and two other female teachers.

We met with Liz around 10:00 a.m. Liz is co-caretaker of the Free School Grafton land with her partner Dan. They live on a house there, take care of the land, and offer outdoor education. Liz was raring to go, and did not allow any time to dilly-dally. It took about 10 minutes to walk from her house to the teaching lodge located in the woods. We didn't actually use the teaching lodge, but it is an octagonal building with windows on all sides built by Free School students and teachers to use as a teaching space. Instead we used the fire pit next to the teaching lodge.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, before we took off we circled up, introduced ourselves and each said something we were grateful for. I said I was grateful for my first north-eastern fall. It was hard not to be aware of the beautiful fall leaves and the crisp coldness of the approaching winter. Also along the way, we played a game called "Eagle Eye". Liz called out "Eagle Eye" while we were walking along the path when we weren't expecting it. She counted to 15 while not looking and we each had to try to camouflage ourselves in the surroundings. After 15 seconds she opened her eyes and called the names of any of the people she could see, and they came to where she was standing. Then everyone out of hiding counted another 5 seconds and anyone in hiding had to come closer to the counters in a new spot. I lasted the first round, but no one lasted the second.

So once at the fire pit, Liz taught us how to make a fire with natural means. We used a bow to start a coal, which we placed in a firestarter of highly flammable natural materials, then we placed it into a small teepee of twigs that we had gathered. It actually took a long time, but it was the first time that I had ever started a fire without matches or something similar.

After that we ate lunch, and then created jewelry out of the fibers of milkweed stalks. We also used a pumpkin shell to boil water and cook noodles, and we roasted the seeds on a sizzling rock that had been in the fire.

After that point the girls went and played in the woods and we cleaned up a bit and relaxed.

On the way back to the car we played Eagle Eye once more. This time I ran out as far as I could so that I still had time to come in during round two. I was the only one to survive past round two.

On the way to and from Grafton, the girls brought along the book Women who run with Wolves and we read stories to each other from it.

It was really great to get out into nature with the girls, and we were all really happy to learn wilderness skills. Sometime in the future (maybe in the spring) they would like to do an overnight out there.

Staff Development

Last week was an intense week for staff at our school. There was a lot of different activities going on, and a lot of stressful situations on top of that.

Luckily, we had our monthly staff circle on Thursday, which largely deals with interpersonal conflict. Then, the following day we had a scheduled staff development day on Friday, and finally Monday we had our regular once-a-week staff meeting.

The staff circle was intense! The staff is really honest with each other when they need to be, and we got to the core of several conflicts and resolved them.

Then the staff development day we had another meeting, this time a brunch held at the intern house (my house). The most important part of the discussion for me was talking about the way our meetings go. They always drag on so long, and can be very frustrating at times. But we came up with several ways to try to make them better including: taking breaks, prioritizing agenda items, reading off all announcements at the beginning, and having a rotating facilitator each week. We have had a meeting since and it went so smoothly. It really feels refreshing.

We also did a go round and each shared how we help ourselves from getting burnt out. It felt really good for me to come out with the feeling I had been holding that I wasn't connecting with two of the downstairs (older student) staff and that they didn't like me. I just told them that I want to get to know them better, etc. and that felt really good too.

The downstairs staff also resolved to gather at least on Monday mornings to discuss all the weeks activities and to coordinate roles and trips and such.

Well, that is all I have to say about staff development. I don't know how to catch the essence of how important or worthwhile it was, but it has certainly made a difference in the teacher's interactions at school