The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture was an amazing speech. Not only was Randy Pausch very entertaining, he was so insightful, especially when it comes to future teachers. The first thing that I noticed about the Last Lecture was the fact that he talked about the "White Elephant" in the room. He just wanted things out in the open, and he knows what everyone was thinking, so why not just bring the subject up? Many people can sense when people are thinking something and they just don't say it and I believe that is was great of him to just put himself out there. I feel that when teachers put themselves out there that is when they get the best result, and I suspect that that is one of the reason Randy Pausch was so successful.

My dad brought me down his book The Last Lecture and I kept telling him that I was going to read it. After watching the actual speech, I decided that I was going to was going to read it and once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. The chapters are very short and they are great life lessons for people. Since reading it I have recommended it to many people older and younger, and my dad has picked out certain chapters for my ten year old sister to read and she even likes it. I really liked reading it because you learn so much more about him and his philosophies and why he is the way he is. I was also really interested on learning about his family and how he grew up because that is the foundation of every person.

One of the things that I really appreciated about Pausch after reading his book and watching the lecture was how he handled his students. Just because someone is very intelligent, does not mean that they will automatically be a good teacher, but that was not the case when it came to Randy Pausch. He was a very smart man teaching very bright students, and he always knew how to get the best out of them. Pausch never let his students plateau and that is very respectable. He also used many different techniques to push them instead of just lecturing them that they could do better. If Pausch had not influenced by so many people then the theatre at Carnagie Mellon would not have been packed when he gave his speech.

I could have a conversation about Randy Pausch with someone for hours, which means that this blog could keep on going, but since I do not want to recap the whole book or lecture I will finish with this. The one thing that impressed me most about Pausch was his honesty. In the lecture he was honest about his illness, he showed the slides, and he let everyone know about his diagnosis. In his life he was a very honest husband and son, and in the classroom he was very straightforward with his students. I believe that it is very important that people and students can trust the ones they look up to, and I also believe honesty is the best policy. Pausch represented himself and these qualities very well and that is why he was so successful in many aspects of his life.

The Wonderful World of Educational iPods

iPods have become very popular devices over the past couple of years. People of all ages have adapted to the iPod craze. Everyone from athletes, children, grandparents, even the people going to work on the train, has iPods. Duke University is also going along with the trend and getting their incoming freshmen iPods to “enhance their learning experience”, they download them with material that will help them learn and gain more knowledge throughout college. I think that that is a great idea. Now a days, iPods are very accessible and they have so many new gadgets and tricks that they can do. They are also very portable and therefore students can take the classroom anywhere. I like listening music when I am on the road for volleyball, and if there was a podcast or something along those lines of a lecture, I would love to listen to that so I would not be as behind in school.



The website I found out about iPods was called Smart iPod Ideas. It was a very basic website however I found it to be very useful. The first page was just about Podcasts and listening to things such as books on your iPod. However, once you get past that home page there is a lot of other interesting things. There are many article that one can read to fully understand how to use the iPod to the fullest extent. Also, there are many links which a person can go to learn more as well if that information is not sufficient enough. Overall, this is a very basic website but if someone used it correctly it could be very useful.

To Learn More Please Click Here

Dr. Alice Christie

One part of Dr. Christie's website that I really enjoyed was her online resources for databases for when children have to research information. When I was growing up I found that this was the hardest thing to do, when researching on the internet. Now-a-days, when researching, many students go and just type in a subject into Google. While this may be effective sometimes it may also not guide them to a site that is not very helpful. Also, it sometimes hard to find information it also is at a higher grade level many times.



I also was very impressed with Dr. Christie's database website because it is not only helpful for the students but it is also very helpful for the teachers. She includes not only website for only specific topics but she also provide websites for data bases, search engines, ask an expert, almanacs, encyclopedias, webcams, simulations, references, and primary sources. With all of this information, it is easy for a teacher to find something that the children can understand very well for their age. Also, a teacher can easily look where the children got the information if there were any misunderstandings. Dr. Christie's databases are very helpful for many teachers as well as students and should be used by as many teachers as possible.

WIKIPEDIA-FRIEND OR FOE?

I wasn’t surprised on what I found out about Wikipedia after reading the articles on NPR and Wired. When Wikipedia first came out I didn’t know that it was not reliable and I got angry when my teachers told me it could not be used as a source for papers. Then my freshman year, my roommate and I were bored one day and we just started to put crazy things on Wikipedia to see how long they would last. They stayed on the website for about 2 hours. After then I realized that if I took two hours to get ridiculous information off the site then how long would it take to get information off of something that seemed kind of correct? It is going to take many years until the website of Wikipedia can be used as a good reliable source, but for now, it is very useful when you need to find out fast facts.
I was also not surprised when I found out about what companies like Wal-Mart are doing when it comes to information on their stores on Wikipedia. Since many people believe that Wikipedia is a reliable source, it was kind of intelligent for these companies to write these falsehoods knowing that it would take days until someone noticed the information if they did at all. Even though it is unethical what they did, at the same time it is just another way that the company can publicize themselves. Wikipedia really needs to be revamped so that not everyone can write on the website and we can have more reliable source. Wikipedia has a good base idea, there are just some things that need to be tweaked.

Formula For Success

Once again after reading this blog, I feel that Karl Fisch has made a great point once again. In today’s society it is all about getting the right answer and that is what grades for school are based on. He makes a really good point saying “everyone focuses on one right answer. In society today we want people to think with an open mind, but tests are not always reflecting that. Some tests only have one right answer, such as history, there is only one date that a battle happened on, but I don’t believe that that is the case in many subjects. Math is a subject in which students learn to think logically. Now, there are formulas they may need to know for a particular semester, but in reality is everyone going to need to know how to find the area of a triangle when the are 45? I think that an assessment as Karl Fisch had mentioned is a great idea when testing students, instead of your basic math test.

The reason I think that an assessment is a good idea in place of an exam because it makes students think so much more than a basic test. For example, as Fisch said, a good question would be. “You’re designing a school, what size and shape would your math classrooms would be and why?” Now, a student cannot just memorize that answer and write it down on the sheet of paper and forget it right when they leave the room. A question like that has a lot of different, smaller questions that need to be answered. Not only is there a math problems involved like area, but there is also a lot of explaining that a student could do to reason his or her decisions. For a teacher, it is a good idea to hear them out because sometimes teachers judge, but if you give someone a chance to explain many times you would be pleasantly surprised. I think that Karl Fisch is a very innovative teacher and he really looks in the future and he wants others to do the same and I really respect that.

Click Here to Read Karl Fisch's Blog

FISCHBOWL-TECHNOLOGICALLY ILLITERATE

When I heard people say phrases like, “I don’t get computers” or “me and my computer don’t get along-it hates me”, I used to just accept that as a normal response and I helped the person out. Now, after reading this post and thinking more about it, why would I ever want to handicap someone like that? Karl Fisch had some great points that he was trying to make in his blog, and one that really stuck with me was teachers today that are technologically illiterate are like teachers who couldn’t read a hundred years ago. Teachers are only hindering their students when they do not know what is going on in the advancement of technology. When a 3rd grader knows more about a computer than his teacher does, we have to ask ourselves, should that person still be allowed to teach? We are here to help out our students and have them grow and learn and if they are the ones teaching us then what are they really getting out of it?

I believe that there is no doubt that Karl Fisch shouldn’t have won the award for most influential blog, because everyone needs to read it and then reflect. I am sure that there were many people who changed the way they felt about computers after reading that blog. I know I did. Sometimes I get really frustrated with the Internet and technology in general, but the times are getting more advanced everyday. Instead of rejecting it, why do we not just embrace it for all we can. The main thing I want to do in life is really have an influence on the children I teach and I want them to know I did all I could to help them learn. By being not only computer literate but also technologically advanced, I can achieve that dream.

Is It Ok To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

International blogs

At the Renwick School, there is grade 1 taught by Dianne, and her blog is the one that I discovered on the web. I thought that it was very interesting that she did a blog for such a young class, but then I saw how it was so helpful. First, she could help other young teachers who do not know what to do with a young class. Dianne put up pictures and descriptions of what her and her class did all day and especially on days that were fun for the kids. Also, when parents have young kids, it is kind of hard to let them go. By the teacher having this blog parents can keep up with what their children are doing. Also, it is hard to understand children and what they are talking about but here parents have the access to help them understand. I thought that this blog was unconventional because of the age but it is a brilliant idea.

The British School of Amsterdam has a blog for its “lower junior” class and its “upper junior class”. Much like Dianne, the teachers for the Lower Junior Class are very involved with the blog and want people to know what is going on in their school. They not only talk about what the students to daily, they also post different things that they have done. For instance the first thing that I saw there were Anti Bully Poems that really helped the students express themselves. I think that many teachers are now finding out the benefits of blogs and they really enjoy when the students as well as parents can be involved. I feel that many schools should start really advocating blogs to their teachers because it is also a great way to share information with other teachers around the world. I really think that many great ideas are being spread world wide and it is fascinating.

Please Note: I tried to find a picture of the British School of Amsterdam's Blog, but I was unable to find one