Wikis in the classroom

I think overall, that my wiki speaks for it self.  As far as the types of pages, I have a home page to welcome people and to give any updates, there is a page dedicated to math videos for students to watch, and there is a page for the power points that I have made for my students to take notes from. Since I teach at a boarding school, I would invite the parents of my students to come to my wiki so that they can see what the students are learning when test are, and have a chance to add anything of their own to the site, as I have found that parents can be a good source of random information.  This also gives the students a place to put things that they feel is good for the class and other classes that I will teach.   

Do you learn with online learng??

In the article entitled “Online learning isn’t learning online,” I agree with every opinion of the blogger.  All of the online classes that I have completed were either pre-made so that the instructor didn’t (seemingly) have to do much of anything (self grading multiple-choice tests, discussion boards that meant little to the class, ect.).  Or the teacher didn’t care enough to correct thing that needed to be corrected when the problem was raised.  When I completed my degree from a college back east, they nicked and dimmed me for every little thing; that I felt more like I was buying my degree than I was earning one. 

            As far as the student’s comments about liking their online classes, I think most of them see it as a way for them to TRY to have the best of both worlds. I mean that, the student can please mommy and daddy by “going to college,” but then they get what they want in the sense they have all of the free time that they want. That is until they have fallen too far behind in the class and they are trying to make get enough point from the few remaining to pass; or the end of the semester comes in an online class that didn’t have deadlines, and they think that they can do 4 months of work in a week or less.  Then when grades come out they have to try to explain mom and dad where their money went, way they have such a great tan when they spent all their time in the library. 

            I think it is clear where I stand with online classes.  I take them because I have to at times, but I would much prefer to have a good in person teacher standing in front of me using technology and imparting knowledge unto me than sitting in front of my computer screen, were I play game and listen to music most of the time, trying to complete an assignment.

            This is in now way meant to reflect my feelings about this class. If you promise not to tell I am really starting to like this one; might have something to do with the fact that I can see the need for. Maybe??

My first philosophy of teaching

    Being a first year teacher, and having no formal training to be a teacher, I have had to lean all that I know through trial and error.  Some of the best advice that I have received was, “don’t only know what kind of teacher you want to be, but also know what kind of teacher you don’t want to be.” This is good because, as a math teacher, I have had many math teachers, some great, others not.  From this wide range of teaching, from a student’s perspective, I know what a teacher  has done to help me be successful, and what has not worked. 
    Encouragement, motivation, and left to struggle the right amount is what I have found to help me best. Using the same strategies, I hope to be able to provide my students with the same support that my best teachers showed me.  By encouraging my students to do the best that they can, the student should be more willing to take chances that otherwise they may not be willing to take.  I motivate my students by ensuring that they   receive credit for what they do correctly and identify the point where the mistake was made.  Above all I will purposely leave my students to solve problems above the level that I teach to, in order for them to gain a sense of pride and mastery over the concept that I am teaching them in that lesson.  These three concepts plus the use of humor, technology, and some entertainment allows me to present information to my students, most of whom have major mental blocks against school in general, and math specifically.
    I’m not sure if this is a “REAL” philosophy of teaching, but this is what i think about it thus far.  I have read that this document is a work in progress through out the career of a teacher, and I am sure that this summery will change drastically and often as I continue my own teaching career. I look forward to being able to look back on this and seeing how my outlook has changed from time to time.

My test blog post

Look at me, this is my first blog post EVER