Technology Reflections

This year is not even over yet and I’m already thinking about next year. I’m thinking about new things I want to do and how I’ll do the old stuff better.

One thing I want to do better next year is having my kids take notes – Reading classes and the 8th grade Computer class. Reading classes need to take notes on literary terms and things specific to each story or novel that we read. I would LOVE to have them take notes online and be able to collaborate on those notes. I could use a wiki – we used wikis this year and it worked pretty well, but the kids are still very focused on changing fonts and colors and stuff. That would be a problem anywhere, anyway.

Then I thought about using an online note taking tool. I read about a few and NoteMesh looked interesting, but it’s really more for college students and I’m just not sure it’s right for Middle Schoolers. Then I read an article about the new Zoho Notebook (beta). It looks really cool and I played around with it a bit tonite. I could set up books and share them with my students. I can set some books or pages to be read only if I want them to see info, but not be able to edit it. In order to have control and for safety issues, I will make each of my students a gmail address using the +name feature

(add another name to your gmail email and it acts like a separate name, but all mail comes to the main email ex: you have a gmail account for username@gmail.com. For my student emails I use username+studentname@gmail.com. All the email for the students comes to my gmail account)

Zoho has some other really cool tools that I’d like my students to use next year too; Writer, Show, Planner and a few others. I wish Zoho Challenge (Test creator) was free – I’d love to do online testing too. I’m sure that I can find somewhere to do that

I’d love to hear thoughts and ideas about my idea of online collaborative notetaking. Maybe I could even find another class that is reading, or would be willing to read, the same novel with me next next year.

The end of the school year that is. I have already checked out – maybe even more so than some of my students. This is the first year in a few that I am extremely happy to see the year end. Sure – I had some really good times and there are some students I truly enjoyed, but the bad ones just overshadowed the good.

I can’t get past the sense of entitlement and lack of respect some of the kids have. As I explain, for the 40millionth time, how their behavior dictates my responses and they sit there with these looks on their faces like I’m the stupidest person they have ever encountered and of course it’s MY fault that they are being punished for not following the rules. Yes  – this is the ever-popular 4th period class (8th grade computers). Not all the kids are bad, and some have moved from the ‘part of the problem group’ to the ‘not part of the problem group’, but the ones who are the most disruptive and disrespectful just ruin it for me and the rest of the class. I tried all sorts of things with this class. I tried being tough, I tried being nice, I emailed and called home, I wrote detentions, I rewarded good behavior. When I stopped giving out candy (that I spent MY money on) for good behavior (because I wasn’t seeing a real increase in good behaviors) they complained! They just don’t get that they actually need to change their behaviors – they don’t think they are doing anything wrong! They questioned why I should give a referral to a student this week whose shirt was untucked (uniform school – shirts need to be tucked in at all times) after I told him TWICE in the same class period to tuck his shirt in. It’s like they don’t see the lines between child and adult.

I know I wrote in my previous post about how good these same kids were at the 8th Grade Formal – and they were! And they were also great on the 8th grade field trip and during the party we threw for them for having the highest scores on the state writing test in our county, but put them in a classroom or the cafeteria and they don’t think they have to behave.

To end on a positive note, my 7th graders were a bunch who I really liked (sure there were a few who I could live without – there always are) and I will miss them. Some were actually upset to realize that I don’t teach 8th grade reading. I’ve tried to encourage the ones I like to take 8th grade computers with me next year. I really hope I get a good group because that is usually my favorite class to teach, but I did not enjoy it this year!

I’m going to have a good summer, though, and next year will be a fresh slate!

First of all – wow! I haven’t posted since April 11th? Almost a month? I should be flogged LOL

Now on to my post……..

Lately my 8th graders have been really bad – well just a few of them – but they ruin it for everyone. With four weeks let in the school year I have decided that I was not going to fight them any longer. So I created a unit on Technology Careers that will keep them busy for the rest of the school year. They have something due each week and they have class time to work on it. On Thursday, they just wouldn’t stop talking while doing their typing (15 mins of silent typing at the beginning of each class) It took them 40 mins to all stop talking for any length of time. That left them 20 mins to work on their project. The first part is due at the end of class Monday (Friday was the 8th grade field trip so I gave them Monday for a due date). The biggest complainers were the kids who were talking! They seemed to think it was MY fault that they couldn’t work on their projects and when I pointed that out to them, they thought it was the funniest thing – that OF COURSE it was MY fault….sigh. Well, needless to say – I was very happy that I didn’t have to see them on Friday.

But I did see them tonight. Tonight was the 8th Grade Formal. Boy those kids clean up well! And they were so well behaved! I walked into the room at one point near the beginning and realized that there were no adults in the room except for the DJ. And do you know what those kids were doing? Sitting at tables or quietly talking in nice groups! They were being good! Overall, tonight was a really good night and the kids had a great time!

Damn I love those kids……sigh

It’s been a while since I’ve posted – almost a month – wow! 3rd quarter ended and we’re almost 3 weeks into 4th quarter. I’m on Spring Break now. I took last Thursday and Friday off to go to Disney with my cousin and her four children (ages 12 ½, 11, 8 and 3½) on Thursday – needed Friday to recover. I have this week and next Monday off! When I return to school there will be about 8 weeks left in the school year. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by.

Overall, it’s been a good year – my reading classes are great – a few individuals who I could do without, but mostly a great bunch of kids. Academically, I think they did well and we’ll be very happy with their state test scores. My 7th grade computer kids have also been awesome – I have accomplished much more with them this year than in previous years. Unfortunately, I attribute that to the fact that we got all the lowest level kids in a block reading class, which means they don’t get to take an elective. What it meant for me is that I got to teach at a higher level. For some reason, though that didn’t hold true for the 6th graders. Maybe they just aren’t mature enough – it’s no secret that I don’t have the patience for 6th grade silliness. I’d much rather teach 7th or 8th graders. Speaking of 8th graders- oy! I went from the best class ever (last year) to one of my most challenging classes in a long time. And it’s only a few kids who are ruining it. We had a day a month or so ago, when all the instigators were out on the same day! The rest of the class remarked at how much fun we had that day I had one student go overboard last week. I separated three big talkers and one girl kept on going by saying “Now who will I talk to?” I pulled her out into the hall and let her know that she had gone too far and that she’d better get herself under control. She admitted that it was uncalled for. We went back into the classroom and I warned everyone that anymore behavior issues and they would be off the final field trip and not be allowed to attend the 8th grade formal. I wasn’t making this up – that’s coming from administration. I hope they behaved on those two days that I was out before vacation…..

Anyway – I’m on vacation and I’m going to spend the rest of the week relaxing, and catching up on cleaning my house and of course at some point I’ll be grading and writing lesson plans