Philosophy of Education

My philosophy of education, which can be seen and heard briefly on this youtube presentation, models any learning process-- change, adapt, and apply. Sometimes what we think we know or have learned isn't as effective as it used to be. So is the same with education. From science and technology to art and social studies, people's minds and points of view change over time as new information is learned.

Being fresh out of college, my way of teaching was very essentialist, with no room for arguing points about what is and isn't important when it comes to education (as if I knew all along). I always liked the way college courses were taught, and didn't realize that learning was different for everyone. It was not until my first year of teaching that I realized how different today's high school students can learn math.

I now take on elements of progressivism, essentialism, and constructivism, rather than stick to one philosophy only. Teaching math allows me to use the assessment and basis aspects of essentialism; that everything has a basis to build upon. From progressivism, which is said to contrast essentialism, I take the idea that students should be taught how to think, not what to think. Finally, from constructivism, I think it is necessary for learners to apply knowledge and construct meaning from experience....even in mathematics.

Even more important is my general teaching philosophy that every teacher should help each student reach their highest potential, whatever it may be. Not everyone learns or has the same potential, which is why teaching is tough and requires a lot of patience.

I'm sure my philosophy will change as the teaching years go by. I'm counting on it. The trick is being open-minded to what does and doesn't work at various times, and how to apply what does work.

Energy Conservation Reflection

This project was not fun to do, but it helped me realize how much fuel I could be saving. The reason it wasn't fun is because I had to sit in a cold car and wait for the engine to arrive at normal operating temperature. Usually the car is garaged...

I developed a greater awareness of fuel cost during this project as well. It's unfortunate that I had to wait until gas prices raged out of control to become aware. I also learned not only about block heaters, but about other ways to keep the engine fliuds warm to assist in morning warm-ups. There are heated oil dipsticks, battery warmers, oil pan warmers, and different types of each. This is all still new to someone from California. The remote starter on the vehicles I drove in California were more of a novelty...talk about a waste of fuel.

Talking to a camera is not as engaging as a live audience. I was not comfortable, as you can see from my youtube presentation.

Strengths:

• Visuals were easy to see


• I was familiar about the topic


• The data gathering is part of my gas fill up ritual
  

Weaknesses:

• I speak fast when I'm not comfortable


• When I speak fast, my pronunciation slurs a little


• It sounds more like I'm reporting, than giving a presentation


• Where to put my hands when there's no podium?
  

This is something I would definitely share with my students and is even worth having them do something similar.

Article Assessment 3

Tools for the Mind

Mary Burns

Tools for the Mind by Mary burns reviews past predictions of computer usage in education with current trends. In the 1990's, computers were expected to "build a student's higher-order thinking skills." Instead, computers and technology have been used in ways that inhibit the most important aspects of learning-cognition, instruction, assissment, and curriculum. Burns looks at four behavior patterns that "handicap the potential of computers to poromote higher-order thinkng."

• Teachers are trained how to use technology, rather than how technology can enhance learning
  
• Many Districts have not made necessary accommodations required to fully capitalize the use of new technology
  
• Schools have mistakenly equated the use of technology with learning and higher-order thinking
  
• All software applications are often seen as equal

Powerpoint applications do not particularly help students think or sort out complex information. Rather, we see a picture and a little information.
The internet is used to look up infromation without questioning or validating the source. Instead, cutting and pasting the data is practiced, again removing the process of critical thinking and evaluation.

Applications that do require critical thinking include:

• Data base design
  
• spreadsheet applications


• Geographic information systems

These however, are either used seldomly or in ways that mimic the "show and tell" cognition of slide show applications. They are focused more on visual display rather than allowing students to draw conclusions based on data evaluation.

Two strategies Burns proposes are to:

1. Teach critical thinking first and technology later, and


2. Focus on curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Burns concludes by emphasizing that educational focus should be on content knowledge, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Once these educational skills have built, technology be incorporated to support these skills, not replace them.

Personal Thoughts:
As a teacher, I find this article very relevant and eye-opening. Sometimes students use the computer in my classroom to do research. Unfortunately, I see the same behavior that Burns describes: copying and pasting of information without verifying the source, and without the need for any type of critical thinking. I teach math, so what I watch out for is how students work out certain types of problems. I still see the copy and paste mentality in some concepts, mostly in knowledge(Bloom) level type of problems. Thus, I limit those types and try to use higher-order thinking assessment questions. I recently had a student comment, "Your test questions aren't easy. You really have to think about them and know what you're doing." Score.

Energy Conservation Project

Energy conservation and environmental awareness are becoming more and more a part of modern culture and society. Issues like oil prices and global warming are at the heart of this awareness. Now more than ever, individuals are making conscious decisions that take into account the environment and energy consumption. According to an LA Times article, the sales of hybrid vehicles that are powered by both gas and electrical energy have risen, with customers willing to be placed on a waiting list. Recycling and other environmentally-friendly measures are now used in the media, somewhat creating a trend toward earth-friendly decisions.



My energy conservation project takes a look at my household's vehicle gas consumption. We own three types of vehicles, including one that cannot be used in the winter. More specifically, I researched gas consumption on our second-most gas-friendly vehicle- a 1998 Ford Escort which gets approximately 31 miles per gallon on the highway, and 25 miles per gallon in the city. Commuting from Eagle River to south Anchorage 5 days a week combines the specs accurately in my report with one exception: taking into accout the idle time used to warm the vehicle up.



The winter season takes a toll on those averages. My project looks into the idle time used to warm the Escort up to operating temperature, both with and without the use of a block heater, and how much gas and money may be saved throughout the winter. For a powerpoint presentation of my results, click here.

Article Assesment 2

Michael Bauzon
michael_bauzon@hotmail.com

The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web

Will Richardson

In this article, Richardson first explains the internet's most popular tools among information writers and seekers. The technologies he discusses include weblogs, wikis, podcasting, and Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. These tools allow students to work outside of school, keep a progressive electronic track of a student's work history, and in effect encourage collaboration.

Richardson says that "teachers must consider whether our curriculums should change now that staudents have the ability to reach audiences far beyond our classroom walls and to acquire their own primary sources." These changes in curriculum may also bring about different views of literacy now that the works of web writers are accessible to large audiences. Since there exists so much information, one of the defining abilities of being web-literate includes being able to "skillfully manage the flood of information now available."

Finally, as with any internet tool, Richardson discusses the risks of online usage regarding privacy issues and safety precautions.

Some of the internet tools Richardson discusses are:

• Weblogs: AKA simply as blogs, they allow anyone to create a personal web site. One can post pictures, text, and provide links to other types of multimedia online.


• Wikis: Wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick, is a Web site that anyone can edit at anytime


• RSS: Really Simple Syndication enables people to check on information as it comes in.


• Podcasting: Creating your own radio programs to be posted on the Web.

This article was very informative. Richardson explained the different web tools well, and gave me ideas about where to go next in researching ways to incorporate these technologies in my classroom. After setting up my teacher blog, the school's jounalism advisor set up a blog for the school, doubling as a school newspaper. As for me, I use a weblog to post current homework assignments. The students and many of the parents love it.

Weblogs are very useful tools for teachers that require journal entries or other reflective activities. Wikis must be used with care, as information must be supported with other reliable sources. Wikis do give a good start. As for the other technologies mentioned in the article, I don't see myself using these others yet. I teach math and chemistry, so textbooks are still very valuable. I also require special typing software (which I haven't purchased yet) that allow math and chemistry subscripts to be neatly scripted.

Techonology Assessment

Assessing a very small school took very little time. It was quite amusing getting to know the technological culture of the private school I work at.

Although the school and the enrollment is modest, the technological capabilities are not behind the times. Almost every teacher has an interest in his or her classroom's technology components.

Just this past week I used http://www.youtube.com/ to show a short presentation of Rutherford's findings concerning experiments using the cathode ray tube and alpha particles. At least two other teachers are interested in the blog I created to help students keep track of assignments, and are now working on their own blogs. This past weekend was spent uploading names and grades into our new grading system. Just a few hours ago, one of our staff came across a projector in a surplus warehouse that simply needed a power cord to work, and thus our techonological inventory continues to grow.

After a few short phone calls, e-mails, and document scans, my anthropological analysis is complete. Please feel free to read my entire report.

Article Assessment 1

Michael Bauzon
michael_bauzon@hotmail.com
9/22/08

Listen to the Natives

Marc Prensky

Overview:

In Listen to the Natives, Prensky highlights the differences between students and teachers concerning use of digital technology in the schools and everyday life. He coins the terms digital native, referring to today's students, and digital immigrants, those who were not born into the digital world, to help readers get a better picture of the generation gap that exists between educators and students.

Prensky goes on about different instructional methods educators must use in order to successfully engage learning for digital natives. According to Prensky, digital tools like cell phones, blogs, podcasts, video games, and web-based data storage can increase student collaboration both in and out of the classroom.

Article Reference Points:

• Digital Natives refer to today's students, fluent in digital computer language, video games, and the internet.
• Digital Immigrants are those who are not born into the digital world.
• Teachers must encourage decision making among students, involving students in designing instruction and getting input from students about how they would teach.
• The cell phone is one of the most important 21th century tools.
• Herding is students' involuntary assignment to specific classes or groups. This does not benefit students.
• One alternative to herding is one-to-one personalized instruction
• The other alternative to herding is having students select their own groups, not necessarily restricted to the classroom.
• Programming is the key skill necessary for 21st century literacy, and many students are already proficient in programs such as Flash.

Reflection:

I'm not fond of most of Prensky's solutions to bridging the generation gap between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants within the classroom. I agree that students should use digital tools and that many teachers need to learn how to integrate usage of these tools in their curriculum, but using video games to teach literacy and algebra is not effective.

Student engagement, one of the more important aspects of teaching and learning, can hardly be focused on algebra through most digital tools. While it's true that the subject matter might be presented in a more entertaining fashion, the old pencil-and-paper way of doing math homework is still the most effective method. Video games to teach math? I predict more distraction than learning.

In my curriculum, lesson planning, and delivery, the digital tools mentioned in the article-camera phones, googledocs, blogs, Flash, wikis, etc- are of little to no worth. I do use a class blog to post homework, quotes, and notes to the classes. Other than that, I still teach math on the big board in the front of the room. As a teacher the most I can take away from the article is a knudge toward learning math-effective teaching technologies such as smart boards, tablet PCs, blogs, and of course the graphing calculator.

Futuring

How would you "grade" or assess Fox Becomes a Better Person, and School Train?

Fox Becomes a Better Person and School Train were assignments that required students to actively engage in learning. Any time a work has to be demonstrated, the effort and time taken to produce it is revealed. If very little time was needed and the project exceeded the outcome guidelines, then you are possibly dealing with a talented group.

I personally thought School Train got to be a little annoying after the first minute-and-a-half, but I'm sure the students had a blast producing it. The music, although hardly appealing to me, gave me an idea of what may appeal to younger generations. Reciting the Spanish words along with English helped me to learn what some words meant. The grading of this assignment would depend on the guidelines laid out. For example, if I required the following:

• Make the presentation appealing to an audience your age (music, color, etc.)
• Attempt to teach your audience a few words in another language
• Use music, color, and pictures of members of your group

then I would give this project a high grade.

Fox Becomes a Better Person was another fun and creative work that required effort and talent. I would give a high grade to this project as well, mostly because the student acted the whole story out. The background was fun to watch and the drawings were way better than anything I could come up with.

Epic 2015

As the story progressed, I almost forgot to "disengage" reality after 2008. I was caught up with the rate at which communication was growing, the mergers between giants, and how prevelant media was in everyday life. Oh, wait... that's happening now. Although these were only predictions of possible business ventures, I don't believe they're that far from reality.

In the classroom, electronic communication has become almost mandatory. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking about setting up a blog for my students to post homework assignments, contact info, lessons, cheat sheets, etc. Later today I'm going to enter grades into an online gradebook, which means I'll probably have to write and will receive e-mails to and from parents. Our school newsletter is online. A teacher down the hall just e-mailed me a request for our chemistry lab. Every classroom has a computer with online access for grades and projects. The home site for all of them: http://www.google.com/.

Sabrina's Journey

This is a simple and effective way to break the ice among students. Young people love to share about themselves-hence myspace and facebook's popularity. With my own students, I would do something very similar, but focus the topic on my curriculum. For example, in the beginning of the year I would have students gather images and narrate things they already know about math and things they would like to learn about. That would give me ideas for projects and developing units. At the end of the year, I would have another presentation about what they've learned, and then compare the two for an assessment.