Thoughts about an electronic course...

I read the following at a discussion site for an online course that is centered in California:

Wow.  I admit that I had a similar impression in some face-to-face classes ... and it was when I found out about other articles that the teachers mentioned during the lectures that I really got started...  There is a particular lecture about a year ago that got me started.   The article by Richard E. Clark (search "Clark 2012 American Educator" and you will find a great link)  


That's when I realized that even in my teaching I was not really promoting "learning."


Here's the link to the Clark article:      WORTH A VISIT

It takes a village to train a teacher

Thank you, Evgeny!

Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle wrote it:  "Education is everybody's business."   That's the subtitle of their Big Picture 200-page manual about how to create participatory schooling.  

I found great insight in TED.com presentations and it was Evgeny who introduced me to Sugata Mitra and TED.com... so it wasn't long before I found Ken Robinson, Dan Pink, Dennis Littky on Poptech, Maria Andersen, Aleph Molinari (Digital Divide), etc. 

So, thank you, Evgeny, for introducing me to TED.com.

Look at Dr. Tae's invitation to hire him...

 Special Note: When in teaching mode, the Dr. Tae™ HLU is only programmed to give students meaningful feedback and is therefore unsuitable for use in environments that require giving students letter or numerical grades.

here is the link    

http://drtae.org/hire-dr-tae/

You can write to him at dr.tae@drtae.org 

Here's how I got to know him (through his youtube channel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVTtla_JUTU

Remember this classic book: Have you been "Driven to Distraction" lately?

The name of this blog comes from this insightful book.  ADD people are curious, often constantly.   It might have been a very useful trait among certain groups, but gradually bureaucracies come to see the ADD hyperactivity as disrupting.

Go ahead, order an extra copy.   Look at the chapter where the discussion goes to "why is ADD so often found in the USA and not in Europe?"  Simple:  we who are "chronically curious" got on ships and didn't return.  We took our "different" genes and brain wiring with us.

Even teachers ought to know about the parking Paul

What did Ringo, George and John know about PAWL?

How many times have you used your car's parking brake this year?  Two or three times?  

The answer should be: at least twice a day.  Come to a stop, with your right foot on the break and the car in drive, press the emergency brake so it holds the car, slide the shift into PARK, and pull your right foot off the brake.  Ahh.  Now the PAWL has no pressure.  The parking pawl locks the wheels and stops them from turning.  By using the emergency brake, you reduce the "wear and tear" on the parking pawl.  As columnist Jonathan Welsh writes, "Even the slightest incline puts pressure on the pawl."  (WSJ.com)   Get the news directly

The photo comes from my buddy Mario's view of a fabulous rooftop in his favorite capital city.  This place has little need for pawls because so few people own cars. But I intend to use the pawl if I ever get a car there.

Why does technology stay unused in classrooms?

Here' the summary...

An interesting approach.

To watch the video, I had to complete a survey.   Hmmmm.








Nice looking survey and not too long to fill it out...

I'm impressed.


At some point I want to learn how to link a survey to a youtube video so that I can teach my students.

What software is used to collect the contact data?

Where does the data get stored?

In what format?

How do I send email updates to the people who have entered this information?

That's the real-world info that needs to be given to kids so that they can make videos and then contact people who see the videos.

Why I invite students to link to my Facebook account

Let's be clear.  I do not actively seek out my students on Facebook.

I don't ask for their email addresses and then ask them to be my "friend."

However, I make it clear that I will answer questions by email, text to my mobile phone, through my blog and on Facebook, Orkut, tuenti, sonico, vKontakte and hyves.net.  I encourage them to write to me on Facebook so that I can recommend BIBPenpals.  See www.BIBPenpals.com and www.Youtube.com/bibPenpals.

Why?
a)  Gordon Dyke, Tony Hyde, DB, Clive Hartwell, Will Sutherland, David Rhodes, Teddy Senn, Mr. Koch, and others.  I went to a remarkable boarding school where the faculty lived on campus and took us on expeditions in the mountains on weekends and ate dinner with us to reinforce the finer points of civilization.  20 years later I realized where I got some of my notions about what a "good teacher" does and I wanted to thank Gordon, Tony, Clive, DB, and others... and I could because the school kept in contact with those teachers.   The benefit of the contact was more for me and my need to express my gratitude than for them to actually hear it.   It was more to benefit me --- I felt that I had slightly moved to balance the scales by saying, "You made a difference when I was a self-centered, ego-driven kid."

b)  My wife's favorite teacher:  He was a passionate fan of the U.S. Civil war history and filled his students ears with details about the war so that my wife was well prepared to say, "Everyone knows that:  the Civil War was not about slavery at first; it was about economics."

David Zimster, a bright guy at my office, told me about how his dad gave him a copy of Alvin Toffler's Third Wave and Future Shock, in which the author described the Civil War as a shift of power, moving from agriculture to industry, and clearly the South was losing that transition.

For both DZ and my wife, the Civil War was not initially about slavery.  The Zimster had to fight for that mindset (his history teacher did not want him saying such confusing things in front of the other students);  thanks to David Wagner, wherever you are, you made my wife really like history.   You also inspired me to make it easy for my students to keep in contact with me, if they choose to do so.

Steve McCrea
Facebook:  TLASteve@gmail.com (there are over 200 Steve McCreas on FB)
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Orkut, Tuenti, Sonico, Hyves.net, vKontakte:  FreeEnglishlessons@gmail.com
Skype:  SteveEnglishTeacher
+1 954 646 8246
Thanks also to my sweetheart, who allowed me to sit for fifteen minutes to grab this idea when we were in the middle of "territorial affairs."   Time to get back to that dust removal project.