Wk 4 Reflection

Today as I reflect on my leadership project, I recall a lot of things my grandmother told me about teaching. She is a retired Home Economics teacher and her students still greet and hug her today, years after retirement. She turned ninety this week and is still going strong. She helps young mothers in our church, holding fussy babies or giving someone a safety pin. She always has a bag with her. In those bags are tissues, either for a runny nose or to put some food away from a young person that doesn’t like a particular vegetable. She never made excuses about anything. Her mother died when she was five and her father at the age of fifteen. Her and her siblings looked after each other, finished school and all earned certificates and degrees. Her older sister became a nurse, her younger sister a teacher. Her older brothers went on to be a barber and union electrical worker. All of this without their parents for a major portion of their lives. One thing that she told me when I started studying to become an educator was “Say what you mean and mean what you say”. In the classroom I have found this to be the most valuable resource. If I tell my students that we will be discussing a video, I better have that video cued up when they walk in the room. They expect it. In fact they demand it.

This leadership project has forced me to hold myself accountable for what I do for my students. I try to model for them what I expect from them. It’s challenging, but rewarding when I see them leading out in projects or taking charge for warm ups.

WK 3 The Art of Possibility

Lighten up! This is something that I find is hard for some educators to do. The pressures of test scores, keeping attendance, worrying about little Johnny’s home life. All these things add stress to the school day. What would your students put in the blank, The best ______ ever? Learning course work is hard enough. Students know they have to do well. I found this out coaching a middle school basketball team. My parents were all in a craze about who was starting, jersey numbers, team sneakers, warm ups and the like. After the parent and players meeting was well under way, one of the seventh graders raised their hand and asked, “When are we going to play basketball?” We get so caught up about the end result that we forget to teach the subject. So as the book says love, laugh and live life to the fullest. Remember that students are people and not machines that collect information. Sometimes when my students enter my room I greet them with Mr. Jenkins at your service how may I help you today?

WK 3 Leadership Hub

This week brings excitement and nervousness. I applied to the Pennsylvania Technology Expo and Conference. My capstone project Motivating teachers to use technology in their classroom has been very interesting from the start. I completely took a new turn during the process. I wanted to motivate students to increase their attendance, but realized after a few months that people, including students are drawn to things that appeal to them. Think about your favorite class. I bet it was very engaging, right? Today's students have the same type of desire that educators had at some point in their educational matriculation. They want to feel like they are an important part of the class. With today's technology, everyone can write or should I say post comments, answers and even pictures on the board. My project starts out by showing a student totally disengaged from his learning. Throughout the presentation, I show how the web tools my target audience and I have found have enhanced my student’s learning and how my staff is now motivated to share Web 2.0 tools that are being used in classrooms around my school.

Learning a dance on http://www.schooltube.com

Month11EMDTDJenks

Sunday, May 13, 2012

WK 2 Leadership Post

This was a very nerve racking task. Submit a proposal to national conference. I started getting nervous just typing my name into the proposal. The Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference was where I choose to take my newly acquired skills. I was surprised to find such a big conference in my state and not to far from where I reside. Technology is always changing and reinventing itself. I will have to stay on top of the Web 2.0 tools to make sure I bring a valuable experience to those in attendance. I will probably incorporate bring your own technology site to the conference. It was fun to watch the spark come back into the classrooms at my school this year. It was also exciting to see the talents of many teachers surface using technology in their classrooms. This course work has challenged me this year. I was able to meet each task knowing that each activity would make learning more appealing to my students. They also enjoyed the fact that I was learning new things to bring back to them. Their favorite question became “what do you have for homework this week coach?”

Pennsylvania Technology Expo and Conference

WK 3-Art of Possibility Reading

The Conductor doesn't make a sound

In reading this week, one phrase stood out. The conductor doesn’t make a sound. He uses the strengths of his orchestra to produce it. The first story that made me think about my classroom was with the Cuban and American Youth Orchestras. Due to unseen circumstances one piece of music was not given to one group. This almost ruined the concert until one conductor came up with an idea. Let the youth teach each other. This pressure caused them to think outside of the box for a moment. I want to say for a moment because when they saw a solution that worked they almost resort back to business as usual. How many times do teachers find that ah-hah moment and then resort back to the routine? In the next scenario, one viola blanks out during a crucial time in the performance. The violinist sitting next to him seamlessly plays the part on his instrument that is not tuned at the same pitch. The piece went off flawlessly. Wouldn’t it be great to be in a class and not be noticed? Not because you are ineffective, but because your students are collaborating so well that they embrace the assignment and make it their own.

WK 2 Kristen McKerin

Kristen McKerin

WK 2 Rosa Santana

Rosa Santana

WK 2 Reading Comment 2

The scenario was set. Two salesmen travel to a distant country to find out if it will be possible to start up a shoe business. One salesman comes back and states there is no way they can sell shoes there, no one is wearing them. The other salesman comes back and states there is great opportunity to sell shoes because no one has them! When we enter our classrooms or learning environment, do we state that there is no technology so there are no possibilities there or do we seize the day and attack the blank canvas that is waiting for a technological explosion? Same situation, two very distinct opinions. Should we attack or bury our heads in the sand. Some of the musical artists in Good Copy, Bad Copy approach the topic of piracy in different ways. A few of the artists use the illegal use of their music to be remixed and used at parties. They feel that the partygoers will enjoy the music and seek to find it, while others would like to have it shut down.

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