I've been very busy writing papers which are due this month. I'm trying to get ahead so I can actually relax for a week or two this month. I finally have time to read real live books too, so I am relishing some Faulkner now: As I Lay Dying. Wow, what a whiz he was with dialogue and interior dialogue.
On the sidelines I've been watching the political battles over funding of public jobs such as teachers, firemen, policemen, etc. I am grateful that at least some of our representatives have the courage to do the right thing for this country. The dollars allocated to Michigan are woefully inadequate ($319 MM), but at least there is some relief on the way.
Since our last class on Friday, July 30, I've been giving a lot of thought to what the former MAC'ers were saying about the job market, their advice on getting our portfolios together early, and of course, their use of creativity and technology to keep their students engaged. To me that was a perfect way to end the summer session. It gets us out of the forest, so we can think big picture about how we will use this amazing program to launch our careers as teachers.
In the meantime I'm checking out blogs on technology when I can find them. The latest I saw documents an inner city teacher's frustration with trying to execute a great unit in English using laptops. Unfortunately, he was thwarted by numerous obstacles such as broken laptops, restricted internet access, inconsistency of software loaded onto the machines, and so on. I will definitely take the oft-mentioned advice to connect with the media resource person. Lucky that I will have one where I'm headed. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they have all kinds of under-utilized devices that I can make use of.
Otherwise, thank God for A/C. I melt in this humidity and heat. I am very excited about getting into the classrooms in less than a month!
Rest up, folks.
--Joe
What, Joe, Anderson and Krathwohl not a "real live book"?! I won't tell Charlie you said that. ;-) Glad you are getting a chance to read some good literature. I've been reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. She's an incredibly economical writer, I've come to realize. I've also been tackling all the deferred maintenance around my farm: ugh!
ReplyDeleteI, too, thought that our ending session was very strong and encouraging. You are clearly doing what we are supposed to be doing, that is trying to zoom in on how people are using tech in education, as reflected in their edublogs. I think I have gotten a little side-tracked at times with looking for edublogs in my content area. I did find one that focused on both tech and Latin/Greek/Classics, as well as some general classics edublogs and education edublogs. I think I will now find one that is more focused on tech itself.
Enjoyed your post. Stay cool!
The weather is cooling down, Joe! Just in time for the new school year.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I hope it wasn't too hot at the cottage to enjoy Faulkner. Maybe one appreciates that book more while sitting on the front porch, sipping a cold drink.
Hugs.
Wow, Joe, it sounds like you're really getting the most out of your time off. And even in your free time, you seem to be paying attention to what's going on in the world of education. This will definitely benefit you more than playing The Sims 2 will for me...
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize how powerful of a link our last class made to our upcoming experience in the classrooms until you mentioned it. All this summer we learned about teaching concepts and played around with technology, and very soon, we're going to be able to apply that knowledge. That's one thing I really enjoy about this program: I know that everything we're learning is going to be useful to us in our future careers.
I am very excited for the fall! See you soon, and good luck with the papers!
-Stephanie