Interactive Power Points

I am here to sing the praises of the interactive PowerPoint as an teaching tool. They give me the ability to create my own modules both for my advanced students and for reviewing taught material. While they take a while to create, they are forever and are well worth the time. If you would like to see one check my website gloverclassroom.com.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson Review

I recently read Free by Chris Anderson and I was impressed. Unlike Predictably Irrational, I felt like there was a lot of ideas that were transferable and I could apply to my own pursuits. Both were interesting reads and work the time I spent on them, but if you only read one book based off of my blog pick Free.

The first idea I found really interesting is the idea of giving as much as away as possible so long as it points back to your paid product. While I do not sell myself as a teacher beyond the paycheck I get from my school district and the little bit of tutoring I do on the side, my product is the educational experience I offer my 30 children (one was added at registration). The practical application of this is that the the more interest building and parent engaging efforts I make outside of the classroom the higher my interest inside the classroom will be. The higher my level of engagement both my students and their parents is the better educational experience my students will have and the better job i as a teach will have done. If I see my self as a vendor with a product to sell and my students as the customer of that product I will motivated to improve my "product" as well as the presentation of that product. I will be motivated to increase the quality of my teaching and the level of excitement the students have for it. I will also try to increase the accessibility of it. I need to see what happens in my room as supported by all of the things I do outside of my room like PTC's, my web page, Twitter account, and possibly a Facebook account, though I have not decided on that one yet.

The second idea presented in the book that I really benefited from is reminding me how the expectations of my students are changing and will be different from those that I grew up with. My students are used to having far more choices in terms how to spend their time and will function a world where it is important to not "know", but to know how to find out. Therefore it is my job to motivate them to be life long learners and to teach them how to accomplish this feat.

The technology I would like to use in my classroom this year

Twitter-- I will use Twitter to let parents know what homework their children have each day as well as class and school announcements

My website (gloverclassroom.com)--Same as the website except available to all and with more information. Also I will put chances for extended learning on the site.

Videos from the Discovery Channel, NOVA, NOAA, and howstuffworks.com

E-pen pals.

Why use tech? Not only does it make the material am teaching more interesting, but it gives them a chance to learn to use technology as well.

Why I work as hard as I do

One of the things my wife laughs at me about is how hard it is for me to just one thing at a time. When I was working at the Idaho Youth Ranch I was also going to school full time (as well as taking care of my boys). When I was student teaching I also got a job job doing P.S.R. I kept the P.S.R. while I taught summer school in 08, had my 4th grade class, and took master's classes this summer. This fall I will quit being a P.S.R., but I will have my class and be taking master's classes as well. There are may reasons for this. The first reason is that I am a high energy person so why not take advantage of it. Also important is that I know what I gave up. Graduating with a degree in finance I am sure that if I have stayed on track i would be making at least 3 times what I make now and probably more. Further with a wife and 6 (or 8 depending on how you count them) kids I have lot of responsibilities. The further I go and the faster I get ahead the better chance I have of not feeling like my family is missing out because I decided to do what I truly love and not what what was the most financially beneficial. I know I have a lot of talent as a teacher (I am not sure that I am the teacher I can be yet, but I am talking potential). However, I as a pretty darn good econ and finance student as well and the ghost of an unchosen future does haunt me a bit. In my mind the best way for me to make sure I made the right choice is to work harder than anyone else and become an exceptional educator and make a difference not only in my community beyond. Will I do it? I have no idea, but i feel like I have to try.

My class list!!!!!!!!

I didn't get a chance to write yesterday and today is another full day so I will write twice but they will both be opinions.

I got my class list today. This maybe silly, but for me it is like Christmas. I spend the whole summer guessing and anticipating. Its a truly silly level of glee to see the list. When I saw my list there were about 6 names I knew well and I have already started thinking about how what I have planned will impact them. Equally as exciting are the names I do not know. Its like when you are opening your presents on Christmas and you are halfway done. You see the unopened gifts and think "I wonder what is in those boxes?" Its the same way with me. I couldn't be more eager to meet those kids. The whole thing is pure glee. I am going to go into day and put the names up as well as on desks. I have all of this excitement about it so I might as well use it!

Behavioral Economics

As some of you may know 10 years ago I did not know I would be a teacher today. I was an economics major. While I have clearly decided to redirect my life that does not mean that I not that person any more. I still try to read widely in the field and recently I have become very interested in behavioral economics. Part of this is due to any interest in Dan Ariely specifically, but not entirely. I have heard him on shows like Marketplace and Talk of the Nation and even listened to a few of his lectures. Strangely enough what I had not done yet was read his book Predictably Irrational. I started to fix this oversight today. I am roughly 1/5 of the way through it so far and I am bit underwhelmed to this point. Its long on anecdotes and short on principals to this point. Rather than a competing theory to classical economics, it is instead so far anthology where it doesn't work. This does not make it worthless, but doesn't exactly give me knowledge and understanding to the rest of life. I know there are lessons in behavioral economics that I can apply to my classroom and to education in general, I just hope they are in the other 4/5ths of the book.

Thoughts on a single sex classrooms

I recently did a paper on single-sex classrooms. I have no dog in that fight I see the possible advantages. I think those who are pointing out the disadvantages over state some of their sexism issues, but make points about the results be mixed. What I did find interesting was that both sides were claiming how the classrooms effect girls. Those who are for single-sex classrooms point out that the increase in scores is more dramatic for girls than they are for boys. On the other hand, the groups putting the most energy to combat single-sex classrooms are organizations like American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the National Organization of Women (NOW). I am not sure what this means, but it is fascinating to see how differently they see the world.