Why I am Against this Ipad buying rage in schools

Ask any of my friends, I am always the first one to try and adapt new technology and have it being used in my everyday life. I love messing around with new technology. Personally I would spend all day everyday just playing around with new technology if I could. But when it comes to the classroom, I am wondering why all of these schools are spending SO MUCH MONEY on new technologies.

Some of the new technologies I agree with; projectors, computers, microphone and speaker systems. I like all three of these and feel every one of these should be in every classroom. Projectors allow for a lot of digital content to be displayed to students, you can’t go wrong with this. Computers are the same; they allow digital content to be seen. Microphones and speakers allow for the teacher to be heard equally throughout the room. I am for any technology that is like these three, technology that aids student learning.

But I see A LOT of problems with all of these schools adapting tablet, all of this school specific software, and all this other technology that is limited to school use. Would I like to have Ipads in my room? Of course, on one condition, the students are allowed to take them home. It is great to be able to teach and use new technology through computers and tablets. But what happens when students go home at night and do not have the technology to continue their learning and that is the only way that they know how to work with the problems. It will create more trouble than it is worth.

This is the reason why I love the interactive geometry software Geogebra instead of the program Geometers sketch pad. Geogebra is a free java based program that anyone in the world can access as long as they have a computer (you can download the program and install it if you don’t have internet). I try to incorporate geogebra as much as I can in my lessons and let students work with the program as well. If they learn how to use the program, then they can use it on their own at home. I would also not be against the students using this on an assessment. 

I feel this same way with interactive whiteboards, what is the point to them? The teacher still has to have their back to the room. People use the excuse of “but you can save your work!” I ask them; can’t a digital camera do the same thing? Take a picture of the regular whiteboard and upload it to a class website (another great tech). Same thing with Ipads, buy each kid a $30 camera (or use their camera capable cell phone) and take a picture of an individual whiteboard! Way cheaper and just as effective!

 I have found an awesome device called a starboard which is basically a monitor with a wacom tablet built in. This allows the teacher to actually face the class all the time and still have all the benefits of the interactive whiteboards. This I agree with because it does eliminate the classroom issues of having the teacher’s back to the room.

I am also a fan of social networking; twitter, facebook, etc, being used in classrooms. Students can ask questions to their teacher and others and get responses when they are at home or away. They can also be used for note taking/questions in class as demonstrated by a couple GVSU professors here. Using technology in this way is how it benefits students, not allowing them to work with technology then be without it when it matters.

I am a strong believer that if I am going to introduce a new technology into the classroom for learning purposes, that technology needs to be available to all of my students when they are at home. If this is not the case, then I do not want the technology, simple as that.

I am against schools purchasing Ipads unless they purchase one per student and that student is allowed to take it home every night. But this would cause a huge upkeep cost to the school/parents that, for the most part, cannot afford in these times. Until all of this new technology that is trying to be introduced to students is accessible to the students no matter the time, it should stay out of the classroom.

Let me know your thoughts on this topic? Do you feel schools should be buying into the Ipad rage or do you think they should wait? I am really interested in others opinions on this topic!

Another reflection on my student teaching year

Over the course of the last four months, I have seen great improvement in many aspects of my teaching. My confidence has improved greatly while standing in front of a room. I have seen great strides in my preparation and instruction. My classroom management is allowing for open and engaging lessons to take place and I have learned to reflect even more on a daily and overall basis.

When I first started teaching I would spend hours each day planning for all of my preps. This was because I was not sure how students were going to respond to the different ways that I thought about teaching the material. Throughout this semester the time that I have spent on planning has greatly decreased, but the effectiveness of this time has increased tenfold. I know how students learn and have activities that I have created previously and can modify for the new material. This has been a great part of teaching to improve on because it allows me to complete other tasks that are required from teaching besides planning and preparation.

Another area that I have seen improvements on throughout the year is my instruction. With the less time spent on planning, I have been able to research different effective instruction models and adapt these to the ways that I like to teach. I am also more confident in front of the room which also increases the effectiveness of the instruction. I still need improvement on my instruction, but as preparation time continues to decrease, more strides will be made with instruction.

Classroom management is one area that I still struggle with. I have improved from my first time in front of a classroom sounding like a scared, lost child, but I still need improvement. I now have more confidence with my classroom management and I will put up with fewer distractions, but I am still afraid of confrontation with students. I am trying to be their friend instead of their teacher. Being their friend isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it does help to create an open and trusting classroom. But they need to know that I am their teacher and they need to respect that. Once I improve on this, I see my classroom management as well as my instruction effectiveness improving greatly.

The last area that I have seen improvements on over the course of the year is my ability to consciously reflect on what is happening each day as well as overall. This is by far one of the most important aspects of teaching. Reflection is the one of the best ways to improve, and improve quickly as a teacher. I have become more involved with reflecting on twitter as well as more involved with using my blog to reflect. Through both of these I have also achieved great responses from educators around the world which helps with professional development.

Overall, this year has been a great year and has only helped me realize that teaching was the right choice for a career and if I keep improving and having professional development on my own, I will become an effective teacher in a few short years. I will continue to improve after those years; I will be spending only the time needed on preparation, my instruction will be effective and engaging, my classroom management will allow all students to learn undistracted, and I will continue to reflect upon each day and year to improve for the next time.

Help with contact form

So I need help with my contact form for my webpage. You can view the page at www.jacobdunklee.com

Here is the code for the www.jacobdunklee.com/Contact Me.html page  I highlighted the actual part that is the contact form.

</div>
<div id="Body" style="position: relative; width: 800px; height: 664px; z-index: 3; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; left: 0px; top: 0px;">
    <div id="Bleftcolumn" style="position: relative; width: 470px; height: 619px; z-index: 1; float: left; left: 0px; top: 0px;" class="style2">
        &nbsp;<div id="ContactForm" class="style1" style="position: relative; width: 450px; z-index: 1; margin-left: 15px; height: 584px; top: 0px">
            <form method= "post" action="mailer.php">
                  <input type="hidden" name="required" value="YourName, YourEmail, Subject, Message"/>
              <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Your Name:*</span><br />
            <input name="YourName" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Your Email:*</span><br />
            &nbsp;<input name="YourEmail" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Phone Number:</span><br />
            <input name="PhoneNumber" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Subject:*</span><br />
            <input name="Subject" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Message:*</span><br />
            &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
            <textarea name="Message" style="width: 405px; height: 200px"></textarea></p>
            <p class="style2"><input name="Reset1" type="reset" value="reset" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
            <input name="Submit" type="submit" value="Send" /><input type="hidden" name="order" value="YourName,YourEmail,PhoneNumber,Subject,Message" /></p>
            <p class="style4">Fields marked with an (*) are required.</p>
        </form>
        </div>
  


I then have a separate page for my mailer.php file which has the code of:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" />
<title>Untitled 1</title>
</head>

<body>

</body>

</html>
<?php
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {

$myemail = "Jacob.Dunklee@JacobDunklee.com";
$YourName = $_POST['YourName'];
$YourEmail = $_POST['YourEmail'];
$PhoneNumber = $_POST['PhoneNumber'];
$Message = $_POST['Message'];
$headers = "From:Contact Form <$myemail>\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: $name <$YourEmail>\r\n";

echo "www.JacobDunklee.com/FormCompletion";
mail($myemail, $YourName, $YourEmail, $PhoneNumber, $Message, $headers);

} else {

echo "www.JacobDunklee.com/Form Error.html";

}
?>

Please help because this is not working right. I want it to be redirected to those two pages once complete, but every time I hit submit on the page it just comes up with www.JacobDunklee.com/Form Error.html
I have no clue what I did wrong, it should work because it was copied directly from a working contact form the only difference is the host. The working one is through a paid site at ipage and this one is free through awardspace. But both support .php files and mailers..

Got this working with the following code:

contact form part
<div id="Body" style="position: relative; width: 800px; height: 664px; z-index: 3; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; left: 0px; top: 0px;">
    <div id="Bleftcolumn" style="position: relative; width: 470px; height: 619px; z-index: 1; float: left; left: 0px; top: 0px;" class="style2">
        &nbsp;<div id="ContactForm" class="style1" style="position: relative; width: 450px; z-index: 1; margin-left: 15px; height: 584px; top: 0px">
            <form method= "post" action="mailer1.php">
                  <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Your Name:*</span><br />
            <input name="YourName" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Your Email:*</span><br />
            &nbsp;<input name="YourEmail" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Phone Number:</span><br />
            <input name="PhoneNumber" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Subject:*</span><br />
            <input name="Subject" type="text" /></p>
            <p class="contactform"><span class="style4">Message:*</span><br />
            &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
            <textarea name="Message" style="width: 405px; height: 200px"></textarea></p>
            <p class="style2"><input name="Reset1" type="reset" value="reset" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
            <input name="Submit" type="submit" value="Send" /></p>
            <p class="style4">Fields marked with an (*) are required.</p>
        </form>


and mailer.php part

<?php

$myemail = "contact@jacobdunklee.com";
$YourName = $_POST['YourName'];
$YourEmail = $_POST['YourEmail'];
$PhoneNumber = $_POST['PhoneNumber'];
$Subject = $_POST['Subject'];
$Message = $_POST['Message'];
$headers .= "Reply-To: $YourEmail\r\n";

// validation
$validationOK=true;
if (Trim($YourEmail)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($YourName)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Subject)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (Trim($Message)=="") $validationOK=false;
if (!$validationOK) {
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=FormError.html\">";
  exit;
}

// prepare email body text
$PhoneNumberOK=true;
$Body = "";
$Body .= "Name: ";
$Body .= $YourName;
$Body .= "\n";
if (Trim($PhoneNumber)=="") $PhoneNumberOK=false;
if ($PhoneNumberOK) {
$Body .= "Phone: ";
$Body .= $PhoneNumber;
$Body .= "\n";
}
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= "Message: ";
$Body .= "\n";
$Body .= $Message;
$Body .= "\n";

// send email
$success = mail($myemail, $Subject, $Body, $headers);

// redirect to success page
if ($success){
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=FormCompletion.html\">";
}
else{
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=FormError.html\">";
}

?>

Reflection On My Student Teaching Year

Well, the year is pretty much wrapped up for me. I am in my placement until next Tuesday the 19th but have already gave control of the class back to my coordinating teacher (C.T.). Now I feel that I need to use this blog for what it was meant to be used for, reflecting back on what I have accomplished throughout the year.

Looking back over all of my posts from this new blog spot and my old one at edu blogs, I have came to realize how much I have grown not only as an educator, but also as a person. I remember when I took over my first class and when my first discipline problem arose, I sounded like a scared little girl (that is what my fellow TA told me on the way home). Now when a discipline problem arises, I handle it much more effectively. I am not saying I am perfect at it, but I am not scared to discipline a student these days for distracting others in their learning.

I have also grown into my own teacher now. When I first started I had all kinds of questions for my C.T. How do I teach this? How do I do that? How much time should I spend on this? You know, the usual questions when you are first sent out to teach your very first lesson. Now as I am sitting here looking at how many lessons I have planned over the past few months without even thinking about time and how to go about teaching it, it astounds me. I still have questions that my C.T. was thankfully able to answer, but these questions have matured to I wanna do something along these lines, but not quite sure how to do it. Such as planning an activity, I know that I wanted to do some type of review activity but wanted different options for this activity. I don't want to be stuck doing the same thing over and over and having it become just another task to students.

There are many other improvements that I have seen in myself, a lot to do with the confidence that I now have standing in front of a classroom full of students wanting to learn from me. But I would not be anywhere if it was for two very influential people in my teaching career Dr. David Coffey (twitter @delta_dc) and Dr. John Golden (Twitter @mathhombre). I had the luxury of having these two educators as professors during my teaching assistant semester. When either one of these professors would come and observe my teaching, they would take finely detailed notes on what happened during the lesson and afterwards when we were discussing the lesson, we could look back and see exactly what was asked and how I responded. This was by far the most beneficial observations I have ever had and probably will ever have. I am hoping to find a job placement near Grand Rapids in order to continue to have these two come and observe my classroom to make me a better educator.

I especially have to thank Dr. Golden, as he was the one that initially had all of us teacher assistants start blogging and start using twitter to reflect on what has been happening in our daily teachings (using twitter) and reflecting on the overall week (through blogging). I was very against the twitter aspect when I first started using it in August. Now I love it and wish I had more time to join #mathchat and #edchat and other talks that take place on twitter. I would not be nearly as capable as a teacher without the help that I have received from many other educators around the world supplying me with their knowledge of what an effective teacher looks like and lessons that they, themselves, have used. When my students were struggling to understand a certain topic, I was able to get help from twitter on possible solutions. When I am stuck in the design of a lesson, twitter is there again to help me out. If you are an educator and not taking advantage of twitter, then you are never going to reach your maximum ability. Just one post a day reflecting back on the day allows you to look over how your year has gone. It also allows for a nice reflection on what not to do the following year.

Blogging has done much the same as twitter for reflection purposes. In blogs I was able to achieve a more detailed version of my tweets with how my year was going. I may have not got as many responses/comments to my blogs as I would have liked or wanted, but it was a way for me to look back over and see how I have progressed. It also allows me to remember certain times that otherwise would have been forgotten by now. I can not thank Dr. Golden enough for his influence in twitter and blogging.

So now that I am basically done and ready to graduate on the 30th, I wonder where life will take me. I am not scared because I know that where ever I end up, I still have the power of twitter and blogs to help me become an effective educator!