Other blogs!

I commented on a couple other blogs, and I really enjoyed it! I think if this were a more active thing amongst teachers, we could all bounce some really great ideas off each other, and even critique or help one another out when necessary! A blog is a great way to instantly receive some feedback from other friends, co-workers, or colleagues who can simply just comment on your entries and give you some food for thought. I used to blog with my friends a lot, comment back and forth on each others' entries, etc, and it was always so nice to receive feedback for the things I wrote about. Not only is it fun, but hearing from others only helps you improve, especially in the world of teaching!

Portfolios as Valid Assessment Tools

I think portfolios are fairly valid assessment tools, but should not be the only assessment tool used. I see it as more of a preliminary stage, like a resume is used as a preliminary for an interview. Still, I think it's also possible for a wonderful teacher to have a portfolio that is somewhat lacking. Sometimes people aren't good at putting their ideas on paper in a way that sounds professional, and I think that's a big part of a portfolio. Also, sometimes an advantage for a portfolio could be your familiarity with technology, which would make yours appear better, when it reality it is not. So yes, I do believe it can be a valid assessment tool, but I also believe that it's very possible for good teachers to have bad portfolios, though I would say that is probably a rare situation.

I am kind of a 21st Century Teacher?

Since I guess I am technically part of the "younger generation," I do think I utilize a bit more technology than some older teachers would possibly use, but at the same time I do not claim to be tech-savvy with all the newest technology available for teachers, nor do I think I would try and use much of what we have available to us. For example, I hate the idea of e-books. Even though it might be a pain to drag school books from one place to another, I feel that the concrete presence of a book is so much better than a mere screen. In many ways, I would even argue that regular textbooks are actually MORE convenient than e-books. It is very easy to navigate through a textbook, flip through pages, feel them, and see the content on a bigger area of space than you would see if you were merely looking at a computer screen. On the screen there are so many technicalities that I just feel are so unnecessary, such as zooming in/out to see everything more clearly. Plus, in an actual textbook it is much easier for the students to annotate, highlight, mark it up however they want. Though this is possible in an e-book, I just feel that it's much more time consuming and once again, unnecessary.

I also just can't see myself going crazy with the technology. There's been a lot of discussion about bringing iPads into schools, and I just think that's ridiculous and such a waste of money! I didn't have an iPad for my 12 years of grade school, and I still got an excellent education. Sometimes I think people go way overboard with the technology, simply because they think it will assist in a lesson but in reality, it could take away from the lesson. In my opinion, an abuse of technology only distances the student from the teacher, which results in neither benefiting. The student will not learn, and the teacher will not accomplish his/her task. Because of this, I don't have any desire to be a crazy techy teacher, and find a lot of the most recent phenomenons unnecessary and just another obstacle to overcome.

However, I do think certain things are very helpful, such as Powerpoint or Prezi for the younger student audiences we'll be teaching. Though I'm not a teacher yet, I could see myself using Prezi in order to help keep my kids engaged and interested in what they're watching/learning about. Then there's also many sites on the web that could assist teachers in lessons, with Youtube being a major one. The educational channel could be very helpful and I think there are many videos that could useful during a lesson.

I also like the idea of Google Docs, which allows the students to edit files themselves etc. As an English teacher, this could be good for proofreading others' papers or maybe for them to see/download files I post myself, it's easy and accessible to students which I find appealing.