Week 2: Oh, to be a student again.......

I often wonder why my seventh graders freak out as much as they do when they fail to complete an assignment on time. I like to think that I am an empathetic teacher, who understands where these kids are coming from. If they are normally responsible, I cut them slack. (If they come to me with a sob story every single time an assignment is due, I have less empathy.) But, there is definately a fine line. A huge part of teaching middle school is teaching responsibility........

I have felt overwhelmed this week due to issues that were beyond my control. I stayed home sick on Wednesday, and I thought I would get so much work done. Instead, I laid around all day, and accomplished absolutely nothing! Then, my laptop finally appeared on Wednesday, and I was so excited to have a working webcam. Well, except for the fact that it did not work. Well, I did not think it worked, because I could not connect to the internet from home.

So, I met a friend at a coffee shop on State Street this morning to work on the assignments for class this week. I figured that my laptop would work at Micheangelo's, even though it did not work at home. It did work, but skype was having its own issues. I could download it, and create an account, but I could not actually connect. So, it recognized that I had an account, but I could not talk to anyone!

I started to get stressed out. This is a new class, and the instructor doesn't know that I am not a slacker. And, he doesn't know that I am tech saavy enough to download skype. The only thing that he can see is that I have yet to skype with him. (Well, if he read my blog last week, he does know that I cannot connect my VCR......So, maybe he does think that I lack tech skills. I think my mother might even know how to set up a VCR!)

And, then I began to realize how my students can get so stressed out when something doesn't work out as they had planned. I understand why they visit my room before school nearly in tears because their computer did not work last night. And, I understand the fear in their faces when they forget their flashdrives at home. And, I understand the panic, when they forget the login and password for their wikispaces account. I have so many logins and passwords right now that my head is spinning.......

And, then I started to think about how much they could benefit from online storage. They could save all of their documents online, and never have to worry about having a flashdrive again. And, if they save their important bookmarks at a social networking site, like delicious, they will also always remember where they found their information.

After spending two hours on the phone with the people at Charter, I am finally connected from home. Which means that I have a lot of work to do........So, I better get started on that........... Thanks for reading..............

The First Week.......

I was chatting with a very close friend last night, and he made the comment that I am "really smart, except when it comes to computers." I was kind of taken aback. So, without saying anything aloud, I tried to quickly think about the specific thing he was referring to. Did he say it because I could not hook up a web cam to my aging desktop? (My bright shiny new laptop should be here in a week or so.) I downloaded the drivers from the Logitech website and everything!! Was it really my fault that I could not get my computer to recognize the web cam? I felt much better after he spent three hours trying to do the same thing, and he was also unsuccessful.

Or, was he referring to the fact that I could not connect my VCR to my television, now that I have a snazzy new converter box? I decided that I was watching too much TV, so I gave up television for Lent last year, and canceled my cable subscription at the same time. See, if I had DVR or TiVo, I could record television shows. But, I don't want cable, and I don't even want a new television. I watch so little TV, why would I spend money on a new one? My parents offered to buy me a large television for Christmas. My old television works just fine, mom and dad, and I don't want a new TV, which is why I have not gotten a new one.

So, back to Justin's comment about my being technologically challenged. Maybe I can't hook up a web cam to my current computer. And, I could not get my VCR to record one of the two shows a week that I like to watch. But, I use technology, I protested.

My seventh grade students all have del.icio.us accounts. And, they saved bookmarks to share with other students during our culture project. They wrote creative RAFT projects and posted them into wikispaces. I even got them to link their facts out into the web! So, if I could get 131 seventh graders to complete this project, then why couldn't I get my VCR to work?

Last year, I had a Google group set up for two of my classes. I uploaded information that they needed to answer specific questions, they answered the questions and then responded to others in class. We were discussing citizenship and immigration, specifically whether citizenship should be determined by your blood line, or by your place of birth. It was exciting for me to see students who were normally very reserved in class share many interesting ideas. And, because students are so attached to their computers, the students who struggled to get their written work in on time were some of the first ones done with the online work.

So, back to this masters program. I am excited that we are learning about social bookmarking, and I am trying to think of ways that I can extend the use of it with my seventh graders, both inside, and outside of the lengthy culture project. My eighth graders are going to be doing a literature circle this spring, and I was going to have them use Moodle to help aid them in their discussions, but after exploring Google Docs, I wonder if there are pieces that I can take from there to morph the project into something else. This will be my first year having a literature circle in class, so I think that I will investigate Moodle a little more before making my decision.

I am about to start working on the browser comparison assignment, which I am really looking forward to tackling. As a devout Firefox user, I take issue with my students who want to use Internet Explorer for everything! I don't know how to get around in Explorer as quickly as in Firefox, and when you have 25 other students waiting to ask questions, time is of the essence. It has gotten to the point where I tell my students that they have to use Firefox, and then I show them the basics to get them started. Perhaps the assignment will cause me to be a little more sympathetic to Explorer......

I have never blogged before, and I can be quite chatty in real life, so the idea of blogging for credit concerns me. Have I rambled too much already?