Educator, Learner - Latest Comments

Re: Why I Quit Teaching

Zach C. — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 23:41:26 -0000

Excellent points. I understand Todd's point of view but at the same time if a profession is detracting from a person's health, negatively affecting their family or relationships, or devouring a high percentage of "free time" then it's worth giving a hard look at whether it's worth it. There have certainly been times in my (admittedly short) career where I've stepped back and thought, "man I don't know if I can handle this stress, workload, frustration, etc. for thirty years." Thanks for your honesty and I hope your new position is working out better.

Re: Why I Quit Teaching

Jason — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 15:12:57 -0000

I taught in a similarly dysfunctional school for six years, and I feel like I understand how you felt. At the end of each year I would clean out the classroom, hoping that one of my applications to, basically, anywhere else would get picked up. I put so much pressure on myself to not quit and run away like so many of my colleagues did--our one science position was filled with 12 people during my first five years. So every August I would be back in to get ready for another year. Except the last summer. I was too burned out to even get anything ready.

Thankfully, I found a job at a district with exactly the opposite culture. People here care about each other and the students and work together to grow and get better at providing the services that we provide. Recently, a therapist asked me when was a time in my life that was very difficult. I couldn't think of one, because I've loved my job for the last four years, and completely blocked access to the emotions of working at the old place. My wife answered for me--she said, "When you worked at the dysfunctional school. I felt like I lost you for those years."

I love teaching and I love teachers, and I lament the lack of access to good teachers that characterizes most students' lives. But I, for one, celebrate anyone who gets out of such terrible circumstances. Congratulations! I'm sure you had an impact on the students you taught, and I'm sure you'll have an impact with what you're doing now.

Re: How to: Record Google Hangout in High Quality

Sarah — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 00:04:43 -0000

I'm being unable to download LadioCast, as it seems to not be available in the Mac App Store. Do you know anything about this? Or have a recommendation for alternative software?

Re: Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We Should

Nancy Jenkins — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 12:30:22 -0000

I agree with you, the reasoning of just because you can, does not necessarily mean you should. Hindsight is 20/20 though. Although sometimes it is nice to have student's lesson plans online, with the idea that they will actually do it, it is sometimes better to have that one on one contact with student and teacher instead of everything going through technology.

Re: Find Your Seats

Cheryl Morris — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 12:57:33 -0000

I made a new seating chart yesterday, and it sometimes frustrates me how much it helps. I want students to have that freedom as well - but you're right. Starting with structure and then gradually releasing responsibility is the only way.

Our boot camp model has the same idea, actually. We spent six weeks teaching students the basics of what is required in our classroom and there is a LOT more structure than either Andrew or I want. It's stifling at times. But it works. And when we don't do it, everyone suffers.

Re: Find Your Seats

Shai McGowan — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 21:56:40 -0000

I am now starting to see that one thing I have to do to get unstuck in my flipped mastery class is to set guidelines as to when a student needs to start moving forward on certain topics. Possibly tell that they need to try to master 2 concepts a week, or whatever I feel is doable for that student. Every student may have different parameters but every student should have some parameter to work towards.

Re: Find Your Seats

KenB — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:31:01 -0000

I too have found that my students (undergraduates) need boundaries as well. This is especially true for me coming from a Canadian background into a Mexican culture that has so many differences about simple concepts like what "on time" means. Last January when I went all crazy with a "no deadlines" during the semester for assignments was a great experiment which I am still tweaking but

I got some feedback from students asking for some deadlines because they needed them saying "I am not responsible enough to handle that". #wow

Re: Teacher

Brian Metcalfe — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:11:50 -0000

Hi Brian ... I chanced upon your post as Ben Rimes tweeted that you were back in the classroom. As a retired teacher, who spent 12 years in the classroom (Grades 7-12) and 28 years as a Educational Technology Consultant, I understand how you might feel that your job defines who you are. I have now been retired for seven years and miss the daily interaction with students and teachers. Each month, I create a "Teacher Feature" blog post and my most recent post at: http://life-long-learners.c... may help you, as you shift your focus between job opportunities. I have found that my role as "candle" has shifted to one of being a "mirror" yet I still pride myself on sharing the "light". Furthermore, knowing that you are an avid #DS106 participant, tells me that you are a powerful role model to both students and adults as you are continually striving to learn. I think, like Alan Levine, that you are a success in all you attempt and that it is not the vocation that defines you but the attitude with which you move forward.

All the best in the New Year! Your students are very lucky to have you as a role model and coach.

Take care & keep smiling :-) Brian

Re: Teacher

Brian Metcalfe — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:03:05 -0000

All the best in the New Year! Your students are very lucky to have you as a role model and coach.

Take care & keep smiling :-) Brian

Re: Look Up! It’s a Space Comet!

Stephen Rahn — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 16:53:19 -0000

I think this is a great thing to put on a blog about education and technology. Today's cameras and scopes are so much more powerful and accessible to more of our students than in the past. I do a good bit of astronomy outreach in my area, and the kids all enjoy seeing what's up there.

Re: Teacher

Alan Levine — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 11:01:50 -0000

I'm sorry to hear you've been let go. I protest by vowing to never use Camtasia (actually I never have, useless gesture).

This also does not help, but I learned from the leader in a men's group I was in once that, most men identify themselves by their job. That's their reference point when meeting other people. I've only known you through twitter and ds106, and can't say I identify who you are by a job title. It's the stuff I've seen you do, and ideas. Heck, with that podcast you did, I'd think of you more as an audio storyteller.

Bill's advice would be similar to what I would say. You can be a teacher w/o working in a classroom full of students. I'm pretty sure I have been teaching since 1993 and have been a classroom teacher for maybe 5% of that time.

I admire the devotion to be a teacher you described in the first post. It means so much to have that internal drift and I empathize with the lost rudderless feeling. Take some time to find a new rudder.

But in no way are you defined nor identified by a job title. At least to me.

Re: Book Giveaway – Thanksgiving Edition

Antonio J. Calvillo — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 05:06:08 -0000

Estoy a tiempo? Gracias por compartir!!

Re: Book Giveaway – Thanksgiving Edition

Michele Koehler — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:20:00 -0000

Would love to win this book. I saw Jon & Aaron a few years ago when FlipCon was in Chicago and been doing a modified flip ever since.

Re: Book Giveaway – Thanksgiving Edition

Tina Cason — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 19:07:53 -0000

I saw Jon Bergmann in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago at the GAETC. Conference. I would love to have his book!

Re: Book Giveaway – Thanksgiving Edition

Voon Yeun Ting — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 20:25:41 -0000

Feel excited to have a chance to get a book about flipped learning . The educators who try to use flipped learning can benefitted from this book.

Re: Book Giveaway – Thanksgiving Edition

Matthew Eisley — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 13:36:16 -0000

Really enjoyed the first book, got me thinking more about mastery learning in my flipped classes. Anxious to get my hands on the second book; fingers crossed!

Re: New Adventures

Brian Bennett — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 08:27:47 -0000

Anything to do with Flipped Learning or teaching strategies incorporating technology. I've started pulling in more research as well. I've got some recent sessions on GitHub, one about humanizing online education and reducing cognitive load with videos. Mostly, I want to help teachers use tech better.

Re: New Adventures

James K — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:52:18 -0000

Sorry to hear about this! What sort of PD do you have experience with?

Re: The New Education Economy of “Free”

Jedidiah Butler — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 14:30:33 -0000

Well said. Differentiating between services, products, and ideas really hits home for me. I'm a freebie kind of person, but it isn't sustainable as you mentioned. Thank you for making me think about this.

Re: A Few Feet

Kati Molnar — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 14:14:36 -0000

I am enjoying reading your blog. It is diverse in subject matter and engaging. I recently encountered a question from a student that does well to illustrate your point. The student was commenting on how difficult the assigned reading had been for him and wondered if I had felt it difficult as well. I said it had but time to time in my scholarly endeavors I had encountered those difficult readings and felt it helped stretch my knowledge. I suggested I had been able to overcome the challenge as I had been taught how to glean the important information from a research article. I then realized I had not done a good job of providing that scaffold for my own students. I therefore took the time to explain the general structure of research articles and how to identify the important components. As you say it's nice to be able to look around once in awhile and it can be most beneficial if you've been given enough scaffolding to make sense of what you are looking at. Understanding how important one's feet are was never more evident to me as when I went on a 3 day hike in boots one size to small. I persevered as I did not want to burden my fellow hikers with either carrying me out or calling in a helicopter and in the end I never felt more accomplished. I suppose in that case the scaffolding was my own pride.

Re: The New Education Economy of “Free”

Jacob Bear — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 01:17:46 -0000

It seems like teachers are always suffering a desperate shortage of time and money. Why shouldn't we actively encourage teachers to make money by selling content that will help others save time? By the way, thanks for pointing out that a "free" economy isn't sustainable. I'd never thought of it that way before, but fear you're right.

Re: Scratch is the Hardest Thing I’ve Done in a While

Timoh — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 15:58:02 -0000

Great article Brian!

Re: Abstraction

Kathryn Ortmann — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 21:29:00 -0000

Hello!

My name is Kathryn Ortmann and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am in a technology class that is working to further the use of technology in the classroom setting. I am quite interested in your post about abstraction. I, for one, have never given the concept much thought because I mainly see the term used in descriptions of papers I have written that result in less than desirable grades. However, I have never thought about how abstraction is focusing more on one thing in contrast to the others, which in turn shows how important or not important those others may be.

Have a great week,

Kathryn Ortmann

EDM310 Blog

Re: If You’re Not Going to Use Attribution, I’ll Just Do It For You

Brian Bennett — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 22:44:47 -0000

Ohhh...good call on the JS split...it would have probably been simpler in the long run. I know I can condense that regex into something more elegant...the problem I ran into quickly was that not all photo ID's are the same length. Most are 9 or 10, but I hit one in testing that was 11 characters long. I got worried that user ID would be the same, so I stayed away from the substr function for now.

Definitely more than one way to ride this beast. I'm planning on cleaning/refining/extending now.

Re: If You’re Not Going to Use Attribution, I’ll Just Do It For You

Alan Levine — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 22:39:18 -0000

Hey, glad to see you pounded it out. Who cares what the code looks like if you understand the logic and it works?

regex is black magic, eh? Some things I might have done to extract the URL is the substr function, since you know how many characters are on each end.

Also useful for parsing out that URL is the javascript split function- you can turn the URL into an array where the parts are marked by the "/", get the right array element, and maybe split again on the "_".

99,999,999 ways to do it, thanks for writing up.