Contact with a Teacher outside my state

I was able to contact my Advisor from a school i attended when i lived in Naperville IL. The school was Kennedy Junior High School. She was able to help me and tell me about the technology they are using in the school now. I was most fascinated by the ID cards that the students are issued. They can load their lunch money to it and parents are able to check and see what the students are buying for lunch. The school also uses many other forms of Technology in the classrooms. They use Blackboard for homework that can be electronically submitted through the Internet. They have Smartboard systems that allow the teachers to hook up their computers to it and what ever the teacher is looking at it is then projected on the screen for the students. They have a few computer labs that are set up for class group projects. Each teacher has a laptop to record the grades and plan presentations. This year their laptops are in process of being replaced with Lifebooks that are written on with the stylist pens. They also use a system called iparent, this allows the parents, teachers and students to be updated on grades continuously. They have a phone system that is hooked up so that if the advisor receives a message on her answering machine at work her computer will play it to her at home. Their website is set up very well and very informative!
Overall I think they have a wide variety of Technology available to them in the school. Some for the students to better their education and some for the teachers to better their communications. It is well balanced.
I would like to thank Mrs. Linda Cusack for all the information and taking the time to answer all my questions. I still miss all of you!!!

Judy Chandler Math with Technology

I listened to the podast today by Judy Chandler on Math and Technolgy.
Judy says that Math teacher's students now enter the classroom with so much technology around them. We should be able to incorporate that technology into the mathematics in the classroom. She says that students often just memorize the problems to get by or they fall behind because we just go over the lessons in the book and move on and some fall behind. She says teachers need to ask questions to engage student and give student tools to use their learning. They need to be able to reinforce what they learn with technology. Students do better when they can explore, model, reflect, connect ideas, play what if, and apply what they learn. Challenge the students to think harder. Questions make the mind have to think harder.

Mrs. Chandler does a great job with giving some ideas for teachers to engage students. As a future teacher I need to remember to ask more questions and make the students think for themselves. They are more likely to remember the answer to the question if they have to come up with the answer themselves. Teachers need to use Technology to engage and reinforce what the students are learning.

Carol Dweck and Fixed vs Growth Mindsets

Is intelligence something we can develop? Or is it something we are born with? Well that is growth verses the fixed! A study was set up and they taught the kids in two different ways. They showed the kids in these workshops that babies have learn things and that they make new connections. They taught them to admit mistakes and over come them. That is how we grow, we grow from these mistakes that we make in life. Carol did a great study betweeen these two groups and teachers of these students could distinguish which children had been to the growth mindset workshops and which students had been to the fixed midset workshops.
It comes down to how we teach our children. There are no limits on learning! We stop were we want to stop. Encouraging children to do more and learn more really does work. If they believe in themselves and those around them then it is not so hard to believe that the child really can do better!