story map

This project is going to be about students learning how to take something from their life experiences and use it as the core for a piece of fiction. Staying with the general idea that you should write what you know. It will be okay,in fact necessary to add fiction to this core of fact. One of the biggest problems all writers and especially novice writers have with short fiction is keeping the story line focused. Since this is a piece of short fiction it is critical for writers to keep focused on the main story details. The story map will work to help develop plot and keep writers focused on a central idea. My story map takes an actual experience I had, and then quickly expands into fiction. This story map will be used an example for students on how to do this, as well as showing students some basic elements of short fiction.

Philosophy of Education Movie Maker and Me

I would have to agree that the movie maker is a bit clunky. I would think that having another channel to record would be a simple thing, and it probably is a simple thing, they just want you to buy it, and I guess that’s fair enough. So I ended up buying a twelve dollar microphone for my laptop and I played my i tunes on my computer, and then held the mic up to the speakers for a few seconds and then pulled it away and started talking, then when I was finished talking I put the mic back by the speakers again to finish.I did this so I could have music in the back ground while I was talking. This all sounds pretty simple, but it took a lot of tries to get it even close to right. And then when I finally got one that was at least okay, I listened to it, and noticed that I read my philosophy wrong. The vocals are a little soft too, but no matter what I did I kept getting those popping "P's", so I had to keep the vocals down, probably should have spent more on a microphone, the one I borrowed from Sitka High was even worse than the one I bought.
I published it anyway because I figured at this point in time everybody’s eyes glaze over and their minds go in a fog when they hear the words, “philosophy of education". But actually I had a lot of fun doing this,but I think it would have been more fun on a Mac.
So if you want to take look it's on teacher tube.

TOOLS FOR THE MIND

Tools for the Mind

There is a lot of validity to what the author of this article is saying. For example the idea that most of the computer use by students is limited to research based projects. There is definitely an abundance of going to the computer lab, and just finding some information on something, and using Word to write about it. And then, of course, there is plenty cutting and pasting going on too. I’m coming from a language arts base so there will always be more research type computer use in language arts.
The author is right on about this lower level thinking process that is going on with computer use, and I think she is right in saying that we need to move beyond that to developing some high order processes with computer use. But there are some big steps to take to get there.

Reference Points:
• It’s true that most computer use in schools requires only lower order thinking.
• Higher level activities for computer use will take much more time and energy than the lower order activities.
• Critics should start offering solutions instead of just pointing to our panoply of problems.


I think this article would have greater impact if the author would give us more of the “how to,” instead of “where to.” She has astutely recognized the problem, but it would be nice to see some more details on how to get where we need to be. The really tough part is mentioned, but somewhat brushed aside. The author mentions that the higher order tools are not as user friendly, and they are time intensive to use and to learn, and this is a major factor contributing to the stuck in the muck of the lower order thinking levels with computers. In the end, I have to completely agree that it’s time for more analytic skills to be brought into the computer room. I guess I just didn’t want somebody to remind me that there is even more work to do.

Power Point Presentation on Energy
Self Critique

One of the first things I noticed while watching my video was that I managed to break the Cardinal Rule of talking in front of a group, and that was chewing gum, yuk, at least the video is a little bit dark so you can’t see it too much, because it is a little embarrassing. Also I think it would have been nice to have some kind of a pointer instead of using the video remote as a pointer. Also I need to work on voice projection, maybe if I didn’t have that big wad of gum in my mouth I would have sounded better.

Another big thing is that I was not as prepared as I should have been to actually give a presentation. I knew the material, but when you get up to do a presentation just knowing the material isn’t good enough, at least not for me, I know I’m not any good at “winging it”. I thought I could follow along with the PowerPoint and it would all go smoothly. It did go all right, but it wasn’t good. It actually makes interesting material boring if all you do is follow along with the presentation without making those interesting interjections that you should be doing as a presenter.

Valuable Lessons Learned:

• Don’t speak dumb – get rid of the gum (I just now made that up, I kind of like it)

• Follow the Boy Scout motto: Always be prepared

Click here to see this PowerPoint presentation on Teacher Tube.

I have been living in Sitka for four months now and I pretty much drive everywhere. I sprinkle in an occasional walk, if you know Sitka you know what I mean by sprinkle. All of this driving makes me feel a little guilty,because this is a bicycle and pedestrian friendly community.
The price of gas is not the main motivation for changing my driving habits,there are several factors in play here:

*the idea that Americans need to start thinking about change,and it starts with each individual.

*The general world situation is crazy right now and it is all because of oil greed and need

So I decided to see what the numbers would look like if I made a small change in my driving habits.Not only to see how much money I would save but,how much less gas I would consume, and then run some numbers to see if a lot of people made this small change, how much overall gas would be saved, and then see what that would mean for overall oil consumption.You can see the rest of the basic premise at this link

To see the Excel spreadsheet with all the numbers on this project click here.

Read/Write Web Article

If you are looking at this site you probably know about something about blogging. Even though my spell check doesn’t seem to recognize the word, most people have at least heard the word. But what are the implications of writing on the web for education? The simple answer is that teachers can use writing on the web to motivate students to do a little writing and maybe, since the whole world can potentially look at what they are saying, students might also do some thinking about what they are writing. I like what they are doing at Hunterdon High School where the students collaborate online with authors of the books that they are reading. And then there is the communal wiki process that is really pretty neat, and very successful in terms of self regulation, because everybody can edit text on the site.
This Educators Guide to the Read Write Web is a well thought out article. I say this because the author takes a serious look at the crucial idea of students learning how to question, differentiate, and evaluate published information. In some ways it is similar to people learning to figure out what is true in the news, or what is real on TV and what is make believe.

Reference Points and Concerns:

• How do we rethink the concept of literacy?
• Are writing styles like text messaging going to become a literate language?
• How does the role of the teacher change as technology like web writing becomes more prevalent?
• With technology does the teacher become more of a guide or monitor?
• Finally, is student online anonymity a concern?

The point is that now students have a new sounding board. I say let them have at it and see what they can do. Teachers have to think about the future and where this is all headed. If you think there isn’t going to be big changes from the “paper to teacher, to grade concept,” then I think you’re filling your tank with the wrong fuel. It’s time to look for alternative sources of energy.

Energy Project

1. How much fuel would I save if I ride my bicycle to Sitka High School for just three days a week? I’m using three days a week because for me this is a reasonable proposition.

2. I Googled “energy consumption,” and I got 9,050,000 results, has anybody else noticed this, and what does it mean. I clicked on the fifth entry down and looked at energy consumption for the US for the year 1997. One of the many available statistics was oil consumption for one day in the US, not the world. It was 18.92 million barrels per day. This is a stunning figure that should get you asking questions, like, where does all that oil come from? It should make a person consider how the world situation got to be the way it is. Some of these considerations would include greenhouse gasses, global warming, and various military invasions of oil producing countries, and while we are at it, we might as well throw Dick Cheney into the mix.

After I wrote this paragraph, I had to go back and double check that figure, because I just couldn't believe it, and sure enough that’s what it says.

3. Data needed will be the number of miles from home to Sitka High. Data for miles per gallon that my vehicle gets for this kind of driving will be needed.

4. The method for computing miles to Sitka High will be odometer readings. Several will be taken to insure accuracy. Miles per gallon fuel consumption will be done by filling the gas tank and writing down mileage taken from the odometer. Then I will drive a certain amount of miles, all of this driving will be the same driving style as the drive to Sitka High, basic short distance and stop and go. Then I will re-fill the gas tank writing down the total gallons put in the tank, this figure is the amount of gas consumed for this period. I will at the same time as filling the gas tank write down the new mileage on the odometer. This will give me total miles driven and amount of fuel used during this mileage period.This basic procedure will be repeated multiple times.