KKUATeach

Perhaps my biggest insight from this class is that technology and teaching has always been related and always will be. Whether it was the introduction of writing, printing, recording or the inter-web, new modes of communication always mean that teachers need to adapt. With this thought process, I realized ed-tech isn't limited to the Social Media world, but simply means teachers should use whatever they can to aid student learning. I chose to use Google Slides for my summary artifact for a couple reasons. This type of slide deck is a pretty common app to use to prepare for a class. Since I've always used PowerPoint in my previous career, I've been trying to get better at Slides so I can make my personal comparisons. Secondly, I wanted to explore how to embed the presentation in a blog. Looking forward, I plan to have some sort of home page for my classes. This will serve as a communication portal with the parents, but will also be a repository for teaching materials. If ...

SUMMARY Even though the last few posts came fast and furious, this has been a long journey for me.   Until I started thinking about how to summarize this project in terms of the class, I really didn’t think about how much tech is involved in anything. Let’s list different “tech” I used in this process. Laptop Mobile phone (including SMS) Many different WiFi’s NFHS learning management system US Lacrosse learning management system Twitter YouTube Microsoft OneDrive (cloud storage) Excel/Word Google Sheets Digital camcorder Portable projector Email Whiteboard Good old pencil and paper F2F (face to face) – the new-fangled way of saying talking to people Lacrosse game equipment Blogger After looking back and considering the different tools I used to help me be a better coach and hopefully make my kids be better players, I understand what the hell this assignment was all about. Teaching is about using whatever yo...

Film Study Wow, did I underestimate film study by a high school coach. There are two main areas I was not ready for at all. How Valuable It Is How Much Time It Takes Let’s discuss them in that order. I mentioned earlier that I was worried about making in game strategy adjustments. Since that is not my primary concern during the game, I do most of my strategy critiques after the game while watching film. Anytime I’ve watched lacrosse game films for the past 6 years I have only been worried about my sons. You look at things differently when you are looking at all the players than when you are only worrying about one or two (I know, the quote is a bit off. But it’s close. Give me a break!). After our fist scrimmage, I sat down with my laptop and a note book to compile notes to show the kids. Without making a big deal, I just went to the AV room off the locker room and started reviewing the films. Soon, players started coming in and I had them hooked. Being prepar...

For the sake of a narrative, I’m jumbling the time line a bit. This post will be more about my kids than me.  It’s funny – I naturally typed “my kids,” but I’m actually talking about the team. Last year we had a decent team. We finished in the middle of the pack, but due to a bunch of factors that will bore you, that was a pretty good result for the regular season. The team even earned a home playoff game that they won in OT. I’m tempted to say that my youngest son had a lot to do with the win because of a change in momentum that came with him creating a turnover, beating several players on a run down the field and scoring a goal that electrified the team and the crowd, but there’s no way I would brag on him so I won’t say it. The reward for that win was a trip to the #1 regional seed and a definitive butt-whooping, but the first game is what everybody remembers. This year, our team is disproportionately made up of underclassmen, but some of the older kids are causing a bit...

Ok, it’s been a while. Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. (If anybody reads this AND gets that, I’d love to hear it.) Last we left this thread, I was going into the first couple scrimmages for my team. I have been keeping notes all along on how this was going, but as I talked about way back in February , I have a tendency to worry about my writing so I was editing as I posted. So, while my last post on my coaching stuff was in early April and covered stuff that happened in early March, I still spent time rewriting the post instead of just putting it up. That worked well until both school and coaching got into full swing, so I got a bit behind in worddsmithing. Now I’m catching up. You’re going to see a few posts in the next few hours catching up about 6 weeks of stuff. Try to remember that time frame, please. First - I really wish I was better at remembering names. That is going to be such a big thing for me to work on as a teacher.   I don’t think I’l...

Today’s key topic “What is your philosophy on assessment?”   Well, actually, “What is my philosophy on assessment? I am certainly of the era that schools are all about assessment and ranking. Homework was graded and recorded. Pop quizzes would make sure kids were staying up on the material. Tests were long and covered a whole bunch of material. And of course, ALL THIS WENT ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD! My first real thought of the differences between formative and summative assessments came while checking my kids grades online during their middle school years. I saw these different categories and thought, “Well, that’s different.” I didn’t spend a whole lot of time figuring out how much formatives went into their grades, since I was mainly concerned about the boys getting their homework done and turned in. But the concept of assessing to check progress just seemed natural to me. In the business world, this should be done all the time as a manager. I would meet with my direct...

I'm a bit late on this topic - things have been crazy with school and work. Sorry for the delay (He says to nobody in particular). This post is about the e-book topic in tech class. Mr. Jon Smith’s story about the use of e-books in a special education setting is objectively amazing. The question is, what caused that difference? It doesn’t take long watching the video we saw in class to know that Mr. Smith is a very engaging presenter. His passion to have students succeed academically seemed obvious. In this program, we’ve been taught several times that one of the best predictor of student achievement is whether they connect with a teacher. We can probably can point to this as a major cause of the success, but the question remains “What caused the turnaround?” I ask this because I’m guessing Mr. Smith was as devoted to his students before the e-book use as after. Did this new method change how the student’s connected with Mr. Smith or, maybe how they connected with academics ...

So, we’ve been asked to reflect on what to consider before implementing new tools into the classroom. One of the first things to consider (that actually fits into the TPACK model) is “Does this new technology add value to the learning process?”   Being an early adopter may be a good thing, but if you’re adopting just for the “cool” factor you may be diverting resources and wasting the students’ precious attention. Any tech you select should also be robust, supported and adopted. Imagine how frustrating it would be to have spent time integrating Google Glass into your lesson plan. Other considerations would be initial implementation costs, ongoing licensing and maintenance costs, privacy concerns, copyright issues and all the other things we’ve discussed earlier in the semester. So, with all these concerns, how do you select the right tech for your classroom. I guess the first thing is to start within the framework of the tech available to you in the district. Whether that will ...

I’ve just finished the first week on the field with the kids. It was quite the learning experience. One of the first things to figure out was how I was going to interact with Mike, the Head Coach.   Like I mentioned in my first post, I had plenty of interaction with Mike last year when he coached and I worked the scorer table. But that is completely different than coaching. Much of this week was spent with me figuring out what he wanted me to do and figuring out what is was OK for me to say to the kids. Like I mentioned last time, I spent my prep week documenting ways to teach a few rides and clears. Along with these, I found some help online to develop practice plans that brought these together in a series of drills that built upon each other. We did a couple of them the first few days and Mike asked me to introduce the drills and run them. My coach voice returned very quickly, and I found myself in the middle directing two groups of 20 kids each running the drills at...