Questions about Twitter and other Web 2.0 December 31, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Blogging.Tags: Blogging, information management, twitter
comments closed
I’m as much of a nerd, or more than anyone. But I’m one of the last techno-nerds around who hasn’t gotten all excited about Twitter. So I thought I’d throw this out to my smallish community and see what turns up. Ironically, if I were on Twitter, I could simply Tweet this and get instant answers! This came up as I was fixing my RSS feed application, which is Thunderbird. I love that I can use it on my Linux machines as well as my Windows machines.
While adding oodles of subscriptions (Those in my blogroll plus many, many more) it occured to me that there is no way I can possibly keep up with all of these people and all of this information. And this does not include my increasing YouTube subscription list and podcast subscriptions! Oh, and not to mention the comments on all of these plus the big one: EMAIL!
So what is the deal with Twitter? It comes off as a microblog, and I totally get that. But I already have a couple of blogs, ThankYouVeryMuch! Do you need a smart phone to use it? And what of teachers who are not supposed to be using their phones while in school? And what of teachers who have all social networking sites blocked at school?
To me, the short 140 character snippets from possibly hundreds of people add to the information clutter I already have going on. I love, love learning new things which is why I’m so plugged in as it is. I listen to podcasts while driving and hit video sites to learn new things and fiddle with new technology, and subscribe to bunches of blogs plus have a totally different array of tools and subscriptions on my iGoogle. To me, it is getting to be a bit much.
So how do others manage it all? And is Twitter truly the Bee Knees?
Now I’m off to make a post on my other (neglected) blog!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! December 23, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Alternate Assessment, IEP, IEPs, Special Education, teachertube.comments closed
A couple of days before we got out on break, I got something very special from my special education director at the board office.
Now I can share my joy with all of you!
This is also a jumping off point for a new series about IEPs. I figure since I have to do this anyway, I might as well blog it. It might help other teachers as well as parents. My IEP series is linked in my blogroll and has been the biggest source of traffic to this blog since I posted it. Maybe the same trick will work for my Teachertube and Youtube channels?
Thanks for y’all coming by and joining in my foolishness!
(Note: I’m not at all bashing my special ed director here. I’m just having a bit of fun with the inevitable Life That Chose Me. You just have to laugh, sometimes)
NCLB: Why it’s not going anywhere any time soon December 23, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Alternate Assessment, Ed Policy Discussion, NCLB, Special Education.comments closed
This is just how it is…
I’ll give you an example of just how and why NCLB is so absurd disastrous for my students.
Every single day of the school year, our students get off the bus and go through our back door straight into our classroom. Every single day. This door does not automatically lock when it is shut, which is why many other teachers end up coming in through our room. If you push it, it will lock and can not be opened from the outside. It has been that way forever.
I have a student who has been with me just shy of forever. This is year #5 for him with at least 2 more to go. He is also (somewhat arguably) my most capable student. “Capable” being extremely relative in a SID/PID classroom. Each and every morning for the past 5 years, this student has done the same, exact thing. He runs to the door and pushes it shut, thus locking himself out. Each and every single morning, without exception. 5 x 180 days = 900 trials and the boy still has not learned to simply open the door. This is a very basic and functional thing but he still does not get it. This is where teaching these kids are; it takes about 1000 trials to teach a single basic skill, even if it is highly relevant. Sometimes less, many times more.
It’s not that these kids can not learn. They can and they do! But they do not learn at the pace (or for the price) of everyone else. They never will, short of a brain transplant because the brain wiring is simply not there. It is simply a biological fact of reality. That doesn’t mean we give up, but could we please get over the fact that algebra and world geography might be relevant and practical for these kids on any level?!?
These kids could learn algebra, sure. But no one wants to provide the resources necessary to do it. It would take 40 hours per week of 1:1 instruction in order to get them to the most basic concepts. Who is going to pay for that kind of service to teach something that is irrelevant to a lot of “normal” people and totally useless to the ones being taught? No one. No one is going to pay for any more than the basic level of care and instruction! I have 7 kids who are 1:1 students and there are 4 adults here. Combined with the administrative paperwork, I am swamped and overwhlemed as these kids can not toilet or feed themselves! This takes a huge swath of time out of our day. Plus the attention and endurance of these students is quite a bit less than 8 hours per day. It is closer to 25 minutes per day, but I do push for more and there are numerous tears shed and gnashing of teeth because of it throughout the day in my room.
But why are we banging our heads so hard on this? Is it just because it is a nice campaign slogan? Is it because we are so bound by political correctness that we are immune to seeing some semblance of reality?
I’m hoping the new administration can bring some sanity to the situation but I am not overly optimistic. In his speech introducing his nominee for secretary of education, President elect Obama said:
We need a new vision for a 21st century education system – one where we aren’t just supporting existing schools, but spurring innovation; where we’re not just investing more money, but demanding more reform; where parents take responsibility for their children’s success; where we’re recruiting, retaining, and rewarding an army of new teachers; where we hold our schools, teachers and government accountable for results; and where we expect all our children not only to graduate high school, but to graduate college and get a good paying job.
So now every student is going to be required to take on a college prep curriculum. Just where does that leave a whole lot of students who are in special education? Not much different than now. Not much of a change, if you ask me. This is the exact same rhetoric that spawned NickelBee (NCLB) and everything that went along with it. George Bush could have delivered this exact same speech and if it were delivered by Joe Biden, I would seriously be wondering if it were lifted from 2000!
2009 is going to be real interesting.
Getting Ready for Christmas December 18, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Parents and parenting, Special Education, Teachers.comments closed
I sort of joke about packing the kids full of sugar, but this time of year there are all sorts of people popping out of the woodwork wanting to feed my students. And we’re not talking broccoli and carrots, it is usually full-on junk. Cupcakes, candy of every sort, ice cream, chips and whatever. No other program in high school is supposed to have a party but mine seems to be the exception. The school community enjoys venting their holiday spirit on the kids, which is nice but really disruptive in a lot of ways.
The holidays are tough on everyone but especially with students with varying degrees of disabilities. The various flashy Christmas lights and colors really appeal to most people, but to those with sensory and attention deficits, it can easily become overwhelming. Our room is pretty heavily decorated for the season, which gives us a variety of Christmas props to use for communication lessons. However all the pageantry is so distracting that there is very little focusing going on. Not that there is that much, even in the best of circumstances! But in addition to the food and the decorations is the constant stream and parade of people who want to come to our room. All. The. Time. While other rooms have their doors closed during instructional time and keep outside disruptions to a minimum, it seems like everyone feels they have a license to walk into our room. Sometimes it’s to use our kitchen, sometimes to use our bathroom. Sometimes it’s just walking in from the outside or out from the inside. Even though there is an entrance door leading into the hallway right next to our room, they want to come in here.
I sometimes think I come off being a scrooge about wanting to lessen the impact of the holidays on our kids and trying to stick to something resembling a normal schedule and routine. But stick a fok in it, we are not getting anywhere for the rest of the week. They are done. We are done. I just don’t have the stamina anymore to fight it!
As far as my own boys, Thomas and Percy, they are all excited about the holidays. They are looking forward to seeing their grandma (and her cat) when she comes up. We have traditonally minimized the involvement with Santa by exchanging and opening gifts on Christmas Eve. Us adults actually have a shot at sleeping in whilst the boys play with their new toys! And they seem totally okay with it and there just isn’t a whole lot of discussion about it so we’re not out scrooging Christmas for other kids who are into the Santa Claus tradition. Percy’s birthday is also during the break a few days after Christmas which also diverts a lot of attention away from whatever Santa issues might crop up. Getting gifts for them is relatively easy..at least if we get them whatever they want! Percy is fairly easy going and like cars, trucks and musical stuff. He’s thinking Guitar Hero. I’m thinking *I* might like Guitar Hero!LOL! Thomas will like anything having to do with trains, specifically the Thomas the Train franchise. We’re looking at trying to expand his interests a bit this year with something like lincoln logs or legos or something along those lines. He like computer games, too, but I haven’t found one that hits the spot, yet.
As for Jane, she’s pretty easy, too. The other day she was complaining about how hard it was to clean the kitchen floor after all of us had been baking so I’m getting her a brand new mop and mop bucket.
Just kidding!
My GAA Video Rant December 6, 2008
Posted by Daniel Dage in Alternate Assessment, Special Ed..comments closed
Trying to embed from Teachertube, but for some reason it won’t let me. I linked in a prior post, but here’s my Teachertube channel again.
We all had to have collection period 1 spit shined and polished today. What an ordeal! It’s such a pain to grab some sort of mastery level from the air. My students need prompting and assistance 100% of the time because they are profoundly intellectually disabled 100% of the time! But the local people reviewing my GAA won’t let me say that because it sounds too snarky.
Anyway, Youtube to the rescue (it’s blocked at my school so here’s the TT link).
