The Classroom

While talking to my student teacher about how to increase student by-in I made reference to the movie Dangerous Minds.  I’ve always loved how this movie is based on a true story, and how the original book is entitled “My Posse Don’t Do Homework”.  I’ve always thought of my class in that manner… My posse, my crew, my team.  Well having never actually READ the book, I decided to log on to my friendly internet book store and order it.  Sadly its no longer in print, but Louanne Johnson (the author) has written more books, her most recent being “Teaching Outside the box: how to grab your students by the brains”. Read the rest of this entry »

During spring break I took a day just to mess around on my computer.  Yes I had a million other jobs that needed to be done, but I really haven’t had anytime just to do techie things, and I was starting to feel out of the loop.  The stuff I found made my imagination just soar!

Now it’s no secret that I’m a huge supporter of the WordPress blogging platform.  I don’t usually “preach the joys of Worpress” during my inservices because I personally believe that everyone should always have a chance to make up their own minds, it is my software of choice.  WordPress comes in many different flavors from the hosted WordPress.com, to the host your own WordPress, or even the multi user WordPress Mu.  It is this last option that currently has my attention – and has exciting possibilities for the classroom. Read the rest of this entry »

Well folks, I upgraded the “backend” of my blog to the latest and greatest WordPress release and was very happy with the result. I love the new administration panel, and just the layout of the system in general. But sadly the new look and feel could only be seen by me, leaving everyone else out in the cold. So I upgraded my theme from “Freshy 1.0″ to “Freshy 2″! What does that mean for you??? Just a slicker looking interface, and cool new drop down menus on the nav bar to help you find what you’re looking for faster. I’ve also revived the use of Gravatar (though before it was MyBlogLog) Avatars on the comments posts. If you go to Gravatar and sign up your image will appear beside your post… if not the Classroom’s apple icon will take your place.

Last, but not least I’ve added a mobile theme that should allow you to view The Classroom on your PDA or Cellphone, I haven’t had a chance to test this yet, so please let me know if you run into any problems. In the end, all the upgrade are mainly cosmetic – but I think they’ll add a little polish to the blog.

Enjoy!
-Mr. G

As a whole – teachers are a bunch of hypocrites. I know. I’m one of them. I try not to be… I want to treat my students fairly, but it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes we can’t always follow the straight and narrow – but what I saw today gave me pause to think.

As I do every year I was enjoying (or rather trying to enjoy) my teachers’ convention. Some of the sessions were good – others dreadful – but all gave me something to think about, so I’ll chalk it up to a great experience. But what shocked me is hundreds of teachers freely doing what they frequently tell their students NOT to do. I know some were skipping (did anyone call their parents?), but they were also talking, laughing and being loud during presentations. If they were bored they just got up and left. They didn’t raise their hands to speak, and some even openly ridiculed their presenters or colleagues during “class”. Had these been our students they would have had detentions, calls home, and for the repeat offenders suspensions. But at convention it all seems ok.

And you know what – I understand that. We’re adults right? We can make our own decisions. We can be rude if we want to, right? What really got my attention though was something that’s been a buzz in my staffroom, and the subject of many discussions with colleagues – the use of cellphones. Read the rest of this entry »

My heart hurts right now.

For an upcoming PD my principal suggested that we do a session on Nexopia – to see what our students are up to at home and to gain more insight into their lives. Being the “techno teacher” it was my job to seek out these profiles and prepare a way to show them to staff. I knew I wouldn’t like what I saw…. but I didn’t know how much I wouldn’t like it.

In hind sight it may not really be as bad as it looks. Swearing, making sexual innuendos that they really have no idea they mean – basic teenage posturing. We all did it to some degree as kids. But even when we did it publicly – it was private. We did stupid things, and then we were done. Thanks to the internet they do stupid things, and it’s recorded for posterity. Read the rest of this entry »