GTD

As I read the lecture and listened to the podcast embedded within the GTD lesson, I found myself not really writing anything down. Going through the GTD process I realized that it is not something for me. I already tend to categorize my life that way (what needs to get done now, what can wait, etc.). I have found that since I have started teaching I thrive off of my lesson plan book. Not only am I able to sketch out my lessons on a daily basis, but I can also pencil in any other important things that I need to do. This way I have everything in one location (I hate having to look in multiple spots for information). For the most urgent matters on my agenda I additionally program a reminder in my phone just to be on the safe side.

I like simplicity and I feel as though I reach the same outcome using my planner as I would if I continuously went through all of the GTD steps. It reminds me of when I had to develop my first lesson for my TE 200 level course. That lesson took me over a week to develop because of the lengthy write up that we were required to do as well (description, rationale, etc.). Now I can create that exact same lesson by simply identifying the standard, the learning target, and quickly putting together the activity or lecture that will be used for the day in less than an hour. If I planned out my life using the GTD process I could foresee myself getting bogged down trying to map everything out and come up with the perfect plan to "get things done." In all reality my life is far too fluid, or perhaps I am just stuck in my ways.

I would like to point out though that I can absolutely see this being a great resource for some of my students who desperately struggle with organizational skills. This strategy is something that I plan to dig a little deeper into in an effort to assist struggling students now that I am in charge of implementing Response to Intervention (RtI) in my school.

Social Networking

I have encountered students using social media in my classroom on multiple occasions. This is against school policy so I have to boot the students off whenever I see it. I am also suppose to confiscate their computer or phone that they were using at the time... It is because of this that there tends to be a negative association between social media and the classroom drilled into my head.

My personal usage of social media is rather limited for a number of reasons.

1. I find that I do not have the time to keep up with it all.
2. I am an active/interpersonal individual so I prefer being outdoors and/or being in the same room as the people I am working with rather than glued to a computer (this degree will be a challenge for me).
3. I am a young educator so I am still trying to figure out how to have an on-line identity without them being able to access everything (and they try to find out everything!). 
• I have known a few people who thought that they had blocked certain personal information on their facebook pages and it turns out that it was not which caused some issues.

However, I do utilize Blackboard with my students. I am able to post all of my lectures, assignments, syllabus, etc. on the site, along with any important reminders. It is extremely similar to Angel, and my students really like this approach. There are still many features that I do not use often enough, if at all, that could enhance my connection with students. For one thing, I could set up discussion forums but still have not taken that leap. Since I am in an inner-city school I do have a number of students who have limited access to technology at home and so worry about creating an additional burden on them. My school is investing in more laptops that students can check out throughout the school day so hopefully this concern will be non-existent by next year.

RSS Feed

What I have learned from the postings:
     This has been an interesting assignment. The sites that I chose for my feeder page are sites that I visit on a regular basis. I had seen the RSS feeder symbol before but never realized its potential to make my life easier. Last spring when I taught current issues, I would go to bed late and wake up early so that I could try and stay on top of the latest stories because I wanted to be able to share them with my class. I spent so much time sifting through headlines that hours would go by and I really had accomplished nothing. Visiting my RSS feeder page over the past few days has really helped to keep me informed. In fact I was about to discuss redistricting with my Civics class and when I checked my RSS feeder, there it was, an article discussing how the Supreme Court has thrown out a lower Texas court's redistricting proposal. We were immediately able to link the real world with the classroom and discuss why redistricting is such a big issue.

How I can apply this to my classroom:
     In my classroom I can already find use for the RSS feeder. A major assignment that I have my students do in every course is a "media log." It is an ongoing assignment that lasts an entire marking period and the goals are the following:

1. Students will learn how to summarize and critique others writing.
2. Students will explore current issues headlines.
3. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of course material by discovering the relevance and connection between what was taught in class and the current news headlines that they find.

     For the past three  years that I have done this assignment I have had issues where students find articles that were published over ten years ago, if not even longer ago. Next time I give this assignment I will show my students how to use the RSS feeder for sites like NPR.org so that they can be assured that the story is current. This will hopefully cut down the amount of time they spend simply trying to locate an article and allow more time for them to think critically about how it connects to the topics covered in class and why the story is relevant.

Tracking the past few days:
     Over the past few days I have been following more closely with my NPR.org Economy feeder. In my economics class we just wrapped up a unit on the different types of economic systems and in the end I had students make arguments stating why the U.S. should adopt each type or it should not. We are now about to dive more deeply into the U.S. mixed market system and soon enough we will be to demand and supply. As I continued to look over this feeder I noticed that the headlines pretty much stayed consistent. Really I could break them up into three main categories:

1. Europe
2. U.S. unemployment
3. U.S. housing market

     The interesting thing that I began to pick up on is that depending on the day the take on U.S. unemployment changed. Some days the headlines had a very bleak outlook on our current overall economic situation. Other days it spoke of a moderate resurgence. I saw a similar trend with the U.S. housing market. One day the housing market is not showing any signs of recovery. Other days the market is showing growth. As far as the reports on Europe go, they pretty much all looked bleak between reports on Italy, Greece, and now Hungary. I became a little interested in this and so I back traced headlines all the way through December and saw that this trend has been going on for some time now.

The blog I commented on:

     Now there could have been a number of blogs that would have led me to post a comment but the one I chose to comment on was about a jaguar that attacked a woman in India. As a history teacher I just covered the Industrial Revolution and we discussed some of the negative impacts that it had on the environment and how that translates into today. We got into a great conversation about global warming, deforestation, and endangered species. So when I saw this article I was saddened but also encouraged. I was saddened of course because people were injured, but more so because I know the reason that it happened is because people are encroaching on jaguar territory. I was encouraged though because as I read the story, apparently the animal was only scared away and was not destroyed. I am not sure that this outcome would have been allowed to occur in the U.S.

       
        

Blogs vs. Traditional Webpages

     Many of my students struggle to find the difference between a traditional web page and a blog. In all reality the lines are starting to get blurred. Before I started writing this piece, I wandered through the World Wide Web looking at what I would consider to be traditional websites (i.e. Historychannel.com) and many of them either had blog sections embedded within their site or offered other means of communication like twitter.

      It seems to me that the traditional web site is taking on more and more of the blogging dynamic. What is that dynamic though? To me it is the benefit of quick and dirty information. Information in a blog can be given on any topic in an uncensored format (i.e. no editors telling you what to do). As an educator I am left wondering if this is a good thing or bad thing... When I send my students into the Internet to retrieve facts about a particular topic in history, many times they find someones blog first. Sometimes this information is correct and sometimes it is not, but I suppose the same can be said for a more traditional web site. The bottom line is accuracy is not guaranteed in either case. Often the blogs students find are riddled with opinion and have little supporting facts for said opinions. I always recommend that if they find a blog that they also find a more traditional web site that backs up the information found in the blog for verification. Blogs are not an evil thing. After all, Matt Drudge was the first to report on Bill Clinton's scandal while in office in The Drudge Report.