March 11, Our showcase presentation

We had a show case prior to ours today and it was great because it was about making movies on xtranormal. I've been trying to find this site to show my son because I've seen movies made on this site before and loved them and I know that my son would really like to make these types of movies. Then we did ours on podcasting. I've learned so much and have had a lot of fun making podcasts. I've made two so far that I've posted to my site, which is linked at the bottom of this site. I'm not too happy with my portion of the presentation. I really thought I had it all ready for my part today but forgetting to change the file to an mp3 really threw a curve ball at me because then I had to do that in front of the class. I guess it was good in a way as well so that I really make sure that I have things prepared properly for my teaching. I actually practiced last night but I didn't want to have too much done so that I couldn't show everyone how to do it, but then I still forgot to do a step anyway. Oh well, thanks to Sean for knowing more than me so we could still figure it out. The following is our presentation about podcasting.

Technology PD from the Calgary Catholic Board

I really enjoyed the enthusiasm and excitement of the group of teachers in this PD group. I feel excited that there are teachers that are learning, teaching and incorporating new technology and inquiry into teaching BUT; I mentioned to one of my friends who teaches in the Catholic Board, that we had this workshop with this group and she was very negative about the ed tech group and said their workshops are @#$%. Having experience the teachers leading the group first hand I'm able to form my own opinion and I think that they have a lot of great information for teachers, I'm assuming a lot more than we were exposed to, and that my friend is one of these teachers who have been doing the same thing for several years and has no desire to change. I also understand that she is over loaded with paper work for every little thing or problem that her students have that she is finding it hard to have time to teach her students, and that she has no time to even want to change. How many teachers are like my friend?

So I ask what are we doing as teachers, what are we giving the students, does having to fill out 10 pages of paper just to refer a student for help encourage teachers to help them or to not help them so they don't drown in paper work? Is this why in our practicums we didn't see many teachers using inquiry? Is this why teachers feel that they are being squeezed like a lemon for every last drop of juice out of them? Is this why there is no energy lest for teachers to change their ways?

I also know of another teacher who was teaching in an inquiry style and she was snuffed out by her administration and other teachers in her department because her students were too engaged and too many students wanted to be in her class. Now she if forced to follow the same teaching style of the other teachers in her department so that the exams can all be the same. I was so confused by this, I don't understand why as an administrator you would not encourage what she was doing and spread that engagement throughout the school. I fear that when I start teaching I'll be demanded to follow these old ways of teaching and I'll have to conform to what all other teachers are doing. What do you say to an administrator who thinks that any assessment other than exams are just fluff??