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description=4 posts published by Tom Whitby @tomwhitby during December 2011;

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Text of the page (random words):
m s voice still rings in my ears it s late so i better turn off the computer congratulations to all of the nominees and the winners of the 2011 edublog awards here is the link to the top edublog nominees and the winners as well as the addresses to their sites http edublogawards com share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on reddit opens in new window reddit print opens in new window print email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading read full post i ain t emailing posted in accountability administrator banning cooperating teacher education email pd pre service teachers professional development professionalism skills social media student teaching teacher technology thought leadership thought provoking truth twitter on december 10 2011 15 comments i am often intrigued by the controversy surrounding the contraction ain t which to the best of my knowledge has been created by the american education system contractions are an informal form of the english language and should not be used when formal language is required we generally speak informally but when it comes to writing we employ the formal language that being said the acceptable contraction for am not is ain t therefore it can only be correctly used with the pronoun i as in i ain t going to do that the problem occurred when people tried using it with other nouns or pronouns we ain t going would then mean we am not going jim ain t here would be jim am not here hence the misuses grew the solution was easy rather than teach to correct use of that contraction teachers banned its use altogether and made every attempt to have it stricken from every lexicon in the english speaking world even as i write this post the application microsoft word is red marking this paragraph like there will be no tomorrow of course i will need to ignore the rule since it has now been established as a rule the banning of this word from our language is so engrained in the minds of americans that i will probably get comments from readers taking issue with this entire paragraph of course that works to underscore the success of the ban the word ain t campaign now that the stage has been set let me get on to where i want to take you on this journey this week i took my student teacher group to listen to a guest speaker the speaker was a personnel director from a local school district who was discussing the ins and outs of securing a teaching position in today s job market after we got past the usual things about resume s and panel interviews the speaker delved into what she thought first year teachers should do to protect themselves as new teachers when she told the group that they should not email anything to parents for their first three years of teaching all of my students turned their heads to see if mine blew off my head some of my colleagues nodded and voiced their agreement i said nothing out of respect for the speaker but later told my kids that i totally disagreed with that strategy our world is rapidly changing i will not debate whether it is for the better or worse but i will clearly agree that we are a culture that is connecting in many ways beyond the age old face to face method employed for thousands of years we talk phone email text tweet skype post and sometimes write letters in order to communicate if involving parents in the education of their children is a goal for educators we need to employ whatever form of communication that parents use to accomplish that we can t demand that parents conform to our limiting choices that are convenient for us email and texting are becoming the methods of choice for communication in our world today i fully understand the reasoning behind telling teachers to avoid emailing or texting parents there are times when these things can be used against a well intentioned teacher teachers live in a fishbowl and are held to a higher standard they are also targets for people who need to place blame on anyone rather than accept personal responsibility these are the hazards of our profession and they seem to be being amplified in a society which is growing more dependent on what social media and technology have to offer the solution to the problem however does not lie in banning its use as teachers we should always rely on education as our first answer learning how to do something correctly is always a better alternative to not doing it at all rather than condemning the use of tools that our society is embracing we need to teach the correct way to use them it is true that the written word can be used against a teacher but any words written or spoken can be turned look at our political system where that happens every day we need to teach teachers to consider their words and communicate clearly no matter what form of communication they use it is not the tool that makes teachers look bad it is what they say that does that a parent who is informed about his or her child s progress and shortcomings has a fighting chance to affect change in their child s education the sooner they have that information the quicker things can happen of course if the parent has been informed and chooses not to act that is not the fault of the teacher if email or texting is the preferred method for the parent to get this information then why are we trying to fight that we need to streamline the communication for quick results for years teachers complained that they had no phones in the classroom to communicate with parents in its day the phone was the technology tool for communication today many many classrooms have phones for accessing parents the technology however has developed forms of communication beyond the phone as we once knew it for that reason most schools provide email accounts for teachers what schools now need to do is teach the teachers how to best use that tool schools need to teach what to say and how to say it for best results because this stuff is not intuitive as i often say we no longer have a choice about technology it is what we use in our everyday lives it does not matter that we can remember when we did not have it we do not move backwards in time we need to teach people how to move forward because no one has been there yet share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on reddit opens in new window reddit print opens in new window print email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading read full post who is the best edu consultant posted in accountability administrator cooperating teacher curriculum education interactive white board observation pd pre service teachers professional development professionalism reform student teaching teacher technology thought leadership thought provoking truth on december 6 2011 9 comments i had a busy morning today i observed a student teacher for her final observation and i made it home in time to participate in the weekly noon edchat on twitter as i participated in the edchat i was struck by the fact that it had a great deal to do with a conversation i had with my student s cooperating teacher in a high school that morning the conversation that i had with this high school teacher took place in the school s computer lab it was a very relaxed session as all of the students were involved in a web quest in support of their recent reading of inherit the wind they were now learning first hand about the scopes monkey trial i observed that the computer lab had an interactive white board installed on the wall i remarked to the teacher that it struck me that this is not the most effective place for an iwb since every student sat at a desktop computer a simple less expensive digital projector could serve as well and that would free up an iwb for a classroom that started the conversation ball rolling the teacher told me that the school received a grant for the iwb s and boards were placed in many of the classroom s two summers ago there was little regard for where they were placed in the rooms or what rooms were to receive them since according to our discussion it was not evident that teachers were consulted in the planning stage or the implementation stage so the teachers had little to say in what rooms or where in those rooms boards were to be installed that is why the board in this teacher s room is not at a focal point but on the side of the room no one ever asked the teacher continues to be upset over this every time she uses the board students must be repositioned or redirected to use the iwb of course professional development always at the top of my list i asked if the staff received adequate preparation before using the iwb s in the class the staff received an overview workshop was the answer there was a second training workshop later in the year for those who attended obviously someone must have thought that just the mere fact the district is installing technology in a classroom should be incentive enough for a teacher to self teach him or herself in order to use that technology could you imagine the airline or medical industries using the same strategies for their people to learn and be incented to use the technology in their respective industries here s a 747 pilots aren t you excited the overview will be next week here is robotic laser doctors be careful when you use it you can sign up for a workshop at our next training day so here is what seems to have happened the district got a grant for iwb s it had to move quickly to install them since they arrived in the summer they put the iwb s where they could be easily installed in classrooms that gave good visibility to the public professional development was either not part of the grant or too expensive to pay for in addition so they settled for the overview provided by the manufacturer there is little time during the year to provide professional development so teachers had to wait for a conference day the result could have been predicted teachers were never on board or even consulted teachers begin to resent the entire effort they use the iwb s as projectors and cite this as another example of wasteful spending at the expense of larger classes the administrators say that they are providing cutting edge technology to the teachers who refuse to use it of course the new york times could pick up the story and say schools are spending too much on technology that teachers fail to use with any positive outcome for student learning of course there must be more to this than i was able to get from a brief conversation i do know that i have heard many similar stories from many educators from all over our country i do not think this scenario falls too short of the mark even with my liberal use of poetic license as you read this i am sure many similar cases are speeding through your head of course i will get comments from some it people and administrators who just don t get it that is to be expected since they view things through a different lens when i participated in the afternoon edchat the topic was what changes could be made to the present management structure of education to make it more effective for educators of course this topic had my head swimming with the ideas from the earlier conversation administrators need to lead not mandate or dictate initiatives and policy they need to engage their staff education has the highest percentage of educated people in its industry they are education experts they have degrees in education why not consult with them on affairs of education the more that we involve teachers with the development of policies the more they will buy into the success of those policies the more teachers point out flaws and misconceptions the stronger the policy becomes in consideration of those shortcomings administrators should not view teachers as a problem they are not the enemy teachers have much to offer as education experts lead and work with them as consultants education administrators need more staff consultation and leadership and less control and reactive policy directives share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on reddit opens in new window reddit print opens in new window print email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading read full post tom whitby translate this post traducir este blog search previous posts by keyword search for follow my island view on wordpress com follow tomwhitby email subscription enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email email address sign me up join 6 341 other subscribers order my book the relevant educator how connectedness empowers learning written with my good friend steven anderson the book not only lays out the simple tools educators can use to get connected but why it s important to use these tools for professional learning engaging classrooms and more filled with our own stories it s an easy read for any educator the educator s guide to creating connections my tweets tweets by tomwhitby making it happen award winner post count march 2025 2 january 2025 1 november 2023 1 august 2023 2 july 2023 1 june 2023 1 may 2023 1 february 2023 4 december 2022 1 november 2021 1 march 2021 1 april 2020 1 march 2020 2 january 2020 1 december 2019 1 october 2019 1 april 2019 1 november 2018 1 october 2018 1 september 2018 1 august 2018 1 july 2018 4 february 2018 2 december 2017 1 july 2017 1 may 2017 1 april 2017 1 february 2017 2 december 2016 2 october 2016 2 august 2016 1 july 2016 2 june 2016 1 april 2016 2 march 2016 1 february 2016 1 january 2016 1 december 2015 1 november 2015 2 october 2015 1 september 2015 4 august 2015 1 july 2015 3 june 2015 2 may 2015 2 april 2015 4 march 2015 1 february 2015 4 january 2015 2 december 2014 3 november 2014 1 october 2014 3 september 2014 2 august 2014 4 july 2014 3 june 2014 5 may 2014 4 april 2014 4 march 2014 3 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