If I could just keep my mouth shut...

I just need to keep my mouth shut.

These wonderful words of advice were spoken to me yesterday (and spoken with love) after I screwed up. Yes, I made a mistake and am not perfect (that is for you Gary!). Yesterday, I couldn’t help myself and stole the thunder from my student teacher.

I have to say sitting back each day in class and trying not to talk has been a challenge. I am not sure there is any class I could have given up and not had this dilemma, but I feel like I have been pretty good until my passion took the best of me.

Randon and I decided to overhaul the 9th grade position paper (a traditional paper where students take a position on an issue that they care about, find research to back it up, and then compose a 5 paragraph masterful piece of freshman writing). This year, we decided instead to build upon my first semester focus of “Change the World” with a position paper that has an action plan- Project Change the World. We don’t want this paper to just be turned into the teacher, but a paper for the world with the students actually DOING SOMETHING.

Students have spent the last few days of the second semester talking about changing the world, brainstorming ideas of topics they are passionate about, and now working towards narrowing down their list. So, Randon was setting up the paper, and students started asking me questions. Before I knew it, I want on a rant ( a passionate one at that) about how this paper is different, how these students in this class have an incredible opportunity ahead of them, how they have the power to change the world through this assignment because this was not going to be like ANYTHING they have ever done. This assignment is meaningful, personal, and relevant. This is a chance to make a difference. (And the students all applauded)

And before I knew it, I stole Randon’s thunder.

I felt so bad. What kind of mentor am I that takes over? Why did I do this? How am I going to make it up to Randon? How am I going to handle myself going forward? Should I start leaving the room? Should I bring the duct tape?

I guess it was a great learning moment for both myself and Randon. I learned that I need to keep my mouth shut. I am glad to learn it now, but wish it wouldn’t have happened. I am also learning that it is really hard to turn my kids over to someone else. Watching Randon’s amazing talent as a teacher has been so fun and really makes me miss being in front of my kids. He is such a natural. The creativity that flows from him and being able to collaborate on all the ideas has been inspiring. This is what I remember loving about my first few years teaching.

Sitting here and reflecting, I think I need a shift in perspective (that shift is for you Karl). I need to see that there is a new challenge and opportunity in front of me that instead of teaching my kids, I am teaching a new teacher. I am helping to shape his future in education. If I want my kids to change the world, I need to help Randon see how he can change the world. And he is well on his way there, as long as I can keep my mouth shut.

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Lenovo launches first dual screen mobile workstation

Dual monitor setups are becoming more popular, and with users also needing to transition to a laptop to work on the go, they can take their dual monitor habits with them, with the new Lenovo Thinkpad w700ds. The w700ds is the Industry's first mobile workstation to have 2 built in screens.

The first screen is a 17" screen, and the second pull out display is 10.6". The w700ds is a beefy workstation and that comes with up to a 2.8Ghz core 2 duo processor, Nvidia Quadro 2700m or 3700m workstation video cards, and DDR3 memory.

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Dell's Studio XPS 1340

Why not start the new year with a new laptop from Dell?

Dell's Studio XPS 1340 is out now and loaded with tons of features. The base model includes Intel core 2 Duo P8400 processor, Vista Home premium edition, 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, 320 GB 7200 RPM SATA drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9400 G graphics card, 2 megapixle camera, 13.3-inch WXGA LCD screen, high-def audio 2.0, Microsoft Works 9.0 with english spreadsheet, word processor, and calendar, and a 1-yr in home warranty with 24-7 phone support. The base model also comes custom with Obsidian black color scheme with leather accents. All this for a price of $1,199 with a free $200 Dell gift card with purchase. A new year, a new laptop.

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Apple Releases 17-inch MacBook Pro

Today at Macworld apple has just announced the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro is almost identical to the 15-inch version with just a few meager changes including:

17 inch Screen Size

A $50 Matte Finish option that will get rid of the overly reflective glossy screen.

There is also a new integrated battery that will not be removable, but will last longer with up to 8 hours of battery life. The battery is also supposed to last up to 1,000 charges. This could be both good and bad because you will be getting better battery life, but then again you will not be able to have a backup battery just in case. Also what about when your battery does end up going bad, what will you have to do to get a new one?

As far as the hardware, expect to see a great improvement over the previous gen 17-inch MacBook Pro, but compared to the new 15-inch MacBook Pro it is exactly the same with 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD and NVIDEA Geforce 9400M + 9600M GT. There is an improvement in the processor with an upgrade the 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo.

All this comes at a cost of $2,799 which seems very high, but this is nothing new for apple laptops.

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AR Work over Break

So I received the go ahead to cross post my grad school reflections on my personal blog, here is the first one:

Beginning this semester, I will have a student teacher for the first time ever! I wrote previously about my feelings behind having a student teacher so I am not going to go back over all of that today. Instead I want to write about how all my work over the Christmas break, taking a class about mentoring, and Randon’s student teaching are all coming together.

Over the break, I finally decided to give up on my struggle of learning DreamWeaver. It hasn’t been fun nor interesting and instead was turning into a dreaded nightmare. I know there are those out there that will say it is a shame that I am not learning website creation or programming, but I think my resources will be better devoted to really thinking about learning, working hard to be the best mentor to Randon and my students, and not driving my family nuts.

So, in my abandonment of Dreamweaver, I took up Google Sites. How can we not love everything about Google. I put together my entire Google Site: http://sites.google.com/site/annesmithomet/Home which I am pretty proud of as well as worked on pulling together my students’ reflection about our AR project for the first cycle one report. I also submitted my paper to the GSEP writing lab in order to get some professional feedback on APA style and my writing. Being an English teacher, this is a really interesting adventure of putting myself in my students’ position. This nervous anticipation of appraisal of my written work and my thinking is what they must feel. More and more I see the importance of my continuation of learning.

Throughout this Masters’ program, I am forced to be in the seat my students face everyday. What a unique perspective and insight as well as appreciation for what they are going through. Instead of this Masters’ program being like all of my friends’ programs where they have walked away feeling like all they received is a pay increase, instead I feel like such a LEARNER! What a powerful feeling that is.

Also, it was great to get such positive feedback from Margaret about the work I am doing. It is so important that I model this with my own students knowing what it does for me. I think this really ties into the feedback I am seeing from them in my cycle one report. The students really value being in control of their own education and learning. They value multiple opportunities to learn and by being able to redo assignments over and over again, they can show their true understanding and learning.

But now this is my challenge of going forth. How will they respond with a new teacher taking this idea over? How do I inspire Randon to continue this philosophy and find the value in it? Already after his first assignment, only 10 kids completed the work. Randon wondered about the late work policy and what should he do about so many kids not completing the work. I talked with him about the No D policy and ability to redo work over and over again until they truly show their learning and understanding. He wondered how does this teach them responsibility. This is where I struggle with the No D policy as well. Where do they learn responsibility? Will life always allow them to redo work? What about deadlines? What about being held accountable?

And here is where it all ties into my reading on being a mentor. For one of my new classes, we are focusing on mentorship in different relationships as well as finding a mentor (I think I already have one in Karl Fisch). I already read one of the assigned texts called Tao Mentoring and now I am reading Power Mentoring. What I am really enjoying about this book as well as Tao are the connections between my AR and Randon being a student teacher in my classroom. How will I mentor him or put him in connection with other people who will help him along this journey? Who are the people in my life that are my mentors and are guiding me along my learning path? Does this book fit more along the lines a business model? Can these mentoring ideas be applied to education?

I say YES to all of these. Yes I have mentors( Karl, Mike, Dan, Scott, Ron, Gary, Margaret) and I feel very fortunate to be surrounded in education, through my connections with Karl, to a number of influential and encouraging mentors who are not afraid to push back on me. I really see this with Mike Porter at our district offices. Through all his encouragement, he also reminds me of what things to keep in mind and areas to shift my thinking. I too hope to do this with Randon. I do not want to be his problem solver or solution maker, but get him to think.

I think this is one of the most effective things a mentor can do is just to get you to think about everything you are doing and figure out if these are the right things to be doing all along. And mentoring to me seems like such a two way street. You are getting out of mentoring what you put into the relationship. There needs to be that basis of trust, honesty, respect and then so much can grow from there. I hope that the next 12 weeks with Randon will be a learning and growing process. I hope I am able to give him what he needs from me as a mentor, that this relationship will grow to truly create change with my AR project, and that ultimately, my students, Randon, and I become better individuals and educators as a result. Also, my process of mentoring as well as being mentored by those wonderfully intelligent gifted people around me can grow so that I can see where I need to go in education. All of this thinking can only benefit the kids and that is what it is all about anyway.

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Is 2009 the Year of the Netbook?

Netbooks have become much more popular in 2008 and with the new year here, it makes us wonder: Will 2009 be the year of the Netbook?

Netbooks are low-cost, highly-portable, light-weight, energy-efficient laptops most commonly used for web browsing and general purpose applications. Since they are small, light and affordable, Netbooks dont have as much processing power and offer less features than a regular laptop. Standard netbooks have a 9" screen, weigh about 3 pounds and cost somewhere under 400 dollars. The netbooks were designed with mobile internet users in mind. Nobody wants to pay thousands of dollars to buy a laptop just to access the internet on the go. And with the increase in demand for mobile internet access, its no surprise that these netbooks are becoming extremely useful and will continue to grow in popularity in 2009.

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Mr. Ruggles' First Day

Yesterday began an adventure I was never quite sure I wanted to undertake…having a student teacher. I am not sure what my trepidations were or still are, but there is something about letting someone else into your classroom and take over your kids that leaves me with some fear and nervous excitement. On one hand, these are your kids, the student teacher will see all the mistakes you make, and he/she might even judge you- you are totally exposed to all his past learning from college- you might not do things like you are supposed to be doing them! On the other hand, there is a responsibility with teaching that is unannounced that teachers can help create other teachers through their example and this is one way of giving back to the profession. It is almost of a professional responsibility to continue the legacy of teaching by helping others enter the profession whether these be students or teachers. And, I have always opened my classroom to others, why would this be different now?

Last year, Kristin Leclaire and I were asked if we would like a student teacher and that this particular candidate wanted to come to AHS to teach. He actually picked out the school and rallied hard for being able to teach here (he especially wanted to be at a school with Karl Fisch- who wouldn’t?). So, how could we say “NO.” Then, as fate would have it, Kristin and I were presenting at NCTE with Karl, and Randon Ruggles, student teacher extraordinaire, informed us that he would be attending as well. Well, needless to say, Kristin and I were so glad to have met him early on before his teaching began, had him over for New Year’s Eve so he could get to know us, and now are watching him come into his own with teaching. Randon even posted an initial blog post to the classes he is taking over in order to get to know the students (period 4 and period 6).

Yesterday as I was watching him deliver his first lesson, it brought me back to many of the reasons why I love teaching: the enthusiasm, engagement of the kids, watching kids discuss and learn, and push themselves with creative assignments. Randon, or should I say Mr. Ruggles, did an exemplary job on his first outing. He created a fabulous lesson with the kids being investigators of objects that answered questions they had previously asked of Randon on the blog. The objects in each bag that was given to a group had a common theme. The group had to investigate the objects, and figure out what they had to do with Randon. The students were immediately engaged by the activity as well as the initial video he showed about himself. What a great way to bridge the gap between being a student teacher and becoming their teacher. He also connected the investigation piece to their initial look into writing the position paper. They are investigators using facts to support an answer to a position they want to prove.
Watching him was like watching someone who truly was made to be a teacher. Instead of teaching being a job, his passion and enthusiasm for learning were infectious and became what the class was really about: learning. I am so glad I am starting this journey with Mr. Ruggles and Kristin. What a blessing for the new year. I really hope moving forward I can be the mentor Randon needs me to be and this experience of being here at AHS will be all he can imagine.
As a side note, the class he took over yesterday was so cute. A group of boys arrived early to class and immediately wanted to know where Mr. Ruggles was. I told them that he was coming and they had to be patient. When he arrived, the created an assembly line of high fives for his entrance into the classroom. What a great welcome on a first day!

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