Will We Get Out? September 8, 2009
Posted by Wendy Wolfe in Kazakhstan, Random Thoughts.Tags: Kazakhstan
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One of the old Soviet Union guidelines Kazakhstan has kept is that within five days of arrival, all guests of the country need to register their locations with the government. Apparently most hotels do this at the front desk, but not ours. Originally it was thought that the Sanitarium would do this for the residents of the former CIS countries so it was only the coordinator, the three presenters and I would need to worry about getting this stamp, but now it has been learned that the Sanitarium doesn’t register anyone so there are 16 of us who need this stamp. The plan is to have someone from the Actuarial Society of Kazakhstan take our passports somewhere and get the stamp. Why do we really care? Oh, did I not mention that without that stamp we can’t leave Kazakhstan? Tim was told not to worry, they are looking for 400 more actuaries in Kazakhstan.
Friday in Chicago April 24, 2009
Posted by Wendy Wolfe in On Teaching, Random Thoughts.Tags: TechForumCH9, tltechforum
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The annual pilgrimage to Chicago for Tech&Learning’s Midwest TechForum. Thankfully the plane arrived on time, the drive to the hotel was uneventful, and the morning is underway. The first speaker, Clarence Fisher, was truly inspiring. A middle school teacher hailing from Snow Lake in Manitoba, he challenged the audience to shift from the traditional view of a classroom to what our students need classrooms to be today and moving forward. Points which stood out:
- We need to get away from thinking about classrooms the way they have always been
- Inspiration and pedagogy should be synonyms (thought: how does standardized testing and data-driven lesson planning fit in with that?)
- The classroom should be seen as a studio
- Our students need to get comfortable with the idea that learning/information is/can be messy.
- Creativity is a national resource (thought: what are we really doing to foster that?)
- We need to use technology to engage and connect our students with the world. Find the way around the “no go” zones.
- If schools don’t change the way they offer education, schools will become sideshows. Students will attend and jump through the necessary hoops, but will get all of the information they need via the Internet.
A great keynote. Always good to take some time to reflect on where we need to go.
p.s. Listening to Clarence’s stories, I felt a tug at my heart, I really enjoyed teaching 7th graders. Not sure if I could do it now, but I sure loved it then.
The Friday Five… on Passwords October 24, 2008
Posted by Wendy Wolfe in Friday Five, Random Thoughts, Webbased tools.add a comment
Originally, this post was going to highlighting Smilebox and its ability to create scrapbooks, ecards, slideshows, and more which could be great in a number of ways for the classroom. Then, this morning I learned about the woman in Japan who, well, is now in jail for a cyber crime and decided it was an odd story and wanted to pass it on. I guess it is another reason not to share one’s passwords??
Happy Friday!
Blog Action Day on Poverty October 15, 2008
Posted by Wendy Wolfe in On Blogging, Random Thoughts.Tags: BlogActionDay
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In the spirit of Blog Action Day’s focus on poverty, a shift in the normal topics for my blog, sort of.
Sometime last year I heard a piece on the radio focusing on homeless people in California and there was one family that stood out in my mind. This family had school-aged children and although they were homeless, they chose to live in a hilly area and spent what little money they had on a laptop computer so their children could do their homework at night by accessing a open internet bubble. They believed their children could break the circle of poverty if they could do well in school, to get a good education.
Is access to the internet integral to our students’ success in the classroom today? I think most would say yes. So what are we doing to ensure that access to our students? Are we making sure they know where their free access is? Public libraries, local colleges/universities or businesses that might give them access? We see free internet in so many places, the coffee shop, bookstore, even Bakers Square, but a computer is still needed.
Our school does allow students to check out laptop computers, and those laptops do have wireless cards in them, but do they know where to go? Schools need to be sure that our students have the access they need to meet the requirements we are putting forth – we can help break the cycle of poverty but only if we don’t discourage and overwhelm those who already face so many challenges.
Beyond access, there are issues food and shelter. While these are formidable issues, we can get involved. From donating time and food to places like Feed America to clicking to donate cups of food with The Hunger Site and Free Rice to knitting (or donating supplies to create) blankets (Warm Up America) for those in need, we can make a difference now.
Poverty affects us all, in the present and the future, and it does not take miracles to break the cycle.
