Blah on Blogging

I have been very bad with this blogging thing. Truthfully, I just forget about it. While I seem to be on the computer endlessly, my forays have purpose. My husband can wander, blog, search all night long until I drag his cold, dead body away from the computer. Not me. Get my work done. Oh well. Total digital immigrant. Think I'll ever change? The idea of twittering makes me twittery....

Data Drives me Crazy!

So, in module 3 we get to dig into some data, find a problem and create a solution. Struggle, struggle....

Our school seems to say, as they did today, "Oh, professional development day, go dig into the SOL test scores and figure out a way to bring them up a percent we determine."

We then stare at numbers that are often lacking in context or complete information and try to come up with a plan. I don't need to tell you how frustrating it is! I don't think our administration knows how to look at the data either, so they throw it down to us for solutions.

Normally our solutions are pretty generic, like adding more test vocabulary, or time line study, but without data follow up or training it doesn't seem to go far.

wiki or not to wiki, is it a question?

Thursday a friend who is currently working on the phd program for ITS came up to me to talk about wikis. My son is actually a student in her World History 2 class, so they have been doing all the cool technology applications we are currently studying. He was excited, well, as excited as a 15-year old boy can ever be, about the pod casts they just completed. So, anyway, we were discussing how to use wikis. It seems to me I keep trying to plug these things in as final assessments. Like we discussed creating a wiki for a chapter, where, like we are doing in class, everyone is responsible for adding on to pieces. However, do I want this as a research on their own part and fill it in or as a end review? I have contemplated introducing wikis to them by having them create a survival guide to my classroom for next years class. That might be fun and interesting for me to read!

Advocating

I am becoming a little concerned. I want to be a force for change, but I am worried over the responses of others and the time it requires. I just finished reading the advocacy article. I am a little overwhelmed with contacting policy makers and appearing on TV. Are you kidding? I am stressing about the faculty meeting creation.

I know it is all a step at a time and even if I take on something that I really believe it, TV appearances on Oprah are not pending.