Political Cartoons

     For my new class, Reading and Literacy in the Content Area, we've been asked to find political cartoons related to topic within our content area.  Since I will be teaching Environmental Science, Biology, and Marine Biology, I found this cartoon that is applicable to all of them:

This cartoon is great because it shows how strong the human influence is on nature.  We are, for better or for worse, an integral part of the biosphere.  We have thus far failed miserably at trying to live within it.  From deforestation, fossil fuel pollution, overfishing, and countless other actions, we are actively destroying our planet.  We often fail to realize that with the destruction of the planet comes the destruction of us.  It is akin to periodically destroying bits and pieces of your house.  I think that the Western world fails to realize the destruction because we rarely see it.  If we saw the New England-sized mass of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean, the sweat shops, the polluted rivers people drink from in Ecuador, or the barren Gulf of Mexico, we might stop to think twice about our actions.  I am just as guilty as anyone in contributing to the destruction.  However, I will say at least I know that, and when I become more independent I will live in a way that mitigates the destruction.  Relaying this idea to my students will hopefully lead to a better world, where everyone lives within the biosphere as a positively contributing member.  The USA is the gold standard of living for the world, so hopefully our actions inspire changes across the globe.

*This blog was written on a MacBook Pro made of precious rare metals harvested by poorly paid workers and assembled with dangerous toxins by poorly compensated Chinese workers, and shipped on a gas-guzzling plane to the USA and sold for 30 times the cost of assembly.

Lesson Review

     I thought my lesson went well.  The students seemed to learn the basic tenets of evolution by natural selection in a fun, interactive way.  With a SmartBoard lesson, I was able to demonstrate several features of natural selection with interactive pictures.  The lesson included several assessments that worked very well.  It opened with a multiple choice question, the middle included a definition, and the end contained another multiple choice question in a different format.  It was good to see the SmartBoard in action.  When designing lessons on the SmartBoard, it is hard to predict how it will go without having a SmartBoard to prepare with.  Some of the features worked differently than I had guessed, like pull tabs.  I was surprised at how difficult it was to use SmartBoard.  From someone who uses technology without problems, this was not an intuitive program.  Overall, I think the next time I use SmartBoard, I will just search for one on SmartNotebook and edit accordingly.

Movie and Reflection

Here is the movie my group filmed and I edited.  Enjoy!



Reflection

     If I had to do it all over, I would develop a more concrete script.  While improvising worked out fine, the process will go a lot quicker, and you will avoid the possibility of gaps in the plot.  The whole process was very fun, albeit time consuming.  The filming went by quicker than I expected, and that was a lot of fun.  Next time, I would use a better camera, like the one on my digital camera.  I would even consider using a tripod so that there is no need for the "cameraman" and everyone can be involved in a scene.  The editing was not necessarily intuitive, but was fairly easy.  A few quick Google searches answered any questions I had.  The process was actually very fun.  Once I started, I didn't want to stop.  There are endless little edits you can make, so depending on how interested you are, you can have a lot of fun with that.  I really had no frustrating moments with iMovie, only a few stumbling blocks and some time spent waiting for that pinwheel to stop spinning.  I could see myself having students make videos to present, the only problem would be making sure they had the proper equipment and knowledge, since there is a learning curve associated with iMovie and filming.  I certainly feel comfortable enough with the program that I could explain it to students and assist them.  I think an assignment would best be implemented with one group per chapter.  That way, I could assist a small number of students, and give them all of the appropriate equipment/programs.  It would also allow me to spend less time on it, rather than dealing with an entire class's questions.  I actually gained an appreciation for movies and filming after seeing all of the work I put into a four minute movie.  I probably spent one hour of work per minute of finished product.  I now understand why movies take so long to make.  A two hour movie could take several months to produce a polished, finished product.  Overall, I had way more fun than I ever imagined, and am pleased with my end result.  If I ever can't find a job teaching, at least I know I can be the next Wes Anderson.

Technology in Education Philsophy

Read my philosophy here.

Because I plan to teach in urban areas, I was especially concerned with ensuring technology is accessible and affordable.  It will be difficult to both narrow the digital divide while incorporating innovative technology.  I will be active in any school I teach at to make sure either the public library or school library is equipped with free access to important technology.  Before students enter college or the workforce they should know how to use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Google programs, and email confidently.  Writing essays, creating presentations, online journals, communication, and creating CVs are all important skills everyone should have.

Please leave any comments or questions regarding my philosophy!

I see this in the very near future:

SimBio Virtual Labs

      Labs are a critical part of science education.  You can read about something all day, but until you actually do it, the knowledge falls short.  However, labs take up lots of time and can be costly.  Luckily SimBio is a company that produces many "virtual labs" that students can try.  I used one of these programs in my Evolution class.  I emailed my professor, and she gave me the info.  I looked around the website and there are many options.  You can buy a copy for every student, just the class, etc.  This could be a viable option to introduce to a science department.  The programs around between $600 and $1000, so you would have to see if any funding is available.

There is currently a Mitosis lab available to sample, it expires August 31, 2012.
SimBio also has an interesting blog with a combination of news about current science, education, and technology.

Check out SimBio

Evolution Assessment

SmartBoard Demo - Thanks But No Thanks

I have to say, after messing around with SmartBoard Notebook for a few hours, I'm not impressed.
Everything you can do on SmartBoard, can be done on other programs, in an easier way.  Some features are cool, but by the end of my lesson, it looked like a PowerPoint presentation.  Some highlighting and arrows can be slipped into any presentation.  While it is a change of pace from PowerPoint and Google presentations, if you're going for the "WOW" factor, then I would use Prezi.  SmartBoard is not available in every school, and frankly I don't see it as a necessary part of a good technology curriculum.  I actually had very high expectations for it, which is crushing.  I am pretty intuitive when it comes to new programs, but SmartBoard was the first program that had me watching tutorials just to do the most basic tasks.  It's definitely good to know how to use it, and to know its capabilities.  PowerPoint and Prezi seem to be improving rapidly with every update, so I'll invest more time in perfecting those programs, which can be used in any school with a projector.

I plan on adding an 'About Me' section with contact information soon. I think I'll be creating a little Prezi to introduce myself.  Deuces!