What it seems is that she lacks motivation. To get her to be motivated you would have to appeal to her mathematical mind. Have her be the logic based part of the group, manage the time, make outlines. People that are usually math oriented are logic oriented people. I would also try to find something that intrinsically motivates her, something along the lines of a reward. It is very hard to make someone motivated from one exercise, so this will be an ongoing thing. You have to appeal to what makes her interested in and that she can do while also trying to find a reward system. In the future you can ween her off of rewards. You could also ask her to make a timeline or something that can be concrete. Also make her opinions valued, kids that grow up in broken homes are defensive and they feel they need to assert there dominance because they lack importance at home. Try and make her a leader in the group but have some kind of democracy intact. This will help her learn to work well with others while still feeling like she has some kind of control. It is hard to really say what is needed to be done without actually being there and assessing the situation there. I am going to be more of a in person kind of teacher taking things as they come and interacting in the real world. I don't do so well with hypothetical because it takes out one of my best ways to figure stuff out and that is being actually faced with the real problem.

Everything in Moderation.

I believe that there are a few criteria that can make anything educational. It something is fun, engaging, productive, teaches unknown knowledge, provides growth mentally, improves coordination, improves social interaction, creates real world simulation among a myriad of like-intentioned things then I believe it is beneficial. Now what is interesting is that video games can provide a template for all of these things and more. Video games that are appropriate can be so beneficial for the education of students.

I read an article online that said games like Sim City, Zoo Tycoon and other simulation games teach kids about real life situations. It teaches them about money, about managing resources, about cities and how they work, about animals, interactions between many different complicated ideas and an endless other things. It provides an engaging environment that students and children have to learn about and process to be successful in the game and, by extension, the real world. Games like Age of Empires teaches about history and shows how people use to live through many stages of history, some games are historically accurate. Video games are adapted from the world around us and lend insight to many facets of information; I can’t see why that shouldn’t be encouraged.

Not all games are good though, but still are not bad. Shoot-em-up games are not always the best thing to do but even that improves hand eye coordination. There are games that do that that are not violent. There has to be, like anything, moderation, games can be time consuming and distract from more tangible assessments like writing papers and doing homework. We shouldn’t ever write them off as useless but learn how to incorporate them into a modern curriculum.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/1879019.stm

Fourth Blog: Setting a Course in Technology

--Thinking back to my kindergarten experience this class has a leg up on me. It was very interesting to see the students so engaged in the classroom and actually genuinely excited for the lessons. Anything that can get kids invested in what they learn and actually makes them want to learn is very exciting. I wish I had had access to the technologies then have when I was a kid and hopefully this will foster excitement in learning that will follow them all the way to the high school level where I will be teaching at.
--The teachers where using something that I saw in middle school. That technology is the Smart Board, a very powerful tool. This allows them instant access to the internet with just clicking on the board they teach on. Any information they would want is at their fingertips. If students have questions that the teacher may not know the teacher can just click a few times and access that information. Kids are sponges at that point and having the supply of information that can keep up with their interest in it is a very important factor in today's schools. I saw a teacher showing how a “b” can look like a “d” but is not the same thing by placing them over each other, this eliminates a lot of confusion that children have about letters and spelling. These boards can help literacy and give kids a real world view of their lessons. They were also using a karaoke type machine to help the entire class hear what they were saying because sometimes a child's voice doesn't carry very well and this helps the students really pay attention to what there classmate was saying.
--Seeing stuff like this makes really glad that I am deciding to become a te4acher. The kids of the future will be more attached to technology and that means they have access to an endless sea of wisdom. Hopefully this trend continues into my teaching life and beyond.

Third Blog: Uncreative Education

--First off that was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a boring twenty minute lecture and it was far from it. I agree very much with Sir Robinson. He voiced something that I have been seeing myself. I have been seeing the arts being taken out of schools and quite recently huge cuts from the high school I attended in the music program. I believe that teaching kids to think abstractly is the most important thing you can do. Teaching kids to come up with ways to figure things out over running a machine more efficiently. Without creativity in the human mind then nothing would have ever been accomplished and we should look at hat fact and act accordingly. The only way to act accordingly in that sense is to teach kids that creativity is paramount. With it then none of the other subjects would have been realized in the first place. The first words spoken were born of creativity and out of the same creativity the solutions to the futures problems will be answered, if we let them.
--I wish my parents had fostered creativity in me. I wish they saw me for the sponge I was when I was younger and made me learn piano or guitar or another language. But they didn't so I found my own creative outlet when I was a young teen. I wrote a lot, little things at first then short stories so slowly now I am working on a book. This was brought on by the fact that I loved (and still do) to read. Reading is something that I value above not much else, maybe music but they are tied into each more than more people realize. In school they always were trying to get me on ADHD medicine and other things like that and never saw the fact that I was always reading when I wasn't bouncing off the walls. I loved music but never had the money for an instrument, which still pains me today as I am just learning guitar. I would have given so much for a guitar when I was younger. I was always excited for Mr. Rosettas music class, the only teachers name I remember other than Mr. Dagle, my art teacher when I was young. I also enjoy drawing and painting and sketching all the time now. In class it even helps me pay attention to be drawing. I wish my teachers had noticed what I was doing and actually fostered creativity in me instead of just saying: “You are too hyper, sit down and write your math equations over and over and over and over again till recess is done.” I am going to make it a point when I am teaching English to bring out as much creativity and abstract thoughts from my students as I can possibly manage.

Second Blog: Technology in Education experience

--When i was a student i had the great advantage of going to schools where technology was practical and everywhere. It is weird is was that way becuase i am from the middle of nowhere Vermont. But my elementary school all had tech carts that had Mac Books that were available for use in the school and home. We had something called Smart Boards that allowed the teachers to project an image and write on it among other things. When i got into high school i was graced again with access to technology. I had the access of various computer labs and the teachers pretty mucyh knew what was going on. We also had a technology teacher that offered various tech based classes. we also had the option of going to a Vocational Career Center about 30 miles north of us. There we could take computer tech, culinary arts, health car services, automotive tech, welding and various other courses. Overall i have been blessed with the technology and the chance to use it very often while attending school.

First Blog: Me as a learner, as a person, tech. history.

--Since being at college it seems like very teacher has a way of asking the same question. That question is: how do I learn? I have become well versed in explaining this over the last few times. I know that I have a decent memory and that I can learn from reading the material, or listening or by doing it out. I most like listening because i am by heart a lazy person and that takes the less amount of actual work. So i like to learn by lecture because I have no real problem remembering what was told to me or at least enough to get average grades, which is OK with me right now.
--My experience with technology has been extremely in depth as far as my education goes. When i was in high school i took a vocational degree program called Networking and Computer science. It was taught be an instructor that used something called Cisco Netacad to asses us. We took the test online and our text was online as well. I have access forever to the new versions of the text because i took the class. In the class i had high enough grades for them to pay for my A+ certification. Since then i have been working for desktop support at the schools i have attended and in the field as well.
--I worked as a network engineer out of high school for a wireless ISP called Great Auk Wireless in Vermont. There I had my first impressions that tech work was not for me. I was very bored with what i was doing and depressed that it was not the life i thought it was. Once a network is up and running it takes very little to keep it that way. It does not take about 40 -60 hours a week which i was working. Then at VTC i took computer and software engineering and that was the final straw, i knew tech work was not for me because i would be so bored all my life. I now have decided to teach.