How would you use a blog in your profession?

I like to use my blog as a way to express my opinions for current issues involving my profession. In the past, I've expressed my opinion concerning union issues, new online programs that I use with my students, and issues involving the Hawaii Department of Education.

I'd like to know how you would use a blog in your profession?

Our Concerns Finally Realized

The Honolulu Magazine published a piece in it latest May 2009 issue, titled "Do Teachers Make the Grade?" It wasn't so much about teacher bashing as the title might suggest. It highlighted key concerns from all levels of the educational system in Hawaii as well as the nation. It also brought to light a few of the concerns and complaints that teachers and administrators have with the current system and the union.

As for the issues with the union, the Hawaii State Teacher Association, I like to consider myself a strong union supporter. I stand behind most of the decisions that my union has made (and waiver behind the not so popular decisions, as with the recent drug-testing issue). But I have to agree with the notion that our union does a fine job of protecting teachers who do not belong in the educational field. The union supports seniority over accountability, and that has negatively impacted the level of teacher quality in Hawaii. I have had my fair share of experiencing poor teacher quality and all I can do is shake my head in disbelief. This year, because of seniority rights, state level Department of Education employees, some of which have been out of the classroom for 5, 10, even 15 years, were downsized from the positions and forced back into the classrooms. Principals, who would have rather kept high quality, up-to-date teachers were forced to take the state level employees due to seniority. Rather unfair if you ask me. Not unfair to the state level employee of course, but unfair to the students, the parents, and the community. This sort of thing should not be tolerated and needs to be changed.

With all of this and more made public, I hope it will stir the debate and cause some much needed change in the system. But with the extreme budget cuts for several years to come, will we see change anytime soon?

The Pain of a DOE WAN network.

I am currently frustrated at my Department of Education's WAN network blocking access to Shutterfly through our school computers. It claims that it is a social networking site and therefore should not be accessed at school. However, Scholastic.com offers Shutterfly as a free photo sharing service to showcase class photos through their Classroom Homepage Builder, which allows teachers to create free class webpages.

I've been using Shutterfly to share my class photos so families can see, print, and order from home since last school year and it was just recently that the DOE began blocking the site. I sent an e-mail to their help desk about two months ago but have not received a reply or explanation.

Today, I visited my school's technology coordinator to see if he has better connections with the DOE's network administration. He was able to send an inquiry e-mail to the man who is in charge of the network. Hopefully he will respond soon. I am also hopeful that they will allow access to Shutterfly once again.

KidBiz3000 Update.

We finished up our first KidBiz3000 article before the Thanksgiving holiday. For the most part, it was a success. A few students had to take parent notes home for incomplete work, but successful overall.

The quality of their e-mail replies and "thought question" responses were not what I was expecting. Quality response writing has been a struggle, though, since the beginning of the year, so it's a work-in-progress.

However, most students would frequently check their mailbox and reply back if I asked them to. If their reply didn't answer my question or if I felt they could do better, I would ask them to clarify and write back, and the students did willingly and excitedly. It was like having a personal discussion with each of my students, and I think for them, they felt like they mattered just as much as the next student.

I'll be assigning our last KidBiz3000 article for the semester next week, Monday, and the students will have to have it completed by the 19th, our last day of school. I'm hoping that improvements will be made the second time around.

KidBiz3000 (continued...)

In my last post, I mentioned a little bit about my school's effort in the use of KidBiz3000 (a product of Achieve3000), an online non-fiction reading program. Read my last post if you would like to learn more.

It has now been 6 days since I e-mailed my students their first news article, and it has been mostly a success. I say mostly, but not at the fault of KidBiz3000, but at the lack of my students' ability to think critically and write an appropriately formatted e-mail.

However, I continue to see much potential in this program and the doors that could be opened once this program is used in full force. For example, with the constant e-mailing and replying that my students and I are conducting, it almost feels like a wiki in the works. I could give my students a news article to read on KidBiz3000, then post a response question on the classroom wiki and let my students converse, debate, and validate their ideas until their hearts' content. They could further research the topic posed in the article and post their findings for other students to view on the classroom wiki, as well.

I've been so fascinated by the potential of a classroom wiki and can't wait until I get one started. KidBiz3000 might just be my doorway to this new adventure.

KidBiz3000.

My fourth grade students started using the online non-fiction reading program called KidBiz3000 yesterday. It's a website in which students access with a username and password. They receive a current news article in their mailbox by the teacher. The article is tailored to each child's specific reading level (which is determined with a reading pre-assessment). They are then required to reply back to the teacher by answering a question that is related to the article. After they reply, they then read the article and complete a few tasks, which inlude a quick multiple choice activity, a short response, and a class poll. The students also have the option of playing various games, completing a math activity, reading funny jokes, and solving puzzles. This is all conducted within the website which students can access from any computer. Pretty neat stuff!

The school complex that I work in purchased the program for each elementary school at the beginning of the year (as a three year contract). We tried implementing KidBiz3000 at the beginning of the year, but the company's servers weren't ready to handle our large school population, so there were many bugs to work out.

Another neat feature for teachers and administrators (although it could also be a downfall) is that teachers have complete access to student behaviors within the program. I am able to check whether each of my students has completed all tasks, when exactly they completed each individual task, and at what level they completed the task. Students also have the option to e-mail each other (as this time, I have that feature disabled though) and I am able to view all e-mails that are being sent to all students.

Our technology department, after countless hours of communication with the company, felt the program was ready at the beginning of the second quarter. So my grade level and I decided to give KidBiz3000 article assignments as homework. They have to complete all tasks with in a two week period. We're taking this new venture really slow, because, as teachers, we're not sure what to expect from the students. I think, later in the year, we'll assign articles to be completed in a shorter amount of time.

As I previously stated, my students started their first article last night for homework. I haven't checked my mailbox yet to read any student replies, but I'm really excited to do so! I love the endless possiblities of integrating technology into the classroom and I'll definitely give anything a try. I'll keep my blog updated as we continue with KidBiz3000.

Require teachers to work without pay? I don't think so.

Star Bulletin (Nov. 7, 2008): DOE pitches 6-day closure to cut spending

Our faithful superintendent, Pat Hamamoto, proposes that the DOE require employees to work for four days for free in order to save money next year. A boss should never suggest that his or her employees work for free. That is horrible work ethic.

Another proposal is to take away all teacher work days, rather, professional development days. Not only are we already facing a loss of professional development (workshops, guest speakers, conferences, etc.) due to budget cuts, but now we might lose our only days in which we can have professional development. How does the DOE expect us to improve our quality of teaching if they take away our time to make those improvements?

What made me laugh hysterically was that Pat Hamamoto said that her favorite plan was the "work for free" plan. Because we should dedicate our time to helping our students whether we get paid or not. I'm all for helping my students succeed, but I need to be able to afford my bills first if I'm going to direct my attention towards my students.

I'm eager to see how this plays out with the union and fellow educators. Might we have another strike on our hands...?