EDIM 508 u07a1 GoodWork Project, blogs and podcasts

I feel that as a professional, I have already been doing lots of different things to ensure that I am continuously developing each of my five minds. I think one of the reasons for being enrolled in the EDIM program is so that my disciplined mind expands to include not only the realm of chemistry teacher but that it grows to encompass a digitalized chemistry teacher. On a personal front I have begum to explore painting and have enjoyed my foray into this area of my creative mind.

Although not a blog, I have contacted the GoodWork Project organizers and will be asking for funding to purchase the kit for the use in our school. This project was mentioned in Gardner’s book and centers on promoting excellence and ethics in our professions. I have received the introductory package and I know that many of the scenarios would easily be adaptable for my science classes. The kit will also be very useful for our Theory of Knowledge teachers who cover ethics as a part of their course syllabus. I definitely will be sharing this with my staff when school resumes in September…they will be sick and tired of hearing from me!!

I have two professional goals in regards to areas where I want to improve and keep up-to-date – technology use in the classroom and keeping up with current science. There are several different sites that I can use to help me achieve these goals, one blog and three different podcasts. I have been referring to Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch blog on educational technology over the years and it is the reason that I heard about this program through Discovery Education. This blog is very teacher friendly and keeps jargon to a minimum, all the while enlightening teachers with up-to-date uses of educational technology. Although a very busy professional she still finds the time to update the blog regularly with posts about a variety of educational technology uses. Her accompanying webpage is also very useful.

I try to bring current science stories into my classroom whenever I can; it is surprising how few students read the paper or news online. They may read the gossip news or entertainment news but rarely do they spend time doing much educational reading online. I have wanted to incorporate a science news summary into my class either as a journaling activity or a class presentation on a weekly basis but have been worried about the time that these activities would need. As well not all of my students have access to a computer at home and with a mound of content knowledge that has to delivered; I am not sure how to set aside enough time for students to successfully engage in this project during class time. I do subscribe to several RSS feeds on my Blog and my Moodle site that students have access to and I start my lessons with a brief discussion on some of the recent science highlights. To help keep up-to-date with the science there are several podcasts that do a great job at delivering fast paced and interesting stories – Science podcast, Scientific American podcast and Quirks and Quarks podcast. The Scientific American podcast is particularly useful for classroom use as it has daily 60 second podcasts which cover a wide variety of science topics. Quirks and Quarks is a Canadian produced radio show that takes a Canadian perspective on many scientific topics as well as having a focus on the international endeavors of scientists. The weekly Science podcast covers topics across the scientific disciplines and provides transcripts of the podcasts. Using Voicethread or creating forums may be one way to incorporate a science journaling activity that would not require much additional class time.

Through the course of the class I have learned many new skills and hope to implement some of them in my classroom. Exposing my students to different forms of digital media will better prepare them for the technology rich future that will exist when they leave high school. It will also give them more meaning and enjoyment while they are in my classes at high school. I will start by incorporating a few ideas and then work on gaining access to the additional technology so all students can gain access.