Should cellphones be used in learning?

I do not think cellphones should be used in learning. The reasons why I feel they should not be allowed is the prevalence of texting, inappropriate use of cameras and video recorders, and the apps and games on modern phones would serve as a distraction for students.

Students are already sneaking their phones out in class to send text messages. While many of the texts are harmless conversation, they do provide a major distraction to the classroom environment. I also had a student who was on drugs and talking about a knife he had texting in the classroom. Whether he was trying to get more drugs, plan an assault on someone, or simply talking to someone I will never know, but I do know that wihout a ban on cell phones in the classroom he could have texted anything he wanted.

The news has had many stories in recent years about students sending inappropriate photos and videos of themselves with cell phones. Openly allowing cell phones in the classroom would increase the possibility of students abusing the privilege. At my placement there have also been past issues with students recording other students and instructors to make fun of them later.

The final reason I think cell phones should not be used in the classroom is because of the distraction they would be to students. The age of the basic flip phone is over and even the most basic phones now have numerous applications and games to cause a classroom distraction. Some may argue that the teachers should regulate the cell phone use, but due to the small size and easily concealed nature of modern phones that would be nearly impossible. In computer apps it can be hard enough to monitor the more than 20 students and what they are doing on a 17" screen, imagine trying to monitor what each student is doing on their phones 2"-4" screen.

The abilities of modern cell phones combined with the risk to student privacy make me think that cell phones are not appropriate for the classroom.

Peer Review

I thought the peer review was very valuable. It was great to give and get feedback from other student teachers who are in the same position as myself. It was also good to see the methods another student teacher uses in their classroom. It also gave me perspective on difficulties that others are having when student teaching, such as connecting content back to student experiences.

I enjoyed reviewing a peer's lesson and found it informational. I did find it hard to say negative things about a peer, knowing how hard it has been to get better at teaching myself. I tried to be as positive as possible, and luckily, had a talented peer to review.

Peer review is on the domains rubric, because it is a good way to have students think critically and be exposed to how other students complete assignments. It can help students realize areas they are talented in and areas they need to improve in relation to their classmates. One way to implement peer review would be on the current event articles we use in business explorations. Students could note how other students write and make suggestions about how to improve the other student's work. Also, by noticing things that are giving other students problems, they may realize something that they are doing wrong and need to improve.

Learning Center 1: Business Law

I am in the middle of my unit on business law and wanted to bring in some hands on experience with the main 3 topics we have been discussing so far; The U.S. Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and how a bill becomes a law.

I laid out 3 tables with information on each of the three topics for students, including replica and typed versions of the documents. Each student was given a packet of papers with questions to work on as a group at each station. Some of the questions were designed just to get them to look through the documents for answers, while other were to make them apply the knowledge and make their own opinions. I also left out post it notes at each table, encouraging students to ask questions that would "Stump the Teacher" that I would research the answers for them. The next day I gave them a sheet with the answers to the stump the teacher questions and we discussed them in class.

The U.S. Constitution

At the table with the U.S. Constitution, students were asked questions they could locate by looking the Constitution, such as:

How many articles are in the Constitution?
What powers do article II, Section II grant?
List two powers denied to the states.
What branch has the power to collect taxes?
How many senators does each state elect?

I used these questions to get the students actively looking through the Constitution and developing their questions for me. I then asked some higher level questions to try and get the students thinking, such as:

Why is article V important?
Look through the list of amendments and see if there are any that surprise you or you disagree with.

Unfortunately, I did not get too many responses to the second question. I did bring things to the students' attention, like I found it shocking women were not allowed to vote until 1920.

The Bill of Rights

At the table for The Bill of Rights, students were again asked basic and higher level questions. The questions asked for the Bill of Rights were as follows:

What does the 8th Amendment protect citizens against?
Why is the First Amendment important?
What do you think probable cause means?
List 3 protections of the 5th Amendment.
What do you think are the most important amendments in The Bill of Rights?
Do you think any of the amendments are no longer relevant?

In this section I received a much better student response on the higher level questions. A student who hunted made his case that the Second Amendment was most important. Other students argued that First and Fifth amendments were the most important to them. Several students also felt the amendment preventing the forced quartering of soldiers was no longer relevant. To make the student think more about the amendment against quartering soldiers, I proposed the hypothetical situation that if the country was invaded in the future, would she want to feed and house a platoon of soldiers.

I also liked having the students explain parts of The Bill of Rights. Each amendment is at least several sentences, forcing them to pull out key words and phrases and describe them in their own words. Any time a student tried to read word for word from The Bill of Rights, I would ask them to explain what it meant to the class.


How a Bill Becomes a Law

In this section I had a flowchart showing the process of how a bill becomes a law. The first thing that I had the students do was fill in the blank flowchart on the right in their own words while reading the original on the left. I felt it was important to reinforce the process, while also giving each of the students another study guide. I then gave them a set of questions just like in the other sections.

Out of the approximately 10,000 bills proposed each year, how many do you think become law?
What is the purpose of the conference committee?
When Congress passes a bill and sends it to the President, what are the President's 2 options?
What majority is needed in both houses to override a veto?
How often do you think vetoes are overridden? Explain your answer.

After the students had been to all 3 tables we reviewed the answers to the questions and discussed some of their opinions on the activity. Overall the student response to the project was very positive. We also went through their stump the teacher questions, of which there were four I could not answer off the top of my head. I am including them here in case anyone is curious about them, maybe you can use them to stump your students and get them to research the answers.

What does ex post facto law mean?
      This I actually did have the correct answer to, but not the correct latin phrase, "from the action".
Where does separation of church and state appear?
     The phrase never appears in either the Constitution or The Bill of Rights. The line has been inferred from 
     the First Amendment by the Supreme Court.
Why was the 20th Amendment created?
     The 20th Amendment reduced the "lame duck" period for Congress and the President from March to
     January.
When was the most recent overridden veto?
     George W. Bush on July 15, 2008. The President's veto was overridden, passing the Medicare
     Improvements for Patients and Providers Act.

Blog Report

I chose the CogDogBlog, located at http://cogdogblog.com/. The author is Alan Levine, an instructional technology designer. He has been working with technology in schools since 1993. I selected this blog because of my personal interest in technology and the amount of experience the author has. The blog posting I chose was about the BBC's Dimensions project.

The dimensions project aims to show the size of important historical items laid on top of current satellite maps. This can be a great tool for teachers trying to relate the scale of something, such as the Titanic, to their students. For example, they could overlay the titanic over a satellite image of the school they are in. They could also show the D-Day landings at Normandy in relation to the size of their state. I think this could be a great tool for classrooms, getting the students engaged in the program while helping them to understand the scale of historic events and items.

Assessment 2.0

Assessment 2.0 is referring to new assessments that will, in theory, be able to test our students ability to use higher level thinking than a simple test of knowledge on a multiple choice test. The article talks in length about how great assessment 2.0 is, but fails to explain how it will work. The article says it will put students into problem solving scenarios using computers and measure their cognitive abilities. However, I fail to see how an answer input into a computer can give any better knowledge of student achievement than an answer put into a bubble test. I think the only way to truly gauge a student's grasp of higher order thinking is through assessments that test their skills without using preset answers. Unfortunately, not every educator is infallible or grades in the same manner, making higher order skills nearly impossible to measure with any standardized test.

I believe core standards are needed to ensure all 50 states are teaching students the same skills at each grade level. The current system where each state can set it's own standards makes comparing student achievement between states being nearly impossible. It can also hurt any student who moves between states, resulting in a student that is over or under prepared for school in their new state.

I believe with the level of technology we currently possess that only standardized bubble tests can truly be both reliable and valid. I feel that computer technology is not to the point where it can determine a student's level of thinking and that educators/administrators may skew results to paint themselves in a positive light. I think the best solution at this time is to create national standards and better train educators. Educators and students must both be held more accountable for their actions. Where I am currently student teaching, teachers are required to give students at least a 60 on their report card, regardless of student achievement. Rather than passing unprepared students for the sake of making graduation rates higher or meeting AYP, schools must begin to hold back students who are not ready for the next grade. Educators must be held to higher standards, and unfit teachers should not be allowed to hide behind tenure or unions.

First days of school

The first days of school are important because they set the tone for the entire class. During the first few days, the rules and a routine are established. Students and teachers may make opinions of each other that can be hard to change later in the year.

My co-op used activities during the first day to help the students and herself learn everyone's names.