answer: to blog

though i am not wild about blogging (http://caitcull.blogspot.com/2009/10/to-blog-or-not-to-blog.html), there are some ed tech requirements that i must fulfill, and fulfill them i will! which brings me to my most recent high school classroom musings...

as a graduate student well-trained in the art of getting by in school, class requirements are laws i always choose to follow, even when i don't like or agree with them. this mindset, coupled with a handful of other personal attributes, helped me make it through that place they call "high school" and has carried me through post-secondary schooling. requirements, mandates, and compulsories don't necessarily strike fear in my heart, but they do have a strange power over some of my better senses... no matter how last-minute i may complete an assignment, i always complete it because it says i should on the syllabus. 

this raises two sets of questions, neither of which i can really answer:

1. how does one acquire this fear of getting a zero on an assignment? could i instill this same quality in my tenth graders who overwhelmingly have yet to turn in a single assignment (including classwork)? 

2. do i want students to fear the consequences of not turning in an assignment? would hoping for such an attitude diminish students' capacity to think critically about their surroundings and prevalent power structures?

i understand the importance of classwork and homework in checking student comprehension... yet, if students are not completing this work, how meaningful are these assessments? is keeping track of that long string of zeros in a gradebook benefitting the student in any way, particularly when that same student doesn't take any actions to change her/his grade? and do those zeros help the teacher in her/his job to educate that same pupil?

to blog or not to blog?

i've been putting off blog posting for quite some time now, and it is with great trepidation that i write this first post after the summer... having been in my placement school for almost two months now, there is plenty to talk/write/vent/brag about with my mac colleagues (and really anyone willing to read/listen)! and for the past two months, i've done exactly that in almost every monday-thursday evening class. so why repeat the same sentiments in written form on this blog? 

the answer: i have no idea. 

actually, let me amend my answer a bit... i generally understand the intent of getting secondary mac-ers to write new blog posts, comment on others' blogs, listen to podcasts, and eventually do some live-blogging. requiring us grad students to participate in these forms of media and expression encourages the ongoing use of these forms long after graduation and into our professional lives.  yet, i can't quite figure how to integrate these blogs and 'casts into the classroom, and keeping up with them for the express purpose of sharing my thoughts with those on the interwebs (read: other secondary mac-ers) is not a compelling enough reason for me to post more than the required amount. as i watch my time in grad school slowly trickle by, more and more the program becomes a sort of talking/writing/venting/bragging session, and less and less i find useful content to take away from classes... so, going above and beyond the 9+ hours per week already spent just jabbing away about everyone's placements, everyone's thoughts on educational issues, and everyone's hypotheses about appropriate reactions to problems in the classroom seems a bit gratuitous, no?