Thursday, September 29, 2011

Technology Self-Assessment: 2.0

NETS-T 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
“Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity”
Ken Robinson's speech was brought to me through Classroom 2.0's NET-S standard (1) which is facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity. Ken starts out his speech by speaking about the unpredictability of education. He introduces the idea that educators are supposed to be teaching students to prepare them for a time that they themselves know nothing about. (In 2006) Students starting kindergarten will be retiring by 2065. He says that despite all expertise, we do not know what to expect, therefore, do not really know what to teach.  He explains that children are born creative, and later grow up to become educated out of it. He says that “If kids don’t know, they will take a go” meaning that they are not necessarily afraid of being wrong. Although, this idea does not pertain to adults because we have learned to be afraid of being wrong.  Ken educates us on the original purpose of public education: To accommodate industrialization and later produce university professors. Therefore, creative arts were not (and are not) as important as subjects such as math and science. This inevitably leads to many artistic students feeling unintelligent because their skills are not valued in pubic education.  Ken speaks of a successful choreographer that had a problem fidgeting in school and explained that today would have probably been diagnosed with ADHD.  Her teacher recognized this  and recommended that she attend a dance school so that she could express herself through movement, while today she would have most likely been prescribed something to calm her down. The main point of this is that as educators today, we need to embrace creativity in our students. “Our task is to educate their whole being.”



Thursday, September 15, 2011

Journal #1 100 Things That Make Me Happy

Journal #1
       i.            My roommates
    ii.            The fam damily
 iii.            The homies
  iv.            My down comforter
     v.            My down pillows
  vi.            My sleep number bed
vii.            My scented candle from IKEA that was only a dollar! (came in handy during the blackout)
viii.            My beta fish, Wayne
  ix.            Wayne’s [squidward] house
     x.            Tricks that Wayne does
  xi.             Playing tennis
xii.            Watching tennis with my dad
xiii.            Barbeques
xiv.            The beach
 xv.            My job
xvi.            All the kids that I’ve worked with
xvii.            The joy of teaching a kid something new
xviii.            Skateboarding
xix.            When the kids call me “shaynequa”
 xx.            A clean kitchen
xxi.            A clean room
xxii.            Reggae music
xxiii.            Our balcony
xxiv.            Visiting my family
xxv.            My nieces
xxvi.            Traveling
xxvii.            An adrenaline rush
xxviii.            Across the Universe the movie
xxix.            Weeds the show
xxx.            Nancy Botwin
xxxi.            Going to the gym
xxxii.            The dancing ghost on our TV… why its there I don’t know
xxxiii.            Sea shells
xxxiv.            Shark week
xxxv.            A good ole skype sesh with my high school buddies
xxxvi.            Free food
xxxvii.            U-hour
xxxviii.            The Endless Summer
xxxix.            Double Peak Park aka the top of the world
  xl.            The smell of rain
xli.            Coupons
xlii.            The satisfaction of being independent
xliii.            Feminism
xliv.            Knowledge
xlv.            Philosophy
xlvi.            Into the Wild the movie
xlvii.            Reading
xlviii.            Documentaries
xlix.            The plant we bought that we swore we would water but keep forgetting
       l.            Living in a gated community
    li.            Volunteer work
 lii.            Feeling confident
liii.            Sunsets
liv.            Waking up feeling refreshed
  lv.            Getting mah tan on
lvi.            Simplicity
lvii.            Stumbleupon .com
lviii.            Highdeas
lix.            The silver-T
  lx.            LaToya
lxi.            Not dying in any of my car accidents
lxii.            All of the trials that I’ve overcome
lxiii.            Accepting myself
lxiv.            New food creations
lxv.            New forms of comfort
lxvi.            Disneyland
lxvii.            Sporting events
lxviii.            Ottomans
lxix.            Venice beach
lxx.            Old photos
lxxi.            Utah
lxxii.            Mac n’ cheese when there’s just nothing left
lxxiii.            Getting groceries from my parents pantry
lxxiv.            Incense
lxxv.            Air conditioning
lxxvi.            My major
lxxvii.            Concerts
lxxviii.            Country music
lxxix.            Lil’ Wayne when he’s not being sexist
lxxx.            When I come through to someone
lxxxi.            Drunken conversations
lxxxii.            Beer can towers
lxxxiii.            When the beer can tower falls
lxxxiv.            Not picking up the beer can tower that fell
lxxxv.            The river
lxxxvi.            Being secluded
lxxxvii.            Camping
lxxxviii.            Hiking
lxxxix.            Accomplishing goals
 xc.            Making my parents proud
xci.            Nintendo 64
xcii.            Mario kart/Mario tennis
xciii.            Sega Genesis
xciv.            Mortal Kombat/Street fighter
xcv.            Arcades
xcvi.            Batting cages
xcvii.            Old friends
xcviii.            Driving with the windows down
xcix.            The microwave
      c.            Barstools

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

My First Blog Ever!


I'm Shay Johnson. I grew up in the warm.. dry.. valley of Murrieta California and I went to all Murrieta public schools. There I played tennis competetively since I was about eight years old. Currently I am attending Cal State San Marcos as a kinesiology major with a PE subdivision. After I graduate I plan on getting my teaching certification as well as a certification in Adapted PE. I currently work at costco and on and off at the Ecke YMCA where I've taught kids how to skateboard and ran outdoor games at an after-school program.

In some ways I agree that technology can be an amazing thing with many benefits, but I personally choose to reject a lot of up and coming technology for mainly financial purposes. I'm not very big on discovering "the new thing", but I can appreciate the knowledge it takes to create a lot of it. My overall experience with technology over the years includes a lot of hair pulling frusteration, so this class I believe will be quite a challenge for me.

The part of the CSUSM Mission statement that stood out to me was the idea of student-centered education. When I think of "student-centered" I think of professors basing their curriculum around the student and involving us in hands on work like class disscusions etc. I really enjoy that type of learning.