Vocational Students

Is it OK to for states to steer some students toward vocational degrees and away from college?

110 total responses

• Yes
• 71% (79)

• No
• 28% (31)

Educational Polls Where I got the above information

This really surprised me.  Maybe it's the wording of the question... "Steer students toward" vs. "Accept that students want."  No all students are interested in "traditional" college degrees and for some students, especially in the economy we've seen the last several years, learning a trade could help lay a foundation for their future.  I graduated vo-tech and high school in 2007 and accumulated some scholarship money that I applied toward attending Ohio Tech. College.  I wanted to learn a trade that I could always fall back on and I got my certifications in collision and non-structural MIG welding.  I learned other skills too, like airbrushing and pin-striping.  Think of all the different trades out there!  Not only do people need to fill those jobs but knowing those skills can help you in your own life!  I can woodwork- I don't need to buy cabinets, I can make my own.  I can change my own oil or fix my car if it's in a wreck, I can change my own tires (this could go on..).  I know how to sew (some people don't consider that a trade, but I do).  There's people out there, I know because I've met my fair share, that think vo-tech is a waste of time... That kills me- and so does the connotations attached to 'vo-tech kids' because I was involved in SkillsUSA and National Technical Honor Society, organizations which helped me pay for Ohio Tech.  I graduated OTC 12/08 and had a job lined up in a shop before I moved back home.  I worked there just shy of a year before I was ready to go back to school.
Everybody has a different path in mind, and for students (especially) who don't know what they want to do, a vocational program could help them learn important life skills while they figure out what path is right for them.

Drama in classrooms

"A third general function stems from the fact that dramatic work unfolds in time: it is about living through experience" (52). I don't know how many times I've had it pounded into my head that a person's culture is the sum of their experiences. I think using kinestheic learning for students could be an opprotunity to use drama for interpretation and reflection. I know somethings I've learned throughout life, I've had to learn by doing (simply impossible to learn by reading or watching, for example: welding). But with drama, I think a teacher will always run into the problem of students not wanting to act in front of one another.  Or, futher, you know that classmate who hates public speaking or presenting to the class? To them, this would be like running naked through the quad. I understand the value in using drama in classrooms for multiple purposes but as educators, we'll have to be sensitive to some students' fears- what is pushing them, and what is pushing them too far?

Our Class Requirements

The picture below is of a SRU student named Josh, who I know because he is the President of Pro-Life SRU (which I'm a member of).  Josh posted this on Facebook and I wanted to share it because I had just been having a similar conversation with someone (regarding scheduling and some of the classes we have to take).  As a Secondary-Ed English major I have to take a few classes I'm really not looking forward to taking, and I think I could get so much greater value from taking a class that I WANT to take.  For example, instead of taking intro to music/dance/theater, I'd rather take Civil Liberties (from the Pol.Sci. department).  Instead of taking one of the required communications classes (because I've taken public speaking and intercultural communications), I'd rather take Intro. to Russian or Women in Politics.  We've all found ourselves in this position?  Why is the system the way it is?  There's better uses for our time and our money, and those so-called "filler" classes should be something we want to take for personal enrichment.  If the only reason we're required to take them is to make us more 'well-rounded' by taking courses out of our major, shouldn't we have more choice?

Lit Circles

I felt like... When I was reading this article (Wiki Lit. Circles--- by E. Edmonson) and thinking about an online literature circle, I kept thinking "discussion board" in the back on my head.  I don't think that's engaging, and that's what we're trying to accomplish, right?  Turning your desks in a circle, in class, and being able to actively engage one another makes a huge difference!  The responses are immediate and you can agree, disagree, and conversate face-to-face (even non verbals help in a setting like this).  I just feel like you take so much more away from a 'live' literature circle than a virtual one.  Reading this, you can't tell my tone of voice, my inflection, my pauses for thought... I think if a teacher is trying to find ways to incorporate different mediums into their curriculum, there are much more effective places to put it (prime example would be some of the tools we've shared in class, and their different uses).  Even something as simple as a student can't verbally complete a thought (maybe they don't have the right word, but they have the right idea) and another student or teacher can jump in and help... that's another example of immediate feedback- that's valuable, it shows support.

Shakespeare

I'm sure like most or all of you, I had to read Shakespeare in high school.  I hated it.  I didn't understand it and the teacher had us read the parts (which was a terrible, monotone, stumbling mess).  What could have made this better?  Possible ideas:

• watch a video (get to hear character voice inflections, tone, etc.)
• discuss the language and why it was used, not just analyze what it means
• explain why we're reading it, for reasons beyond it's "classic" or "timeless"

In Brit Lit I we just finished King Lear.  Okay, it's not much different than the ones I read in high school, I thought.  Then I get to HDEL later in the day and Dr. Pitard discusses the actual meanings of thee and thou, who used them, and why they were used.  Turns out, they were used to show class rank, and you may use thee or thou to talk to a person/people who were below you.  He gave us the example of Richard III (?) hitting on the widow at the funeral of her husband, who he murdered.  The entire conversation she refers to him with the th- words (like the king is below her) until the end of the conversation, where he realized he's "got her" because it changes to you/your (like he's an equal).  That's interesting!  Things like that would have made the story a lot more intriguing instead of just thinking it was funny language.

 

Ian Mckellen and Annette Benning in Richard III 1995

Shafer

I really liked Shafer's idea about interviewing literary figures and I think that could be incredibly versitile.  Both authors could be interviewed and characters (static and protagonist) because it would show different angles of the material- even static characters could give insight from an on-looker point-of-view.  I think incorporating what they learned from this exercise with a video project, they could  shoot the story, etc., as is, but shoot scenes from a different point-of-view than they read.  (Imagine how differnt The Outsiders would be from Bob Sheldon's P.O.V.)  I was trying to think if I ever did a project like this in school, but nothing came to mind.  I think the idea makes a great project but I'd be concered with the time and class size- I can't see myself trying to accomplish this with a big class, but maybe a smaller, AP class or club?  A way around that may be to have them story board, because that can be done in class or at home- which I still think would be very valuable to the main idea behind the project- understanding view points, angles, lighting, etc.

Podcast

I don't want to say anything I'm going to put in my write-up about the podcast, but can I at least say.... I definately see the value in this.  I think I'll use it after I get some more practice of not sounding like the guy from clear eyes while I talk. hah

Don't think I'm some radical feminist, but...

"Regardless of their beliefs in the matter of equality versus equity, teachers' levels of comfort in actively dealing with gender issues in their classrooms greatly influence their decisions about what strategies they will be willing to use. In a recent survey of 1519 K-12 teachers' positions on gender issues in literacy education, Commeyras et al. (1997) found that 86% of the teachers reported feeling most comfortable (i) monitoring equal participation by males and females in discussions, and (ii) including in the curriculum men and women's works that are generally considered non-mainstream. Most teachers did not feel comfortable having class discussions on the use of sexist language and the portrayal of males and females in a non-traditional school texts, or asking boys and girls to identify with characters of their own sex. It is possible that they perceived these options as potentially controversial, while the other scenarios did not seem as likely to lead to divisive discussions."

I read this in Gender Issues in the Language Arts Classroom. I don't know if articles like this strike my interest because I use to worked on cars for years, or if because I often talk to people who seem afraid to step outside of "traditional" or expected roles (by society standards).  I think this is something teachers should encourage and be willing to discuss openly- not shy away from discussing.

Meaning and balance

MEANING MEANING MEANING. The title of the chapter says it all- meaning that matters.
Students will constantly ask 'why' and they should!  I think more people should ask why instead of just taking things at face value.  If something's being taught in school, students should have context to apply it to. Why are we doing this? When are we going to use this? Both questions any teacher should be prepared to answer regarding anything they're teaching, without falter.

The components that provide teachers direction toward this reframing include: (1) providing explicit multimodal design instruction and attention; (2) co-constructing authentic purposes for representing multimodal meaning for an audience; (3) designing multimodal composing activities that invite students to draw on their identity lifeworlds as resources; and (4) creating functional social spaces for mediating multimodal learning.
- Miller

"Since we cannot erase visual texts from modern life...we much challenge students to analyze critically the texts they view [and help them] learn to employ visual media as another powerful means of communication." - Lund (78).
^finding BALANCE, again something important. This goes back to talking about multiliteracies- reading visual clues as a language with no words... But here she's looping it back to strengthen communication.

Xtranormal - website I mentioned in class

Day in the life of a Cocktail Server
by: BMillz426

This is a video I made for the girls I work with (I'm a cocktail waitress)
Bear in mind, I've made an education related video, too, but sadly it was long ago and I can't remember my log-in information...
But you have the ability to do what I did here:

• choose characters
• choose setting
• choose voices
• create dialog, insert pauses, and change facial expressions
• choose background sound or music (this was a 'resturant' setting)

I don't know that I would necessarily use this IN class because it take some toying around with to get the results you want, but it could definitely be included in a project or extra-credit assignment... I could think of a "change an element" assignment and have part of a story portrayed from a different setting, a different character's point of view, etc.

In-Class Blog 10/1

In Wilber's Ch 3, page 48, the first link I went to was Diane Cordell's blog and noticed the FREADOM graphic right away (because it was Banned Book Week)- Banned books is something close to me and based on conversations I've overheard in class today, it's been apart of some of your lives as well.  Cordell posts about different topics and the comments she receives about them.  I found some of her posts interesting so I'll probably keep an eye on her down the road.

 

“One of the strangest things is the act of creation.
You are faced with a blank slate—a page, a canvas, a block of stone or wood, a silent musical instrument.
You then look inside yourself. You pull and tug and squeeze and fish around for slippery raw shapeless things that swim like fish made of cloud vapor and fill you with living clamor. You latch onto something. And you bring it forth out of your head like Zeus giving birth to Athena.
And as it comes out, it takes shape and tangible form.
It drips on the canvas, and slides through your pen, it springs forth and resonates into the musical strings, and slips along the edge of the sculptor’s tool onto the surface of the wood or marble.
You have given it cohesion. You have brought forth something ordered and beautiful out of nothing.
You have glimpsed the divine.” -Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

(^just a quote I liked that she posted)

 

Next I searched Teen Ink "Magazine, website & books written by teens since 1989," where students can create accounts and post their work.  I think this would be FANTASTIC to either get students involved in using in class, or even make them aware so that they can use it on their own.  Without creating an account, I don't know if one can make a pen-name or an alias (if they do not want the world to know who they really are).

 

Before the readings for this week, I had never really read about Multimedia Storytelling.  This is from PBS' website- an example project with objectives, standards, extension ideas, assessment recommendations, etc.  I found it interesting because it's a new subject for me, so I'll have to keep reading.

Blog 2 for 10/1

When I was in high school, we didn't have a Intranet for the purpose of using in school- just blocks on the Internet to keep us on 'appropriate' websites.  I think having an Intranet set up for students to use would be a great idea- and as much as I hate the idea of censoring, I know limitations are very important under the correct circumstances.  I read in someone's blog that they thought of it as a way of creating an environment for students to learn to use the internet as a tool without limiting their creativity, and I agree.  In Instructional Tech at CCBC, we talked about the definition of Intranet but didn't talk about ways to use it or what it really meant- I like the way Kist broke it down.

Blog 1 for 10/1

I found this Journal through ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center). 

Journal Record (on ERIC)

English Journal, Vol. 100, No. 5, May 2011 (many things to look at)

"Multimodal Literacies in the Secondary English Classroom" was the article I read- it opens as a .pdf.

 

"...we took traditional student activities and reformatted them so students could present their assignments multimodally.  One such example is our podcasting assignment.  To provide extended practice of tested literary terms, we developed an activity where students create public service announcements (PSAs) for their classmates. Grouped into pairs, students are assigned a literary term and are tasked to create a short radio commercial aimed at teaching their peers the term."

 

It's an easy read and it's five pages (really, just over four pages and a lot of sources).  Check it out!

Blog 2 for 9/24

In British Literature II right now, we're reading things from the Romantic period- my favorite period of literature.  What are some assignments my students I could give my students that would engage them in the time period?  John Keats produced an astronomical amount of work for a poet, but more amazingly he did it all before he died at age 25.  Students could use tagxedo/wordle to create 'word collages' from John Keats' poems (I tried to make one as an example, with Ode on a Grecian Urn, but I don't have something I need to do so installed on my laptop.)  The industrial revolution in England had a tremendous impact on society and literature- maybe they could use a program like Photoshop (or a website like faceinhole.com) to put their picture into an image of a profession of the lower class during that time (i.e. chimney sweep, mine worker, matchstick girl, etc.) and then write a first person narrative of their experiences, which would also require research on that profession.  They could submit a hard copy of this essay and maybe for extra credit, create a video of this essay to present to the class. 

Blog 1 for 9/24

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about Ch. 3, Kajder.  I still do not believe technology has to be such an overwhelming presence in the classroom- yesterday in Spotts, the power went out and it was great!  (Usually in one of my classes we balance between two or three books we're using, at the same time, and following with what correlates on projector- I followed so much better without that.)  Maybe it's because as I read, I feel like I'm interpreting this as things we should be doing all the time, when I'd probably use this every couple weeks at most....?
On pg.43 I read, "Doing work with technology isn't always about creating a huge, splashy end product and spending all our time in a lab.  Kids need to see what it is to select a tool to do something efficient, meaningful, and crisp."  Yes, agreed.  As the passage continued, I liked the other ideas that Brice used and thought, "..ok, this is using tools like the presentations we were doing on monday."
Brice also said, "Kids need confidence in order to engage, and they have to engage in order to grow.  That is one part of why we work to build a strong community in school and in class.  We learn alongside one another," on pg.43.
I'm sorry if I'm beating a dead horse sometimes- like somebody mentioned in class monday, the idea of the rapid changes in technology, or it's effects on students/people/society, is scary.  I don't think people should fear technology and turn away from it completely but I think more people should think about what it's going to do in the long run (my mind keeps going back to that study I posted last week, and I've been thinking about that a lot since I first found it in the spring).
As far as how I interpret the readings, I personally need to stop focusing on the word 'technology' and keep focused on multi-modal.
I'm getting there.

Introduction

Backtracking, because I skipped introducing myself.
My name's Brittany Susan and I moved to Beaver County when I was five years old.  I cheered for Monaca for 10 years and arbitrarily participated in other sports like gymnastics, baseball, softball, and track but I've been involved in mixed martial arts most of my life and the discipline has helped shape who I am today.  When I was 18, I moved to Cleveland and attended Ohio Technical College where I graduated with my certificate in body repair and custom painting, and an I-CAR certification in non-structural MIG welding.  I moved back home and worked in a body shop, flat-rate, for nearly a year when I decided it was time to go back to school (not that I didn't plan to all along, but the bad economy in '09 was an extra incentive).  I worked 1-3 jobs around going to CCBC part/full time from F'09-S'12 when I graduated with my Associate degree and this is my first semester at SRU.  I'm a car nerd- I get excited about Mopar muscle and the words "426 hemi" get my heart fluttering.  I love sloths, I dream of one day meeting Craig Ferguson, my favorite movie is Boondock Saints, I am Serbian, I love Ghostbusters, I know some ASL, I want to learn Russian, S.E. Hinton's my favorite author, I'm obsessed with hockey... and that's really all more than I'm sure you'd care to know!

Wk. of Sept. 10 - 2nd post

I thought this was a really interesting article that I read on Science Daily's website.  It discusses ill effects of over-exposure to technology and the decline of critical thinking skills, while visual skills increase.  I think it is something to keep in mind, considering 99% of our class is persuing teaching, and we'll have to contend with this.
"Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm

Wk. of Sept. 10 - Post 1

In chapter 1, on page 5 (bottom of the second paragraph), I thought it was interesting when I read, "Still, it is much more difficult to make changes in my pedagogy that affirm the ways in which students come multiply literate and to build scaffolds and instructional tasks that will leverage and build on those literacies."  What is a strong strategy for guaging where a student's literacy level is at, or what their strongest literacy is?  It also got me thinking about the array of literacy types, how different students learn, and how different teachers teach- what a web!

• functional literacy
• cultural literacy
• multicultural literacy
• information literacy
• media literacy
• biliteracy
• visual literacy
• computer literacy
• mathematical/numberacy literacy
• new media literacy
• technology literacy
• global literacy

I have an interest in ELL and I think a lot about how culture effects the way students learn, like I mentioned in class.  Different cultures have different values, and there's different values between people in the same culture- some ideas I throw around:

• try to find out where their values lie, education wise (Do they get help at home? Do they study?  Are they motivated?  What areas are they strongest in?  How can you make the material relatable?  What is a hobby of theirs- can you bridge that with their material?)