Response Blog #2

While most of my friends and neighbors were outside this Memorial Day weekend, I was inside the Pittsburgh Convention Center. Why, you might ask? Well, I coach Junior Olympic volleyball, and my team participated in a huge tournament over the long weekend.

The East Coast Championships (ECC) are held each year over Memorial Day weekend, and until this year, have always taken place at the PSU main campus in State College, PA. Personally, I prefer spending the holiday weekend in State College over Pittsburgh. Apparently Pittsburgh is somewhat of a "working" city. Hardly any restaurants were open the entire weekend.

This might seem inconsequential to many people, but try spending three days with ten fifteen year-old girls when there is no possibility of shopping or eating-out. Tempers begin to flare when teenage girls are tired, sore, bored, and hungry. To be honest, if you eliminate the boredom and hunger, they are still tired and sore which leads to a lot of drama in itself. In the past I've spent some time at the Cafe in order to "process" and "strategize" with other coaches and parents, but this option was also unavailable in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the restaurants that were open will spread the word that there is a plentitude of money to be made by staying open through the weekend, and next year there will be more options.

Clearly the restaurant and shop owners in downtown Pittsburgh do not realize what a big business youth sports have become! Perhaps they should visit the page of the East Coast Volleyball website that lists the teams that participated in this weekend's tournament. If they checked, they would see that there were teams in seven different age groups ranging from 12s to 18s. In each age group from 14-18, there were two divisions. Each division had an average of approximately 30 teams, and each team has an average of 10 players. When you do the math for those stats, and factor in the two younger age groups, you get a total of approximately 3,300 players. That number alone translate into a LOT of money. Parents weren't even factored into the above mathematical equation!

Technology has allowed parents are overly involved in the competitive process. There are now sites purely dedicated to discussion about Pennsylvania girls' volleyball. Pennlive is a forum where coaches, parents, and occasionally players post and respond to comments regarding high school and travel volleyball. During the ECC, parents could get live online scoring updates for certain matches, and could get updated lists of college coaches that were in attendance.

Parents are seeking college scholarship opportunities for their girls, which has made operating a travel volleyball club a competitive business. Many clubs have websites that offer club philosophies, coach bios, alumni player information, and current competitive results and schedules. The club that I coach for has such a site because parents and players now expect this technology.

I truly enjoy coaching volleyball, but a three day trek to Pittsburgh can be a little stressful. I hope that word spreads to the businesses of Pittsburgh, and next year I'll be able to relax in a dining establishment while my tired team eats a good meal!

I just had to share this...

Yes, that is a javelin going through someone's leg. Read about it.

RSS and Social Bookmarking

To be completely honest, after reading the chapters for this class each week, I am thankful that we meet as a class and that this is not a 100% online course! I was especially thankful for this after reading chapters five and six. I was definitely interested and excited after reading about the possible applications for Google Reader, del.icio.us and furl; however, I did not have a clue how to begin the process of using them.

After becoming familiarized with Google Reader, I am beginning to see applications to my personal and professional life. I agree with Dr. Fritz when she explains that she thinks we need to use something personally before we can apply it elsewhere. Personally, I love reading sports, entertainment, and the local news. I have already loaded my Google Reader with an RSS feed for Phillies news from philly.com. Professionally, I think that this would be a great tool for articles and reference sites. I am a special education teacher, and things are constantly changing in relation to my field. I can see that it would be a time-saver to have updates sent to me, rather than having to search for them all the time.

In regard to del.icio.us, I am having a more difficult time finding a useful application at this time. I think it is another really cool tool for organizing information, but I am not sure that I will be able to follow through and apply this one as quickly. Maybe it's because right now I don't know too many people that use this social bookmarking tool. I think that as/if I create a sort of community within social bookmarking, I might start to find it more useful.

As a side-note, I might be on "tech" overload because this has been a lot of new information for me!

Response Blog #1

I found my inspiration for this response in the "Minds on Fire" article that we read for the first class. Just as many other teachers do, I try to instill some life-long learning skills in my students. As I read the article, I noticed that John Seely cited the following comment by Richard J. Light, "...one of the strongest determinants of students' success in higher education --more important than the details of their instructors' teaching styles-- was their ability to form or participate in small study groups." I work everyday to improve my students' abilities to work with each other in a variety of ways, and I feel that my efforts were reaffirmed by the above quote.

I am constantly searching for new and interesting ways to incorporate group activities into my classroom. I work to collaborate with my fellow teachers in order to expand my portfolio of ideas, but in the constructs of our "open" campus, it is not always an easy feat. This is especially true when it comes to learning about, and incorporating, new technologies. In some instances, my colleagues use hardware and equipment that is not available in my classroom. In other cases, I have worked with friends that teach in other schools, only to later discover that my district does not have a certain software program, or has blocked a specific website. I was afraid that this would again be true for some of the ideas that we are discussing in this class.

I was intrigued when I was first introduced in class to bubbl.us - a website that serves as an organizational tool. I loved the concept for many reasons, including that a person is able to access their work from any computer, it is possible to view the work of other people, and it is possible to collaborate/edit each other's work. I immediately saw potential to use this tool in my classroom in multiple ways, but specifically as a way to build group-work skills.

After learning the basics of the site in class, I began to explore for more information on my own. I came across a bubble.us blog which has some helpful hints and additional information. I have also discovered a few new things as my students and I have put the site into action.

Currently, my Academic Literacy students and I are reading the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers. After I established an account for each student, I posted a "Question of the Day" under my bubbl.us account. Prior to reading the novel that day, I projected the question onto the screen at the front of the room. My students then worked on their responses, saved their organization charts, and granted me permission to view and edit their sheets. As a class, we went over student responses as I projected them onto the screen. I had high hopes for this activity, but it went even better than I had anticipated! My students applied collaboration skills and techniques that we have been working on throughout the year. They respectfully discussed opinions and answers, and arrived at thoughtful conclusions. This activity then lead directly into our reading for the day.

I am excited that I have a new tool that offers the opportunity to practice group-work skills, and that is relatively easy to utilize in my classroom. While using bubbl.us I do not have to worry about unavailable equipment or software, I can simply sign-in and work with my class. I look forward to continuing to use bubbl.us in my classroom as I work toward increasing my students' abilities to interact in small groups.

First Class Reflections

I have learned more in this first class meeting than I did in the entire seven weeks of my last course! (That may be a slight exaggeration.) I am truly excited to participate in this course and learn valuable tools and applications to use in my classroom. I am already thinking of way to incorporate 'bubbl.us" into my classes next week. I'm looking forward to the next class!

A Fresh Start!

I made a new blog to try and start over. Hopefully this one will last longer than a day!