Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson, M.D. A Review and Essay By David Cox, Instructional Technology Facilitator Tioga Junior High School and Tioga High School At a time when Rapides Parish schools are once again facing huge financial deficits with resultant changes at almost every level, teachers must deal with mostly unwanted changes. Being a twenty-six year classroom veteran, I have had to change as well in many ways. In my internal search for ways to deal with change, I have recently read a book which has given me some new ways to think about change. I hope that this review might lead you to this book and help you to see how changes, even when first seen as negative and hurtful, are not necessarily a bad thing. Dr. …show more content…
Simply put, we are all constantly in a stew of change, having to deal with umpteen million rapid-fire often confusing and disheartening failures in the classroom. Technology may be used to enhance a teacher’s already good lessons just as the ideas in Who Moved My Cheese? can make dealing with changes in our lives a little easier with more direction. The story depicts the Littlepeople attacking the same problem with the same tools and failing each time. However, with just a little divergent thinking, Haw is able to break through from his old methods into new techniques and achieve his ultimate goal. Each teacher can find his or her own “New Cheese” in the classroom using technology tools in the same way and more fully reach the ultimate goal of educating young people. Students grow, have fun and learn at the same time, and meet challenges in ways that please and surprise them as well as their teachers, all the while successfully achieving benchmarks like Haw succeeds at finding his New Cheese. In conclusion, Rapides Parish schools are in for some changes; it is true. But with the use of technology to assist us, we can still accomplish our one unchanging goal. Technology instructors and facilitators can guide us through all of the myriad twists and turns of software and hardware, giving us methods, information, advice, and even pre-written lessons which use technology in
Clearly, alertness has the potential to change situations and lives. The past events and future possibilities form long lists which keep growing. Certain happenings in Concord, Massachusetts in 1775 provide a shining example of alertness in history, for at this time, the Sons of Liberty could have easily lost all their weaponry to the British and found themselves defenseless if their alertness has not showed up. General Thomas Gage, a British commander with the job of governing Massachusetts, wished to have all the military supplies found in Concord destroyed so that the citizens of that area could have no chance of fighting against the British. However, the Sons of Liberty in Boston took special note of this and watched the British tirelessly,
Misty has incorporated many types of technology into her 6th grade classroom. Her students use Edmodo and Google Apps daily to collaborate and create projects. Misty continually teaches and reminds her students how to be digital citizens that respect others and cite sources when used. She also uses a plethora of websites that students can access from home or school to practice skills. Misty knows how to advance student achievement by maximizing technology as a formative assessment tool so she knows where each of her students are in their learning and what skills need to be retaught.
In earlier times, the acquisition and spreading of knowledge was not used to improve society. Instead, it was used to have control and to exclude certain groups. It may have been agreed that there needed to be a change in the way that the education system was set up. In her essay, “Project Classroom Makeover”, Cathy Davidson discusses how the “one size fits all” model of learning hinders students from learning in a new and modernized way. She suggests the notion that using technology to teach and learn can be effective in many ways. Davidson shows that using technology presents the opportunity for a traditional classroom to become more inclusive and creative. The “democratization of knowledge” is the improvement and modernization of how information is taught and learned. Having a modernized and advanced learning system is a vital point for students because they gain insight and experience with what is considered a society dominated by advanced technology. Since technology has become a dominant resource in the 21st century, it should be used as a teaching tool in order to produce educational, professional and overall success.
Change takes on the course of a gradual shift away from the traditional and into the modern. Such a process can take on the identity of many forms but in the end, they all contribute to the advancement of society. Throughout “Project Classroom Makeover,” Cathy Davidson explores the need for such change in America’s educational system as it lags years behind the modern standards. Technology serves as an impetus to change and reform this antiquated system through facilitating new means of learning not previously available. While technology does have its benefits in the classrooms, it cannot alone replace the interactions between students and teachers because there are limits to the extent computerization can recreate human connections.
Currently, educators are faced with the controversy of reaching all learners. It is the incumbency of educators to master differentiating instruction to create a possibility for all learners to grow. Technology is a great resource to keep students engaged and motivated. It prepares them for their future, yet reaches the diversity of learning styles.
Education in classrooms are getting a different twist these days. In order to get kids more engaged at learning, teachers are trying to figure out ways to get then interested. With a handful of technology available that can distract kids from learning, teachers are using that same technology as a tool for learning.
1). Consequently, teachers need training and support through professional learning communities (PLC) as they “…have proven to be a cornerstone of effective teaching and, in underperforming schools, a catalyst for improvement” (Farbman, Goldberg, & Miller, 2014, p. 10). As a result, my plan proposes following Claudet’s model of a change agent (2011) by inspiring stakeholders to become collaborative partners in remedying academic gaps. It begins with the faculty analyzing student data scores to prioritize topics, designing a timeframe to meet goals, and identifying the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. Once this is determined, several teachers would attend summer or fall training sessions to develop strategies to address the learning needs of low-achieving students because “…collective leadership has positive effects on student achievement” (Barth, 2001, p. 12). The trained teachers would provide monthly PLC activities to cultivate developmental and cultural instructional strategies, analyze student progress, share successes, and problem-solve concerns. Measurement of the effectiveness of the training occurs through staff participation, observations, and classroom formative and summative assessments, as recorded through the software programs provided to the teachers at the beginning of the
Have you been noticing that at your school, you have been making more of your actions with technology? As years go by, the technology world has been upgrading quite quickly. More devices have been becoming the paper to most schools. Sue Pimentel, a former English Language Arts professor, explained, “The decision was about priorities and that learning to use technology took procedence.”
Wrestling with the almost indescribable topic of war, Hemingway layers A Farewell to Arms with deeper meaning in order to allow for in depth interpretation of his characters and overall thematic message. Throughout the novel guns come to symbolize the direct control of violence and eventually reveal how Henry has changed as a character and the overall destruction that war brings.
Halloween is one of the most popular holidays for children. It is celebrated with young children roaming the streets with their costume on collecting candy for hours around the block. Though not a lot of people I know celebrate the next holiday called, Day of the Dead, it is fairly different from Halloween. They both have their similarities but when it comes down to it, they are pretty different. Here are some differences and similarities I learned about the Day of the Dead, and Halloween while reading and watching a video.
Every day the world is changing and things are done differently. Technology has also affected the way students are taught and in which they learn. It has changed the classroom. Technology saves us time and allows us to access material in only minutes. “The Internet and online subscription databases, even as a supplement to the printed works in the library, allow students to see, and force them to consider or reject, points of view that they might never have encountered in decades past” (Gow 4).With all the time technology produces, it also has downsides and it also may have created a less intelligent society.
It is crucial that students are not just being educated in only one way. Each child is different; as a result, learning styles should be versatile and open to new strategies. By learning to use technology correctly, teachers are preparing themselves, and the students for the future by developing certain skills that will be essential in the 21st century. Besides developing the students’ technology skills, students will
Comcast has had significant success in delivering visibility into the availability of future advertising inventory, in the effort to accurately secure advertising contracts and ensure that campaign goals are achieved. In addition, they provide valuable demographic analytics to help sales executives and customers efficiently and efficiently meet their target segment. While the current model has allowed for the delivery of these services, there are a number of inefficiencies and risk associated. This paper provides an overview of Comcast’s value chain, and recommendations on how it may be optimized for
The education system around the world has progressed and changed in a plentiful amount of ways, and the concept of knowledge and learning has changed in modern day. For example, certain schools around the globe are moving on to implementing technology in classrooms because it provides many benefits and statistical research that states how students are improving their academic readiness because of the instant access to information, a greater engagement and interactive process in learning, and the personalization that instructors can do towards the educational experience that students receive. The benefits of technology in class can be rather debatable, for there are people who think it's a distraction, but it certainly seems to be beneficial according to the increase of passing percentages in schools.
The use of technology has the ability to allow teachers to teach the student, instead of teaching the grade level. Jon Bower, CEO of Lexia Learning Systems, points this fact out when he states,