Poem

I came across this poem yesterday, actually, when I was using StumbleUpon. When we were talking in class today about the Legos, I was reminded of it. Just wanted to share:


The Little Boy - by Helen Buckley

Once a little boy went to school.
He was quite a little boy
And it was quite a big school.
But when the little boy
Found that he could go to his room
By walking right in from the door outside
He was happy;
And the school did not seem
Quite so big anymore.

One morning
When the little boy had been in school awhile,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make a picture."
"Good!" thought the little boy.
He liked to make all kinds;
Lions and tigers,
Chickens and cows,
Trains and boats;
And he took out his box of crayons
And began to draw.

But the teacher said, "Wait!"
"It is not time to begin!"
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
"Now," said the teacher,
"We are going to make flowers."
"Good!" thought the little boy,
He liked to make beautiful ones
With his pink and orange and blue crayons.
But the teacher said "Wait!"
"And I will show you how."
And it was red, with a green stem.
"There," said the teacher,
"Now you may begin."

The little boy looked at his teacher's flower
Then he looked at his own flower.
He liked his flower better than the teacher's
But he did not say this.
He just turned his paper over,
And made a flower like the teacher's.
It was red, with a green stem.

On another day
When the little boy had opened
The door from the outside all by himself,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make something with clay."
"Good!" thought the little boy;
He liked clay.
He could make all kinds of things with clay:
Snakes and snowmen,
Elephants and mice,
Cars and trucks
And he began to pull and pinch
His ball of clay.

But the teacher said, "Wait!"
"It is not time to begin!"
And she waited until everyone looked ready.
"Now," said the teacher,
"We are going to make a dish."
"Good!" thought the little boy,
He liked to make dishes.
And he began to make some
That were all shapes and sizes.

But the teacher said "Wait!"
"And I will show you how."
And she showed everyone how to make
One deep dish.
"There," said the teacher,
"Now you may begin."

The little boy looked at the teacher's dish;
Then he looked at his own.
He liked his better than the teacher's
But he did not say this.
He just rolled his clay into a big ball again
And made a dish like the teacher's.
It was a deep dish.

And pretty soon
The little boy learned to wait,
And to watch
And to make things just like the teacher.
And pretty soon
He didn't make things of his own anymore.

Then it happened
That the little boy and his family
Moved to another house,
In another city,
And the little boy
Had to go to another school.
This school was even bigger
Than the other one.
And there was no door from the outside
Into his room.
He had to go up some big steps
And walk down a long hall
To get to his room.
And the very first day
He was there,
The teacher said:
"Today we are going to make a picture."
"Good!" thought the little boy.
And he waited for the teacher
To tell what to do.
But the teacher didn't say anything.
She just walked around the room.

When she came to the little boy
She asked, "Don't you want to make a picture?"
"Yes," said the lttle boy.
"What are we going to make?"
"I don't know until you make it," said the teacher.
"How shall I make it?" asked the little boy.
"Why, anyway you like," said the teacher.
"And any color?" asked the little boy.
"Any color," said the teacher.
"If everyone made the same picture,
And used the same colors,
How would I know who made what,
And which was which?"
"I don't know," said the little boy.
And he began to make a red flower with a green stem.

Socratic Method as Teaching Method

Socratic Method References

Hope you all enjoyed the presentation on the Socratic Method.
It seems that there are a diversity of feelings on how the Socratic Method is used as a teaching tool for stimulating learning. Here are references to some helpful material if you would like to learn more.

"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.” -Socrates

Teaching with questions:Socratic method

Socratic questions

Socratic Teaching, The Critical Thinking Community

Socratic Teaching

Socratic Method Law School Video on YouTube

How to embed a YouTube video into PowerPoint

Please find below the video that I showed during my presentation that will show you how to embed a YouTube video into PowerPoint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yzUxNbi1h4 (for pre-2003 PowerPoint)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR-dz8IMNsw&watch_response (for 2003 and later)

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me @ dseco@ufl.edu

-Dan

Malcolm Knowles and Adult Education

Here are a few links about Malcolm Knowles and his theories about andragogy and self-direction:

Malcolm Knowles: Apostle of Andragogy

Malcolm Knowles, information adult education, self-direction and andragogy - Note that this site also includes a bibliography with other readings for anyone interested in learning more about Knowles and about adult education.

Great Thinkers in Adult Education

Lifelong Learning: A Dream

John Dewey: Pragmatism

Here are some helpful links for my presentation on John Dewey's pedagogical philosophy.

John Dewey Website.

John Dewey Society Webpage

List of Websites about John Dewey

Link to short video about John Dewey
I won't show the video in class so take a look on your own.

Center for Dewey Studies

Benjamin Bloom

Here are some of the websites that I referenced for making my PowerPoint presentation:

http://oaks.nvg.org/taxonomy-bloom.html

http://inventors.about.com/library/lessons/bl_benjamin_bloom.htm

http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learning/exams/blooms-taxonomy.html

http://krummefamily.org/guides/bloom.html

http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy

http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/990923/bloom.shtml

Seymour Papert/education theories/Monday

file:///C:/Users/Steve%20and%20Linda/Desktop/PP3.pptx

Teaching to Gender

I saw this video on Yahoo! and thought some might find it interesting. A school in Virginia is teaching with the idea that boys and girls learn differently, so they are separating them and trying to teach each group using different techniques. Here's the link:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=9845100

PowerPoint and Columbia's crash

In class today, I asked if any of you were familiar with the criticism of PowerPoint as being a factor in Columbia's crash.

Here are two articles I thought you'd be interested in. 

One is William Langewiesche's cover story from The Atlantic (November 2003). This article is interesting both for the discussion about the impact PowerPoint can have in not making THE point but obscuring the main point and because it discusses the danger of having an organization's culture and an organization's administrators not open to negative factors.

The other is Ruth Marcus' article in the Washington Post -- PowerPoint: Killer App? (Aug. 30, 2005). She includes Edward Tufte, a Yale political scientist who is a vocal critic of PowerPoint and was hired by NASA as a consultant. Read to the end of the article to see what his recommendation was regarding PowerPoint use.

Educational theory presentations with PowerPoint

Your first class teaching experience is teaching your classmates about your educational theory. The parameters:

• You have 10 minutes to make your presentation. I'll let you know when you have one minute left. We won't stop you at 10 minutes but would expect you to wrap up.
  
• Your focus is how the theory can help us know more about teaching and learning.
  
• You have to use PowerPoint or Keynote (the Mac presentation software).
  
• You will give me a copy of the handout of your presentation before you teach.
  
• If you want the class to have your slides as you teach class, you will post them on our blog by Sunday at 6 p.m. prior to the Monday when you teach.
  
• If you aren't making your slides available to the class in advance (which is fine), you will post at least one reference on the blog for those who would like to learn more about your theorist/theory.

You are being assessed on:

• Your ability to clearly and concisely explain the theory and its application to teaching and learning.
  
• Your effective use of PowerPoint. As we discussed today, there is no required number of slides. You should follow the do's and don'ts we discussed today.
  
• Your effective delivery. Good volume. Good eye contact. Professional attire. You don't need to wear a suit but should wear business casual -- slacks or skirt, shirt or blouse. No T-shirts, ball caps or shorts. 

We did talk briefly today about having a copy of your handout so you can refer to it during your teaching and not be looking at the screen with your back to the class. I've had a few graduate students tell me that they thought using notes would make students think they weren't prepared. I think having and using notes makes you less nervous, more on track and better able to incorporate questions or discussion without forgetting where you were in what you'd planned to teach.

The teachers for next week are: Dan, Ed, Amy, Kara, Paige, Kearston and Linda. Everyone else teaches on Oct. 6.

Be sure to bring your presentation on a flash drive.

I'm looking forward to your presentations.

"Teaching Tips" paper assignment

In class today, several of you said that my e-mail to the class listserv about the McKeachie reading never arrived. So I said I would posts this information in our blog.

I hope you're going to enjoy reading "Teaching Tips" and writing a response:

• Select 5-8 issues that you'd like to comment on.
  
• Write 4 to 5 typed pages -- double spaced.
  
• Using first person is appropriate, as you are giving your own opinion.
  
• The emphasis should be how issues in the book can relate to your current teaching or your future teaching.
  
• Include in your paper a paragraph explaining the context of the book.
  
• Just as we do in our class discussions, no naming of specific profs or courses.

Bring the paper and the book to next Monday's class.

I read "Teaching Tips" every year before the school year starts. Not only does that help me get ready to teach MMC 6930 (and discuss the book in class), but I always pick up a new teaching idea.

Accreditation Standards

During my meeting with Dr. Dodd, we discussed how to fit a proposed class into a college curriculum. One aspect that we should be cognizant of is the accreditation standards of the particular institution that the class is for. Essentially, classes need to fit into these standards in order to be considered. So, I've provided some links that provide the standards the College of Journalism and Communication at the University of Florida use but also the University of Florida General Education standards. If your class doesn't fit into the college, it might work better as a General Education course. Check out the links:

ACEJMC Accrediting Standards: http://www2.ku.edu/~acejmc/PROGRAM/STANDARDS.SHTML

UF General Education Homepage: http://www.cba.ufl.edu/gened/genedinfo.asp

UF General Education Syllabi Requirements: http://www.cba.ufl.edu/gened/syllabi.asp

UF Gen Ed: Student Outcomes: http://www.cba.ufl.edu/gened/docs/GenEd_SLO.pdf


I hope this is helpful!

-Amy

Dear Mass Communication Teaching class:

I did not know about this blog, but Dr. Norman Lewis, professor of Mass Communication Perspectives at UF, suggested it for Ph.D. students interested in teaching. It is mantained by a faculty member at Stanford.

In order to subscribe, the person has to click on https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/tomorrows-professor? (the question mark is part of the link). The mails come from this address:
tomorrows-professor-bounces@lists.stanford.edu


Also, the Newspaper Association of America (www.naa.org) is developing the NAA Community, which will include blogs, but it is still in process. Also, parts of the NAA website are free and other areas are not (you have to be a member of the Association). So, I am not sure if the NAA community is going to be a "free area" or not, but it is worth it to take a look once it is actually functioning.

Blogs: A resource for media teachers

Most of you reported that you haven't maintained a blog. Most of you reported that you are not regular readers of blogs. 

That was my case, too, until last year when we decided to include blogging as a media writing assignment in Writing for Mass Communication (MMC 2100). I decided that I had better try blogging myself if I was going to be teaching blogging. I set up a Tumblr account, as it is microblog and would be a good first blog experience for me -- and then for the MMC 2100 students. I could blog from my iPhone, which I did while attending a conference at San Jose. 

The blogging assignment was made about midway through the semester with each student setting up a Tumblr account and blogging for a week. Before the blogging assignment, only about 10 of the 260 students had a blog.

I'm asking each of you to share a blog that you think illustrates an effective use of blogging. The blog you share could be from a media organization (i.e., newspaper, magazine, public relations firm, etc.), faculty member or an independent blogger. We want to see examples of blogs that do a good job of showing how a blog can be used in the media or in teaching. 

Here's my example -- http://islott.tumblr.com Ilana asked me to supervise her independent study this summer when she worked for a television station in her hometown. As part of the independent study, I asked her to blog about the work experience. She said that the blog encouraged her to reflect on her work experience and to write in a professional manner, as I would be reading the blog and so would others -- including her parents and work supervisors. 

Blogging Article

I found this article and thought I'd share it since we've been talking about blogging and education: http://www.podcastingnews.com/2008/09/08/the-state-of-new-media-education/