Last Post

Wow, that went fast! I cant believe the semester is over! I want to thank Prof. Schmidt for all her hard work and everyone in the class for sharing such wonderful ideas.  Hope everyone has a great end to the school and a great summer.

WebQuest

Here is the link to my WebQuest.  This was a lot of work since I wanted specific links included. 

 http://questgarden.com/126/45/5/110513053457/

Power Point

<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_7864632"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jasonschlereth/technology-in-the-classroom-7864632" title="Technology in the classroom">Technology in the classroom</a></strong><object id="__sse7864632" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=technologyintheclassroom-110506120029-phpapp01&stripped_title=technology-in-the-classroom-7864632&userName=jasonschlereth" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse7864632" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=technologyintheclassroom-110506120029-phpapp01&stripped_title=technology-in-the-classroom-7864632&userName=jasonschlereth" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/%22%3Epresentations%3C/a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jasonschlereth%22%3Ejasonschlereth%3C/a%3E.%3C/div%3E%3C/div>

Technology Blog

To be honest, I never realized just how much you can integrate technology on a daily basis into your classroom.  I am not teaching currently, but the class chatter program is one thing that really interested me.  I have shared it with several colleagues who are teaching and they are integrating it into their class.  It really allows students to interact with each other and carry on class discussions after the school day.  I was also thinking you could use it on snow days as an effective tool to engage students.  From discussions with other teachers, we all agreed that some students would be much more likely to post something on a discussion board than participate in class. 
As far as this online experience, after some initial difficulty, it has been great.  I am learning a lot about the various ways that people use technology in their classrooms.  I enjoy sharing ideas and talking to other educators about strategies and techniques that they have had success (or a lack of) with much more than just reading about them in books.  The weekly blogs and responses have allowed that discussion to take place. 

Class Website

Here is a link to my class website

http://homepage.scholastic.com/CHBuilderWeb/jsp/StudentParentLogin.jsp

username: MrSchlereth
password: lovelearning

I have to say that not teaching currently was a challenge in setting up this website.  It was tough to decide which books and software to include.  I chose some books that I remember using in my class and I checked out the software and picked the ones that I thought were the most engaging for students.  Also, I originally started making my site with the google version, but, in my opinion, the Scholastic one is much more appropriate and user friendly for elementary teachers and students.  When I was teaching, I used a website to post assignments, tests, projects, etc and keep parents informed about exciting things that were happening in our class and school.

Web 2.0

I have always heard the term 2.0, but never really knew what it meant. Turns out, we use 2.0 sites in our daily lives.  Since I am not currently teaching, its difficult to know whether a site will be good for me and my school.  So, I visited a bunch of the ones that Prf. Schmidt put up, and the class chatter one is really awesome! I am thinking that students at home can almost feel like a part of trip.  One way I thought that this site could be useful was if you had two classes taking the same trip on different days.  The class that goes first could blog about it telling the other class the best parts of the trip.   After the second class went, they could blog about their thoughts. You could then use the site to have the students compare and contrast their experiences.

Apple v. PC

My school is currently debating switching from a PC platform to a MAC platform. Currently, every student purchaes an IBM laptop that they keep for 4 years.  We are considering going to a program where the students would purchase a MAC for two years and then another MAC for the next two years.  I havent seen the final numbers, but the preliminary figures made it look like the price would be the same for the one IBM or the two MAC's.  I was wondering if anyone has gone through this process before and what decision was made?  Personally, I dont know enough about the MAC's (although I am taking home a demo MacBook Air next week) to make a decision.  I would love to hear some people's thoughts.

video

Here is a brief video of myself.  I shot this on a flip camera that I held out in front of me, which was a little challenging.  It's really weird to watch yourself on camera!

This is a picture of Monticello.  In the foreground is the famous Mulberry Row.  With just over 200 people living at Monticello, there was always something going on.

Virtual Field Trips are an outstanding way to integrate technology into your classroom.  They provide images that cannot be found in a textbook and engage students through several learning processes.  Since I fancy myself as a history buff, I chose to use the Monticello virtual field trip.  The link is  http://explorer.monticello.org/.  ( I also really liked http://www.monticello.org/)  I also chose this trip because I think that history is a subject area that can benefit greatly from field trips.  With the current financial crunch in education, virtual trips allow students the opportunity to “visit” locations from the comfort of their classrooms.

The site provided some wonderful pictures of Monticello as it might have looked during Jefferson’s time there.  I really liked the way you can move yourself around Monticello and the site provides a short commentary on each location.  The brief narrative includes some additional pictures and some background information.  One of the biggest challenges as a teacher is sparking an interest in the material from your students.  Virtual Field Trips, and this site in particular, are a great way to do that.

These trips to Monticello obviously tie into the American History curriculum.  They can be used to cover a wide variety of topics, including the presidency, slavery, independence, economic and social status, trade, and the manufacturing of goods.  However, teachers can also easily expand on Monticello to study the culture of the time.  For example, included on the two sites are pictures and discussions about the clothes and diets of the times.  Gender roles and the importance of education are also discussed.  The possibilities for different things to discuss are endless.  The trip to Monticello on this site is so detailed, allowing the teacher to use it to cover a multitude of topics. 

VFT’s are a great way to allow your students to experience many places and time periods in the world.  One challenge to the VFT that I was thinking of as I was viewing several sites was the logistical problem of including every student.  This is a case where I think each student should have a computer.  If that was possible, you could have each student visit a different part of Monticello and develop their own presentation to deliver to the class. 

School Report Cards

For my comparison of NJDOE School Report Cards I chose to examine Teaneck High School and Bergenfield High School.  I grew up in Teaneck(although I did not attend Teaneck High) and I currently live in Bergenfield.  The two districts had a lot in common, but there were some glaring differences. 

One of the first differences I noticed was the length of the school day, with Teaneck clocking in at 6 hours, 40 minutes and Bergenfield registering 6 hours, 55 minutes. I know fifteen minutes a day might not sound like much, but that adds up to one hour, fifteen minutes a week. Thinking back to my classroom days, I would have loved to have had that extra fifteen minutes a day!

One of the facts that I found surprising was the results of the HSPA test.  The results in both districts were almost identical for the Language Arts test, with both districts right near 76% for proficient.  The thing that jumped out at me was the Math proficiency results.  Bergenfield had 61% of their school scoring in the proficient range while Teaneck only had 50% of their students scoring proficient.  Since so much of the other data seemed similar, I would have thought that this range would have been closer.

Another thing that surprised me was the information concerning the AP classes and exams in the districts.  Bergenfield has 25% of students in 11^th and 12^th grade participating in AP classes, while Teaneck only has 9% of their 11^th and 12^th graders enrolled in AP classes.  Upon first glance at the amount of students that scored a 3 or higher on the AP exam, I was shocked to see how many more students in Bergenfield had achieved this than in Teaneck.  However, when I studied the report cards further, I noticed that just about every student in an AP class in Bergenfield took the AP exam, which was not the case in Teaneck.  Although Teaneck had around 80 more kids enrolled in AP classes than Bergenfield, they only had 96 students take the AP exam compared to 235 in Bergenfield.

Most of the other information on the report cards was pretty comparable.  I think the report cards provide a nice basis for comparison, but I don’t think they tell the complete story of a school district. 

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Jason Schlereth.  Sorry for the late posts, I have been having difficulty with blackboard and of course, enrollment services at St. Peters!  I am currently pursuing my Masters of Education degree with a concentration in Administration.  This is only my second course in the program and my first online course.  I completed my undergraduate work at William Paterson University with a degree in History and a concentration in Elementary Education. 
I began my career teaching fifth grade in a public school for two years before moving on to Immaculate Heart Academy where I am the Director of Athletics, the Head Swim Coach and the Head Lacrosse Coach.  I am looking forward to learning new ways to integrate technology into classrooms.