***UPDATE.2***I have changed the name of this post yet again because I'm afraid I won't be given credit for Thing #14 if this post isn't OBVIOUSLY labeled Thing #14. That's all.
**UPDATE**
Some how I managed to "mashup" thing 13 with thing 14 which really sucks because I have the same comment for both: great ideas IF one has the time and no restrictions (if only such a world existed without having to be Paris Hilton). I did find this groovy skeleton thingy (and holiday appropriate). Originally, it was going to spell out Ninja Mickey, but it became too much work to save each individual letter, paste them into the post, link them, yada, yada, yada. Sorry, but all you're getting today is a link to the spelletons - get it?! Skeletons + spell = spelletons! Ha! I kill me. I feel sorry for the dude on the right side of the N - man, that's gotta hurt (weird train of thought . . . why does the spell-checker have issues with "thingy" but not "gotta"?! Stupid thingy!).
ORIGINAL POST:
This post will have to be short and sweet seeing as I've already lost too much time to a 24 hour tumor and must get back to the job for which I am paid.
If I were a stay-at-home mom with a ton of time on my hands and the holidays coming up, I could have a field day with these tools. A social extravaganza, if you will: twelve months o' babies, teething newsletters, jigsaw babies, pithy talking toddlers, and the ever popular Annual Christmas Card (capitalized because, in my family, it's a real event). And let's not EVEN discuss the scrapbooking potential here! Oy Vey!
Unfortunately, however, with the inane emphasis the state and districts put on TAKS, there is not only no time for fun, but, if it's not covered in the TEKS (which these types of tools are not for secondary English), we aren't allowed to do it. For all their bluster about technology in the classroom, they really don't want us utilizing it. Honestly, the only application I see for these tools in an educational setting is if a student of their own accord, on their own time, and of their own choosing (after all, we can't force them to . . . not when the majority of kids live at or below the poverty line), utilizes said tool to complete a portion of a project. And a very small portion of that project because they must also complete a TAKS-style multiple choice test, a series of OER questions, essays from two unknown genres, deconstruct it all, and redo it, correcting the mistakes.
And, with that, I am done because discussing the the topic further will only raise my blood pressure and drive me to the stroke I will inevitably have thanks to the educational systems and all it's infinite jackassedness! I need a new job.
I like your new phrase... it's almost as good as halfassedness. I know how you feel about the picture, word games, comic strip stuff. I spent way too much time, and I'm not sure if I got anything out of it except a couple decent pictures. Plus, I don't know what educational value they have. I may have thought of something last week when I was working on it, but as of now, it escapes me. Gone in 6 days...sad how my memory and hard work vanishes.
ReplyDeleteWhat I worry about is that if you used some of these "thingys", you know that the substance of the presentation would suffer. There are some kids who would enhance their presentations by using the images in way that highlighted or heightened what they were saying, but you would as many or more kids that just slapped crap on their because they a)had to or b)thought the image was cute, etc. I think the teaching art here might be helping kids understand the connection between what they are saying and their chosen images. Sounds like a rhetoric lesson. . .
ReplyDeleteOk, yes, I get the time thing. However, if you ever do - in a perfect world - have extra time, it is fun to play with the "things".
ReplyDelete