Edublogger Reflection

This semester we were challenged to become active in the education blogging community. I was honestly pretty overwhelmed at first...I kept looking at edublogs but feeling that I was not worthy of commenting on their posts, so I kept procrastinating my comments on their blogs. However, I eventually did force myself to comment on two blogs (yesterday) and want to share my experience. I ended up commenting on a high school science and chemistry teachers' blogs, but have not received any responses yet (but don't worry I'll update you if/when I hear anything from them).

The first blog which was the one from a high school science teacher in Colorado is titled Science Education on the Edge: Experimenting with student-centered science education. There were many different interesting posts on this blog from thoughts on AP chemistry teacher workshops, to portfolios, to BYOD. I decided to comment on the BYOD post as I learned a great deal about what a BYOD program truly looks like a high school and issues that can arise when students are able to have unlimited access to the internet. I shared my experiences at my own school and asked about how this particular school established a school community that supports the BYOD movement.

"What an interesting story! I am a currently a student teacher in a masters degree program and have faced very different circumstances in my own school. We do not have a BYOD program established in our school and instead have a strict ban on cellphone. and other devices, at school. Teachers can choose to have students use their own tech in the classroom at their own discretion, but most teachers do not take advantage of this opportunity. We have learned a great deal about BYOD in our technology class, and I can understand both the pros and cons of this type of program.

I am curious to learn more about how BYOD at your school was implemented and how the culture of school has changed due to BYOD. Overall do you think that both students and teachers have taken advantage of BYOD? At my school, students do not have access to the WiFi other than through the guest network. Even as a student teacher, I only have access through the guest network (which can sometimes honestly be a pain). On this guest network there is a significant amount of restrictions. However, when students log onto computers in the computer lab they can get onto youtube and tend to listen to inappropriate music from school. I am not sure how the system is setup and how the restrictions vary from one type of account to another. Now I might have to look into this!

Thanks for the insightful post!"

I think the most challenging aspect of implementing a BYOD in a school, from my own perspective and experiences, would be the development of technology norms and of a culture where tech is a tool and students are responsible about their use of technology. 

The second blog I commented on is called TEACHINGchemistry: building a 21st century chemistry classroom written by a high school chemistry teacher.  This is a blog that I started to read through every blog on...I got caught up in a series of very interesting posts. The post that I eventually ended up commenting on was focused on unhelpful grading practices. When I started my placement, I was suprised about some of the practices that my mentor teacher used (such as not assigning or grading homework). The author of this blog follows many of the same principles as my mentor teacher and I asked her opinion of differences in their practices. Below is my comment:

"What an interesting post!

I am a current masters student in an education program and completing my student teaching. I will be certified to teach both chemistry and math, and am student teaching in a chemistry classroom that has sections of general, honors, and AP chemistry. My mentor teacher also does not grade homework and when I first learned that he didn’t I was SO CONFUSED. All of my previous experiences in the classroom, from elementary school through college and then through my second grad school program, all included GRADED homework assignments. It felt so wrong to me. It was definitely something that I had to adjust to as a new teacher. I have realized that some of our students are not practicing as frequently or as thoroughly as they should be. How did you create a classroom culture where students are engaged in their practice problems without the promise of points?

In my placement we do only allow students to earn back so many points on exam retakes. However in order to retake students must complete online study problems and meet with an instructor to go through the material covered in the assessment. Overall this process takes a few days to complete and I honestly think that students should be able to earn back more if not all of the points that they missed.

In our classroom we do not drop the lowest score however if a student scores below a 40% it is not entered into the system. The lowest score a student can receive is a 40% as my mentor teacher thinks that anything lower will make it impossible for a student bring up their grades. What do you think of this policy?

Your posts have been so interesting to follow! I’ll definitely be back to read more!"

Overall, I was really inspired by reading some of these blogs and it made me not only think about how I write my own blog posts but my own practices. That is truly where the power of this assignment we were given is. It has opened up a new world of resources and ideas and I can't wait to implement some new things in my practices as both a chemistry teacher and supporter of technology. Hopefully I'll hear something from the edubloggers that I read and commented on...like I said I'll keep you posted. 

Tech In My Placement

In my past life as a research scientist in an ultrafast laser lab, technology was the center of my science world. I programmed experimental interfaces, had to rebuild/fix lasers when needed, and had to work constantly on a computer to analyze data and write for scientific journals. In my own practices as a scientist technology was essential...and at times served as an extension to my own body. Due to my experiences, I personally believe that students NEED to know how to use tech as a tool and will be disadvantaged in the workplace and in their future education if they cannot appropriately use computers.

I have even considered teaching my future children to program at a young age...if you think I'm crazy or that this is cool you should check out SCRATCH. I think it is important to teach children and our students how to use technology appropriately, but that it is key that they understand the power of tech as a tool.

While completing the Tech in My Placement survey I was honestly surprised by the types of tech (from computer labs, to video equipment and software, to even personal tech that students bring to school). I think it is pretty neat how our school has video announcements and a news team that creates and shares stories with the student body. In my own classroom we have a document camera, a projector, and a very old computer meant to be used by my mentor. My mentor teacher bought the projector that he uses (although he was later given one by the district as a reward that he ended up giving to another teacher to use) and got a document camera through a grant. In addition, he bought a personal computer that he uses for teaching purposes. We are very fortunate that my mentor is part of a national fellowship program as they have afforded him different experimental probes to use, in addition to a few bought by the school. We frequently visit the computer lab for our classes, as we do not have laptops in our classroom. On those computers we have instructed students on how to complete basic tasks on Excel, complete online homework, and run Phet simulations. Overall technology is most definitely used in our classroom.

Although we do use a wide variety of tech tools in my placement, I am somewhat disappointed by the capabilities of the computers as well as student training to use technology. It honestly takes a good 10 minutes for students to turn computers on and log into their personal accounts in the computer lab. The software on the computers is too new for the computers that it is required to run on...this turns the computers to muck and makes it incredibly difficult for students to work efficiently on. Once the start-up process is complete, opening an internet browser seems to take an eternity. Especially when you only have a short time with students, it makes it incredibly difficult to use time efficiently.

I am also somewhat disappointed about the training that students have had with technology. I have seen students text at warp speed but they do not know how to type or how to navigate a simple Google search. This week I spent a good three minutes teaching a student the intricacies of a right-click. In my own educational experiences, we had a technology class in which we had to type at a certain rate and be able to use multiple fingers. We had to know how to use the basic Microsoft office package. I know that some instruction is totally manageable to teachers to complete, but I would argue that learning how to use technology is just as important if not more important for students to learn in school to be adequately prepared for the workplace. As a student teacher, I cannot change the whole system but I can try to incorporate more and more well-scaffolded technology uses into my own practices. This is challenging and time consuming but I personally feel that it is extremely worthwhile.

Something I find interesting about my placement is our no cell phone policy. Teachers can choose to allow students to use their self-phones but it is on a strictly classroom-by-classroom basis. In my classroom, we have only encouraged a student to use their cellphone one time and it was when the schools technology was not functioning correctly. Students have their phones taken away on a daily basis. I like to think that there is a positive way to establish norms in the classroom to channel students interests and skills with technology. I plan on trying to incorporate some of this into my student teaching, if possible, next semester and will definitely try to utilize it when I have my own classroom.

But for now, in conclusion, I feel as if I definitely learned a lot by completing the Tech in My Placement survey and it got me thinking about how my students use technology and ideas for what I can do as a teacher to bring technology into my own classroom.

Tech Tools in Use

Socrative is one of the Tech Tools in Use presentations given by groups in our EDUC 504 class. Their presentation was very insightful into the power of this tool and made me think about how I could apply it in my own classroom.  

This online tool is a way for teachers to poll and quiz students online that mimics the use of iClickers. Teachers can create assessments that are either multiple choice, true/false, or short answer. In each of these types of questions one can select the correct answer and can also provide instant feedback to students. Teachers then provide a code to students for the socrative "classroom" and then as the teacher you can release the quiz that you created to your students. You can also choose to use a "quick question" to poll students like one would for a iclicker question. You can also provide a fun quiz in the form of a "space race" where students can work in teams to complete a previously created quiz. Teams race against one another to answer the most questions as quickly as possible. Socrative is a simple and powerful online tool that allows teachers to assess students understanding in a few different fun ways.

My biggest concern with this technology in the classroom is that each student must have access to either a computer or smart phone. In my current placement we do not have access to laptops in our classroom daily and the computer lab computers are extremely slow. I think that it would be interesting to try to use this tool with students on their cellphones. While this tool is easy to access on a phone I think that one must establish the correct norms for use in the classroom, however our current policy is that students do not use phones in the classroom. It is left to the discretion of the teacher in my placement to decide how cellphones are used in the classroom, however, my mentor teacher prohibits their use.

I am inspired to think about how to incorporate this online tool into my future classroom. Although concerns with having technology are the most prominent in my mind, I think that the incorporation of technology into the classroom is essential, especially as the use of technology is so important for the future success of our students. Some may argue that knowing how to use technology effectively is more important than the regurgitation of rote information. This assignment not only introduced me to many different online tools, each with their own pros and cons, but it made me think more critically about how to incorporate technology into the classroom, the norms that would need to be established for student use, and what things are important for a teacher to consider when checking out new tools.

Guest Presenter: David Theune

David Theune was our first guest speaker of the semester in EDUC 504 and he was such an inspiring and motivational speaker! David is an English/Drama teacher that connects his students with "authentic audiences."

He provides provides different audiences through the use of community and technology.  

The first audience he discussed was parents. Although parents are typically very involved in elementary school, a lack of parent participation occurs in high school. David invites parents into the classroom and involves them in different activities such as listening to student read essays and helping build up students by providing feedback. Although he does state that many parents may not be able to come, providing the opportunity opens doors and provides an audience for students beyond the teacher. This started to make me think about how I could get parents involved in my future chemistry classroom. Although I think chemistry is something that many parents may find intimidating, I think it would be great to open up science into the community and have students present their work, such as lab reports or projects. As a student being able to explain and communicate science to a lay audience is a powerful and meaningful endeavor.

To provide an even broader audience David presents his student work to the world through the internet.  He has his students create digital personal narratives that his students share through YouTube. Although this is an incredibly personal and intimidating feat students rarely turn down the opportunity to share their work, however, they are provided the opportunity to opt out of sharing their work publicly. I think that creating a public space for your classroom to share their work is very cool. I have the idea for a project in which students complete a research project on a scientist that they can relate to and then they have to adopt their scientists character and present a digital narrative from the perspective of their scientist. This is a more involved project, but I could also utilize this online sharing for student work about developing different lab procedures or reporting out and explaining results. 

David also provides an opportunity to bring in local non-profits and organizations into the classroom. He has students write persuasive essays after completing research then students vote on the best essay and the winner gets to give money to the organization that they supported in their essay. In this way students contribute to their community and see that they can impact the world.  There are many different organizations, such as environmental agencies, that I could incorporate into my future lessons. When students are learning about solubility for example, we could extend what is learned in the classroom and learn about different compounds that find our way into local waterways and perhaps even learn about waste water treatment plants. 

David even suggests to have students teach younger students in the district.  Doing this you can have students plan what they are going to teach and then execute it by visiting other classrooms. This is a low-tech way to provide audience to the classroom. This could be difficult with some chemistry topics as they may be abstract for younger students, but perhaps that would provide some challenge to the high school students and try to get them to truly explain their thought process. 

The final audience that David suggests is through streaming your classroom with peers in other chemistry classrooms.  He suggests http://www.ustream.tv/ as an avenue for streaming the classroom. This even provides an opportunity for parents who are unavailable to come into school to view student work.  

Overall, I thought that David Theune's presentation was very informational and motivational. I left class feeling PUMPED UP about including audience into my classroom. Even though he suggested many different projects that have worked in his ELA classroom, his ideas inspired me to start thinking about how to incorporate his practices into my own teaching. Although this presentation happened at the end of a very long day, I left the School of Ed feeling ready for the next opportunity I may have to utilize any one of these great ideas.

If you are interested in learning more about David Theune below are the links for his twitter feed and blog.

Twitter  https://twitter.com/DavidTheune

Blog http://educationaltransformer.blogspot.com/

Connections Across the Disciplines--Collegues Lesson Plan

I cannot believe that it is already a new semester and that I am one step closer to becoming a teacher! Last semester we were asked to create a lesson plan that incorporated issues centered around the B.Y.O.D. (bring-your-own-device) movement in the classroom. My group created a lesson centered around the physics of electromagnetic radiation of cellphones and I thought that it was such a fun experience. In this post I am going to discuss another group's lesson plan that centers on "understanding the historical context of the Odyssey."

See lesson plan (with all links included):
https://docs.google.com/a/umich.edu/document/d/1CqeCcO4j2VQ5AntoIVXzwNao1GDh6ZDZHRRwGHgl-zY/edit?pli=1


This group of humanities teaching interns creatively intertwined both Greek history and the text of the Odyssey. I think that this is such an interesting topic and that my fellow interns took advantage of a great teaching tool, Blendspace, that we learned in our Teaching with Technology course.  The authors incorporated.  They also allowed students to use their own personal cellphones to stream the Blendspace, where they are guided through a presentation, YouTube videos, and a short assessment at the end of the mini-lesson. After the mini-lesson and quiz, there is a work period where students are asked to use a map of Odysseus' travels and to determine the modern cities on his path home from Troy. Then they are asked to use Google maps to determine how far Odysseus traveled in his long journey home. After the work period the students are assessed through individual exit tickets that are to be completed through Google drive and shared with the teacher. In this exit ticket they are prompted with the question "What is one way in which the overall culture of Ancient Greece influenced Odysseus' actions?"

I think that this overall lesson plan is a good supplement to reading the Odyssey and that would help students gain understanding of the time period of the piece. The variety of media in this mini-lesson has the potential to excite students about the subject matter and be incredibly educational.  In addition, allowing students to physically use their own technology in the classroom will create excitement about their own tools to discovery, in addition to solving the problem of technology constraints in the classroom.  This mini-lesson does not overwhelm students with PowerPoint based lectures and provides interesting videos and images to promote learning of students that have different learning styles.

The group, made up of interns in both English and Social Studies content areas, created an interactive mini-lesson that covered many different and important aspects of the historical context of the Odyssey.  As a science teacher I am not extremely familiar with the content area but this lesson does help me to reflect on my own experiences in Social Studies, English, and Latin classrooms throughout my secondary education.  I had varying levels of interactivity in these different classrooms, in which I discussed either Greek culture and/or literature. I hope to make my future classrooms very interactive and transdisciplinary, something that this group was especially strong at doing. I believe that this helps students make connections to their previous knowledge and perspectives meanwhile enjoying learning. I was somewhat hesitant at first about using Blendspace in the classroom but this lesson plan and example has made me feel more confident in using this tool in the classroom.

I have to say that I learned quite a bit, both about the Odyssey and technology in the classroom, from this mini-lesson. Great job team!

Organizing My Online Life

Recently, we had an assignment for which we had to learn about one of three different online resources that could be helpful as a teacher. I was assigned to research Evernote and didn't have much experience with it at all prior to the assignment. However, now I find myself using it everyday to organize my assignment to do list.

Evernote is primarily a tool to organize all different types of files across multiple different devices. There is an online interface or a download for your laptop, in addition to apps for android, iphone, and ipads.

You can create notes that contain any type of file (text, lists, pdfs, and audio files to name a few) and then organize them into notebooks. These can then be sync across devices so then you can access your information anywhere.

As I have mentioned I have been using Evernote to keep track of my assignments for the MAC program. There's a great function where you can add a check box to a list and make an interactive to-do list. Having my to-do list on my computer and phone has been helpful in organizing my assignments and therefore providing some stress-relief. Here's a screenshot of my to-do list for tomorrow! Still so much to do.

While I like certain features of Evernote it does have some problems with the free version such as limited search capabilities and memory. However, you can pay for the premium version of Evernote if you want these features. Right now I'm not at the point where I feel inclined to buy the premium version.

Other students presented on Google Drive and BlendSpace. These resources are also very cool! Google Docs, I feel don't need much explanation. In google drive you can create/upload and save files such as text, powerpoint, and excel files. The storage capability, as long as you have a free gmail account, is unlimited. You can then share these files with other users. There a lot of cool other features like forms and while I didn't know about all the capabilities it all seems fairly user friendly.

The other tool BlendSpace is an online place to make lesson plans. They are interactive and you can add videos, quizzes, images, and games to a sequenced lesson. This will definitely be a cool tool to try out with my future classrooms.

While all of these tools are really cool they have differing levels of applicability to my life as a teacher now. I am most worried about spreading my life too thin across the internet and it actually causing me to become disorganized, the opposite of what the goal of these tools are created to do.

LEGO Video Games

My husband and I love to play the LEGO video games and have played quite a few of them including The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, among others. There is something about these games that are rated E for everyone that makes them irresistible to us even as adults. Here's a quick demo of The Lord of the Rings LEGO game so you can get the gist:

In each of these video games you play through either one movie, or a series of movies in which each level is a segment of the game. To beat a level one must simply make it to the end of level. 

As you play through the level you collect coins either by destroying LEGO structures or by defeating enemies. 

You also have four health markers and if you are attacked you lose "hearts." If you lose hearts you "die" which is essentially losing a quantity of the coins you collected and regenerating. You lose coins until you have no more but then the game continues and there is no consequence. You continue to collect coins and move throughout the level. 

As this game is made for younger children one can always make it through the level, that is not the challenge.

Getting through the level is one accomplishment that counts towards your percentage through the game. The goal is to beat the entire game by reaching 100%. To do this you must collect a certain number of coins in each level, find 10 artifacts, and a red brick. When you reach the number of coins required in a level you get something called a "true adventure" or "true pirate" or true something-or-other depending on what game you are playing.  Each artifact that you find is a part of a trophy that is eventually completed  (if you get all 10 artifacts) for each level. The red brick that you find unlocks a certain skill, such as one that attracts coins to you, that you can then buy with your collected coins.

To completely beat the game you must do these three things for each level. You do not have to accomplish each of these goals in one turn of the level. In fact it becomes easier if you play again. The first time through the level you are limited to a certain character (or characters if playing with two people) and those characters have certain skills. With those certain skills you cannot do everything in the level and find all of the artifacts. As you move through the levels, you either rescue or unlock characters that can do certain actions. After you play the level once, you can free play the level using any characters that you have available and you can interchange between them during game play. 

These games are not extremely difficult but they do require a certain level of team-work (if playing with another person) and strategy.  

So why did I just explain this awesome series of video games? Why do you people out there that care about education care about these games built for kids? If my husband and I, as grown adults, find some challenge and fun in these games, imagine how a younger player may feel. These principles are ones that should be applied to education. In the LEGO games you may fail but you instantly get to try and try again. You get to set your own goals and determine whether you want to play through the game to get 100% completion or if you are just content playing through the game or story of the movie. This game is very open ended and encourages exploration in each level. Players are free to choose where the wander, what they want to destroy, and how much time to spend in each part of the level. These are all concepts that would make education truly better. Students should feel that it is ok to be wrong and to fail with numerous chances to succeed. They should be challenged and set their own goals. So many of these concepts can apply to education...this post isn't necessarily about video games being included in the classroom but more about being aware of why students will sit and play video games for hours. Hopefully this post provided some insight about how we can make education more like a video game. 

Video game creators and educators have a similar audience in mind, and maybe we should learn a few lessons from them!

Assessment Reflection

Overwhelmed. After this week's class of Teaching with Technology I feel like in the next few years, as a new teacher, I will face many difficulties and being aware of it is overwhelming. I know the point of our class conversations was not to inspire fear of the future but instead for us to know the world of education that we are going to be entering, in a short few weeks as teacher interns and in a year in my very own classroom. This world is a world of standardized exams and teacher assessments that will depend on the "growth" of their students. How do we become effective teachers that care about students social and emotional needs while also making sure that students are able to successfully pass and grow on standardized tests? This, in addition to all of the other responsibilities teachers have, is overwhelming and what I believe will be the biggest struggle of being an educator.

First, lets talk quickly about standardized exams measuring students' growth. Half of the battle of passing a standardized exam is strategy such as knowing how to approach specific problems, what types of questions that can be asked, and time management skills.  But shouldn't education focus on actually teaching important content material not how to take a test? I believe that standards can be a positive influence in education as they provide important information guidance for what teachers should teach, but one should not take them as an end-all-be-all. What you teach shouldn't only be to the standards...standards should be a guide. Back to standardized testing...my other question is if a students growth or success (however that's defined) can be measured in one day by one test. There a lot of problems with standardized testing, but it only seems to be playing a larger role in education as time goes on.

I was also shocked about the computer testing interface that is going to be used for annual student standardized testing. It was nearly impossible to use and was confusing to navigate. It also seemed to limit the ability to move forward in a question sequence and come back to a problem, which decreases the opportunity for smart test taking . If these standardized tests adjust to the difficulty of the student as they progress through the test, students will manipulate the system (as I learned they do so well while playing math computer games with 8th graders at our summer placement). These computer assessments are a little intimidating as a teacher whose job depends on the growth of the students as measured by these standardized assessments.

As these standardized assessments are part of the teacher assessment bills waiting to be passed into law, they are going to directly affect what districts teachers want to work in.  If teacher assessment is directly tied (with such a high percentage) to the students' standardized test scores, teachers will only want to work in high performing districts and those students, who require the best teachers, in low-income marginalized communities will be less favorable to work with as those students will not see growth in the same ways that more successful school districts will.  Our state representative assured us that these new standardized tests will not be used to compare across districts, but are only meant to compare the students to themselves. I have a hard time understanding how other comparisons will not be made, maybe they will not be made to determine funding, but I think other comparisons could be easily made.  I would like to work in a urban high-needs community and believe that the students in those communities can grow leaps and bounds and achieve greater "growth" than in more successful school districts. But is this "growth" adequately measured by standardized tests?

While I believe the current state of education is in a pretty sad state, it doesn't seem to be moving in the right direction. What kind of reform will be required to change education? How much failure would it take? How many years of standardized testing and unfair assessments will there be?

Do We Dewey?

In the first class meeting of Education 504: Teaching with Technology we completed an activity in which we thought of what our ideal classroom would look like. My ideas were very different than my fellow classmates and because of this I hesitated to share with the class. My ideal classroom was most definitely a classroom of the future instead of a classroom that could be created with today's resources and technology. I believe that in my lifetime the use of technology in the classroom, and in our daily lives, will change significantly. One of the most important goals in education is creating the innovators of tomorrow and John Dewey states in "My Pedagogical Creed" one of the foremost issues with educating people for the future:

"With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to       foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities; that his eye and ear and hand may be tools ready to command, that his judgment may be capable of grasping the conditions under which it has to work, and the executive forces be trained to act economically and efficiently." 

In this respect I agree wholeheartedly with Dewey. We as teachers, need to move beyond the classrooms of our past, and our current perceptions need to change in order to educate our worlds' future leaders and innovators. The  video below shows what I think future classrooms will look like and this I believe to be close to my ideal classroom. 

While this entire incorporation of glass technologies into every aspect of our lives is very futuristic and cool, the classroom environment is shown in at approximately 1:50. 

This classroom is very futuristic and I have to add that I think balance inside the classroom is important, I think there is no replacement for spending time out in nature and for doing hands-on science labs. This classroom however does give itself to active learning that is student centered, as promoted by Dewey.

When Dewey shared his thoughts on education they were radical and as time has passed a majority of his ideas are being accepted and used by more and more educators as standard practice. I think a lot of educators would see this futuristic classroom as radical, much in the same way. Although the incorporation of technology in the classroom is difficult, I think it is essential to have an open mind to what the future holds. 

I also believe that it is important to teach the value of education to our students and that the goals is not to pass a standardized test or to only be trained for a certain job. Dewey stresses that "education ... is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." I feel that even now I have a hard time keeping this goal of education in mind personally (especially due to the fact of being in a program like the MAC program) but it is a key concept to stress to develop lifelong learners in the classroom. 

While I agree with most of Dewey's ideas there are some that I find very radical. The major idea that introducing students too soon to special studies (reading, writing, science, literature, history, geography) is a violation of a child's nature and that instead education should only be related to their social life is surprising.  I understand the importance of trans-disciplinary education and the intersection of many disciplines, however, I find the idea of teaching with no distinction between different subject materials as somewhat inefficient. I also think some of the argument as school as a social institution that is the extension of the home has not translated well with time. When Dewey first wrote about these thoughts the concept of family is very different. Some students do not come from a traditional family with strong family values and I think this provides some issues when we look at the social responsibility of the family and school in Dewey's arguments. 

Dewey thoughts provide incredible insight into education and his ideas seem somewhat timeless but the biggest question is "Do we Dewey?" and how do we completely reform our perceptions of education today?

If you'd like to read "My Pedagogical Creed" by John Dewey click here: http://dewey.pragmatism.org/creed.htm

**As I final thought I'd like to give a shout out to Rachel for the inspiration of the title for this blog post!