Throwing Away the Grade book

            Technology is quickly taking over the education system in classrooms. I am a bit older than the normal college student so you could say I am a bit "old school." When I was in grade school we didn't have much technology except for the basic computers and internet was just becoming a thing for schools when I was heading into 9th grade. 
          I found Dr. Haskell's video on "throwing away the  grade book" pretty interesting, however I am not sure that I completely agree with most of it. Like I said I am pretty old school. I believe in textbooks, sitting in a classroom, listening to a teacher give out information and I believe in grades. I work as a para-professional at a middle school and I can say first hand that technology in that school is doing nothing but hindering those students education. The students don't have textbooks so they aren't reading anything, there are only 4 laptop carts for the ENTIRE school so not every kid has their own computer to use during the day. Then to add on taking the blackboard away, could spell disaster. These kids already don't have a textbook to refer to for information, now take away the blackboard and they are literally staring at the wall.
        When I was in school homework helped me so much with backing up what I learned through out the day. You could always tell which kids didn't do their homework because they had no idea what we were talking about the next day. We could take our textbooks home and read about what we learned through out the day. I can see now in the middle school that I work at, how having no homework just does nothing but hurt these kids. I don't believe it has everything to do with the support system at home. My parents were very involved in my academics however, they never had to remind me to do my home work. I had serious goals for myself and I knew the first step in achieving my goals was to get good grades and a huge part of those grades was homework and that is how I retained the information for tests and papers. Then take away due dates???? What since of responsibility are we teaching these kids? "Oh here is what we will be learning this semester complete whenever you wish!" Talk about kids procrastinating! Like I said I am old school, I want a textbook in front of my child, not a computer. 

technology in education then and now

TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION THEN AND NOW

       I guess it is probably safe to say that technology has developed over the years to something quite extraordinary and very influential in education. I remember when I was in elementary school we had the little square apple computers that pretty much could only type. Looked similar to the one that was in the video, but definitely did nothing that the one in the video did. This video from the 80's that highlighted technology in education and classrooms completely for shadowed for the development for the things we now have. It started with what looks like almost a Microsoft Power Point presentation, where the teacher was pointing out on bullet points the instructions for their history project. Then it quickly turned to video conferencing with a student while they were at home with a broken leg. It was pretty cool how it showed the students after school video chatting online about the project they were working on together. I wish that would have been a thing when I was in school. When I was a student in grade school, AOL dial up internet and cell phones were just becoming a thing when I was going into my 9th grade year so we definitely did not have video chatting. Another thing the video foretasted was the invention of a computer you can talk to, that can answer your questions and shoot information right to you with simply just speaking a couple words. Sort of like today's Siri or Cortana for Apple and Windows. 

        The computer the student was using had some other interesting features like giving it commands, like we can do today. Like vocally sending a email or sending a text message to a friend or even sending a file. He also streamed videos of the war he was studying like we would do today on Youtube. All of his technology was also wireless, which we can find today in just about any technology. I think one of the major advances in technology that these videos still foreshadow for the future of technology in education is simply the slow decline of attending a classroom everyday. Soon enough all we will need to do is wake up and turn on the computer and web cam and all of the classes will be through video conferencing. Technology could put an end to social interaction with humans starting at a very young age. 

Kelly Chrisco's history for history!

All my life I have been obsessed with history, it has been my dream since childhood to share my love of history with other kids the way my teachers did with me. 
I was a Coast Guard brat, we moved around a lot when I was a kid. My dad is a huge fan of history as well. As kids we were traveling a lot, visiting new places or moving to a new town. My Dad always made sure he knew every significant historical fact about where we were or where we were going. He would fill us in about all of it on the long car rides and when we got to where we were going we went to every museum, historical trail or battlefield. When my brother, sister and I were old enough to have opinions, they decided they just weren't as into it as my Dad and I were. So, it kind of became my dad and I's "thing". We would take trips just me and him to go to battlefields or museums. Our favorite place to visit was Gettysburg, PA. We would lay on the ground and have a picnic where Union and Confederate soldiers once marched or died. We got to look at awesome artifacts and even hold some. 
The place we frequented the most was Washington DC. It was only about a hour and a half drive from Midlothian, Va, where my dad retired. The history in that town, let me tell you! The Smithsonian is filled with so many artifacts, papers and figures from the history of the United States. We even got to see the original U.S. Constitution during one of our trips! So growing up in school I would have to say that Social Studies and History were my favorite classes in school. I could keep my nose in any book that filled with history for weeks and weeks. 
I had a lot of great history teachers through out my years in grade school. The top would have to be Mr. Williams. Walking into your freshman year of high school can be very stressful and nerve racking, at least I know for me it was. My first period class was History with Mr. Williams. He looked very intimidating at first, didn't smile much and had a very stern voice. For the first few days I was pretty scared of him, then when we really got started with learning and him teaching I could see his love for what he was talking about and teaching. After our first project on The Civil War and Reconstruction he could see my passion for history too and began to have a great student/teacher relationship. I joined the history club that he sponsored and began to do a lot of research projects together. Unfortunately, he didn't teach the Sophomore class, but he asked me to be his student aide that year. At the end of that year he sent out letters to some of his favorite students and asked to meet him after school one day in his room. Most of us were pretty close and were scared that he was going to tell us he was leaving the school, so we were all pretty worried going into the meeting. It ended up being a really awesome meeting because he told us he was starting a new History elective in the district called Military History and Diplomacy, which was amazing because there had never been a history elective available for students. Of course we all signed up and I was also lucky enough to have him for my required history class as a a teacher. He is absolutely the reason why I am choosing History-Secondary Education as my major. I have my father to thank for my love of history and I have Mr. Williams to thank for my love of wanting to teach what i LOVE!