Another Blog Among Millions (Billions?)
My name is Ken Callaway, and this post is to introduce myself to my ED TECH 700 professor, Karl Richter. I have been a teacher for over twenty years, with the last 15+ years of service at Sweetwater High School in National City. I am in the Social Science department, and have taught a wide variety of course under that umbrella, but the constant in all those years has been ninth graders. Each year I ask for that grade level because I enjoy seeing how they are when they enter high school, then watching them change over the four years they spend on our campus. Since the vast majority of teachers prefer teaching upperclassmen, (ninth graders do present more of a discipline problem), I have no problem getting my wish list granted. The last few years, my main assignment has been ninth grade World Geography. This coming school year, which starts this Monday for Martin Jimenez, Roberto Bonilla, and myself, my assignment will be five classes of Geography.
My personal life revolves around my family and my hobbies. I have a wife, Ivy, and a son, Dylan, who is 14. We live in Jamul, a rural community 30 minutes to the east of San Diego. Ivy has a horse, which requires a great deal of her time, energy, and money. Dylan is becoming a computer geek, heavily involved in World of Warcraft, and just getting in to building his own computer, (if he can raise the funds). The free time their interests give me are spent playing tennis, hiking in the mountains and deserts of this county, and reading, particularly histories.
I’m not sure of what the final project will entail, specifically, but there are several ways I’m planning on using the blog:
1. Post materials and resources
I will definitely make use of this aspect. One of the things I will be trying out this year is WizIQ. So each time I use it, I will need to post a URL that the students can copy/paste into their browser. I will also use it for links to my Quia and SchoolNotes pages. It will be a great place for the online copy of my rules, as well as maps and other geography resources.
2. Host online discussions
I will be experimenting with this as well. I had set up another blog for this, but this space will eventually take that over.
4. Replace your newsletter
I will not use it to replace, but rather to supplement, the newsletter. Most of our students don’t have access to a computer with the Internet at home. A hard copy is vital.
5. Get your students blogging
This is something that I will be introducing this year.
7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions
I will be trying to tie in slideshows and presentations that the students can interact with on their own time. I’ve never been happy so far with how this has worked before due to bandwidth and hardware issues, but we’ll see.
9. Get feedback
I will be playing with this part of it, but the times I’ve tried in the past to get feedback through the Web has not been too successful.
10. Create a fully functional website
I have a DreamWeaver site for my class, but from the way your site looks, I would like to use the Edublog rather than DreamWeaver. That program is too complicated for what my needs are, and I can only work on it at home. I love the idea of being able to work on it anywhere, plus not worry about paying for anything!
July 16th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Hi Ken,
Hope your new classes got off to a good start. You’ve got lots of great ideas. Looking forward to learning more from you.
July 16th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
is that you or your son in that picture?
July 16th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Ken,
Sounds like you have big plans for the blogging world. You’re ideas are rather ambitious. Let me know how it goes with your students.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Ken,
Did you make the shot in the picture?
July 17th, 2008 at 9:26 am
hey ken. i’m coaching the girls tennis team now. interesting in stopping by every now and then and giving a short clinic or two? your expertise would be appreciated.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:34 am
WOW! You seem to have it all together. It’s nice that you have some connections with other teachers in our program. Good luck!
Lori
July 17th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I can’t believe you start school already. I have five more weeks. Not that I’m rubbing it in or anything.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Honestly, Ken, I can’t believe you are already starting school again! That depresses me on your behalf, but, at the same time, what perfect timing for a final project for this class to lead into a very usable site for your classes.
P.S. I also want to know whether you made that shot.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
That is awesome that you already have so many great ideas for using your blog in the classroom, I might have to steal some from you. I replaced my class newsletter with a class blog. It worked out well because I could add student work (books from bookr, etc.)
July 17th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
haha-I don’t know where that little blue monster came from but I like her!
July 17th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I cannot believe you guys are starting back Monday already. Yikes! The thought makes me shiver.
July 18th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Man, you Red Devils role deep in the COMET program! I agree about DreamWeaver – I have half a site populted-tons of stuff- but I am debating finishing it there or restarting with Edublog.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Hey Ken,
I love your “I’m not Impressed With All of This” attitude. It keeps me laughing that you are plowing through this program. You are a good counterbalance to those of us with our heads in the clouds.
Matt
July 19th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Hey Ken,
I can’t believe you are starting back to school already. I haven’t even got out yet! It looks like you have some big plans. I think I am going to recreate my whole class page, blog, and wiki and combine them all on a new edublog site, just as soon as school gets out.
July 20th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Hi Ken, you have such great and practical ideas with the use of your blog space.I am sure your students really enjoy having you as a teacher! You are right this site is SO much easier and less time consuming not to mention cheaper than Dreamweaver!