In Conclusion

A Moment

By Mary Elizabeth Coleridge 

The clouds had made a crimson crown

    Above the mountains high.

The stormy sun was going down

    In a stormy sky.

Why did you let your eyes so rest on me,

    And hold your breath between?

In all the ages this can never be

    As if it had not been. 

As the semester has now come to a close, I look back and see how this class and everything from this semester will be helping me with the future. The websites that we all created will give us a cutting edge for our interviews and job prospects. The codes you can put on papers to make people see who you are, makes us stand out even more. As we are moving towards the technology age, we all need to get on board so that we can engage with students, parents, other teachers/faculty and new prospective schools as well. Overall, technology is vital in education.

Clarification

Jabberywocky 

By Lewis Carol

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

      The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

      Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

      And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

      And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

      He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

      He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

So just like the interesting poem above by Lewis Carol, technology in the classroom can have many different uses, the problem is that students need to have clarification. If a student is using technology correctly, then they can create their own world of imagination and learning just like in the poem above. BUT if the teacher gives no direction, then they will be reading the poem and focusing on the things they don't understand versus focusing on the things that they do understand. Overall the lesson is to actually teach your students instead of just handing them an assignment, be there to help them if they need it.

Forgetfulness? How can technology help...

Forgetfulness 

By Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go

followed obediently by the title, the plot,

the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel

which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor

decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,

to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye

and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,

and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,

the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,

it is not poised on the tip of your tongue

or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river

whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall

well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those

who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night

to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.

No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted   

out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Link to reading of this poem

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/26905

What I love about this poem, is that I continue to grow older every year and with each passing year the knowledge that I had gained in high school, only four years ago, continues to drift away. The dates, formulas and plots of novels all dwindle away.

As future teacher, I don't want that to happen. They might forget most of what I teach, but what about the really important lessons? How will I make that stick? Will I find an app scavenger hunt that will allow them to engage with the material in a new and fun way? Or perhaps give them a lesson or assignment through wikispaces or prezi? Either way, technology seems to be what people are remember more and more lately. People can remember a great movie plot for years and years. Therefore, if you can't beat them, join them.

Communication: Speech is one symptom of Affection

Emily Dickinson

Speech is one symptom of Affection

And Silence one —

The perfectest communication

Is heard of none —

Exists and its indorsement

Is had within —

Behold, said the Apostle,

Yet had not seen!

In education, communication is so important with everyone involved in the process, which can be parents, students, other faculty or other teacher. The way to stay connected with so many different people is easy now with this technology age. Blogs are easy for people to follow, also creating a website, facebook page or twitter feed for classroom activities. Overall, it is very important to keep everyone up to date on what is happening inside the classroom.

The reason I placed the Dickinson poem above is that she discusses the best communication is within yourself, as great and true as that is, the reason we have social media is the ability to share your thoughts about what is going on. Therefore, students should have an area where they can interact and share what they have been holding within.

The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade 

Lord Tennyson

I

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

   Someone had blundered.

   Theirs not to make reply,

   Theirs not to reason why,

   Theirs but to do and die.

   Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

III

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

   Rode the six hundred.

IV

Flashed all their sabres bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

   All the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reeled from the sabre stroke

   Shattered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not

   Not the six hundred.

V

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell.

They that had fought so well

Came through the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,

All that was left of them,

   Left of six hundred.

VI

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

   All the world wondered.

Honour the charge they made!

Honour the Light Brigade,

   Noble six hundred!

I'm probably making a stretch with this post, but when I started to think about what I was learning about Microsoft and Excel in my Educational Technology class, I thought about this poem. Just as there is repetition in this poem, there is repetition in technology. There is a process to making charts, diagrams, data lists, tables and handouts. There is a specific method to the way technology is used. There are formats, formulas and specific knowledge that needs to be utilized. As this poem is also about war and fighting, I would like to state that as a teacher we are always going to be fighting for our students to become engaged in learning. Education is a way to help that process. Also, this poem describes cannons coming from the left and right. As teachers, we will have students that are having so many different cannons going off in their lives, one way we can analyze what is going on is through looking at the data of students and then asking why that students is struggling. And although we will die, our glory will never fade!!

In the Station of the Metro

In the Station of the Metro

by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

To me this poem perfectly describes how people feel about technology today.  Pound is describing an instance where someone is in a metro station and the person is overwhelmed by the crowd of people, in the end they are just blurring by. For most people, technology is this same way. If you have learned something a specific way, then you are more likely to not want to have to learn a completely knew system. We are creatures of habit and familiarity. In the end though, my above poem also displays what technology is made for. This type of poem is in the genre a minimalism, and in the end technology is made to make life easier and to have short cuts. Just like Pound's movement of having poetry in as little words as possible and mean something profound, that is what technology for education is supposed to do as well.  In the end, websites, powerpoints, smart boards, twitter, email etc. are venues that allow teaching professionals to get their information to the students in the best possible way. Thank you technology and poetry, we will try to understand you more.

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

By Walt Whitman

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;

When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, n the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. This poem has always identified with me what education is supposed to be. We can learn as much as you can but we also have to experience what we are learning. To me, that is what our education department at my university is all about. There is a balance between reading, lecturing and memorizing, but there also comes a time when we have to use our knowledge through experiences. This education class is a way to display knowledge that will later help with our experience in the field of teaching.