Ethics

In any career, one may face a decision in which there is an ethical dilemma. The decision to be made always has an impact on many people, whether it seems to at the time or not. Making ethical decisions in education, therefore, is very important, since teachers are working with impressionable children. Ethics deals with the good and evil aspects of decision-making. Ethical standards are decided by society, but unfortunately are not always black and white. There are many gray areas in which the right choice to be made is not clear. This is where many people struggle. Ethics, like I said, is a very important factor in education. As a person, I hold myself to a standard of making good ethical decisions, because I want to be a person of good word and of trust. I will carry that into my teaching career. I will want to do what is best for my students, which will require me to make ethical decisions in their favor, even when the easier decision is to ignore what is right. The true difficulty will lie in making decisions regarding working with colleagues. Colleagues don't always see eye-to-eye, and how I approach these disagreements and how I carry myself will greatly impact the respect that is given me and the future interactions with my colleagues. Making good ethical decisions will allow me to have peace with myself, even when things are not going the way I want, because I will know that I have done the right thing. It may be easier to "work the system" by throwing ethics out the window, but I don't think that I can be proud of that. I prefer to be a person and a teacher above reproach, one that is able to honestly say that she did everything that she believed was the right thing to do.

Virtual Tours

Virtual tours are a tool that can be used in the classroom. A virtual tour takes students on a path of discovery using the computer. It helps them discover things from their desk that they may not otherwise be able to see. For example, a student can take a virtual tour of a cell in his biology class, or take a tour of a museum in his art class. Virtual tours are very beneficial when the funds for field trips or for materials are insufficient. However, we have to be careful not to substitute valuable, necessary experience with virtual reality. My class is going to be a math classroom, so I initially wondered about how virtual tours can be applied to my classroom. After a little bit of searching around, I discovered that there are virtual tours that help students discover the application of mathematics in the real world. Also, I plan on involving historical background in my lessons for the sake of perspective, and there are virtual tours centered around the lives of famous mathematicians. We can find applications of virtual tours in all areas.

Teacher Web Pages

A teacher web page is a site where teachers can post information about themselves, the school, and the activities in their classes. There are endless possibilities with using web pages as a mode of communication between teachers, parents, and students. I will use a teacher web page mainly for the students' sake. On the web page there will be a calendar with homework assignments posted, attachments to the daily presentations, and attachments for quiz and test reviews. I also think it would be nice to include (with parent permission, of course) pictures and blog-type entries from students about class activities for the parents to see. I think that there is an abundant amount of benefits of a teacher web page, the biggest of which is that teachers have easy access to their child's classroom. Also, if a student is absent, that student can easily access the day's lesson, enabling them to not fall too far behind. However, one con to the web page, from a teacher's perspective, is the work needed to keep the web page up to date. I plan on posting lessons daily, which means I have to update the site daily. However, there is so much work involved in teaching already that teachers are already bogged down without a web page on their plates. It's going to be a difficult task to keep up with, but it will be worth the effort.

WebQuest Reflection

In my Instructional Technology class we are learning about WebQuests and their use in the classroom. A WebQuest is a constructive activity in which students gather information from web resources to solve a problem. It is not just the gathering of information from sites, but the synthesizing of this information. I can see how I will be able to use them in my own classroom. I can set one up any time I am covering a topic with obvious real-world applications. I can present a problem and ask the students to figure out how to resolve the issue using mathematical concepts they gather from the web. The benefits of a WebQuest in a math classroom are numerous. The most significant of the benefits is that it can enable the students to see the applications of math. Too often students' complaints are revolving around a version of the statement, "when will we ever use this?" A WebQuest allows them to answer that question. Also, a WebQuest would provide a change of pace from the typical lecture format of a math class. The students will be able to tackle a problem in a fun and creative manner rather than the pencil and paper, stuck behind a desk method. However, teachers must use WebQuests with discretion. They can be lengthy, taking up time where time is not allotted. Unfortunately, many teachers have a time crunch they have to teach within due to the stress put on standardized testing, and WebQuests, if not used efficiently, can eat up this time. Also, the use of computers may tempt students to get distracted with other pages on the web, so WebQuests require close monitoring by the teacher. Overall, I am glad I am being exposed to WebQuests. I never did one in high school, and I think that I would have appreciated it as a student. Since I can also see the benefits of using one in class from a teacher's perspective, I will keep WebQuests as an option for use in my classroom.