Podcasting continued.....

The following is the text from the podcast I did for ed 533. All of the bold text was when my girlfriend, Colleen, was talking. The regular text was me. We did it in the style of a radio interview. I explained why I wanted to become a teacher, and what my personal teaching philosophy was.....

Hi, I’m April O’Neil, thanks for tuning into Teacher Radio. I have a special guest with me today, please welcome Stephen Brobeck to our program. Hi Stephen.

Hello April. Thanks for having me.

It says here that you would like to become a teacher someday. What made you come about that decision?

Well, April - I’ve wanted to become a teacher for a long time. Every year my family gets together for a reunion and my favorite part of it is hanging out with my younger cousins. I have always enjoyed talking with them because I can relate to them on a level that shows my experience in life but at the same time treats them with respect and makes them feel like their opinion matters. And its because of this that several family members have told me many times that I would be very well suited in a career in education. This, along with the facts that I have always loved sports and being active and my favorite classes have always been PE classes. I decided in high school that the best way for me to continue to have sports as a major part of my life was to be a PE and Health teacher.

That’s wonderful, stephen.- have you had any experience working with children in school type settings?

Yeah, actually I was a student PE teacher at Fernwood Middle School for two college terms for my senior internship. Lets see, my senior capstone consisted of me volunteering twice a week at a different school where I worked in the PE department one day a week and in a second grade classroom the other. My time spent at these two schools solidified my notion that being a middle school teacher is exactly how I want to spend the rest of my professional life.
I loved every day I spent time in both of these schools and I cherished my interactions with both, the students and the teachers. I am extremely glad that through the masters program at Concordia my goal of becoming a teacher is becoming a reality.

Well it sounds like you’re well suited for a job in the education field. What exactly is your personal teaching philosophy?

I believe that school should be a safe learning environment where students can feel comfortable expressing themselves and their opinions. I think a teacher needs to be a teacher before schools starts and well beyond when the final school bell rings. By this I mean that as teachers we are all going to be role models for any student we come across. This is whether they are in our class or even just a member of our schools student body. I want to teach my kids to respect one another and their elders. And I want each and every one of them to know that they matter to me and that they can make a difference in whatever they choose to do with their lives.

Well thanks for sharing your thoughts with us this evening. We’ll be right back after we pause for station identification....

Happy Podcasting

Lets see, the Blazers won in exciting fashion this weekend. The Redskins lost against the cowboys two hours ago and I'm still steaming mad because i freaking hate the cowboys. And I just completed my first podcast. Which went really well actually and I had a little help from my girlfriend, Colleen. She stepped in under the alais of April O'Neal..... You know, the reporter from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And we did the podcast in the style of a radio show interview. I had fun but don't really see myself using podcasts in the near future because I will email or talk to someone when I want to talk to them, and I will not be using them in my classroom anytime soon unless every student in attendance has a home computer.

Last week was a doozy!

Wow. What can I say... A final presentation, a final research/reflection paper, a professional grade portfolio and a ton of online work all due in the same week. Did I mention I work more than 40 hours each week? Any-who. I got it all done and this blog post is the last thing i need to do until turning in homework later this week for my online class. Which is actually a lot more fun than I thought. I'm doing things I never thought I would be able to do. Like creating this blog, and creating a website that I just finished up about 20 minutes ago. At first I was a little scared because I'm not very familiar with online type things but so far so good. Just like my previous class, at first it was very overwhelming, but in the end it was pretty awesome. But not as awesome as when after class, most of our cohort went out to the Kennedy School and watched the end of the Blazers game in which Brandon Roy hit a 31 foot three pointer to win the game in overtime. Hello! it was magical!

Using blogs in the classroom

The math blog looked like a really good way for students to get immediate feedback and also to see what assignments were due and when. It also seemed like the blog had people from all over the world as regular visitors. this would be fun way for students to see how different culters and societies go about learning and teaching. But what about students that don't have computers in their homes? I'm sure they can gain access to the internet via the school library but I wonder how much time they have available to use the machines at the school.
The article "Don't feed the Trolls," by Karen Work Richardson, laid out some very good guide lines for teachers looking to utilize blogs along with their other teachings methods. The gist of the article was that students first need to know the boundaries and they also need to "think first, then post." This ensures that the blog is a safe and mutually respectful place for students to speak their minds and to share information.
An assignment that I planned on using at some point was to have my kids watch a sporting event of any kind either on T.V. or preferably in person over a particular weekend. A great way for me to help my students with this assignment would be to have a blog that listed several sporting events with the times and location that they were all taking place. With a blog in place, students could organize and plan trips together. And then share stories of how the event was. Which would hopefully encourage other students to attend more events in the future. As a Health teacher, it would be helpful to set up a blog similar to the math blog we looked at. Creating a rich source of information and a place where information was easily exchanged between teacher and students and between students and their peers.

My First Post!

Stephen Brobeck
Middle School Health and P.E.
Sloths!!!!