Fall 09

Well Trevor loves school and is learning a lot of new songs.

Aiden has a few teeth with one popping in that keeps him and myself up all night.

Grandma is coming to visit soon and Becky and Trevor will be going to Chi-Town to visit the Dobb family.

Start of a New School Year

A lot has gone on this summer. Although we have been good about updating the pictures, this blog has been lagging. The summer was filled with activities and long days. The first weekend in June I had a youth retreat, the 2nd week, Ryan came to visit, the third week, Katie, Mike, and Adam (plus the baby in the tummy) came to visit. The last week of June I found my self in a very hot St. Louis for my SLED program. Becky was promoted, which means more hours and a change in our schedule. Becky is the primary x-ray tech for an outpatient surgery center that is connected to the hospital. July blew by and it was already time to start school.

Trevor is in PreSchool 4 now, although it is a small class (2 students, hey his class doubled from last year) he has fun and continues to amaze us with how smart he is.

Aiden is a big boy now, he is just itching to walk, he forgets he doesn't have the balance. He has mastered the crawl and is fast at it. He also has 2 teeth now. The only issue we have with him is he likes to stay up still or I should say wake up as soon as Becky and I are just finally sitting down or falling asleep.

My Graduate classes continue, Just started a new class, if all goes as plans, I will be done by May 2010.

If you didn't check out the main webpage for us, http://www.coachburk.com/family check it out. Been working on it and redoing it. I also created a twitter account for our family. I hope Becky will use it also.

Keep looking for new pictures and blog posts, which our webpage will or should now state when we do have new stuff up.

May God bless you all.

Family Visit Video

Whats going on.

This past weekend we had Grandma K, Aunt Nancy, and Missy visiting. It was a great time, although short. We went to Hollywood, got to see all the preparations for the OSCARS. I also been nominated for the SLED program through LC-MS Synod. I also had my first somewhat publication see http://burktech.blogspot.com/2009/02/first-for-me.html. I am in my last week of my current class. I have 2 weeks left before our spring break. Becky will be going back to work in a few weeks also. Aiden and Trevor are also so cute. Check out pictures.

Our Old Church Finally Moves their house.

2 years later. I was there when we talked about moving this house. I helped advertise the sell of this house. Finally it has moved.

Fast Weekend

What a fast weekend, but it was nice. We love having Great Grandma and Grandpa over. Too bad it went by way too fast. Not even sure where the weekend went to. Next Visitors are coming the end of the Month. Becky's Grandma, Aunt, and Cousin are visiting. It will be good to see more family. Especially since we don't get to travel much.

New Blog

I know I have been missing from posting whats up with us. It has been a very busy time. Jan 11th My parents and Tommy left to go back to Arizona, which made Trevor sad. But, Great Grandma and Grandpa Burk are coming to visit tomorrow. Trevor can't wait. We have been just watching Aiden grow. It is amazing how big he is already and how time flies so fast. I have been busy with School, being a teacher and a student. I have a lot on my to do list. Becky will go back to work in March. Trevor is learning so much at school. Back to the point of the Title, New Blog... I have decided to keep this more of family posts and maybe a few of my thought writings. I have created a New Blog to concentrate directly on somewhat professional writings. It is called Burk Tech. It is Thoughts on Education and Technology (related to Education). I wanted a place when I have people who follow me on Twitter to be able to read my posts without mixing family into it. They don't really need to know that Aiden rolled over, whenever he does. Or that Aiden loves smiling now and smiles all the time, not just when its gas. If you want to take a look go ahead, You can also subscribe to Burk Tech on Itunes which is a computer voice reading my blog to you. Will try to keep this more up to date also. New pics will be coming next week.

Time to Change is Now!

Cell-Phones-in-Education

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/01/07/16cellphone.h28.html

New educational uses of cellphones are challenging the "turned off and out of sight" rules that many districts have adopted for student cellphones on campus.

I remember when I was in grade school, no one had cell phones. Ok that was in the 80's and early 90's. Even when I was in high school (class of 97) no one had cell phones, some had pagers. I can remember my aunt had a car phone. It didn't work unless plugged into the cigarette outlet. When going to college, I started seeing more and more cell phones. I didn't get my first cell phone until 2002. Most of the schools claimed that cell phones are a distraction and help students cheat and do drugs. Students can cheat many different ways. One way is using a graphing calculator. I digressed.

A growing number of teachers, carefully navigating district policies and addressing their own concerns, are having students use their personal cellphones to make podcasts, take field notes, and organize their schedules and homework.

And some recent, positive examples of how the phones are being used for academic learning may eventually lead to more nuanced policies. Indeed, more educators are concluding that cellphones may be the only realistic way their schools can offer the 1-to-1 computing experiences that better-funded schools provide with laptops.

"In our district, especially at high school, students have a cellphone on them at all times, just like a pencil—it's an underused tool," said Rosemary Miller, the technology-integration specialist for secondary schools in the Buhler, Kan., public schools. "We don't have a computer for every kid, as some school districts do."

Good for those teachers. They are not afraid of what will happen if they try something new and rewarding to the students. Recently the 7th grade teacher and I redid our 6-8th grade computer curriculum including everyday application of technology. The students love it and are learning a lot more than step by step instructions.

Podcasting and classroom-response systems are among the more than 100 uses of cellphones that educator Liz Kolb has collected, and in some cases invented, for her book Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education, published in October.

Bloom's New Taxonomy has creation as the top level of intellectual behavior. Having students create Podcasts is a great way to evaluate the students on any topic you are covering. A quote from an unknown individual once said, "the one who is doing the talking is doing the learning." Student response systems can be very expensive. If every student already has a cell phone, using free websites to create polls is a cheap alternative. Liz Kolb has taken her book and went to the web in her own blog: http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/, where Liz continues to find new ways to use cell phones in the classroom.

Cellphones with cameras also have great potential for simple data collection. They can enrich fieldwork or field trips by allowing students to snap images of, say, leaves, for later identification. Students also can snap pictures of museum exhibits and placards to fuel classroom discussions.

"Mobile citizen journalism" is another popular trend that schools can harness, Ms. Kolb said, though she did not know of any school newspapers doing it extensively yet. "Schools can definitely set up their own mobile journalism text-messaging numbers," so students who are traveling can phone in reports and images, especially if they find themselves in the midst of breaking news.

The possibilities are endless. http://www.animoto.com has developed an application for I-Phone and I-Pod where you can create short video clips on the go. California Local PBS station is even having a contest http://www.koce.org/filmonthefly/ where your mobile phone will receive a text message with the secret story prompt, along with the "tag" you'll use to identify your video as part of our contest on YouTube. You will only have 20 hours to enter your finish product.

In conclusion, we must use what tools we have. Give a person a pencil and it can become a weapon, but do we ban pencils? How many time you have cut your finger on a piece of paper, but do we ban paper? Why don't we use the tools we have to keep students engaged? No matter what you are using find a way to make it educational and its ok to use with me.

The Fischbowl: I Just Want to Say One Word to You: Collaboration.

So, if you’re an administrator, what are you doing to foster collaboration among your staff, and especially your teachers? And I’m talking more than just PLC’s, although that’s not a bad start. What are you really doing to fundamentally change the structure of your school(s) from one of isolation (close the door and teach), to one of sharing and collaboration (knock down the walls)? Is it unacceptable to share in your institution?If you’re a teacher, what are you doing to foster collaboration among your students? And I’m talking more than putting them into groups of four and having the students create a PowerPoint presentation together. What are you really doing to fundamentally change the structure of your classroom from one of isolation (do your own work), to one of collaboration (work with others)? What are you doing to build their skills to succeed in a corporate environment that requires them to collaborate on a global scale?If you're a student, what are you doing to improve your own collaboration skills - and those of your peers? What are you demanding of your schools, your teachers, your administrators to help prepare you for the collaborative marketplace that is your future?

The Fischbowl: I Just Want to Say One Word to You: Collaboration.

As a Teacher, I feel very isolated, I am not allowed to go to the bathroom or check my mailbox without a parent getting upset. I get 3 and 1/2 hours of free time a week, if I am lucky. Does that mean I can collaborate with other teachers at that time? NO. I am usually emailing a parent back who asked a few hundred questions, I am fixing another teacher's computer, or I am inputting grades into the grade book. I guess part of my isolation is that I am on a path of change. I see the faults in my school and in my own teaching and I am trying to change them. I am in pursuit of a Master's Degree, I have changed from being a teacher to an educator.

Although just having students in group to work on a PPT presentation may not be where we want to be, but that is a lot better than where we are. Change is slow and hard and no one likes it. Maybe ADD students have it right, they need change constantly to keep them engaged.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts, but also the quote from the Fischbowl, if you are an educator, check out this blog!

Learning Is Messy - Blog » Blog Archive » Exercise Improves Kids’ Academics

Exercise Improves Kids’ Academics From the “I Told You So Department” comes this article and studies:Exercise Improves Kids’ Academics, by Dan Peterson, Live Science’s Sports Columnist I’ll let the article mostly speak for itself but will post this one telling quote:“Ironically, one of the solutions proposed for raising test scores, the federal No Child Left Behind program, encourages schools to focus more of the school day on the core academic subjects while reducing class time in peripheral subjects, like art, music, and physical education. In fact, only 6 percent of American high schools offer a daily gym class. Yet a 2002 Virginia Tech study showed no relationship between reduced class time in those subjects and higher overall standardized tests.”Learning is messy!

Learning Is Messy - Blog » Blog Archive » Exercise Improves Kids’ Academics

Just wanted to add this for others to see.