silentvirus

Everyday each of you teach from 90 to 130 students. It is only possible for your students to learn as much as you know, so I encourage each of you to keep furthering your education, even if it is only self-education through reading articles or books.

I know Hamilton County Schools do not offer any kind of tuition reimbursement (Coggin), but an hour at Chattanooga State is only one-hundred dollars, and it would make a huge difference for both you and your students.

You can stay up-to-date with the latest by aggregate technology news websites, such as Digg.com or SlashDot.org. To teach yourself, used books on Amazon.com are very cheap, or you can just Google ‘tutorials’ and find many free sources for teaching yourself. If everyone wanted to do the do-it-yourself route, then a very smart idea would be to meet up once a month or so, and everyone share what they have learned.

Be sure to check back next week. I will explain how teaching sexual abstinence in technology courses will raise grades.

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Coggin, Patricia. Personal Interview. 12 Feb. 2009.

Blackboard is a web based piece of software that has a lot to offer to make educating more efficient. It allows teachers to manage grades, post quizzes, announcements, homework, and pretty much anything else online. It allows students to email their teacher, their classmates, or their whole class, instant message anyone in their classes, teachers, or anyone else they add, watch their grades, and look for announcements, or homework assignments, for each of their classes. Blackboard makes communication between students and teachers much easier and efficient, while at the same time, it makes managing the class for the teacher or taking the class for the student much easier.

Blackboard even has an iPhone application so students can easily keep up with their classes on the move (New Blackboard). If the school does not have enough money to spend on Blackboard, there are many competitive alternatives. The two main free alternatives are Moodle and Sakai. They are both free open-source course management systems that many universities such as Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California at Los Angeles, and Louisiana State University at Shreveport are already using (Young). I feel that any of these options would make Ooltewah High School a much better place to learn or teach.

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“New Blackboard Learn for Apple iPhone Application Lets Users Take Learning on the Go.” Science Letter (April 7, 2009): 3352. Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 14 Apr. 2009 .

Young, Jeffrey R. “Blackboard Customers Consider Alternatives.(Blackboard Inc.).” The Chronicle of Higher Education 55.3 (Sept 12, 2008): NA. Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. 14 Apr. 2009 .