Bullying in Schools

I decided that I want to finish this blog with a very important and recent issue; Stuart Chaifetz, a father of a son with autism, who is currently tormented with his horrifying discovery.

You can watch the video here:

In summary, Stuart noticed that his son, Akian, had a sudden change in emotion and personality. He was described as a normally upbeat, loving, caring child, and recently has had sudden mood swings that his father has never seen before. Stuart then runs into another boy in Akian's class, who tells him that Akian cries a lot in school. I could imagine, as a father, that this struck him like a nail to the heart. He then decided to send his son to school with a microphone and recorder, so that he can get the inside look at what is really going on in the classroom.

The result is absolutely gut-wrenching, I could barely get through the whole video. To hear the teachers and aide treat the students that way is absolutely appalling. It makes me extremely grateful to be going through such an enriching program and be taught how wrong this behavior truly is.

If you have a few minutes, please watch the video.

NJECC

As many of you know, I have been working at Montclair State University for a few years now actively monitoring, repairing, and maintaining the campus network as a Student Network Technician. Within the past two years, I have been working closely with an organization called NJECC, short for New Jersey Educational Computer Cooperative. Their meetings are gatherings of technology coordinators or teachers from districts all around New Jersey. Since they are all highly tech-savvy, they usually carry laptops, iPads, iPhones, and etc with them so they can constantly stay in the loop with their district. This is where I come in, making sure that all of their devices are registered and properly working on our network... but that's not the point here!

In their meetings, they discuss different ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. They are constantly bouncing ideas off of one another, collaborating during presentations, taking notes, and participating in demonstrations and instruction. Every meeting is sure to provide everyone with at least one beneficial technological advancement in the classroom before they leave.

I highly recommend getting involved in this organization. They meet once a month in University Hall. I plan on staying in touch with all of the people who organize the event; not only are they amazingly nice people, but they have been supportive of my teaching career since day one!

More information can be found at their website:

http://www.njecc.org/

XBOX Kinect In the Classroom?

I know, I was a little bit skeptical when I first heard it as well!

It turns out that Microsoft is very big on Education, and they always try to market their products towards learning and classroom integration. The most recent that I have heard of is their push for XBOX Kinect to be used in the classroom. Check out the video below for an example!

Microsoft itself has licensed MANY games to be used on the Kinect, and some of them, like as seen in the video, are meant to be implemented in the classroom. They also offer an SDK (Software Development Kit) for teachers to program their own software and tailor it to what their classroom needs. This idea can also be applied to a Computer Science course. Students can use the Kinect's sensors to make extremely intricate programs and software.

Read more about it at Microsoft's page by clicking on this text!

NASA's Amazing Astronomy Picture of the Day!

Hey all,

Many of you have seen this before, and I did mention it in an earlier post, but I feel that its importance merits a post of its own! NASA'S APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) is a photography database exactly as the name says; every day, NASA posts a new picture with an insightful and detail-filled paragraph long description of what the picture entails. Before I took Physics in High School, I was on this site every single day, filling my head with the plethora of knowledge that each picture had to offer. Now, 7 years later, I have the website set to be my homepage on every computer I own! Even after seven years, each picture is as breathtaking and intriguing as the last!

I highly recommend setting APOD as your homepage, or at the very least to your bookmarks folder!

Click here for NASA'S Astronomy Picture of the Day!