Nothing but NETS

At first, reading through the NETS standards for both students and teachers dredges up the requisite cynicism I have in spades for what I sarcastically refer to as "EduBureaucracy". Characterisitics of EduBureaucracy (EB for short) include the use of hackneyed buzzwords, vague and unmeasurable goals, and action words/verbs used, in my opinion, out of context. For example, when reading over the standards for teachers the boring phrases "facilitate and inspire", "design and develop", and "promote and model" serve as headers for the main standards. The substandards then go on to list nebulous tasks such as "exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion (new buzzer)......" Being a rather concrete person I need tangible examples of the criteria in action rather than a utopian and, in my view, unattainable plan for "infusing" (action word out of context) technology. I though that food was infused but technology?!?!

Immediately after reading through the NETS I instructed my Civics class. The goal of the class was to teach students about the idea of a social contract. Each year, many have some difficulty grasping this rather esoteric philosophical abstraction and I struggle with how to effectively teach this. It was then that the thought struck me to use technology in this endeavor. As my tenth graders are more comfortable with technology that I am, and all have access to it, I endeavored to find a resource which might facilitate the learning of abstract concepts prevalent in the class such as checks and balances, separation of powers, and federalism. After a search on the web I located such a site. ICivics Site  The site has games which students can play online at their own pace and leisure to enhance their understanding of such concepts. I plan on assigning this link to my students in an upcoming class.

The moral of this story seems to be that no abstract set of standards will provide me with lesson plans or usable ideas. For that I must enagage in that most obscene of four letter words: WORK