I have been thinking about using my blog as a reflection of my classroom experience for the week. I have my students reflect on what they learned each week, and I was thinking it might be interesting if I did the same.
I was thinking that my students might find it interesting or informative to see what the teacher learns from the lesson and it might also help them learn to think and reflect better. Kinda like when you do a "think aloud" with the class.
I have also been playing around with the idea of having a "question of the week" that the students would be reponsible for discussing on my blog. Again, I woould post the first response to help illuminate my thought process and then the students would post their ideas!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Janice gets me AGAIN!
At the beginning of this course I HATED technology...I was sick of hearing about all the great things you could do in your classroom with it..I mean, sometimes its important to just focus on good old books, chalk and paper right?? In fact, every week, I look for the negatives of the lesson...why are blogs a waste of time? Wiki's just wont work...Podcasts are tooo complicated and pointless...And EVERY week, Janice Wins and I start to believe a little more!
After reading the UTube article I was kind of against the whole thing. I LOVE to read and I hate to see the movie of a book. I feel like the actor/location, never lives up to the scene I had painted in my mind. I feel like this kind of reading is lost on students if they always get to see the video, if they are always shown an image. When do they have a chance to exercise their imagination?
Then I read the articles about podcasting and I was hooked! Here was a purpose to technology that still incorporated old fashion learning! Using a podcast as the final product of a written piece! I loved that students were writing in order to produce the podcast, and I loved the fact that their writing would need to be concise for the sake of time and descriptive becasue their would be no visual to accompany it!
Podcasts are great tools for English Learners. Students have the oppotunity to practice their speaking for a large audience without the pressure of every eye being on them! WOW what a great way to lower the affective filter and practice this critical ELD standard!
On a totally different note, I thought the water buffalo video was a great way to show students how fortunate they really are. When they showed the farmer plowing that field by hand with no shoes, I thought living here we have no CLUE what a hard life is! I want to show my students this video just to see what they think of their lives and problems after!
O.k. Janice...one more week to WOW me!
After reading the UTube article I was kind of against the whole thing. I LOVE to read and I hate to see the movie of a book. I feel like the actor/location, never lives up to the scene I had painted in my mind. I feel like this kind of reading is lost on students if they always get to see the video, if they are always shown an image. When do they have a chance to exercise their imagination?
Then I read the articles about podcasting and I was hooked! Here was a purpose to technology that still incorporated old fashion learning! Using a podcast as the final product of a written piece! I loved that students were writing in order to produce the podcast, and I loved the fact that their writing would need to be concise for the sake of time and descriptive becasue their would be no visual to accompany it!
Podcasts are great tools for English Learners. Students have the oppotunity to practice their speaking for a large audience without the pressure of every eye being on them! WOW what a great way to lower the affective filter and practice this critical ELD standard!
On a totally different note, I thought the water buffalo video was a great way to show students how fortunate they really are. When they showed the farmer plowing that field by hand with no shoes, I thought living here we have no CLUE what a hard life is! I want to show my students this video just to see what they think of their lives and problems after!
O.k. Janice...one more week to WOW me!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Maybe I don't hate technology so much
O.k...so I am starting to feel like I have a little bit more of a handle on this whole Read/Write Web thing!
I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Wiki's, and I think the comment that Wiki's mean the teacher has to let go, really hit home with me!
At first, I loved the whole idea of a wiki, students can post and comment and edit and learn all togather in an open forum. But that also means that students have full control of their learning! As a teacher, that can be very scary...what if they don't learn the right thing?
I had two other concerns with using wiki's in middle school. One, middle school student have very limited organization skills (at least the ones I've encountered), so a wiki seems like way to disorganized to introduce to students. I want to focus on organization and structure and here a wiki is more like "Go for it!" Post at will! My other concern is the whole plagerism/author ownership issues related to a wiki. It seems to easy for students to "steal" someone elses comments and use them on their own. Middle school students need to work on their own orginality, not have free reign over any content.
Both of these issues could be combated with good instration and activities to "set the stage" for wikis! Just means I, as the teacher would have to do more work!!
I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Wiki's, and I think the comment that Wiki's mean the teacher has to let go, really hit home with me!
At first, I loved the whole idea of a wiki, students can post and comment and edit and learn all togather in an open forum. But that also means that students have full control of their learning! As a teacher, that can be very scary...what if they don't learn the right thing?
I had two other concerns with using wiki's in middle school. One, middle school student have very limited organization skills (at least the ones I've encountered), so a wiki seems like way to disorganized to introduce to students. I want to focus on organization and structure and here a wiki is more like "Go for it!" Post at will! My other concern is the whole plagerism/author ownership issues related to a wiki. It seems to easy for students to "steal" someone elses comments and use them on their own. Middle school students need to work on their own orginality, not have free reign over any content.
Both of these issues could be combated with good instration and activities to "set the stage" for wikis! Just means I, as the teacher would have to do more work!!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Confusion
Yikes...so I really don't think I am understanding all of this! Or this is beyond my computer capabilities!! Anyway, right now I feel frustrated by all of this and I am remembering why I didn't want to get involved in blogs and all this in the first place! I really don't understand the difference between the del.icio.us account and the bloglines account! Is one saving news and the other saving blogs??
Also..I know this is just being grouchy and frustrated, but if you are teaching a scripted program and you cant even get through teh required material...how on earth am I going to incorporate something like this into my class? ESpecially when I am not getting it at all myself! I really hope as I read others posts and blogs this starts to make sense for me!
Also..I know this is just being grouchy and frustrated, but if you are teaching a scripted program and you cant even get through teh required material...how on earth am I going to incorporate something like this into my class? ESpecially when I am not getting it at all myself! I really hope as I read others posts and blogs this starts to make sense for me!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
First Time
Hello World! This is my first time writing/creating a blog....I am a middle school teacher in South Los Angeles and I am doing this project for salary point classes. I am really interested in seeing what people are so excited about! I kinda feel like I don't have time to blog/read others blogs/respond! I am hoping that this will help me see more value in this activity!
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