MACUL Conference- Reenvisioning Your Purpose

The MACUL conference was extremely interesting because of my lack of knowledge associated with the different online tools available to teachers in the classroom. Our first presentation discussed blended classrooms and how to go about infusing these websites into your own curriculum. I was immediately blown away by the (free) resources available to teachers to make presenting content more interesting. At one point during the presentation I began planning a lesson using the websites mentioned. I left the session super pumped and more confident about blending my own classroom and letting technology be a useful tool in my classroom. I knew having this information would assist me in encouraging my mentor teacher to allow me to include more tech in my teaching. Once I returned to my placement I discussed some of these tools with my mentor teacher with made it great.

The most impactful part of the conference was the "lightening" presentation session at the end which featured five minute quick presentations from educators. The session was great because people were given a limited amount of time to speak, making whatever they spoke about carefully chosen and passionate. I enjoyed hearing the variety in the speakers chosen, as well as why the decided to become teachers. Two of the presentations stood out to me in particular. The first being a woman most likely in her early thirty's who used a Charlotte's Web reference in her presentation and then discussed her own adversities as a student. The second was the last presenter, a young man from Florida who gave the session a "Poetry Slam" feeling. Their presentations were emotional, passionate, intellectual, and ultimately, inspiring. The MAC program has definitely been a zoo, but ending my day with that session made me remember why I want to be a teacher. I am very happy that I went.

Twitter Mania

My students are CONSTANTLY on their phones. It is honestly nerve racking. Because of this, I am excited to design a lesson plan that includes the usage of phones. My hope is that they will respect that I am trying to include their interests in the classroom. Currently my students are learning about school and class vocabulary. Although I find this topic interesting I hope to design a lesson that will assist them in learning not only school vocabulary but will immerse them into a culture other than their own. I want to design a Twitter lesson that incorporates Twitter en Español; a variety of Tweets from Latin American countries. This way, students will see how Latin American countries function much like America. Right now, I feel my students have a disconnect to this world and they only see Spanish as a classroom language. There is so much more to Spanish and Spanish speaking countries. Unfortunately not everyone has the luxury of traveling, but I hope to bring the traveling to the classroom my using social media. I have not decided what part of my unit plan I want to teach this lesson for. My expectations are that I will find a topic that has room for lots of cultural inclusion. Over the next few weeks I will be drafting and discussing my lesson with my mentor teacher to make sure me lesson is both appropriate and interesting.