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.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
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.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Langwitches Silvia the EduBlogger
I recently read a blog post on Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's website about exposing students to a more "explorative" (don't know if that is a word) classroom pedagogy. In one of her blog posts that I responded to called: Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom, Silvia talked about the importance of exposing students to a curriculum that had variety in teaching language and that exposed students to outside resources that developed students oral proficiency skills. I found this post interesting because as a new Spanish teacher the most difficult task is giving students different outlets to practice the Spanish language outside of the classroom.
Often times, students in our classroom take the foreign language because it is a requirement for high school, this gives the classroom a very different feel compared to students who genuinely want to be there. Because of this it is important that language teachers learn new ways to engage the classroom, which can be very difficult when school policies and administration keeps your students from engaging with the language in an innovative way. I found this to be the case when I was in high school. Many of my teachers thought of ways to teach and engage students with science, math, and English topics but were restricted by funding and by policy. This can be detrimental to a language classroom that relies so much on community connection and practice of the language. I believe the first step to making this an important issue is trying to convince others of it's importance. In order to do this, we must show others how useful community involvement and connection with culture can be in teaching students. In my case, my entire upbringing with the language was very influenced by these factors, because of it I have a passion for the language and culture that I cannot replicate with any other form of education. I want to provide my students with this opportunity as well.
Below is a link to a a YouTube video that is a great example of what I would like to show my students. The video talks about Manuel Recio and his wife, Leslie Lukas-Recio who take over a family farm and take their love for Spanish culture and their love of food to become farmers. They grow many Spanish foods in their farm and discuss how they use that food afterwards. This is a great example of where I would take my students. I would use this as an opportunity to show my students Spanish culture and how that can be seen agriculturally. This is an education platform that involves students with both culture and life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=H9hD1acIId8
Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom
Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches BlogGlobal
Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches BlogGlobal
Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom
Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches Blog
Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches Blog
Global Pedagogy in the World Language Classroom
Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches Blog
Read more at: http://langwitches.org/blog/2014/10/08/global-pedagogy-in-the-world-language-classroom/comment-page-1/#comment-314408 | Langwitches Blog
Tech in My Placement- Lincoln High School
When I first arrived at Lincoln High School I was excited to hear that a new grant proposal had made sure every classroom had a SmartBoard. Since I have never used a SmartBoard, I found this tool to be very interesting and most of all useful in my own teaching at Lincoln. When we were first told about the "Tech in My Placement" assignment, I am not shy to admit that I thought our school would bomb the worksheet and not have as many of the tools listed. To my surprise, we did have a lot of what the sheet asked for, and more suprisingly I learned about tools that I had never heard of before. This was eyeopening to me as a new teacher and quite frankly something that I am glad I realized. Unfortunately, despite being able to "fill in" many of the options on the assignment sheet, the school itself does not have wide access to WiFi. The only computers that have internet are the teachers and although they do have WiFi available, it is not open to the school or students to use, which I found frustrating. I see part of the reason why they decided to do so, but I also believe that this lack of access can be limiting to the student and the classroom, especially if a student does not have internet access at home or on their cell phone. I think that this is impart due to not wanting students to be off track, and because attitudes towards technology inclusion is not common in our school.
I believe other schools do promote technology more than our school does. Our students are constantly being told to put their cell phones away. Cell phones are a huge issue in our school. Because of this I believe that as a new teacher I can have the flexibility to include technology in my classroom and to use this to my advantage.
Tech Tools in Use- Voice Thread and the wonders of Prezi
I enjoyed both the presentations on Voice Thread and Prezi. The Voice Thread presentation was great because it introduced me to an application that I have never heard of before and that I actually found compelling. Since I am a very vocal person, I appreciate applications that allow students to use their voice, literally and metaphorically. I believe giving a student the ability to discuss something using their own voice gives them the power of self-expression but also the power of realization. There is a whole other feeling that comes about once your voice is "out there" , you become conscientious of what is being said and how it is being delivered. I believe that this is an important skill to have and to perfect. Voice Thread allows this skill to be practiced but in an innovative and interesting way. I would use this application in my own classroom in order to help with pronounciation and with gauging more oral communication in the target language.
The Prezi presentation was very interesting because it made me love the creativeness of Prezi even more than I already do. As a visual learner, I enjoy presentations that are eye catching and made creatively. Prezi does just that. The presentation delved more into the application and how to use it best, while also providing us with great examples that were used in the classroom. I found the "Prezi Awards" portion of the presentation most interesting. The reason for this was because we were introduced to people who used this platform amazingly and effectively. I hope to use this presentation platform instead of PowerPoint. I believe that it is a more creative way to present otherwise bland information.
Teaching With Technology-- Liz Kolb
The most interesting guest speaker we've had this semester was Liz Kolb. Her presentation on using cell phones in the classroom was very engaging and based off of a platform that she has used and implemented for years. I believe it can be difficult as a beginning teacher to see how to use technology in the classroom innovatively and effectively, Liz provided examples of this. I especially appreciated her response when I asked how to use her platform in lower resourced schools and with children who have disabilities, in her response Liz gave examples of this platform being used in both ocassions and actually discussed solutions to doing so.
I appreciated Liz's passion for the topic and her genuine want to continue to develop this platform. Often times, I do play devils advocate when technology platforms are introduced to lower resourced schools, as a student to attended a lower resourced high school I know how difficult these platforms can be when trying to implement, even if the person doing so is highly passionate and optimistic about the topic. I appreciated Liz Kolb's real examples and advice on how to make technology available to all kids, not just those who are fortunate to attend high resourced schools, or those who live without a disability.
I hope to include technology as much as possible in my classroom while continuing to balance the use of traditional resources. The Spanish language can be expressed and studied many ways. Due to its creative nature technology can be used to connect to other Spanish speakers. I hope to build connections with other Spanish speaking teachers in other Spanish Speaking countries in order to give my students a better exposure to the language and world. I plan to do this by using Skype and the connections I have with teachers in Mexico. The presentations on technology given were interesting in providing innovative examples that teachers have used, not just hypothetical dream solutions. When doing so I will be sure to take advantage of the many bloggers who are passionate about technology platforms.
I appreciated Liz's passion for the topic and her genuine want to continue to develop this platform. Often times, I do play devils advocate when technology platforms are introduced to lower resourced schools, as a student to attended a lower resourced high school I know how difficult these platforms can be when trying to implement, even if the person doing so is highly passionate and optimistic about the topic. I appreciated Liz Kolb's real examples and advice on how to make technology available to all kids, not just those who are fortunate to attend high resourced schools, or those who live without a disability.
I hope to include technology as much as possible in my classroom while continuing to balance the use of traditional resources. The Spanish language can be expressed and studied many ways. Due to its creative nature technology can be used to connect to other Spanish speakers. I hope to build connections with other Spanish speaking teachers in other Spanish Speaking countries in order to give my students a better exposure to the language and world. I plan to do this by using Skype and the connections I have with teachers in Mexico. The presentations on technology given were interesting in providing innovative examples that teachers have used, not just hypothetical dream solutions. When doing so I will be sure to take advantage of the many bloggers who are passionate about technology platforms.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Connections Across Discipline Assignment- BYOD-to-Discover-Tree-Species
I read the "BYOD-to-Discover-Tree-Species" lesson created by Sarah Adcock, Jesse Antuma, Wilbur Tong, and Sara Abraham. I enjoyed this lesson plan very much because it incorporated the idea of using both technology and the natural environment to learn about science. Field trips and using the enviornment around you for education is not as common as it once was due to the advancement of technology and budget cuts made by education districts. This lesson plan incorporated the use of cell phones/student technology in order for students to identify plant/fruit species in the environment around them. The lesson plan demonstrated a well-though-out process of engaging students with real plants and fruits in order to become familiar with indntification techniques but in a fun and innovative way. The students were able to leave the classroom while also participating in a formal lesson--allowing students to retain information. The group created a lesson plan that was condusive to learning essential plant/fruit identification techniques which were outlined before leaving the classroom. The balance of formality and innovation was present in this lesson which I appreciated as a nature lover and a teacher.
Another aspect of their lesson plan that I enjoyed was the explicit direction of "Teach[ing] students ways to use their senses of smell, feel, and even taste, depending on the plant species being studied to make evidence based inference about the species they are observing." This step in their lesson allows students to learn skills that are usefull not only in science but in everyday life. This lesson plan provides opportunity for students to become intune with human instincts ans senses that can help them become better learners and more aware human beings. I feel as though this lesson taught students more than plant/fruit identification but an appreciation of physical and human nature.
This lesson plan reminded me of what I did this summer with the 6th graders at Scarlett Middle School. Our summer project was set up in a way that made students explore the Scarlett Forest but allowed them to use technology to further their knowledge around the plants, animal species, and weather they exprienced while exploring. I found this technique to be very useful in assisting students to retain complex information that would have been more difficult otherwise.
Another aspect of their lesson plan that I enjoyed was the explicit direction of "Teach[ing] students ways to use their senses of smell, feel, and even taste, depending on the plant species being studied to make evidence based inference about the species they are observing." This step in their lesson allows students to learn skills that are usefull not only in science but in everyday life. This lesson plan provides opportunity for students to become intune with human instincts ans senses that can help them become better learners and more aware human beings. I feel as though this lesson taught students more than plant/fruit identification but an appreciation of physical and human nature.
This lesson plan reminded me of what I did this summer with the 6th graders at Scarlett Middle School. Our summer project was set up in a way that made students explore the Scarlett Forest but allowed them to use technology to further their knowledge around the plants, animal species, and weather they exprienced while exploring. I found this technique to be very useful in assisting students to retain complex information that would have been more difficult otherwise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)