In this course, my classmates and I learned about literacies -- not the standard literacies that one might ordinarily think of, but literacies for the 21st century.
The most striking revelation that I had during this course was how to teach my students the process for evaluating the merit of web resources. I was never taught this in school, and gradually learned this skill through years of trial and error. I was pleased to learn a method for teaching my students how to evaluate sources effectively.
There were other skills that I learned in this course that will benefit my teaching, such as teaching students how to ask essential questions, and synthesize resources. The knowledge gained from this course will be valuable in teaching skills to my students that I needed them to have, but had difficulty explaining before.
One goal that I would like to meet as a result of this course is to share some of what I have learned with my colleagues to improve the literacy of not only my students, but my school's student body as a whole. I would like to speak at one of our inservices and explain some of the methods that I have learned during the course, especially how to help students evaluate resources.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Reflection on Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology
This week, my cohorts and I are in a process of reflection. We are looking at everything that we have learned in our Educ 5711 class, and how we will integrate technology into our instruction.
In the beginning of the course, my "Personal Theory of Learning" was a combination of constructivist and cognitivist theory, as I believed that students needed to create their own meanings for things to truly acquire knowledge. This has not completely changed, but I would say that I definitely have come to believe that social construcionist theory has become part of my personal theory. There is overwhelming evidence to support use of cooperative learning in combination with constructionist techniques to support learning.
We have learned a great deal about different tools of technology that we can use with our students that will impact their learning, and while I would love to be able to integrate them all, I am limited by having only one computer in my classroom, and restrictions that our district has on use of sites like youtube.com, or facebook.com. Two technologies that I can easily integrate into my teaching, and I have begun the approval process for, are Webspiration and VoiceThread. Webspiration will be used for in-class mind mapping and creation of concept maps. This will help students better understand how things relate ot one another, and organize their notes, as well. VoiceThread will be used for video-blogging assignments. We will complete several assignments in Spanish, to give students practice responding to spoken Spanish, and allow them to access these outside of class, to take their language learning into their homes and share with their parents what we are learning in class.
Two long-term changes that I would like to make to my instructional practice are that I would like to implement the ongoing creation of a class wiki, and I would like for students to post video podcasts of their projects and presentations for parents to view. To implement the class wiki, I will have to decide exactly what I want the students to put into it, and develop an assignment sheet for that. I would need to schedule time periodically in the computer lab for them to complete these assignments. We would need to spend at least one day every two weeks in the computer lab, which would take a great deal of time away from our in-class language instruction, so I would have to make sure that the assignments continued to strongly reinforce their language acquisition. For the video podcasting, I would need parent permission, which I am in the process of obtaining, and a webcam, which I have purchased and am waiting for installation by the district. I will need to be sure to record the project presentations, and upload them to our site, or have students upload them.
This class has definitely increased my awareness of available technology tools, and my teaching has already transformed. I can't just present information on the SMARTboard anymore without feeling as if I am doing a disservice to my students. In just the first week, they are up, illustrating vocabulary on it, and are asking everyday when the video blog project will begin! They want to do a project! I'm so excited about it!
In the beginning of the course, my "Personal Theory of Learning" was a combination of constructivist and cognitivist theory, as I believed that students needed to create their own meanings for things to truly acquire knowledge. This has not completely changed, but I would say that I definitely have come to believe that social construcionist theory has become part of my personal theory. There is overwhelming evidence to support use of cooperative learning in combination with constructionist techniques to support learning.
We have learned a great deal about different tools of technology that we can use with our students that will impact their learning, and while I would love to be able to integrate them all, I am limited by having only one computer in my classroom, and restrictions that our district has on use of sites like youtube.com, or facebook.com. Two technologies that I can easily integrate into my teaching, and I have begun the approval process for, are Webspiration and VoiceThread. Webspiration will be used for in-class mind mapping and creation of concept maps. This will help students better understand how things relate ot one another, and organize their notes, as well. VoiceThread will be used for video-blogging assignments. We will complete several assignments in Spanish, to give students practice responding to spoken Spanish, and allow them to access these outside of class, to take their language learning into their homes and share with their parents what we are learning in class.
Two long-term changes that I would like to make to my instructional practice are that I would like to implement the ongoing creation of a class wiki, and I would like for students to post video podcasts of their projects and presentations for parents to view. To implement the class wiki, I will have to decide exactly what I want the students to put into it, and develop an assignment sheet for that. I would need to schedule time periodically in the computer lab for them to complete these assignments. We would need to spend at least one day every two weeks in the computer lab, which would take a great deal of time away from our in-class language instruction, so I would have to make sure that the assignments continued to strongly reinforce their language acquisition. For the video podcasting, I would need parent permission, which I am in the process of obtaining, and a webcam, which I have purchased and am waiting for installation by the district. I will need to be sure to record the project presentations, and upload them to our site, or have students upload them.
This class has definitely increased my awareness of available technology tools, and my teaching has already transformed. I can't just present information on the SMARTboard anymore without feeling as if I am doing a disservice to my students. In just the first week, they are up, illustrating vocabulary on it, and are asking everyday when the video blog project will begin! They want to do a project! I'm so excited about it!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Link to my VoiceThread post
Here is the link to my VoiceThread: I need some input on motivating students!
http://voicethread.com/share/574572/
http://voicethread.com/share/574572/
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Connectivism and Social Learning
My cohorts and I continue on our journey to understand ways to blend technology with instructional and learning theories. This week, our focus is on Social learning theory, which is the foundation for cooperative learning. There are still strong elements of constructionism at play here, as students are actively engaged in creating something, that is their means of acquiring information.
The difference with social learning is that you add the element of socialization. It seems obvious, but I understand it to be constructionism + interaction with other learners. We looked at several ways to use technology to accomplish this. The most promising look to be voicethread.com, webquest, and various website creation sites/programs, such as Publisher or coolpage.com. Secondlife and Facebook could probably be the most engaging for students, but I don't know that the environment can be controlled well enough for them to be feasible to use in classrooms.
Taking the example of voicethread, students could post images related to their assigned topic, then have other group members surround the images with comments, both audio and text, thus all working together, interacting and learning from one another, and constructing an artifact to share with others (the rest of the class, school, world, whatever is appropriate). Webquest could be used in combination with software to create an artifact, and a similar finished project could be created and shared.
This approach is, in my opinion, the best of all worlds with learning theories. Appropriate behaviors are simple when students are engaged, there is cognitive learning happening, and construction of artifacts is taking place. Add to all of that, the students are interacting and learning from one another, as well as their available resources, and the addition of technology tools brings it all together for a seamless execution!
The difference with social learning is that you add the element of socialization. It seems obvious, but I understand it to be constructionism + interaction with other learners. We looked at several ways to use technology to accomplish this. The most promising look to be voicethread.com, webquest, and various website creation sites/programs, such as Publisher or coolpage.com. Secondlife and Facebook could probably be the most engaging for students, but I don't know that the environment can be controlled well enough for them to be feasible to use in classrooms.
Taking the example of voicethread, students could post images related to their assigned topic, then have other group members surround the images with comments, both audio and text, thus all working together, interacting and learning from one another, and constructing an artifact to share with others (the rest of the class, school, world, whatever is appropriate). Webquest could be used in combination with software to create an artifact, and a similar finished project could be created and shared.
This approach is, in my opinion, the best of all worlds with learning theories. Appropriate behaviors are simple when students are engaged, there is cognitive learning happening, and construction of artifacts is taking place. Add to all of that, the students are interacting and learning from one another, as well as their available resources, and the addition of technology tools brings it all together for a seamless execution!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Contructivism, Constructionism, and Technology
My cohorts and I dive into yet another week full of information this week: Constructivism and Constructionism (What's the difference, you ask? More on that in a second, I'm trying for suspense here!) and quite a few technology tools that we can use to get our students actively creating things to help enrich their learning experiences.
Constructivism, humorously referred to in one of our videos as the "v-word", is a theory of learning. It says that everyone basically "constructs" their individual knowledge of things. The example we were given was that of a chair. We each have hundreds of associations in our minds that make up our idea of what "chair" actually means. We have each come up with, or construct, our individual reality of what a chair is, and it is a little different for each of us.
Constructionism, or as Dr. Orey refers to it, the "n-word", has far more to do with what we do in the classroom. It focuses on students being actively engaged in constructing things. This could be any sort of project, from a story board to a wiki, as long as they are a part of the learning. They look at the external reality, or the information they are learning, and try to balance it with their existing schemas, or what they currently believe and understand. Something has to give here: either they make reality fit with what they already know (assimilation), or they alter what they know to fit with reality(accommodation). What is important about constructionism is that students are "constructing", they are actively engaged in learning, and this way of learning fits with constructiVism in that they are creating their own individual knowledge. And it should be a deep understanding of the concept at the end of the process of creating an artifact.
We looked at several tools that we can use to integrate technology using constructionism. We could use spreadsheet software to have students look at relationships between variables, exploring the correlations. We could use data collection tools to have students collect information (our example was a digital pH probe). We could use software such as Power Point or Microsoft Publisher (or similar software) to have students create digital projects that are not simply a report of what we have taught them, but require that they discover new knowledge to create. And we looked at several web resources: web quests, sites that explain problem-based learning and how to create a project, and some simulation sites where students try their hand in a virtual creation setting, and discover what effect their manipulations have. All of these resources, provided they are used to have students actively engaged in creating their personal knowledge of the material, tie in with Constructionism.
A lot of the sites that we looked at turned out to be dead ends, of sorts. There was some explanation of how to create problem-based learning activities, but I was so hoping for lots of activities to be at our fingertips, without us re-creating the wheel, so-to-speak. The one thing I would like to see is more sites like http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov/ that we reviewed. I tried this out, and it was not only engaging, I think I got stuck there for at least an hour, trying to manipulate variables to figure out what size planet needed to be what distance from which type star "sun" to support life! And I'm not a science teacher! I teach Spanish! But I can see the potential for true learning with children on this site, and if it can be done to explain red dwarf stars, red giant stars, blue stars, and yellow stars to me, and what mass/distance is needed for planets to support life, then surely sites like this can be developed to teach any number of concepts! Of course, this one was created by NASA. Maybe they could donate just a few of their scientists to create more sites like this one... :-)
Constructivism, humorously referred to in one of our videos as the "v-word", is a theory of learning. It says that everyone basically "constructs" their individual knowledge of things. The example we were given was that of a chair. We each have hundreds of associations in our minds that make up our idea of what "chair" actually means. We have each come up with, or construct, our individual reality of what a chair is, and it is a little different for each of us.
Constructionism, or as Dr. Orey refers to it, the "n-word", has far more to do with what we do in the classroom. It focuses on students being actively engaged in constructing things. This could be any sort of project, from a story board to a wiki, as long as they are a part of the learning. They look at the external reality, or the information they are learning, and try to balance it with their existing schemas, or what they currently believe and understand. Something has to give here: either they make reality fit with what they already know (assimilation), or they alter what they know to fit with reality(accommodation). What is important about constructionism is that students are "constructing", they are actively engaged in learning, and this way of learning fits with constructiVism in that they are creating their own individual knowledge. And it should be a deep understanding of the concept at the end of the process of creating an artifact.
We looked at several tools that we can use to integrate technology using constructionism. We could use spreadsheet software to have students look at relationships between variables, exploring the correlations. We could use data collection tools to have students collect information (our example was a digital pH probe). We could use software such as Power Point or Microsoft Publisher (or similar software) to have students create digital projects that are not simply a report of what we have taught them, but require that they discover new knowledge to create. And we looked at several web resources: web quests, sites that explain problem-based learning and how to create a project, and some simulation sites where students try their hand in a virtual creation setting, and discover what effect their manipulations have. All of these resources, provided they are used to have students actively engaged in creating their personal knowledge of the material, tie in with Constructionism.
A lot of the sites that we looked at turned out to be dead ends, of sorts. There was some explanation of how to create problem-based learning activities, but I was so hoping for lots of activities to be at our fingertips, without us re-creating the wheel, so-to-speak. The one thing I would like to see is more sites like http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov/ that we reviewed. I tried this out, and it was not only engaging, I think I got stuck there for at least an hour, trying to manipulate variables to figure out what size planet needed to be what distance from which type star "sun" to support life! And I'm not a science teacher! I teach Spanish! But I can see the potential for true learning with children on this site, and if it can be done to explain red dwarf stars, red giant stars, blue stars, and yellow stars to me, and what mass/distance is needed for planets to support life, then surely sites like this can be developed to teach any number of concepts! Of course, this one was created by NASA. Maybe they could donate just a few of their scientists to create more sites like this one... :-)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Cognitive Learning Theory with Technology (Educ 6711)
This week, we are looking into cognitive learning theory. At the same time, we are exploring strategies that bring technology into how we employ these theories. We looked at many strategies and tools: concept mapping, virtual field trips, advance organizers, word processing software functions, organizing and brainstorming software, and web resources such as blogs and wikis. How are these related to cognitive theory?
In the videos that we watched, Dr. Orey explained parts of cognitive learning theory. He said that one of the key things to remember is that a student's short term memory has 7 (+/- 2) digits of space. Given that, we can help them sort information into groups by using concept maps. Another key idea in cognitive learning theory is the strength of episodic memory. Virtual field trips allow students to learn information through "experience". It may not be quite as good as going to the place, but it is certainly getting them closer to episodic memory than a traditional lecture would do! Dr. Orey also mentioned dual-coding, and using not just terms but images or other sensory information paired with the terms to increase recall and understanding, and many of the tools that we have looked at this week lend themselves to this: concept mapping, virtual field trips, and organizing software like Inspiration.
It is much more intuitive for me to connect technology with cognitive learning theory than it was to connect it with behaviorist theory. I have to admit that this week's strategies have gotten me far more anxious to get back to school in a few weeks and try them out!
In the videos that we watched, Dr. Orey explained parts of cognitive learning theory. He said that one of the key things to remember is that a student's short term memory has 7 (+/- 2) digits of space. Given that, we can help them sort information into groups by using concept maps. Another key idea in cognitive learning theory is the strength of episodic memory. Virtual field trips allow students to learn information through "experience". It may not be quite as good as going to the place, but it is certainly getting them closer to episodic memory than a traditional lecture would do! Dr. Orey also mentioned dual-coding, and using not just terms but images or other sensory information paired with the terms to increase recall and understanding, and many of the tools that we have looked at this week lend themselves to this: concept mapping, virtual field trips, and organizing software like Inspiration.
It is much more intuitive for me to connect technology with cognitive learning theory than it was to connect it with behaviorist theory. I have to admit that this week's strategies have gotten me far more anxious to get back to school in a few weeks and try them out!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Behaviorist Learning Theory in Technology-Employing Strategies
This week in Educ 6711, we looked at strategies that use technology to reward effort and to make homework and practice more effective. We looked at use of spreadsheets and rubrics to show students how their effort correlates to their success (of lack thereof correlates to their failure). We also looked at ways to use various types of programs such as word processing, spreadsheet-generating, or multimedia editing software for practice of skills, or for homework assignments. Surely these strategies are far too sophisticated to be using behaviorist learning theory, simple operant conditioning that is comparable to dog training... or are they?
When looking at the effort rubric presented in our text, it is clear that, provided students give honest feedback about the amount of effort put forth, it will show them that it results in higher grades. It may not be a connection that the students make on their own, but when faced with the black-and-white data, they should see that their effort (desired behavior) results in higher grades (reward). This strategy seems more complex than the operant conditioning that we learned about in our undergraduate study, but when broken down to its essential elements, it is just that. Just like dog training, if they "sit" (put forth effort), they get a "cookie" (higher grades).
The resources discussed for homework and practice, however, are based more on other learning theories than they are on behaviorist theory. Most especially, the creation of multimedia projects, most effectively employs constructivist theory. These resources can employ behaviorist theory, especially when used for tutoring, but can best be used by students to create, and use the possibilities for social interaction that technology provides.
It has been tempting for me to dismiss behaviorist theory as too simple to meet the needs of my students, but it is important to realize that not all of my students come to me with perfect behaviors. Some need their observable classroom behavior modified through behavior contracts and a system of rewards and consequences. Other students, whose behavior seems to be to standard in the classroom, I now see, can also benefit from a system that gives "cookies" for desired behavior, in that they can clearly see the fruits of their "effort labors".
Resources:
Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
When looking at the effort rubric presented in our text, it is clear that, provided students give honest feedback about the amount of effort put forth, it will show them that it results in higher grades. It may not be a connection that the students make on their own, but when faced with the black-and-white data, they should see that their effort (desired behavior) results in higher grades (reward). This strategy seems more complex than the operant conditioning that we learned about in our undergraduate study, but when broken down to its essential elements, it is just that. Just like dog training, if they "sit" (put forth effort), they get a "cookie" (higher grades).
The resources discussed for homework and practice, however, are based more on other learning theories than they are on behaviorist theory. Most especially, the creation of multimedia projects, most effectively employs constructivist theory. These resources can employ behaviorist theory, especially when used for tutoring, but can best be used by students to create, and use the possibilities for social interaction that technology provides.
It has been tempting for me to dismiss behaviorist theory as too simple to meet the needs of my students, but it is important to realize that not all of my students come to me with perfect behaviors. Some need their observable classroom behavior modified through behavior contracts and a system of rewards and consequences. Other students, whose behavior seems to be to standard in the classroom, I now see, can also benefit from a system that gives "cookies" for desired behavior, in that they can clearly see the fruits of their "effort labors".
Resources:
Lever-Duffy, J. & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thoughts on Educ 6710
Education 6710 has helped me to develop my technology skills as a teacher by exposing me to technologies that I had previously not used in an educational way, such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts. The course showed me ways to use these with students to enrich my classroom environment, reaching digital natives like I had previously been unable to do. The course also required me to develop the existing technology skills that I did have, such as uploading and downloading files, changing formats, and seeking out web resources that fit my needs, and adapt them to useable skills for a teacher.
I learned through this course that students today think differently than the students that we were taught to teach when in our undergraduate education courses. Today’s students need multitasking and parallel streams of information to reach their full potential, and the technology that we explored is an excellent avenue for achieving this.
Before beginning this course, I felt that my teaching was quite student-centered, but now I see many new ways that I could make my teaching far more student-centered, by using technology to give the students some ownership of the acquisition and showcasing of their learning.
I plan to continue to seek out new ways to use technology, and to share what I learn with my fellow faculty members, to continually cultivate my classroom as a learning environment. I will continue my studies, and even once I have completed my master’s degree, I will continue to research and consult with other teachers that value the use of technology in the classroom.
My biggest goal for the next two years is to create, and implement the use of, a classroom wiki. This will pose challenges with changing how students think about having some of the control of the class outcome turned over to them, as well as challenges concerning access to sites that may currently be “blanket-filtered”. This will take some work with my school’s IT coordinator, but she values the use of technology in our classrooms enough that I am sure that she would be more than willing to accommodate the students’ needs.
Another goal that I have, which is a sort of sub-goal of my main goal, is to implement the use student-created podcasts on the class wiki. I would like to use these for demonstration of oral proficiency. Within two years, I would like to implement a requirement that students visit the wiki at regular intervals to listen to a Spanish audio prompt, record their oral response, and submit that as an assignment.
I am very pleased with the “return-on-investment” I have received from the time I have spent on this class. With the school in which I teach, and the type of support I can expect from administration and my technology coordinator, I feel that my students will benefit immensely from what I have learned.
I learned through this course that students today think differently than the students that we were taught to teach when in our undergraduate education courses. Today’s students need multitasking and parallel streams of information to reach their full potential, and the technology that we explored is an excellent avenue for achieving this.
Before beginning this course, I felt that my teaching was quite student-centered, but now I see many new ways that I could make my teaching far more student-centered, by using technology to give the students some ownership of the acquisition and showcasing of their learning.
I plan to continue to seek out new ways to use technology, and to share what I learn with my fellow faculty members, to continually cultivate my classroom as a learning environment. I will continue my studies, and even once I have completed my master’s degree, I will continue to research and consult with other teachers that value the use of technology in the classroom.
My biggest goal for the next two years is to create, and implement the use of, a classroom wiki. This will pose challenges with changing how students think about having some of the control of the class outcome turned over to them, as well as challenges concerning access to sites that may currently be “blanket-filtered”. This will take some work with my school’s IT coordinator, but she values the use of technology in our classrooms enough that I am sure that she would be more than willing to accommodate the students’ needs.
Another goal that I have, which is a sort of sub-goal of my main goal, is to implement the use student-created podcasts on the class wiki. I would like to use these for demonstration of oral proficiency. Within two years, I would like to implement a requirement that students visit the wiki at regular intervals to listen to a Spanish audio prompt, record their oral response, and submit that as an assignment.
I am very pleased with the “return-on-investment” I have received from the time I have spent on this class. With the school in which I teach, and the type of support I can expect from administration and my technology coordinator, I feel that my students will benefit immensely from what I have learned.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Profiling students
Okay, so it's not what it sounds like! I interviewed four of my students about their use of technology, and how interested they were in using it for different purposes. You can listen to my analysis of the interviews followed by their sometimes shy, and sometimes surprising and humorous responses here:
http://www.teachertube.com/members/music.php?music_id=147&title=Profiling_the_Students_of_Today
Enjoy!
http://www.teachertube.com/members/music.php?music_id=147&title=Profiling_the_Students_of_Today
Enjoy!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
21st Century Skills
I visited the website www.21stcenturyskills.org, and expected to browse for a while, as assigned, and then develop an opinion to come back to my blog with and post a reaction. Little did I realize how big my eyes would get while viewing this site! I'm still not certain if that is because I never before realized that this initiative existed, or was so excited that it did. Maybe it is a little of both. The wheels in my mind are already spinning, trying to think of ways to incorporate the framework into my teaching, and to best prepare my students for the future, not just academically, but with life skills, communications and media skills, and learning skills.
If I had to choose one thing on the site that surprised me most, it is the sheer number of huge education and technology companies involved in the initiative. These are not small names, either, these are companies like Apple, Verizon, Sun Microsystems, and the list goes on and on. The possibilities with combining the greatest minds from these companies are truly amazing!
I looked through the site to see if there was anything that I truly disagreed with, but was not able to actually find anything that bothered me. I saw far more that I was happy to see stated in print, in association with such reputable names. I am a foreign language teacher, and am embarrassed to admit it, but this was the first time that I have seen that foreign languages are now grouped in as core subjects and 21st century themes. Just seeing that my area has been put in as an "equal" with English and math gives me a greater feeling of responsibility to my students. I realize that it is not an "elective" in a global society to learn foreign languages, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that someone outside of my field sees the same thing!
The implications of this initiative for my students, and for myself as a contemporary educator, are potentially huge. South Carolina is not one of the partner states at this time, but could well become one, and that would mean that these skills would be required to be taught. But, why wait for them to be required if we agree with their importance? I plan to spend a good deal of time this summer, planning for the fall, and for a classroom that truly prepares my students for their 21st Century world.
Trina Godwin
If I had to choose one thing on the site that surprised me most, it is the sheer number of huge education and technology companies involved in the initiative. These are not small names, either, these are companies like Apple, Verizon, Sun Microsystems, and the list goes on and on. The possibilities with combining the greatest minds from these companies are truly amazing!
I looked through the site to see if there was anything that I truly disagreed with, but was not able to actually find anything that bothered me. I saw far more that I was happy to see stated in print, in association with such reputable names. I am a foreign language teacher, and am embarrassed to admit it, but this was the first time that I have seen that foreign languages are now grouped in as core subjects and 21st century themes. Just seeing that my area has been put in as an "equal" with English and math gives me a greater feeling of responsibility to my students. I realize that it is not an "elective" in a global society to learn foreign languages, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that someone outside of my field sees the same thing!
The implications of this initiative for my students, and for myself as a contemporary educator, are potentially huge. South Carolina is not one of the partner states at this time, but could well become one, and that would mean that these skills would be required to be taught. But, why wait for them to be required if we agree with their importance? I plan to spend a good deal of time this summer, planning for the fall, and for a classroom that truly prepares my students for their 21st Century world.
Trina Godwin
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I have been trying to think of a way in which I will use a blog in my classroom, and I think it would be good to use for homework help. The blog would be a forum for students to ask and answer one another's questions, as well as recieve input from me. It would be far more of a place for students to interact about content than for them to showcase their work.
Using a blog in this way could enhance my lessons by giving students more confidence as a result of giving them a resource that can give them a better understanding of the material. I teach high school Spanish, and while many students catch on to concepts (especially grammar) exceptionally quickly, many of my students need to ask lots of questions and need things explained repeatedly with lots of examples. With this tool, even outside-of-class extra help could still have the benefit of one student's question providing an answer for many.
Using a blog in this way could enhance my lessons by giving students more confidence as a result of giving them a resource that can give them a better understanding of the material. I teach high school Spanish, and while many students catch on to concepts (especially grammar) exceptionally quickly, many of my students need to ask lots of questions and need things explained repeatedly with lots of examples. With this tool, even outside-of-class extra help could still have the benefit of one student's question providing an answer for many.
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