It's Been So Long Old Friend

This past semester has really been focused on student teaching and developing curriculum. Not to mention A LOT of trial and error. Fortunately, more successful trials than errors (I think). That said, I have not been blogging my assignments for a while.

This week I will be blogging:

1. Three favorite online resources I have been using in my student teaching.
2. A link to a professional community I use to provide support and insight.
3. Two article reviews from the prestigious Educational Leadership magazine.
4. An IEP for myself that will dictate how I can better use technology in the classroom.
5. A digital story using iMovie.

I hope any potential readers will enjoy!

Read/Write Web

The next article I read in the same periodicle was "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web," this article is completely useful. It provided the basic information on what blogs, wikis, and podcasts are as well as what RSS is. The general emphasis was that through these mediums the web is no longer a source to read text, but also an interactive arena for people communicate and collaborate in their own words. With this comes a new responcibilities that we need to teach as educators or "guiders."

Ideas Presented in the Article Were:

1. A Change in Literacy- we have to decode new forms of images and text to be literate now. Journalism, politics, business, and society all have new forms of media and publishing.
2. Publishing Venues- this is great as teachers. We are able to connect easier to our students, and to our colleagues as well.
3. RSS (Really Simple Syndication)-Sounds amazing, but I have not yet harnessed how this one works. However, sounds like its possibilities are extraordinary.
4. Student/ Teacher Learning- both parties can learn to navigate the complexities of the many issues presented with technology. Not only the technical aspects, but also the critical reader/ thinker aspects when navigating sources. This challenges both pedagogy and methodology.
5. Social Networking- I'm not sure what else is there to say. Access to broader communication seems almost limitless, and I think imagination can greatly work in our favor.

This article gets me excited for current and future networking. I think that the incentive of publishing is good for students, and encourages them to do better work. It seems that working with read/ write web by nature encourages curiosity and creativity. I'm curious to see what sort of venues will develop for education specific workshops.

Digital Natives

I have been busy reading the magazine Educational Leadership from Dec. 2005-January 2006. The first article "Listen to the Natives" is referring to our students as being digital natives, fluent in the language of technology. The article continues to discuss the role students are currently playing in the classrooms as being irrelevant to our society and the society that they are about to take roles in. The idea is stated that all students are programmers, and have the ability to work together through medias that were never possible previously. Now these medias that are a common tool in the students lives needs to be reflected in the classroom, and the classroom needs to be reflective of the changing world.

Other issues mentioned in the article are:

• Teacher Selection- needing to be more empathy and guidance based not just knowledgeable individuals
• Students as Teachers- Allowing students to share their knowledge and experience in a valuable manner. After all, they are the creators of the language and methodologies.
• Instruction and curriculum as being adaptive- and thus more effective.
• 21st century subjects need to be discussed and taught- i.e. bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience
• Programming is a basic tool- needs to Incorporated and practiced.

Overall, I think that the majority of the ideas discussed in this article are fantastic because they give power to the students' abilities, knowledge, and impact. However, it is gray what role adults play as instructors. I do feel that as adults we need to both provide and teach responsibility and boundaries. I'm completely on board with incorporating students as teachers, and feel as teachers we need to provide a venue for such instruction, and be learners ourselves. I think we should provide students with choices, and guide them on how to make decisions. In order to successfully have skills, boundaries, awareness, and student-driven curriculum we need to re-define the teacher-student relationship as a culture.

The YouTube Expierience.

Okay, I finally did it...I loaded my philosophy of education up to YouTube. You can see it by clicking here. It was an amazing experience learning how to use iMovie, and how to critique media projects. For most of my generation and the ones before me, this use of technology does not come naturally. However, this media seems truly accessible for almost anyone, and for our students it is a completely integrated part of their landscape and knowledge. My favorite part of the iMovie/YouTube project was becoming aware of the reflective, introspective, and conscience aspects of presenting yourself through a technological medium. It is useful for all learners and for communication.

Energy Presentation Review

Mid-November we were given the assignment to research the outcome to making one small environmental change in our homes. We were told to start small, and see how big an impact it would make in our energy use and our wallets over a years time.
I decided to see what might happen if I limited my dryer use and air dried more laundry. To see my power point presentation click here. Next, I was filmed presenting the power point to the class, after I watched my presentation I came up with 3 main things to improve upon with my presenting.

1. First and foremost, do not just read your slides verbatim! I need to provide verbal examples and just highlight the main idea on the slide.
   
2. Face the audience, and don't face the slide screen. Although I get nervous, I need to be more conscience of body language.
3. Last, I need to remember to pause between slides a little longer, and invite questions throughout the presentation.
   

Techno Anthro Project

At the beginning of the year a few classmates and I went through the high school to see what sort of technological environment JDHS provided for its' students. You may view the full document by clicking here. In summary, our school has a sufficient technological philosophy with a variety of computer labs and multi-media available. However, it would be to the benefit of the students if there was a minor course in media literacy. Also, I would love to take advantage of any professional development opportunities available for staff to increase their technological capabilities.

Testing google docs

This is a test to see whether I can access a document on google docs