March 26- Technology-based Lesson Presentations

As with the Film-clip presentations, I found the Technology-based lesson presentations equally as helpful and interesting. I like how, in only a few minutes, we are able to present our ideas to the class in a way that may help others in making lesson plans in the future.

The idea of using technology in the classroom is something that is new to me because my teachers growing up never used anything more technologically advanced than an overhead projector. From this class, and the presentations that were given today, I feel more confidant in my ability to use technology successfully in the classroom in a way that does not bog down students with too much details or responsibilities. I look forward to using the techniques that were presented today, and I truly appreciate that we are able to share these lesson plans with each other through the discussion board.

I feel like I really learned a lot of practical skills from today's class, and I can't wait to look at them with more detail

March 5th- E-Guest Speaking

Teaching with Technology

I have to be completely honest with you when I talk about the guest speaker from today's lecture. I thought that her ideas and presentation were well thought out and very nicely planned, but I do not think I retained anything from her presentation. Maybe it's just how I learn as a student, but I normally do not have difficulty listening to a lecture when the teacher is present. Having the teacher talking through the computer made the information very confusing and hard to follow.

I think that one of the main goals of a teacher student relationship is the ability to promote openness in dialog and questioning. I did not feel comfortable, or able, to ask questions about what was going on, and I had a lot of them because most of the time I did not understand what was going on. I normally do not have trouble not touching my computer when others are presenting, but this was one situation where I found it hard to not make use of my time in a different way.

Technology-based Lesson

Sometimes I think it's almost harder for me to see examples of lessons because it makes my thought-process very linear. After our sample technology-based lesson plan was presented today, I felt that my thoughts were unoriginal. I appreciated the modeling that was done, and I know that as a future teacher I will have to use modeling with my students, but in the case of this lesson plan, it left me absolutely stumped for ideas!

I know that I would use our sample lesson in my classroom, so while we were working on the activity, I began thinking of ways to adapt this lesson into something different that would give me the experience of planning a lesson around technology. I came up with the idea, using the same format we used in class today, that would incorporate poetic skills as opposed to different play writes. I think that too often teachers assume that students have learned everything they were supposed to learn in their previous classes. This, however, is never the case, especially when it comes to poetry. Because of this, I think I'm going to take this idea and run with it... see where it takes me!

Film Clip Lesson Plan

I really enjoyed last week's class because I thought it was interesting to see how everyone incorporated different films into their lessons. Not only did I like most everyone's movie clips, but I feel as though I learned a lot about how to use this form of technology in the classroom.
My first instinct, and the way in which I detailed my lesson, is to use film as a creative writing piece.

I used a clip from the film adaptation of the novel Hoot by Carl Hiaasen in order to get the students thinking about the qualities of descriptive writing. This was the only idea I could think of when I was making my lesson. From the presentations, I was able to see the thought processes of other people, which I think will help me in the future. Beyond creative writing pieces, other people used the film clip as a gateway for deeper discussion about the novel, a comparison and contrast of themes and details, and even as a way to incorporate more technology in the classroom by way of Power Point. I'm really glad I got to see these other ideas, and I know I will be using them in the future.

Copyright! Ah!

So, as it turns out, there is a lot about copyright laws that I didn't know. Here are some of the things I found most interesting, and unreasonable:
*Teachers are not allowed to show their own movies in class because it violates copyright laws
*Teachers are not allowed to buy songs from iTunes and play them in their class because it
violates copyright laws
*You cannot play music and have a fund raiser because you are making money and it violates copyright laws
These are just a few of things that were surprising to me. It's not as though I'm necessarily worried about getting in trouble with the "copyright police", but it does make me think twice about plans I had as a teacher. While I know that this is good knowledge to have, especially as a teacher being set to higher standards than others, but I can't say that I won't continue to violate those laws. I feel as though its inevitable, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my students education by redesigning lessons because I'm worried about breaking copyright laws.

Web Quests: Not my fav!

So for the past two weeks we have been working on our Web Quests. Maybe it was just because I was having trouble being inspired, or because I never did a Web Quest in school, but I was not really a fan of the procedure.
I based my quest off of the young adult novel Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. This is a wonderful novel, full of witty sarcasm and a positive environmental message, but I don't know if it's ready for the Internet. While I designed my quest to be one that teaches about different regional areas of the United States and the importance of protecting their wildlife, I feel as though it wasn't a very good lesson for an English class.
I have not quite given up on the idea of Web Quests or their effectiveness, but I think that the next time I attempt to make one of my own, I will need a more purposefully driven idea that reaches students on a Language Arts level.

Responsible Internet Usage

In today's class we had in depth discussions about the importance of internet safety not only for students, but also for teachers. When I read the article for the discussion post, my main concern was the well-being of the students. With MySpace and Facebook being so prevalent in today's society it was interesting to hear about my other classmates perspectives on being a teacher and maintaining privacy. Although I am an avid Life Time watcher (it's like quicksand, I just can't escape!) I had never seen the movie we talked about in class. That story is terrifying to me! Not just from the perspective of a teacher getting inappropriately represented on the Internet, but also keeping in mind that there are way too many crazy people out there that target both adults and young children.

From having read the Internet Safety Article, I feel much more confident about using the Internet in my classroom. For that particular discussion post I talked about how I felt that my fear of online predators was very justified, but it would not have been enough to stop me from using the Internet in my classroom. This is now especially true after our lesson on Internet safety; I feel very secure in my abilities to advise students to utilize the internet properly.