Lesson Plans

The presentations have been good so far. Something that I learned while Jackie and I worked on our lesson plan and presentation was that there really are several ways to incorporate multi intelligences throughout a lesson. It was fun trying to figure out ways of doing that, too.

I was incredibly impressed with the lesson plan given by Tanner and his partner over the Birmingham book. The internet scavenger hunt was creative and great for learning how to quickly navigate through the internet for specific information. The material covered and the video shown was very moving. It drew me into an engaged mindset during the short presentation. I can see how this would be very effective in a classroom. As an English major, American history has never been of interest because of all of the racial controversy behind it but after viewing their material, I recognized a new way to approach such topics within the English discipline.
I also liked the personality presentation. I, too, believe that it would be incredibly beneficial to have students take some sort of assessment to help the teacher better choose the multi intelligences necessary to teach a given lesson. The students will learn more this way and will be more actively engaged throughout the lesson. They had some very good ideas.
The last presentation given by Brittany and her partner was also good, especially for early education. The incorporation of music to teach the states and capitals will obviously stick with a student for years to come. Rather than memorizing alphabetically the states that will become jumbled, music is a prime way to invest in teaching vast amounts of information while also making the learning fun. I think they did a good job in creating their PPT and the information given was adequate for the lesson taught. I noticed several of the multi intelligences used while teaching the lesson over the states.

Voice thread

I loved voice thread. It will not be a part of the lesson plan Jackie and I are creating for class but I will certainly use use voicethread in my own classroom. I like that you can write in all your own material with the visual aid and audio to accompany the lesson. I think voicethread covers a multitude of muliti-intelligences. I liked it and I will use voicethread in the near future.

Publisher

I enjoyed using publisher. I think that it is an effective tool to use when making any sort of flyer or information to represent yourself or a product, etc. The assignments this week were appropriate for anyone pursuing the teaching field because publisher is a good way to advertise yourself in a professional, creative manner when seeking employment, etc. I would also use publisher in the classroom with my students to collaboratively create language arts brochures. There are several different ways to utilize this tool.

PPT Presentation

So far the PPT presentation is going well. John and I work well together. I feel like we will have a good presentation to share over the role of technology in the classroom. Sometimes working with a partner causes things to slow down to verify that the progressed work is good with the partner. There is also a possibility for one person to take the lead and the partner just go along, not contributing much. I feel like we both will contribute to the success of this project though. I like collaborative projects on occassion because I can almost always learn something new from the partner that I am working with and John is probably a bit more proficient at utilizing the avaliable tools of the computer than I am. It will be good.

How far should we go...

I do believe there is a limit to how far we should take the use of technology in the midst of the classroom. While there may be proven benefits of using technology such as computerised video games, there has to be a clear objective to the lesson behing the game that will be clearly grasped by each student.

Online chats can certainly be distracting in the classroom. After substitute teaching in several classrooms I have noticed such technology as the cell phone and text messaging has proven a great distraction--chat rooms can be the same type of distraction. In classrooms like this ETEC class though, it is a useful tool of communication between the instructor and for graoup projects, so I suppose it depends on the dynamic of the situation for use.

Yes, there are some benefits to asynchronous, text-based instruction over face to face instruction. In text based instruction the student has to prove to be self motivated to get through the assignments. They have to visually read and comprehend what is asked of them. In face to face instruction students can just go with the flow of the classroom but often there is a greater understanding of the subject matter with human interaction.

I am not sure about podcasts. It may be just a newer version of passively delivering information.

Videogames are nothing that I have ever gotten into. I have read where playing video games could help develope grammar skills and some coordination skills however there is a huge link too to obesity among all ages do to the dreaded videogame. Some videogame time is okay but too much of anything is harmful--just like the old saying.

Delicious

Delicious was a good site. I think that it will be very useful to be able to access my favorites from any computer any time. I have been at a disadvantage several times because I did not know the specific web address to one my my often used sites and I was away from my own computer, so I will use Delicious. It is a good and useful tool to have.

Wikis and Personality Types

I think wikis can and are useful for the classroom. I am not sure that I am sold on using them yet for my own classroom but as I become more familiar with creating my own that may change. Wiki's have been beneficial for my own use in preparing for certain classes that I have taken. I like that there is a community in which people can submit educated responses.

There are benefits to conversing in learning communities but traditional instruction is most likely more beneficial than those communities. In learning communities such as in wiki's not everyone has to work. Only a select one or two will end up doing the majority of the work and the others get to take the ride. In traditional settings, each person is responsible for their own performance. This probably has a lot to do with specific personality types too.

Students definitely have different learning styles due to different personality types. Some students are extroverted while others are introverted. Some students don't have a problem speaking in front of others while some will hyperventilate if placed in front of an audience. I believe that knowing a students' personality type can and will be very beneficial to a teacher. It will help me know how to approach students with different matters and it will help me know how to teach my lessons--such as lecture or visually stimulating lessons.

Spreadsheets

I really liked learning how to create a spreadsheet. Just yesterday- at work- I was asked to create a form that would track the progress of our clients. Learning on Monday how to create a spreadsheet helped me with this task. I will definately use spreadsheets in my English classrooms. They are better and more resourceful than a calculator because there is no time or effort in keeping up with grades once the spreadsheet is created and looking through the other sights that were suggested I saw great ways to issue spelling assignments and grammar assignments. Some of the primary functions of spreadsheets are easy tracking of information, getting the summation of numbers, oraganizing information, charting graphs of information, etc. there are so many functions of spreadsheets that can be useful to any classroom if utilized.

Inspiration

I found Inspiration incredible. I plan on teaching secondary English and I believe that Inspiration could be an extremely useful program to help organize thoughts and data. The features that Inspiration has-even being able to save video clips within the program impressed me. I could use this in my English classrooms when I assign papers for the class to write-encouraging students to properly organize thoughts, facts and theories over the topic.

Research papers would be an opportunity to make great use of technology in the classroom. Because writing is an activity that benefits from multiple revisions and high-quality feedback- technology is a way to cut some time out of the old-school write and turn it in and pass it back out, etc. With new technology- work can be sent via the internet or through these awesome programs such as Inspiration for teacher review and peer review. Peer feedback can be maintained through such sources as blogs-like what we are currently doing in class, but also through myspace pages, e-mail; there are many options to utilize when discussing technology.

Blogs...

I believe that blogs truely can be a fun and innovative form of communication among several different communities of people in one common place. I enjoyed what the Avery Middle School pronciple had to say about blogs and their usefulness in the classroom. Blogs created a means of communication in his school that gave parents the opportunity to become an active part of their child's education by possibly viewing the curriculum on the web page or seeing the lesson plans for that particular day. Blogs helped unite the teachers within the school by mapping out what was being taught in the classroom. Students could access the blog to stay on track with the demands of any particular class with a blog. Blogs are clearly a usefull tool in the classroom and definatley not a waste of time. If anything- a blog could save a great deal of extra time for everyone who takes advantage of this tool. The curriculum of the classroom can be greatly enhanced by the new technology at our fingertips. By using blogs and other resources students can review materials, have visuals and audio enhancements, can do activites for class, etc. The possibilities seem endless.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Shelley Witherspoon but I have to legally go by Shelley Johnson for the time being. I am majoring in English for the purpose of teaching secondary aged students. I will graduate at the end of this school term and I am excited about that. I have one little boy that is 2 years old and he is the greatest blessing I have ever experienced.