Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Responses to blogs 3/20
Which blogs did you review?
The first blog I reviewed was Have Fun with English.
I was quite amazed by this blog. I kept wondering, "How much time do you take to put something like this together?" I wondered if teachers in Portugal, like teachers in France, spend less face to face time with students than do teachers in America, so they have more time to be creative.
What did you learn about the author?
I learned that the author of the blog is a teacher of middle school English students in Portugal. Her name is Teresa.Her blogger name is Teresadeca. She lived overseas when she was young (several years in the United States.) She is a great lover of the U.S.A. and things American. She has been teaching for over twenty years.
What sort of topics do they cover? What use do these blogs seem to serve?
The blog allows her to keep in contact with her students and for them to use English for real communication purposes.
It also allows her to put up lessons for CALL (which I found out is Computer Assisted Language Learning.) It seemed as though students spent part of their ninety minute period using computers for CALL. I'd seen one of the programs "Quia" before as I was looking for things to do with my Reading students.
She also lists friends (contacts.) I'm not sure how this works, being a total neophyte at anything outside e-mail.
How do you podcast?
What purpose might they serve for your students?
One way I could use blogs would be to have students blog about the latest book they have read. I have my students keep a journal of their reading, and could not really do that as a blog (not enough computers.) However, they finish books at different times, so they could write about their books then. Or they could blog about books on days when they really wanted to. Every week I have students "Say Something", where they talk with another student about what they are reading, but here they would be able to reach more students.
Second blog
Borderland
This blog was very different. It takes what I would call a philosophically leftist bent. I mean he talks about Ivan Illich. The author is an Alaskan elementary teacher of 23 years. He has a degree in literacy. His philosophy is that teaching should open students' minds. Even without going far into the blog, it was clear that he was not a fan of the standardized curriculum. The blog is a mixture of the personal (his photos) and the professional.
I particularly liked these two quotations:
"My beliefs and practices are out of alignment."
and
This Zen quote seems important lately: “Great doubt, great enlightenment. Little doubt, little enlightenment. No doubt, no enlightenment.”
What sort of topics do they seem to cover?What use do these blogs seem to serve?
This blog is very political. For example, he has a letter that he wrote to his senator against the DOPA (a bill to restrict access to media online for students to constrain the activities of online predators.) He also has a tirade against Dibels ( I thought of Pat when I read it.) which creates quite a conversation on-line. I found it really interesting, but I could have spent hours going off on different links and I honestly didn't have hours, so I really just dipped my beak in.
He blogs about the history of reading comprehension, freedom in society, etc. etc. It seems to be a place for philosophical musing on teaching. If I were in the mood and had the time for musing, I would turn to this blog.
He also has links to lots of interesting to reading resources. I'd like to spend some time looking at his links.
He also has links to "other lands" or other blogs.
What purpose might it serve for your students?
I didn't see anything like the student orientation in the first blog. He did have a link to a classroom blog called Tell the Raven, which looked interesting. It's more for teachers to get ideas.
I like this blogger's sense of humor. I hated the fact that he used it's when he meant its. That's the sort of thing that drives me crazy, and I don't understand why an intelligent person can't get a simple concept in punctuation.
Anyway, that's all for tonight. The thing about this technology is that you can simply be pulled in and keep going deeper, but you haven't spent a lot of time at any single level, so in the end it can be rather disappointing. It's a problem I have with the huge amount of information that is now available. Overload! Where to stop? Why the compulsion to keep on surfing?
The first blog I reviewed was Have Fun with English.
I was quite amazed by this blog. I kept wondering, "How much time do you take to put something like this together?" I wondered if teachers in Portugal, like teachers in France, spend less face to face time with students than do teachers in America, so they have more time to be creative.
What did you learn about the author?
I learned that the author of the blog is a teacher of middle school English students in Portugal. Her name is Teresa.Her blogger name is Teresadeca. She lived overseas when she was young (several years in the United States.) She is a great lover of the U.S.A. and things American. She has been teaching for over twenty years.
What sort of topics do they cover? What use do these blogs seem to serve?
The blog allows her to keep in contact with her students and for them to use English for real communication purposes.
It also allows her to put up lessons for CALL (which I found out is Computer Assisted Language Learning.) It seemed as though students spent part of their ninety minute period using computers for CALL. I'd seen one of the programs "Quia" before as I was looking for things to do with my Reading students.
She also lists friends (contacts.) I'm not sure how this works, being a total neophyte at anything outside e-mail.
How do you podcast?
What purpose might they serve for your students?
One way I could use blogs would be to have students blog about the latest book they have read. I have my students keep a journal of their reading, and could not really do that as a blog (not enough computers.) However, they finish books at different times, so they could write about their books then. Or they could blog about books on days when they really wanted to. Every week I have students "Say Something", where they talk with another student about what they are reading, but here they would be able to reach more students.
Second blog
Borderland
This blog was very different. It takes what I would call a philosophically leftist bent. I mean he talks about Ivan Illich. The author is an Alaskan elementary teacher of 23 years. He has a degree in literacy. His philosophy is that teaching should open students' minds. Even without going far into the blog, it was clear that he was not a fan of the standardized curriculum. The blog is a mixture of the personal (his photos) and the professional.
I particularly liked these two quotations:
"My beliefs and practices are out of alignment."
and
This Zen quote seems important lately: “Great doubt, great enlightenment. Little doubt, little enlightenment. No doubt, no enlightenment.”
What sort of topics do they seem to cover?What use do these blogs seem to serve?
This blog is very political. For example, he has a letter that he wrote to his senator against the DOPA (a bill to restrict access to media online for students to constrain the activities of online predators.) He also has a tirade against Dibels ( I thought of Pat when I read it.) which creates quite a conversation on-line. I found it really interesting, but I could have spent hours going off on different links and I honestly didn't have hours, so I really just dipped my beak in.
He blogs about the history of reading comprehension, freedom in society, etc. etc. It seems to be a place for philosophical musing on teaching. If I were in the mood and had the time for musing, I would turn to this blog.
He also has links to lots of interesting to reading resources. I'd like to spend some time looking at his links.
He also has links to "other lands" or other blogs.
What purpose might it serve for your students?
I didn't see anything like the student orientation in the first blog. He did have a link to a classroom blog called Tell the Raven, which looked interesting. It's more for teachers to get ideas.
I like this blogger's sense of humor. I hated the fact that he used it's when he meant its. That's the sort of thing that drives me crazy, and I don't understand why an intelligent person can't get a simple concept in punctuation.
Anyway, that's all for tonight. The thing about this technology is that you can simply be pulled in and keep going deeper, but you haven't spent a lot of time at any single level, so in the end it can be rather disappointing. It's a problem I have with the huge amount of information that is now available. Overload! Where to stop? Why the compulsion to keep on surfing?
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
ISTE Standards
At C. Middle School we have about 35 computers in the library, another 60 or so in the computer lab, and another 35 in a Science computer lab. We cobbled the Science lab together at the end of last year. The computers are old, but they work. Microscopes are linked with the computers and the lab is in regular use. In fact, all the computers in the school are heavily used. Teachers generally sign up weeks in advance to get into one of the computer labs. Some classrooms have computers for student use, but not many. My room has three aging and slow computers as well as my own personal computer.
Most students come to the school from elementary with a basic knowledge of computers. Their level of knowledge depends very much on the school they have been to, as well as their own family background. We don’t have any computer classes in the school which would give students knowledge about the more technical aspect of computers (Standard 1 – Basic Operations and Concepts - I’m using the broad Standards Categories for Technology – there are six of them.)
We offer sixth graders three weeks of typing on alphasmarts for fifteen minutes a day. This happens during their study hall. Therefore we have some real hunt and peck typists, and some who do much better. I think this is a weak point for our school, as students learn very bad habits which I know have to be “fixed” when they do the required computer class in 9th grade. What other computer knowledge students acquire at our school depends very much on the teacher they have.
But how can I, personally, help my students meet the standards. Most of my job is as reading specialist, trying to get students up to benchmark levels in reading. As part of my class last year I did have students do a short research paper, following the steps from finding a topic, to note taking, to drafting, editing and publishing (Standard 4 and 5 – Technology Communication Tools and Technology Research Tools) However, I am not doing this year, because we have new teachers who are doing a lot more computer research than the teacher in the past. One way I do use technology is that I give my students the option of posting book reviews online, an option many of them take (Standard 4 –Technology Communication Tools.)
I also use articles which I find in newspapers, magazines and online that have to do with technology, because I find this is very motivating, especially for the 8th graders. For instance, I noticed an article in today’s GT called, “Firms try new ways to engage Generation Y.” My objectives in using this would be for comprehension monitoring, vocabulary, but also for generating a discussion about how technology is being used (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.)
I do co-teach one class of supported humanities. These students just finished putting together a PowerPoint presentation based on research they had done using books, encyclopedias and the internet (Most of the articles on the internet were way beyond these students – yet they want to use them, just because they are on the net.) They were instructed in how to insert pictures and graphics, create their own graphics, animate graphics, insert a movie, insert a chart, and use sounds. (Standard 3) They also used Citation-maker to set up their bibliography. We were very careful to stress the importance of not plagiarizing and our research process discouraged direct copying (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.) The finished products LOOKED great. I have reservations about the content. Too much medium and not enough message.
We have jumped up in the technology world this year because our school has purchased smartboards. Our training has been minimal unless you happen to be in a department with a teacher who has used smartboards before. I am using my smartboard on a regular basis and my students are learning with me (and often know more than I do.) This type of interactive technology can really help students be motivated to take part in a lesson. They realize how technology can change an environment and they will also be more aware of using an appropriate tool for a task.(Standard 5, 6, 2.)
My last comment is on what I could do given the time and materials. I have wanted to put together a different reading curriculum for my 8th graders which would be based around media and technology issues. Students would look at the role of technology in shaping society (Standard 2), and at the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems. I think this would hook this grade level student and might up their interest in being a better reader. I have also thought, in my role as reading specialist, of talking to teachers about presenting these issues through the three grades as an actual part of the curriculum. This would reach more students than those in my class – but, being selfish, I would like to have something different to offer the reading students.
Most students come to the school from elementary with a basic knowledge of computers. Their level of knowledge depends very much on the school they have been to, as well as their own family background. We don’t have any computer classes in the school which would give students knowledge about the more technical aspect of computers (Standard 1 – Basic Operations and Concepts - I’m using the broad Standards Categories for Technology – there are six of them.)
We offer sixth graders three weeks of typing on alphasmarts for fifteen minutes a day. This happens during their study hall. Therefore we have some real hunt and peck typists, and some who do much better. I think this is a weak point for our school, as students learn very bad habits which I know have to be “fixed” when they do the required computer class in 9th grade. What other computer knowledge students acquire at our school depends very much on the teacher they have.
But how can I, personally, help my students meet the standards. Most of my job is as reading specialist, trying to get students up to benchmark levels in reading. As part of my class last year I did have students do a short research paper, following the steps from finding a topic, to note taking, to drafting, editing and publishing (Standard 4 and 5 – Technology Communication Tools and Technology Research Tools) However, I am not doing this year, because we have new teachers who are doing a lot more computer research than the teacher in the past. One way I do use technology is that I give my students the option of posting book reviews online, an option many of them take (Standard 4 –Technology Communication Tools.)
I also use articles which I find in newspapers, magazines and online that have to do with technology, because I find this is very motivating, especially for the 8th graders. For instance, I noticed an article in today’s GT called, “Firms try new ways to engage Generation Y.” My objectives in using this would be for comprehension monitoring, vocabulary, but also for generating a discussion about how technology is being used (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.)
I do co-teach one class of supported humanities. These students just finished putting together a PowerPoint presentation based on research they had done using books, encyclopedias and the internet (Most of the articles on the internet were way beyond these students – yet they want to use them, just because they are on the net.) They were instructed in how to insert pictures and graphics, create their own graphics, animate graphics, insert a movie, insert a chart, and use sounds. (Standard 3) They also used Citation-maker to set up their bibliography. We were very careful to stress the importance of not plagiarizing and our research process discouraged direct copying (Standard 2 – Social, ethical and human issues.) The finished products LOOKED great. I have reservations about the content. Too much medium and not enough message.
We have jumped up in the technology world this year because our school has purchased smartboards. Our training has been minimal unless you happen to be in a department with a teacher who has used smartboards before. I am using my smartboard on a regular basis and my students are learning with me (and often know more than I do.) This type of interactive technology can really help students be motivated to take part in a lesson. They realize how technology can change an environment and they will also be more aware of using an appropriate tool for a task.(Standard 5, 6, 2.)
My last comment is on what I could do given the time and materials. I have wanted to put together a different reading curriculum for my 8th graders which would be based around media and technology issues. Students would look at the role of technology in shaping society (Standard 2), and at the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems. I think this would hook this grade level student and might up their interest in being a better reader. I have also thought, in my role as reading specialist, of talking to teachers about presenting these issues through the three grades as an actual part of the curriculum. This would reach more students than those in my class – but, being selfish, I would like to have something different to offer the reading students.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
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