After some exploration on "The 100 Best Web 2.0 Tools" website, I came across a couple useful looking ideas. The first is called Teaching Channel, a site that contains hundreds of useful videos focusing on teaching strategies. The videos include interviews with teachers about an array of topics including ELL students, project-based learning, motivation and student-advisor relationships. The videos also include a lot of in-class examples, filming of real students in classrooms. There are many lesson plans demonstrated through these videos, which I will find super useful in the future when I'm building my own classroom units.
The second 2.0 tool that I found to be pretty cool is called Eyejot. It's a site that allows you to send short video messages to anyone (but in this case, students) on your computer or handheld phone. This could be really helpful for teachers who have students who respond more effectively to verbal instructions rather than ones written down. Sending video-assignments might create a stronger sense of relevance for students, thus encouraging them to get more of their homework done on time and/or understanding the assignment more thoroughly.
I also found a couple articles on the Spigot website useful/entertaining. The first one, (although I'm unsure of whether it's a joke or not) is pretty hilarious for an English major like me. Rick Anderson writes on the Scholarly Kitchen blog that, "At this year's annual meeting of the American Library Association in Las Vegas, there will be a special performance by the Oxford Commas, a band composed of librarians and university press editors who are dedicated to raising the grammatical standard in popular music." It's brilliant. They feature grammatically correct songs such as "Whom do you Love?" and "Julio and Me Down by the School Yard." Would be a great and funny article to show to a classroom full of English students.
The last article I found was one in which I very much disagreed with the point of view. It came from a personal blog that talks about educational transitioning toward a more technological world. This particular article was about the shift from reading in books to reading on "machines." But he argues for the advantages of reading from computers/kindles/iPads for many reasons, while making some pretty outlandish statements. For example, he writes what if, "The machine could learn their readers preferences, nuances, 'intelligence', etc. and tailor assistive materials and experiences to the reader to maximize enjoyment and comprehension?" If the machine did indeed advance enough that it could do these things, then the role of an English teacher would be nonexistent. And students would spend an even greater time on screens instead of communicating with real humans. I think the role of paper books is important, and no matter how advanced these "reading machines" can get, they will never replace the traditional role of text on paper.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Attempt at Pecha Kucha
Although I never got the entire screencast recorded, I did complete the powerpoint as well as the oral presentation. I chose to make a presentation on Shakespeare and his famous Globe Theater. I do plan on completing the real screencast by the end of the semester, considering all the work is done, I just need to record it. The part of the project that I've already completed pretty much just required skills and knowledge that I already have from making presentations in the past. It is the recording that takes some learning. It was interesting to think about "flipping the classroom" while making the powerpoint, knowing that the kids will never see their teacher's face throughout the entire unit. I have to be a lot more thorough when putting it together. I feel like flipping the classroom might be kind of hard with some areas of English. But the prospect of having the students learn information on Shakespeare at home and then reading one of his plays in class is quite exciting. It seems like it would be time-effective. I don't know if I'll use the classroom-flipping tactic super often in my own classroom but I do see the value in making a few throughout the course of the school year. Really big units that require extra instructional time outside of class could be aided greatly by this format of teaching.
Awe(some/ful) Powerpoints
Some VERY BAD powerpoints:
This powerpoint fails on multiple levels. First of all, the title is boring and nondescript, giving us absolutely no information as to what the presentation will be about. Far too much text covers each slide and when images are used, they're overwhelming and crowded into the space. This powerpoint give some good examples of how bad presentations can be fixed by simplifying text and finding appropriate pictures to use with the information. Using one quote or one piece of information on each slide is plenty enough to keep an audience entertained. This powerpoint illustrates how inconsistency in font/color/image greatly distracts from the point that's trying to be communicated in the presentation. Now here are some examples of GOOD powerpoints: This powerpoint uses a creative and unique approach to introduce the topic of "change." The first ten slides or so are almost exactly the same, except one word is changed, giving the effect of a film.
This powerpoint fails on multiple levels. First of all, the title is boring and nondescript, giving us absolutely no information as to what the presentation will be about. Far too much text covers each slide and when images are used, they're overwhelming and crowded into the space. This powerpoint give some good examples of how bad presentations can be fixed by simplifying text and finding appropriate pictures to use with the information. Using one quote or one piece of information on each slide is plenty enough to keep an audience entertained. This powerpoint illustrates how inconsistency in font/color/image greatly distracts from the point that's trying to be communicated in the presentation. Now here are some examples of GOOD powerpoints: This powerpoint uses a creative and unique approach to introduce the topic of "change." The first ten slides or so are almost exactly the same, except one word is changed, giving the effect of a film.
Exploring "To Kill a Mockingbird"
There are many ways to further explore books read in the classroom. Some of these ways can be achieved by digging online for outside resources other people have put together. I have attached a slideshare presentation on Harper Lee's famous book as well as a Youtube video that could both be used in the classroom.
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