Thing #16

Thing #16
Teach Digital

I was impressed and inspired by all three videos--I even put a link to No Future Left Behind on my Facebook. On that video, one child says "I can't create my future with the tools of your past." This is so true. We are in the digital age, however our educational system is so far behind. I know, I know, we need to think creatively about how to incorporate these technologically creative ideas for our students, however, we still don't have consistent access to computers, microphones, or "studios" and we still have to teach the power standards. There is so much our students need to learn in order to succeed on out state and federal TESTING. Sometimes it seems easier to just teach them the standards in traditional ways.

When have had students produce student driven, multi media learning projects and they turn out awesome. But---they take a long time and will they help the students score higher on our mandatory tests? We need a merging of minds of students, teachers, and all educational policy maters--I think it's time.

I think that the key issue is that we are trying to prepare students for a future we cannot grasp.

Thing #15

Thing 15 Podcasts (II)

So far I haven't seen that many podcasts that I would find helpful to my ELL students. I look for things that have lots of visuals when teaching English or supporting them in history or science. I find many more websites that are better designed for instruction for ELL learners. That being said, I have found some that would be helpful for mt students and I mentioned them in my Thing 14 blog.

I still, however, see many f opportunities for student created podcasts as learning tools, especially when embedded in a school, class, or individual blog or wiki. Without consistent access to laptops, computers, or semi-private areas to learn, however, I still see challenges to work on overcoming in order to really include more student driven interactive learning in the classroom.

Thing # 14

Thing 14 Podcasts

Although I like the idea of educational have found that you really have to work to find the best ones. As I purused English Grammar help found in podcast alley, http://www.eslhelpdesk.com/ESLHelpDesk.xml

I found it nothing more than a verbal explanation of grammar. I'd be better to use an interactive website. While surfing the databases of various podcasts, I found that many were no longer available ot needed special software like "podcast bean"(?) to operate.

I found a site while googling for poscast called UgoEigo which has some useful WSL phonics vidoe podcast. I can see using them with my lower level ESL students. http://education.podcast.com/

In terms of ELL instructional instruction, the site I've liked the best so far is the Voice of

America Special English. There is adio read slowing along with narrative--the selections are interesting as well.

The way I see myself as a teacher using podcasts with my students this coming school year is by

having them creating narrative or educational podcasts and really practicing with pronunciation.

http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=331&openpod=10#anchor10 Voice of America Special English

Thing #13

Thing #13
Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net/secret/lBhocKof0Yj7AE

In my last blog I explored Slideshare and added a photo for everyone. For this blog I added a slideshow with a private URL. I'll really have to consider the differences bewteen Flicker, Slideshare, Empressr, and the various options. Students would rally enjoy these sites because so many use different computers to access and share info. I've had my students use photostory and add narration or music to it. How do these programs handle photostories I wonder.

Thing 12

Thing 12
http://www.slideshare.net/my-slideshows
I signed up for two different tools. First was Slideshare and second was Knowles (virtual flashcards. I'm think that slideshare is interesting and I'd like to see how various audio forms ie: audacity work with this. I posted one pic. on my page to share.

I think the flashcards on Knowles are also interesting--sometimes flashcards are just the thing to help one memorize information. I saved several card sets to my account and plan to use them for both English and Spanish words.

Thing 11

Thing 11
Google Docs

This is the first time that I've checked out Google Docs and I think the potential here is amazing. It brings to mind a recent time when another teacher and I were on seperate computers and seperate cities trying to edit a document on our screens together. Using this would have been perfect. I have to practice with more documents to make sure I don't drop documents --as I partially lost my blog entry Thing #10)

I like the idea of students being able to access documents on the web and retrieve them from various computers. Yes, I will be working with this more. Boy, I want to spend hours with each topic, but I think that getting an overview is valuable.

Thing 9

Educational Wiki Project Exploration

1. Cool Cat Teacher Blog: http://tiny.cc/5FdyE

I found this site interesting and useful.This instructor designed a project for his computer science students. He set up a wikki page and had students work in groups to explore the following terms adding links, analysis, commentaries and suguggested uses. He later had them work in groups to create their own wiki pages in order to study for an exam or complete a project within the following week.
blogosphere
wiki pages
social bookmarking
podcasting
RSS Feeds
folksonomy

2. http://studyhall.wikispaces.com/

This is an educational project also completed by done the students of The Cool Cat Teacher discussed in #1. On this page students have created a weekly "study hall" wiki for the 10th grade. Each subject listed includes various deadlines coming up and when you click on a subject you find links to key vocab. and concepts. This is an interesting concept, however, I think that it would be something that teachers would need to do together on a group blog or wiki. Of couse, if it's wiki than valuable information could be added to it by students and other teachers as well. This is fine unless things end of getting "edited" such as due dates. The best idea would probably to include a schoolwide, teacherwide page that all teachers could keep updated. What format would work best for this? Wiki's blogs, I'm not sure yet.

3. http://tiny.cc/nudWc
This is an interesting middle school wiki that I found. The content is very fresh, exciting, and interesting, however, it's difficult to get a whole idea of what is happening in the school in general. There are sites in which students respond in podcast form to a teacher's questions. There are also various student organized podcasts of various professionals giving students advice about careers and life, as well as a variety of subject matter information. I like the idea of having a page that students can go to, add to, comment on, and use as a personal or subject reference when possible.