skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Social bookmarking can be extremely helpful to both students and teachers. Teachers can use social bookmarks to organize readings for students by creating different lists. This would allow students to retrieve their assignments in an organized fashion. Teachers could also use their social bookmarks to help other teachers. Social bookmarks allow people to share their links which helps share ideas. Teachers can have students create different social bookmarks depending on the unit they are learning in class. This would be an interesting way to gather classroom resources. Social bookmarking will help me organize the sites that I visit frequently. It will also allow me to find new sites regarding teaching and the English curriculum by visiting social bookmarks that others have created. Social bookmarking makes finding a site that you know you saved somewhere easier to find. I am all about organization! I created by social bookmark by using diigo. Visit my social bookmarking site http://www.diigo.com/user/jmb091.There are many creative lesson plans that teachers can use involving Excel. One of these lesson plans includes students creating a hypothesis using independent and dependent variables. Then students have to write a questionnaire in order to prove or disprove their hypothesis. Students will use Excel to organize their results and analyze them. Students will input all their data into Excel in order to create charts to view their results. This lesson is designed for grades 9 through 12. A science lesson plan that involves using Excel has students visiting a website about acid rain and putting in their current location. The students will have to create a database in Excel using the information the website provides. This lesson plan is designed for grades 7 through 12.Another science lesson plan for secondary students involves learning about earthquakes. Simulating earthquakes is a template that teachers can use for Excel to have their students to keep track of data. Once the data is put into an Excel database, students can simulate the earthquakes using their data.Excel can also be used in math class. A lesson plan for math might include having students use Excel to keep track of probability. Students can receive a bag of candy, and they will have to guess as to what color candy they are going to select. The students will use Excel to organize their guesses as well as their findings. Students can also use Excel to calculate the average color per bag. This lesson works best for grades 7 and 8. Another math lesson, more for elementary school, could have students create patterns of different shapes by using the program Rectangle Patterns Grid, which is a program for Excel. Then students can learn how to shade the shapes by using different tools in Excel. The students can then quiz each other about what shape comes next in their sequence.
The Google App videos were really interesting; I had no idea that Google Apps does some really neat things. I wish I knew about this sooner because I would have definitely used some of the Google Apps. I am a huge organizational freak, and would have used the Google calendar that is connected the gmail. Albright's email is through gmail which I absolutely love because it allows me to sort my emails and keep everything organized. I created many filters for my email, so that new mail goes into pre-made folders. I sometimes see on the right hand side, add this event to your calendar, but I wasn't sure what exactly that would do. I definitely want to start using the Google calendar. I never leave home without my planner, and having one on the computer would make life a lot easier. Another thing I like about Google Apps is Google Docs. I think this would have be nice to use in group projects since members of a group can work together in real time on a document, spreadsheet or presentation. There were times when I got partnered with people who were always so busy, and they never had any time to meet in order to complete our project. Google Docs can alleviate this stress, and the group can work on the project together but during different times. I think many Language Arts/English teachers should use Google Docs in their classroom. I think students would definitely like the idea of using technology, and it allows them to collaborate with other students in real-time even if they cannot meet outside of school. I would definitely consider using Google Docs in my classroom. One of the lesson plans I found was called "Class Collection of Book Reviews." This lesson plan is designed for grades 7-9 in a Language Arts classroom. Students read many pieces of literature throughout the year, so this allows them to write book reviews on books they liked or disliked. The reviews will be kept online in Google Docs, they can be edited anytime, and additional reviews can be submitted. Teachers can use these book reviews to see what pieces of literature were favored, and it can help teachers make decisions when deciding what material to include next year. In order for all the book reviews to look similar, the teacher will have to create a book review template for the students to use. Teachers can also take this one step further and make a list of their favorite books for a suggested summer reading list.The other lesson I liked was called "Writing for Context, Audience and Purpose." This lesson plan is for grades 10-12 in a Language Arts Classroom. Students often need help deciding who there audience is when writing. This lesson plan allows students to write a weekly classroom newsletter; their audience will be their classmates, the school community and the community as a whole. These newsletters will be published via Google Docs. Each week a student or two will be named the editor, and they will have to evaluate the newsletter paying close attention to the context, audience and purpose. Each student will have a chance to be editor. Once the editors edit the classroom newsletter using Google Docs, the newsletter will be available to the community. This is also a way for parents to stay informed on what is happening in the classroom; they may enjoy this more since it is written from the students' point of view.
The language that many students speak nowadays is not all that different than the language spoken when I was a student in middle school or high school. There are some changes, but I am familiar with the majority of the language spoken mostly because I am technically from the Net Generation. I would agree with students in saying that much of the language spoken is practical. Technology is for better or worse, so it is important for teachers to learn about it; the students will undoubtedly know what is taking place. I think my perspective is the same as the student perspective because I grew up with this technology as well. EduCause discusses some of the ways technology changed our lives. Cash is disappearing since more and more people are using either credit or debit cards. This is definitely true for college students; we hardly ever carry cash. Instead of calling tech support for help, we look it up online. I also agree with this because when I first got my Blackberry, I learned how to use it by reading people's blogs. Instead of using the telephone to set up appointments, we email. I email everyone about everything; I am addicted to email. Even though I do not feel like I am from the Net Generation, I do believe that I am certainly a Digital Native.There are many interesting Read/Write Web Tools. Some of them I heard of, others I have used, and some I never knew existed. I never heard of the term aggregators, but after I heard the description and saw "digital newspapers," I realized that I do use this R/W tool. I heard of social bookmarking, and I think it is a wonderful idea; I never created a social bookmark. I have used online digital photo tools. I have used Shutterfly to store pictures and make really great gifts. I never used the online rubric construction Rubistar. I think this is a great idea; it makes creating rubrics easier for teachers. I am interested in checking this out and seeing how it works. I am familiar with blogs, wikis. I liked the article "Tech Tools for Learning." I especially was interested in the WebCam resources. I absolutely love having a WebCam, and Skype is amazing. I was amazed at all the neat things you can do with a WebCam. I am definitely going to have to check some of these things out. I will also have to look into podcasts because I think this is a great idea for the classroom. I think students would like having these aspects of technology incorporated into the classroom.Google Docs is a free Web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation from Google. Google Docs allows its users to create and edit documents online while collaborating with other users. Google Docs is considered an R/W program because it allows you to both read and write documents, spreadsheets and presentations. I have never used Google Docs, but now I am curious to see how it works. I think this quote is very true..."the Net Generation will be relics of the first generation of Internet youth, when the Web was still new, page loading still slow, and telephones still in use." (EduCause Chapter 5)
The current generation is known as the Net Generation because they have been surrounded by the Internet, and they never had to live without it. I think it is definitely possible for the Net Generation to learn differently. They are constantly learning about new technology. Technically, I fit into the category known as the Net Generation, but I do not feel that way. However, I identified with some of the ideas raised in Educating the Net Generation. The first few chapters of this text mention how teenagers multitask, whether it is text messaging and watching TV or listening to the radio and IMing. When I was in high school, I participated in many of these activities. The other idea I identified with was helping my parents learn about technology. I created emails for them and taught them how to use it. I convinced my parents to get cell phones when I wanted one, and I also showed them how to use the phones.Digital Natives is a creative name that also refers to the Net Generation. I definitely agree that teachers have to communicate in a manner that students will understand. It is important that the Digital Immigrants change and learn about technology because Digital Natives are not going to go backwards and there is no reason why they should. The use of technology helps promote a constructivist environment which has been emphasized in schools. I think that Digital Immigrants should learn from Passage Middle School because this school uses blogs as a creative assignment for writing. I think is a creative idea which gets students writing, but it gets the students to write using the Internet, something they enjoy. I think this proves that new concepts involving technology are not radical but they make complete sense. Wanting to be an English teacher at the secondary level, I think that using blogs is a wonderful idea. Teachers are always trying to find new ways to encourage their students to write, and I think students will love the idea of blogging. Technology is all around us whether we like it or not, and educators know that their students love it, so they should incorporate these new ideas into their classroom to not only promote learning but to show their students that they know about the technology as well. Students know more about technology than most adults these days because they embrace it; they are not afraid to try new things and learn as they experience something new. It is important to remember..."Kids grew up around computers. They love them. Their computers are their second teachers at home." from The 21st-Century Digital Learner
Yay! I finished setting up my blog!
