The first podcast “The Edible Schoolyard” had several focus points to draw from. The school is located in Berkeley, California; it is a middle school. The name is Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. In a normal public school the students will be shuffling paper, books, and pencils but this school the students in their first period is shuffling dirt in a beautiful garden. Alice Waters, Founder of the garden in 1994 to improve school lunch programs. Her words were “if they grow it, cook it, they will eat it”. The whole process consists of students planting, harvesting, and eating organic foods from the garden. The teachers have to be train to make the garden a center for learning. The garden and the adjacent kitchen lab is a learning lab for social studies, science, and math. The students are not just learning academics but also, life skills that have been forgotten.
The Second podcast “A Night in the Global Village” is a wonderful way to connect students to other cultures. I like the concept of the whole process. This podcast was filmed at Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas. The main focus is on hunger and poverty. This experience will help students resolve emotional conflicts in the classroom. It teaches children to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. When the teachers and students arrive, they tour the village to feel the living quarters. The scene that is created is from other countries that are poor in nature and unhealthy conditions. For instance, little or no water, no electricity and using nature to survive this will help students appreciate life and what they have and take nothing for granted.
I had the opportunity to attend “Raise the bar and close the Gap” workshop in 2006. Dr. Rita Pierson a wonderful motivational speaker spoke on poverty and how children learn who are affected by poverty. It was an eye opener. Poverty is a whole different world all by itself. Students have only one thing on their minds survival. As a teacher, I could be more attentive to their needs and try to understand their emotional pain. This podcast and the workshop teach you to be considered and try to help build their lives instead of destroying it with unconcern. The first podcast, I learn I could use the environment to make connection with the real world. The student at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School was able to see social studies, science, and math in every day living through gardening and cooking. I know the Mobile County Public School System will not create a garden but I still could use other mean to help students make connections with the outside life.
Even though I will not directly be inside a classroom all day, these principles could still be utilize with my intervention group. Even now, some students I teach share personal things, and some students are struggling to understand basic reading and math skills. I could apply these principles to my intervention group. There are days where I feel that I have not reach them are help them in a great way; so, integrating new techniques will be a rewarding experience for me and the students. With the kindergarten age group teaching from nature sometimes is the best thing. For instance, I could take a leaf from a tree and use it for phoneme sounds, colors and alphabets. They encourage us now to find ways to keep the students engage. I know I will not be able to use everything but there are some good techniques I could incorporate little by little on this teaching journey.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Week 14: Plusses and Minuses Of Blogs In Our Classroom
I have grown to like and appreciate the new web language blogging. A blog is nothing but a web-journal. The order of the blog is kept in order just like you would a written journal. Through this course and the projects we had to do concerning others blogging, I found out that there are different types of blogs and almost everyone has a blog. Blogs are used for advertisement, information, and as a resource for students. Therefore, with all of this in mind, I will discuss the pluses and minuses of my blog and a classmate.
The blog that I chose to review was Karen Schotta. Both blogs are well up-to-date. The topics are assignments from our EDM (Educational Media Course). The templates were nice; each classmate chose a design according to their own personality. Each blog have appropriate topics for their post. The pictures that are posted are clear and some are ADA accessible. We both used links in our blog post; Karen’s blog has more links than mine and I like that. Reviewing her blog is helping me to use more links and pictures.
Wherever you have a positive there is a negative. Each person can improve to make blogging more professional. We must remember that our blogs will be reviewed over the internet; so, there are some grammatical errors that need correcting and some blog posts do not have correct sentence structure. I have some links need correcting and a picture that is not ADA accessible. All of this will be corrected before May 4, 2009. Also, some of the information on a few posts is not on the topic. We must make sure we report information concerning the assign topics.
After the audio podcast our group did on Interesting Blogs on the Internet, made me aware of how to do a blog that is attractive for the internet users. First of all, I now that we are not perfect, but we learn from participating and others that have the expertise. As we state in our audio podcast as future teachers we hope to remember to utilize this information in our classrooms. Therefore, we must remember to have great clear pictures that are ADA accessible, correct grammar, usable links and information that relates to the topics. To review our blogs from this class go to http://averittedm310spring09.blogspot.com/.
The blog that I chose to review was Karen Schotta. Both blogs are well up-to-date. The topics are assignments from our EDM (Educational Media Course). The templates were nice; each classmate chose a design according to their own personality. Each blog have appropriate topics for their post. The pictures that are posted are clear and some are ADA accessible. We both used links in our blog post; Karen’s blog has more links than mine and I like that. Reviewing her blog is helping me to use more links and pictures.
Wherever you have a positive there is a negative. Each person can improve to make blogging more professional. We must remember that our blogs will be reviewed over the internet; so, there are some grammatical errors that need correcting and some blog posts do not have correct sentence structure. I have some links need correcting and a picture that is not ADA accessible. All of this will be corrected before May 4, 2009. Also, some of the information on a few posts is not on the topic. We must make sure we report information concerning the assign topics.
After the audio podcast our group did on Interesting Blogs on the Internet, made me aware of how to do a blog that is attractive for the internet users. First of all, I now that we are not perfect, but we learn from participating and others that have the expertise. As we state in our audio podcast as future teachers we hope to remember to utilize this information in our classrooms. Therefore, we must remember to have great clear pictures that are ADA accessible, correct grammar, usable links and information that relates to the topics. To review our blogs from this class go to http://averittedm310spring09.blogspot.com/.
Monday, April 13, 2009
EDM 310 Podcasts: Critique for Improvement
I listened to four podcast and the one I participated in. First of all, I would like to include that everyone did great research on their material. I believe we all did a great over all job. The assignment was given so we could critique one another for improvement. Everyone could use improvement in one way or another. The podcasts I chose to listen to were “Burp Back Education”, Source Materials for High School Teachers, Technology used in the Classroom at USA, Can Podcast be used in Classes I will Teach, and Interesting Blogs I found on the Internet (which was mine).
In all of the podcast, we could enhance vocal variety. Some of the speakers were speaking too softly even me. Some of the podcast could use more interactions among the panelist. To sell our information to the public we must first have excitement in the delivery of the topic being discussed. We want to hold the audience attention. To have a podcast more exciting also we must remember to not present it as a read along topic.
In a few podcast presentation, I heard a lot of ah’s and some pauses. When I took a speech class it was told to me that too many ah’s could ruin a speech and an audience will lose interest. Last but not least some of the moderators could have been more verbal with casual talk among the panelist. One of the major responsibilities of the moderator is to set the tone through a strong introduction. I believe that everyone has gotten over a little of stage fright and we will definitely piggy back on this experience for future references. So, when we are in our classrooms, I hope that we remember that podcasting can and is a useful tool to use in teaching.
In all of the podcast, we could enhance vocal variety. Some of the speakers were speaking too softly even me. Some of the podcast could use more interactions among the panelist. To sell our information to the public we must first have excitement in the delivery of the topic being discussed. We want to hold the audience attention. To have a podcast more exciting also we must remember to not present it as a read along topic.
In a few podcast presentation, I heard a lot of ah’s and some pauses. When I took a speech class it was told to me that too many ah’s could ruin a speech and an audience will lose interest. Last but not least some of the moderators could have been more verbal with casual talk among the panelist. One of the major responsibilities of the moderator is to set the tone through a strong introduction. I believe that everyone has gotten over a little of stage fright and we will definitely piggy back on this experience for future references. So, when we are in our classrooms, I hope that we remember that podcasting can and is a useful tool to use in teaching.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Math and Technology
Mathematics with Technology is a professional development podcast that will inspire teachers to embrace a different mind set towards technology as a resource. Judy Chandler, a math mentor and trainer expresses how some teachers have the attitude that technology will not help or they don’t have the time to integrate it their curriculum. She stresses the importance of technology as a teaching tool. Technology integrated with mathematics will engage the students with a manipulative experience, have immediate feedback and give them a visual representation with a visual experience. In other words, technology will help the students connect with the future.
As a teacher, we must help our students to think mathematically. The way things are now students have sequential lessons and too many are disengaged and frustrated. Judy Chandler explained that the piece that is missing is “Thinking Mathematically”. Today we do this by asking questions, but with technology it will give students hands on experiences and an alternative demonstration for learning. Technology that is integrated properly will help student explore, prove models, apply and reflect, and challenge all students to think hard. Technology will give students critical thinking experiences to prepare them for the future.
If I was a math teacher, I would definitely use technology as a resource. As I stated earlier, children have different ways of learning. Some children are visual, kinetic, and auditory learners; integrating with technology will help them reach their fullest potentials. In an earlier post, I stated that if we are going to help prepare our children to compete globally there must be some changes in how we approach technology as a resource. A teacher can hinder a student’s progress or help. I would like to share something about myself. I was not aware of the different resources that you could use as tools with technology; if I am going to help prepare children for this promising future, I need to be exposed to the latest trend in education. I am glad that I have taken this course because I see how it could help shape children for academic progress. Even though math is not my specialty, I have access to help others enhance their classrooms are use it as I tutor children who are struggling.
As a teacher, we must help our students to think mathematically. The way things are now students have sequential lessons and too many are disengaged and frustrated. Judy Chandler explained that the piece that is missing is “Thinking Mathematically”. Today we do this by asking questions, but with technology it will give students hands on experiences and an alternative demonstration for learning. Technology that is integrated properly will help student explore, prove models, apply and reflect, and challenge all students to think hard. Technology will give students critical thinking experiences to prepare them for the future.
If I was a math teacher, I would definitely use technology as a resource. As I stated earlier, children have different ways of learning. Some children are visual, kinetic, and auditory learners; integrating with technology will help them reach their fullest potentials. In an earlier post, I stated that if we are going to help prepare our children to compete globally there must be some changes in how we approach technology as a resource. A teacher can hinder a student’s progress or help. I would like to share something about myself. I was not aware of the different resources that you could use as tools with technology; if I am going to help prepare children for this promising future, I need to be exposed to the latest trend in education. I am glad that I have taken this course because I see how it could help shape children for academic progress. Even though math is not my specialty, I have access to help others enhance their classrooms are use it as I tutor children who are struggling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
