Overlapping!

     Overlapping is a term I learned in Educational Psychology that I feel will really help with classroom management. It is being able to effectively handle and supervise several on going things in the classroom.Teaching a classroom effectively is a key factor in managing a classroom. We discussed ideas on how to do this and show the class that as the teacher we are aware of all activities going on, good or bad, also referred to as withitness. One of the ways I remember discussing is extremely simple, and everyone can do it. Simply going up to the student's desk who is misbehaving and stand there with your hand on his or her desk. Just the awarness that you are present and near is intemadating enough. I remember teachers doing this to me, and as soon as thy came up to my desk, I stopped doing whatever I was doing and did what I was supposed to do. The teacher continues to teaching while standing near the student. There are many more ideas on how to do this, but this one seemed very simple and did not disrupt the class in the least. Another idea that was discussed was having a card system. There are two yellow warning cards and one red trouble card. Without stoping, placing a card on the students' desk allows them to understand what theyare doing wrong while still continuing the lesson. Any other ideas for how to do this?

Students teaching lessons

     In the Rocket today, there was an article about students teaching lessons during classtime for a day instead of the professor. I've had lots of class where the students teach a lesson, a chapter, or anything that can be broken down into groups. I think it is a great way for students to be able to look deep into one prticular area while other students to the same for nother area of the lesson. Then the students will teach the class thein depth lessons they have learned. It not only is a great way to imorve one's public spaking skills, but also gives an opportunity to dive deep into a single area and focus as much on that subject as possible. However, the article seemed to disagree. It was stating that professors ar the trained educators and should be the sole teachers of a subject. Yes, they havethe professional background. However, if a student were to say something wrong about the subjct, the could simply correct them. Another thing te article said was that it is there job to teach. I think that in doing this, the professor is teaching the students. It's said that we remember those things that we can actually teach better. Also if you truly undestand a subject, you should be able to teach it. Therefore, it really displays whether a student knows the information or not. I think it is a good idea, as long as it is not an everyday thing and only for perhaps one subject area.

Classroom Management

     As I was at the conference, I was talkig with some of the teachers about classroom management. Some of the storis they told were very amusing and I'm glad they were able to laugh about it. However, it makes me so nervus to begin field. As of right now I don't feel ready to teach! I'm hoping being in block next semester will really help. Older kids can sometime have attitudes, and they can definitely bring them out during class time. Now, I 've had to manage rooms full of people before and it has its challenges, but I think a classroom is going to be different. It has the same people everyday and they are going toget tired of being there, get distracted, and other things. This is one of my biggest fears about teaching. What if my classroom isn't controlled?!  So I started looking online for advice. There are so many articles online and blogs that teachers keep on this kind of informaton. It made me feel a little better. But i think the best resource we have is our professors. I spent some time discussing this with one of my professors and I already feel better about this. I'm still nervous for field, and even more nervous to student teach. But I have a semester to prepare! So good luck to all those others out there who are getting ready for field or stuent teaching as well!

Confereces!

     This weekend I went to the WPCTE. It ws my first conference and difinitely won't be my last! Suzanne and I presented on Mutimodal learning and ways to teach it. Multmodal is a way to incorperate other modes into learning. A lot of what we did in Writing for Nonprint was multimodal, such as the podcast, or the 20 shot film. In YAL, the vessel project for A Single Shard  and the charcter symbols for Witness was also a form of multimodal project. It's important to do project thats includ these becuase students remember things better when they are actively involved with the subject.
     So, back to the conference. It was great getting to see allthe other presentations and talking with other teachers. I got somegreat ideas for when I get my own class and it opened my eyes to some rising issues I didn't really see before. It was nice being around teachers and future teachers. It was great to ger out there and be involved in the world of teaching. I definitely want to go to more conferences.
     It was also really refeshing to be around everyone. My roommates are elementary education majors and they always tell me how bad high schoolers are going to be and how thy don't understand why I want to teach it. It was so nice hearing other people who are passionate about the same thing as me, and letting me know how great it is going to turn out. It made me a lot more excited to get into my career, even just going to field.

DEAR

DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) or SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) are reading times that take place in the mornings in which students independently read a book of their choice. I love this program! It gives students a chance to break from the typical school habit and read something on their own. Sometimes English or Reading classes don't always choose the most interesting books to read, and this gives the students a chance to read what they want. I know DEAR got me into the habit of reading. I didn't read a lot before then, but once I had to read a book, I got into it and wanted to keep reading it. Its a great way to get students to start reading on their own and figure out what type of genres they like. There is something out there for everyone, whether they like to read or not. It is also never a long period of time so the students who are just being introduced to reading do get get bored quickly. Its a short enough time where it is just a quick break from reality and they can escape school to enter into a world of fantasy, history, romance, or whatever else they might want to read. I really hope the school I end up teaching at has this program implemented. 

Teaching Technology without Technology in the Classroom

      In "Adolescents and Digital Literacies" chapter three discusses that we are teaching in a digital age. We need to adapt with technology in the classroom in order to keep up with society and our students. Lessons are now taking place on computers, projects are made with videos, presentations are completely digital, and much more. Classrooms are being filled with the appropriate tools in order to perform these technological tasks. However, when I graduate, I want to teach in an inner city school. The availability of technological tools is far less than in a public or private school. 


     Adapting to the inner city school's needs is going to be difficult. Technology allows for the development of many skills such as: creativity, computer skills, adapting with society, and more. If there are no computers or other digital devices available to the school, something else needs to replace them in order for these skills to still develop. I think a lot of hands on activities will help with the creativity. Instead of making a video, just act it out. That can help with communication skills as a bonus. As for helping with computer skills, that might be tricky depending if the school has a computer lab or not. If it does, scheduling lab time is always an option. If it does't, you can always encourage your students to visit the local library and assign something along the lines of simply creating a flyer or newspaper article on word. Assigning the project in groups might help. That way the other students can encourage each other to complete it. Then they can just print it out and bring it in to class. Before they go, you can explain the steps and even make a handout of the steps in order to make the project. 


     It is important to encourage the students to go outside the classroom and use technology. Just because the technology is not available in the classroom, does not mean that it cannot be accessed or taught. 

TeachersFirst

I came across this really cool website that gives great teaching ideas for every academic concentration. I took a look at some of the English, Writing, Reading, and Language Arts ones and they were great! I think it could make for a great tool for first time teachers. Coming up with a lesson plan for everyday is going to be difficult sometimes. This website can help you get a jump start and be ready for those days when you are really stuck. Just by reading a few of them, it got my creative side to come out and before I knew it, I had a ton of ideas ready to go again!

http://www.teachersfirst.com/matrix.cfm

What's in a Wordels?

I really enjoyed this lesson plan!  It could really help students understand their own writing. I know that in my writings I use certain words a lot and by using worldel as a tool, it showed me which words I need to try to use less. Tying this into a lesson or just using it as a tool to introduce before writing a big paper would be a great idea! After the wordel has been made, I would take the top fifteen to twenty words and find a few words in the thesaurus to replace them. It would not only be good for the paper, but also for a future reference. This is the type of lesson plan that can be used not just once, but over and over again. Hopefully the students would take advantage of this tool and use it outside of the lesson too!

Tired of the same old powerpoints?

In pretty much every class I have attended, powerpoints are used for lectures. Slide after slide with bullet-ed posts can gt pretty boring. Occasionally, teachers will use a fun transition, background, or if they are feeling really adventurous they can use a sound effect. Technology allows us more options now, so why stick to the same old boring powerpoint program. Prezi is an online program that allows you to make power points that are fun! instead of multiple slide, it is just one slide that moves through a maze of spots throughout the main image.  You create the path it takes into different locations on the page. It rotates in all different directions, has animations, videos, music, and all kinds of different things that can turn a boring old slideshow into something fun and exciting to follow. The best part is that it is completely free. You might not get all the options it has for free, but you get most of them. And teachers and college students get the advanced free version on Prezi. I had a lot of fun exploring the website with all the examples they had available and I even tried making my own! I might even make my next presentation using Prezi. Definitely check it out and spice up your presentations!

Are you Listening?

     Audio books are not a new concept, but they are definitely becoming more and more popular. I remeber one time in 6th grade we were reading The Cay. It was a difficult book at the time for the whole class to read. Our teacher played it on audio tape for us while we followed along. It helped most of the students to keep up with the reading, even though we were not technically reading. That was my first experience with audio books.

     I haven't really used audio books since, but I know many people who do. I think they are of great use in the car during a long drive. However, now people are starting to use them in place of the actual text, especially in high school. They are given the book, but simply download it from the internet and listen to it instead. I've even heard cases of college students using ausio books. Some books can be rather expensive, not so much the small books we get for an Litrerature class. But those small books start to add up; for example, I had to get ten books for my one class. Each one may have only cost anywhere from ten to fifteen dollars but that adds up. Audio books can be much cheaper, if not completely free. I got the actual book anyway just because that is what I prefer, but a lot of people who have to get books for other English classes are just down loading the audio version! I like to have the text, especially if it is for a class. That way I can takes notes in it or highlight important lines. I think audio books should be for reading for pleasure, not academic work.

     Do you think students get the same experience from listening to a book verses reading it?

Duz Speling and Gramer Madder?

Why would it, as long as you can get the point across?

I’m pretty sure everyone has tried reading that paragraph where the first and last letter to a word is in the right order and the rest are all mixed up, yet the message still makes complete sense. If not, you can read the following paragraph:

            “i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghi t pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!”

So this raises the question, does spelling and grammar really matter? The answer to that question is a big fat YES! Proper spelling and use of grammar is necessary in order to exemplify an idea. The slightest mistake can change a sentences meaning entirely. For example, IKEA posted a sign in their store about how their store “has everything, even deserts!” All you have to do is go to the restaurant area; then you can get yourself a nice cactus. Another great example, a few days ago on facebook one of my little brother’s friends put up their status reading, “It’s Mourning time!!! J” Now of course I’d be slightly confused considering people are not normally that excited when it comes to a time of mourning. Grammar is another issue of importance. It can also change the sentences meaning. Everyone knows the classic example of “Woman without her man is nothing” and then you fill in the punctuation. The men write “woman, without her man, is nothing”, and the women all write “woman: without her, man is nothing”. Those are two different meanings and two different perspectives. But what if I said, those are too different meanings and too different perspectives?

Or what if your boss left you a note that said:

• You will be required to work twenty four-hour shifts.
• You will be required to work twenty-four hour shifts.
• You will be required to work twenty-four-hour shifts.

What would you do? Personally, I’d quit because I’m not about to work below someone that ignorant to the laws of grammar.

Spelling and Grammar can certainly change things if used incorrectly. So to answer the original question, yes spelling and grammar matter. Not only can it change what you mean to say, but you look dumb too. Not to mention all your crazy English major friends are going to correct you, and we get annoyed with that easily.

So I leave you with these questions. Why don’t they still teach spelling and grammar in school? Is it due to the technology of our generation with such things as spell check and T9 Word? Does short hand texting have anything to do with this issue?

Check my grammar, I dare you! (I really hope it’s right haha)