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?