As a history teacher I was naturally drawn to Eric Langhorst's blog Speaking of History. Mr. Langhorst blogs about a variety of topics including his own classroom, conferences he has attended and spoken at, and tools that he uses in the classroom. It was the variety of tools that he blogs about that really sucked me into his blog. He uses a variety of different google functions that I didn't even know existed to make teaching history a more fun, realistic experience for his students. He combines Google's street maps function with a trip planner and a landscape time lapse in order to teach his students geography. This is very relevant to me as it is something that my mentor teacher and I are struggling with in our classroom right now. We typically assign map assignments for the students to complete out of the textbook but there is no exploration and it becomes a task in following directions rather than a geographic exploration. The tools that Mr. Langhorst discusses on his blog are very useful for history teachers and I urge my fellow historians to click on the link above and check it out!
As far as another edublog goes, I decided to check out Teachers at Risk. Something about the title of the blog drew me to it and the first blog was about the difference between teasing and bullying. This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately because we have been focusing on bullying at my placement quite a bit recently. I also decided to check out the documentary Bully which I would encourage my fellow classmates to check out. But anyway, the blog that I commented on gave a clear definition of bullying but was unclear about their thoughts on teasing. Bullying is a repetitive behavior that is that is intentional, aggressive, and negative and typically exists in a relationship where there is an imbalance of power. Bullying is a serious problem and one that needs attention. However, the purpose of my blog comment was to probe the author on her thoughts about teasing and how quickly teasing can escalate and how damaging one isolated comment can have on students. Although the blog drew a lot of attention to bullying, I felt like the issues associated with teasing were brushed over. Teasing in the classroom is something that I look for and mediate because I think it is important that all of my students feel safe and comfortable in my classroom.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Thoughts on Tech Tools in Use Presentations
I want to start off by saying that I thought that all of the groups did a fine job on their presentations. This blog is in no way an evaluation of the presenters and my only goal is to evaluate how I think I would or wouldn't use these tools in the future as a teacher.
I think that the most useful tool for me as a teacher in terms of organization was padlet. I am typically pathetically unorganized and having a space to organize lessons in a visual manner is extremely helpful for me. Google Drive is a useful tool to organize all of the materials that I need but it is more of a hard drive type organization system with folders and files and such. I like Google Drive and all of the different options that it has but it is nice to have access to a method of organization that allows me to visually organizations many different kinds of media. It's also a useful tool in the sense that I can share my lessons with students. If I have access to laptops in the future, padlet is also a useful tool for posting multimedia assignments and projects in one space for the class to see or as an organization method for them to turn in assignments to me. I definitely see myself using this tool in the future for organization and hopefully for student work.
Another tool that I think would be useful is Socrative. The ability to use formative assessments in the middle of class is a useful tool for assessing whether or not students are actually understanding what I am teaching them. If they aren't getting the concepts that I am teaching then there isn't any reason to move forward with the lesson. In order to understand concepts more deeply, students need to understand factual and conceptual knowledge and Socrative is a great way to assess this knowledge. I also like the fact that you can turn formative assessments into fun, team activities using this tool. To me, these would feel less like quizzes if I am able to work with a team in a competitive manner.
All of the tools that we have been exposed to through this assignment require the right amount of access to technology. It is hard for me to use these tools in my placement because it's almost impossible to gain access to laptops. Obviously padlet is accessible to me but only as an organization tool and not as one that I can use to collaborate with students. Let me know what other people thought about all of these tools. Can you see yourself using them in your career?
I think that the most useful tool for me as a teacher in terms of organization was padlet. I am typically pathetically unorganized and having a space to organize lessons in a visual manner is extremely helpful for me. Google Drive is a useful tool to organize all of the materials that I need but it is more of a hard drive type organization system with folders and files and such. I like Google Drive and all of the different options that it has but it is nice to have access to a method of organization that allows me to visually organizations many different kinds of media. It's also a useful tool in the sense that I can share my lessons with students. If I have access to laptops in the future, padlet is also a useful tool for posting multimedia assignments and projects in one space for the class to see or as an organization method for them to turn in assignments to me. I definitely see myself using this tool in the future for organization and hopefully for student work.
Another tool that I think would be useful is Socrative. The ability to use formative assessments in the middle of class is a useful tool for assessing whether or not students are actually understanding what I am teaching them. If they aren't getting the concepts that I am teaching then there isn't any reason to move forward with the lesson. In order to understand concepts more deeply, students need to understand factual and conceptual knowledge and Socrative is a great way to assess this knowledge. I also like the fact that you can turn formative assessments into fun, team activities using this tool. To me, these would feel less like quizzes if I am able to work with a team in a competitive manner.
All of the tools that we have been exposed to through this assignment require the right amount of access to technology. It is hard for me to use these tools in my placement because it's almost impossible to gain access to laptops. Obviously padlet is accessible to me but only as an organization tool and not as one that I can use to collaborate with students. Let me know what other people thought about all of these tools. Can you see yourself using them in your career?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)