Journal Entry Week 6

One thing this course has done for me has really energized how I feel about technology in the classroom, and I certainly want to try to use more/start using it. The first place this will happen and the logical starting point is creating a page for my classes. I already have a few assignments and modifications to assignments in mind to get more out of the technology, and one of them is to do database research for Huck Finn (This didn't work as well last year, because the librarians and I screwed up which articles we had them look at). The idea of technology as a new form of literacy I have to teach I am not sure I buy into 100%; will I incorporate it into class and use it for lessons? Yes. Will I spend a significant amount of time teaching the skills? Probably not, as, by the time my students get to me, they hopefully know enough, and the little I do with them will hopefully finish what they need to know. I do not intend to make it a major part of the curriculum, as the text literature is really my first goal. I think it would be a mistake to forget about books. That said, I certainly do need to do more with the technology that is available to me. I want my students to be able to see what they can find on the Internet as supplemental to what we do in class. If they have questions at home they can go online to find an answer (and know how to do this, so maybe I would have to teach some?); as a place to share ideas with their peers; as a great opportunity for humanity to reach out and learn about each other and the world so as to become better people.

Journal Entry Week 5

ok, so I'm interested in creating a web page for my classes at school. I would use a general front page for all my classes, with links to the individual ones so that all the students have one place to go for general information, and then they can pick the appropriate place for the specifics.  Kajder says to "Start small," and I certainly plan to. I think this is something that I can start on over the summer and get the basics into it, and then as time, and the years, progress, I can add more and more to it. For example, this first year I do not plan on having a discussion forum; I think it would be too much too soon, and I would not be ready or prepared for it. Kajder recommends things like the discussion forum so that it is a page the students want to visit, but again, I'm going to go with the cautious route; I can always add the discussion page in the future. One of the teachers in my school with a web page does not use it for a lot. He has the spelling and vocab lists on it, in addition to some basic grammer information. The most interesting and appealing aspect of his page is his calender where he shows what the students will be doing every day of the year. Now, I don't have quite that much planned out, but I can see a real advantage in posting that type of information. Parents and students will know what is happening when, and have no excuses for not getting the work done. This is the part that appeals to me the most: assignments online. Students won't have to ask, I won't have to bug them to call a friend, etc. They can just head to the page when sick, or missing a day, or cutting, or whatever. Makes both our lives easier.
Another section that Kajder talks about that seems interesting is the page with links to material that would help with the current assignment or reading. I'd love to have a resource like this, where I can say, "Don't go to sparknotes, go to my page!"

Journal Entry Week 4

The webquests that Kajder talks about seem interesting, and actually seem like they would be useful for class. They are a content heavy tool, that uses the "wow" of technology. I'm not sure how easy it would be to integrate them during class work, because the mobile lab does not have enough lappys for each student; does it work to have more than one student per computer? Probably does, but I'm sure not as effectively because the students would argue about who gets to use the computer.
I know teachers who have used them and love them, but I have not. It all relates back to my lack of "activities" in the classroom. This came up today again, and its not bad. My mentor is totally like it, and I fall somewhere between him and the "gadget" heavy teachers. Class is about reading, close reading, discussions and the occassional lectures. This works. Could it be better? Probably. I think an effective way to do it, though, is to integrate these new ideas slowly and gradually.
A lot of the integration of technology seems to be an entertainment concept, and I am beginning to get a bit uncomfortable with it. Are we there to entertain students, or to educate them? Sure, this is not a completely black and white question, and there is a grey area, but a lot of the technology we could add, flashy pictures, movies, click here instead of going to a library book, seem like ways to dumb down the education so that couch potatos have an equal chance. Is it good that they get this equal chance? I suppose it is, but it still seems like we are taking all the effort out of their side of the job. They have less and less to do, and we have more and more to do. Is that what we really want them to learn? That someone else will do it for them? When are they going to learn to have a good work ethic?

Journal entry for class

Some of these tools might be really interesting for teaching, but I still feel like I would want to start with a webpage as the home base for it. From there, it would be easy to link to a blog or a wiki. The blog looks like it is easier to manage and navigate, but the wiki looks more powerful, especially for the students to be able to create pages within the main page. That might be more in line for a technology course, but I could see it being very useful for presentations. Powerpoint is rather boring in comparison to what the wikis could do. I do a few group presentations throughout the year, and inevitably they do a boring slide show, even when creativity is in the rubric. I think working through the wiki would make them think about multimedia more, as it is more conducive to including videos, pictures, sound, etc. This would certainly affect how I teach presentations. The part that would worry me is how much do the students know about wikis. They all seem to have a very good grasp of Powerpoint, and I would be worried about their knowledge of wikis, because I would not want to teach how to use them; a waste of time in a literature class. Then again, they are in groups, so it might just work. This seems like one of those things that Kajder says "enables students to do something they couldn't do before, or could do before but now do it better" (98) and in that sense this is something that is worth "reinventing."

Sitting in class

Well, I am sitting in the computer lab for one of my summer courses, and I am really tired because I haven't been sleeping well. Wedding planning in stressful. Anyway, today was the last day of class at school, and tomorrow and the next day my students take their exams, so the end is very much in sight. Just one more week of grading and I'm there. This weekend I will get certified tp teach Group Power which has me really excited for a few reasons. The main one is that I will finally be able to sub for Kim, which will be nice when her body is killing her, and it'll be a fun way to stay in shape and earn a couple of bucks over the summer.