Progress...or not....

What?

My cohort partner and I finally managed to talk with our cooperating teacher--who wants us to do whatever we want in her class. However, she doesn't know what she will be teaching which days, so we are left up in the air about what we will be doing our digital story on.

So What?

We did come up with a temporary solution, however. Our c-teacher wants us to observe her classroom the first three days, then do all our lesson-plans and our digital story. She gave us a few subjects she will be going over during the month we will be there and we chose two for our digital story, Persuasive writing and Fantasy Writing.

Now What?

We actually decided to do two seperate stories, and then chose which one we will actually be using after we know when and what we will be teaching on. Not a perfect solution, but right now, it's about the only thing we can do to ensure we will have something to turn in at the end of our teaching experience.

Digital Stories (pt.2)

What?

This week we learned about copyrights, and how to get our personal work copyrighted. We also learned about the laws surrounding copyright and Cyperethics.

So What?

I definitely didn’t understand all of what went into copyrighting, and I am grateful that I do now. I can understand why Doc Waters wanted this to be a part of the lesson, mainly because copyright laws are broken every day, even by those who don’t realize they are doing it. It is also something that I will be teaching my students, when we do work on the internet. It would be good for them to know so they are aware of what they can and cannot use in the classroom and in everyday life.

Now What?

As I said before, I definitely was not aware of all the ins and outs of copyright. Learning about the severity of downloading certain things has made me pause and examine everything that I am downloading off the internet, now. And as I mentioned before, it is something that I will share with my students and try to instill in them the importance of Cyperethics.



Digital Stories (pt.1)

WHAT?

This week we began a multi-week lesson about Digital Stories and how to use them in the classroom.

SO WHAT?

I was shocked at how impactful a digital story could be, and impressed by how much I learned through the few we watched. Using these stories, a teacher can either create an attention-catching intro to a unit, or pile a lot of information into a short, 3-5 minute video that is memorable and fun for the students to watch. As a student who will be using one of these stories in my own teaching (during the student-teaching period), it is a wonderful tool that will make my intro to teaching a little easier and more fun.

NOW WHAT?

This is DEFINITELY a tool I will be using in the future, even if I have to take my lap-top to school and show it on that alone (I plan on teaching in a low-income area, so access to computers and projector-use will probably be limited). If they do have access to computers, however, this would be an awesome tool to have them use, to show their understanding for subjects I am teaching them, or for them to use to create presentations. I am very excited about this tool, and fully intend on using it whether or not my classroom has the resources that other schools do.

Vidcast Reflection

The Three Types of Rock: Rocks, Rocks, and more Rocks!

Core Curriculum: Science

Standard 3: Students will understand the basic properties of rocks, the processes involved in the formation of soils, and the needs of plants provided by soil.

Objective 1: Identify basic properties of minerals and rocks.

            Lynsi and I chose this topic because it was something that interested us both, and because it was different than what our peers were most likely going to be doing. We decided early on that we didn’t want to stay in our “safe area” of doing lesson plans for Social Studies, instead branching out into a slightly different section of the Core Curriculum where we would have to stretch ourselves a little more. We also thought that introducing the three types of rock would be a lot more fun and interesting to show in a video presentation, as opposed to lecturing about it.

This podcast connects to the NETS and INTASC Standards in several ways. First, a podcast helps us communicate our instruction clearly and accurately, while giving students a fun way to view/learn the material. Podcasts also help to accommodate individual students’ cultural, physical, emotional, social, and intellectual growth, by giving them a simple, easy to understand lesson and allowing them to answer the questions in the podcast at their own level of understanding; all of it done in a non-threatening way. This podcast is also a way to model your own creativeness, and give students ideas on how to use their own in similar ways for future projects.

There are a few potential drawbacks to using our podcast series in the classroom, however. The visuals on the podcast only last for about five seconds each, giving the viewer limited time to take in the details needed to answer the questions; if it were for an actual lesson, the video would need to be elongated and the pictures allowed to show for a longer period of time. Podcasts also don’t allow for much in-lecture discussion-time, which some students may need to process the ideas the video is teaching.

I think that if given the opportunity, I would love to use this video in one of my future classes. I believe students need variety in their learning experiences, and this podcast would be an excellent break from the traditional lectures about rock-formation. It would make a great lead-in for a more in-depth look at how rocks are formed and how to identify them.