I have talked a lot about using digital media in the classroom so far in this blog. It was pretty obvious that it would be like that because that is the name of the course for which I created this blog. Well, this is the last post that I am required to add. It deals with our last project assignment that I created using Google Earth. Here it is:
http://www.googleearth.com/places/myplaces/lanocheviejacongoogleearth
The purpose of this project is for my students to see how New Year’s Eve is celebrated in several different Hispanic countries and to compare these celebrations to the typical celebration in the USA. I hope that they will see that in all these places New Year’s Eve is a popular holiday but that each local has its own traditions, some overlap but others are very different from the others.
I have had the wonderful opportunity to travel a great deal in my life. No matter where I have been, America, Europe, Asia or Africa, I have always been awed that people in all these places are all the same, but at the same time we are very different. I think it is very important for my students to learn this. The differences are what make life interesting and we all should learn to celebrate the differences and, at the same time, realize all the similarities. That is the goal of this project.
Howard Gardner in his book 5 Minds for the Future states that our students need to develop respectful minds and ethical minds. I believe that the message that I am trying to convey with this project will help them to achieve this; at least I hope so. Our world is shrinking. Never before has the saying “the world is a handkerchief” been more true. Thanks to the internet, we can communicate with people from anywhere on the planet. Our students do indeed need, more than ever, respectful minds and ethical minds.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
U07a1 - Digital Learning/Teaching: Hand-in-Hand They Promote Gardner’s 5 Minds
Considering the fact that wide-spread use of the “information super highway” began around 1994, I think it’s pretty clear that anyone over fifteen is a digital immigrant. Our youth today have more information at their fingertips than anyone previously could have imagined possible. It is our duty as educators to prepare our digital-native students to use everything available to them in a way that will both enrich their lives and create a world that will not self-annihilate. In order to do so, we must be adventurous digital immigrates, leading the way and teaching by example. As we teach we must also learn from our students. It is an important message to them that no one knows everything, so we/they should be anxious to learn whenever possible.
The five minds we should develop in ourselves and in our students are not achieved in a step-by-step process. Gardner does, however, feel that at different developmental stages, a certain “mind” is spotlighted. The “respectful mind” should be modeled at all times. I think we all agree that if we do not show respect, we will not receive respect. Our students need to see this behavior in us. As our students learn more and more, they should develop the “disciplined mind.” We should model this way of thinking by verbalizing our thought processes to our students whenever possible. The Reading Apprenticeship Framework is an example of a “disciplined mind”-approach to teaching reading.(http://www.wested.org/cs/sli/print/docs/sli/ra_framework.htm) After obtaining a “disciplined mind”, students are ready for the “synthesizing mind.” We can assist this development by creating interdisciplinary projects for our students so they can see the connections that exist between seemingly unconnected content areas. We can work with our colleagues in our school or with educators for anywhere in the world (using the internet) to create these projects. By doing so, not only will our students learn from the project, but they will have an example in us as we work with people of other disciplines. By working with diverse groups of people, students should learn valuable lessons of accepting differences and celebrating diversity, which lead to the “ethical mind.”(Gardner) Again, it is crucial for the teacher to model ethical behavior at all times. We cannot hope to teach using the old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
So, how do we enhance our students’ minds to prepare them for their new world? We must first prepare ourselves by recognizing that we need to establish new paradigms in education. We cannot teach the way we were taught. We must be adventurous digital immigrates and encourage our students to be adventurous digital natives. In order to keep up with new digital tools, we can read blogs on new technology. The Discovery Educator Network Pennsylvania http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/pennsylvania/ is an up-to-date source for this purpose.
Gardner, Howard. 5 Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2008.
The five minds we should develop in ourselves and in our students are not achieved in a step-by-step process. Gardner does, however, feel that at different developmental stages, a certain “mind” is spotlighted. The “respectful mind” should be modeled at all times. I think we all agree that if we do not show respect, we will not receive respect. Our students need to see this behavior in us. As our students learn more and more, they should develop the “disciplined mind.” We should model this way of thinking by verbalizing our thought processes to our students whenever possible. The Reading Apprenticeship Framework is an example of a “disciplined mind”-approach to teaching reading.(http://www.wested.org/cs/sli/print/docs/sli/ra_framework.htm) After obtaining a “disciplined mind”, students are ready for the “synthesizing mind.” We can assist this development by creating interdisciplinary projects for our students so they can see the connections that exist between seemingly unconnected content areas. We can work with our colleagues in our school or with educators for anywhere in the world (using the internet) to create these projects. By doing so, not only will our students learn from the project, but they will have an example in us as we work with people of other disciplines. By working with diverse groups of people, students should learn valuable lessons of accepting differences and celebrating diversity, which lead to the “ethical mind.”(Gardner) Again, it is crucial for the teacher to model ethical behavior at all times. We cannot hope to teach using the old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
So, how do we enhance our students’ minds to prepare them for their new world? We must first prepare ourselves by recognizing that we need to establish new paradigms in education. We cannot teach the way we were taught. We must be adventurous digital immigrates and encourage our students to be adventurous digital natives. In order to keep up with new digital tools, we can read blogs on new technology. The Discovery Educator Network Pennsylvania http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/pennsylvania/ is an up-to-date source for this purpose.
Gardner, Howard. 5 Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2008.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Developing students’ respectful and ethical minds: E-Pals (u06a1)
(The things we don’t understand or know cause fear in most people. Once we do understand and know the objects of our fear, they are no longer a problem.)
I think it is very important for us as teachers to take our students out of the classroom and into the global environment they will soon work in. To do this, there are plenty of Web 2.0 tools to choose from.
I teach Spanish, as I’ve mentioned more than once, and I am always looking for ways to give my students authentic Spanish material to work with, and opportunities to practice what they have already learned. I think that E-Pals is one way to offer them both. I joined E-Pals and put up a post saying that I am interested in working with a teacher in a Spanish-speaking country who teaches first and second year English. I already have two teachers who I’ll be working with in September. I wanted beginner-English learners because my students are mostly beginners, too. This is our plan so far:
We are going to pair our students and give them class time to write to each other once a week. At the beginning, my students will write in Spanish and theirs will write in English. That way, they all can feel comfortable using their target languages because, obviously, they will all be making mistakes. We will encourage them to help each other with their mistakes. As our students become more proficient, we hope to provide them with two opportunities a week. On one day both students will communicate in Spanish and on the other day, they will use English. In this way, they will also receive authentic material from each other. As the school year progresses, we also plan on sharing classroom videos and other activities to learn about each other’s culture. We hope that our students will become friends and enjoy this communication.
I am hoping that along with the positive linguistic results that I hope my students obtain, the project will also help them to expand their respectful and ethical minds.
I think it is very important for us as teachers to take our students out of the classroom and into the global environment they will soon work in. To do this, there are plenty of Web 2.0 tools to choose from.
I teach Spanish, as I’ve mentioned more than once, and I am always looking for ways to give my students authentic Spanish material to work with, and opportunities to practice what they have already learned. I think that E-Pals is one way to offer them both. I joined E-Pals and put up a post saying that I am interested in working with a teacher in a Spanish-speaking country who teaches first and second year English. I already have two teachers who I’ll be working with in September. I wanted beginner-English learners because my students are mostly beginners, too. This is our plan so far:
We are going to pair our students and give them class time to write to each other once a week. At the beginning, my students will write in Spanish and theirs will write in English. That way, they all can feel comfortable using their target languages because, obviously, they will all be making mistakes. We will encourage them to help each other with their mistakes. As our students become more proficient, we hope to provide them with two opportunities a week. On one day both students will communicate in Spanish and on the other day, they will use English. In this way, they will also receive authentic material from each other. As the school year progresses, we also plan on sharing classroom videos and other activities to learn about each other’s culture. We hope that our students will become friends and enjoy this communication.
I am hoping that along with the positive linguistic results that I hope my students obtain, the project will also help them to expand their respectful and ethical minds.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Using Glogster in the Spanish Classroom
How can you get students more interested and involved in the lesson? How can you give them a fun learning experience? How can you foster their creative side? How can you incorporate technology in your lesson? Well, Glogster is the answer to all these questions.
Having created my own glog, I can tell you that it is fun and there are lots of possibilities for incorporating its use into the classroom. What makes Glogster really great is that you create a secure virtual classroom for your students where you can monitor all their work. There are so many different choices for creating a glog that students can definitely express their creativity any way they choose. Students can make audio recordings using Audacity or Podcasts and then integrate them into their glog. In the same way, they can download video clips or generate their own.
Adding Glogster to a lesson plan also helps to cover the following learning standards:
Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics
Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.
Standard 3.1: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the foreign language
Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting
Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.
My glog, El resaurante de la profesora, is a teaching tool for a well-liked theme covered in Spanish 2: el restaurante. I gathered images of popular Spanish foods, included sites that cover Spanish food and restaurant vocabulary (with audio), added a Spanish joke, and finished with a video and writing prompt as an assessment tool. The glog is in Spanish, so if you don't speal Spanish, it tells you to click on the text boxes. I hope my students, and my proferos!, will en
joy it. :)
Here is the link to "El restaurante de la profesora:" http://laprofesoradepensilvania.glogster.com/El-restaurante-de-la-profesora/
Having created my own glog, I can tell you that it is fun and there are lots of possibilities for incorporating its use into the classroom. What makes Glogster really great is that you create a secure virtual classroom for your students where you can monitor all their work. There are so many different choices for creating a glog that students can definitely express their creativity any way they choose. Students can make audio recordings using Audacity or Podcasts and then integrate them into their glog. In the same way, they can download video clips or generate their own.
Adding Glogster to a lesson plan also helps to cover the following learning standards:
Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics
Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.
Standard 3.1: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through the foreign language
Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting
Standard 5.2: Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.
My glog, El resaurante de la profesora, is a teaching tool for a well-liked theme covered in Spanish 2: el restaurante. I gathered images of popular Spanish foods, included sites that cover Spanish food and restaurant vocabulary (with audio), added a Spanish joke, and finished with a video and writing prompt as an assessment tool. The glog is in Spanish, so if you don't speal Spanish, it tells you to click on the text boxes. I hope my students, and my proferos!, will en
joy it. :)
Here is the link to "El restaurante de la profesora:" http://laprofesoradepensilvania.glogster.com/El-restaurante-de-la-profesora/
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
An Online Resource for the Classroom
The amount of Web 2.0 tools that can be used in a classroom is mindboggling. One of the ideas that I have seen and plan on using in the upcoming school year is a wiki. I love the idea that an entire class, or even more than one class, can collaborate in the creation of the wiki. One student can add to a page, another can edit what the first one wrote, and yet another can insert music or a video. You can do about anything on a wiki.
The best part is that there is a wiki site especially designed for education: http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/
On this site, there are links to tutorial on "getting started" and on "ideas for classroom use." You have everything you need right there, at one site. I can’t wait to get my students started on their wiki!
The best part is that there is a wiki site especially designed for education: http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/
On this site, there are links to tutorial on "getting started" and on "ideas for classroom use." You have everything you need right there, at one site. I can’t wait to get my students started on their wiki!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Nurturing the Creative Mind Using Digital Media
Ever since I began this course – Digital Media in the Classroom – offered by Wilkes University and Discovery Education – I have been surfing the Internet, following links provided by my professor and going off on a link that is linked to a link that is linked to a link… Wow, sometimes it can make you dizzy. What I have discovered is that there are an uncountable number of sites and applications that can be used to foster the creative minds of our students.
One application that I found particularly attractive is “Quandary” by Half-Baked Software Inc. The site is: http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary.php It is explained as follows: Quandary is an application for creating Web-based Action Mazes. An Action Maze is a kind of interactive case-study; the user is presented with a situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting situation is then presented, again with a set of options. Working through this branching tree is like negotiating a maze, hence the name "Action Maze". Action mazes can be used for many purposes, including problem-solving, diagnosis, procedural training, and surveys/questionnaires. There are several clickable examples offered on the site and from these examples you can see the wide variety of mazes that have already been created. Students could really have fun creating their own mazes for their peers.
One application that I found particularly attractive is “Quandary” by Half-Baked Software Inc. The site is: http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary.php It is explained as follows: Quandary is an application for creating Web-based Action Mazes. An Action Maze is a kind of interactive case-study; the user is presented with a situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting situation is then presented, again with a set of options. Working through this branching tree is like negotiating a maze, hence the name "Action Maze". Action mazes can be used for many purposes, including problem-solving, diagnosis, procedural training, and surveys/questionnaires. There are several clickable examples offered on the site and from these examples you can see the wide variety of mazes that have already been created. Students could really have fun creating their own mazes for their peers.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
A is for apple, B is for bailar
I created a power-point presentation incorporating several videos, audio and pictures so my students can learn the Spanish alphabet. I believe this method of delivery can help students to develop both the disciplined and synthesizing minds in several ways.
As I constructed the presentation, one of my goals was to encourage the students to make comparisons between the two alphabets, to see the similarities and the differences. Comparing and contrasting are two abilities associated with Analysis, the fourth step of the Bloom’s Taxonomy Pyramid. It is considered one of the “higher” levels of thinking and it is also the step directly before Synthesis. The mere introduction of a new alphabet to a student whose linguistic skills are limited to his “mother tongue” is a first step towards higher level thinking. Many students show surprise that the ABC’s are not always A, B, C, but can also be “ah, bay, say.” To further facilitate this line of thinking, in the presentation I included the question,”Is the Spanish alphabet the same as the English alphabet?”
By including a variety of video presentations my intention was to meet two goals: to fulfill the requirements established by my professor for the assignment that I was completing (which, I am sure, was included as a requirement so that I could reach my second goal) and to show my students that there are multiple ways of approaching any particular theme. This is precisely what we want them to be able to do: to understand that there is not only one way to look at the world around them. To get this point across, we could also have our students stand on their desks and get a new perspective, as John Keating, the character portrayed by Robin Williams, did in the film, “Dead Poets’ Society.”
By the end of the presentation, my aim is that my students will not only learn the Spanish alphabet and be able to compare and contrast it to the English version, but they will also be able to synthesize all the new rules and knowledge presented to them on the screen so that they can read and write Spanish words correctly, which in turn will lead to more synthesizing in their future endeavors.
As I constructed the presentation, one of my goals was to encourage the students to make comparisons between the two alphabets, to see the similarities and the differences. Comparing and contrasting are two abilities associated with Analysis, the fourth step of the Bloom’s Taxonomy Pyramid. It is considered one of the “higher” levels of thinking and it is also the step directly before Synthesis. The mere introduction of a new alphabet to a student whose linguistic skills are limited to his “mother tongue” is a first step towards higher level thinking. Many students show surprise that the ABC’s are not always A, B, C, but can also be “ah, bay, say.” To further facilitate this line of thinking, in the presentation I included the question,”Is the Spanish alphabet the same as the English alphabet?”
By including a variety of video presentations my intention was to meet two goals: to fulfill the requirements established by my professor for the assignment that I was completing (which, I am sure, was included as a requirement so that I could reach my second goal) and to show my students that there are multiple ways of approaching any particular theme. This is precisely what we want them to be able to do: to understand that there is not only one way to look at the world around them. To get this point across, we could also have our students stand on their desks and get a new perspective, as John Keating, the character portrayed by Robin Williams, did in the film, “Dead Poets’ Society.”
By the end of the presentation, my aim is that my students will not only learn the Spanish alphabet and be able to compare and contrast it to the English version, but they will also be able to synthesize all the new rules and knowledge presented to them on the screen so that they can read and write Spanish words correctly, which in turn will lead to more synthesizing in their future endeavors.
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