Reflecting on Technology...

Taking this class has immensely helped me to develop my technology skills. Anyone who knows me knows that technology is something that easily frustrates me. This course gave me the knowledge and practice that I needed to build my confidence using different technology so that I am not so quick to be frustrated. I learned so much about different Web 2.0 technologies and how to use them. Things like blogs, wikis and podcasts are not things that I had previously used in my teaching, and were not really things that I was considered simply because I did not understand them; they were intimidating to me. This class gave me step by step understanding of these technologies and allowed me to practice them in a way in which I now feel comfortable using them, and I am excited to introduce my students to them. Besides teaching me how to use these technologies, I also feel much more comfortable developing lesson plans which incorporate technology in a useful way. I am very excited to work podcasting and blogs into my curriculum!

One way in which I can continue to expand my knowledge of technology integration is to work closely with the “technology guru” at my school. I need to work cooperatively with him so that I can find out everything about our equipment at school and how to best utilize it. Some things, such as the MAC computers, are somewhat new to me, so working with someone who really understands these things will greatly help me integrate technology and increase student achievement. Another thing that I can do is keep up with the technology blogs that I subscribed to during this course, and find other credited ones. Really, one of the best ways to learn is to stay in contact with other professionals who have the same goal as you and seeing what they have tried, what works, and what might need to be tweaked. This will help me to get some great ideas, as I already have from sharing with my colleagues over the Internet, and also avoid some mistakes that they have already made. It will also serve to give me more practice in using blogs.

One long-term goal that I have for myself is to use podcasting in order for my students to enhance their portfolios. One of my instructional goals is that students learn to speak comfortably in Spanish, and it is a difficult one to achieve, as many students have low confidence in this area and cannot see their own growth. My goal is to have students record their speaking tasks and turn them into podcasts that they can post on their electronic portfolios, which they make in 10^th grade and 12^th grade. The goal of this is to have a place where students can easily listen to their own speaking tasks and see how they have or have not improved over time, and then reflect on why they think this happened. I believe that this is a very feasible goal for me, as I can use our MACS to have students record their tasks on garage band and then easily turn them into podcasts and have them uploaded into their portfolios. I am very excited for this.

A second long-tern goal that I have for myself is to use web 2.0 technology to give my students contact with Spanish-speaking students abroad. This goal is little loftier, but I think that it is achievable. I have a contact for a school in Spain where I used to work, and my goal is to get my students in touch with the students at this school. Students could practice reading and writing in Spanish if we did this as a classroom blog type project, and they could also practice speaking and listening if we did this as a podcast project. I would probably have to start this a single-class project to make sure that I knew how to best run it before I introduced it to all of my classes. I think that students could use the blog to communicate about topics that we are discussing in class at that time, and also to learn about different cultural topics. My hope would be that they would make friends and continue contact with these other students, building life-long language learners.

Let's hear what the kids have to say!...

I did a recent survey of some of my students in order to better gauge their experiences with technology at home and in the classroom. Listen to my podcast to hear what they had to say! (A special thanks to those who participated!)

Tapestry Students and Technology

Teaching Social Responsibility... Sounds good to me!

I have been spending some time perusing the website for The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. I really enjoy their mission and agree that it is so important for educators to help prepare students for their inevitable future by helping them to develop the skills that they will need to succeed. I think that it is really interesting to have schools collaborating with business, community and government leaders; giving students a chance to hear first hand from their potential employers and colleagues what skills they will need to have.

One thing that I found surprising on this site was that listed among the skills that they are trying to develop in students is social responsibility and civic literacy. Looking at the not-so-distant past, we see examples in business that ethics really do play a large part. It was a pleasant surprise to me that social responsibility was mentioned, as so many times we think of business and government to be cut-throat arenas where anything goes in order to “make a buck”. So, as the Partnership tries to bring these worlds together into the educational upbringing of our students, it is great to see that they are trying to change this stereotype by bringing up a new set of entrepreneurs and workers who are aware of and who work towards achieving social and civic responsibilities. Teaching this as if it were a skill as tangible as technological literacy will hopefully embed in our youth how important this really is.

I did not really see anything on this site that I disagreed with, on the contrary, I seem to really see the merit behind most of what I saw. Working with state standards and curriculum to integrate the skills that are needed for success in the 21^st century seems to be the best way to prepare our students at this point, while also integrating technology and the related skills into the classroom. Also, while I could maybe see some argument as to the Partnership’s want for educators to themes such as health and economic literacy into every subject, I think that this is an interesting idea and will help to make our student better citizens in our society and in the global community as a whole.

As an educator, this site gives me a place to go for resources on how I can integrate some of these skills into my own classroom. For my students, hopefully this means that they will be getting experience developing and using these different skills.

Blogging in my classroom...

I find that there a many different ways that I can make a blog useful in my classroom. I teach Spanish at a charter school in Buffalo, New York, and most of my students are in the 10th grade, with a few from 9th and 11th. I feel that before I jump into some of the more in depth things that I can accomplish with a blog, I might start with something somewhat simple, to familiarize students with the space. One idea might be to use the blog as a place where students can find links to websites to enhance the content that we are learning about in class, such as websites with different games and activities for review. I could also see posting links to different websites that discuss cultural issues from different Spanish-speaking countries. With a packed curriculum, it is sometimes difficult to set aside as much time as I would like to teach culture, so it might be beneficial to let students explore cultural issues on their own through my blog, and then post their thoughts and respond to one another. Exploring cultural websites and blogging about what they find is a very interesting idea, as students may stumble upon some really exciting traditions and stories that I might not have time to fill them in on.

Eventually, I could see using the blog as to showcase students' work as a part of their passage portfolios. At the end of the 10th grade, my student must display all of their work from a digital portfolio to a panel to prove that they are prepared to move on to the next step. I could use the blog to give students a comprehensive place to keep the work that have done in my class in one place and add to their digital portfolios. Students could store their cultural blogs, different writing assignments that they complete, and maybe even audio files that they record on Garage Band.

Finally, something that may be a bit ambitious but is hopefully within my reach, I would love to use my blog as a way for students to communicate with students in a Spanish speaking country who are learning English. This would be almost like a modern version of a pen-pal, but students will also be able to share with each other links to some of their favorite popular culture websites, thus making it more interesting as students are sharing things about themselves that they really care about, and the learning experience is quite enhanced. This final idea is really an ultimate goal that I have, and I would really be excited to see something like this take off as a result of my blog!