Response to Digital Youth

How does this information inform your teaching?  What are steps that you need to take to have your classroom an engaging learning environment?

      Based on the information that I read, it seems as if students are more interested in class and coursework when there is technology involved or it is interactive such as "hands on". I am very aware of the fact that students get bored easily with the method of lecture and note taking. One thing that I would do would be to ask the students about the things that they find interesting. I have noted that if the student can relate to the topic, they tend to be more engaged in class. Also, I would encourage discussion. To make it interesting, the blogs would be utilized to increase class participation even at home after class is dismissed. Ultimately, the teacher should create ways to make his/ her class a fun and unique environment because he/ she should learn the students well enough to know what will work for them in regards to learning. If learning is to be as it is predicted, the use of technology will be heavily emphasized. My main concern is that some students will not engage in classwork if they have the opportunity to use social networking sites in class because they have an ipad. Perhaps there will be a way to avoid this, either way, I am interested in knowing how it turns out.

English Lesson /ESL

This video could be used to encourage English Language Learners to become fluent in English. This could be used in the beginning of the school year and I would have the students, after watching the video explain to me why they believe that learning English is important to them outside of being able to communicate with everyone else. This serves as an ice breaker in the class and gives the students a chance to express their ideas as well as ask questions and interact with with their peers early on in the school year.

Youtube Video Reaction

After viewing this video, I think that there is a lot of pressure and fault placed on the teacher for the students' shortcomings. I understand the concept of the video which encourages children to be exposed to the technological advances of the day, however, if the equipment needed to make this happen is not readily available, how can this be feasible? In addition, the video had some interesting points. I particularly found it amazing to learn that in the near future, the largest English speaking country will be China. How awesome is that? Clearly, their education system id adamant about the students being properly educated. I am uncertain of the specifics, as that is something that I would like to know to satisfy my curiosity. In regards to the video, it seems to shun the "old" methods of teaching in an attempt to make them obsolete. I don't think there is anything wrong with the old ways, however, I do think that new ideas can be implemented into the curriculum.

Mini Assignment #1

After reviewing countless blogs from teachers of different subjects, I discovered a myriad of new ideas and I was also able to think of possible suggestions to some of the ideas that I read.  The blogs provided proved to be an excellent method of remaining in contact with the teacher when the teacher wasn't available. Some blogs that I found to be particularly interesting were those composed by the students themselves. Additionally, I found what I thought to be the most interacting ways that content area teachers were using blogs are listed below.

• Links- The blogs can be used as a liaison between parents and teachers in an attempt to keep current on coursework, grades, and information regarding the students.
• Support- Blogs can provide external links to other sites that may be of assistance to students when they require additional instruction for assignments.
• Discussion- Many times, creating a topic for discussion  encourages students to engage in thought-provoking conversations with their classmates which in turn, creates the opportunity for the discussions to branch out and students learn to respects views different than their own.

• Video- Video blogs were used by some teacher as an addendum to the lesson recently taught. Also, they could provide supplementary material that would help the student fully understand concepts.

I currently do not have a class to test these ideas out with, but if I did, I would measure my success by grading them. This way, I could ensure that each student actively participated in the discussions. For example, each student would post to the discussion thread. After, they would post to the person above and below their post. The first and last people to post would in turn post to each other. Occasionally, I would comment on a few, just to keep the conversation going. The students would be graded on clarity, the relevance of their post to the topic being discussed, and the responses made to other students.