Final Presentations

I have enjoyed seeing everyone's final presentations this week. It is a nice chance to learn what kind of tools are out there that I can possibly use in the future as a teacher. I really liked the presentations about Popplet, because I think this could be a really useful tool for students who are struggling with the writing process. I also liked the presentation about how to use a graphic novel project. I think this could be fun for the students who are already interested in pop culture such as graphic novels and comic books, and it could open the eyes of the students who have not had much experience with them.

These presentations were a good way to finish out the semester because we were able to use the tools that we have learned about in class or tools that we may have found just exploring in our own leisure time. The presentations are especially useful for Education majors like me, because we see ideas of how we can integrate these tools into our classrooms.

Process Drama

I really liked our topic this week. We talked about how process drama can be useful in the classroom. I think this is a really fun way to get students involved and working together to have a meaningful learning experience. Like the article Exploring Castles said, the drama activities led the students to ask questions about what they were reading. They got to experience what the characters were experiencing by stepping into their shoes. This allows the students to consider new points of view and to be creative in their interpretations.

Our improv activity in class that led to story writing is one example of how process drama can be beneficial in the classroom. The activity was a lot of fun, and it was a copperative effort with our groups. Even though we struggled a little with it, it is definitely a great task for the creative minds of the students. It is a great way to lead into short story writing, because the students feel less like they are working when they are playing around and bouncing ideas of their classmates.

The vocabulary tableau was also pretty fun. I think this would be a great activity for vocabulary lessons such as for SAT practice. It will help the students to learn visually and kinesthetically, and again it gives them a chance to have some fun and be creative. I hope I can do activities like these in my classroom when I am a teacher, because I know that I enjoy them as a student.

Graphic Novels

I enjoyed our discussion this week about graphic novels. I had never read one until Young Adult Lit class last semester when we read American Born Chinese. I liked reading it more than I expected to, but it was a new way to get used to reading.

At first I flipped through the pages really quickly, just reading the reads and skipping the panels that were just pictures. Soon I realized that this is not an effective way to read graphic novels, because you miss out on half the story. You will be confused if you don't consider the drawings as much as you do the writing.

Now that I have a better understanding of graphic novels, I hope to read some more in the future.

20 Shot Short Story

I found this assignment pretty challenging. My group's short story was A Rose For Emily. It was tricky to film this and make it understandable to the audience because of the time jumps. We were not sure how to make it clear that some events were happening after others and some were happening before. We ultimately ended up making signs to hold up for the camera, even though this does not look very professional. I know that the goal of the assignment is not to make a great, award-worthy film, but rather is to make a film in the specific number of shots and using camera angles and movements that help to tell the story. Hopefully our film does this well.

One thing that was easy about our process was that most of individual storyboards were pretty similar. This made it easier to make our group storyboard, because we did not have to debate over which scenes were more important to include and which ones we could do without. Overall the project was fun, even if we did feel silly acting it out. I'm excited to see everyone else's films in class today!

PCTELA

This past Saturday I went to the PCTELA (Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts) conference. It was very fun and informative! It was definitely better than I was expecting it to be (I had never been to a conference before, so I didn't really know what it would be like).

I got to see some great presentations from Slippery Rock students and learned a lot about the student teaching experience from people who did it last semester. I saw some new ways to make learning fun for your students and I got even more excited about my future as an educator.

I really enjoyed the conference, and I wish I had been there on Friday too for the first day. The reason I signed up for the conference in the first place was to fulfill my service requirement for NCTE, but I ended up loving it and I'm so glad that I went!

Digital Citizenship

This week in my Production and Utilization class I learned about Digital Citizenship, which is how to use technology appropriately and responsibly. There are five elements of digital citizenship:
   Digital access
  Digital commerce 
 Digital communication
Digital literacy
Digital etiquette
 Digital law
Digital rights and responsibilities
Digital health and wellness
 Digital security

        I think it is important to learn about this elements especially because we are using a lot of technology in Non Print Media. We have to know how to safe online, whether this means having anti virus software or not giving out personal information. We also need to be aware of how to be polite and respectful online and not to attack other people for their opinions. 

   

     As you can see, one of the elements of digital citizenship is digital literacy, which is something we focused on in the first few weeks of Non Print Media. The fact that I also learned about it in another class shows how important the concept is for our future, whether it is as educators or in another field.

Podcasts

I'm excited to do the podcast project because I have listened to a few podcasts and they seem like they can be fun. They're a different way to keep people updated rather than just writing a blog, but they seem to be pretty simple to figure out.

I really liked the article on D2L about using the podcast in place of a book report. These were more exciting than just a written report, and there was more room to be creative. Also, future students could listen to the podcasts which might entice them to read the book.

Although technology is sometimes a bit frustrating for me, making a podcast doesn't seem too challenging, and I think it will be fun. If I like it, I may even make one for fun.

Digital Bootcamp

I liked doing the Digital Bootcamp in Non Print Media the past two weeks because I got to see tools that I doubt I would have found otherwise. There were some cool resources that I saw people present about. I would not have spend the time going through all of these tools and learning how to use them in my spare time, but now I have an idea of what they each do based on my classmates' presentations.

I really liked the tool that I presented about, Kahoot. I think this is a fun way to get students to review the material and it would be a good way to prepare them for tests. I also thought Powtoon and Narrable were a lot of fun. These were tools that you could be creative with and could engage the students easily. I feel like these are sites that I might use in my free time even if I don't use them in the classroom.  

Hypermedia Powerpoints

One of my assignments this week was to make a hypermedia Powerpoint. This is an interactive slide show that will take you to different slides depending on what option you click on. These can be used for review games in the class room, so students can prepare for an upcoming test.

We used a template to create a Jeopardy game based on our content areas. I made one using SAT vocabulary words, because this was something I remember studying in my English class in high school. The template I used to create the game is on this website. All I had to do was type in the questions and answers. All of the links were already done for me, so it did not take too much time to make the game. I think this is a good time saver for teachers, and I know that students enjoy playing review games and use them as an opportunity to solidify their knowledge before a test.  

Digital Movie / Flipped Classroom

This week in one of my classes, we practiced making a digital movie for our students that they could watch in their own time outside of the class. This approach to learning is called a flipped classroom, because the students do the basic learning outside of class and then start the application process in class. We watched this video in class to get some background information about what a flipped classroom is and how we can use it with our students.

 

For my digital movie project, I made a summary video of Romeo and Juliet.

We had to record audio and place it over visual pictures. I inserted my video above, so hopefully it works and you are able to watch it!

Smart Boards

This week in my Production and Utilization of Instructional Technology class, we were shown a little about how to use a Smart Board. We had Smart Boards my senior year of high school in all of my classes, but we used them in some classes more than others. I think that they can be a great tool for teaching, but that the lesson cannot rely on the technology too much, in case it isn't working correctly that day.

I hope that I am able to use a Smart Board in my future classroom, because I think it is a fun way to get students involved in their learning and to give them a way to interact with the material. If they are engaged in the lesson, it will stick with them better. One way I can use the Smart Board is for vocabulary words.

Hello!

Hello all!

My name is Madison and I am a college student majoring in Secondary Education in English. I am in my third year of college. This semester I am taking a few education classes and a few English classes, so I am really focusing on classes that pertain to my major. I am excited to learn more about what I will be doing in my career, and I hope these classes prepare me for the future.

In this blog, I am going to be posting about what I am learning in my classes and how I am preparing to one day be a teacher. Hopefully it will be of some interest to other students who also hope to be teachers one day, or maybe just anyone who is interested in blogging or technology. I have never used blogging as an education tool before, but it seems like it will be a good way to interact with my fellow students, share my thoughts with them, and find out what they are thinking as well.

I'll be back next week with another post!