For the webquest assignment in which we had to put three different webquests on the class wiki, I decided to chose three that had to do with my unit. All three of the webquests were social studies in their subject and their content dealt with the Aztec Empire. To tell you about the webquests I chose, I would like to break them down one by one.
The first webquest was created for by Danaé Clohan at the Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, California.
The next webquest was created Jackie Zabarsky at Lake Forest College.
The final webquest was created by Mr. Gifford in Conway, Massachusettes.
All of these webquests were highly engaging and had a variety of tasks and audiences. The best part about these for me was the amount of information and creativity involved. I feel that these will serve as a good model for myself and to others in their "quest" to create inovative and exciting webquests for their students in the future.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
My MEL Experiences
- Positive Attitude: When I was in seventh grade I had a math teacher named Mr. Spring. This guy was probably the only teacher who ever got me interested in math. He had the best sense of humor and he always had a great attitude everyday. I always felt like he wanted us to be there, which made me want to work hard.
- High Expectations: My junior year of high school I had a history teacher named Mrs. King. She was quite possibly the toughest teacher I have ever had (besides Dr. Theresa of course!) She held our class to the highest expectations possible which I always felt was pretty rough. However, I worked extrememly hard to keep up with the rigorous pace of the class because I knew that is what she expected. This kind of learning model was very powerful for me.
- Differentiated Instuction: This past semester I had a psychology course with Professor Alison Terry. Her class was the perfect example of someone who does not use differentiated instruction. Her tests were all multiple choice and her lectures were all powerpoints. I personally am a better auditory learner, which helped somewhat because she did verbal lectures a lot. However, I am not great with multiple choice but I would have faired better with more short answer and essay questions. Because of her failing to provide differentiated instruction, I fell behind quickly in this course, even though I felt as if I could have done a lot better.
- Driven by Students' Questions: In my freshman year at UMF, I took a course with Prof. Richard Fredland on the subject of African Politics. This class was all driven by our individual questions about the subject. Our papers were all on topics that we chose on our own and it I feel as though this learning model worked great. It was a lot easier to learn about such a difficult subject through trying to answer question that we had rather than reading a text book and getting a dry look at the issues. It deffinately engaged me more in my learning and made me want to inquire and dive deeper into this topic.
- Avoid Rewards: When I was in sixth grade I had an english teacher named Mr. Safina. Mr. Safina devised a wonderous plan to reward his best pupils with what he called, "Black Bear Bucks". These Black Bear Bucks were given out to students when they were polite in class and when they answered question correctly and could be turned in at the school store for some candy or other such items. I personally thought this idea was ridiculous and when I would try and answer questions and would not get called on, I became discouraged and eventually gave up trying in his class. The rewarding of "good" students not only discouraged me from participating, it also made me angry that some people were getting more than others, which led to a host of behavioral problems. All in all, Black Bear Bucks or any such rewards are a poor idea!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Type I and Type II Technology
In this article written by Cleborne Maddux and LaMont Johnson, there was a lot of good information put forth about Type I and II applications for technology. What I thought was most appealing about this article was that after introducing the two types of applications, they stressed the importance of both rather than tout one above the other. I felt that they did a great job of showing the dichotomy between type I and II, while remaining fair to both applications and giving them credit where it was due.
My personal take on this article was akin to that of the authors. I feel the same in terms of utilizing both types of applications as the two have their place in education. As a younger person who grew up in the midst of technology integration in schools, I recognize the importance of this medium in our educational system. I think that using computers and other forms of technology allows us to expand the horizons and the boundaries of what and how we can teach our students. This may sound idealistic and preachy, but even as a person who is not exactly tech-savvy, I long to see more type II classrooms!
To me, I view would define type I technology as mediums that do not actively engage the students and moves forward with one specific result in mind. The students cannot manipulate the technology which reduces it to mearly a time saving medium. Examples of type I technology could be a movie, a powerpoint presentation, or an overhead projector. Each of these technologies simply save time for the teacher and essentially teach us in the same old way and lack innovation. However, type II technology is much more engaging and the students have the opportunity to manipulate the outcomes of these tools. Also, type II technology brings in other aspects of learning like problem solving and creative thinking rather than simply listening to a lesson. Examples of type II technologhy would be computer simulations like Oregon Trail, webquests, and graphing calculators. These technologies bring students deeper inside the lesson and allow them to manipulate their results by the choices they make. This technology really goes along with the idea of meanigful engaged learning.
Maddux, Cleborne D. and Johnson, D. Lamont. "Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning." Computers in the Schools 02 Jan. 2005: 1-5.
My personal take on this article was akin to that of the authors. I feel the same in terms of utilizing both types of applications as the two have their place in education. As a younger person who grew up in the midst of technology integration in schools, I recognize the importance of this medium in our educational system. I think that using computers and other forms of technology allows us to expand the horizons and the boundaries of what and how we can teach our students. This may sound idealistic and preachy, but even as a person who is not exactly tech-savvy, I long to see more type II classrooms!
To me, I view would define type I technology as mediums that do not actively engage the students and moves forward with one specific result in mind. The students cannot manipulate the technology which reduces it to mearly a time saving medium. Examples of type I technology could be a movie, a powerpoint presentation, or an overhead projector. Each of these technologies simply save time for the teacher and essentially teach us in the same old way and lack innovation. However, type II technology is much more engaging and the students have the opportunity to manipulate the outcomes of these tools. Also, type II technology brings in other aspects of learning like problem solving and creative thinking rather than simply listening to a lesson. Examples of type II technologhy would be computer simulations like Oregon Trail, webquests, and graphing calculators. These technologies bring students deeper inside the lesson and allow them to manipulate their results by the choices they make. This technology really goes along with the idea of meanigful engaged learning.
Maddux, Cleborne D. and Johnson, D. Lamont. "Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning." Computers in the Schools 02 Jan. 2005: 1-5.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Learning Styles Survey Graph
So here are my results from the Learning Styles Survey. I always knew that I was a social and verbal learner, and I think this web shows it perfectly. This survey was really intriguing and had some great questions. This webquest is looking promising!
See you later alligator!Your results
Style Scores
| Memletic Learning Styles Graph: |
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Fires in the Bathroom: Chapter 2 Quick Response
Chapter 2:
This chapter was really enjoyable for me to read and I got a lot of useful information from it. Mostly, I was intrigued by the section in the beginning where a student named Alexis was speaking about her track coach and how he used to let the kids take the easy way out and tried really hard to be liked by his team rather than pushing them and making them accountable. As the chapter progressed this section became more significant to me. While it is important to have your students like you as a teacher, there is a constructive way to get there.
The various ways that this chapter touched on how we, as educators can push our students while still being sensitive to the fact that they are teenagers and going through changes was really interesting and helpful. It was really important, in my opinion to see that these students want to be pushed and want teachers to relate to them. I am usually of the opinion that students do not care about their authority figures or want their help, as that was the environment in my high school. However, seeing the different variations of how we can push our students while still earning their respect and obtaining theirs' was important to read about.
This chapter was really enjoyable for me to read and I got a lot of useful information from it. Mostly, I was intrigued by the section in the beginning where a student named Alexis was speaking about her track coach and how he used to let the kids take the easy way out and tried really hard to be liked by his team rather than pushing them and making them accountable. As the chapter progressed this section became more significant to me. While it is important to have your students like you as a teacher, there is a constructive way to get there.
The various ways that this chapter touched on how we, as educators can push our students while still being sensitive to the fact that they are teenagers and going through changes was really interesting and helpful. It was really important, in my opinion to see that these students want to be pushed and want teachers to relate to them. I am usually of the opinion that students do not care about their authority figures or want their help, as that was the environment in my high school. However, seeing the different variations of how we can push our students while still earning their respect and obtaining theirs' was important to read about.
Fires in the Bathroom: Chapter 1 Quick Response
Chapter 1:
On the first page of chapter one there was a quote by a young student named Tiffany. The quote deals directly with the issue of getting to know your students well. Tiffany talks about how she does not approve of teachers who try and force connections of try too hard to relate to their students. What really jumped out was when she says that she finds this approach condescending. In her own words, "When they say, I understand what you're going through, we know they don't." (page 1.) This particular line made me think back to when I was in high school and felt similarly to young Tiffany.
While I agree that educators who try and force connections are going to turn these kids away and make getting to know them harder, I did appreciate the strategies the authors lay out for finding ways to understand your students. High school students feel as if they are more or less adults and want to be treated as such. This quote from Tiffany demonstrates this and gives us as prospective teachers a good idea as to the reality of the mindset of high school students. However I must reiterate that the various tactics for getting to know our students better seem to be highly effective and have brought me a great deal of insight as to how we can break this idea that teachers can't relate.
On the first page of chapter one there was a quote by a young student named Tiffany. The quote deals directly with the issue of getting to know your students well. Tiffany talks about how she does not approve of teachers who try and force connections of try too hard to relate to their students. What really jumped out was when she says that she finds this approach condescending. In her own words, "When they say, I understand what you're going through, we know they don't." (page 1.) This particular line made me think back to when I was in high school and felt similarly to young Tiffany.
While I agree that educators who try and force connections are going to turn these kids away and make getting to know them harder, I did appreciate the strategies the authors lay out for finding ways to understand your students. High school students feel as if they are more or less adults and want to be treated as such. This quote from Tiffany demonstrates this and gives us as prospective teachers a good idea as to the reality of the mindset of high school students. However I must reiterate that the various tactics for getting to know our students better seem to be highly effective and have brought me a great deal of insight as to how we can break this idea that teachers can't relate.
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