I thought Friday was excellent. I am so happy we were able to speak with those children. I am amazed by how much children inherently seem to know about technology today. I am also from Brooklyn, NY and know what struggles many kids face in the NYC educational system. I am really proud of Lauren and her students.
After today's technology leadership presentation I began to think about ways to incorporate technology into classrooms when the situation may not be ideal. I was also thinking outside of the box about technology. Technology does not necessarily mean computers. Technology could encompass a plethora of things.
I plan on, at some point in time, incorporating Lauren's myspace project into my classroom. (So, thank you for that brilliant take on technology in the curriculum.) I began to think about other ways to incorporate technology without having the ability to use the technology. One assignment I am going to attempt to implement when I begin to student teach is an Ipod playlist. I am teaching history and world geography, so I am planning on giving the kids a time frame and asking them to pick a historical figure from that time frame. I will have them research the historical figure and find five songs from that era to add to their playlist. They will write a miny biography on their figure and give reasons as to why they picked those five songs for their playlist. They will be practicing research while focusing on incorporating technology without being required to access that technology.
I am racking my brain for more ways to do this. Anyone have any suggestions? We should absolutely colaborate on these things to enhance our ability to teach and incrporate all learning styles into our classroom.
I also believe it is time that we stop looking at technology as just the internet and Microsoft Word proficiancy. What about the children who society expects are going to be laborers and blue collar workers after high school. Why aren't we teaching them how to use percision lasers and computer operated tools? They too need to be marketable. Why are we so centered on sending everyone to college? College is still a privelage in this country yet society forces it on everyone in order to succeed. That is an unfair sitgma and as future teachers we need to reinvent these ideals. No child should be left behind.
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I was thinking about having students choose a historical figure at the beginning of the semester/year and create a blog that would be written from that person's perspective. They would use it to reflect on different historical events and provide commentary based on what they thought their person would have felt. It would be a nice project to keep up during the whole course and it would tie concepts from different eras together.
ReplyDeleteI am with you in now trying to get my brain working on ways to use technology in the classroom. I am not most the creative person in the world, but I am hoping to find fun ways to get kids involved using whatever tools we are lucky enough to have. I'll let you know if I think of anything exciting :)
ReplyDeleteLove this post. I think I often feel frustrated because I would like to teach in an inner-city school where technology might not be available. Thank you for challenging us to think outside the box and I hope we can all collaborate on this..because I definitely cannot do it alone.
ReplyDeleteI love how you are a critical thinker Jen. You question ideas and ways of society and this is such a gift. Keep sharing your thoughts because I will be reading.
Jen
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! I like how your thinking out of the box.
I think you might find some use for Avatars in your history journies with your students. Try this site http://voki.com (such as...create your own historical figure avatar and give them a voice--discuss topics--change the scene as time goes one---What would Patrick Henry say about Iraq? Have the Avatar speak).
I know some Spanish language teachers using this with their high school students and it is the favored activity by far. Just another idea.