During our last class, I was afforded the opportunity to skype with a man who has grown up in our education system with asperger's syndrome. This was incredibly beneficial to me as a future teacher because I was allowed some insight into what worked, what didn't work, and what would have helped this specific individual. Obviously I understand that this is one individual and what works for him may completely useless for another person, with Asperger's or not, but it gave me some great ideas nonetheless.
The primary thing that was highlighted for me was the importance of talking to your students about what they need. Students often know what they need and what helps them learn while teachers have to figure it out with each new student. In the future, I can either ask the class as a whole, ask individuals, or have anonymous suggestions as to what I can do to help. Some students may do better with a lot of time on their own, some do better with groups, some may appreciate having the day mapped out down to the minute while others may need to focus on what is happening at the time.
Also, providing students with any possible method for accessing the content is very important. The traditional methods do not always work!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Digital Story
Create a Free Slideshow
This slideshow displays several different types of flowers. I would use this in an elementary science classroom when discussing how plants have adapted to their environments. For instance, The flat shaped flowers with wide petals have evolved as such so as to provide a landing pad for insects that can spread pollen. The spherically shaped flowers are also usually very sticky so that insects that fly around these plants pick up pollen easily.
This tool was very simple, but did not allow for much manipulation of the final product. I would have enjoyed to be able to change the amount of time on each photo and include narration alongside.
This tool was very simple, but did not allow for much manipulation of the final product. I would have enjoyed to be able to change the amount of time on each photo and include narration alongside.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Censorship in the Classroom
Personally, I don't think censorship is a good idea in general, I think it is even worse in a classroom. Are classrooms not supposed to teach children to think, instead of merely become clones of their parents?
If you give a student a book to read, then have adequate discussion about both the book and the student's thoughts about it, then no book should be off limits. This is not to say, however, that I think having the students read a controversial book merely because it is controversial is a good idea. The literature must have some purpose and give the student a better understanding of the world around them for it to be worthwhile. If a book is thought-provoking, enriching, and fun to read and children are interested in reading it we should be encouraging children to read it! If it contains something we disagree with then we should talk about these topics after the student has had a chance to experience one point of view.
In all likelihood, if a topic has made it into children's literature, it has also made onto t.v., video games, the internet, and public conversation. In my mind, it is better to address these topics, be it through literature or not, so that children can get multiple points of view, instead of simply those they find in popular culture.
If you give a student a book to read, then have adequate discussion about both the book and the student's thoughts about it, then no book should be off limits. This is not to say, however, that I think having the students read a controversial book merely because it is controversial is a good idea. The literature must have some purpose and give the student a better understanding of the world around them for it to be worthwhile. If a book is thought-provoking, enriching, and fun to read and children are interested in reading it we should be encouraging children to read it! If it contains something we disagree with then we should talk about these topics after the student has had a chance to experience one point of view.
In all likelihood, if a topic has made it into children's literature, it has also made onto t.v., video games, the internet, and public conversation. In my mind, it is better to address these topics, be it through literature or not, so that children can get multiple points of view, instead of simply those they find in popular culture.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Copyright
In today's technological world, I think copyright is becoming obsolete. I still believe that it is important to give credit to the creators of works, but it is becoming more and more difficult to keep the copyright information with the works with which they belong. It is increasingly easy to "save image as" without even noticing to whom the image belongs.
The question then is what do we do about it now? Do we just give up rights to any image we put on the internet (like we do with facebook)? Who monitors the images and copyrights? I personally just choose to be wary of what I post on the internet as I do not know who can take, edit, and use the information.
The question then is what do we do about it now? Do we just give up rights to any image we put on the internet (like we do with facebook)? Who monitors the images and copyrights? I personally just choose to be wary of what I post on the internet as I do not know who can take, edit, and use the information.
Copyright Lab
As always, technology and I had a bit of a struggle with this, but I believe I have obtained this image correctly. The copyright information is located underneath the photo.
I would use this image to teach children about the different types of clouds. Pictured here are cumulus clouds.
http://www.freestockphotos.biz/photos.php?c=all&o=popular&s=0&lic=cc&a=all&set=all
This is a photo I licensed with Creative Commons.
Stream by Alison is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com.
Field Placement
I have recently begun my field placement for the year in a kindergarten classroom. For those of you who do not know, a field placement is time that MSU students in the college of education spend in a classroom every week. The purpose of our field placements is it give us hands on experience and to help us become better teachers. This semester I will be giving two full lessons, one in science and one in social studies. Each lesson will consist of two 30 minute parts and will span over two days. I will also be acting as an aid in the classroom, helping with day to day activities, working with students, and helping with behind the scene activities like paperwork and meetings. I am extremely excited to get involved with this classroom, and I am also happy that I will be there for the entire year instead of only one semester!
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