With all the other communication options out there, it's a wonder that blogging still exists.
In many ways, Twitter and Facebook have dominated the market for communication between us and our vast number of friends. These tools allow us to express our feelings about the latest news in our lives and broadcast them to a huge audience of, theoretically, people who care about us.
Blogging differs only insomuch as there is an expectation that you will write more than a couple of sentences. Also, it is a medium for which you can choose to be anonymous...although one could argue as to the effectiveness of this (since most of you reading this know who I am). I think that blogging is the best (and maybe only) tool online that is most similar to keeping a journal. My only huff is that I wouldn't want people snooping around in my journals...so why would I want them to read my blog?
Nevertheless, blogs, along with all the other technological fancies we've used this quarter, are yet another tool for us evaluate whether we want to pursue or not. Certainly, as teachers, blogging does enable us to become one step closer to forming a professional community. However, I think that there are more effective tools that we could use to form that professional alliance, maybe even wikis or a simple discussion forum platform.
Somehow, despite these months of writing publicly, I still feel that the words here ought to be more private. I suppose that's why Blogger gives you the option of customizing your audience.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Solitude - Parachilna Gorge
Why are we stuck with using textbooks as our only classroom resource? Look at the vast amount of information in this photograph! Students could learn about a different country, weather, land formation, biology, and virtually anything else to do with the environment, not to mention how the exquisite artistic element of photography will most likely engage students so much more than a textbook.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Literacy Blog 5: Increasing Efficiency
Many of us have been blogging about time management. It seems that there are not enough hours in the school day to accomplish all of the teaching and learning necessary! I like Routman's suggestions in Chapter 9. Conferencing is a wonderful tool to enhance learning and she has so many suggestions for ways to make conferencing time-efficient (see page 213).
One interesting point she makes is that we (teachers) should write suggestions for our students. I've seen many teachers emphasize the need for students to copy work into their own journals. I wonder if this is an effective way for the students to learn the material. After all, if they aren't subsequently taught study strategies, then what are they going to do with the information they took precious time to copy down?
The expert teacher will apply Routman's recommendation that we teach and demonstrate on the spot. I think that the swift and seamless integration of activities and being prepared to teach new concepts as they arise in discussion are very important skills to have. I hope to have more time to practice this in my student teaching.
My favorite one of Routman's suggestions is to prepare students for the ensuing activity. By preparing students for the task(s) ahead, they get to practice planning and organization skills. They are held responsible for having the proper materials available (their pencil, journals, rough drafts, etc.) so that transition time between activities is minimized. Also, students can spend their brainpower thinking about the day(s) ahead instead of moving through school task by task, disjointed lessons that may or may not seem to have a rhyme or reason. I will definitely take this bit of advice to the classroom. We need to give students the opportunity to practice preparing for the future!
What's even more fantastic about making processes time-efficient is that the students stay engaged because the process is less boring. There is significantly less down time/wait time where we need to wait for the whole class to reach a checkpoint. If we can expedite processes without detracting from the learning, shouldn't we do so? Think of all the other engaging learning experiences we can bring to the classroom with all the time saved!
One interesting point she makes is that we (teachers) should write suggestions for our students. I've seen many teachers emphasize the need for students to copy work into their own journals. I wonder if this is an effective way for the students to learn the material. After all, if they aren't subsequently taught study strategies, then what are they going to do with the information they took precious time to copy down?
The expert teacher will apply Routman's recommendation that we teach and demonstrate on the spot. I think that the swift and seamless integration of activities and being prepared to teach new concepts as they arise in discussion are very important skills to have. I hope to have more time to practice this in my student teaching.
My favorite one of Routman's suggestions is to prepare students for the ensuing activity. By preparing students for the task(s) ahead, they get to practice planning and organization skills. They are held responsible for having the proper materials available (their pencil, journals, rough drafts, etc.) so that transition time between activities is minimized. Also, students can spend their brainpower thinking about the day(s) ahead instead of moving through school task by task, disjointed lessons that may or may not seem to have a rhyme or reason. I will definitely take this bit of advice to the classroom. We need to give students the opportunity to practice preparing for the future!
What's even more fantastic about making processes time-efficient is that the students stay engaged because the process is less boring. There is significantly less down time/wait time where we need to wait for the whole class to reach a checkpoint. If we can expedite processes without detracting from the learning, shouldn't we do so? Think of all the other engaging learning experiences we can bring to the classroom with all the time saved!
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