New Literacy Skills

I love using the internet to help students find information. Search engines are my favorite resource to utilize while looking for anything school, or non-school related. I want to familiarize my students with the search engines, but I must also teach them how to find reliable information, and how to safely search the internet. This class has taught me many new techniques for enhancing the new literacy skills in my students.

I was introduced to many websites that are hoaxes or that contain false information, such as the tree octopus site. I could have my students navigate through these sites to decide whether or not they seem reliable. I will teach them things to look out for as they are searching the internet for facts related to their research topics for projects. I will assign them a project that requires internet research so that they can practice using Google and other search engines.

I also want to get my classes used to using email and blog sites to communicate with each other, however, my school blocks these sites. My goal is to persuade my school district to allow one monitored email site and one blog site. We can assign their email addresses so that they can all be monitored. I think this will open a whole new world of lesson possibilities for teachers of all grades and subjects. This will greatly impact our young students and prepare them for the future.

My personal theory of learning was that not all students learn the same way. I learn best through cooperative instruction while some others I know learn best through note taking and book studying. Dr. Orey said, “You want to have your child to be actively involved in the learning process regardless of the approach you take”. My original views of instruction methods closely align with what was taught in this course. However, I did learn some new teaching techniques that I can apply to me teaching.

The first idea that I am going to immediately begin incorporating into my lessons is the constructionist theory. I am going to give my students tasks in which they must teach the material to themselves with the help of technology. This leads to my second goal, which is helping my class understand how to use search engines and decipher which information is reliable. This way I can prepare them for future assignments later in the year.

I would like to use some project based learning in the classroom half way through the year. I will make it a cooperative lesson, but I would pair up with a class in another district. The students would have to complete a project together using technology as the only means of communication. The students would be set up with an e-mail account and a blog site. This lesson would incorporate constructivism, cooperative learning, and technology. I think the students would greatly benefit from this.

As I take more and more of these courses I begin to develop lessons using the new teaching ideas I encounter. I like to put together a bunch of strategies to create a powerful lesson for the students. I differentiate as much as possible to reach out to each student’s learning style. This particular course helped with that by explaining the numerous learning theories that are out there.

Social Learning Theory

The reason I became an English teacher is so I could have in depth class discussions about the material we are reading. I like to hear everyone's point of view and make the students think when they hear a classmate's perspective or idea. Dr. Orey said it best when he stated Two people looking at something together never actually see the same thing in the same way" (2001). This approach corresponds perfectly with the social learning theory. I love having meaningful and productive class discussion to teach and understand the material. This makes time fly for
the students and also for me! The intriguing conversations make the class fun to be in.

Constructivism

Constructivism is exactly how I believe learning occurs the most. When students have to think about the material rather than be told about it they tend to better remember the information. I can still remember some of the class discussions I had in elementary school and high school because the teacher asked a good question and we tried to "construct" and answer based on our thinking and reasoning skills. It was like trying to solve a mystery. All of us students were racking our brains to solve the answer. That is an experience that is not easily forgettable. That is why Project Based Learning is phenomenal. It is a way for students to collaborate and be actively involved in learning the material. Ann Marie Thurmond said, "constructionism asserts that people learn with particular effectiveness when they are engaged in "constructing" personally meaningful artifacts". This is why I will always have my students learn the material by thinking and understanding rather than through lecture and notes.

Cognitive Learning

This week we are learning about the ideas behind cognitive learning. Dr. Orey highlights a few examples in his video lecture such as using more than one of the 5 senses to teach ideas to students. The authors of "Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works" (2007) say that questions and cues work by "triggering students' memories and helping them to access prior knowledge". This is very similar to the cognitive learning theory regarding episodic memory and instruction. This is when students can think back to a specific event that relates to the material being taught. This will better help them grasp the concept. So many times I find myself giving a cue or asking a question such as, "think of the time when you were most proud of something...". Then I would go into a dicsussion relating the material to the students' experiences. These researchers have all discovered similar ways to enhance the learning experience for our students.

Understanding the Impact of Technology

Through my Technology in Education course at Walden University I was introduced to Wikis, podcasts, and blogs. I have learned how I can teach students the regular class material in my English classes, but incorporate 21st century skills such as the ones previously mentioned. I can use wikis, blogs, and podcasts as a form of communication for students and teachers. Technology is rapidly advancing and there are always new teaching techniques and strategies that are invented. The students are not the only ones who are coninuously learning. Today's teachers must always be on top of curent research and advances in technology in order to prepare our young students for future careers. Now that I am aware of the many educational websites that we shared, and the blog sites I visited, I can constantly check back and also search for more sites to keep me informed of new teaching ideas.

Blogs are such a great way for all students to communicate with eachother without needing each other's personal information such as addresses or phone numbers. However, my school district has all of the blog websited blocked for safety reasons. I would like to set up a secure blog site for each classroom that the district will un-block so that students can utilize the resources during study hall or library periods. It would also be helpful if we had enough computers for the students here. Currently we only have 1 computer lab with about 25 computers. I would like to start a golf tournament to benefit our technology funds. It will take time, but I believe these things are necessary to prepare our students for the real world.

Blogs for Students

Setting up a blog site for students to communicate is an excellent way to promote a healthy and productive classroom environment. So many times, as a student, I was unsure of our homework assignment or I had trouble with a specific homework question or problem. By creating a blog that the teacher can monitor, we are giving students the capabilities to contact any classmate outside of school. Not everyone in the class has each others' phone number, and blogging is a way to connect those who may not socialize during school hours. I would set up a classroom blog site for students to ask their classmates for help on assignments or questions about homework.

Diversity 3

Those students from low income families have a difficult time in school because their families are having a difficult time at home. It is tough to pay all of the bils and live comfotably if the income is not sufficient. The parents are, most likely, stressed or aggrevated, which is not a safe or comfortable environment for a child. These students likely receive little help on their schoolwork, while those students from higher income families probably have parents who have the time to help with homework and studying. Sonia Nieto and Patty Bode state in their book "Affirming Diversity" that, "the (achievement) gap between African American students and Hispanic students compared to white students remains very large" (10). This is true in my district because the African American and Arabic families live mostly in low income housing. These students are not as fortunate as many of the White students who have comfortable home lives. As a teacher, I try to give little homework and, instead, give classwork so that those less fortunate students have my assistance if needed.

Diversity 2

After I kept track of the diversity in my classes, realized that the behavioral issues are spread out through every ethnicity. Although I never have, many people associate behavioral problems with minorities. After observing this in my class, it does not seem that race has anything to do with it. However, I did notice that socio-economic status does. In most cases, the students with disruptive behaviors are from a lower socioeconomic class, which is understandable because they are not as lucky to have a wonderful home life.

Diversity Reflection 1

As a teacher in a low socio-economic district, I come across a great amount of diversity every day. The breakdown is around 40% Caucasian, 30% African American, 25% Arabic, and 5% other. I am a caucasian male, age 24. I find it exciting to become friends with those of other races because there is so much to learn about the different cultures. The same thing applies to the classroom. I learn so much about different lifestyles because of the diversity in the schools.

I realized that sometimes I actually favor those students who are not white, because they are a minority and often get stereotyped or get a bad reputation for no reason. In favoring them, I wonder if I am neglecting some of the white students. Most of the African American students in my classes fall behind because of no parent involvement so I try to help them as much as I can during classtime. I will have to see how many white and Arabic students are behind because of the same reason.