Sunday, September 13, 2009
Random stuff
So, this blog is about random stuff related to this class. First, about my LoTi score: I was a little displeased that mine was only (what was it? a 2 or a 3?) anyway, I guess although I feel like I'm technologically competent and efficient, I suppose I don't encourage this as much as I should among my students. I feel like I should work on that. However, it's also like I said in class the other day: we've got to teach so much curriculum content (and have standardized final exams at the end of the semester to make sure all Gwinnett teachers cover the same amount of material by the end) that I kinda feel torn with trying to teach technological skills that are not part of the curriculum I'm already responsible for making sure my students learn. The time it would take to teach them how to use Movie Maker, for instance, would take away from the time it would take to teach them how to conjugate Spanish verbs, and my AKS and QCCs that I have to teach do not focus on technology as much as on core content. About my integration project, please see the post that will appear below this one (the one I did on Thursday) because it has my idea for that project. And as for Cool Demos, I'm a little stumped. My best online resources are the textbook website for the textbook that I use and one other website that is very helpful for Spanish teachers, but would not be relevant to many other disciplines. Anyway, that's about it.
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I have certainly felt your pain. I could write an entry every week about what is wrong with GCSU, but I'll back off for now and tell you what has worked for me. You do mention a truckload of thoughts this week but I want to just share two cents worth of advice about teaching techno skills and programs that aren't curriculum. I have found that if you can take one day to teach the bare minimum essentials needed to use a tool, the kids will figure out the rest.
ReplyDeleteI'll give an example. At the beginning of each year I would teach my 4th graders how to create using Powerpoint. I would take one class period to teach the the most important concepts: saving work, adding text, new slides, and pictures. I make sure that they could all handle those 4 necessary capabilities and the enhancements were all discovered by them.
So for the rest of the year they would have that software tool available to them for projects and presentations and this drove there learning like nothing I've ever seen! So to sum up my suggestion, teach them how to use the tools, just make sure it's enough for them to get by. I promise that the kids today will definitely snoop around the programs and find ways to make them better, as well as collaborate with each other on how to do so.
You discuss the number one problem teachers have, there is not enough time to do everything! I agree with Clayton that teaching the tool a little bit at a time will go a long way. Your students are probably old enough to figure out how to use tools like Movie Maker so you can show the basics and let them get started. Also part of the learning process is teaching something when a student encounters a problem. If they are working on a project and one student doesn't know how to make something work they can ask their peers or stop the class while you show everyone. The important thing to remember is that integrating technology should not be a daunting task but seamless with the topics you already teach. I know teaching Spanish makes using technology that much harder though!
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