Half a year into my first, I already realized that what I knew was a bunch of poo!
- I broke my first rule when I decided to use Chromebooks for pen-pals. Like they say, "When there's a will, there's a way!" I discovered how to get the Chromebooks for my students when I need them...no where near as difficult as I had set myself up to believe!
- I allow my students to do quick look-ups on their smart phones.
- I urge students to re-watch the videos I've assigned on their phones/devices at home.
Then I read Palmer's article for class and here are the notes and ideas I'm taking away:
*Read it for yourself first, take notes, and then compare to mine. What did you take away? How is it going to efficiently effect your role in your classroom(s)?
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Students these days are like free-range horses, they have
access to everything! Technically speaking we don’t need to teach them anything. We just need to lead the students to the pool of knowledge
as we observe how, how much, and which water they drink from. We sit back and
make intelligent observations, then provide them with effective guidance to
take them even further, based on their skillsets.
Wasting paper on the less necessary paper-based skills that
the real world no longer requires. My
students are going into a more technology strong world, therefore I must teach
them how to advance themselves using useful and realistic tools and methods.
I’m setting up my students to create and maintain
relationships with students in Japan by creating a Google Doc pen pal (JPP) project.
My students are practicing using technology (Chromebook and Google Docs) and
making relationships simultaneously as they learn to read and type in Japanese.
I’d love the next step to be a trip to Japan to meet our JPPs.
Smartphones are banned from most classrooms. I’m now
wondering why we’re doing this. Is it to curb the behavior or is there a better
reason? If it’s the latter, then explain it to me. If it’s a behavior issue,
can’t we just teach them cellphone etiquette, and then move on? That’s a worthy skill they’ll need in the
workforce as well. Why not start from their school days?
Not everyone has a smartphone. That’s okay. Chances are,
they would be more than willing to share with a friend. If they learn with a willing friend, the chances are they
will both learn more as a pair than flying solo.
Now, what can I teach my students about Japan and Japanese
using their phones?
-
Translation sites/apps
-
Reading/writing quiz apps
-
Authentic videos (them finding them will save me
hours +be interesting to them.)
-
NHK Easy New for Tadoku time
Blogs….I’m still not convinced. Yes, I see the importance of
writing something for someone vs. writing for yourself, but sometimes that is extremely
stressful for my students. Self-voice is scary when your peers are automatically
trained to critic, and they’re still learning how to do that with the other
person’s feelings in mind. Most public schools have strong privacy laws to
follow, too. I do think something more private and more class focused would be
great though.
I love student driven projects. I feel that here is where
the students of all levels and mindsets are really going to go the extra mile.
They will learn and experience more in researching, creating, and presenting a
project than could ever be expressed or documented.
I do use a lot of videos in my class, and my students react
well to them. I’d like to turn my reflection assignments from paper to tech.
Any suggestions? I’ll research some as well.
Learning is the key. Never ever stop!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reference:
15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher by Tsisana Palmer
Palmer, Tsisana. "15 Characteristics of a 21st Century Teacher." Edutopia. George Lucus Educational Foundation, 20 June 2015. Web.
Have you tried Google forms yet? That's another way that students could give feedback easily. It's easy to setup and you can preserve the responses as a class with graphs and replies or in a spreadsheet with individual responses?
ReplyDeleteI haven't, and thank you for the suggestion. It sounds great!
ReplyDelete