Paper- blogs

Blogging through paper

As a prospective teacher who wants to use Blog for assessment, I found Paper-Blogging step very useful before students start real blogging. The concept of blog is not easy to comprehend. The distribution of rule paper in the class will be very useful for them because as they are 7^th graders, they tend to naughtiness and misbehaviors. I am going to warn them about that if they do not obey the rules, they won’t be allowed to write real blogs and use the Internet. Another thing I liked, the way the students comment on the other people blogs is interesting: Post-it comments. Blogging through paper is the exactly the same way of online blogging. Before students write it online, the idea of classroom environment paper- blogging gives them the sense of achieving something. They can see and touch what they blog on a paper.

Technology infused unit plan

Technology infused unit plan

To prepare a technology infused unit plan is still so challenging that technology and technological devices are not sufficient in the classroom environment yet. If a teacher wants to teach the whole lesson or unit technologically, s/he should be expert not only in technology but also in the content. Moreover, the integration of technology with content is not always possible. For example, Smart Board is one of the most innovative devices of education, nobody denies it. However, using it while you are teaching the students how to read and write, Smart Board is not logical. Students should realize the feeling of using pencil, eraser, notebook and book. Before I took Digital Environment course, all I did was to use Powerpoint for presentation and Youtube for videos while I was preparing lesson and unit plan. That is, I am learning two or more new software in each week and I am getting used to prepare a plan with technology in this semester.

In the case of discovering new aspects of technology, I find it interesting and useful for my prospective students. For example, we are writing blogs for this course and to express yourself about one of your course in a digital environment is an exciting experience. I will assign my students to write a blog after each class about their impression and whatever they feel in that day and I will read and comment on them. This will not only provide me taking instant feedback about my teaching style and but also my students will feel to be a part of technology.  I won’t be stuck with PowerPoint and Youtube; I will use Prezi, Photostory, Photo Peach, Windows Movie Maker and the other presentation software.

Week 7- Cell Phones in the Classroom

Two ways you think you might incorporate cell phones in your classroom

Cell phones are the 21^st learning tools of education. It became obvious and certain after I read the information about cell phones in the classroom environment. As we are all the prospective teachers of this century in which technology is developing incredibly, we have to learn how to handle the cell phones in the classroom.

To begin with, forbidden thing will be more attractive to the students.  Teachers can convert cell phones from distracting device to useful one. One way is to use the basic features of cell phones. Most of cell phones have calculators, digital cameras, internet access and dictionaries. To begin with the calculator, students use it math and science classes. When I was taking that kind of courses, I usually forgot to bring the calculator and I always used my cell phone. Besides this, there are some kinds of courses in which students need to infer with the numbers or percentages. Second one is digital cameras.  Students can use them to document a variety of things for multimedia presentations or reports. In fieldtrips, students can take photos and they can use them in their travelogues. Internet access is the third one. Many phones have wireless Internet access, or EDGE and 3G; thus easy access of Internet opens up a world of possibilities for class use. The last one is related to the use of dictionaries in the cell phones. Students in literature and language arts classes can benefit from being able to quickly query the definition of a word. Additionally, students who are English learners especially can benefit from translation dictionaries which are becoming available on cell phones.

Another way to incorporate cell phones in the classrooms is to offer students new apps and creative ways to communicate besides the basic features of cell phones. It is not possible to restrict the use of cell phones with the four things above as long as they are allowed to use it.  I did some researches about the cell phones in classroom and learning environment and I found so many options.  As a prospective teacher who want to minimize the use of cell phone during the lesson period, these two options below are the most appropriate for both the classroom and learning environment of the students.

Phones as a Studying Tool

 There is a new free resource called Study Boost that connects with mobile phones. You create an account on Study Boost, and then you can create your own “batches” of study questions. You can subscribe to the study questions via cell phone (you can also view them on the mobile web). This feature is available for T-Mobile prepaid phones as well. In addition you can share your study questions with friends, teachers, and others so they can also review on the go.

Text Reminders for School Projects / Assignments

Remind101 is a free site is created for teachers and students to create text and/or email reminders for assignments, projects, quizzes, tests, labs, class activities and homework. Teachers create accounts, upload syllabi, and insert all class projects, activities, homework and assignments. Then students can log in to Remind101, search for their class, subscribe to the class, and automatically start receiving all reminders on their prepaid cell phones for the class activities.

Week 5- Thinkfinity and SAS

http://a4esl.org/

The link I found from Thinkfinity is related to my major which is Teaching English as a Second Language. I found it very interesting because it provides lots of different activities in English and bilingual quizzes. The activities which are grammar, vocabulary and crossword puzzles are arranged from easy to difficult. The other section of link is useful to compare their mother tongue to English because, as a teacher, it is not possible to know all different languages in ESL classes.
My future plan is teaching English to students who are speaking different languages and the only common language will be English in the classroom. Students feel comfortable themselves by doing this activities and they can evaluate themselves with different activities from the textbooks and other common classroom activities.


http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=1331

The link above from sascurriculumpathaways.com is really interesting which is about Concrete Language and how to use it in writing.  I found it from English Language Arts, then Grammar Skills. The reason way I chose it is that the use of concrete language in right place is difficult to learn for ESLs. As I had experienced that kind of problems while learning, I liked very much the key points which are given in the video. I am going to use this video in both writing and speaking lessons and also  the language he used and the way he told are appropriate every age and level. However, the beginner and pre- elementary level hasn't understood yet; nevertheless as  they are developing, they are going to catch some points because of the cartoons. This is very basic video to attract students' attention to concrete, specific and definite words and to improve the way they express themselves in writing and speaking. As a general, they are going to learn via this video, being specific will ease their job.

Week 3- Copyright

Copyright is a legal issue which is not known much by students. However, after learning copyright in the classroom, I learned that it is much more than we knew. Therefore, as a teacher candidate, we should be aware of every details of copyright. Otherwise, the results would become worser than we thought.

Copyright infringement is really big issue ;that is, both students and even teachers can do without unconciosly unless they know every copyright laws. As we are in technology era, all students are educated how to use copyrighted materials and how to change or share them.

I am going to teach copyright to my students in the very beginning of my course.  I am going to divide my class groups and each group includes six people. These six people will have one of the six creative common licences and for next week, they will present their own license to their group members. Then, all group members combine all six licences and present all of them in front of class. With this way, all students have chance to learn all details of creative common licences.

Week 2- Flipped Classroom

I think Flipped Classroom is an interesting and great way of teaching along with technology. A Flipped Classroom teacher increases not only the use of technology and computer but also the interaction with his/her students. Basicly, flipped classroom means students are 'doing homework at school, learning outside from the school by themselves.' By using this method, students can satisfy learning by themselves and teachers don't have to teach the same thing so many times in the classroom environment. Teachers interact every student one-to-one and are the helper of their homeworks. Another advantage of flipped classroom is that students can arrange learning time because videos are always available. This also minimizes the possibility of distracting. In my class Digital Environment, we also use flipped classroom while we are learning different kind of softwares. Our classmates upload his/her teaching data and we have to watch it before the class in order to do our homework in the class with the help of him/her.
However, flipped classrom doesn't always work successfully. Because, unfortunately, not every student has the computer in their home. Some  students can only access technology in their schools. Therefore, teachers have to be sure that every student has their own PC or whether they can afford to buy one. Another negative way is Flipped Classroom can't be applied every level and every lesson. For example, I think elemantary school students are too young to arrange themselves. Moreover, even in high school, there are some courses that includes controversial issues. To sum up, if flipped classrom is applied right age and right level, it will really increase the learning of students because students never forget what they learn themselves instead of teachers' lectures.

What I hope to learn from this class and my other ideas about this course

My first blog entry is related to what I hope to learn from this class. We are living in a world which is developing day by day in terms of technology; therefore, we should keep up with it. As a prospective teacher, taking 'Digital Environment' course is really good chance for me. We are going to learn approximately 30 different softwares in this semester and all of them will be very useful for us not only while teaching to students but also while using technology in our daily life. Also, after taking this course, I will become familiar with different kind of softwares and Internet resources. Thanks to this course, I am sure I learn how to use technology in the classroom effectively while teaching to my students.