Article
I could go on for pages about No Child Left Behind and my feelings on this, but instead I'll ask you to simply read the article I linked. This article says it right that the NCLB bill is broken and it needs to be fixed.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Education Hot Topic
There is a lot I could write about when it comes to education hot topics. Specifically, for me, the events occurring in Wisconsin. I have family members who teach in Wisconsin and are witnessing first hand what these events are like. I myself am planning to move to Madison, WI when I am done with student teaching to pursue a job there. The events happening worry me about my future as well as my families, but in a time like this I think it is important to try and focus on some good things happening in the school system and look on the bright side of my future. While looking for some articles on the events occurring with teachers and the union in Wisconsin I came across an article that I found really interesting and I wanted to share it on my blog.
Article
This article is about students in a Wisconsin public school system who will be receiving iPads for use in school. The iPads will be used by students to do homework and assignments as well as virtual textbooks for AP classes. This is just one example of how schools are taking advantage of technology and moving forward academically and technologically to improve learning. The article also shows that these virtual textbooks will help save the school money on textbooks. We talk so much about technology and how it can really help learning and students and this is just one way that one school district is taking advantage of the technology out there.
Article
This article is about students in a Wisconsin public school system who will be receiving iPads for use in school. The iPads will be used by students to do homework and assignments as well as virtual textbooks for AP classes. This is just one example of how schools are taking advantage of technology and moving forward academically and technologically to improve learning. The article also shows that these virtual textbooks will help save the school money on textbooks. We talk so much about technology and how it can really help learning and students and this is just one way that one school district is taking advantage of the technology out there.
Student Publishing
Student Publishing
The technology I choose to work with this week is a website called Studentpublishing.com. This website is used to create story books online. The website allows for different page layouts as well as different background to use on each page. There are stickers to use for images as well as a tool that allows you to upload your own picture to use in the story. The color and size of any image can also be changed. The pages can be text and picture or just one of the two. The book can have any amount of pages and any story can be told because it is all made from scratch. Your own drawings can also be made with the drawing tool in teh left hand menu of the site. This website allows you to have a classroom or individual log in as well as the opportunity to publish the book in hard copy.
I think this would be a good tool for the classroom. The students could create their own stories in workshops during class and then create their story online when it came time to publish it. This would be a great way for students to be creative with their work because they can create their own layouts and pictures. I think it would also be a great way for students to display their work. The disadvantages to it would be the typing portion. Younger students who don't know how to type may have difficulties making their book, this would probably get a good tool for older students to use individually and younger students to use as a group with their teacher. I think this would be a good project for writing.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Benefits of Twitter
I have been using Twitter now since September and I am starting to see the benefits it can have for me as a future educator. One way Twitter has been helpful is as an educational resource. I follow discovery education on twitter and I frequently go to their profile page to look at their tweets when it comes time for me to make a lesson plan. This profile frequently tweets about lesson plans for different topics or resources to use with lesson plans. I think this is so helpful for a starting teacher to get ideas and resources for different lessons. I would definitely recommend people to follow this group on Twitter and explore their website.
NCLB
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/20/obama-s-war-on-schools.html
I found this article while looking through some tweets this morning and I found the opening paragraph to be really interesting. I really think it is true that people in the government, who are making educational policies, don't fully understand how these policies are effecting education. I feel that people who work within school systems and see the education happening first hand need to have more of an input with educational policies being made by the government. I'm not naive and I do know that this is probably not going to happen anytime in the near future, but I do hope that changes will eventually come to the public educational systems and the government will see that these changes need to be made.
I found this article while looking through some tweets this morning and I found the opening paragraph to be really interesting. I really think it is true that people in the government, who are making educational policies, don't fully understand how these policies are effecting education. I feel that people who work within school systems and see the education happening first hand need to have more of an input with educational policies being made by the government. I'm not naive and I do know that this is probably not going to happen anytime in the near future, but I do hope that changes will eventually come to the public educational systems and the government will see that these changes need to be made.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Speech Development
Article
This was such an interesting article to me. This is about a family that video and sound recorded their home for the first three years of their child's life. This footage allowed for education researchers to gain information about speech in children. One aspect of speech and speech development I find important is the therm "baby-talk". I think this has become a natural reaction with babies and many adults speak in baby talk to young children. I work in a preschool that has classrooms for infants, toddlers, 2 year old, 3 year old, 4 year olds, as well as preschool program for 5 and 6 year olds. In our preschool we are told during training that baby-talk is not used with any child even infants. We are taught that direct speech is very important for the development of the child and their own speech development. Having this job has changed the way I interact with young infants and toddlers. I now see how important it is to speak to them as I would to an adult, obviously with simpler words. The children understand what I am saying even if their own speech isn't fully developed. I think this is such an important part of speech development for everyone to remember.
This was such an interesting article to me. This is about a family that video and sound recorded their home for the first three years of their child's life. This footage allowed for education researchers to gain information about speech in children. One aspect of speech and speech development I find important is the therm "baby-talk". I think this has become a natural reaction with babies and many adults speak in baby talk to young children. I work in a preschool that has classrooms for infants, toddlers, 2 year old, 3 year old, 4 year olds, as well as preschool program for 5 and 6 year olds. In our preschool we are told during training that baby-talk is not used with any child even infants. We are taught that direct speech is very important for the development of the child and their own speech development. Having this job has changed the way I interact with young infants and toddlers. I now see how important it is to speak to them as I would to an adult, obviously with simpler words. The children understand what I am saying even if their own speech isn't fully developed. I think this is such an important part of speech development for everyone to remember.
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