Reading and Culture

Culture Quests seem vague, yet interesting. Although right now, I feel like they are typical to high school or middle school reports that I completed ages ago. Perhaps as I go along I will feel more enlightened. Or perhaps I will use it with my high school students as a project later this year. I did like the video explaining what "culture" entails.

Today's class had a nice reading focus. It is very true that my students have a hard time reading. I will attempt to integrate more DRTA strategies (Directed Reading Thinking Activities) in my classroom, such as predicting what you will read about or reading with a specific purpose in mind.

My webquest is coming along - I have a good task that my classmates helped me modify. I hope that it is as easy to create as it is to come up with the task and process.

Teaching and Powerpoint

I often use PowerPoint in my classroom, not every day, but often enough. I like to show pictures, diagrams and charts, especially in color. I dislike displaying large amounts of text. I find that the pictures go over very well, as long as they are large and interesting. Text tends to be small and not as entertaing - I try to keep it to one word or at most, one line.

One thing that has led me away from PowerPoint is the fact that I now have a Smartboard. This makes using Notebook more attractive than using PowerPoint. I know that I can write on PowerPoint slides with the Smartboard, but I can also convert the ppt into Notebook slides and use additional interactive features in the Notebook software. That has recently been my preference.

My goal with PowerPoint this year is to have my senior elective class create PowerPoint presentations to teach a topic to the class. I'm thinking that they can spend time researching via webquests, and then present their findings to the class in the form of a PowerPoint. It would be a light "teaching" week, and it will give the kids a chance to be creative. (That class is very creative.)

One thing that I found interesting in today's class is how we got a chance to practice presenting PowerPoint presentations. I feel that having my students practice presenting a "fake" presentation before their "real" presentation might make them more confident. I will definitely use this idea before starting student presentations.

Videos, Emails, and Webquests

United Streaming is a tool that I absolutely adore. I love showing the video segments to break up the lesson. While they are only two minutes long (in segments), the students cannot get enough. This week I showed segments of a plate tectonics video and I plan on showing a blizzard/winter weather video. The videos come with lessons, quizzes, and teacher's guides, which are all moderately to incredibly helpful. In addition, I can choose videos on a middle school level with language that my remedial students can understand. I am thrilled that my school has an account that allows me to download videos from this site.

ePals is a tool that I am considering using for next year. I hope to use ePals to have my students compare the climate of nyc to the climates of other regions. The email design seems safe, and also a good way to have students practice writing coherently and typing. It is surprising how many students type with one or two fingers.

Telecollaboration (Interpersonal exchange, data collection, and problem solving) is a hit-or-miss tool. While it is fascinating to coordinate and learn about other countries/cultures/people, some of these projects are legitimate while others are not. In addition, if I am working with people I don't really know, I am sometimes wary of the quality of their work.

WebQuests seem awesome. I hope to use them in my elective science class this spring, perhaps on the topic of drought or heat waves, something that is hard for students to relate to in the winter and spring. I love how the students are not searching the web for valid sites (and somewhat wasting their time) but instead the sites are already at their fingertips. While I have not explored many webquests, I will probably end up making one up instead of revamping on that already exists. I want to make sure that all the links work and that the task and process are exactly what I like.