Has an e-Porfolio ever made you want to cry? If I can assume that you either do not know what it is or if you do I know for a fact that the answer is yes! Today in Social Studies Methods we started our e-Portfolios otherwise known as "LiveBinder." As I know that my colleagues can attest to what I am saying, LiveBinder is an elaborate tool in which you create a virtual space of madness for all of your work. Now, LiveBinder is the end of the class. I suppose I should start at the beginning of class. Unit Plans were the topic of today's class being that fieldwork begins in less than a week. The questions were endless, "who's in our group?" or "what are we teaching about?" The main question of the class is what are we even doing with fieldwork.
Basically, this was everyone's face today. Between the fieldwork, the unit plans, and LiveBinder there was not one person in the class who hadn't asked a question.
I eventually found out that I was apart of Group 1 and that my focus for this semester is Native Americans. I am excited to cover Native Americans because I think that creatively this is an interesting topic and there are many different ways of exploring this topic academically, creatively, and in technology. I believe that my group members are also excited to be covering this topic.
Otherwise, I believe that class today was just very informational. I believe hat a variety of topics were covered in a short amount of time. I also feel that things were so rushed that I did not get to process anything or think about any questions that I had. I am excited to be covering this material, and I am excited to meet the children next week!
Animoto: Why You'll Want to Use it in Your Classroom.
I decided to do my project using Animoto because I felt that it was and is a great representation of simplicity. Simplicity is something that I am really trying to implement into my life and so from previous experience with Animoto I knew that I would achieve that here. Animoto was fresh and easy to use. It connected to my social media profiles and was able to extract my photos right out of my profiles. I would definitely recommend Animoto to any of my fellow future creators because it is simple to use. Animoto could be extremely productive in the classroom. I would implement this myself into the classroom by using it for presentations and allowing students to learn from this tool. Also, by showing students how to use it, I may even have them teach the class while using this tool.
It was the second day of classes for me; however, the first for Social Studies Methods. Social Studies methods intimidated me from the first step because of the stories I have heard over and over from past students. My opinion on the first day was that Dr. S. does not waste time. It was refreshing to be participating in a class where technology was the main focus. When in other methods classes it is basic and usually just encompasses different text books and loads of papers, but not Social Studies.
To begin class, Dr. S. introduced us to her syllabus and shortly after we began our first activity. The ice breaker was interesting and focused around Social Studies. Many icebreakers have you tell something interesting about yourself, like you haven't told everyone the same thing for the past few years. Anyways, this ice breaker was one that i would be interested to try with my future students depending on the grade level I teach. It would be difficult to ask first graders who their favorite teacher was (it would probably be their kindergarten teacher or even Pre-K!) The next question was: "what are three features a good social studies teacher has?". This question strike me because when I think about good teacher, I do not necessarily think of the features that they posses. The next question was okay. It did not surprise me nor did it bore me. The last question is one that all professors tend to ask of their students, "what do you hope to learn/achieve/benefit from in this class?". My answer, usually the same for each class, "I want to learn how to become an engaging ___________ teacher." (Filling in the topic of the class.) Not that I don't actually hope to gain insight in these classes, I do, but being asked the same question in every single class that is mandated for graduation gets old. The reflection process, oh how I love the reflection process. That is what this blog is accomplishing, my reflection of each class as we go.
The video above was interesting to say the least. I believe the video to be a little outdated and believe that it would be beneficial to do an updated version of this type of video. I believe that it is important to shows areas of improvement and areas that still need a little work. I believe that the current age, teachers included, use technology and digital media. It is important to recognize that this video is almost a decade old and I personally have seen HUGE differences in the present age. The children that are in schools now were born with phones, and iPods that are touchscreen, and laptops. As many teachers now were in college when the current technology was being introduced to the world, although they may not be fluent in every sense of technology today they are more "tech savy." The video also makes a reference to the year "2016" and states ". . .we will be China,". This video states that half of us will not graduate high school and that not enough students will be in honors. My point being that if by 2016 these statements should all be true, then how are we solving this with technology? That is the real question I have. Does technology really help solve the fact that half of our high school population will not be graduating or that we do not have enough children in honors? The children then show whiteboards to the camera and tell the viewers to teach them to create, evaluate, think, and so on. These children refer to themselves as "digital learners"and I agree. We need to engage them digitally in the classroom coupled with socially. While incorporating technology I think it is extremely important to make sure they do not become dependent on technology.
In the end, today's class was not bad. It was certainly overwhelming and as I mentioned above Dr. S. does not waste time and I appreciate that. I along with the rest of the students at the Mount do pay good money to receive a higher education and I appreciate that Dr. S. gives us our moneys worth.
