Sunday, February 3, 2013

Introducing Myself...


Welcome to my online journal!  Ever since I read "The Raven," in middle school, I have been fascinated with reading. Since then, reading and collecting a small library has become a hobby.  But the power of the written word has become my passion.  As someone who began student teaching, and reconsidered, I am still uncertain if I will have a high school class of my own, or seek other avenues of education.  Meanwhile, my free time is used to consider things like media technology and its impact in learning and the evolution of learning through network communications.  I had the opportunity to shadow a teacher who developed a simple prompt for her students, "If Dr. Martin Luther King had a Twitter account, what would he write?"  That one sentence engaged all students of various "levels," and each produced one-two full page responses for what they believed the Dr. would write.   They then shared their thoughts with the class, and seemed genuinely engaged.  In an age of so much technological access, how can our social classes be so fragmented in basic aspirations when history shows that people with less access, enabled changes that moved the world?  If I do have charge of my own classroom, these  are the questions and "calls to action" I would raise.  In these pages I will explore, share and hopefully contribute to the power of the written word, its influence in all forms of media, the arts, and its potential to change society.

2 comments:

  1. I think it's an incredibly wide world that we are entering as teachers. I love that such simple prompts like that can change the whole outlook a student has on the education process. Teachers are not outside of the world. We are involved in technology as much as we are able. The more unified we become with these programs, the better we can reach our students. In these lines, I think it's ridiculous that some schools prohibit laptop usage. I understand that not all students use the internet for good, but that should not cease access to the internet in the classroom.

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  2. To be honest, I’ve never read “The Raven”, but maybe I should read and it could possibly put some inspiration back into my life so I could think about become a teacher again? I completely agree with you and the fact that we somewhat NEED to introduce media technology to our students because of the advances being made every year, or even months. I love the example you used about the teacher you shadowed and the Twitter account assignment, from this assignment I see students learning about Dr. King, but I also see them liking it and cooperating with it more because of the fact hat Twitter is more relevant to their times. On another note, I didn’t mention this on my own blog, but using media technology is the classroom is basically keeping up with what is relevant, and what is relevant is actually key when it comes to teaching- or else one could unfortunately lose the attention of many students now a days. Thank you for your post, it was very insightful!

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