Shimmering Literacies

In a blog by Mr. Foster, he talks about the importance of bringing technology into the classroom.  He uses the book Shimmering Literacies to give evidence of the importance of this.
Click HERE to see his post, and my comment to it.
Enjoy!
P.s. I HIGHLY recommend the book!

Blogging and Teaching?

How can blogging and teaching be combined into one?
So many times we think of them as separate things.  You blog when you're relaxing, and you teach when you're working. 
However! Blogging can help you teach! With the changing times, technology is more and more a part of our students lives.  Having a running blog for your class will give your students a chance to interact with you, or other students when not in the classroom.  They can ask questions, post concerns, or even expand ideas and thoughts from earlier in class right on their own computer! Many times, having the comfort of being able to communicate with a teacher in their own home is something that students need in order to be able to express themselves.  This is also a great way to get the shy students involved in class discussions.  In a foreign language classroom, the benefits that blog present have to do with their language development.  It gives them a chance to use the language in written form, and the teacher the ability to assess their writing without having to worry about handing back papers or losing them in a massive collection of student assignments. 


I think that having a blog for a class is something that teachers should take advantage of.  They can be great, useful tools for any content area, level, and class! 

TPRS?

This past weekend I had the chance to go to the ICTFL conference in Peoria, Illinois.  While there, I went to a session on TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling), a new take on teaching foreign languages, that involves throwing out the book, and working completely through stories and discussion.  There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this method of teaching, and I was surprised to sit in on a session for it.  Although I enjoyed the time I spent in the session (in which we did a “practice” lesson) I was confused as to the practical application this would have in a beginning Spanish class. It was a lot of repetition, and we weren’t really forced to think critically.  This concerned me, because it will be easy to learn how to answer questions that are an obvious yes or no answer, but what happens when these students need to form ideas or opinions?

However, I feel that at times, the books over-do vocabulary and grammar to the point that we loose the purpose of learning and teaching it.  Expecting students to sit in a class, and memorize long lists of vocabulary (half of which they will probably never use) with no exposure to the actual language or the patterns in the language is preventing them from thinking critically too.

It is hard to know which style of teaching will work best for each individual classroom, but I feel that a combination of both interactive teaching (such as TPRS) and traditional book learning will help involve all types of learners.

Technology in the Classroom

Today with all the advances in technology students are being more and more exposed to different forms of entertainment, learning, and even every day life.  Because of these advances in techonology, classrooms are having to change to keep up with the changing minds and lifestyles of the students in them.

This can cause some problems though: Teachers are having trouble changing and adjusting to the changes.  Education itself has changed.  The students are so used to instant gratification from things such as microwaves, video games and fast food.  This is spilling over into the way they learn.  The students are expecting education to be more like their video games.  This is where the smart board comes in.  It is a great tool, that not only helps keeps the students' attention, but also makes things easier on the teacher.  It is fun and easy to use (after some training) but costly.

This is where my next point comes in.  What concerns me from these changes in education is what happens to the schools and children in the schools that cannot afford these high-tech learning devises?