Well, believe it or not, the semester is drawing to a close. Students across campus are busy studying, writing papers, and procrastinating about studying and writing papers. I am one of these students; I have so much to do, but for some reason I'm not getting much done!
I've really enjoyed getting to know some of you. I'm sure we will see each other around the COE building often! We finally made it! Good luck with finals and have a Merry Christmas!
~ Crystal Powell
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
What I've Learned...
I really can't believe my first semester at South is almost over! As a transfer student, the past few months have been fun, stressful, and sometimes downright mind-boggling. But overall, I've really learned a lot in this class.
When I walked in the computer lab the first week of school, I had no idea what a blog was. Now, I'm telling my family all about it and answering their questions. I admit that sometimes the blog assignments were irritating, especially when I didn't find a podcast interesting or I was stressing over another class. However, I feel that this course has served me well. I've made many new friends and have learned new ways to use new technology in my everyday life as well as how I may be able to use it in my career.
One of the highlights of the course was learning about the technology available for the deaf and blind. I never considered the possibility that I may have a student in my class with this type of disability. I now know the resources that are available and will be able to help accommodate any student that needs assistance.
Throughout this semester, I have learned so many new things that will help me in my teaching career. I feel it is very important for aspiring teachers to be aware of new technologies and also master basic skills. This course had given me all of these things.
When I walked in the computer lab the first week of school, I had no idea what a blog was. Now, I'm telling my family all about it and answering their questions. I admit that sometimes the blog assignments were irritating, especially when I didn't find a podcast interesting or I was stressing over another class. However, I feel that this course has served me well. I've made many new friends and have learned new ways to use new technology in my everyday life as well as how I may be able to use it in my career.
One of the highlights of the course was learning about the technology available for the deaf and blind. I never considered the possibility that I may have a student in my class with this type of disability. I now know the resources that are available and will be able to help accommodate any student that needs assistance.
Throughout this semester, I have learned so many new things that will help me in my teaching career. I feel it is very important for aspiring teachers to be aware of new technologies and also master basic skills. This course had given me all of these things.
ACCESS Lab - Satsuma High School
On November 17, Keller, Joye, and I visited Satsuma High School in Satsuma, AL. When we arrived, we were first greeted by the large statue of their alligator mascot and then by Ms. Jennifer Phillips. Ms. Phillips serves as a facilitator for Satsuma High's ACCESS lab. Ms. Phillips was more than happy to give us a tour of the lab as well as tell us all about the work she and her students do everyday.
Ms. Phillips informed us that she currently had 18 students total enrolled in online courses. These students were taking a number of courses including Creative Writing, Latin, German, English 12 and Environmental Science. There was even a student who was enrolled in three courses at the same time. At the time of our observation, the courses that the students were taken were strictly online. The distance learning teacher posted assignments for the students to complete. Students are also responsible for completing modules and posting them in the online dropbox. Tests and quizzes are given and students are allotted 1 1/2 hours to complete them. Tests and quizzes must be completed at school, but some assignments can be done at home.
Ms. Phillips also told us about the changes Satsuma High would see in regards to the ACCESS program. Starting next fall, advanced courses will be offered and all freshman students will be required to take at least one ACCESS course before graduation. She also gave us insight on student accomplishments. Ms. Phillips felt that the majority of her students were doing well so far. She pointed out that students put in the same amount of effort into the ACCESS courses as they did their regular courses. If a student does not complete all of the necessary modules and and assignments, the student may be expelled from the program.One topic that we were very curious about was the hiring of teachers and facilitators. We learned that there are no prerequisites for being a facilitator. Most facilitators are librarians and teacher aides. Teachers who are interested in teaching an ACCESS course are hired by ACCESS and earn $300 per student. Both facilitators and teachers receive training upon hiring in order to become familiarized with the equipment used. Teachers are allowed to fix grades in the ACCESS system as needed. As a facilitator, Ms. Phillips is responsible for ensuring that the grades given through ACCESS are uploaded to Satsuma High's STI system.
I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Satsuma High's ACCESS lab. Ms. Phillips was a wonderful tour guide and gave us some much needed knowledge on how the lab and online courses really work. It was also fun to see the high school students working on their assignments for various classes. They seemed to enjoy working independently and learning new topics such as Latin and German. I hope to see more high schools incorporate this technology into their curriculum.
Electronic Interaction - Cameroon, Africa
After a disastrous situation with my previous contact, I was blessed to meet an elementary teacher from Cameroon, Africa named Katie Westra. She is an American teaching overseas and was kind enough to answer a few questions via Facebook messaging. Here are the questions I asked her and her responses.
Thank you so much for chatting with me on such short notice. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
"I grew up in Western Michigan (lived there my entire life until I graduated college and moved thousands of miles away), but I currently live in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Africa. That is a country on the West coast of Africa, just south of Nigeria. I first came over here on a mission trip through my university. I really enjoyed it and wanted to come back, so I ended up doing half my student teaching at a school here. On my last day, the director of the school offered me a job. I eventually accepted and here I am three years later, still here and loving it. I never would have thought this was the plan God had for me, but it sure has been much more than I could have ever asked for or imagined! :) I currently teach Pre-Kindergarten 4 (for the 4 year olds) at the American School of Yaoundé. For the previous two years, I taught 1st grade. When I was student teaching, I taught 3rd grade and Kindergarten. I teach in a self-contained classroom, so I teach all the major subjects (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies), the students also have specials (French-5 days a week, and PE, IT, Art, Library, Music -1 day a week)."
As a teacher, what's your opinion on the importance of technology/blogging in the classroom?
"My opinion on the importance of technology/blogging in the elementary classroom is a relatively naïve one. I think it could be a great tool if used properly. It is something that I would love to learn how to do and begin using in my classroom. The idea of being able to have a blog that parents and students are able to access and know all about what is going on in the classroom is ingenious. I would enjoy learning how to create an interactive blog where parents especially could log on and find out what their child is doing and see pictures and get updates instantly. I unfortunately do not know how to go about doing that yet, and am not sure how useful it would be to my student’s parents since Internet is at times a precious commodity."
"Technology in general is a great resource to have in the classroom. I constantly use my computer to store my lesson plans, do curriculum maps, grade/attendance books, report cards, progress reports, etc. If I was in the upper elementary, I would probably even do PowerPoint presentations and use things like YouTube and other online resources and games to enhance my students understanding of the different concepts and skills that we were learning. It is a bit more difficult to use the computer and other technologies at such a young age with my students. Since I teach in Africa (not to stereotype) but where I live students do not necessarily have access to all of the technologies and computer games that other students do, especially those in the US. When I took my class to the computer lab at the beginning of the year for their first IT class, it was for many of them the first time they had the opportunity to use a computer (many had seen one, but not many had used one or even knew how to use the mouse, etc.). It was a bit shocking for me. I had wrongly assumed that like many students in the US, they had already learned how to do many things on the computer. There are many great online resources out there, as long as a school/teacher has the technology available to them and their students to use it. I love surfing the Internet and seeing what new educational sites there are out there that I can some how incorporate into my lessons. It is important to note that a lot of what a teacher is able to do depends upon what resources are available to them. Up until last year, our school did not have enough computers to be able to have more than one class in the computer lab at a time, because of this, I could not take my students to the computer lab at any other time than was their assigned time for IT classes."
How has blogging (or technology in the classroom) impacted your students?
"Unfortunately I have not been able to use blogging in my classroom, so I can not comment on that. I do know of a colleague of mine who has begun using it as a way to keep his students and parents apprised of their current grades, that way here are no surprises come report card/progress report time, and as of now, I have only heard good things about how parents enjoy having access to it when ever they need it, as well as my colleague enjoying not having to deal with any “blind-sided” parents or students.
The use of other technologies in my classroom has been a great advantage to my students, not only do they have what knowledge I personally possess on a subject, but because of technology and the Internet, I can literally get information from around the world in just a few clicks. I can also get ideas to use in the classroom. When I was teaching first grade we were pen-pals with a class in Canada, and they really enjoyed getting to know those students as well as being able to broaden their horizons and see that kids in other countries around the world are learning about the same things that they were."
It was a great experience talking to Ms. Westra. I was very interested to see how she is incorporating up and coming technologies in her classroom in Africa. She definitely inspired me and has renewed my interest in teaching internationally. I love how Ms. Westra uses the internet to bring the world to her students as well as get new ideas for her classroom. Like her international students, it is quite possible that I may encounter students who are not familiar with computers and it will be my job to develop activities that are sensitive to this. I will keep in mind many of the points Ms. Westra made and one day incorporate them into my classroom.
Thank you so much for chatting with me on such short notice. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
"I grew up in Western Michigan (lived there my entire life until I graduated college and moved thousands of miles away), but I currently live in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Africa. That is a country on the West coast of Africa, just south of Nigeria. I first came over here on a mission trip through my university. I really enjoyed it and wanted to come back, so I ended up doing half my student teaching at a school here. On my last day, the director of the school offered me a job. I eventually accepted and here I am three years later, still here and loving it. I never would have thought this was the plan God had for me, but it sure has been much more than I could have ever asked for or imagined! :) I currently teach Pre-Kindergarten 4 (for the 4 year olds) at the American School of Yaoundé. For the previous two years, I taught 1st grade. When I was student teaching, I taught 3rd grade and Kindergarten. I teach in a self-contained classroom, so I teach all the major subjects (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies), the students also have specials (French-5 days a week, and PE, IT, Art, Library, Music -1 day a week)."
As a teacher, what's your opinion on the importance of technology/blogging in the classroom?
"My opinion on the importance of technology/blogging in the elementary classroom is a relatively naïve one. I think it could be a great tool if used properly. It is something that I would love to learn how to do and begin using in my classroom. The idea of being able to have a blog that parents and students are able to access and know all about what is going on in the classroom is ingenious. I would enjoy learning how to create an interactive blog where parents especially could log on and find out what their child is doing and see pictures and get updates instantly. I unfortunately do not know how to go about doing that yet, and am not sure how useful it would be to my student’s parents since Internet is at times a precious commodity."
"Technology in general is a great resource to have in the classroom. I constantly use my computer to store my lesson plans, do curriculum maps, grade/attendance books, report cards, progress reports, etc. If I was in the upper elementary, I would probably even do PowerPoint presentations and use things like YouTube and other online resources and games to enhance my students understanding of the different concepts and skills that we were learning. It is a bit more difficult to use the computer and other technologies at such a young age with my students. Since I teach in Africa (not to stereotype) but where I live students do not necessarily have access to all of the technologies and computer games that other students do, especially those in the US. When I took my class to the computer lab at the beginning of the year for their first IT class, it was for many of them the first time they had the opportunity to use a computer (many had seen one, but not many had used one or even knew how to use the mouse, etc.). It was a bit shocking for me. I had wrongly assumed that like many students in the US, they had already learned how to do many things on the computer. There are many great online resources out there, as long as a school/teacher has the technology available to them and their students to use it. I love surfing the Internet and seeing what new educational sites there are out there that I can some how incorporate into my lessons. It is important to note that a lot of what a teacher is able to do depends upon what resources are available to them. Up until last year, our school did not have enough computers to be able to have more than one class in the computer lab at a time, because of this, I could not take my students to the computer lab at any other time than was their assigned time for IT classes."
How has blogging (or technology in the classroom) impacted your students?
"Unfortunately I have not been able to use blogging in my classroom, so I can not comment on that. I do know of a colleague of mine who has begun using it as a way to keep his students and parents apprised of their current grades, that way here are no surprises come report card/progress report time, and as of now, I have only heard good things about how parents enjoy having access to it when ever they need it, as well as my colleague enjoying not having to deal with any “blind-sided” parents or students.
The use of other technologies in my classroom has been a great advantage to my students, not only do they have what knowledge I personally possess on a subject, but because of technology and the Internet, I can literally get information from around the world in just a few clicks. I can also get ideas to use in the classroom. When I was teaching first grade we were pen-pals with a class in Canada, and they really enjoyed getting to know those students as well as being able to broaden their horizons and see that kids in other countries around the world are learning about the same things that they were."
It was a great experience talking to Ms. Westra. I was very interested to see how she is incorporating up and coming technologies in her classroom in Africa. She definitely inspired me and has renewed my interest in teaching internationally. I love how Ms. Westra uses the internet to bring the world to her students as well as get new ideas for her classroom. Like her international students, it is quite possible that I may encounter students who are not familiar with computers and it will be my job to develop activities that are sensitive to this. I will keep in mind many of the points Ms. Westra made and one day incorporate them into my classroom.
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