Sunday, February 3, 2013

Blog Assignment #3




Peer Editing

Ever since middle school, I have been editing my fellow students' papers. It is a part of the academic process. What I didn't know was if I was doing it effectively. Even when I was a teacher aid in high school and would help grade papers, I didn't know what to say or how to say it.

After watching the videos and reviewing the slide show, I now have an idea of what to do. It's important to remember to positive when editing. It's too easy to focus on what someone did wrong and forget the good parts of  his or her work. I know I sometimes have a hard time with this, but I hope to improve upon it in the future.

Assistive Technologies

Before this assignment I didn't know there was even such a thing as a Mountbatten. What a great piece of technology! I'm looking forward to researching this great resource! I would use it in a classroom to help my students work on projects and assignments, whether alone or in groups. I hope that using this technology will make me a better educator.

After watching the assigned videos, I have a new understanding for the difficulty that visually and hearing impaired students have functioning in the classroom. Things that we take for granted are challenges for them. It is vital that we as future educators understand the importance of the technologies available to make learning a fun experience for them.

When I go out into the educational work force, I plan on finding a way to have access to every technology available to assist in the education of the visually and hearing impaired. I also don't want the other students to feel uncomfortable so I will try my hardest to make activities that require interaction with everyone

Vicki Davis

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts is a short video that shows teacher Vicki Davis' approach to teaching technology. Her approach is to utilize the interests of her students in order to make her class a more enriching experience. She is very big on the students finding things out themselves. For instance, if she uses a word that they might not know the definition of, she expects them to look it up themselves instead of her just telling them what it means.

I LOVE this approach to educating. Students should be taught to think for themselves. If they are just spoon fed information they will not be productive citizens when they leave our classroom. We will have produced a generation of people who expect information and all things in general to just be handed to them instead of going out and finding it themselves.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Sarah!! I really enjoyed reading your blog post :) I fully agree with you on the fact that as future educators we must accept that technology is a vital component to today's classroom. I was just talking to my boyfriend's mother about technology; she is a 1st grade teacher at St. Dominic's. She told me she uses her Promethean Board (similar to a Smart Board) pretty much all day, and the kids love it. Although many adults are not very fond of technology, it really helps grab the attention of this generation. Your post was so well written, but I suppose I would not be doing proper peer editing without giving some kind of suggestion. The only suggestion I can think of is that you could use more semicolons and commas instead of ending each statement completely with a period. I like to think joining thoughts in sentences helps the flow of the paragraph. Other than that I think you had great organization and you had great details. Your conclusion spoke to my heart! I believe children should look things up for themselves; I know I remember things better when I do the researching, rather than having someone tell me that answer. Again, great post Sarah!

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  2. Thank you so much for you input Abigail! If you don't mind me asking what's your boyfriend's mother's name? I went to St. Dominic's when I lived in Mobile and was wondering if she was my teacher. Thanks again for the suggestions!

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  3. "We will have produced a generation of people who expect information and all things in general to just be handed to them instead of going out and finding it themselves." I am pleased to hear the you want to change this!

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  4. Sorry I am just getting back to you Sarah, her name is Kate Galle.

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  5. What a small world! She was my 1st grade teacher and I loved her!

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