In a nutshell

This course has enhanced my desire to use technology not only in my professional life but also in my personal life. Added to my basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are my laptop and Internet access!

Every morning before I start the day I log in to get my inspirational messages for the day and I know for sure at the start of the school term, I’d be using it as a tool to make my work as a teacher and budding reading specialist easier and more exciting for my students. I feel competent now that I’ve been equipped with the tools to enhance my students’ learning experiences and more confident as a teacher in dispensing all of this new information to my peers and the more senior members of my staff.

Thank you very much Aisha, Cherisse and Murella!!

The use of podcasts in achieving fluency

In an earlier blog I mentioned that podcasts could be used by the teacher for choral reading exercises with her class. These podcasts would have recordings of the teacher’s voice and students would be required to mimic her enunciations, pauses and intonations.

Podcasts can also be used to record students, to monitor their progress throughout the academic year. An activity such as Reader’s Theater would entail students performing an oral reading in the presence of their classmates with a script. These recordings can be played back to students to motivate them and give them positive reinforcement as well as to make them aware of the errors they make.

Wiki Wiki…Aye aye!

A wiki is a website that contains the contributions of members of a particular group. It is one of the easiest web facilities to use and can be used for a variety of purposes. In my practice as a reading specialist I can use wikis for interactions with my students and my colleagues within the teaching profession. With regard to my students, having finished a lesson, I can ask them to post comments or short anecdotes about their impressions of a recently completed topic. Students of that particular class will be able to view and comment on each other’s comments, prompting social interactivity and encouraging writing as a way of expression and a tool in comprehension. With my peers and colleagues in the teaching profession, this is a useful medium for the sharing of pedagogical strategies and new ideas as it relates to the students we teach. Wikis are convenient, easy to use and can be edited by anyone once left open.

Interactive Graphic Web Organizers – A tool for classifying and organizing ideas

I absolutely love them! According to the article on Interactive Graphic Organizers by Lopez et al, “interactive graphic organizers facilitate the discovery and design of patterns, relationships and interrelationships, as well as helping to develop creative thinking.” In the classroom, teachers can use graphic web organizers as part of the brainstorming activity, before reading. Here students can view their contributions and the contributions of their peers and the connections made about the particular topic. Web organizers can also be used as part of the post reading strategy where students can be asked to organize, sequence or classify the information received in the particular lesson. In a narrative for instance, a noteworthy comprehension strategy is the “Ws of Comprehension (i.e. Who, what, when, where, why).” This can be organized quite efficiently on a graphic web organizer to assist students in organizing and retaining what they have learnt.

In fact, I have also taken the initiative of using www.webspiration.com to help me create graphic web organizers to help me with difficult concepts in my own academic pursuits. As a result, these concepts are easier to recall since the layout, with its symbols, colors, shapes and arrows intertwined with text, have been imprinted in my mind. I can envision the use of interactive graphic organizers having a similar effect on the children I teach.

Digital Storytelling – A new and exciting frontier

Of all the different Web 2.0 technologies, digital storytelling and its educational uses have peaked my interest the most, as I see it being very beneficial in content areas such as history, social studies, literature and several other areas. In these areas teachers can assess students on what they have studied by asking them to compile digital images, music, text and video together to create a story of their own. This is an activity I am sure all students would enjoy and take pride in doing. It adds depth to the learning experience and once the student is engaged ,this assignment can seem to be less work and more fun. Nearing the end of the academic year, I was helping a Form 1 special class at my school with a topic they were doing in Social Studies on the Family. In retrospect, I now see that digital storytelling would be an awesome way to engage students in the understanding of this topic. A noteworthy assignment would be for them to create a short video or do a power point presentation of their own family using their own pictures.

This is something I will definitely try with my students in the new school term.

Using Web 2.0 technologies in Differentiated Teaching

As teachers it is imperative that we employ strategies that would reach all of our students. I firmly endorse the education initiative of the George W. Bush administration that no child should be left behind. Web 2.0 technologies are useful tools in assisting teachers to become more versatile in terms of their teaching. Teachers also become equipped to reach all students of varied abilities.

On the Internet, there are numerous sites that help teachers with ideas to effectively deliver their lessons to a wide cross section of students. One such site is www.teachertube.com. We also need to consider lessons that incorporate Gardner’s theories of multiple intelligences, using the technology. Students with linguistic, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences will enjoy activities like blogging. A student who has difficulty reading, but is musically inclined might enjoy an activity that involves karaoke to assist them in decoding words and word recognition. Logical-mathematical and spatial minds learn better with graphic organizers and their assignments or reading activities can take the form of constructing these organizers to draw connections, classify and sequence information. The person with a spatial mind uses the different shapes and symbols to help in the comprehension and retention of the information. These are just some examples of using the technology to appeal to the different intelligences.

Blogs: Engaging in the Writing Process

C. Day Lewis states quite succinctly that “We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.” This is something I have been doing for most of my academic life. Even in my personal life, writing has always been an outlet for me to try to clarify certain issues I face.

The reading and writing process is closely linked and should be taught in tandem as they support each other. When we read we seek to understand. Writing helps in processing the information, clarifying thoughts and finding a deeper meaning for what was read. Writing in journals has evolved with Web 2.0 technology as blogs have allowed people to find a spot online to air and share their views frequently. This is a more than ideal post reading strategy. Having my own blog has helped me in my reflections of new information received in the course and I have felt a certain amount of pride knowing that I have created a space, where I can let my creativity and ideas run unbounded.

I will definitely encourage my students to create blogs for them to reflect on what I have taught them. I hope they too will feel that sense of pride and accomplishment that I feel in having my own blog.