July 2, 2009 Class
Class started with an interesting point about lesson plans, one that I had not thought about before. We commonly write what objectives we expect students to demonstrate through completing the lesson and we know what activities we want to do in order to construct knowledge. We often do not specify what kind of thinking skills we wish for students to demonstrate. Teachers ideally should be helping students develop their ability to think, yet we rarely take the time to help them learn different ways of thinking. Perhaps we would be meeting our goals as teachers if we taught with the intent of developing particular thinking skills in our students. They would also be better off as a result.
As a class we compiled the rubrics we designed last class. There were many points that were repeated by different groups so we boiled down what is to be assessed into seven categories. These include accurate assessment, hands/minds on, technology use, content and accuracy, preparedness/planning, standards met, and learning objectives.
For the digital domain review I presented the FrontPage® tutorial that I have written about in a previous blog. The other two reviews were about Google Earth and a mathematics review aid for teachers found at www.multiplication.com. Google Earth would be a wonderful way to give virtual tours of important places in the world. This would have specific application in a social studies class. I would be concerned that many people might begin to think that going online to virtually tour a place makes visiting it in person to be a waste of time and money. There is certain value and personal growth to be achieved in going to a place of significant history or relevance to being human. People would lose that opportunity of developing themselves by accepting a virtual tour as good enough. The math games website looks like it might be interesting to students. It is good to look for new ways to help students learn. This might be a very helpful website.
During class the instructor’s wife was kind enough to bring us dinner. She is from Spain so it was our opportunity to have a genuine Spanish dinner. I knew very little about Spanish cuisine so I broadened my palate and enjoyed conversations with my classmates. We learned a little about Spanish family traditions, especially mealtime customs. When talking about cultures and traditions we often recall times of less technology. It is interesting that a great way to learn about these is the way that we did, with little technology and more talk and experience.
The class was surprisingly drowsy after our dinner so we focused the rest of our time on the workshop portion. During this time I began working on my website. I worked in Microsoft Word® and Publisher®. I think the easiest of all of the website design programs I have tried has been Publisher® so I will probably be completing the website assignment there.
