Angela’s Area

 Sad Solstice

For Frank  

Leaves gold, red, brown, falling

The earth slows to sleep

The autumn sun shines

But her warmth is lost upon us

Winter lingers near

Patiently waiting her turn

To cast her cold, silent spell

We mourn the loss of what was

Death has woven us in her blanket

But we find no solace there

     Authentic Learning    

     Education has changed little over the past 100 years and yet our students are immensely different.  Teachers have been faced with the challenge of how to present subjects in a more modern setting.  Jennifer’s presentation on authentic learning helps teachers bring education into the 21^st century.  Students need some way to connect the subjects they are learning with relevant real world issues.  Part of authentic learning is allowing students the freedom to choose topics and assignments that are important to them.  In this way, they are taking ownership of their learning.       I especially liked the part of Jennifer’s presentation that showed how she incorporated pictures from the media and let the students explore the story behind the images.  One showed the heartbreaking ordeal of a child caught in the aftermath of an volcano.  Debri and sludge had trapped her and every effort by her rescuers to free her made her sink farther into the mire.  The Columbian government refused to allow equipment into the area that could possibly save her life.  The photographer, feeling helpless, decided that the best thing to do would be take a picture and share the girl’s story.  After hearing the report, students were allowed to respond to the piece in a variety of ways.  Some chose to write a letter to the photographer expressing their outrage over the lack of help the girl received.       Another strategy Jennifer employs in her classroom is the use of music to inspire her students.  She gave her students a prompt to write about the best day in their lives while playing the song “Summer of 69” by Bryan Adams.  I too have used music in my lessons and it is very effective in motivating students to write, especially when it is music with which they are familiar and relate to. 

     Making real world connections is a goal of  education across the curriculum.  How many times have students wondered why they were learning a skill and where they would use it again?  When this question is answered in their minds it makes the task easier and more rewarding.  Authentic learning is essential to educating students in today’s culture.  This kind of education empowers the student and prepares them for a productive future. 

June 21, 2007

Dear Mike,

     You missed a wonderful presentation today given by Diane Fette on evaluating the validity of websites.  We learned about using the Who, What, When , Where and Why format when perusing the web for trustworthy sites.  There were many fun and thought provoking activities that enabled us to put into practice what we were learning.  Of course, writing was the highlight of the afternoon and we were able to create a diamante comparing and contrasting the words bogus and valid.  I won the prize of the day for contributing the word facade to describe the word bogus.  I received a lovely flower shaped highlighter that has five different highlighters in one.  All teachers love those kinds of prizes.  Everyone received a packet of information to summarize everything we discussed.

      I hope you are able to return to class tomorrow, but if not I will keep you informed of the new information presented to us.  I must go for now as there is much to do in the last fifteen minutes of class. 

Sincerely,

Angela Stroud

Technology has opened up a whole new world for teachers and students.  The days of trekking to the library to check out an encyclopedia are long gone.  Now you only have to look as far as your keyboard and mouse to delve into as much information as your brain can possibly handle.  It would take hours or even days to sift through an equivalent amount of books in the library.  This kind of access changes the way students do research.  Because technology is available in most homes as well as at school, students can maximize their time and complete projects in shorter time periods or even tackle larger projects.  However, there is a downside to having this much information at your fingertips.  Anyone can publish a website and put any kind of information on the site they want.  Students must know how to evaluate the information they are viewing and know whether or not the research is reliable.  So, now we have a new twist to writing research papers.  Students who were not part of the technological age did not have this worry. The databases that we were shown in today’s demo can have many uses within the classroom.  The goal of education today is to be able to make real world connections.  With some of these websites, you can show your students how they can apply what they have learned to a real situation they may encounter in the future.  Making these connections is a necessary part of education today. 

There are very, very, few places in our modern world that have not been touched by the influences of technology.  Who would have thought just a few years ago that you could use your debit card in McDonalds?  Given this fact, it is imperative that schools keep up to date on teaching with technology.  Now, as I say this, I am gritting my teeth because I consider myself to be almost technologically illiterate.  However, I know that my students will not even be able to seek employment unless they achieve some sort of mastery in this area.  Teachers train every profession; therefore, we must equip them for their futures as best we can.  If that means that I will have to learn new things to do this, then so be it.  After all, teachers are life-long learners. 

 Considering the other side of the coin, many schools, especially in the area in which I live, do not have the resources to include technology in their lessons.  Along with this barrier is also the problem of the time it takes to plan these lessons.  The classroom in which I will teach doesn’t even have computers in the room, so teaching a technology lesson will require scheduling the computer lab and then those who are absent will have difficulty with making up the assignment.  Sometimes it seems that the trouble of getting access to technology is not worth the effort.  The time it takes to get the students to the technology could be spent in the classroom learning the old fashioned way.   

My writing process, like my mind, wanders and has no structure.  I am also a procastinator when it comes to putting words on paper.  I get ideas for something to write at the most inopportune times and then forget about them later.  My writing comes mostly from things that touch me deeply or the people that I love.  I write lessons from the Bible for my Sunday school class and when I do that I sit down with my Bible, a commentary and my lap top and comment on the verses in whatever chapter we are studying.  I am more of a reader than a writer, but I hope these next few weeks in the writing project will change that.  I love the sharing time when I can listen to the beautiful craft of all the writers in this class. I hope that one day someone will say they love to listen to my writing.

I will be starting a new position in the fall and I can already see that I will be facing barriers with technology.  I will not have any computers in my room, however, a computer lab is available.  I have a laptop that I can bring from home, but I’m not sure that I will even be able to use it in my room.  The world we live in now is very technologically advanced, but our schools are not keeping up.  Teachers lack the time to design lesson plans that enhance the use of technology and even if they find the time to do so, they may not have the equipment available.  The part of the article that discussed how a teacher from the 30’s or 40’s could walk in a modern classroom and have no trouble teaching was really eye-opening.  This could only be said of very few professions.  Many changes need to be made within the classroom so we can prepare our students to survive in the technology age.

My experience with my blog is limited, but I have been able to access it through SI’s site and I have posted about four times.  I have yet to comment on anyone else’s blog because I am still trying to read through them.