Research 101 April 1

So we are continuing on our journey to becoming better researchers as a class. MEL.org is such an amazing resource for research it is just amazing! Hope that all of my students will see the benefits of research and how to do this effectively!

Research 101

My 10th graders are embarking on a research quest! They are completing a variety of research activities and then are blogging about it!!! I am very excited! Some of my students have responded very well to this and are blogging away, some are a little apprehensive, hopefully they will find success and the relevance in what they are doing.

Thing 23.

The amount of information that is readily available to all is just astounding. The information that I have learned in this class, has been amazing. To be honest, I am not sure yet of my plan of attack for this coming school year. I have so many new ideas of ways that I can incorporate technology, I don't even know where to start! Choosing one new technology per unit is going to be my goal. So for each new unit of study, modify a previous assignment, or totally create something new to expose my students to as much technology as I can, and get their feedback on what they like and do not like. In the future I see podcasts, voki's, wiki's, flickr, blogs, the list is just endless.
Spreading the word on all of the amazing technology should not be too difficult. I know within my department at school we do a lot of sharing of ideas. We are constantly bouncing things off of each other, so hopefully others will get on board as well. I have seen a general shift over the past couple of years and I do think that educators are making an effort to keep up with our students ever changing technology needs!
The internet is a great resource and we must make an effort to utilize it to it's fullest potential.

Thing 22

What could be better than doing PD in your PJ's??? I think that online learning is great for continuing education. I was at the MI-Champs conference this summer at the Wayne RESA and they gave us a plethora of online learning options. There are so many that are readily available, and most are free which is a plus. I took a course through Michigan LearnPort and I thought that it was great. It was a very user-friendly site, it is totally self paced so you can move as quickly or slowly as you would like, which is nice, all the while gaining new knowledge and pd hours. And really there is so much for educators to keep up with, there is so much happening with technology and so much for us to share with our students, we have to stay on top of things and online learning is a great way to do that.

Thing 21

The possibilities for video's in the classroom is endless. They can be a great compliment to your curriculum to mix things up a little bit. They can be used to enhance your teaching or for research purposes. I think that they only concern would be that students would look for inappropriate content, but isn't that the issue with anything or everything?
The only negative with videos, and it is not even really a negative, is that there are so many out there to use that it is hard to find the time to do searching!
I am sharing a couple of environmental videos, not only do I enjoy teaching English, I also try to make students aware of their impact on the environment.

Thing 20

I really hope that my students enjoy creating podcasts!! I have thought about a couple of different lesson where I would like them to create their own. For example, after completing an independent novel they could create a podcast focusing on a particular aspect of the novel, characterization, setting, climax, etc. Create the podcast and then post to a class wiki for all to listen!
I would imagine that my students would love listening to podcasts, I am sure that some of them already do on their own time!
A couple I would use in the classroom would be:
Poetry Foundation
Podictionary
One Minute Vocab-Princeton Review
Grammar Girl
On a personal level I would subscribe to podcasts about cooking, design, kids, health, etc. The list is endless!! A couple that I enjoy...
cooking: Jamie Oliver
design:Etsy
knitting:Never Not Knitting
I could go on forever but I will not bore you with all of my wacky hobbies!

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