Shafer G.

After reading the article, I liked the idea of the videos, but hated the reasoning behind them. Shafer thought it would be better for the students, in groups, to do a video discussing the literary techniques and analysis of writers and such like that versus an exam or term paper. I love the idea of the video for an end of a unit project. So each group is assigned an author you will learn about that year and at the end of the unit, or even the beginning, they play their video so that everyone knows what they'll be reading and what to look for etcetra. However, I know students hate exams and term papers, but they are there for a reason. Replacing a final essay with a video is not showing the teacher how much the student has learned. I saw this in my high school actually. Each English class is supposed to do an end of the year research essay. The higher your grade level the more difficult the paper as usual. One teacher however, since she hates reading and grading papers, changed the assignment. She let her students choose between a seven pages research essay, or a five minute presentation on their topic. A five minute presentation is completely different than a research essay. In the end, all of her students in her freshman class did horrible on their writing assignments in their sophomore year because she never made them write or taught them proper techniques and such. So I feel that have students make a video instead of an end of the year paper is not a good idea. However, I love the idea of having them do it at the end of each unit almost as a refresher of what they learned for the whole class to see.

750words.com

OMG! Just got done using this website and I love it! I absolutely love writing and I am definitely going to use this sight daily! I find it so intriguing what the statistics were for what I wrote and I cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring. I am using it solely off of creative writing, so clearly nothing I write will have to deal with my personal life and or my day, but I am curious if how my day goes effects what I write. I am sure it will but this website will definitely tell me for sure. Thank you so much Stephanie for introducing me to this website, I think it is the coolest one yet and I cannot wait to write some more on it, it is clearly going to be my next addiction!

Script Writing in English Class

An article I just read talked about video creating in the English classroom. At first, I was confused. This is because in my high school if a student wanted to learn about video creation and production, then they would have taken the class TVTech and joined the club after school. However, as I read the article, it made sense to touch on it in the classroom. As I read on I realized that I might have enjoyed writing scripts and such, or directing videos. Now I wish that my English Classes touched on the subject because it could have made a difference in my interests and possibly future. Also, I feel that script writing is an English technique and that the English classrooms should not skip over any forms of writing, especially not ones that could cause the students to be more interested into what is going on in class and less interested in what is happening on their cell phones.

PodCast Time!

So, as many know, and will soon find out, I hate technology. I enjoy the use of it for communication and transportation, but that is it. I do not use technology past those purposes. However, This past week I needed to learn about podcasts. I was terrified at first, actually, I was beyond terrified. What the hell is a Podcast anyway???? I just don't get it. Don't get the point in making one, don't get the point in making one. But, I must learn and make one so yeah, such a fun week. Through research I learned that a podcast is "a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or epub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device," whatever the hell that means. After hearing a couple I learned that it is literally a person speaking in a microphone about something and recording what they said for others to hear. Now that I know what a podcast is, I still do not get the point in making them. I understand making one to teach a language online,

podcast voice "Where is the library?"
podcast voice "¿Dónde está la biblioteca? "

however, I do not understand the point for other people to make podcasts. But. in the end, it does not matter if I don't see a point in it because other people do and are making podcasts.

All in all, I now know about podcasts, have made a podcasts, and can say that I will never listen to a podcast by my own free will nor make another podcast by my own free will. Sorry to all who feel i am wrong, but it's my blog. Bye.

Good Idea Wilber

Going through Wilber's readings I found a couple sites that were very interesting to me. One was the http://www.pbs.org/americanfamily/tree/# link. I found it so cool, even at my age, that I could make an interactive family tree. One thing I have always ben interested in is where my family started and what they've gone through to get where they are today. I feel like, since today computers are used in 4th and 5th grade classrooms, that it would be a great program to use in elementary schools. A common project for children these days is making a family tree and through this website children can make a family tree that doesn't require materials posterboard and glue and such and, after making the tree they can send it to family members who can also add some information they know about ancestors.

Another link I enjoyed was http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis+in+the+Classroom, I found it great because it is a list of different teacher's wiki pages about different topics and books and such. Plus it says right next the wiki what the grade level is it is being used in so if a teacher were questioning using the book Kite Runner in their 9th grade classroom they can check this wiki and see if other teachers have used the book and at what levels it was used. I feel the biggest mistake a teacher could make is using a great book with the wrong grade level. If the reading or lesson in the book is at a higher level than the students then it is wasted time because they won't be able to grasp the information. If it's too young of an age for them then the students will push it off like it's nothing and not take the time to read. This wiki page can help teachers decide on books for their classroom as well as get ideas on different projects or assignments they can use with that book.