MD400 and I....

I have been having a great time in this course.

I've learned things I never thought I would....And I am also struggling with others...

The website is probably the assignment that is consuming my time the most...but step by step I have been doing it..

The digital story and photoshop are probably my favorite assignments so far. I used both to create pictures and "movies" to send to my family and friends back home...

It is really interesting to see how we can use technology in class, not only with older students but also with the younger ones too...They can be more creative, work as individuals or groups, and learn much more from it...

**Value Added**

It has been really interesting for me to learn how the media and technology can be so useful in the classroom and during the students instruction. When we look back, schooling was the teacher lecturing and the students learning by listening and by being assessed by taking tests only.

Now the teachers can use additional resources such as videos, music, softwares, pictures, etc in order to teach their students in a "fun" way.

Not only the students will be in contact with what their teachers have been preparing, but they will also make their own projects and be in contact with their peers' too.

The use of the "universal design for learning" will create an individualization instruction, where each student will have their own projects that will be made according to their point of view and interests. They can also be assessed by their teachers according to the goals and materials of the project.

Students will also proceed from what they already know to reach their objectives with the use of the additional resources.

I don't think in the future teachers will be raplaced by computers, but together they can be a great "team" in order to provide students better quality in education!

Inquiry-based learning

The first thing that crossed my mind while I was reading the article was :"Do it yourself, try it, get involved with it".

It doesn't matter about what we are talking about...once we try to do ourselves, we learn much more about it.

I am seeking my MA in bilingual ed., and as an English teacher, and even an ELL myself, I can say that once we leave the books and anotations aside for a while and we start communicating things go further.

Instead of reading and repeating the numbers after the teacher, let's try to use it in real life, let's pretend we have a supermarket in the class and try to buy "five" apples for "two" dollars. Let's learn about the animals by going to the zoo, to the farm, let's bring our stuffed animals from home, and let's see how they are in real life. Let's have a cooking class by mixing the flour, with the sugar, with the eggs, with the cocoa powder, to see and understand how a cake is baked.

To give answers to the students is easy, but to make them get to their own conclusions and understand the process of how things are made or how they happened is how they really learn. To learn from their own mistakes is one of the best ways during the learning process.

I come from a "traditional" school, where teachers would talk and I would write down and read. I was pretty much memorizing and learning for the tests. When I decided to become a teacher, I started working on a "constructivist" school, where students would cook, plant, construct, label materials and places inside the school by themselves to find the best way to learn what is what, and where is where. I kept thinking to myself everyday, how I would have learned much more by going to a school like that....

Standards

Discipline: World Languages
Grades: K-4

I decided to use the Standard as seen on the World Languages discipline, since that is my career choice. I have a major in translation, and I am getting my MA in bilingual education. Before coming to the US ,I was teaching K level classes in Brazil, and also tutoring English to Brazilian kids.
I am going back to do it when I go back home. Keep teaching kids about different cultures and other languages. As an ELL myself, I know how interesting and even important it is to learn not only the language itself, but also the culture of other countries.

Universal design for learning

I liked this article although it was quite a difficult reading.

It gives a lot of information how to use technology in the classrooms.

Really useful!!

My photoshop experience.... =/

It took me some time to come up with an idea for my picture.... I had so many things I would like to do...and maybe, with time I will get them all done....


I finally decided to make something with my parents... I haven't spent Christmas with my family for the past 3 years..So I decided to put my parents and myself together in front of the X-mas tree my "host family" had last year.


Next summer I am coming back home, and next Christmas Eve can be pretty much like this picture... =)

*The original pictures used: The Targowski's tree/ my father and I/ my mom, my grandma and I/ my father, my cousin and I....

27ºF

What a great day....to stay at home, read some books, and have a cup of hot chocolate... I will miss this when I go back home.... No snow at all there!!!!!!

Enzo

This is my baby cousin....his name is Enzo...I met him last August when I went back home for 3 weeks... Today I heard he said my name for the first time...I can't wait to see him again!!!!! He is turning 2 next month....sooo cute !!!! =)

"e-tips"

In today's society, as much as we try not to make a lot of use of technology, it is quite impossible to stay away from it.

In classes it couldn't be different. Teachers use the computers to organize a class, students use the Internet to do some research and even the school has its own website where parents can have direct access to the school schedule, events, meetings, etc...
What teachers need to know is that the use of the computers during the educational process cannot always be sucessful and they must show the kids when to use it...

When I was in school, the tech lab classes started when I was in my senior year..I had it for only a few months and I am pretty sure this class is way different nowadays. I know that if teachers use technology, the classes can be more fun and even "faster", once they can come with tables, drawings, etc ready on a laptop and use it on the projector, rather than preparing everything during the class by using the chalk.

"Who are today's learners?"

It is unbelievable how kids today can manage computers, video games, eltronic toys, and even mp3 players. When I was a child I did not know what a computer was, my video game was the Atari (and that means one red button and one single joystick), and I would play with Barbies and board games. I used to listen my music on a cassete player...There were no cds, blue ray discs or even dvd!! The first computer I saw was huge, with the black background, green font and no games at all.

The kids today learn to use the computer when they are around 2 (two!!!) years old. They have all the educational games online. They can play games while learning.

Once they know how to read and learn they can have acess to an e-mail account, and Im's to communicate with their friends. In a way this is really good, once they can not only chat about their "personal" lives, but also share websites and links to their school works. They can pretty much have "the world" on the computer.

The technology is really advanced and it keeps changing every day...

The kids need to pick on that, or as a grown up they will be left out. Not only the kids need to improve their computer skills, but also the parents and the teachers. At home we need to be aware the kid are on safe websites and not giving any personal information to people they met online. And at school, teachers are using internet-based classes and assignments. And by acessing blogs, facebooks, etc, the teachers can get to know their students better and understand where they are coming from and learn about some kind of issues they may have..

"Teddy Bears go Blogging"

I really enjoyed this article. I think it is great for the kids to be "in" the web world at early ages...

When I was teaching back in Brazil, we had the exact same activity during the year with the kids, but instead of a teddy bear the kids made a doll by using whool, pieces of fabric and cotton.. They named the doll "TonTon", and every friday he would go home with one of the kids. They would have to wrtite a journal about their weekend together, the activities they made, the games they played, and even attach pictures to it.

The kids would also dress him according to what they like to wear and activities they made during the weekend..It was interesting to see the doll coming dressed as a tennis player (because the kid played tennis), or holding a bag of pop corn (because they went to the movies), or even a bathing suit (because they either went to the beach or spent some time at the pool).

The kids were really into this activity. Some were very original on their writing, some others were really original to take the pictures...and they loved the fact they had to write on their journals in both English and Portuguese... In the end of the school year, each class helped the teachers to pick one journal entry for each kid and they created a blog, so the parents and freinds could have acess from home and see how was TonTon's year.

It was one of my favorite activities during that year, and I would use this again at any time in class.