ed205 Blog

I think my goals for professional development with regard to technology may be quite simple! The reason I say this is because I dont want to base an english classroom all around technology. I would like the students to use it for writing assignments, presentations, blogging, and maybe discussion forums. I dont want to over power the classroom with technology, because then I feel like I wouldn’t be accomplishing some goals of mine that I have always had in my mind. My main goal has always been to make learning and reading fun for high school students. I feel I can do this better with reading and explaining issues face to face rather than with the use of computers. I love having classroom discussions on books and I feel like I can ‘get in to it’ more if I were right there with students. In other words I dont want them to try to figure out who I am and what my teaching style is like through a computer.
As far as my goals for keeping technology apart of my life, I know I am going to keep blogging. I have seen plenty of sites where future teachers blog about any kind of issue they feel is important, and I also think it is fun to see what other people are talking about who are in the same situation I am. This course has really opened my eyes to technology and the different ways it can be used besides just facebook and AIM!!! I really like have the discussion forum, I think it is very nice to have in a college class! I wish there were many more like this! I think I am going to take other computer classes as well ( not only because I have to) but because this has been so beneficial to me! I think I would like to learn more about the way technology works, so I may take some classes on that as well! Like I said before, this kind of stuff was all new to me before this class, I was even scared when I had to use Excel! I would definitely like to learn more about Excel and Webquest in the future, I think those have been my two main weaknesses! I know I need to be more proficient with using a computer so I know that classes like these will definitely benefit my career!!!
As far as finding a class that I would like to teach, for me it would just be basic English! I want to be able to integrate technology in on my own time and not have to base the class around it! I definitely want students to work with computers more so that they can be comfortable with them when they go off to college.

After reviewing the website I quickly figured out that there are a lot of untrustworthy sites on the internet. I dont think anywhere on the site the actual author was listed. However it wasnt very clear because there was many authors of articles and very few quotes. I did see at the bottom of one of the pages it said “join MLK discussion forum- hosted by stormfront”…after clicking on stormfront the first thing i saw was their slogan “White Pride World Wide”. That was my only clue. The opening page of this site clearly indicated it is not something I would show my future students. I knew this when i saw the Kings so called cries “Im f–ing for God” right on the left side of the page! I knew it definitely was not appropriate for any student k-12 to read. I still think that it is hard for students to go to find more trustworthy sites, I think i have a hard time still! But if you look at the address of the site it does say .org which of course could be a tip-off that it is not exactly trustworthy! After going to google and searching for Martin Luther King I discovered the website second from the top! I was shocked actually! I always thought that the most credible sources were at the top. I honestly dont really know how this site got so high on the list. The only thing I can think of is many people have visited the site and may actually believe it is a credible source. Underneath the link it does say “a valuable source for teachers and students alike”, so maybe that has something to do with it. I really just couldnt believe what I found!

I really like and agree with using methods of constructivism in the classroom. I love the idea of students being socially interactive and learning. The use of this method I feel would work very well in my future classroom. Since I want to be an english teacher I feel that I have had much expereinece of using this method already through high school english classes and my college courses as well. I think the most important part is after reading a book or some text being able to draw conclusions and discussing the text within the classroom amongst other students. My Brit Lit professor I feel bases her classes using constructivism! Every day we have a different assigned text to read and then we come to class and discuss it and learn from socially interacting with the other students. I feel I learn a lot more from getting the other students opinions and really getting involved within the classroom. I realize that all students may not participate in the discussions and the projects involved, so I can see why people may see this as controversial. I mean it is a different way of learning besides listening the teacher lecture all hour, so I feel that it would work, but only if the teacher stays on the students and makes sure they are staying on task, and maybe by making the discussions a part of their grade. I feel that socially interacting (using constructivism) can be very useful in the classroom if the students use it approiately.