Lesson Plan and Final Thoughts

I had learned about multiple intelligences before, but I think that creating this lesson plan helped me learn even more about them. It made me think of specific ways to incorporate all types of intelligences and learning styles into my teaching. I think my lesson plan is something I will be able to use in my future classes as a fun project that helps all types of learners to understand the material.

I liked this class a lot because it showed me simple ways to use technology in my classroom. It's very important for teachers to understand and use technology. Technology is already important in many areas, especially with today's students, and it's being used in more settings all the time. Teachers need to keep up with the technologies their students are using in order to be able to relate to the students and to help them understand course material.

 One of my favorite parts of the class was learning about blogs and how to use them in the classroom. I've been familiar with blogs for a while; I read them frequently and I have even written my own blog before. But I never thought about using them in the classroom until taking this class. Now I plan on incorporating blogs into my classes someday. I want to have a class blog that allows my students to display their work online and to communicate with other students around the world.

I really can't think of anything that I would want to change about the class. I maybe would have liked to learn more about newer technologies, but I think overall it was a good class and I learned more about  how to integrate technology into my classroom.

Using Popular Technologies in the Classroom

Students today are comfortable using a wide variety of technologies, and many times they even use multiple technologies at the same time. It's important for teachers to take advantage of their students' interest in technology, and to use for education the types of technology that students are already using for fun. I think teachers can incorporate education into any of these technologies, as long as the technology doesn't distract from the educational purpose.

I personally would probably not use chat rooms or instant messaging in my classroom. I can't think of any way that I would be able to use them while in class, and I think it would be too complicated to get everyone to log on outside of class. If someone did choose to use a chat room or instant messenger, they should create their own private room on a safe website so that the chat room is safe for the students and nobody outside of the class can come in and read or write in it.

There definitely are benefits to using asynchronous forms of communication over face-to-face communication. I like when teachers use online discussions to complement what we learn in class. Online discussions allow all the students to share their ideas and opinions, so those who might not participate in face-to-face discussions have a "voice" while writing online. Also, they allow students to think about their responses so they can write a good answer for the question. They are also useful because students can see what others write, and everyone can respond to each other's posts.

Podcasts can be helpful for students in several ways. One is to find podcasts related to what the students are learning, and show them during class or have students look them up on their own to discuss them in class. This could be a good way to show different perspectives on a subject by a variety of people, maybe including experts in that subject. Teachers can also create their own podcasts to update their students on assignments and add information that they didn't get to cover in class. I think the best way to incorporate podcasts in class is to actually have students create a podcast. They could be used for group projects where each group teaches a certain topic, and the rest of the class can watch the podcast. A podcast project would get students involved as they make the videos, allow them to be creative while learning, and provide a more interesting way to present a project instead of standing in front of the class and talking.

I think educational video games can be useful in the classroom to some extent. I wouldn't let students play them every day, but video games can be used as a reward for finishing in-class work early or something like that. As long as the games are relevant to the class, they can help students learn by giving them visual representations and allowing them to explore the subject virtually first-hand. I also agree that allowing students to develop video games is beneficial for them. Like the article says, when students create a game they become "subject matter experts" because they not only see the information, but they have to find ways to incorporate the information into the game in order to teach it to others. Also, when students create a video game, they are not simply staring at a screen playing a game passively; they become "producers" of information and are forced to be involved in organizing and using information for a purpose.

Personality Types and Learning Styles

Students’ personality types definitely affect how they learn. Some students learn by listening or reading the material for themselves, and others learn more by working with others or doing something with their hands. As a teacher, I will need to recognize the different learning styles of my students and use different methods of teaching so that all of them can learn the material.

Doing the personality test helped me see all the different possibilities of personalities. I think I will be able to recognize the different traits that other people have, and that will help me understand those people better. I think that understanding the personality of someone will help me to figure out that person’s learning style and to adapt my teaching so that they understand what they need to learn. It will also help me to see that person’s point of view when they talk to me about problems or struggles.

Excel Spreadsheets

I think Excel spreadsheets can be useful for teachers. I probably would not use it to make worksheets very often, because I could use other programs for that. But I might use it to make a worksheet that uses a table, maybe something like a verb conjugation chart. I would also use it for a grade book because I can easily type in a formula to calculate averages and grades. A spreadsheet is definitely easier to use for grade books than a calculator because I only need to type in the formula once, then the program can do the math for all the other grades. I also like the organization of a spreadsheet. Since I’m a pretty organized person anyway, I like to use Excel to make lists and schedules. I don’t think I’ll need to use spreadsheets much for presenting information with graphs or charts, but I could if I needed to. Overall, I think Excel spreadsheets are great for making grade books and charts.

Inspiration and Writing Assignments

I had never heard of Inspiration before now, but it seems like a neat way to make presentations. I think I would like the diagram and map features. I already like to organize information into outlines or maps, and I like how with Inspiration I could create those easily and even add images to them. I also thought it was cool to be able to switch between the diagram and outline views, because I could put all the information into an outline and the program makes that into a diagram. Also, the presentation manager looks a lot like PowerPoint, but it seems like it might be even easier to use. I would probably use Inspiration to make more interesting presentations for my lessons, maybe for a history or cultural lesson. My students could also use the program to create presentation projects. Overall, I think Inspiration looks like an easy way to make creative presentations.

For writing activities, I think using a program like Inspiration would allow students to make concept maps and organize their ideas before they write an actual paper. Students could even use their maps as presentations, after which they would get feedback from both the teacher and the rest of the class. This would combine two assignments, a paper and a presentation. I like this idea because rather than writing a paper and simply reading it out loud to the class, students could make a more interesting-looking concept map, then after the presentation and feedback, put the information into an organized paper. I also think blogs could be a good way to use technology in writing. I would like to have a class blog (like I described in my previous post) where students could post their writing assignments. Students could make comments on each other’s posts and offer feedback or ideas for revision. This way, we would not need to use up class time peer-reviewing, but students could display their work, see others’ work, and help each other make changes in their writing.

I know that any time I have to make a presentation teaching a certain topic, or even when I’m teaching someone how to do something in everyday life, I learn more about that topic than what I already knew. For a class presentation, there is usually research involved and a lot of time spent focusing on the topic. I learn as much as I can about it so that I can present all that I know to the class, and so I can answer any questions people may ask. Teaching other people definitely helps me learn more about the subject I’m teaching.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

I think that blogs, if used effectively, can be a useful tool in the classroom. Blogs allow teachers to communicate with their students, and students to demonstrate what they are learning. I think that in some cases blogs could be a waste of students' time, but overall they are a great way to enhance learning outside the classroom. Many teenagers in this era are already comfortable using the internet to communicate with others, as we can see with websites such as MySpace and Facebook, along with blogs and vlogs (video blogs). They are already using these mediums to express themselves, so why not use blogs for education as well?

When I start teaching, I would like to experiment with different ways of using blogs in my classroom. One example from Chapter 6 that I liked was Mr. Sprankle's class blog, where each student has his/her own page to post creative assignments. I like this idea because all the students in the class can see each other's work and comment on it, and people outside the class can also see what they are doing. I think this would be a good way to display work to parents or other teachers. Since I will be teaching high school Spanish, I will probably have many different classes of different levels. If I used this type of blog, different classes could interact with each other through seeing others' work and posting comments. I would also like to try creating a blog community with other Spanish teachers and their classes, both within my school and with other schools in the same area or maybe even around the state/country.

As I am reading about blogs in the classroom, I have many ideas going through my head about how to implement blogs in my own classroom someday. I think they can be used as an effective tool for both teachers and students.

About Me

Hello! My name is Hannah and I am a sophomore at Texas A&M University- Commerce. I am majoring in Spanish with 8-12 teaching certification and minoring in English. I want to teach high school Spanish after I graduate, and maybe English and/or ESL someday. I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but I moved to Texas with my family when I was 5 and have lived in the Dallas area since then. I have 2 younger brothers, Joel (who is 18) and Caleb (16). My family also has 2 dogs, Beamer and Gabe. My family lives in the Denton area, and I graduated from Billy Ryan High school in Denton in 2008. For school I live on campus at TAMU-C. I love my roommate, Jessica, and we have a fish (Dave) and 2 hermit crabs (Latika and Ginger) in our apartment. I guess that's about it for now!