Journal Writing Response lesson 4

After having viewed the web page with the life of Anne frank i am curious as to how she survived in hiding for so long. Wouldn't she have wanted to go out doors, speak to new people, just be free.It was as if she had imprisoned herself. She had done nothing wrong but she was locked up and all the wicked persons were running free, tormenting her life. I would go crazy, with nothing to do but write, i would miss all the deices I have now and most especially going on face book. if you think about it, facebook is my diary is some sense, i can do a nit more than write though.
Anne was really a very strong and determined person. She had lots of ideas and I guess she got rid of her frustration by writing in her journal. She has one advantage though, she did not have to go to school.

Mr. Mc Arthur

In this story the teacher, Mr. Mc Arthur, seems to be very frustrated by his class. There are several unruly boys who have on many occasions tempted his patience. He has become tired and worn out from trying t teach the class. He goes home gloomily and from his haggard appearance he seems very stressed with his class. He changes from a weak and depressed person to one who fights back. He is very crafty and brave. He choose an unusual way to deal with the situation. Imagine waiting to catch that animal for his spell. I think many teachers would wish that children like this would disappear but he choose to turn them into pigs, probable based on their behavior. I do wonder if he thought about the consequences of placing that spell. I thought he would have given them detention. I wonder where he is and if he will have to do the same again, I mean children are the same everywhere. I think i will be paying more attention to my teachers, being turned into a pig is not so amusing, well at least not for me.

School is the same everywhere

Animation: Educated Fish


Animation: Educated Fish

Schools is the same everywhere.

Virtual Field Trip

Have you ever considered going on a Virtual field trip? It's cost effective, saves time , you can do it in the privacy of your classroom, so much more manageable and of course your class will want to go again and again. In many of our schools students come to us disadvantaged wither because of family situations or income.Many of them have a little pre-knowledge beyond home and what they experience at school, an outing is like a vacation. The only way we can expose them to culture and the many experiences life has to offer is to take them on Virtual Field trips.This wealth of information that they can gain from visiting museums, or even virtual exhibits can create in them a desire to want to know more about the world and lead them to navigate going on these field trips on their own time. It lends to student motivation and can be transferred later when the formal lesson beings in class, they will now have information on which they can draw on for discussions and more important for writing assignments. My English teacher always tools us, to write what we knew, what we were familiar with. If we do not give them the experiences, what would they draw upon?
Check out this site.

http://www.theteachersguide.com/virtualtours.html#Museums

CellPhone Classroom

In all our discussions on using Technology in the classroom I must admit that I have not seen anyone Blog about using the Cellphone to conduct assignments and for during the class time. Yes I know that the MOE has regulations concerning having and use of the cellphone , but we know that as soon as miss/sir steps out of the classroom the hands start texting and for the students with a blackberry e-mails are on the go. It has even gotten to the stage where one Cellular service provided has included the ability to check facebook and twitter updates form their cellphones. We can use this to our advantage, I have successfully used the cellphone for vocabulary and spelling quizes, for creating sentences and in the instance where I have written a sentence using the text writing on the board and have students text the sentence in the Re-corrected Standard English format.It can be used in science to capture picture data of experiments for data to show progress and even the event in Social studies where the students used the camera to capture picture of cultural events, festivals and school activities for their coursework portfolio. In this case I may not need the use of the laptop to create short stories, the students can capture photos from which they can write.

http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/
This site shows how the Cell Phone can be changed from Toy to Tool.

I have listed here from the site some ways students think that the cellphone can be useful.
* Look up information on Internet
* Record or take notes
* Work on projects with classmates
* Access digital textbooks
* Take videos of class presentations or experiments
* Play educational games
* Communicate with classmates
* Receive reminders and alerts
* Organize schoolwork
* Communicate with teacher
* Learn about school activities
* Access social networks
* Create and share documents/media
* Upload assignments and work to portals
* Coordinate calendars
* Share/edit bookmarks

The article by McKenna and Walpole from the International reading association, How well does assessment inform our reading instruction, 84-86, was very significant as I am faced in my institution with teachers who do not take time to ensure that their students are authentically assessed.

The article looks at assessment and the impact that it has on classroom instruction. They looked at teacher practice where there was a planned and structured form of assessment and one in which the teacher has no formal training to deal with assessment.

In the school where there was no formal plan of action the teacher who does not have school or district support is constrained by time and experience in the field of assessment. In the situations when assessment was administered, the teacher was also unable to adequately analyze the information. As such they were not able to identify specifically which students needed instruction and what format it should take. The teacher here operated on a trial by error basis, thus many students were not receiving the instruction needed. In contrast the teacher who was trained and followed a Reading First model supported by all the stakeholders involved was able to successfully use the diagnostic tests and gauge for the data collected whether instruction and intervention methods were working. Despite the success in gathering the data, there was no continuous support provided in the form of extensive professional development for the instructors involved.

It is important to note that schools which adopt a Reading First model are able to gather valuable data to determine instruction. It is not enough however to simply collect data. What is important in these schools and those without such a program is the fact that teachers who are experts in reading will be successful in meeting the needs of struggling reading if they are continually supported in the form of professional development. As such schools must have a formalized Reading program and the Intervention and Assessment methods to ensure the best for their students.

Illiteracy in the Content Area Classroom

L Alger the article Engaging student teachers’ hearts and minds in the struggle to address (ill) literacy in content area classrooms examines the use of the Literature Circle format as an avenue for creating awareness of the social issues with pre-service teachers. It takes into consideration that many content area teachers are not trained in the techniques of content area literacy. They see themselves as being specifically responsible for delivering content and that learning to read was a task that students would have mastered at the elementary school level. Alger notes that many content area teachers employed comprehension as a teaching/learning task but did not strategically teach comprehension skills. The article lists several obstacles to literacy instruction in the content area classes which include the view held by teachers that literacy is a method that is “apolitical”. Additionally the socio-economic characteristics on many teachers made them far removed from the situations faced by the struggling reader. As such these teachers held no priority for the necessity of integrating literacy into their content area.

The Literature circle format was thus developed for pre-service teachers to alter their perceptions with regards to literacy and it s importance in their classroom. They were thus sensitized into understanding the challenges. The activities led to teachers reading literature connect to the themes of literacy and social justice. They were exposed to literature circles and the methods which they would use to implement them into their classrooms later on. This experience led to the teachers reflecting on the need for literacy and the connections for life and the role it performs in their specific content area. The responses at the end of the program seemed sincere but it may be that the teachers gave the expected response within the experience of the Literature circle necessary to complete the course.