It is fact of life: people enjoy doing what they excel at. In a world where students are sending over 500 million tweets per day, where their special moments are captured and shared through Instagram, and where connecting with old friends has become simple by using Facebook, younger generations are relying on technology to express themselves more than ever. Students are bored of being forced to sit in uncomfortable chairs and listen to lengthy lectures, all the while yearning for their technology. Why do educators continue to put their students behind bars, taking away their rights to express themselves freely? While some teachers have taken the steps in incorporating technology into their classrooms, it is time for all future teachers to take a stand and allow their students the freedom and privileges of expressing themselves the way they want to and the way they can do it best. Long gone are the days of students hiding cell phones beneath the desks, praying that the teacher will not catch a glimpse and take it away. The time has come that technology be fully incorporated into the classroom. As a future high school English teacher, I believe that technology is ever-changing, keeping us on our toes to continue in constant learning in order to better our technology practices for the success of our students. When one thinks of a high school English class, technology is not something that usually comes to mind. What usually is thought of are lengthy written papers and endless books packed with difficult words. If someone would have asked me how to include technology into an English class before I took the Educational Technology course, I would not have been able to give an answer. However, because of my Educational
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Technology course, I have learned many ways to do the unthinkable: incorporate technology in order to effectively communicate into an English class. Communication is key in a classroom setting not only with just the students, but also with parents and guardians. In order to effectively get across what a teacher wants from his or her students, he or she must use a reliable way to communicate. During my time in the Educational Technology course, I researched and even presented at the conference my findings on an educational social media site called Edmodo. Edmodo is innovative and fun for students because it functions basically like Facebook, one of the most popular social media networks available today. Edmodo is also interesting because as a teacher, you can create polls, quizzes, post assignments, post grades in an online grade book, and leave electronic badges or prizes for students when they are doing well. You can also post and communicate to parents. Edmodo is a free application and is easily accessible for students and parents. This is a good way to make sure that the snow days Ohio is known for will not take a toll on the students education. Students will be able to get onto their Edmodo account and take a quiz at home or even complete and submit an assignment from their houses. Edmodo will be my basic form of communication, and from there I can basically post everything that the parents and students will need to have a successful English education. One important document that I will post onto the Edmodo account is the classroom newsletter. Every Friday, I will send a paper newsletter home with the students that tells the agenda for the following week. I will also upload the newsletter as a PDF and e-mail it to all of the parents. Having a paper copy and an electronic copy will be effective in case one of my students does not have a computer at home for their parents to
receive the e-mail copy or the Edmodo copy, and it is without question that most students will forget to give the paper copy to their parents with their busy schedules. Classroom newsletters are a great way to reiterate exactly what needs done in a week span. In my newsletter for the Educational Technology course, I pretended to be a senior English teacher and it was the first newsletter of the year. I began with a Letter from Ms. Tippel section where I introduced myself and where later, I can include my thoughts for the week. I then went on to create a Syllabus for the Week section that included the assignments due for each day and the agenda for each day. With the first page being basically classroom news, the second page included a School Spirit section which told what sporting events were happening, what clubs and organizations had open positions, etc. The second page also included a College/University of the Week section in order to introduce students to different schools, an Inspiring Tweet of the Week section, and a Pinterest Quote of the Week section. My newsletter included technology and social media networks in order to attract the attention of the students and the parents. I would make the first newsletter, and then as an assignment, I would have one student make the newsletter per week. The student would have to research schools and write about them, update the syllabus, find an inspiring tweet and a Pinterest quote, and research the organizations at school that had open positions. This would be helpful for the research aspect of English. In English classes around the country, students are constantly bogged down by essays that have to be perfectly formatted into APA or MLA formats. While knowing APA and MLA is important, it is also important that students write from their own words,
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thoughts, and beliefs. Some web 2.0 tools that are exceptional for personal and collaborative writing for students that I will use in my classroom are Glogster, Blogger, and Wikispaces. Students will have fun all while getting their work done by using these tools. These tools would be great for journal entries and homework questions based on books we read in class. Although these web 2.0 tools are great for students, I still believe there is a need for students to know how to format papers and write professionally. While Glogster, Blogger, and Wikispaces are good for discussions and talking about opinions, I will still assign my students papers that will allow them to learn the professional writing skills they need for college and future careers. Organization is necessary for all students in order to keep on top of their homework and assignments and to get the grades that they deserve. One of my favorite organizational methods was a web 2.0 tool called Live Binders. Students can post papers, videos, pictures, and choose which sections they would like in their binder. In my high school English class, I will have all of the students use Live Binders to keep track of their assignments for the year in a creative way, and then turn it in to me at the end of the year. I could use this as a grade for the students for their final semester to boost up their points. This interactive way of organizing makes it fun for the students. Organizing no longer has to be a daunting task, but can be interesting and use creation as well. As teachers, we can never guarantee that all of our students will be present everyday. It is difficult to keep track of the students who were missing and it is difficult to remember to present them with their absent work when they come back to school. As I mentioned before, Edmodo is great for students to check for their assignments, but there are also a couple of other tools that are great for students who miss class to stay on top of
their school work. If we are working with anything on the computers, I could create a Screencast for the students who missed class as a tutorial to get to where they need to be. Another great tool to utilize for absent students or even when I am missing and there is a substitute is a Voice Thread. With Voice Thread, I have the ability to record myself speaking and the ability to create a slideshow presentation to teach the students while I am not there, and the students have the ability to reply in a discussion based way. This way, no day is wasted and every day is an educational one. As a teacher, learning is a life-long process. With an ever-changing technology, teachers must continue in their learning practices in order to master technology and utilize it in their classrooms. Just like books and papers, students will get bored with certain technologies as time goes on, so it is imperative to continue in our learning practices to make school a fun and innovative experience for students as well as a truly educational experience. I know, after learning from Dr. Capel in my Educational Technology course, that incorporating these technologies such as Edmodo, Blogger, and Live Binder into my classroom will provide students with better learning opportunities. Students will be happy to be excelling at their school work, and we, as future educators, will be happy to see the success emanating from our classrooms.