Standard #11-Demonstrate sufficient technology skills and the ability to integrate technology into classroom teaching/learning
The 21st century has experienced a drastic increase in technology and social media, so it is crucial that teachers keep up with the rapidly changing technology uses. While traditional practices are important to develop students’ skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, there are a new set of skills that also must be considered. As educators, we must foster these ‘new
literacies’ in students for them to be successful in a society where technology is flourishing. Completely ignoring these new literacies and remaining with traditional writing practices fails to teach students skills that are becoming increasingly important in the 21st century.
In the classroom, technology allows us reach the students on many differentiated levels. Today's students have grown up in a world with technology as a part of their youth. They are digital natives, masters of technology even before they enter our
classrooms. It is our job as educators to continue to develop professionally and stay up to date on the current changes in technology in order to assist students in this type of literacy. In the classroom, I am constantly using technology whether it is youtube clips or group activities using the smartboard.
With the eighth grade students at Whitney Point Middle School, I had students develop a facebook character profile centered around a character from the popular novel, The Hunger Games. The students were completely invested in the project due to its relevance and connectedness to their digital lives. Therefore, the level of student performance was high, not only in their
demonstration of new literacies, but even in the multiple areas of writing. Attached is a list of requirements that the students had to include in their character profiles. By integrating this technological skill into the curriculum, students remained stimulated and engaged. Because all the other eighth grade students saw their character profiles as well, the assessment became authentic and probed the students to do a thorough job where they performed at their highest potential.
Furthermore, there were several occassions in which we used the online platform todaysmeet.com in order to have effective discussions that invlolved students interest in technology. Todaysmeet enabled the students to converse with one another in a chatroom type platform. I would probe the students with questions regarding the chapters they read from the novel and the students would respond by typing their answers for the entire group to see. In order to replicate their online lives, the students were able to use texting language or appropriate slang and were also able to provide their input at any given time. I found that students felt very comfortable with this type of discussion and were much more willing to participate. I saw students who barely talked in class open up and contribute to the discussion, which I believe directly correlated with the format of the discussion, which they are all so familiar with today in the 21st century.
While it is important for students to be the ones to run the discussion, it is important for educators to intermittently interject in order to guide the discussion. For example, when we studied the short story “The House Guest,” we had frequent
discussions about the protagonist, Bridgie, who was living in America because of conflict in her home country, Ireland. I wanted students to realize how America was idealized in this text, but I didn’t want to just tell them. Instead, I would prompt them with questions, or point out passages that allowed them to come to their own conclusions. Through TodaysMeet, the students were able to discuss the cultural implications of the text, which made America look very glamorous in comparison to Ireland. We examined several passages that idealized America and small, rural communities. Since Whitney Point is a small rural community itself, the students had first-hand experience with this topic. Students were very willing to voice their opinion on their living conditions, struggles, triumphs, etc. With guidance from the teacher and specific prompts to get them started, the students were able to see how the material connected with their lives and situations that they could directly relate to, which in turn, allowed the students were able to have meaningful and powerful discussions.
Facebook character profile
TodaysMeet
The 21st century has experienced a drastic increase in technology and social media, so it is crucial that teachers keep up with the rapidly changing technology uses. While traditional practices are important to develop students’ skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, there are a new set of skills that also must be considered. As educators, we must foster these ‘new
literacies’ in students for them to be successful in a society where technology is flourishing. Completely ignoring these new literacies and remaining with traditional writing practices fails to teach students skills that are becoming increasingly important in the 21st century.
In the classroom, technology allows us reach the students on many differentiated levels. Today's students have grown up in a world with technology as a part of their youth. They are digital natives, masters of technology even before they enter our
classrooms. It is our job as educators to continue to develop professionally and stay up to date on the current changes in technology in order to assist students in this type of literacy. In the classroom, I am constantly using technology whether it is youtube clips or group activities using the smartboard.
With the eighth grade students at Whitney Point Middle School, I had students develop a facebook character profile centered around a character from the popular novel, The Hunger Games. The students were completely invested in the project due to its relevance and connectedness to their digital lives. Therefore, the level of student performance was high, not only in their
demonstration of new literacies, but even in the multiple areas of writing. Attached is a list of requirements that the students had to include in their character profiles. By integrating this technological skill into the curriculum, students remained stimulated and engaged. Because all the other eighth grade students saw their character profiles as well, the assessment became authentic and probed the students to do a thorough job where they performed at their highest potential.
Furthermore, there were several occassions in which we used the online platform todaysmeet.com in order to have effective discussions that invlolved students interest in technology. Todaysmeet enabled the students to converse with one another in a chatroom type platform. I would probe the students with questions regarding the chapters they read from the novel and the students would respond by typing their answers for the entire group to see. In order to replicate their online lives, the students were able to use texting language or appropriate slang and were also able to provide their input at any given time. I found that students felt very comfortable with this type of discussion and were much more willing to participate. I saw students who barely talked in class open up and contribute to the discussion, which I believe directly correlated with the format of the discussion, which they are all so familiar with today in the 21st century.
While it is important for students to be the ones to run the discussion, it is important for educators to intermittently interject in order to guide the discussion. For example, when we studied the short story “The House Guest,” we had frequent
discussions about the protagonist, Bridgie, who was living in America because of conflict in her home country, Ireland. I wanted students to realize how America was idealized in this text, but I didn’t want to just tell them. Instead, I would prompt them with questions, or point out passages that allowed them to come to their own conclusions. Through TodaysMeet, the students were able to discuss the cultural implications of the text, which made America look very glamorous in comparison to Ireland. We examined several passages that idealized America and small, rural communities. Since Whitney Point is a small rural community itself, the students had first-hand experience with this topic. Students were very willing to voice their opinion on their living conditions, struggles, triumphs, etc. With guidance from the teacher and specific prompts to get them started, the students were able to see how the material connected with their lives and situations that they could directly relate to, which in turn, allowed the students were able to have meaningful and powerful discussions.
Facebook character profile
TodaysMeet