Week 12

I'm nearly done with my lesson plan and think that this was the easiest one yet to write for this class. I hadn't made a screencast before that was just talking students through how to use a website. It took less planning and prep to be able to do that portion of the lesson plan and the rest of the lesson plan seemed easier as a result.

In the aftermath of the bombings at the Boston Marathon, I would use this opportunity to bring this current event and talk about it with the class. I would share with them that because I am a runner I also feel for all the runners that were running in the Marathon that after all their hard work did not get to finish the race. With this we could discuss point of view.

Week 11

I really enjoyed the virtual field trip that I did for my first field trip and think that I will explore the possibilities it has to offer further by developing my next lesson plan based around the students doing a virtual tour at home. I have come to find that I really love google drive when a speedy Internet connection is readily available. It has made it very easy to collaborate in this class and in our other class, TCH 630. I am starting to use it more for personal use as well. And my biggest gripe about it is that when using the app on a tablet, you can make the documents viewable offline, but can't make changes that would sync up once you get an Internet connection. This was an issue for me while I was traveling which I solved by just not doing homework while I was on vacation. :)

Week 10

From this weeks materials what i found the most interesting is skype in the classroom. I just think it is a great way to connect with other classrooms to create a collaborative learning environment. It seems like it would be so easy to find a project or create a project and find another class to work with. I think this would be a great way educate students about multicultural issues. I am not sure about using edmodo in elementary schools, I don't know that it would be a good way to communicate with first graders. Although, I do think that it could be useful for connecting with parents.

Week 9

I think that it is increasingly important for students to have multicultural education. The world is getting smaller everyday. It seems that it is more important to be tolerant right where we live as even the small towns in Wisconsin are becoming more diverse. This makes it more important for students to learn to be tolerant, but it also offers them more education about other cultures without ever leaving the classroom. I think it would be a great idea in a more diverse classroom for students to help inform their fellow classmates about their culture through a little presentation. I tutored two boys that attended an international school, they had an international day where families came in and set up booths with food, drinks, music, clothes from their respective cultures.