Teacher to Be

I am reviewing Miram’s Blog titled Google Docs. I found it a really good idea setting up a ‘how to’ when creating a google doc. Amzing that 100 accounts have been set up. It made me think about my own students and how I could incorporate it into my teaching.  The embedded Video did not seem to work but I am sure it is a good video. 

The fact that she also included the good and the bad is good for teachers in order to access whether they would be able to use it in their classroom. The benefit of a “collaborative workspace ” can’t be ignored, students working together. It means students in ‘japanese’ (my subject area) can learn from each other but I as the teacher can correct their work and their peers will see it and can change it in their own work if they made the same mistake.

I defintly believe that when I have my own class I will use this as a guide to my students creating their own google Docs.

I was reading the blog Sophie wrote on “Self similarity:childhood sketch to field of study”  and I found it interesting.

When it comes to teaching langauges we have to look at “hobbies, talents and imaginations”. We use these in our teaching, students are always coming up with new hobbies that even as a language teacher, I have to find out what it translate to.  I like the idea that something is sparked in us as children that grows until we are what we are today.  The idea that “interests can be directly linked to their cognitive development and later achievement.” intrigues me because this means that if a students interest lies in the destructive, what could this mean for their future. However, overall I would have to agree with Sophies thinking, we do need to take into account our students interests and not just our interests when it comes to teaching, because half their time is spent in school, their interest should be nurtured not squashed.

Julia’s post

I completely agree with this post. It is true that teachers need to be taught the new technologies. There are of course certain teachers that may not want to change but like Julia stated “Teachers want more training, better technology and more support to take full advantage of the digital revolution sweeping through the education sector”. Really what teacher wouldn’t really want to learn and know more than what their students know.  So really Train the teachers and we won’t have to deal with all this “digital native, digital immigrants”, if everyone is trained then no problem, we should know more than our students, or at least be on the same level.

One of my favourite things that Jabiz wrote was “I see effectively using technology as a way to help students experiment with new tools to help them discover how to access, interpret, and use information not only from static web-based sources, but from interactive student-created networks”. I agree completely, I do not believe that we as teachers should integrate technology into our teaching just for the sake of it. It should apart of us, something we do automatically, something that helps us not inhibits us. Empowering our students to use the technology is a must.

 I love the fact that here is a teacher that is not afraid of the technology and actively goes about his life incorporating it into his teaching and doesn’t view it as a hassle but as an advantage, a guide, something to help him. He repeats what another blogger says and quotes him along with many other blogger. It shows that he not only creates his own blog but he is well read and actively searches other bloggers out and reads what they have to say. He quotes Ewan and write; “It’s more about helping learners become more world-aware, more communicative, learning from each other, understanding first hand what makes the world go around.”

This I believe is the core idea to using technology in our teaching. The internet surrounds the leaner with different cultures, different portals to different worlds. Places they can visit online that they wouldn’t normally be able to visit at school. They can connect with many different people of many different language of different countries. It opens up avenues that weren’t thought possible. I believe that incorporating technology into our teaching is a must and the more you know the better you are at teaching your students the technologies they already have a grasp on. It is what makes the world goes round, it is our world, we need to keep up or be forced to the bottom of the pile, seen to be inferior in our knowledge when compared to the computer savy teens we are teaching.

Mings’ post

Reading about the fact that someone may be FOB (fresh off the boat) came as quite a shock to me. I never really thought that there were actual people out there that didn’t know about computers, even rudimentary knowledge. I find it refreshing that someone who has never really wanted to have contact with a computer to create, is now attempting to covert to becoming an immigrant. I agree that “this digital technology will act as an energy booster for my students.” That technology is the way to go in the future classrooms as well as the present classrooms. That some people will need to take more time to come into this and that it will be a hard step. I find it brave and encouraging that change is coming to the non native generations.

Image sourced 11 August 2008, from, http://z.about.com/d/familycrafts/1/0/f/y/1/tagclaphand.jpg