Podcast Reflection #6 "Practice, Practice, Practice: The Value of Repeated Reading"

In this episode of Teacher Created Materials, Dr. Rasinski discusses the importance of repetition and practice in teaching students to read. According to Dr. Rasinski, there are over forty scientific studies showing a positive relationship between repeated readings and the level of comprehension and success. He points out that not only is it important for students to be reading the information silently, it is also important for students to give a voice to the material by repeating it out loud. In doing so, the student will gain a deeper understanding for both the information and the character behind the story. An example Dr. Rasinski brings to mind is Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" Speech. When students read this text once, they probably will not understand it's meaning as fully as they would if they were to recite the speech out loud and attempt to put themselves into that time and place. While the idea of "practice makes perfect" might seem rather obvious, it is important to keep in mind when planning reading lessons and teaching students in your future classroom.

Animoto In My Classroom

After registering for the free membership to Animoto and playing around with the tool, I believe it could be used as a very fun tool for students and teachers in the classroom. My first idea was that it would be a really cool way for a teacher to introduce herself/himself to the students and give them insight regarding who their teacher is as a person. This idea could be continued into the school year as part of a star student activity in which one student would be selected each week to create a video about themselves and share with their classmates. Animoto can also be linked to the curriculum in various ways. First, teachers could use the tool to create short videos which would serve as lesson introductions and capture students attention. It could also be used in digital storytelling, serve as a replacement for boring old PowerPoint presentations, and a variety of other ways. In fact, Andrew Marcinek had some very cool ideas for using Animoto in different subject areas in his post Hello Animoto in the Classroom 2.0 forum. All in all, I really love using this tool and I believe it could serve a variety of purposes in an educational setting.

Podcast Reflection #5 Lessons From Haiti--Read, Read, Read

This podcast produced by Amanda Thieroff was very eye-opening about the lack of literacy worldwide. In Haiti specifically, forty-four percent of the population is illiterate, and the problem is only bound to grow with the lack of education taking place after the earthquake. She points out that while many of us participated in story time or had adults read to us during our childhood, many children are not provided these same opportunities. Therefore, programs like Li, Li, Li, a non-profit organization which has sent volunteers out into the community to read to groups of youth, are very important. While the children might not be learning to read themselves, they are made aware of the importance of reading and have something fun to get their mind off their daily worries at the same time. To learn more about Amanda's series "Haiti Education After The Earthquake," click here.

Podcast Reflection #4 0080 TCT - Happy New Year!

Helen and Anna, The Tech Chicks, offer a variety of online resources and tools through their frequent podcast updates. In this particular recording, there were several websites I am definitely interested in exploring more.
 First, makeuseof.com-offers a long list of printable calendars in various themes and types which can be very handy for organization and planning. After our "Fun with Text" assignments last week I really enjoyed their discussion of Tagxedo, during which I learned more tips and tricks for using the site. Next, Knoword is a fun vocabulary game which would be great for students to play when they finish an assignment early and something to do until the next lesson. Finally, with such high emphasis placed on standardized tests, many educators and parents alike worry about decreased creativity in today's youth. At 11 Free Resources About Creativity, there are great ideas for fostering creativity in your students which I am excited to read more about.

0080 TCT - Happy New Year!

Fun With Text

 Wordle is a website that enables you to create free word clouds using whatever text you choose, and then customize the design to your liking. The more frequently a word appears in the text you enter, the bigger the word will appear on your cloud. In the classroom, teachers have used this tool to help their students learn spelling and vocabulary words. It could also be used in reading to help the students identify main topics or themes in stories which they are assigned. Tagxedo is a very similar website to Wordle, but after using them both I developed a preference for Tagxedo. This is because instead of simply scrambling the selected text into a cloud, Tagxedo allows you to arrange your words into one of the many shapes they have available, making the end product more interesting. Furthermore, all of the variants of the design you create are saved in a history, so you can compare each of them and select the one you like best. Finally, Tagxedo also provides a Google document on their homepage titled 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo, which includes several creative ways to use the website in education.

Podcast Reflection #3: Facebook Talk

Kevin Honeycutt has a podcast series called Driving Questions 2010 which can be found through his personal website as well iTunes. The specific podcast I chose to listen to was Facebook Talk, which I found especially interesting as the use of social media continues to rise. In this chat, Kevin and his colleagues discuss the ramifications of bullying through social media, which happens all too frequently today. In order to combat the effects of this activity, they discussed the importance for children to take the high road and form advocacy groups in order to counteract the bullying. While this is a great suggestion, it concerns me in the fact that it draws more attention to the negative behavior and can lead to further consequences socially for the child experiencing problems. After considering how often cyber-bullying occurs, Kevin and his colleagues began to consider whether it is appropriate for young children to be able to participate in social networks. While I do not know the answer to this question, I believe it is something that needs to be deeply considered as the age of children joining networks decreases. Yes, social networks are a great way for kids to connect with each other. However, at such a young age I do not believe children fully understand the ramifications of making their lives so public. Therefore, it is important students are educated about appropriate use of social media before they are given full privileges to use these tools. Also, it is equally important for responsible adults to be involved in monitoring the child's online activity every step of the way.