Teaching Activities

Priceless links for literature teaching activities:

http://www.englishcompanion.com/assignments/reading/103readingactivities.htm

http://www.adlit.org/strategy_library

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/literature/reading-instruction/5827.html?detoured=1

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/literature/teacher-resources/6641.html

this last one might be more elementary but there's some good "stuff" in there

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/

TeacherTubes!

The first TeacherTube I examined can be found at http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=3460&title=The_Great_Gatsby. This instructor did a short "home-made" documentary on his thoughts of The Great Gatsby. His documentary had saxophone music in the opening and closing, and I think at a few points when looking at photos. He had photos to illustrate what he was talking about. He also included excerpts of text from the novel, as a picture and being read by someone. It turns out that he did an excellent job following copyright laws. He cited exactly where he got the music. He cited where the photos came from. He did not use more than 10% of the text of the novel. It was an interesting thing to watch, and gave me a great idea for teaching. It could be fun for a class to see an example documentary of the teacher, and then the class (or groups in the class) could put together their own documentary for a project about a book the class reads.

The second video can be found at http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=3181&title=The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea__opening_passage. This video was just under a minute long and had a similar approach to the other one I watched: it was a narrator reading the opening passage from The Old Man and the Sea. He cited his works at the end, and added a special link so that anyone can check out the copyrights on the photos he used.

I picked videos that seemed more legitimate and worth my time, and I was rewarded with two that followed copyright laws very well. I am sure if I looked at videos that were a little less well- made there would be many issues with copyright infringement. I think TeacherTube can be a great resource, and even if you don't do exactly what they show on the video they get your creativity sparking!

My background and goals with technology

I learned how to use computers growing up and in school so I am pretty fluent with the survival stuff like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I am fairly fluent in the internet; however, that being said this is the first time I have ever really done a blog. The other thing I have done with computers is play games, to which I confess many hours of wasted time in life. Here's a great game to waste your time: http://www.addictinggames.com/bloonstowerdefense2.html

I have a facebook and I have unhappy grades from previous semesters to prove it. There's even a facebook group about it: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=4953151307

My major goals for this class and technology are to:

1. Find out what things are out there that I don't even know about
2. Learn how to use them fluently
3. Find their application in the field of Education

For example, I have NEVER used a webcam in my life. I just haven't really needed to use one before. But these Voicethreads seem fun and so I will learn to use one. There probably isn't too much more to it than just plugging it in and making sure it is pointed at the right spot. I guess I'll be finding out.

I look forward to a great semester and becoming more technology savvy!