My Chapter: 14

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Part II of our selected readings was to choose a chapter from the book and complete reflection questions. The sections included in the music, math, science, foreign language, english, health, physical education classrooms. I guess since I teach Business and Marketing and those are Technology based courses there wasn't a chapter for me! So, I chose the chapter on Integrating Technology in the ELL Classroom. I have had a lot of students in the past that do not speak very good English. On top of that, they aren't so technology-savvy. Two big whammies in a classroom full of teenage students!!

What I found most interesting was the Stages of Second Language Acquisition on page 335 (Table 14.2). To re-cap:

• Silent/Receptive=10hours to 6 months to get about 500 vocabulary words that they can understand but may not be able to use.


• Early Production= Addt'l 6 months to get 1,000 receptive and active words


• Speech Emergenc=Addt'l 12 months to get 3,000 words


• Intermediate Language Proficiency= Addt'l 12 months to get 6,000 words


• Advanced Language Proficiency= up to 5-7 years to develop specialized content-are vocab.

WOW!!! That is a lot of time! I know I struggled while learning spanish in high school but I've never had to use it fluently for any reason.

Studies have shown that using technology can help ELL students achieve success. Do you agree?

Professional Development Tool

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Those that know me know that I try to be pretty organized. I like to have a plan and have deadlines. I function better that way. For this course, we had to create a Professional Development Tool to help guide us through the completion of the course. Bascially, I created a calendar with dates to begin, dates to complete, and dates to submit assignments. I love it! I love being held accountable. This tool served as a great way for me to stay on target and on task to get all my work completed and I was able to do the work before the deadlines I had set for myself!

Anyone else love to work this way... or do some of you absolutely hate it?!

Podcasting

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How many of you have done a podcast before? How many have watched a podcast before? What do you think are the most popular podcasts? TV Shows? Music Videos? Religious Sermons? Comedy Routines? Podcasts are really neat!

What the wiki?

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I think wikis can be a GREAT and HORRIBLE thing! If all students could be trusted, using a wiki in class would be a great way to talk to each other. However, not everyone is nice and positive. Wiki's could cause cyber-bullying in the school/classroom. It's also great because students that may not speak up in class may speak up on the wiki! What do you think?

Mail Merge

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Mail merges are so simple and easy to do!! I love wizards in Word. Mail merges have made many tasks very simple when I have been working for my father and we have to send out a mass letter to over 1,000 customers. I can't imagine having to type the information in each letter individually.

Access: Databases CAN be fun!

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Speaking from experience (ORACLE Academy, for example) I am not a fan of databases. However, in Microsoft Office and Beyond (grades 10-12) and Computer Solutions (8th grade) we have to complete units on Access. I have found many websites to use for databases but my favorite is found at http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/Hovercraft/Jukebox/Databases/index.htm
It has GREAT modules and activities for the students to get involved in the process of making databases and using reports, etc.
Roanoke County paid for an 18 week online course for ORACLE and flew me to UCLA for a week and a half for ORACLE Academy a few years ago.... I still don't know exactly what I'm doing.. but I learned to have a greater appreciation for those that can work with databases 24/7.

Anyone else hate databases.... or is there someone that loves 'em and can't get enough??

Using Technology in general..

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I love technology. I love a challenge. I love computers. However, I know there are a lot of people that despise technology! There are older folks that have embraced the challenge of the times and others that don't know and don't care to know how to turn on a computer. I know that computers can be extremely frustrating but they also do GREAT and WONDERFUL things!

One thing to keep in mind is technology is not going anywhere anytime soon so it's something that should be welcomed with open arms.

How do you feel about technology?

Technology Funding

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Jane James, the Director of Technology for Roanoke County Schools said, "The VPSA Technology Grant is funded at $26,000 per school, plus $50,000 for the division. Our total allotment is $804,000. Sounds like a lot of money, but it doesn't seem to go far enough!"

I couldn't agree more. Even though $26,000 is a lot of money, do you think it's enough? Why or Why not? Do you think that technology is necessary in schools? What technology do you think is most important for students to have access to and learn about while in school?

Web 2.0

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I know I've discussed Pod Casting and Wikis.. but I love Web 2.0.

What is the most amazing to me is all the freeware and shareware available. I use GoogleDocs all the time. It's a great way to collaborate with team members but it's also so great that you can open your files from any computer anywhere. This is really nice when you have forgotten your flashdrive.

Yes, there are glitches. But, nothing is perfect. As we have discussed in other classes, there will eventually be almost no need for purchasing discs to load software because you can download it from the internet. There are pros and cons to this. It reminds me of when CD burning became popular and those in the music industry became angry about people stealing their music.

How do you feel about freeware and shareware? What about Web 2.0? Is it all it's cracked up to be or is it just too much more to learn for you?

Digital Tools

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We were assigned multiple chapters to read from our textbook and complete reflection questions on. My favorite chapter was 4 where we learned about Digital Tools that Support Learning. This chapter reminded me a lot about a class that I taught for two years while at William Byrd High School. It was called "Digital Input Technologies" and for the 36 weeks in class we learned how to use speech recognition software, PDA's, writing tablets, HTML code, and a lot of good 'ol fashion keyboarding. The chapter didn't go into great detail on any of these other that some on HTML. It gave me better ideas on some other things to use in the digital class and in my IT Fundamentals class. Photo stories, blogging, wikis, etc are all great tools to utilize in the classroom.

How many of you have used HTML code before? What about voice recognition, tablets, or PDAs? Have you even heard of all of these? Why do you think so many people are afraid of digital tools?

On-Line Survey

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I think that using on-line surveys work great in certain circumstances. For education, they can be a GREAT way to get information out of your students that don't normally speak up in class. Outside of education, surveys serve a great purpose also but they can be a little bit annoying to someone taking them. Some surveys are too long or have too many answers to choose from. They can get confusing.

I didn't know that there were so many great sites that you can create free surveys on. I used survey monkey for my FBLA survey and I am planning on using it at the begining of next school year.

Scavenger Hunt Findings

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I had to complete a scavenger hunt around my school building for different technologies and people that can help with technology. At Glenvar we have a great resource team for help with laptops, desktops, and anything technological. I love it! Most of the items on the scavenger hunt were in my classroom since I teach a lot of technology but I was forced out of my classroom and down the hall to other folks to help me along the hunt. I learned where the server was located and who is in charge of it. I also was able to talk to other teachers about technology in their classrooms and what they would like to learn more about.

The most interesting thing I found was how a lot of the teachers and students have not read the Acceptable Use Policy that they each sign at the begining of the school year. As parents, teachers, and students, how do you feel about the Acceptable Use Policy? Why should students and teachers be held to rules and stipulations as to how their computers (mainly re: internet) should be used?