Online Organization

The minute I saw the mind maps that bubbl.us offers it's visual appearance immediately reminded me of something I use to explore at the university. It is called Transformational Grammar and it deals with the rules our brains apply when processing language. One of the focuses of TG is a tree-like representation of sentence's structure just like the one I posted here. Now maybe this is not a mind map in the same sense we discussed in this module but then again maybe it is even more of a mind map then that:)

Mind maps could be used to help students enhance their organizational skills but I feel that with Lower School students this can only be done with a lot of help from the teacher. For example when we are having group discussions about various topics students can at the same time use mind maps to graphically represent our train of thoughts. This will help them get a more clear picture of the beauty of brainstorming and help them start to use this sort of tools in their future learning. However, I think that at young age this maybe a bit too advance for them and that's why at this period we should (as with bunch of other things) model this approach for them. One great way bubbl.us can be used however is story maps. Each time I want to use story maps in class I end up googeling through millions of versions until I find the one that most suite the story in question. With this web site in mind students can now make their own story maps adding the branches as they see fit. This will definitely make them more engaged in the activity then when they are simply presented with a printed copy of a map.

Google Earth

A night before my friend's trip to a congress in Florence she was wondering how close her hotel is to the building where the congress will take place and will she have enough time to see some of the city's sights. It was amazing to all of a sudden have this information just a click away. We took a 3D tour, followed the path from the hotel to the center of the city, it calculated the time, the distance and we had a peek of what she is going to see. So she had everything planed out and what I especially liked, the information she got were accurate (unlike the ones you get at travel agencies which most of the time just try to make sure you hear what you wanna hear) I must add that there are a lot of occasions when I would choose not to use Google Earth. There is just some special charm in going through the unknown town with a map and seeing some of the sights for the first time.

Google maps I'll definitely use for the unit on Explorers and I'll have the kids make a map of an explorer’s path. Also it can come in handy when talking about land forms that they can now visit without leaving the classroom (especially because some of the places happen to be too far away from school). Heroes, inventors and writers can also be located. Children will especially benefit from this since for the majority of them it is very important to have something they can visually connect the content to.

Picasa... nice!

While some people were trying to get some rest others just didn't feel tired enough... :)

How might we prepare students for a life of mass-sharing?

This is a question that occasionally pops into my mind every now and then or should I say each time my students demonstrate that sharing is not something they are particularly good at. At young age kids are more likely to gravitate towards clear cuts between mine and yours, starting with “my pencil”, “my eraser” to “my idea - stop copying”. This is why sharing is not an easy skill for them. In order to help them realize the benefits of cooperation we started reading stories that have a clear massage of what people can achieve when they are willing to work together. However, what kids of young age are good at is doing things without realizing they are doing them or in this case sharing without knowing that they are sharing. This happens each time we brainstorm things we know about a certain concept, figuring out how to solve a given problem, sharing ideas about text read etc. Also group activities are an excellent way of proving how they can put their minds together. What I try to do is arrange the groups so that the students whose opinions differ a lot are put in the same groups. This way I know that there will come a certain point when the clash of opinions will happen. That’s when I as a teacher step up as some sort of facilitator and help them incorporate what both sides are saying into their work. Often they end up being surprised that they can gain something out of a disagreement. I think the best way to prepare them for a life of mass-sharing is just to constantly show them trough work and practical examples how sharing enriches their learning and helps them come up with ideas that they would not be able to think of without a little nudge from others.

Online resources

What online resources have you used to improve your teaching, and how do you usually find them?

When I’m out of ideas or simply can’t think of the best way to present a new unit I turn to Google, type in name of a unit plus activities and usually what I read in first 3 or 4 web sites gets my imagination going. The websites that have proven to be quite useful are http://www.hajdeda.org.rs/ or http://www.zvrk.rs/. However, I must say that there is an obvious shortage of educational web sites in Serbian. I often find great ideas that could be applied to mother tongue classes but I need to further work on them by translating which is not always so simple because for example there could be a rhyme that needs to be preserved or a certain pattern that needs to be followed etc. What I lack the most are interactive websites. In one class there could be students of up to three different levels of knowledge and it is hard to work with such a diverse group because you’ll have three students that are finishing the tasks pretty fast and three that will take half an hour and another three that will need a whole class. The third group usually needs a teacher by their side and in these sorts of situations I wish I had a website that the first two groups can explore and do bunch of very fun tests and activities that will be just as amusing to them as they would be educational. What happens in my class is I constantly need to come to all three groups and check how they did and comment on their work so I’m usually a bit torn apart. It would be great if I had a “virtual assistant” in a form of an interactive website that could take half of my load without lowering the quality of what is going on in the classroom.

Then and Now

Think back a few years to how you used to use your computer. Describe any changes you've noticed over that time. Finally, make some predictions about your computer use in 2013.

Before I had my ancient laptop I was always afraid that figuring out how to use different features of computer could lead to erasing valuable files and causing it to breakdown.:)

I got my first computer back when I was in high school. At that time I remember we were learning the basics of MS DOS exploring commands such as time, date, cd, color, dir etc. Whether it will come a day when I will find these things applicable remains to be seen. However, better things were coming my way. Soon enough we started learning different ways of editing text in Microsoft Word and just when I thought things are finally making sense our teacher decided that we spent enough time in a computer lab and that we should go back to the white board and do some Basic Pascal programming…. Oh those days of horror.

At home I couldn’t wait for a friend of mine to come over and set my first Internet dial up connection. I clearly remember his explanation of what Internet is all about. He said that anything I could think of can be found online. Inexperience spoke out of me and I asked him to further clarify his words. He said, I quote – You see this door (pointing at my door) you can find information regarding this very same door online. And I thought to myself I couldn’t be more illuminated :)

Then came the days of advices coming from different experts each having their own explanation of why I should/shouldn’t be using a certain program followed by deleting and installing stuff. When I got tired of this I decided to seek help. This was the key of becoming accustomed to using a computer. All fear was gone and help menu became a true friend of mine.

Today Internet is the most valuable resource for me whether I’m preparing class activities, cooking dinner, figuring out ways to get to a certain location, reading news, socializing with people from other parts of the world etc.

Looking at people who lost the battle with technology I sometimes wonder am I going to become one of them as time passes. Will I be stuck using Microsoft Word when every one else turn to some other way advanced program. I hope not! So far I’m keeping up!:)

Being in a public domain ...

Some people have strong feelings about being in the public domain (meaning their pictures, thoughts, interests... can be potentially accessed by people they don't know). Explain your feelings? How do we address these concerns as teachers and role models? How do we teach this?

I guess I could say I’m among one of those people who have strong feelings about being in the public domain. I was never a big fan of web sites such as Facebook, Myspace etc. However, I am at the same time aware or their good sides and I always end up opening an account and exchanging information. This way I’m balancing between being a bit paranoid and staying open-minded.:) Having never had a bad experience regarding Internet surely helps.

I can’t imagine giving up the ability of having Internet as a resource where everything is just a click away. I also try to encourage my students to fully use it as a resource but to think twice before sharing any personal data online. Since they are very young I feel strongly about supervising the content they have access to both by parents at home and teachers at school. That is the simplest way to make sure they are getting the most out of Internet while at the same time staying safe.