Blog 10

In a Spanish 1 and 2 classroom, the students are very diverse. Everyone comes in with a different level of Spanish knowledge. A survey is the quickest way to evaluate the starting point of each student and assists my understanding of where the students are coming from. The same survey at the end of the course can show me what and how much they remember in the course. In my first few years of teaching I will be self-assessing constantly and always acquiring feedback from students to see where I can improve. An excel spreadsheet is great for attendance, grades, and class averages. In my experience, seeing the class averages of tests gives me comfort if I did not do as well knowing that others did not either. It is a tangible tool to use to see if the students understood the material or if i need to go over some ideas. 

The most interesting week for blog was the one where we had to discuss Web 2.0. Many students found C.R.A.A.P.y sites that I had not heard of before and shared them to the blog. There are so many teachers in the world so it is nice to see there are sites customized to further professionals. Facebook is great but it is not used solely for education. Even with platforms I already knew how to use, I could see how others used it differently. Examples of this would be: a feature I did not know existed on Microsoft Word, a creativity aspect of Facebook, or ways to search for information on Google. 

A skill that I would like to learn is how to incorporate technology into the learning experience through hands on activity. Smartboards, 3D printers, and Microsoft Office all help me do my job but I am unaware of how to allow students to use these items to learn. Allowing students to use the Smartboard as a special reward can be a great motivator because it does so many cool things so I hope to learn what type of assignments I can do and how to implement the students' use of the Smartboard into the classroom. I know that there are great people at the Tech Sandbox who can help me which is great to be aware of. I can also join a group of professionals and ask their advice through a Web 2.0 site.