Screencast

Here is the screencast of everything I did for the semester in this class.  It was a really great semester and I had a lot of fun, and certainly learned a lot!  I look forward to learning more next semester in ITLA and utilizing everything I have learned in this class in my fieldwork classrooms, as well as my future classroom.

Twitter Reflection

Today in class our group (GASP) presented the use of Twitter in the classroom.  I think it went pretty well in regards of showing the class how to make their own fake tweets to use in the classroom in order to engage students through using social media.  I think there were a lot of ways we didn't even think it could be used in the classroom, especially the back end stuff Dr. Harvey was talking about.  I think this could be used in the classroom for real, if the classrooms either have electronics (smart phones, Ipads, etc.) and if the kids have twitter accounts.  The latter may be the hardest since some students will most likely be against starting one (I was...I only started one because of this class).

Overall, I think we made it pretty clear that Twitter has a place in the classroom, whether it be fake or real.  As someone who went to high school before smartboards and Ipads, Twitter seemed like a sorta weird idea to be used in the classroom before I did this project and learned all the valuable ways Twitter could and should be used in the classroom.  It has some the benefits of the smart response systems and a unique way to engage the students in a world where social media rules their lives and everyone else's as well.

For this project, I helped Chris create the video on how to make an account, and I put all the fake twitter feeds together (because the website for some reason would not show LONG tweets, so I had to photoshop them together).  And I also experimented with the other fake twitter website and made the hilarious Thomas Jefferson tweet that for some reason did not show up.

Here is my lesson plan!

Clicker Lesson Reflection

Today I presented my lesson using the Clickers.  I have used the clickers before in college classes, and I never really enjoyed using them because they were mostly used for attendance or for a quiz that counted as our attendance.

Overall, this lesson was fun.  Definitely made me rethink how I feel about clickers, I think because it was used for a game instead of a quiz.  I think that may be one of the only ways I would use the clickers or maybe to check for understanding during lessons.  I think the lesson went well, and I'm glad I made it a game because this class LOVES games and competition so it really made them get into it and try to answer the questions correctly!

For the purposes of this class I think I should have shown a youtube video maybe to give the class a little background, but I decided it against doing it beforehand because I thought it would make the lesson too long.  In the end, it would have been good simply for this class, my students should remember that stuff if its review right after a lesson, but the video may have helped move the questions along a bit quicker and thus, made my lesson presentation quicker.

In the end, I think this went well!  It showed me a different side of the clickers and made me look at using them as an educator and not a student.  I think making it a game was me remembering what I didn't like as a student so I could fix that as an educator.  I enjoyed using these and hopefully I'll be able to use them in the future!

Here is my lesson plan!