Listening to your students and Technology.

Hi colleagues, I was pleasantly surprised by the turn of events that transpired in our last session. Two things happened that gave me a sense of hope. The first had to do with the rate at which we were going and the second to do with the assessment rubric for the lesson plans. The rate at which we were going in our labs left me breathless. Most days I caught some parts of the lesson but needed more time for supervised practice. Other students had the same problem as myself.
When Cherisse told us that we were going to have that supervised time to practice and work on our technology for our lesson plans there was and audible sigh of relief from the class. How would we have been able to complete our assignment to a high standard.

This leads me to the second point, the way in which students discussed another issue that will affect us in a negative way if nothing is done about it. We have a definite concern about the scales on the assessment rubric, the movement from 6-3-0. There is not much movement there. What about, if your work just fell just under 6, would you be assigned a mark of 3? Would that be fair to the student? Where are the in between marks to cater for such an eventuality? This needs to be addressed.

I would like to humbly suggest that supervised practice time in the lab sessions become a part of the design feature of this course in the future. What do you think? Success builds success. Listening to students and addressing their issues is key to their learning and emotional wellbeing. Are their implications for our own classrooms? Do we listen to our students when they reach out to us?

Looking forward to next class! Blessings.

Falling in love and eBooks

Hi Colleagues, I have fallen in love with eBooks. I love everything about eBooks. It is a great tool for using with struggling readers and the disabled. What I like about eBooks is that students have the choice of choosing to create from a point of strength. Their creative strength. When students come to us from the primary schools they are coming with a wealth of experiences that we can use to assist them in becoming more successful and accomplished learners.

Teachers can also create eBooks that address the particular needs of students as well. Now I have a relatively easy to use tool that I can offer my students not only at the form one level, but also my form four class who have to prepare a reflective journal as a part of their final assessment in form five. Most of them are struggling readers, and do not have the necessary literacy skills. Last term I introduced them to some comprehension strategies like KWL and SSSQR . At first they were skeptical, but after using them they have come to realize their benefits. Here's to eBooks!

Best wishes!

Scafolding with Technology

Hi Colleagues, We are about midway in this ICT course and much has been asked of us in terms of understanding the programme and using our new learning and teaching tools effectively. That is great, our ICT personnel know what they are about. My main concern though is with reinfocement and scaffolding of this information. This was backed up by the fact that Mrs. Jackson demonstrated how to find someone from the blog address. This told me that some have not begun to blog.

I would have liked this course to be more extended for various reasons.
1. Ground breaking
2. Beneficial to school community
3. Beneficial to global community
4. Self actualization as Reading Specialists.

Suggestions for next course:
1. More time for scaffolding
2.More time to reinforce.

Can you see my F?

Stimulated by technology.

Hi Colleagues, I always look forward to going to ICT class. I missed one class and that was because I am a creature of habit. I had gotten accoustomed to attending Dr. Conrad's class on Wednesdays. On that Tuesday night I was busy preparing my homework for class when my friends called and demanded to know the reason for my missing class. I would not intentionally miss class because as challenging as they are, they are an adventure.

Yesterday's class was no different. I had been impatiently waiting for that session on eBooks. Yes, you guessed it, I am writing my essay on eBooks. This is because I think it has so much potential for struggling readers. Last semester I realised that even though I helped my student to make progress in many ways, I knew that to continue to help him would mean offering him expression using new technologies. Here's to ebooks as one of my new tools!

Excited by Technology.

Hi Colleagues, I am really excited by this technology course. We are being exposed to so many new ways in which we can make reading come alive for our students. When we master these new technologies we will certainly make a big difference by using. In fact, although these technologies are new to some of us there are some who have been using them and studing their effects on the fabulous five(phonics, fluency, comprehension etc.) and student attainment for some time now.

We now have to make our contribution to the research. If you missed class on the 19th. you would have missed some important facts that you would need to know. A researcher discovered that readers of information on line focused on the left of the page. In addition, they focused on headings and bulleted information. In fact, his visual response assessor represented reader response in the shape of the letter F. We can therefore use this information when designing our teaching/learning delivery and related activities.

Motivated by Julie and Julia

Hi Colleagues, I have been convinced about the Social Learning Theory of Bandura for some time now. However it was more at the abstract level, that was because we needed to use models and theories in our assignments. In reading some of your blogs, I am also seeing how you are also internalizing these models and theories and using them in your daily lives and to understand and shape your role as a Reading Specialist. For example, Roland uses modelling and motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) in encouraging and developing his children's love of reading.

Another aspect of my recent encounters with Social learning and Modelling occured while looking at a movie called Julie and Julia. It was based on the lives of two women who used technology to document an important part of their lives and also to help in their self actualization. Julia, around 1947 was relieving her boredom in France by attending a Cordon Bleu institute, and prouducing a cookbook, which she later published, called The Joy of Cooking. This she did by using the typewriter, the technology of her time. Julie, a twentifirst centuary office worker relieved her boredom by recreating Julia's recipies and, could you believe it... she posted a blog after each cooking session. The technology of our time.

This activity gave her a feeling of fullfilment at the end of the day, her husband was also a happy man, he enjoyed all that was made. It also cleared her thoughts, gave her something to do that was meaningful, eventually producing her version of Julia's cookbook called, The Art of French Cooking, which was eventually published. Does this have implications for our classrooms and our personal lives? Do we have the tecnology in our schools and are we using it? Do we have it and we do not know how to use it? Are we offering our students the opportunities to use new tecnologies to self actualize in the classroom setting? This is something to think about.

Observing Julie and Julia's self actualization process has inspired me to persevere with my blogging and other new tecnologies that I have been learning in this new course. I want to introduce them in my classroom so that my students could also engage in a more meaningful self actualization process. Thank you to my teaching crew at UWI, my colleagues and to Julie and Julia.

Making Progress with technology

Hi Colleagues,I must share my progress in using the technology, especially blogs. Using the computer in my daily activities is becoming easier. The strangeness is going away. Just a few days ago though I attempted to comment on one of your posts and realized that I could not complete the process. This, simple as it seems, was because I had forgotten how, even though we had been taught how to in class. Sounds familiar?

This leads to the focus of the blog. I decided to be responsible for my own learning and asked a colleague for assistance. I put all shame aside, you know how you feel vulnerable when you have to tell someone "I have forgetten how to blog," when you know they are so computer savvy.My colleague happily agreed, explained patiently,demonstrated, made me repeat step by step, and ensured that successfully repeat the process on my own.

Cooperative Learning is so important in the classroom environment. According toVacca and Vacca, Cooperative Learning allows groups of students to pursue acdemic goals through collaboration in the classroom. The goals are to foster collaboration, to develop students' self -esteem in the process of learning, to establish positive good group relationships and so enhance academic achievement. Here's to Co-operative Learning and doing doing something about your not knowing. Thank you my friend!