SARA

This class has certainly taught me not only how crucial it is for a teacher to stay up to date on new technology, but also how beneficial technology can be in the life of a student. Now that i have become aware of technolngys’ importance there are a few specific steps that i plan on using to stay up to date on the newest technology but more importantly how to use them!
I hope to teach in the Ottawa County School District, and in looking at the webiste www.oaisd.org, i found that they are constantly updating their class so i can take classes in subjects from Internet Services and Network/Technical Assistance & Consulting to Software Selection & Integration. But most importantly i will mostly rely on journals and magazines sent to me. I can see my life getting extreamly busy and the thought of going to an optional class for technololy may get pushed futher down my todo list. With the journals and magazines i can get updated integration tips, new information on software and ect… A couple journals that look interesting to subscribe to are:
Electronic School, an award-winning technology magazine for K-12 school leaders: www.electronic-school.com
This website list a ton of websites for technology journals and it seems like it would be great for me in my classroom because it is specially designed for english teachers:
http://www2.yarden.ac.il/english/TechKnow/technopubl.htm
As far as strategies that i will implement: I will strive to integrate technology into my lessons daily and also make it a goal for myself to constantly keep updated on technology that is being upgraded, improved and invented. Losing track of this goal of a while will begin a gap between myself and technology that is hard to redeem.

http://www.martinlutherking.org/
This website is created to notice the so called immorality and subversion of doctor king. They believe that the goverment is hiding something on his life and that is why the FBI has locked down files on him. They say that he plagerized his speeches, was an american hating communist and a criminal betrayer under the control of a Marxist Jewishconspiracy.
This website could only be used in schools to teach kids that there is alot of information on the web that isn’t trustworthy, this would be a good example to show them because most of them are probably familiar with Martin Luther King. Kids can learn to be less trusting by being taught how essentail it is to research your webpage and ensure that it is credible.
When i did a google search of martin luther king jr. this website came up second in my search. I think this webiste is so high on the list because the name of the website in exactly what i typed into the search box (mius the www and org).
As far as using the web page evaluation checklist, is would be hard to use on this website if i knew nothing about MLK because the webpage appears to be well research by all the links on the right hand side. It’s not hard for a website to deceive people if they want to do so. This website has good documentation of their sources becasue the speeches are all correct they just use false information to accuse King.

Constructivism has numerous beneficial aspects for the students. So many times teachers get so caught up on instilling as much information into the students in the fastest amount of time possible that all the students begin to do is either zone out or memorize. Through lectures, textbooks, drill and practices, and testing, teachers get stuck as a strict authoritive figure that pounds information into their students. Getting stuck in this rut can ruin students valuable learning experience through rote memorization they are tested then the information is easily forgotten.
The concept of constructivism is great in many ways:
1. Students are working with their classmates, this is a skill all in itself that is so essential to practice and work on. Aside from learning the information, this is a skill that the students will be able to carry with them into their family lives, work place— beyond the classroom. Working with others will build a relationship between the students- teacher- and his/her classmates. The classroom will grow in their communication and problem solving skills by helping each other learn the information.
2. With the encouragement of the student asking questions it will force them to become engaged with the information that is being leaned. Question asking keeps the students constantly thinking of deeper and better ways of looking at the situation. For the student to feel like their interest and questions are valued will reinforce them to feel accepted and encourage them to keep thinking and asking.
3. With the student and teacher communicate on a level where the student is trying to get to the depth of what is truly being taught puts the two of them on a level that is so interactive and helpful for the student. They are construing their knowledge on a level that is best understood for them. As the teacher’s job being like a guide in many ways including driving away from the idea that constructivism is a “group think” concept in which only the assertive voices are heard.
It would take a lot of thinking, planning and patience to run a classroom that is based on the concept of constructivism but I truly believe at the end of the day or year the students will be better off in so many ways from the communication skills they would have built to the information that they now know that will stay will them for a longer length of time because they construed it in such a way that they understand it. I don’t think that this concept is always the more correct way to run a classroom. I don’t think it is appropriate for all the types of material that a teacher is going to teach. Sometimes it is necessary for the teacher to teach and test the students in a way that the knowledge is concrete and unchanging. For instance in the subject of history, a teacher could use some aspects of constructivism like group work but the knowledge is primarily constant and fixed.
I don’t think this is an issue that should be controversial because the way a teacher teaches his/her students should be a mixture of all the different types of teaching and learning, by a teacher teaching a classroom inclusively in a constructivism way he/she could be harming other students. Every child is shaped in such an individualistic way that no teaching skill is going to be right for every one. The teacher needs to be constantly observing the students and work with them in a way that fits them best.