Interactivity #5

link to my spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An22K3Z1cQ9gdDRacFJoX09qcGFVTE1QUmw4Wk1TcVE&usp=sharing

For this Interactivity, I chose to interview a teacher in my content area.  The teacher I chose is actually my past Italian teacher from high school.  She teaches Italian at the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade levels in the Cliffside Park, NJ school district.  I chose to interview her because she was actually my inspiration for becoming an Italian teacher.  I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, but after taking her Italian classes for three years in a row I knew that Italian was the content area that I wanted to focus on.  When I called her and explained that I needed to interview a teacher, she was fully supportive and volunteered herself before I even asked.  I think she was expecting a different type of interview then the one I had had planned (for example, what's it like being a teacher type questions, etc).

When I mentioned that the interview was going to be on both the NETS-S or the NETS-T, she looked at me with a blank face.  The first questioned I asked was if she know what those acronyms meant and her answer was no.  So I went on to explain what they meant and how the standards should have a high technology based role on school curriculum.   Since she is an older teacher (I want to say late 50's), this may be the reason why she is not familiar with all of these new standards that include all of these new forms of technology, so I was not really that surprised. I was not expecting her to be fully knowledgeable about the NETS at all actually.  Since I wasn't sure if it was her age or her work environment that caused the lack of knowledge, I decided to check if the school district incorporated or taught their teachers about these standards at all.  After doing some research, I found that the district incorporates the use of technology into their curriculum according to state standards, but has not really been influenced by these NETS standards at all.

 I think that the district should really incorporate these standards into their curriculum.  I think it's important because technology has advanced so far and if used the right way, it can really have a positive impact on the way our students learn in the classroom.  This means that teachers need to have technology available to them in their schools and individual classrooms and should be taught how to use it before incorporating it into the curriculum and their lesson plans.  As a future educator, I would try to create workshops for teachers to become educated about these standards.  Technology is still going to advance and there is something new to learn with it everyday, so I think it's important for teachers to be up-to-date about what technological tools we can use to help foster the education of our students.

Interactivity #4

Link to my Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An22K3Z1cQ9gdDRacFJoX09qcGFVTE1QUmw4Wk1TcVE&usp=sharing

Teaching adjectives are a big part of teaching grammar and vocabulary in a foreign language.  Usually when people are learning a new language nouns and adjectives are the first types of words they look for to try to comprehend meaning.  This is one of the reasons why I chose this type of lesson.  The lesson I chose focuses on 9th-10th grade adjectives that students need to understand or become familiar with in order to be able to move onto more advanced vocabulary.  There were not many written lesson plans found online with the Italian language (many with Spanish and French), so this was the closest I could find.  I like the idea that the teacher has planned for this activity for her students, however I think there are a lot of things that can be modified to make it better.  It does not say how long ago the lesson was written, but from what I have observed it was either written when technology was still fairly new or the teacher is not familiar with other forms of technology that can be used for both relaying the material to students and having students use these different forms for their activities and projects.  Also, this lesson plan was written to adapt to Illinois State curriculum standards, so the lesson may have been written to adapt to them which means they may be entirely different from New Jersey standards for foreign language curriculum.  If I had to modify this lesson, I would incorporate more modern technologies to teach content.  Instead of using the blackboard and textbooks as primary tools to teach the lesson, I would incorporate PowerPoints or use a smart board (if available to me).  For teacher preparation, I would prepare PowerPoints with the necessary vocabulary and examples of pictures of that vocabulary so students would be able to have both a visual and accurate information for note taking.  Having students read in the textbooks independently about words that they do not know does not seem like a proper way of learning content.  The classroom should be student centered, but using a textbook and having students teach themselves does not seem like the right way to do it to me.  I think the teacher needs to teach what is necessary and also needs to establish what he or she is looking for in terms of completing activities and projects, etc.  Students would have a table(created by the teacher beforehand) to fill in while the teacher is explaining the meaning of the adjectives to the class.  As far as technology is concerned with completing the activity, I think that other programs besides Paint can be used to complete them.  Technology has advanced since the days that Paint was heavily used.  Programs such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop and other picture programs have been introduced and can be used in curriculum.  I think that this lesson plan is a good example of what Italian teachers should teach their students, but is also a good example of how modifications in more advanced technologies can be made to make it more efficient.

NJ Standards for Foreign Languages

My area of study is world language, to be more specific, Italian.  Compared to many other majors and subject areas, the standards for world language are very long and have many different categories.  All foreign language programs in public schools are forced to adapt their curriculum by these standards and of course to the content areas (Italian, Spanish, French, etc.).  There are three strands that the curriculum must follow:  Strand A; Interpretive Mode, Strand B; Interpersonal Mode and Strand C; Presentational Mode.  Each strand comes with a set of standards that content area and curriculum must abide by.  Since it is a foreign language, each standard must match a novice to expert level of a student learner.  It is the teacher's job to make sure that the curriculum that he or she is teaching both meets the standards and also meets the students' levels of abilities in the target language.  Here is a record of what the New Jersey Standards for world languages look like:  http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/standards/7/7.1.htm.

 

Interactivity #3

            The group process required by this interactivity was both authentic and collaborative.  Besides this assignment being labeled as a group project by the professor, I think there was good communication between all of the group members (through emails, etc).  I also think that everyone completed their share of the spreadsheet and worked well together, considering that it was an online collaborative project with almost no face to face meetings.  The final inventory that emerged from the spreadsheet made was useful and beneficial to all content areas, more specifically world language, art, and history.  I feel that the technologies that I listed, which all pertained to world language, could also be useful in other content areas and vice versa. Many technologies that were listed by both the history and art majors were technologies that I was never familiar with, but could definitely be useful for lesson plans and activities in my content area.  I think that creating this spreadsheet was a good opportunity for us future teachers to learn from each other and improve teaching methods through technology.  I believe that no teacher is perfect and there is always room for adjustment and improvement, and collaborating to form a final list for inventory technologies is a good way to do it.  This list of inventory not only serves the purpose of future methods and lesson planning as professionals but can also be useful in other courses throughout the semester.  These technologies, especially the ones that are new to me (possibly to other group members as well), can be used as tools to help complete homework and other major assignments in my other courses.  This type of work may include producing lesson plans, completing papers, and even note taking and studying for exams.  I think this interactivity was a great way to learn about new technology that could help us as both the students and the teachers in the classroom environment.

The History of Technology in Schools

Since the 1820's technology has come a long way in classrooms all across the United States.  Over time, all subject areas have improved and modified their particular curriculum to incorporate activities and even add new standards that involve the use of technology.  During this historical time period, more particularly during the 1960's, language labs were introduced into foreign language classrooms.  These labs were a huge break through for foreign language teacher's classroom environments and for their content materials and activities.  From then on foreign language teachers were no longer limited to using lectures, chalkboards, and textbooks to teach grammar and culture.  With the use of language labs, students are now able to audio sound and images to help with language acquisition.  The use of  computers in these language labs has also opened up a bigger spectrum of possibilities to learn about the culture of the target language as well.  Over time the technologies and other types of media used in language labs have improved, which means that learning a new language has become easier and more fun then the traditional (lecture/textbook based) classroom environment that was used before language labs were introduced in the 1960's.

Interactivity #2: The History of Technology in Schools

Foreign Language Labs:  A step into language acquisition and foreign cultures

Interactivity #1

Technology has not always been a big part of my life.  I remember when I was a child, right up until the first grade, that technology was not such a big deal.  It was still the early 90s and people were not as big on technology as they are now.  I remember how excited I was in the second grade when my dad bought our first desktop.  The desktop didn't have internet access until I was in the sixth grade but it was still something to be excited about.  Back then I was able to live without the internet and other technologies and entertain myself in other ways.  I didn't even own a cell phone until high school!  But thinking about it now, I would never be able to live without technology.  The most influential communication technologies in my life at the moment, which most likely will be for the rest of my life, are:  1) my cell phone 2) my computer, more specifically my laptop and 3) my ipad.  All of these technologies have the internet and they are three things that are an essential part of my life that I probably couldn't let go of. 

 All of these technological objects impact every part of my life.  At first I would have never thought that this could be possible, but after thinking about it, my cell phone, computer, and ipad are a part of everything I do.  These three technologies definitely have a big impact on my social life.  When I was younger my social life consisted of playing with my cousins and friends outside on my block, but that has drastically changed.  Everything I do that revolves around my social life, is effected by the use of one of these three technologies that I mentioned.  My cell phone plays a major part.  It is how I get in touch with my friends, family, and how I coordinate my plans with them.  Besides communicating with friends and family overseas over social networks, I use these technologies to communicate with collegues and professors, and I even use it to play games and research. Technology has become a big part of my life academically as well.  I use technology to complete assignments, write papers, and research.  The internet has most definitely opened up the possibilitites to learn more then I could by researching topics in books.   I can even do everything that I mentioned on my laptop and ipad as well, and most definitely couldn't live without them.  All of these happen to be apple products and I most definitely could not get myself out of the apple world now either. 

My experiences with my technologies are extremely similiar to the experiences that the students have mentioned in the videos.  Although many students do not contain some technologies at home, such as laptops, computers, etc., they are rely on technology to get ahead both socially and academically.  Students have stated that technology is convenient for any use, a necessity especially when it comes to reading and writing, and can change something ordinary to extraordinary.  Students feel that technology is a way for them to express who they are, by means of social networks and websites, and it allows them to connect and coordinate with other people and other students.  It is safe to say that technology has become a big part of life for these students and that it is better to incorporate it into school curriculum.  Teachers need to make sure that they do this and they need to keep in mind that students enjoy activities that involve technology and the internet.  I feel that if teachers take this into consideration and actually integrate technology and the use of the internet in their lesson plans in any way they can, then students will have fun and will actually be engaged and want to learn.