Video Tutorial.

I decided to do my video tutorial on a wonderful book called Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively. The book is about a woman named Claudia that has spent her whole life writing popular histories and she has spent her whole life writing her own history, literally and figuratively. This book is college level but I am sure that an advanced high school junior or senior English class could definitely do it.

The assignment that I have given my students is to write about an event in their lives that could be seen from two different perspectives. I want them to think outside the box and not only see how the event was to them but how it might have seemed to the other people involved. Would they agree or would they not agree with my version of events? The second part of the assignment is to look at the history of the world and ask a few questions. Can we trust those that recorded all of the history that we learn about? Can we trust our own memory when it comes to recording our personal history? Is there a reason that someone would deliberately record false history? The issue of trusting recorded history and trusting one's memory is the biggest issue tackled in this novel and I think it is an important one.

There are several goals that I have for my students when completing this assignment. I want them to learn not to trust everything that is taught to them blindly. I want them to ask questions. I want them to be skeptical. I want them to think outside the box and say "what if?" I feel that it is too often that students just waltz through their education and don't question a single thing that a teacher says even though some of it may be wrong. This is a huge disservice to students because once they leave school they're still not going to ask questions. They're still going to take everything that is told to them to heart. This essentially kills the learning process. If you are constantly questioning, thinking, and researching then you will never stop learning, whether you are in school or not. Another thing that I like about this assignment is that it isn't strictly an English assignment. Yes, the writing must be good and it does involve careful reading but it also involves history. It involves doing a little bit of research in another discipline. I believe that blurring the lines between subjects can be a very worthwhile way of teaching students. It teaches the mind to openly think about things instead of only being able to tackle one subject at a time.

Week 9 Assignment.

Screenr was a very easy program to use and I actually had a good deal of fun putting together the powerpoint and then putting attempting to put together an adequate voice performance to accompany it.  In last week's blog I expressed the things that I didn't like very much about powerpoint presentations. I feel as if students don't listen and copy the slides furiously and I feel like teachers post word for word what they are going to say and that is not the way to go. Having said that I think there are times that these slideshows can be effective.
Would I use a slideshow with a voice recording on it in my classroom? Probably not. I do not see the value in having something recorded through a site like Screenr when I could just as easily speak the lesson myself. I do, however, feel that there is a place in education for this tool. Every year students miss days for being sick or fall behind because they just aren't grasping the concepts fast enough. The easy solution would be for the teacher to spend extra time with that student but when you have 120 students it becomes impossible for you to spend extra time with all of them. There just aren't enough hours in the day. As we learned earlier in the semester many teachers are required to have a webpage on the school site. Teachers could record their lectures and post the slideshows or the notes from class and post them on the site. This would give students an opportunity to go back and take a little bit more time to absorb the information. If a student is out sick and feels as if they have fallen behind the lesson is just a click away. There really is a difference between just going to another student and copying the notes and being able to hear what the teacher is saying. Students may ask questions that don't show up on the notes and if you are not present than you have missed out on this important information. I believe that Screenr could help teachers reach students outside of school hours in a way that not many other programs have managed. Bringing the classroom to students when they aren't actually in the classroom is something that can certainly help bridge the gap between very successful students and struggling students.