Week 5 Reflections

Week five's assignment is broken up into two parts: one of which shifts in a different direction and focuses on editing pieces of media, most specifically photos. We also have to compile 10 photos into a Picasa video presentation. The other part of the assignment required us to complete a website evaluation. The standards that this assignment covers are as follows: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning, Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments, Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity, Commitment to Ethics, Commitment to Social Justice, Commitment to Professional Competence, and Ongoing Professional Development. This assignment allowed us to break out of our comfort zones and be a little more creative. We could chose any pictures that represented our attitudes toward diversity in the classroom. Being able to understand and value diversity in the classroom is extremely important for future teachers to understand, for diversity is one of the keys to a healthy and successful classroom. I enjoyed using the Picasa program and have actually used it before: therefore, the project was not difficult, but it was entertaining. I think this free photo-editing program could be used in my future classrooms to allow students to put a creative spin on tedious work. For example, I could teach a lesson on themes and have students choose a specific theme from a novel and visually represent it through a Picasa movie. I think this would be an entertaining project for high school students, for it would allow them to both hone in on important points, but to also do so in a free and creative way.

The second part of the assignment, the Web Evaluation, is an excellent example of something I will do in my future classrooms. Because I am going to be teaching English, research papers are a huge aspect of my content: therefore, it is important for students to understand what sources are good and credible and which sources to avoid when writing a research paper. This web evaluation was set up in a simple and easy-to-understand way that could be applied to any website on the internet. It would allow students to delve deeper into websites and sort through the not-so-credible sources to find reliable and relevant ones. This is important for all subject areas, but it is most important in English, for it contains much research and writing. Overall, I enjoyed the two assignments and can see the benefit each would have in future classrooms.