This week was without a doubt an eye opening week! My favorite part of the week was the Digital Learning Day! The highlight of Social Studies for me this week was that I have finally wrapped my mind around how I think my unit plan is going to end up looking. And, I discovered the wonderful world of google cardboard. I also have LOVED looking up research on and resources to support my PDP.
Digital Learning Day was definitely a success! (And had some delicious food too) I gained so many new resources that I have no doubt I will use in my future classroom. It was nice to just spend some time with other students and professors chatting about technology resources and also just the education process in general. We all have learned many things since being candidates in the education program and sharing these experiences is SO valuable to our learning process.
After backspacing and rewriting my guiding questions literately hundreds of times and rethinking every generalization, I think I have finally decided how each component ties into my performance task. I am excited to see it all really come together in the next few weeks. We spoke briefly about our units in class this week, but we mostly talked about the google cardboard and how to record using street view. We were like kids on Christmas morning out in the quad playing with the app. I have been playing around with it more and I can't wait to get to use it for the virtual museum project.
One part of my PDP involves ELL students and their learning process. I have been overjoyed to find that there are TONS of online resources such as interactive "worksheets," verbal response activities, literacy games, etc. I was able to share my two favorite resources at Digital Learning Day this morning! My own personal feelings towards ELL students in the classroom is that they are often times overlooked and pushed to the side to complete a different "task." I have noticed through some clicinal experience this semester that some teachers embrace the ELL students and work with them tackling literacy head on. However, many teachers seem scared to really dive into literacy with their ELL students and essentially give them something else to do in order to get them "out of the way," which is extremely disappointing and completely ineffective. I am thankful though, to see many examples of what to do and what not to do. This will have a HUGE impact on how I work with my future ELL students.
After discussing a bit about my PDP with Dr. Parker, I hope that this piece of it regarding ELL students will allow me to begin a chain reaction of teachers who actively persue literacy for ALL students in the classroom. In this way I hope to demonstrate leadership as an educator.
Grace, I wish there was a "like" button because I would like this post 20 times. I am so happy for you that your unit is finally coming together because that is definitely the best feeling ever! I also love how passionate you are about working with ELL students and I think they should overload your classroom with ELL students because you will work great with them. I loved the technology sources that you shared at digital learning day and I will definitely use them in my future classroom, especially the one where the students actually had to speak because I think that is the most beneficial for them. Great job and keep working hard!!
ReplyDeleteGrace, I'm so glad you are able to finally see your unit coming together. It truly is a hard thing to wrap your mind around because its meant to capture the "big picture". I loved all of the resources shared at Digital Learning Day and I'm glad you are finding so many to pursue your passion with ELL students. You are right that ELL students do get pushed aside by many teachers and hopefully tools, such as the ones you shared, will make working with ELL students not as daunting for teachers.
ReplyDeleteGrace,
ReplyDeleteI relate and admire your heart for ELL students in the classroom. A huge desire of mine is to reach these students. I have a huge place in my heart for students form other countries and I think this comes from my experience with missions and heart for children around the world. I do think just like you said, that they are often pushed to the side and not properly sought out. I hope to be a teacher that does this and leads by example. I think that if we form a group of teachers that are passionate about this and take it into the schools we teach at, we could all be great leaders in our future schools and impact in a great way! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! Also, I am so glad that you are happy about where your unit plan is going. It always helps so much when you have a vision and can see where you want it to go!
Caroline
Grace, I am glad you enjoyed digital learning day! How can we make it better next year? Keep on getting your focus so all of your work is your best work!
ReplyDelete