No more Non-Print Media :(

I can honestly say that I enjoyed my Monday nights in Non-Print Media. Even though we sat in a classroom for 2 and  half hours, I was never bored. This was the most useful class I have taken in college thus far. Although it is only my first year, I feel like I have so many ideas for my classroom already. I would like to thank T.O. for all of his great ideas and for being excellent at what he does!

Final Project

I originally had a hard time coming up with an idea for my final project for Non-Print Media. I couldn't pick a book or an activity. So, what I decided to do was to pick a book that I enjoyed, "The Hunger Games." Ever since I first read the book, I thought it would be a great book for high school students to read. It has so much hidden meaning and so many parts to analyze. I could only wish that I would have read a book like this in high school. After choosing this book, I just sort of ran with it. I had a fun time completing my project/lesson plan and it is definetely something I plan to do when I get a classroom and students of my own! :)

College of Ed

So I feel like everytime I think I have all of my requirements for the college of ed, something else pops up. So far, I know that I need my 40 hours of observing, which I will begin this summer. I also know that I need to take the PAPAS or the Praxi, which I am also signed up to do this summer. One of my professors also said that we needed our portfolio started before getting in. Can anyone else think of any other requirements needed?

Shakespeare

Recently in my Shakespeare class, we read "Measure for Measure." I feel like this is  very interesting play to read, especially for our generation. Many of the issues raised in this play amazingly are still issues in our society. Certain things that were happening then, for example, sex before marriage, was charged with a death penalty. It was interesting to read about because we know this happens everyday in our society. It brought up very intense and meaningful conversations in class. People had many different opinions about these subjects. I don't feel like this is one of Shakespeare's popular plays, but I feel like it should be read more in different classes. It has many issues that still happen today and would raise great conversation in the classroom.

Portfolio

Before this week, I had no idea that I even needed a portfolio. Fortunately, Dr. Yamamoto taught us all about it in class this week. The others in the class were complaining that the Intro to Education course was taken away, because this is supposedly where the education majors learned how to put together their portfolio. Now, this information is just being thrown on students during their semester of student teaching. So my question is, why did they take Intro to Education away? But, back to the actual portfolio..It's going to be a lot of work! I am very thankful that I learned about it and actually got some of it started during my freshman year rather than while I was student teaching.

Pro. and Util.

In my Production and Utilization of technology class, we are currently working on a digital movie. It's amazing how easy something can be once you just start doing it. For this certain project, we must make up a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Using audacity, we recorded our voices and told the story. Then, with powerpoint, we put pictures together for our story. Finally, we uploaded both audio and visuals to windows movie maker and edited it from there. We were able to add sounds, music, or pretty much anything to make our story complete. This is also a project I want to use in my own classroom one day. It's simple and a lot of fun to put together. It really is a way to get the students to show their creativity.

20 shot short story

Okay, so I'm not going to lie; I was so nervous about this! I didn't have any experience with cameras, shots, acting, etc. It turned out I had so much fun with this! My group was awesome. I learned about cameras and angles just by getting it in my hand and experimenting. It was a very successful project and I definitely plan to use it in my own class room one day.

Socrative Quiz

In one of my classes this week, our professor had us take a type of online quiz on this website called socrative. It was very creative and something I will definitely consider using. How the quiz worked was that the teacher went on the website and made the quiz. Next,the students got their cell phones out and went on the websites--yes, their actual cell phones. From there, they typed in the class code and answered the questions to the quiz. I think that instead of teachers and schools being so afraid of cell phones, they should start incorporating them into class such as this example.

20 shot short story

After the presentation in the TLC on Monday, I feel a lot better about the short story project. At first, I was very worried because I have absolutely no knowledge on video cameras. But now I know that we can do it on our iPhones, and even use windows movie maker for the project. Fortunately, I have experience with this. I'm very excited to do this project and to see everyone elses!

Blogging on Blogs

In Wilber's Chapters 3&4, he talks and teaches us about blogs and also gives us many links and references to sample blogs. This gave me various ideas on different ways to use blogs. I didn't realize how helpful they could be. Like, for example, Bud the Teacher's wiki. I will most definitely be referencing back to this one. He teaches a lot about technology and gives examples of things he has done with his students. My next favorite one was the Links to School Bloggers because it would be the most useful. It gives tons of examples of people's blogs! Who knew they could be used for so many reasons? I learned that blogging is for much more than just typing what's going on in your mind a couple of times a week. Blogs can be great resources for pretty much anything you want to do, especially in the classroom.

Digital Videos

I am definitely a "hand waver" when it comes to digital videos. While beginning the readings this week, I started off scared and sure that I wasn't going to comprehend anything because it was all about videos; however,the readings ended up teaching me a lot. I have never done a digital video, but it definitely sounds interesting. After reading about particular activities, I am excited to learn not only how to make a digital video myself, but to have my students do them as well.

Readings from this week

The readings this week talked a lot about blogging, wikis, and digitial stories. I have had great experiences with both blogging and wikis. In high school, my English teacher used a class wiki to post all of our work and to submit all of our work. It was definitely something different from the usual paper syllabis and handing in hard copies of our paper. The class really liked it because it was something different and something that could be done on the computer. I havent really had any experience with digital stories, but I am really excited to learn more about them. I think this would get students more excited about just writing a paper because they would have to think about making their essays bigger than just writing on a paper.

Quizlet

For my presentation of a digital source, I will be presenting to you guys a site called "Quizlet." When I first thought of Quizlet, I remembered that my teachers in high school had mentioned a couple of times that they made some of our quizzes on there. I thought this would be a great site to present to the class for teachers; however, when I visited the site, I found that it was a great website for students as well as teachers. As you will see, Quizlet gives many options on how to study away from the traditional notecards and study guides. It is also a great place for teachers to make quizzes and tests fast. The link is below.

Quizlet

Catfish!

I debated for a while whether this was educational or not, but I'm pretty sure it is! Anyways....

I'm sure you are all familiar with the show "Catfish." But if you're not..you should be! On Monday I went to see Nev speak in the student center. He was absolutely great! I couldn't believe how down to earth he was. He literally stood in front of us and ate a sandwich like we were all just hanging out. It was pretty cool. But besides the fact, he said some really things that really stuck with me. One thing he said was to surround yourself with people who are more talented than you. He said this is what he did and it is how he became successful. Often times, we want to be the most talented in a group. Nev's point made much more sense. If you surround yourself with more talented people, you will always be learning and they will help you get somewhere. SO TRUE!

I think that all students should see the actual movie "Catfish." It especially goes with a lot of the things we talk about in class. One of the importances of teaching technology is to teach students the safe and proper way to use it. "Catfish" will show students exactly why.

Kajder Chapter 5 -- Exciting!

So after reading this chapter, I became very excited and wanted to start teaching right now. The lesson and activities that the teacher Kristen in the chapter presented really sparked my interest. This is one project that I will definitely be taking ideas from. I think that it is so important that students get at least one opportunity per semester where they are able to choose their own literature and their own project. I think this would actually be a good project to start off with. It would be a good way to get to know your students and what they are interested in, and also seeing where they are on an academic level and what kind of literacies they are comfortable with.

On the other hand, it makes me very nervous because I am only a freshman and I still have 2-3 years before I start teaching. I wish I would have saved this particular class for a time when I was closer to having my own classroom!

Kajder Chapter 3

While reading Chapter 3, a couple of sentences on page 37 stuck out to me. Kajder says, "we need to redefine the "basics," and that "old school" practices and methods don't motivate or engage student learning." I agree and disagree with this statement. What exactly is this "old school" that we all talk about? I believe that in order to be a successful English student and teacher, we do need to keep some of the "old school" practices in our curriculum. For example, some of the classics, I believe, are very crucial to be kept in the curriculum. I do think that we need to keep emphasizing the importance of writing as well. However, Kajder's next statement will prove my next point. "I want all of my students to be literate in the dominant media of their time." Like I said, reading the classics and writing are so important to being successful in anything. What we need to do in order to get the students engaged is to find new ways to teach it. We don't always need to read a book and then take a test on it. We as teachers can do things like Liz did. Find ways for students to interact while using new technologies. Since technology is such a huge part of the student's lives, it should almost be required that we in some way incorporate it into the way we teach.

Learning how to create lesson plans

As some of you may or may not know, this is my first semester as an education major, so a lot of the stuff that I am learning in my classes is very new to me. For example, this week in my Production and Utilization of Technology class, we had an assignment where we had to make an objective and begin a lesson plan. It seemed as if everyone knew what they were doing, but I was very lost because I had never done anything like this before. After staying after class and talking to my professor, I began my lesson plan. She told me that I first had to come up with an objective. Next, I created the stem. The stem is something like, "the students will learn to..." After this, I needed a target performance. The target performance comes after the stem. It would be something like "compare and contrast the story to today's society." I then needed an assessment method and criterion for success. The assessment method would be for example, "by creating a slideshow using power point." Finally, the criterion for success would be, "by making clear distinctions between society and what happened in the story." Although I'm a little behind, I'm quickly learning all of tips to becoming a great teacher!

Chapter 2 in Kajder and Kist

I just finished reading chapter 2 in Kajder's  "Adolescents and Digital Literacies."I found very useful information in this. In chapter 2, Kadjer talks a lot about the use of technology that students use inside and outside of school. When a couple of students were asked about the technology they used outside of school, they got frustrated. They said that they don't think of getting on a computer; they just do it. The statement that stood out to me the most in the whole chapter was this; "those students who spend the most time online and engaging thoughtfully with content are more crucial of the information they find." I think that this statement would prove a lot of older teachers wrong. Many teachers/parents believe that the internet is "rotting our minds." What they don't know, is how useful the internet really is. Although some students use the internet strictly for social network purposes, others take full advantages and look up events going on all over the world and information that is useful to their schoolwork. However, in multiple internet with students, Kadjer also points out that social network can even be useful. It helps students come together and teaches communication without them even knowing it. Social networking is a community of people and can be very useful.

Today in my Production and Utilization of Technology Class..

This semester I am taking a course for my major called the Production and Utilization of Technology. This course reminds me a lot of our Non-Print Media class because in it we learn how to use technology effectively to teach in the classrooms. Today, we learned some very useful information that I'd like to share with everybody. Today's lesson was on how to use technology effectively. The professor talked about the balance between content and technology. As teachers, we should not just use technology for the heck of it. The main idea that we learned today was learners first, technology last. In a couple of articles we read, I learned that the very first thing you should do is come up with the learning objectives for the class. Next, develop the pedagogical method. Then, find out how you can incorporate a certain technology into your lesson plan. After all, the technology won't be effective if the content isn't useful and if the information isn't taught correctly!

Get to know me!

Well hello! My name is Emily Mozzocio and I am a freshman English Ed major at Slippery Rock Univeristy. I am 18 years old for about one more week; until February 13th to be exact (don't forget to tell me happy birthday!) This is my first semester at Slippery Rock. I am a transfer student from the Univeristy of Mount Union. Although I was nervous to start a new school, so far I am loving it!


A few fun facts about me:
I am very family oriented! I'm only 20 minutes from home, so I see my family at least once a week. I've been a cheerleader since I was 6 years old, and hope to continue my cheerleadering career here at Slippery Rock. Football is my absolute favorite sport. Pink is my favorite color. In my spare time, I love to watch movies, read a good book, and most of all, I love to eat. I am 75% Italian, so food has always been something that my family uses to celebrate just about anything. I am from New Castle, Pennsylvania. I am proud from where I'm from, but I hope to live and teach somewhere in Pittsburgh. I'm very passionate about what I want in life: to be a successful teacher, to have a family of my own, and to start my own non-profit organization. My goal in life is to inspire people, and make some kind of difference in this crazy world we live in. I may come off shy, but once you get to know me I am very, sometimes overly outspoken. I like getting to know people and making new friends.


Well, that's about all I have right now, I'll be posting soon!