Reading Film: The Story of Movies

This curriculum they showed was very interesting. I would not mind to take a class like this. It looks like it is very engaging and offers more than just spending 2 hours watching a movie. The science experiments done with the light teaches more than just movie tricks, but it also teaches about light in general. I think it has value for the students to learn how movies are made and what the different elements elicit what response. I am sure this is the kind of class that George Lucas would prefer to take place just as often as a math class. However, I still feel that this class works better as a special class in elementary or an elective in middle/high schools. This class is perfect for students who want to go into tv/movie production.

Life on the Screen: Visual Literacy in Education

I am a huge fan of George Lucas' work. From Star Wars to Indiana Jones, he is/was a creative genius. (I will not count the new Star Wars or Indiana Jones against him.) However, I do not agree with his assessment of education. I feel he puts too much value in the graphic arts and music. Obviously, they are very important, but this article places them at the same level as language arts and math. These subjects are more important because they are used in everyday life. You need to learn how to create a complete sentence way more than you need to know how to create a musical piece. There are only a limited amount of fields that music and graphic arts are used in, but almost every field of work uses language arts. In most schools, students already have the option to explore these more arts oriented classes if they would like. This is the way I believe it should stay, as there is already a ton to teach in school without adding those subjects as well.

Why Some Schools Are Selling All Their iPads

When I read the title to this article, I thought it would have been about the iPad "experiment" failing. However, this article is more about the different choices available to schools than it is anti-iPad. There were some strategies I disagreed with in regards to the schools. For one, Los Angelas schools were giving the students a choice if they wanted an iPad or laptop. This makes it difficult for teachers. iPads and laptops are very incompatible. If there is a classroom full of students and they all have different devices, it would be impossible for a teacher to use those devices for anything but word processing. The same problem arises in the schools that are implementing 'Bring your own device'. If a school wants to join the world of interactive learning, they should be uniform in their device choices. Personally, if the choice was between a chromebook and an iPad for a classroom, I'd choose the chromebook. It is cheaper, and it is a lot more practical. However, if I was teacher younger children, I would go for the iPad. Word processing would not be as important in lower grades and the apps would be much more engaging and easier to use than anything on a chromebook.

Why some schools...

What Will It Take for iPads to Upend Teaching and Learning?

This post showed a positive example of a school utilizing iPads in the classroom. After reading this article it is easy to be excited about the possibilities of using iPads. If I am lucky to get into a school that has the funding to have an iPad for every student, I would be sure to utilize that tool. From the article you can see that the kids are much more engaged when using the iPad. Engagement is a precious thing to achieve.  For ESL, where I plan to end up, engagement like this will be invaluable. If I am having trouble communicating with a student, the iPad should make it a lot easier to do so.

What will it take...

The ESOL Odyssey Part 2

This next post also from The ESOL Odyssey stays on the topic of unaccompanied minors. This post however, details what to do if one of these kids ended up in your classroom. In general she recommends being as accommodating as possible. As teachers, we cannot ask outright about a student's immigration status, so we have to use the info that we do have. Teachers will have to recognize any difficulties a student might have, like lack of lunch or school supplies. She relates one experience where a student had no winter clothes so she asked her older class to donate some old clothes to him. This is another handy post for any teacher with a down on their luck ESOL student.

Unaccompanied minors part 2

The ESOL Odyssey Part 1

In this blog post I will be writing about The ESOL Odyssey. ESOL stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages. This is a teacher from Maryland that coaches ESOL teachers and schools to better teacher ESOL. In this first post she writes about the unaccompanied minors that came across the border. It was an important news story this year. This is a great blog post as a review of the facts of this major story. She breaks down who they are, where they come from, why are they coming, and what happens when they get here. It is highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to learn about this topic.

Unaccompanied minors Part 1