Week 5 Slidecast

Welcome to art[1]

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It is great to see that there is another way of delivering informantion to our students and parents, which can be delivered and accessed easily. In art, this would be a great way to create study notes which would have slides of various art aided with audio, and easily viewed as a study aid from home.

Week 4 Assignment

Using Google Docs to create a slideshow was not as bad as I had imagined. I was able to easily compose the slides and add photos and text. This would certainly be a useful tool in the classroom if it were used to post a student's work that could easily be viewed by the class and teacher. Also, embedding the presentation into a blog makes it easy to view without opening up seperate documents.

Week 3: Rough Draft-Lesson Plan

8.1 Educational Technology:

All students will use digital tools to access, manage, evaluate, and synthesize information in order to solve problems individually and collaboratively and to create and communicate knowledge.

Strand: A-Technology Operations and Concepts

Grade: 12

Content Statement: The use of technology and digital tools requires knowledge and appropriate use of operations and related applications.

Cumulative Progress Indicator (CPI) 8.1.12.A.4:

Create a personalized digital portfolio that contains a résumé, exemplary projects, and activities, which together reflect personal and academic interests, achievements, and career aspirations

Content Area:  Visual Art

Students are expected to know how to set up a webpage which will have multiple tabs to include a résumé (word document) and digital photography of works of art

In this activity students will be able to have a collective representation of their work and achievements throughout their 4 years of high school.  The digital portfolio will include a résumé, 10 to 15 of their best works of art from various mediums, achievements and future aspirations.

Grade 12: AP Studio Art Students

-students will select 10-15 pieces of art from various mediums to be mounted, labeled, dated and digitally photographed to be uploaded onto personal webpage

-each student will set up a webpage which will exemplify their creative background as future Artists-depending on concentration (i.e.) ceramics, illustration

-upload completed résumé

-webpage is to include separate tabs for each component: résumé, portfolio, etc.

The students will have a complete package which will be easy and effective when applying to schools which can easily showcase their artwork and accomplishments.  This is also a great project to learn in order to keep a current portfolio for job searching.

Week 3: 21st Century Skills

The New Jersey Core Curriculum standards have been established as a framework for educators to follow in order to assess the progress of each student by the completion of each grade level and content area.  The standards are broken down into 9 content areas and are organized by grade level.  These standards can be very useful to an educator to outline the course as well as keep track of the student’s individual progress. 

But, will these standards allow for educators to work creatively and freely without the pressure of having each student meet these curriculum goals? In my experience, each student is unique and may learn and grasp ideas in different ways, but only relying on the core curriculum standards may hinder the educator from seeing a different perspective and teaching creatively. Although I have yet to be challenged with these issues, I find it very important for me to understand and incorporate these useful standards into my assessments, but still keep an open mind to the progress of each student.

One very important standard that is constantly changing with our environment is Technology.  Today, everything we touch and do involves technology.  It is our responsibility as educators to move with the times and be prepared to use technology in our classrooms. We should be able to adapt our teaching style to keep the students engaged and give them the tools to thrive in our technologically sound society but at the same time give them the opportunity to be innovative.

In the Chatham High School video, Old School, New School, which I consider a very high tech school, we see two very different perspectives on teaching.  Firstly, we are introduced to Steve Maher, a history teacher, who believes that kids are exposed to so much media, that there needs to be a way to capture their attention. He teaches his class using smart boards and podcast sessions to keep his students engaged and interested. He keeps a very open mind to how the students collect information and use it.  Mr. Maher is aware of our fast paced society which demands immediate answers, and is willing to consider this new way of learning and teaching.

The second point of view comes from Rose Porpora, an English teacher, who considers herself a “Dinosaur” in terms of using technology in the classroom. She feels it is very hard for kids today to keep their focus due to the overexposure to technology.  She speaks of the kids having trouble “carving out meaning” when they are not exposed to immediate answers. 

The two teacher from Chatham H.S. seem to have a disconnection in their teaching approaches.  Frank Draper, a Science teacher, from the video Integration of 21^st Century Skills: Hydrology, is a great example of an educator which incorporates the best of both worlds.  He takes his students out of the classroom and into the field to conduct research and experience the work first hand.  After the students observe and collect data, they are exposed to technology by means of computer simulations and are able to see the effects of their experiments in different locations around the country through Google Earth. The students are learning practical lessons as well as being able to use technology to organize their ideas and thoughts. 

Although, I still have a lot to learn about teaching and integration of technology into our classrooms, I find myself wanting to learn more about how to help my students to think on their own as well as use technology as a tool instead of a crutch, to know how to find answers and to know what those answers really mean.  I want to be part of a school and a district which has strong teaching values, but that also is willing to advance in the direction of technology to keep up with our students and give them the most out of their education!