Writing to an Edublogger

I think us teachers are incredibly lucky to have such a plethora of resources online for our benefit, and edublogging is arguably the most beneficial resource at our disposal. While collaboration has not always been a primary concern in the realm of education, the increase of technology and resources has allowed for an increase cooperation and collaboration amongst teachers, whether it be forums on mediums like Twitter, or lesson plan idea sharing on various websites, or sharing experiences in the classroom through blogging. For a new aspiring teacher like myself, utilizing all these resources can be of great assistance in navigating my new experiences as I interact with the students at my placement.

I went on the English focused blog huffenglish.com and read about a very relevant post regarding Writing Workshops in the classroom. The blogger wrote about how she conducts a writing workshop with her students, focusing on how students giving feedback to one another can provide opportunities for really meaningful learning, and aid them in sharpening their writing skills. Since I'll be teaching writing to my class very soon, reading this blog was helpful in a lot of different ways. What I wrote in my comment, however, was about the possible disconnect of the blog to my own experience in my placement. It seemed that all the steps taken were for a class that was already high achieving and willing to take big risks, showing their work in front of others. I didn't really see this working out in my classroom as well as it did in her own.

That's not to say it wasn't effective at all and could not be at all implemented, but just that I struggled to connect all the dots with my own placement. And this occurred across most of the blogs I read, unless specifically catered to high-risk teachers. This was a little frustrating and disconcerting, but nonetheless I feel lucky and blessed to have so many different teachers willing to share their thoughts and experiences for the betterment of others, and I have so much to learn from them. While blogging here doesn't seem to me as something I will continue often in my practice later, maybe this realization will make me want to contribute to the online blogging realm with my thoughts and experiences, with hopes that just maybe, it could help one similarly struggling teacher looking for guidance as well.

Prezi- Just for Show or is it More?

We've had some great presentations throughout the semester on various tech tools that we could incorporate in the classroom for different purposes, and the presentation on Prezi was no exception. However, unlike all the other tools, I came in with a solid familiarity of how Prezi works and what it is used for, and I also came in with my personal disposition towards the tool, and I'll admit it wasn't a very positive one. In my experiences throughout high school and undergrad, Prezi was used from time to time by my peers or by teachers in presenting material to a class. In pretty much all those cases, the application was used just to put a little more flash in the presentation as opposed to powerpoint, through fancy transitions and more intricate themes.

So with that in mind, I felt that Prezi is really not innovative in any way, and that it is useless in my book. Luckily, I have a cohort of open-minded and critically thinking classmates that help push my thinking about things further and open my eyes to new opportunities. Both the presentation as well as the discussions that resulted from the presentation led me to new findings about the tool, and how I can manipulate it to support my instruction. One of the main focuses was on the ability to zoom in/out from a panel into a different one, and the meaning I as an instructor can attach to that move within the presentation. It could help to further the attempt at deep analysis of a topic such as a historical event, or the development of a character in a story. Looking at various layers of the event, the feature could help support students in analyzing what is going on in the story, or what was a cause of real life event.

While I still don't see Prezi as a main source of presentations in my teaching, I think through these revelations about how it could be helpful, I'll consider it more as an option for specific lessons, or at least I'll investigate it further on my own to see if it's something I want to use.