Liz and Hayley

I'm with you there, Liz... it's hard to believe that the semester is almost over! For my multimedia lesson, I found a great website that makes podcasts of Shakespeare's plays. It's designed to be modern and easy to understand, to make Shakespeare more appealing to our generation. I think it would be a great way to encourage students to learn about Shakespeare on their own. Instead of assigning mountains of reading, I can just have my students listen to a podcast at home. This would not make up the core of my English class, but it's a way that technology can be helpful in education.

Spencer and Liz...

Hey, yeah I wanted to make one last blog too. I didn't have too much difficulty finding a lesson online that I liked. I found a website with games on it that helps you to learn vocabulary in French. It's pretty cool and I think it would be very useful as a lesson for students in a computer lab. So yeah, I think it went pretty well. It's hard to believe that the semester is over already. That's so crazy! But, other than that, I don't have much to say besides Merry Christmas! :)

~Hayley

Hey Guys!

Hey Spencer and Hayley,

It's hard to believe the semester is almost over! I just wanted to do one final blog this year. i turned in my Multimedia project a few days ago. I thought it was an interesting project, though I had difficulty finding a lesson online that I liked. HOwever, a lesson I found did give me a great idea for a lesson on Shakespeare's use of metric patterns. I used this idea to create my own lesson. I hope you both had success with your projects! I'll see you at the final!

Liz

Second Life

I definitely agree with you, Spencer. Second Life looks like a really cool world of virtual reality, and there's so much you can do with it. However, it looks like it's one of those things that can become very addicting, and can therefore be dangerous. People's social lives can be harmed through the overuse of this program. It looks fun to play around with, but one needs to remember that the real world around him is what is really important.


~Hayley

Virtual Reality

In games and programs such as "Second Life," users have the opportunity to "pretend" to be someone else. They construct their own avatar, or digital representation of themselves, and they "live" in a virtual world. Games such as these can be fun. They provide an opportunity to interact with others, and to meet new friends. However, they can be detrimental. Sometimes, the users become so enthralled with the digital "lives" that they do not function well in the real world. I think that balance is a crucial aspect in computer usage. We need to remember that face-to-face contact is the best way to maintain healthy relationships and to build trust. Games like "second life" are fun, but moderation is key.

Tom Snyder Productions

Hey Guys,

I was looking at the different Award Winning Publishers in our PowerPoint and really liked Tom Snyder Productions in particular. Though this website provides activities and practices for several subjects, I focused on looking at what it offered for English. Under the Reading and Language Arts tab it lists several different games and activities. These range from the basic kindergarten level to the high school level. Some are specifically for certain ages, while others, such as Timliner XE, accomodate all ages and are broken up by ability level. Holleywood High is one tool that students i will be teaching will probably use. In this game, students can write, produce and protect stories of their lives. This, as well as the other two sites, are great tools!

Liz

Google Earth

Yeah, Google Earth is really cool!! There are also several ways in which it applies to English and French. It applies to English because it allows you to travel to places that are settings for books, or you can check out places where famous authors grew up. Even cooler than that, you can use the Google Literature Trips application, and actually follow the sequences of books, and it takes you from place to place, showing you all the places that the characters traveled. Examples of books that you can follow are The Grapes of Wrath and Huckleberry Finn. This would be very useful in the English classroom because while the class is reading a book, you could show them each place that the characters are when it gets to that point in the book. Google Earth can apply to French because it allows you to travel to France and look all over, including the major sites in Paris such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the famous Musee du Louvre. It could be used in the French classroom because you can show your students actual photos of any places in France that you want, and it can be helpful in sparking interest in the students.

~Hayley