Networking group

The group I have joined is Google Tools of NYSCATE. Known as a the most powerful online searching engine in the world, google has developed kinds of tools for its customer, such as google map. As a teacher, it is also important to be familiar with the tools, in order to improve teaching. It is also essential to improve students' learning experience. Therefore, being sensitive and willing to exploring new tools is a very good quality for a teacher.



Google Tools

Spider Web

The whole world seems to be a big chaos, in which all kinds of information connect and twist with each other like a huge mess.However,we human seem to be perfectly fine living in the overwhelming mess. Why? Because we have spider-web-like minds.

Our minds works in certain patterns.In other words, as I quote from What Is Connectivism,our mind is a patterning mind. No matter how messy and overwhelming the information is, our minds deal with with in patterns. The information will always be sorted. For example, when we saw kinds of fruit that we don't know, we will focus on the label that they are all fruit, and whether we can actually remember their names does not really matter, because we know they are fruit, and that is enough for most of the time.

It is because of the feature of connecting of the spider web, the spider can catch as many insect as possible.When an insect bumps into a tiny part of the web, the whole web will shake, thus the spider knows that it is time for food. The network we have built help us to learning more. According to Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age,Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual.That is to say, new knowledge is always connected to the old one.  

However, without the mucus, the web will lose its function. To learn knowledge, our minds need aids. And tools we have developed nowadays are the aids of learning.In addition, technology is altering (rewriting) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.Our knowledge has helped us develop tools, at the same time tools have changed our ways to learn.For example, instead of doing homework by writing on paper like 10 years ago, we use computer and hand homework in online. 

Diigo the Scoopit.

Although I struggled a little bit when I just began to use Diigo and Scoopit, I found these two web tools extremely useful. They both help me collect save, and share information. I hope I knew Diigo earlier. Losing all the websites that are collected is really frustrating, and I was upset for a long time after it happened to me, because I might not get some important websites ever again.Scoopit is fun.And it is more attractive than Diigo, which, for me, is more of a tool to save websites or texts. It offers me a lot of resources in different forms that are related to the topic I am interested in.

                     

        Scoopit                                               Diigo

You can follow and be followed.                   You can follow and be followed.

Posting comments is allowed.                        Posting comments is allowed.

You can add tags.                                    You can add tags.

You cannot highlight texts.                          You can highlight texts.

You can offer suggestion.                          You cannot offer suggestion.


For my future teaching, I will introduce these two web tools to class, especially Scoopit. For example, I can ask students to collect information based on a topic and share it with their fellow students. It also help with doing presentations in class. All in all, I believe they will offer me more choices and a broader way for teaching.

Car and Tunnel: What I Saw From The Two Videos

   
     The two videos, Educational Change Challenge and A Vision of 21st Century Teachers, has given me the ideas of the reflection of class to the outside world, as well as the importance of using technology in teaching and learning.

     As a place where students accept education together, a classroom is just like a tunnel that connects different parts of world. In the classroom, students learn knowledge, share experiences,and join activities, in order to build values, find themselves, and develop connections to the outside world.In other words, a classroom is never a simply little safe room for students to stay. Instead, it is a locker room for football players to prepare for games.

     Technology has been playing an important role around the world, and it is also essential in current teaching and learning, without which teaching and learning will lose relevance to the society. Technology can make teaching and learning interesting and efficient. For example,teachers use use tools such as PPT and Prezi to present knowledge. For another example, students use iPad to take notes and track the schedule of classes. Applying technology to education can also help develop both teachers' and students' competence of using technology, as well as develop a sharp sense of discovering and learning new tools.

ACTFL standard

Two Ways of Using Blogs

1. Blog can help me with communicating with other teachers, sharing experiences and learn from each other.Through blogs, teachers offer valuable feedbacks to each other.For example, if a teacher want to design an activity, but he does not have a good idea about it, he can ask for ideas from other teachers via writing a blog. Other teachers can also learn interesting ideas of activity design from him. To conclude, blog is a platform for information sharing among educators.

2. Blogs provide me a direct and efficient way to interact with my students. Through blogs,students can post their homework as comments. They can also ask for help on it, instead of sending me emails. The questions students have asked can be shared with their fellow students, thus everyone can learn from the comments.In other words, blog is a place where students can solve their problems on learning and also learn from each other.

STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

Language and communication are at the heart of the human experience. The United States must educate students who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad. This imperative envisions a future in which ALL students will develop and maintain proficiency in English and at least one other language, modern or classical. Children who come to school from non-English backgrounds should also have opportunities to develop further proficiencies in their first language.

STANDARDS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING

COMMUNICATION

COMMUNICATE IN LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH

• Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions
• Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics
• Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.

CULTURES

GAIN KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF OTHER CULTURES

• Standard 2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied
• Standard 2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied

National Standards for Foreign Language Education