Hi All,
Please find below my website, "Lauren's World of Learning" :-D Enjoy!!
https://sites.google.com/site/laurenworldoflearning/
-Lauren
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Web 2.0- Skype
Hi All,
I have personally used Skype before and it was great! Although, sometimes the visual and audio don't always correlate perfectly depending on your internet connection/speed, it is a great program! I have only used it for personal purposes but after looking through the manyyy possibilities of incorporating it into the classroom I feel like the options are limitless!!
One of the options listed in the "Ways to use Skype in the Classroom" link was conducting seminars. A friend of mine is actually pursuing her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at UMDNJ and she actually has spoken to me about it. They have had seminars given where all students, either in groups or individually, in the comfort of their own home or at a computer lab, would log onto Skype under a specific group section. From there they listen and watch the professor or guest lecturer and vice versa. Aterwords they can ask questions and discuss the topic at hand. I feel like this is a very innovative teaching method. The fact that you can nearly speak/see with any doctor, author, educator, ANYONE, is amazing. This expands the opportunity of learning using such an interesting tool.
Additionally, working in an Abbot district/low income city, we do not have the ability to take multiple field trips and give students this firsthand experience to explore. However through the use of Skype, students can receive tours of museums, experience foreign culture lessons, view exotic animals run free and so much more! Overall, I feel Skype opens many doors for students and opportunities for learning.
-Lauren
I have personally used Skype before and it was great! Although, sometimes the visual and audio don't always correlate perfectly depending on your internet connection/speed, it is a great program! I have only used it for personal purposes but after looking through the manyyy possibilities of incorporating it into the classroom I feel like the options are limitless!!
One of the options listed in the "Ways to use Skype in the Classroom" link was conducting seminars. A friend of mine is actually pursuing her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at UMDNJ and she actually has spoken to me about it. They have had seminars given where all students, either in groups or individually, in the comfort of their own home or at a computer lab, would log onto Skype under a specific group section. From there they listen and watch the professor or guest lecturer and vice versa. Aterwords they can ask questions and discuss the topic at hand. I feel like this is a very innovative teaching method. The fact that you can nearly speak/see with any doctor, author, educator, ANYONE, is amazing. This expands the opportunity of learning using such an interesting tool.
Additionally, working in an Abbot district/low income city, we do not have the ability to take multiple field trips and give students this firsthand experience to explore. However through the use of Skype, students can receive tours of museums, experience foreign culture lessons, view exotic animals run free and so much more! Overall, I feel Skype opens many doors for students and opportunities for learning.
-Lauren
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Free Choice Blog
So when choosing what topic to blog about I started thinking about recent topics in education. I guess I'm going to be brave and talk about the controversial issue occurring with our governor Chris Christie. He has been under a lot of heat, from myself included, about the different plans of action he wants to enact in the NJ education field. I'll only address one.
Christie would like to abolish the pay increments teachers receive based on years in the field and graduate credits/degrees. As someone who is pursuing her Masters I think the later is absurd. Yes, I am continuing school because I want to expand my knowledge on the education field and hold a higher degree but I do feel teachers should be compensated for taking the extra (not easy or walk in the park) step to further their education. When striving to learn more about the ever evolving topic of education and better oneself as an educator, students as well as teachers benefit. If teachers didn't strive to continually better themselves, teaching in the classroom would take a severe hit. Not to mention that attending graduate school is not cheap, especially at a school like St. Peter's College :-)~.
I do not think this criteria of receiving a pay raise should be abolished. However, I do not feel that just being a teacher for several years should automatically entitle you to a pay increase. Heck, honestly I don't feel like the pay "steps" are even that much sometimes. I can confidently say that if pay increases were based on students' performance I would be entitled to a larger increase than the automatic ones offered now. I think if teachers had students' performance linked to their raises, not only would they work harder in making sure their students are learning the material but they would be much better compensated for the hardwork that teachers so often have overlooked. Moreover, the teachers that don't strive to work hard can stay at the "comfortable" salary they have. Additionally, it will be much easier and a quicker task to figure out which teachers should possibly be up for a review.
Like I mentioned, there are sooo many more points in his plan that we can address, but that would be an endless blog...
-Lauren
Christie would like to abolish the pay increments teachers receive based on years in the field and graduate credits/degrees. As someone who is pursuing her Masters I think the later is absurd. Yes, I am continuing school because I want to expand my knowledge on the education field and hold a higher degree but I do feel teachers should be compensated for taking the extra (not easy or walk in the park) step to further their education. When striving to learn more about the ever evolving topic of education and better oneself as an educator, students as well as teachers benefit. If teachers didn't strive to continually better themselves, teaching in the classroom would take a severe hit. Not to mention that attending graduate school is not cheap, especially at a school like St. Peter's College :-)~.
I do not think this criteria of receiving a pay raise should be abolished. However, I do not feel that just being a teacher for several years should automatically entitle you to a pay increase. Heck, honestly I don't feel like the pay "steps" are even that much sometimes. I can confidently say that if pay increases were based on students' performance I would be entitled to a larger increase than the automatic ones offered now. I think if teachers had students' performance linked to their raises, not only would they work harder in making sure their students are learning the material but they would be much better compensated for the hardwork that teachers so often have overlooked. Moreover, the teachers that don't strive to work hard can stay at the "comfortable" salary they have. Additionally, it will be much easier and a quicker task to figure out which teachers should possibly be up for a review.
Like I mentioned, there are sooo many more points in his plan that we can address, but that would be an endless blog...
-Lauren
Video post
I was fairly happy with how this video came out and was also surprised at how easy it was to post. I used my digital camera to record and upload the video. Since I mentioned funny self-taken video posts I thought I'd share a short, cute one I found recently: Such a Cutie. Enjoy!
-Lauren
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