Geocaching-Not so much fun if you lack a sense of direction

Okay...so it wasn't THAT bad. It did get me out of the classroom! A few days ago we went geocaching. My cohort Mande and I, being English minded, struggle with numbers. So, we were less than successful in finding our caches....which our pictures make blatantly obvious. For those of you who don't know what geocaching is, let me catch you up. Check out this video, made for us by our fellow classmates, its a riot. As stated previously, Mande and I had quite a few issues with our geocaching adventure. For starters, we didn't find anything....which is the whole point.

I think there could be some really fun ways to use this in an English classroom. One obvious way is to use it with the book Treasure Island, or any other treasure seeking book!

Video Games-Friend or Foe?

I'm here to tell you, don't believe everything you hear about video games. As non-gamers, we only see the surface level content of what students are doing these days. They are sitting for hours in front of computer and TV screens, wasting away perfectly good time, rotting their brains with violent images. Not sounding too positive, huh? I'm here to tell you that gaming is NOT ruining today's youth. In fact, it is most likely helping them to take a step above their peers. This past semester I have been doing some really in-depth research on how gaming effects learning and what I've come to learn from all of this reading is that gaming is a positive thing! It's not something we as educators or parents should be scared of. Gaming can teach students some really great skills like social interaction, problem-solving, thinking in terms of cause and effect, and gaming can also help students become more aware and empathetic of various cultures, ethnicities and ideologies.

One author that has been really influential in changing my mind about video games is Marc Prensky. His website provides tons of really great information to parents and teachers about gaming and how it is changing today's youth for the better. Check it out and be ready to open your mind up to the world of video games.

Zotero: For all of you who are reference impaired

I really enjoyed learning about Zotero. As a future English teacher, this is such a great tool to keep your sources organized and to make sure you have all the information to create a work cited page. I also really liked the note taking tool. This can save a ton of time AND paper! Go Green!

My Prezi about Delicious

Here's my very weak attempt at making a Prezi about Delicious. Prezi is a breath of fresh air when it comes to presentation aids!

My Prezi about Delicious

The Great Standards Struggle

As a future educator, there is one thing that is really plaguing me right now. STANDARDS! I've most certainly got a love-hate relationship with them. Let me start by saying that standards are completely necessary and really important for both educators and students. But, let me combat this statement by asking, WHY ARE THERE SOOO MANY?! Would it kill us to have on set of national standards? No wonder all of are high school graduates are at different ability levels. As I am working on a unit for one of my methods courses I am told to align my objectives and lessons to standards. Then the great debate is which ones to choose?! I need to look at the new Iowa Core Curriculum and the NCTE standards and then its probably my duty as well to look at the NETS-S standards as well since I'm an instructional technology minor. What a mess! I'm not really sure that at this point I feel comfortable giving advice to the standard writers across the nation, but I am just venting. I'll end by saying that I'm certainly glad that this many people are concerned about the future of our students and our current education practices. This probably isn't such a bad problem to have. Just a messy one.

Google Sketchup Study Area

It plagued me...but here is my little study area. Nothing fancy but I'm quite proud of it.

Twittering my tweets all over this town...

Ahh...Twitter! What more must I say?


I found this really cool twitter application that can really help students to use Twitter quickly and easily especially in a classroom discussion, project, or any other type of large/small group work! It's called:


GroupTweet


This application allows you to make a Twitter group, so that you can send a direct message to the group. These messages are kept private from the rest of the tweeting world, but the group is quickly and easily managed!


This really opens up the possibilities for Twitter and the classroom. Some students may not be comfortable writing for such a mass public. Also, what if you need to use a student's name to communicate something to other students. This really keeps it private and allows teachers and students to send quick messages to the class privately and easily!


Even individual groups can create different GroupTweets when they are working on a projects or literature circles. As a teacher, you can be involved in every group so that you can keep updated on their project status! This can really hold students more accountable for their own work and their own contributions to the group. Not to mention, its private! I think this can be a powerful tool for teachers, students are out there twittering anyway so why not bring it into the classroom!?