Monday, September 23, 2013

Week 2: Introduction to NCTE/IRA and Common Core Standards


Week 2

1.     Reflection on your understanding of ELA instruction.

-Goal of ELA is to ensure that all students are college and career ready in literacy.
-ELA is based on the Common Core Standards.
-ELA instruction is broken up into five key components: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. Each of these components there are certain goals for students to meet.
-ELA provides students, parents, and educators with a clear-cut outline and guidelines of what is expected for each grade for students and teachers.
-ELA helps students develop and use their skills, knowledge, and ideas and apply them in their everyday life. 
-ELA will help students develop the skills they need to become successful in school and successful in life.
2. Research one technology tool that can best assist in each of the FIVE components mentioned in Learning Task#1.

Technology tool I chose is “WORDLE” 

-Wordle is used to create “word clouds” from different text (words) that you provide.
-Wordle is a tool that can assist in each of the five components of ELA instruction.
-You can create your own Wordle by using different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.
-Wordle can be saved so your can always come back and add more important words to it.
- Teachers can create a Wordle with their students to discuss the key concepts or ideas of a lesson.
3. Interview an ELA teacher to learn his/her challenge(s) in integrating technology in the teaching of ELA/Literacy.

Some challenges of integrating technology can be…
-Time consuming: (Example) To find time to use the computers in the library or computer lab to go along with everyone schedules. Or to come up with new lessons using technology.
-Money: Not enough devices for the entire class
-Overall my ELA teacher that I interviewed believes that implementing technology into the classroom is far more beneficial than these few challenges that you may face. She believes by creating new lessons that integrate technology will keep students engaged and interested throughout the lesson. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Introduction


Hi everyone! My name is Nikki Jo, but most people call me JoJo for short. Last year was my final season playing college basketball. I transferred to NYIT from St. Johns University. I’m currently working two different jobs in Rome, NY. I work part time at a grocery store called Aldi’s and tend bar at a restaurant called “Legends” at night. I’m also working with the LeMoyne Women’s basketball team this season as well. I would love to be a D1 women’s basketball coach someday. If I wrote a book about myself, I would name it “On and Off the Court.” I think this school joke is pretty funny: “A kindergarten teacher handed out a coloring page to her class. On it was a picture of a duck holding an umbrella. The teacher told her class to color the duck in yellow and the umbrella green, however, Bobby, the class rebel, colored the duck in a bright fire truck red. After seeing this, the teacher asked him: "Bobby, how many times have you see a red duck?" Young Bobby replied with "The same number of times I've seen a duck holding an umbrella." I do not teach any subject yet, and do not know what grade I would like to teach. I think after I do my student teaching I will hopefully have a better idea what grade I would like to teach. This is my third semester in the Childhood Education program here at NYIT. I don’t know too much about teaching language arts or new literacies. My main concern about this course is keeping up with the workload and working two jobs at the same time.