material committee

If my school was to participate in this, I have just the people in mind. I believe this summer would be a great time to do the translating. Definitely some of the materials that would be needed would include technology such as person lab top computers, back up equipment, cameras, video-cameras, and audio recording equipment. The stakeholders that need to be involved would include: an elder or two, 2-3 teachers who are knowledgable in the language and who know how children learn language best. I would imagine the stakeholders as sort of a committee that would work together to create curriculum/standards based thematic units that revolve around the culture of the community. The summer wold be a great time for gathering these materials. (Taking pictures, recording, etc) The grant would definitely have to apply to our students awareness and ever-growing use of technological programs and tools. Instead of only focusing on creating paper materials, technology would also have to be utilized. I could imagine each person have specific roles. For example, one person could specialize in the language part, while another person who is more technologically experienced could bring that expertise to the table. I could see this project accomplishing a lot in 3 years. 

Sally's Powerpoint Reflection

Sally's use of Powerpoint appears as though her students are engaged. I really liked the idea of hyperlinking a word document and writing students' sentences. While they are drawing a picture of their moms, she prints out the responses and students' glue them on their pictures. If I were to use powerpoint, I would like for my students' to be fully engaged with activities that allows them to be interactive with the Powerpoint. My goal is not for the powerpoint to just be a presentation where the students are passive. I like the idea of creating hyperlinks to other web sites where additional information on the subject of discussion are available. One thing that I don't like about Powerpoint is that it will allow for only a certain amount of memory to be used. I will take Sally's advice and rather than scanning images go directly to a website that contains the same info. When my students and I use our projector to check out the Anchorage Daily News site, they tend to pay more attention and they are more verbal during our discussions. When I do lectures without the projector, they usually tend to become easily bored and/or distracted.  From this class, I would like to become an expert using Powerpoint. I know it takes a lot of time to put together a lesson, but in the end I believe it will be well worth it.

Fears/Hopes? Connected/Separated?

Some hopes: Be able to keep up to date with latest technology gadgets, hope kids use it as a tool rather than a toy, hope that the technology can be used to document and share information about one's language and culture, more rural students will become educated and seek degrees

Fears: Students will use for illegal activity, teachers will become more lazy and glued to their screens rather than walking around the room and assisting students, it will change interpersonal communication.

Anna believed that technology connects us and pointed out our class  as an example. I agree with Anna. We also discussed how it disconnects us. Like for example during teacher collaborating, there are some teachers who can appear like they are separated from the rest of the group when they have a computer in front of them. Its like their not paying attention. I think it's a paradox. We are in a sense connected but it seems that the closer together we are, let's say in a room, the less connected we are personally. The farther the distance, let's say, my dad in Boston and me here in Hooper Bay, the more I see us being connected through such technological aides like Skype and email.

Rethinking Schools Online

I really enjoyed this article and found myself finding similarities and differences between myself and my classroom. When my generation was in school, the media we used didn't compare to today's generation. My classroom back then was way different. We didn't have projectors, smart-boards, digital cameras, digital recorders, and elmos like today's generation. This is what sets this generation apart from other generations and it will continue to get more and more technology based. If students and teachers are not up to date on their tech skills, they will be left behind. Today, when I see that tenured teachers are not up to par with their first-class skills, it bothers me because I know its just going to get more complicated. I can't imagine myself not being up to date on the latest tech and I told myself if I do, I'm going to kick myself. This article was pretty eye awakening for me because I am exactly like the author. I use my computer to get lesson plans, take attendance, create notes for home, and reply to emails. There are times when I do feel guilty because it didn't used to be like that. Now that we have our own laptops, we tend to spend more time on them. Although it is necessary, I still feel guilty. The computer creates a boundary between my students and I. I just got email accounts for my students with the hopes of getting my students to write more. After reading this article, I am wondering what will actually happen. Like the author pointed out, things aren't always what they appear to be. This article made me more interested in current research on technology in the classroom, specifically how it affects our personal communication with each other.