apakcuaqsblog

Words as Big as the Screen: Native American Languages and the Internet

2008-12-09T18:26:00.000-08:00

It is ironic that technological advances have not only aided in the loss of our languages but at the same time have made it possible for us Native people to use technology in a way to promote and educate others about our unique culture and language. I hope we continue to use the internet as a tool to maintain and keep our languages. I would say now would be the best time to use technology to record our languages, therefore we need specialists such as the students in the SLATE program to do this. From students presentations, I have noticed so much talent that could be applied toward creating curriculum in Yup'ik and for the Yup'ik people. Reading page 108 titled Outnumbered and Out-Typed: Natives Online made me furious. There are so many people who jump at the prospects of making a dime out of Native people. They use Native people in television commercials and on web-sites to promote their business when in fact they don't know much about Native people. I am beginning to see it all the time. I continue to hope that our Native people will work toward becoming educated and self sufficient in the 21st century, especially in the ever expanding field of technology. That way, we can use technology as an advantage for our people to strengthen our language and culture. In my school, we are lucky we have a computer lab. On the other hand, it also saddens me that because my community is economically disadvantaged, many people don't have access to internet. The internet is a powerful thing and it is sad that many of our people don't have access to this learning tool.

webquest

2008-12-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed the web-quests that were less cluttered with so much information and where each section had its own slide. Viewing the web-quests made me think about how I would arrange mine if I were to create one. People who make web-quests need to keep the students in mind at all times. When I entered a couple web-quests, they caught my attention right away because it appeared that the web-quest was talking to me-the student. For example, in the web-quest titled A Stitch in Time, the creator caught my attention by saying, "Attention, Attention, the museum has been burglarized! You have been selected to...." That attention grabbing sentence makes me want to continue reading. While going through the web-quest another thing that caught my attention was the use of contrast. One web-quest about the Egyptians has a good background that complemented the black lettering, while another had a bulleted list. I'm sure others will agree that web-quests have to be visually appealing to student. Another thing about web-quests is that they should be teacher user friendly. In the beginning of evaluating the web-quests, I thought to myself, "Gee, it would be better for the teacher tab be at the top so that teachers will be aware of the standards and goals of the web-quest." Then again, while looking at the other web-quests I told myself, "Hey, these web-quests are for the students more than they are for the teachers." Therefore, teachers should take their own time to look over the web-quest in order to utilize them efficiently. One resource that I really liked were the hyperlinks that helped students to create a project. For example, in the web-quest about the Bowhead Whale, there was a hyperlink that helps the student to create a multi-media presentation. I liked the web-quests that had hyperlinks to additional activities, although there was this one hyperlink to a set of directions that made me think...."Will my students be able to read all this information and be able to comprehend the directions?" Overall, I think web-quests can be informative and interactive. If I were to create a web-quest, I would make sure to keep it simple, interesting and most of all educationally interactive.

material committee

2008-11-24T21:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-09T20:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Chapter 9

2008-10-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

When I first began teaching, assessment wasn't really important to me as I'm sure it wasn't with other first year teachers. I was more focused on other things such as classroom management and lesson planning. Today as a fifth year teacher, I am beginning to pay more attention to assessment. One thing I don't realize is that many times I AM assessing my students; through observations and anecdotal notes. As a teacher, my goal is to use a variety of assessments to fit my students learning styles and that one way of testing isn't always ideal for some students. Many times they do have the knowledge, it's just a matter of finding the right testing method to elicit that knowledge. One thing I learned and realized from this summer's assessment class is that many of the assessments such as the SBA's aren't a realistic measurement of our students' strength and that they only test for certain knowledge. Our students have a wealth of knowledge and strengths in other areas such as knowledge of the land, culture, songs, and traditions of the Yup'ik people. Our Yup'ik Immersion Program has a big problem when it comes time to assessments. They are required to test the students' in English tests such as AIMSWeb, IPT, and the Lower Yukon Standardized Tests even though they are teaching in Yup'ik. What a disadvantage! It'n no wonder we always fail in tests! We are being set up for failure!

Course Planning and Syllabus Design

2008-10-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

One scope and sequence area that fails to be available to our students is content NEED. Our school follows curriculum which in my opinion sometimes doesn't prepare students for real-life. When our students leave high school many of them don't go very far. I believe if we had local people who created relevant curriculum with the needs of the students in mind, our students would be better prepared for the Western world. Many of our students are not able to verbalize themselves effectively when it comes time for social situations. I think many of them find that they can't communicate effectively and then shut down and give up. If we had local teachers and community members that came together and brainstormed ideas about what our students needs' are, we could possibly create a curriculum that students can benefit from. Those benefits would include learning how to communicate within everyday situations where they will go to learn additional skills.

planning goals and learning outcomes

2008-10-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

Our school has a mission statement that I believe relates to the aims and objectives. They are as follows: The purpose of our community is to ensure tradition, culture and a quality education for all children. Although I think this mission statement would be a great one for our school, I also don't believe it is being followed. A colleague and I were just talking about this a few days ago while we were discussing the new curriculum. She pointed out that although we have this mission statement, it is in contradiction to the curriculum we have adopted. I totally agreed with her. Last week (when we had our district in-service) was a good time to gather with other teachers from all over the district to voice our concerns. Not only did I hear other teachers who said that they also had mixed feelings towards the curriculum but I also heard other other teacher who said they were using it and it was working. I just couldn't imagine how her students were succeeding. This weekend I found myself thinking reflectively about the curriculum. I found myself thinking that the Saxon math is turning out to be not so bad BUT I still don't like the Rigby!!!!! I have told myself that I am willing to be open-minded and look into using at least one unit on my students to see how they respond. If they like it, I may look into supplementing it. One teacher (a veteran teacher) kept explaining that we are supposed to make it relevant for our students. I responded by saying, " I UNDERSTAND THAT!!!" As an educator who believes in relevant curriculum, I still plan on having that critical eye when it comes to teaching our students.

2008-09-22T23:36:00.000-07:00

Needs analysis......hmmmm. I wonder if there was a needs analysis done on our students when the new curriculum was adopted. I doubt it. If there was, they would have taken into account that our students have a different cultural background from the majority population. They would have also figured out that our context is different and many of our students learn through "hands on" teaching. It is ironic that although our school has an improvement plan in progress, there hasn't been a needs analysis done on our students. (Im not aware of one.) It seems that the improvement plan only further disadvantages our students further by forcing them to learn a curriculum that is foreign to them. The curriculum doesn't take into account our students' unique learning styles and needs. When the Saxon spokepeople came to promote the curriculum, I found myself thinking critically, (which is something I probably wouldn't have done a couple years ago.) They made it sound like the curriculum would do wonders for our school. I found myself thinking, "Of course they are going to make it sound great, its their job!" After looking at the curriculum, I saw how it promoted Western concepts and had very little relevance to our students. Through my experiences in teaching, I like to believe that I have done informal needs analysis' on my students. I know they tend to become bored with concepts they can't relate to. Because I am aware of their learning needs and interests, I am familiar with the topics that will pique their interests. If we did more needs analysis research on our students' maybe we will be able to gather pertinent information that can help us to make real improvements.

chapter 7

2008-09-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

While reading this chapter, I found myself relating to many of the points mentioned, specifically the information mentioned regarding mechanistic vs. organic model. I have participated in the mechanistic model and have found it to be very restrictive and a very top down system. The principal in this model told us that he was a "macro" manager and preferred to deal with business in that way. He was very distant from the staff and didn't appear open to teacher ideas. The current principal we have has a different philosophy. He is more approachable and open to ideas from teachers. This chapter has also made me reflect on my past experiences in the Immersion program. I also found some, "Really!" moments. For example on page 205, the author states that, "Language teachers often suffer from poor employment conditions. They are not always recognized as trained professionals with specialized skills and knowledge." I remember when I worked in Immersion, we had more than our fair share of work to do. Translating and gathering stories and songs took a lot of time. Some people may view language teachers in a different light, but I am very satisfied with my child's teacher and knows that she has the expertise for the end goal.