Weekly Reflection 11/25/13

          I have this whole week off from student teaching due to Thanksgiving week. Hallelujah! I really need the week off because I'm pretty much at the end of the rope with my stamina regarding this semester. In regards to the texts we had to read regarding the World Text essay, I really enjoyed Martin's theories on risk management. I never really thought of myself as being "at risk" because I'm a university student. If you really think about it though, it makes sense. I also never really thought about how TAs are now teaching more lower division course because they cost less to maintain. These classes were originally taught by professionals with degrees, and it really brings up the questions of the quality of education we are receiving for our buck. It also brings up the question of college itself; is it a risk worth taking? Many students come out of school in debt and many of them don't manage to get out of debt years later. Many remain in debt. In fact, our nation is a country of debt!

Weekly Reflection 11/18/13

          Today everyone presented their Media Literacy projects. I really enjoyed everyone's contribution to the class; I took away many new ideas to fill my own teaching toolbox with. I really thought teaching history through video games was a great concept. If I ever taught history, I would definitely teach it through strategy games that use the same statistics from the Civil War. I also enjoyed my own group member contributions. I thought Yasmine's website, freerice.com, was really cute. The website did a great job incorporating real world issues, such as hunger and poverty, by allowing students to contribute without having to pay any money. Just by playing games and doing educational exercises online, they can give away free rice to people in need. I thought that was a wonderful idea. Jason's contribution, luminousity.com, where students can exercise ALL parts of the brain was illuminating in that  I never thought about working out the entire brain to increase abilities in one subject area. Amanda's website that helps students with basic grammar skills was also very useful in that a future teacher could allow students to gain strength in basic skills they would not have time to catch up on in class.

Weekly Reflection 11/4/13

          Today we picked brand new groups to work on our Media Presentations. I ended up working with Yasmine again which is wonderful because she is a delight to work with. Our group quickly decided to each find educational games we would use in our classroom (an imaginary 10th grade class). I remember playing something called nationstates a while back, and I remember it being really fun and educational. It really taught me that my decisions can have extreme consequences! LOL. I remember that when I decided to halt production to this shopping mall to help save my national animal, the bushy squirrels, my economy imploded. Not only that, but the population of the busy squirrel exploded and people were running into them everywhere! WHAT?! I only wanted to save a cute animal! Who knew that a simple decision could have so many consequences. I really think a text-based game such as nationstates could benefit the students in my class. They would learn about responsibility and cause/effect. They would also learn about how governments work.