Service Learning Reflection #3

Right now my relationship with my cooperating teacher is great. We have been able to communicate quite a bit about teaching in general, as well as some of the projects that I have been turning in to her. She's a little bit concerned about her job right now, which is so frustrating for her but has opened my eyes to some of the downfalls of the teaching field. She struggled getting that position (at a charter school) and now because a lot of students' parents have taken them out of the school, they are threatening to let go several teachers due to lack of funds. She's one of the newest ones at the school, so she's quite sure that her job isn't hers to keep. So we'll see how that goes. In regards to my projects, she felt the UEN page was really helpful. She commented that in her training as a teacher, they were only introduced to UEN but didn't delve into it the way that my page did for her. She says she intends on using it more now that she knows what kind of a resource it is. She also really appreciated the AIDS webquest that I did - especially since she was struggling figuring out a way to teach it. She wants to make a few adjustments but feels it's going to serve its purpose well, so that's a good feeling. Like before, I feel good about the service learning project. In retrospect, I do wish that I had chosen a teacher that was in my field. While its been informative to learn about how other subjects function, I think it would have benefited me to stick to English, so that I too could have been able to use some of these projects for my own use. But I've learned what I needed to learn and can apply it to my own subject down the road. Overall, its been a great learning experience.  

Podcasts

Podcasting to me is a new idea, and one that I need to learn more about as far as its uses in the classroom. The idea of audio in the classroom is not a new one, just the concept of actually creating audio for students. I can see this being a positive thing in the classroom because students can listen to you explain something outside the classroom. They can also go home and create their own podcasts for their own projects, and that student-centered learning is always a good thing. Any kind of media that kids can learn from, when used appropriately can be effective. The negative thing to podcasting is probably finding enough uses for it, but again I need to learn more about that. My own experience is that podcasting is just audio, but that's not probably the case. I can imagine that you can hook up a podcast to a power point, especially if it's loaded as an mp3. If this is the case, I can see a lot more use with podcasting.

In the Media class, a podcast has been used as an instructional tool outside the classroom - learning how to do something while you're sitting at home. So that was really nice, and I could see that being used in my own classroom. For example, I might assign students a project for the evening, but instead of having it in paper, it's in a demonstrative podcast/tutorial that they can follow along with. For my own podcast assignment I had students in the classroom creating their own podcasts that they would eventually share with the entire classroom. The benefit of this would be allowing students to create and share, therefore expanding the possibilities of their interest and their learning.

I could create a podcast about something that seems a little menial to English students such as grammar or something small, and instead of having them review in the classroom, where they may be bored or distrated, they can simply go home and get a lesson in their own bedroom. The benefit of this would be the lack of distraction, and the ability to start and stop whenever they choose, and to go along with the podcast as they do assignments. I'm interested in learning how this tool will be more beneficial in the classroom and I imagine as we go over the enhanced podcast, I'll be able to see further how I can use this to enhance the curriculum.