The first video was a short student-made video about how to effectively write a peer review. Making a peer edit means working with some one your own age to help improve, edit, or revise his or her writing. This video takes us through 3 steps to ensure ourselves we are helping in the correct manner. The first step is to make sure you compliment the author. Tell the author what you think he or she did correctly. The second step is to make suggestions. Help the author make improvement or revisions to their work by offering your opinions. The third step is to help make corrections. There is also one important rule to peer editing: stay positive!
I learned that there is more to making peer reviews other than looking for mistakes and completing an assignment. The point of peer editing is to help another classmate understand the assignment more clearly and offer your opinions on how they could improve it in a friendly manner.
Tutorial Peer Editing Slideshow
This slideshow was basically word-for-word exactly like the video above, only in a different context. I took away from it, the exact same material. Be kind to one another, offer suggestions, and offer corrections.
Don't Be a Picky Patty!
I absolutely adored this video. It was made by, what appears to be, a fourth grade classroom. The students walk you through the steps of adequately reviewing another student's work. Their major points included: don't be a Picky Patty, a Whatever William, a Social Sammy, Jean the Generalizer, a Mean Margaret, a Loud Larry, a Pushy Paula, an Off-Task Oliver, a Speedy Sandy, or a Defensive Dave. Overall the students give excellent representations on how a review should not be completed.
The students did a wonderful job acting out the characters for each scenario. During a review students often slack off or become over analytical of another's paper. This video portrayed this very accurately from students so young.
Technology in Special Education
This video followed a special education teacher in her use of technology in her classroom. She showed how her students interacted with a variety of types of technology and also benefited from these devices. She interviewed a few of her students that directly benefit from technology. A few of her students benefit because the use of technology helps them communicate for accurately and easily. Some of her students benefit from mechanically typing out assignments instead of hand-writing because they have physical handicaps.
This video really hit home with me because I am studying to be a secondary special-education teacher. It was interesting to see the different types of ways technology can be incorporated with special ed students. I interned with a small class while I was still in high school and those students had little to no technological advantages. I really hope to get to expose my own classroom to different devices to keep them up-to-speed with the modern day to help them in the future.
Computer Applications and Special Needs Children
This iPhone or iPad application can be used to teach children, even special needs children, how to properly write out their alphabet. I chose this app because it not only takes them through the motions of writing out each letter, but it also interacts with them through game-play. I believe children of any sort would be entertained and would continue to play this game all while learning their ABC's.
Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
This video follows a teacher from southern Georgia who centers her classroom on the internet and technology. I do not fully agree with this teacher. Her approach is solely formatted to computers and different programs. She has her students interacting through virtual worlds online and blogs. Students in school need to be interacting through face-to-face socialization and interaction. Online social networking is something that should be left to do in a student's free time at home. Social networking and blogging should not be a major subject in a school system. At one point this teacher said "You do not always need to know everything you're teaching." That's insane! A certified teacher should not be teaching anything she does not know inside and out. A teach should be able to understand and adequately explain a subject to a student. A student should not learn something on his or her own then teach it to the rest of the class, including the teacher. Overall, I was quite troubled and disappointed in this video and this woman's approach to teaching.
Hello Hilary Hayes,
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was very well written and organized and I can see that it really reflects what you have learned from watching the video links. I did however find a few grammatical Errors. I am glad to know that you will be working with special needs students in your future career, and I hope that you will get the chance to have some great technological tools to use for you and your students. Great Job!
Great job, Hillary! In "Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes", I also found it very interesting and creative that these students were allowed to characterize and personify the qualities of good and bad peer review. This helps them to visualize the content, to interact, and also, as you said, to understand that review time is not time to "slack off".
ReplyDeleteIn your commentary on "Technology in Special Education" I thought that your wording was very formal and that it needed more examples. Since your major is Special Education, I was disappointed that you did not elaborate more on what technology you would use in your classroom or what disabilities or handicaps this technology could help to interact with other students and the curriculum.
It was great to read your reaction to "Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts". A lot of students don't consider it in-depth or take it all that seriously. They praise the teacher and her integration of technology. While I disagree with you to an extent, I applaud your conviction and your honesty. Mrs. Davis may not know the curriculum inside-and-out, but at least she is open about it. Her philosophy is that the teacher doesn't have to know everything, because let's face it, not ALL teachers are experts. The point she is trying to make is that a teacher should be open to learn from, and with his or her students. The students feel some sense of accomplishment knowing that they have discovered something new or taught the teacher something new, or even brought a new perspective to something that teacher may have already known. I like this because it keeps the knowledge and content fresh in our minds- if we always have the same perspective, it grows stale and we may tend to get complacent.
It's not just about being able to adequately explain a subject to the student- if the student discovers something new that the teacher does not know, they are able to become even more familiar with it by applying it when they demonstrate their new knowledge to the teacher and the class. I think this is great for Special Needs Students because a lot of them are on a level behind classmates of the same age, and the feeling of accomplishment for them would be great, and also, a lot of them learn best when practically applying a concept.
Keep up the good work! Honest opinions are always better than going with the flow :D
Carly