Copyright Response

What?

This week we learned about copyright laws and options. This assignment was a group assignment and we all studied a certain topic about copyright and then shared the information.

So What?

This is a very important lesson for future teachers because we will be dealing with a lot of information when we are teaching in our classes, and we need to know how to properly and rightfully present the information we use. Copyright and plagiarism is a very serious situation when it comes to presenting and using information that is not ours. As teachers we need to show our students how to give credit to the source and present information without breaking laws. Knowing correct copyright laws is crucial to presenting efficiently and safely in our classrooms.

Now What?

I know that learning all of this copyright information is going to change my teaching dramatically because I will have to be more efficient in citing my sources and information when presenting it, as well as making sure that I have credible sources. Making sure that I cite things correctly and do not break any laws will take a lot more time than just throwing slides and information together without working about copyright. This will be a pain in the ass, but in the end it will be a lot more beneficial and safe for my classroom. Teaching by example is one of the best ways to teach, and if my students can see me citing and presenting information correctly hopefully it will carry over for them.

Vidcast Response

Dave and I decided to name our vidcast Grammarville Animated Grammar Lesson Series One: Comma Rules. We named it this because our series will be covering grammar rules for our future English classes. Our series will continue on to cover all of our grammar rules throughout the school year by using creative characters and dialogue to intrigue our students in our classrooms. The state core curriculum that our vidcast will fall under is:

Objective 3
(Revision and Editing): Revise and edit to strengthen ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions.

• Correct use of commas to set off appositives.

We chose to do our vidcast with the theme/topic of grammar because students tend to find grammar boring and lose focus and motivation while learning it. We hope that this will be a new and entertaining way to learn grammar rules and concepts by creating silly characters and dialogue to view in our classes. We really focused on making it entertaining, but yet very beneficial to our students. Hopefully students will pay attention and it will simplify grammar for them throughout the school year.

This vidcast would fit into the INSTASC Standards: 1. Discipline Knowledge, 2. Developmental Knowledge, 3. Instructional Adaptability, 4. Instructional Variety, and 7. Instructional Planning. All of these INSTASC Standards cover being knowledgeable about your content and curriculum; while finding creative and a variety of ways to present and teach them. Our vidcast shows variety and our knowledge on the subject of grammar and comma usage. This assignment also covers all of the NET standards, which are: NETS S:The skills and knowledge students need to learn effectively and live productively in a digital world., NETS T:The skills and knowledge educators need to change the way they teach, the way they work, and the way they learn in an increasingly connected global and digital society., and NETS A:The skills and knowledge school administrators and leaders need to lead and sustain a culture that supports digital-age learning, builds a vision for technology infusion, and transforms the instructional landscape. Our vidcast uses all these NET standards and teaches students in a digital environment. This assignment really challenged us as future teachers, because it forced us to use the digital world to teach a grammar lesson. This makes us even more marketable and valuable as teachers because students today are so involved and active in digital environments.

I really plan on using this series in my future classroom. I truly believe that it will be an effective and fun way for students to interact with grammar and hopefully it will keep them focused and entertained as well. The only problem I see with using the series is the time it will take to create more grammar lessons. Making this vidcast was incredibly time consuming and difficult; I can only hope it gets easier with time. If I can make creating these vidcasts a quicker process now that I have one made, I truly think that it would be a huge asset to my teaching and classroom.

WEEK 6: Vidcasts

What?-

This week in class we were instructed on how to create a vidcast of for our classes. Dave and I got to brainstorm during class time and create our plan of attack to complete this assignment. Our cooperating teacher wants us to create a grammar vidcast dealing with coma rules. We are going to create the most bad ass vidcast and of course it will be funny.

So What?-

This vidcast training is going to be an awesome addition to my teaching style. I am excited to create our vidcast and mess around with all of the technical dynamics of it so that I can create more vidcasts in the future. Grammar is pretty lame to learn and even teach sometimes, so I think that making entertaining vidcasts will really help my classes and I get through some of the technical parts or writing. I also think that my colleagues can benefit from my vidcasts because I can share them with them or visa versa if they create great lesson plans and grammar exercises too. Sharing lesson plans and ideas is something that I am excited to do as a new teacher. I find it so interesting to see how other teachers teach certain parts of the curriculum because I can gather or build off of their ideas. I also think vidcasts will be something that makes me valuable as a new teacher because it will be able to tap into so many different kinds of students and learning styles.

Now What?-

I know that students these days are very big on technology and media in their personal and learning lives. They will love vidcasts in my classroom, I know it! I am truly so excited to get in the classroom and I feel that learning all of this technology that I can use in my classroom makes me that much more confident that I will be a great teacher. I observe a lot of teachers at the school I work at, and I always find it so interesting to see how much more involved in learning the students are in the classrooms that have technology used in them in some way, shape or form. Students love youtube.com and teachers that use their students interest in youtube.com as an advantage in their classroom really get a great reception from their students. I hope to help teachers in my English department at my future school use more technology in their lesson plans because I think that students will love our style and we will have more students getting involved in reading and writing. I really am just pumped to finally get to work and teach!