Thursday, June 10, 2010

Social Bookmarking

This is my social bookmarking page http://delicious.com/mariadinsmore I focused mainly on English Education because that is my major. I hope you enjoy what I found.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Critical Thinking

I found the article Teachers & Technology: English with an Edge to be a very interesting explanation of an end of the year project for seniors. I thought it was a wonderful way to teach about satire and I would love to use this idea in my classroom one day. Making a fun video to demonstrate satire using up to date technology allows high school students to be themselves and feel comfortable with the equipment they are using in order to have a successful project.
One huge question I had after reading this article was why is the use of technology so important to the assignment? After going through the article a few more times and really thinking about it I realized that technology is the most important part of the project. They wanted to show satire and a video is the perfect way to do that and to learn about satire in a different way. Video is a simple way to bring out emotion in the viewer because when you put a picture with the words you are saying it is easier for a person to process. Also for this project it is a good way to show sarcasm and stereotypes in order to get a laugh and a point across.
A quote that stood out to me the most in this article was “We brainstorm awards categories for our RIDDYS, and acronym for Ridiculing Ignorance & Debunking Degenerate Yankee Schlock.” This stuck out to me so much because I could not believe how clever RIDDYS was. I enjoyed how it explains satire the topic they are studying and also it sounds like something a teenager would say and would be excited about. Just from reading this one line you can already tell that this is a student run project and you can see why the students get so excited about participating in making and showing their videos.
This article reminds me of the book “See You When You Get There” that I read for one of my other educations class. Both readings really showed me how amazing teachers are. They are extraordinary and they have the most amazing ideas on how to teach students in different ways instead of just sticking to the norm. They are outgoing, fearless, and risk getting in trouble for teaching the way they do just to get through their students. These stories inspire me and I hope to have a story of my own of something crazy I did for my students.
I can relate to this article because when I was in high school I had an economics teacher who taught us a little differently. He gave us the choice to learn from the book or do a project. Of course as students we all pick the project. We were told to create something to sell we decided to make corn hole sets and we even got a grant so we made a profit. We made everything by hand and learned everything we needed to know about economics by doing it and our teacher telling the use the correct book terms of what we were doing. It was my favorite class and helped me with my senioritis. He took a risk and trusted us by giving us responsibility and we did not let him down. I think it is the same situation with the satire videos it was a little risky but was worth it because it inspired the students to learn and have fun while doing it
This article was very interesting and inspiring. It shows that you really can have fun in your classroom. It also shows that if you try hard enough and be creative you will be able to reach out to your students and get them involved. When I become a teacher I hope to make every project as fun and interesting as possible. I want my students to enjoy what they are learning and to have fun. That is the way it should be and I think some teachers have forgotten that teaching is not just lectures and completing the state standards it is about reaching out to the students and helping them to have a successful future.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Podcasting (Gabcast)

Podcast what is it? Well I have never used or made a podcast in my life but I have looked up a few and realized it is similar to the radio. It is also very much like a blog but there is more personality to it. With podcast you do not have to carefully word what you are saying in order to get a certain emotion across. You can hear all the personality and emotion in a person's voice. Podcast are very versatile and convenient. You can listen to what you want whenever you want.

Like I said before I have never done or even listened to a podcast before this so I will tell you what I did for my first one. I went to the Gabcast website and set up an account. Then I set up a channel. I found this not difficult but complex there were several options and things to choose from which I need to explore more in depth. It is time to do my first podcast and I am very nervous mainly because I dislike talking on the phone and calling places. I work at a pizza place and I can't even call and order pizza. The website is very straight forward there are several numbers listed depending on your location. You call the number or you can use skype and enter in your password you set up when making your channel and you start talking about whatever you want. Also when you first sign up they give you five minutes but you have to pay for more minutes if you need them in the future. They have package deals for very reasonable prices. I decided to focus my podcast on emotions since I think podcast are a good way to express emotions.

Here is the link to my first podcast: http://www.gabcast.com/gc1/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=35091&cast=161242&castPage=&autoplay=true

So here are some tips that might help you. What I did for my podcast is I typed out what I was going to say before I actually called in and preformed my podcast. It helped me stay on track and remember what I wanted to say also it helped me organize my thoughts. I didn't follow it word for word it was more like an outline. The only other advice I can give you is listen over what you have said before you post it and don't expect perfection I tripped over a word or two in mine but I thought the rest was good so I kept my third take. I hope you enjoyed my podcast. :)

Friday, May 21, 2010

A little about myself and setting up my blog

Hi! I am Maria Dinsmore. I am a waitress at Monical's Pizza. I enjoy my job a lot because I am very outgoing and love to talk to people and make them happy. At work I am always singing and dancing to whatever song is on the radio. I currently live with my brother and his wife. I love living with them but it still takes me 45 minutes to get to campus. After all my friends from high school left for college I met my boyfriend Clinton. Clinton is my best friend and I spend most of my time with him. He is very supportive of me studying to be a high school English teacher. I could not ask for better people in my life to always have my back.
So attempting to make this blog was not easy for me. I feel like a loser to admit that but I feel like I did not do a very good job on my profile. I felt like it wasn't what I expected I have never made a blog before. I guess I just thought there would be more options on editing my profile. Which I am guessing there are more option I just need to search more to find them. I think once I get on my blog more I will be editing my profile a lot and I plan on learning from my classmates profiles also. My advice to anyone writing a blog is to always make sure your grammar and spelling is correct. You should make your profile interesting and personal so people will want to read your blogs. My last piece of advice is look at other people blogs and take the time to read what they have to say because you might get ideas for your own blog.