How Have I Grown in the Last Three Weeks

Three weeks go by rather quickly. You can either spend them, use them or waste them. In the last three weeks I have used my time in an efficient way, I have improved my classroom technological skills. I remember the first day of class, I was rather intimidated of technology in general. I did not realize that technology is not the future for our students, it is not an option that they will need later.
It is their present and as an educator I feel responsible to incorporate technology in my lessons in order to prepare them to compete in a global economy.

Some technology that I found interesting in class is the Voicethread because I found it useful and creative way to request responses from students. I teach ESL and must concentrate in the four domains of language development: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Therefore I am constantly in search for creative ways to incorporate venues that allow my students to develop these areas. Flipgrid was also an interesting way to assess speaking and allow my students to feel comfortable speaking into the microphone. This would be essential practice to get them to experience answering questions and editing their speech and responses before submitting their answers.

Finally, I learned a great deal and feel I have definitely learned because I perform more technological tasks with ease. I feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from them in technology.

The Triangle Dance

While there are numerous benefits of dancing, that include flexibility, strength, and confidence, nothing prepared me for this new style of dancing. I first heard it from a sophomore who took the time to introduce me to this viral trend as something to laugh about. It originated in February 2019 on a music video platform  TIK TOK.

Triangle Dance seems fun and funny at the same time. It usually requires three people to embrace each other by the shoulders and then facing each other jump forward in three directions left, straight and right in a synchronized fashion in order to avoid crashing into each other.

I was fascinated to look at videos and realize that this dance transcends generational, gender, and professional differences. It attracts people from all walks of life and it seems that it could be danced to all sorts of fast beat music. I can see the cardio benefits of this dance. I wonder what the effects of this dance would be on the people's spatial awareness and spatial intelligence.

 It seems like a dance that can promote teamwork and synergy in a group. I would be concerned about the lower grade students who may accidentally crash against each other and hurt one another especially in a larger room with less supervision. As for fourth graders and up, it seems to be a hit. I have personally tried it and am having fun working on my coordination. It releases stress...you should try it too.

The Vans Challenge

This week we were asked to write about anything we found interesting on social media. I happen to become extremely curious about a viral trend on social media that is making everyone crazy and it is known as the "Vans Challenge."

It has to do with a claim that if you take a Vans sneaker and throw it up in the air it always lands on its sole. At first I thought it was absurd. It seemed as an unbelievable claim to me and when I discussed it with other people, they agreed with me. We watched videos in which everyone is taking the challenge. To our surprise they tried different ways and heights from which to either throw or drop the sneakers. They even took the worlds greatest challenge in which a bunch of shoes are dropped from a crane...and guess what? It seems that they do always land on their sole.
Everyone seems to be fascinated by this outcome and have tried it themselves and tweeted about it. They even tried to find answers about how it works from a Professor of Physics.

I am no expert in the matter but talking with some of my students they suggested some pretty reasonable ideas. They said that it probably had to do with a heavier rubber sole being drawn towards the center of the earth due to gravity. They also added that the shape of the sneaker may also aid its tendency to turn a certain way to land the way it does. Until we know for sure, we are still fascinated and speculate of reasons why this occurs... Can you think of any logical explanation? If you have some ideas...share them with us.

How My Learning Style Affects How I Respond to Flipped Classrooms

Learning styles can influence the ability to either work well in a Flipped Classroom teaching environment or be hindered of adequate learning through the usage of this interesting approach.

We can have a combination of learning styles 

My learning style is 44% visual, 40% auditory and 16% kinesthetic; therefore, I think that I would learn well in the flipped classroom. Taking good notes while using high lighters is recommended for visual learning. The use of flashcards to study terms and vocabulary are an excellent tool for this type of learner.  Auditory learners use podcast or read alouds and recordings, using their sense of listening to learn new information. Kinesthetic learners are more tactile learners and learn by doing hands on activities rather than listening or watching. I would like to analyze why Flipped Classrooms could potentially work, Challenges employing this approach. Finally I would like to
discuss personal concerns that I may have regarding  Flipped Classrooms.

Why Flipped Classrooms Can Work 

Since the flipped classroom uses audio and visual material, that is accessible at all times during the preparation, this is an advantage. On the other hand, watching videos is a very good way for me to learn since I am a visual/auditory learner.  This is where flipped classroom would be an excellent match for me because I can watch the presentation of the listen via internet or previously recorded lessons, which would allow me to review the material as many times as necessary to grasp a difficult concept.

Challenges about Flipped Classrooms

The area that would be challenging for me would be in the flipped classroom would be to trust that everyone will pull their own weight. Not everyone is the same. I think whenever, people work in teams the technological divide can be evident and some people being more technologically savvy, will work more than others less proficient with technology will. Personally, I am not as proficient as I would like to be using technology, but I find ways to learn and practice in areas I feel technologically challenged.  I like the control that flipped classrooms provide for students, and how it promotes the students' responsibility for his/her personal learning.
Personal Concerns
I am concerned of the amount of work required in the front end. A concern that I have, is triggered by my familiarity with the educational field and knowledge that there are different levels of experience in the teaching profession; not all teachers have the same level of expertise. For example, a new instructor may be less considerate to his/her students, and overload the amount of work required in the front end. He/she may also choose low quality material which may not be clear or comprehensible.  Finally, I share different percentages of learning styles, which sometimes can interfere with one another. As an auditory learner, I might have a hard time with the visual distraction while trying to focus on the auditory information.  I can close my eyes and focus on the oral presentation to learn the material.  As for the kinetics learner, I will find it challenging since in technological learning this is not part of the original lesson.

In conclusion, I like the fact that I have the control to stop the recording to take notes and re-run it again as needed. On the other hand taking positive and negative arguments is an important step to evaluate if Flipped classrooms is a good fit. I do acknowledge that concerns without foundation are just verbalized fears without legitimate reasons. Despite my concerns, I think overall, this technique could work well for me. Do you think it would work for you? Why or Why not?

"Decoding does not mean Reading."

Hi everyone,

An issue that I have with many teachers is that when they hear a student decode well, they believe that a student knows how to read. 

This is far from the truth, yes decoding is essential but if there is little to no comprehension, it is not reading.  A student needs to be able to understand what he/she is reading and be able to discuss the text and write about what they read.To read entails taking in the sense or interpret of what is decoded. 

I have listened to students read with excellent fluency, expression and were first –rate decoder but unfortunately did not understand what they read. I have also had the experience of having new immigrant students with no English knowledge read beautifully as if they were professional radio announcers in their native language and have no comprehension of what they read. This is because Spanish is considered a "transparent language." On another occasion I had students reading at a 2^nd grade level in English decode a leveled text at their appropriate level, nevertheless, these students did not know the meaning of the text they read. 

My point with these two examples is that decoding does not mean reading with comprehension. However, some teachers focus on teaching  fluency and they believe that the student has learned once he/she decodes. Reading entails comprehension of the material. Interpreting, evaluating and using information from written text, is really the predominant purpose of learning to read.

My Take on Tech in Classrooms

Hello everyone!

Technology can have great benefits in the classroom. Why is it that it is not easily adopted by some educators in the classrooms? Why should we care?  These questions may seem biased and aligning with people that may be technologically savvy, while inconsiderate of those who resist change. Nevertheless, I understand the challenges of learning something new and also the harm of not keeping up with the changing trends.

Why is it that it is not easily adopted by some educators? Technology can be intimidating to many educators, it is a set of skills that not everyone possesses. I have personally experienced being taught a lesson by highly qualified instructors who make the subject interesting, relevant and up to date. I would have not noticed that they were not comfortable with technology until they attempted to use it in class, with much effort and cooperation from all present... they blamed it on technological malfunctions and finally...they gave up.

Some reasons why we should care about integrating technology in the classrooms are that technology  is not an innovation, it has been part of society at large. It keeps on developing and becoming more mainstream and part of out daily lives. It has infiltrated our daily routine and become the normal way of doing things in ways we never dreamed possible. We would not think of looking in the dictionary for a meaning, nor going to our public library to find information that we can access in seconds on all sorts of devices. It is part of our personal and professional lives. Technology defines the way we interact and connect with each other. It reinvents the way we meet and even date. It contributes to our modern language in any language new vocabulary words. Technology presents us with a surmountable amount of data, with which we could no longer think its possible to make decisions or survive and our students need to become very comfortable searching, selecting and using this information.