Class reflections

Class on Friday was very interesting and enjoyable. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed both Kristin and Jeff's section of the class. As an avid podcast listener, I was both excited and nervous to create my own. However, once I got going on it, I was more excited than nervous. The program Aviary is amazing, and I look forward to using it more in the future. It was really nice that we were able to share our podcasts on the wiki page with one another, as it was fun listening to what everyone had to say, and to be able to hear about the various edubloggers out there that people are enjoying.

Another application I learned about from Kristin was Evernote. I downloaded it and have been using it to keep organized. It's a great application as I'm able to put webpages in it, web links, youtube videos, really anything, and it keeps it all in storage. As I sometimes having a difficult time remembering all the different websites and information pages we are shown in class, Evernote has shown to be really helpful in that aspect.

I thought Jeff's section of the class was fantastic. I really enjoyed the activity where we had to decipher the "code" on the sheet of paper. I think it is a great exercise for teachers to go through as it puts us in the shoes of struggling students. It made me realize how frustrating it can be to not understand something and how it's important to be sensitive to that. While Jeff, the teacher, was able to understand it all, we, the students, were pretty much lost and confused. He had to be patient and help us through it step by step, which was very helpful, until we were able to figure out what this code really meant. It was a great lesson in the importance of patience, both as a teacher and a student. It also showed the importance of teamwork. For example, my partner was able to understand some of the signs that I didn't, and I was able to understand some signs that she didn't. By putting what we both knew together, we were better able to guess at what the surrounding signs meant. Without each other, we would have been stuck from the beginning.

The code sheet is definitely something I will use again in the future as I believe that it has many lessons it can teach both students and teachers. I look forward to doing future podcasts, and plan on one day incorporating those into my classroom. Podcasts are a fun and interesting way for students to do reports, interviews, and much more. It is a good method for assessing students as well. Perhaps I could somehow combine a secret code activity with a podcast. Hmmm... the possibilities are endless.