Problems that occured over the semester

I didn't have so much problem over the semestrer. Actually, the only but real problem that I had was finding time to work on my blog, on my podcast and on my voicethread.
I am not a computer addict and I don't have a lot of time to give to computers. And most of all, I don't have an unlimited access to the internet. So it was a real barrier to my work.

Plus, I found out that when you tell a story to a child, there are so many details you have to think about, details that I wasn't aware of. But now I am, and I hope our voicethread to Betty and I, won't be too messy. ;)

What I learnt over the semester

This new semester gave me the opportunity to learn a lot of new things. 

First, there are the notions of Input and Output knowledges. Input is what you learn and output is what you do with what you have learnt. 

Then, I have to admitt that I learnt a lot about some tools of the internet that I didn't even know they existed. Among them, there are Flickr, Voicethread, Worldle and of course, Blogger.com. I probably won't use them again for a while except maybe Worldle, that I liked using. And since I am no photographer or drawer, I guess I wouldn't know what to do with Flickr. But yet, I won't deny that Voicethread was a funny tool to use. I'm a terrific bad Troll ! :p

Those exercises about podcast were an interesting thing to do too. It gave me the occasion to see how wealthy were the programs that North American Universities offer. Oh ! And I learnt to use Itunes, that I didn't have before this semester. And I kind of liked it. :)

PODCAST NUMBER 3

MAKING TEACHING MORE AFFORDABLE

Dorothy Durfee Avery Loan Forgiveness Fund

for the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP)

Exercise : outline the topic dealt with by the teacher and then reflect on the topic using your own experience as a student.

Efundunke Hughes explains that, at first, she didn't want to be a teacher but an astronautical engineer.
But there were not many black teachers or black engineers. And black teachers were unrespected and unpaid.
But there is the STEP program where Efundunke learnt what educate was during a year.
During her senior year at Stanford, she found out that she was accepted at the STEP but she couldn't afford it. But it is a program that wants to attract student that cannot afford Stanford because of the tuitions which are so high.

So, as far as I'm concerned, I think that studies should be something that anyone could afford. But yet, nowadays, it is far from being the case. Fortunately, in the french system, the state has provided scholarships for students in need. And it kind of saved me because whitout this scholarship, I would not have been able to afford to go to College. But still, I reckon that this system has some flaws. Because, at the age of 18, you don't always know what you want to do for the rest of your life. So you try some stuff, hoping to find what you are meant to be. But you don't always find it at the first shot. But the problem, with the french system, is that if you fail two years in a row, you don't receive the scholarship anymore. That is why I think it is unfortunate that the studies can be so expensive.

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Feed/itunes.stanford.edu-dz.4389963277.04389963279

PODCAST NUMBER 2

ART TALK : WHAT IS ART AND WHY DOES IT MATTER ?

Yale University Art Gallery

Exercise : Twenty questions usingthe podcast as a resource for oral comprehension.

1) What is the name of the podcast series ?  
 Art Talk

2) What is the name of the student ?  
Elise Nelson

3) What is she studiying at Yale University ?  
The history of Art

4) What is the subject around this specific talk ?
 a.museum b.library c.music

5) Where did the girl go to have answer to the topic question ? 
a.to the mall b.to the music hall c.to the open house

6) Did she go there in september the 6th of last year ? 
Yes/No

 7) How many people were at the event ? 
a.Over 800 people b.Less than 800 people c.About 800 people

8) The first student work on Precolumbian Art in New Mexico ? 
Yes/No

9) Why does Art matter to him ? 
Separate us from other people but in the same time builds bridges

10) What is Art to the second student ? 
a.Someone else's old teddy bear b.someone else's old friend c.someone else's old shirt

11) What is art to the fourth student ? 
Art is a relationship between the creator and the viewer.

12) What does Sam Boylen think ? 
art is good french fries with chili sauce

13) What is the name of the student who thinks that art is the expression of human creativity ? 
a.Sean Paul b.Chris Brown c.Kanye West

14) What part does Elise Nelson desagree with ? 
the beauty part

15) Why is the student being intentionnaly vague ? 
Because you can't define art narrowly/deeply/completely.

16) What Joseph Alvarez is considered as ? 
The father of the new vision of art

17) Where was this vision born ? 
a.In Germany b.in Spain c.in France

18) Where did he teach before teaching at Yale ? 
Black mountain college, North Carolina/South Carolina/North Dakota

19) What is Elise's point in introducing Joseph Alvarez ?
 He was constently struggling to answer a very specific question.

20) What is this big question ?  
What is art and why does it matter ?


 http://artgallery.yale.edu/pages/whatisart/podcast/index

PODCAST NUMBER 1

STANFORD SUMMER TEACHING INSTITUTE : Programm Overview

Pamela Grossman, Susan O'Hara and Cammy Huang - School of Education

Exercise : Objective résumé of the discussion in the podcast.

So Stanford Summer Teaching Institute is a course for teachers where they are taught to teach their classes with excellence. 

It happens in the CSET, which is the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching. 

The mission of CSET is to think about how to support excellent teaching and to think about what is the type of leadership that is needed at the school level and at the district level.

So SSTI is a opportunity for teachers to continue deepening their own understaning above the content they teach. Teachers come from all over the world and from any subject in order to attend this SSTI. So, it gives the course an incredible wealth of expertise. The SSTI can last 3 days to 2 weeks and it is a very unique experience to live for teachers. 

Indeed, teachers have the opportunity to enact and to rehearse and to plan for the use of the particular instructional strategy in the institute itself. 

And it is also a way to have feedbacks from others in order to improve themselves. 

 Futhermore, SSTI is a leadership for Learning Workshop and team-based classes.

Indeed, SSTI have two primary goals. The first one is to develop an intructional leadership team that has a shared vision of what instructional excellence is. 

The second goal is to really teach teams of instructional leaders about the sort of sources that they need to have in order to support excellent instruction. 

 So SSTI is a team-based course so teachers get the opportunity to work together. 

In another hand, SSTI is also continual support. The courses have follow-up opportunities throughout the year. 

They want the teachers to share what they learnt here so they could work with their collegues to continue the work they have already made.

So, finally, SSTI is long term. It provides the kind of ongoing nurishment, intellectual nurishment that teachers need to keep their classrooms vibrant and intellectually exciting places for kids. 

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Feed/itunes.stanford.edu-dz.4389963277.04389963279

 

 

Another new tool I didn't know about : WORDLE

For the 5th of March class, working in pairs, we were supposed to choose between five and eight words among a common theme (like the bedroom, the fruits etc) and we had to choose one personal (not robbed !) picture for each word. Then, we had to put those pictures in FLICKR and tell a story to the class.
Well I guess I'm kind of absent-minded sometimes because the words we chose with my partner weren't under the same theme. We chose crocodile, eagle, run away, red light traffic, doll, forest and teenager. But come on, you should see the pictures ! There are just gorgeous and there were all taken by Betty, my partner. Trust me, she's got real talent.

Anyway, at the end of the class, the teacher talked to us about another tool I've never heard about : WORDLE. And she asked us to use it with the words we chose. So now, you can see up here what it looks like.

PS : You probably wonder why those colors ? Well, I thought it looked better like this than with some colors as orange or pink ! Plus, I have to admit that I thought it looked like the artist Ben Vautier's sentences and I just love it !

PS2 : By the way, if you want to read the great story we wrote for the class, don't hesitate, just ask ! ;)

Facebook, a place to learn ?

Last week, we had a debate about how Facebook could be used for teaching and learning.
As far as I'm concerned, I don't think it would be an efficient way for teaching and learning.
At this point, I think that we are almost all facebook-addicted. When you are connected to Facebook, everything is too tempting. I just can't see myself going on Facebook and not commenting and visiting my friends' profile. It would be just so hard.
Facebook is so addictive that I can't see how it could be used for teaching. Except if there is a parental control all the time.