Class Recap for October 10th

Okay, so class was a little different this night, in that we didn't do much in the way with Google Docs, and did more interactive and hands-on learning. The first piece of business was discussing our PowerPoint/Web 2.0 assignments. I chose Spelling City, because I'm going to be a high school English teacher, and I feel that expanding one's vocabulary is important for moving on to college. My thinking is that I won't use Spelling City for anything more than additional, light homework assignments. So, in my fictional classroom, I would have the curriculum-based assignments, such as reading chapters in a specific novel or writing papers, but also reviewing a different list or set of words each week. Based on my preliminary usage of Spelling City, I think it would be easy for a student to mess around with a few of the games using the words I provide without overwhelming them with work. I'll have to play around with Spelling City some more to get a better scope on how I could implement it in a classroom setting.

Speaking of PowerPoint, one of the other things we did was actually use what we had learned about PowerPoint thus far to present some of the guidelines in the ISTE/NETS-T Website(s). I thought this was good practice for using the newer version of PowerPoint; I haven't used PowerPoint in some time. As with all the other programs in the Office Suite, Microsoft totally changed the interface, so it's a little frustrating to use upon first examination - especially when one is used to using the older versions of these programs. As for the assignment itself, I liked working with others in the classroom, although I felt like only me and two others really participated. At any rate, it was a nice break from just reading Web sites on curricula, education standards, and the like and simply regurgitating what we read in a Google Doc. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the discussions we have, but I can also appreciate the variety of approaches we can take to learn the course material.