Thursday, November 20, 2014

Video Games in the Classroom

While I believe that there is a time and place for everything, unfortunately I do not believe that there is a place in my classroom for video games.  Teaching English is so different than any other subject.  While it seems like all we do is read, there are a lot of other things that go on inside a Language Arts classroom.  I'm all about using technology in my classroom.  I love that the kids like to read on their phones/ tablets/ laptops.  But for me, that's where it ends.  I have not found any "games" that will help grow my students academically.
However, when talking to my science teacher friends, I have learned that there are many ipad apps that they can use to teach physics and the such.  I love that they kids would be able to use those games to understand things like velocity.  I think in today's world we do need to meet the kids where they are.  That's why I use a class blog for their writing.  I also like to have them create things like an Instagram for Edgar Allen Poe (or who ever we are reading about at the time).  

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Keeping Kids Writing

as an avid blogger for the past 9 years, I'm a huge fan of incorporating blogging into the classroom. I currently have three class blogs. I use these for timed responses to literature.basically, the students read an article or piece of literature and write an answer to a prompt. The kids really enjoy this type of writing.