Google Docs

The middle school I am conducting my student teaching experience has employed a school wide use of Google Drive. Starting in sixth grade, students are given a Google Drive account which they are to utilize throughout their middle school career. In order to orient students with the multiple uses of a Google account, such as sharing documents to a teacher, fellow students, editing and working as a group and more, sixth graders spend a class period in the computer lab where the computer educator teaches students how to navigate their new account. Google accounts are a very useful educational tool, especially in the English classroom. When students are assigned a written homework assignment, essay response, or group project, our students simply share their documents with my cooperating teacher. Documents can be printed out and edited, or simply edited via computer using Google editors. It is also useful to use Google, while all documents are time stamped, and a teacher can see if an essay was edited last, or can even set a time limit for sending in essays or written work. Students can also collaborate for group work using this tool, while edits are done in real time. For example, I recently had students conduct a mock trial in our Language Arts classroom. While students worked in class to gather their evidence, many groups decided to collect their evidence and create their arguments on Google Docs, editing and adding their personal contributions on a document which they eventually shared with my cooperating teacher once it was completed. I find this to be a useful tool to integrate into my future classroom, while it eliminated paper usage, makes organization very simple, and also creates a sense of student independence and initiative as well as room for collaboration and creativity.

Cell Phone Use in School

While conducting a debate in class today, I noticed a student of mine using his phone as a recording device, so as to document the mock trial. What was interesting about this scenario was my reaction, which was hesitation. My initial reaction was that his device was not causing a distraction, in fact, he was using it as a helpful tool to document what was being said during the mock trial so as to be able to hone his closing statement, which would take place the following class time. After thinking about it, I told my student to put the phone away, which he argued was being used for educational purpose, to which I answered that if I see it, then I am required to take it away. He quickly assessed the loophole in my comment, and put the phone where I couldn't see it, which I was fully aware of and did not mind to address further. This situation caused me to look introspectively at my own opinions on the matter if cellular devices in the classroom, which I had not previously considered. Being in an eighth grade classroom, my students are on a cusp, in that they are not yet adults and yet cannot be considered children. While they are coming of age, I feel as though it is important to give students responsibility for their actions, especially ones they know the consequences to. While cell phone use is prohibited in school, I find that in certain instances they may be a beneficial tool for instruction and learning. While we live in a digital age, and most students can navigate technology fluently, it almost seems counter intuitive not to integrate technology into the classroom. The school I am in is not one in which students have consistent access to computers, and yet, the majority of students possess some sort of smart phone or device which can perform the same basic tasks. While cell phone use would have to be regulated and closely monitored, only allowing these devices to be used in class during allotted times, I believe the integration could be beneficial for many students as well as teachers.

Collaboration Canvas

Monica's original canvas focused on color theory, and how color affects how we see the world. She illustrated many different aspects of color theory, from the combination of different colors, to the connotations certain colors hold. She also included a poem about the color purple, which sparked me idea as to how I would incorporate color theory into my unit plan. While Vonnegut often uses the color blue as a repeated motif within his novel Slaughterhouse Five, I figured it would be helpful to delve into what the color blue means within the book, as well as how color is often used to symbolize ideas or emotions within works of art, poetry and literature. Vonnegut used the color blue multiple times to describe the color of the character, Billy Pilgrim's feet, while he is on the brink of frostbite and disease. Blue is used often as a reminder of our fragility and as a reminder of death, a dark theme which he stifles with the use of his apathetic and disillusioned narrative voice. This reminded me of the poem "Disillusionment of Ten O'clock" by Wallace Stevens, who describes the monotony and apathy of society with the use of color, or the lack thereof. This led to a connection to Picasso's Blue Period, in which he inadvertently expressed his depression and malcontent through a slew of paintings in which he used monochromatic hues of blue.

Canvas Remix