myesl509summer17

Week Five Blog: How technology can boost equity in education This weeks article examined how technology can help achieve goals in the classroom.   Teachers have several responsibilities, but one of them are preparing students for the workforce and sometimes for jobs that do not even exist yet!   In education, there are always new trends and this article in particular mentioned virtual reality, student-directed learning, and collaboration. These skills are what the students need in order to be successful in their careers.   These skills/trends can be “covered” through Create Your Own Classroom (CYOC), which is a new flexible learning environment to meet the needs of all learners because it allows the teachers and students the freedom to choose how their learning is delivered and obtained. The article stated that by students choosing what content they utilized and the ways they collaborate with peers and teachers allows for life-long learning.   While I do see the...

Week Four Blog: Technology and Engagement             This week’s article discussed how bringing technology into the classroom increased student engagement.   Technology allows for learning to go beyond the four walls of a classroom and more collaboration among students and teachers. More specifically, they mentioned G Suite for Education and code.org, where students are taking “…what they find and show teachers what they know.” Furthermore, coding was touched upon because of the growing necessity for it to be taught in school since those are the skills students are going to need when they enter the job force.   The article stated: “A lot of research will tell you if you’re not teaching coding to young children, it’s like teaching them not to read.” That statement caught my attention for two reasons- 1. How much is coding being taught in schools; and 2. I have NO idea how to code…does that make me...

This article is about teaching English to students in Fiji, since English is seen as a “supreme mode of language”. Without communication people cannot function in school or the workplace, which is what the article is focused around.   The article also mentions the four-macro skills of English language that must mastered to achieve competence. To deploy these skills, Fiji education is implementing language labs. In these labs, students will utilize products such as: wireless headsets, microphones, and multimedia to help students learn English. These labs will be “ …useful to assess students' speech. It provides students with the technical tools to get the best samples of enunciation the language. The electronic devices used in the laboratory will stimulate the ears and eyes of the learner to acquire language easily and quickly. The collection of ICT tools in the laboratory is designed to assist learners acquire and maintain aural comprehension, oral competency,...

This article discussed the value that music could bring to ESL classrooms.  Music in general is very popular among students and plays a vital role in their lives.  However, music is rarely used in an educational setting to assist learners in understanding language. The author explained how it is harder to incorporate music into high school classrooms than elementary or middle school classrooms, since there are several songs to memorize or learn concepts (states, ABCs, etc). The writer mentioned another source who suggested utilizing music and songs to teach grammar (ex: many confuse the use of "can't" with ability and "may" with permission), which is a subject area students do not really enjoy. However, the content and engagement can be enhanced through music! She also included this information in your article: To find suitable pop songs, busyteacher.org a great resource with more than 1,700 song worksheets submitted by teachers and organized by ESL l...