Special Blog Assignment #1

Did You Know Many Of Us Misinterpreted "Did You Know"?

Apparently, many of us misinterpreted the information in Dr. Strange's video, "Did You Know". I know I probably did because when watching, I focused more so on the percentages of honor students in India and English-speaking and English-speaking learner in China, instead of paying attention to the fact that they have more honor students and English-speaking citizens simply because their population trumps our by a lot considering approximately 1 billion people living in India and 1.3 billion people in China verses our 3.1 million. I asked WolframAlpha how many foreign language teachers there are in the USA and according to it, there are only about 27,020 (2009). Then, I asked how many math teachers there were in the USA and according to it, there are 48,100.

I think WoldframAlpha would be a useful resource in the classroom because if a student where to ask a question the teacher is unsure of, she could pull it up on the smart board and the teacher as well as the class could search together and discuss the results. The site could be useful to students when working on homework and projects when they need to look up information or need an answer to a question or problem.

Gary Hayes and Social Media

Social networking and media is almost vital to most young adults in our generation, and many older people are getting involved with it too. So, since many young and older people are on social media websites, why not use it to your advantage as a teacher? Teachers could make a Facebook classroom page to where he or she can post assignments or classroom news on. Students could post question or suggestions on projects and homework. They could also post important items like a syllabus to keep up with assignments or test dates.

Social media can be beneficial to teachers as well. Teachers could set up a separate Facebook page for parents who use social media to keep up with important dates and let them know if they need some volunteers for activities in the classroom. Teachers can use sites like Twitter and Pintrest to follow other teachers, get ideas for the classroom and find free resources.

I love social media. I would be lost without it!