Grow Creativity!

This article Grow Creativity! is a great read and would be very beneficial to all teachers. I think one of the most difficult things for students to do is to be creative. This article goes through the different characteristics that lead to creativity, and also how your students can reach them. These characteristics are: Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, and Elaboration. I think that a lot of students struggle with creativity and these four characteristics. I know I sure do, and whenever a teacher asked me to be creative I would always mention that I'm not creative at all. My lack of creativity would often cause me to spend more time thinking about the projects then actually doing them. How often do you see students sitting at their desks, because they do not know what to do. Not because of the assignment either, but because they simply do not know what to do it on. I think if teachers actually taught their students these four traits and how to be creative it would enhance a students performance and abilities.

The article also discussed how a teacher can use web 2.0 tools to help in this process. After examples about how to build creativity in the four characteristics the article gives examples on how to use the web tools to do that. For example: to help build originality in your students try having them do a project from scratch using any of the following web tools: Blabberize, Bubblr, comic makers, Dabbleboard, DoInk, GlogsterEDU, GoAnimate, Queeky Scrapblog, Scribblar, Tagxedo, Voicethread, Vuvox, Wallwisher, and Xtranormal. Their is a lot of online tools that the article just listed that can help your students learn originality and creativity. I think if I would have been using these tools from day one of my education, I may not have such a hard time coming up with something creative to use.

A side topic of this article was that one of the teachers featured in it was from St. Mary's in Berea, OH. I lived in Berea for five years, and this school was just a few blocks away. It's nice to see that this innovation and these technology tools we discuss are going on all around us.

Point/Counterpoint: Will the iPad Revolutionize Education?

After reading the title of this article I had an immediate reaction to and issue with the question. I wasn't quite sure what my answer would be, but I did have a good idea of what one major problem with the topic would be. After reading the article one side did manage to persuade me as to what the answer would be.

That answer is no. As cool as the ipad is, and as bad as I would like to have one I do not think it will revolutionize education. Yes, there are probably hundreds of apps that can benefit students learning, and also keep them engaged and interested, but it will not be revolutionary. The main reason might not even have anything to do with the ipad directly but more to do with the teachers and students themselves. Stated in the article was the idea that teachers for the most part still teach the same way they did 50 years ago, and students still are learning the same way as well. This was all staying the same through many years of other revolutionary inventions that were supposed to change education, such as laptops and smart boards. This is where I agree. I think the ipad and technology are obviously major tools to use in education and must be utilized, but I still think there will be plenty of old-fashioned teaching and learning taking place. I think it can be used to differentiate the instruction, but it cannot be used for every possible teaching aspect in the curriculum. With that being said I think the ipad is a really cool tool to use, and I hope schools can utilize them I just don't think that education is going to be so much greater in ten years because of its invention.

Now my second thought on this and what was my initial thought as to why I did not think the ipad would revolutionize education is the fact that probably over 75% of students will never even use an ipad in the classroom. I know I don't know that percentage for sure, but it just seems unlikely to me that the education system which often lacks money, and with economy like ours right now that schools districts are going to have the kind of money to buy enough ipads to give each student and start this ipad revolution. A few years back when I was still in school I remember hearing discussions on some schools troubles with affording textbooks, so I can't even imagine schools buying all their students ipads, or at least enough to make a major difference. The final verdict on this debate won't be answered tomorrow, but whatever the answer will be, hopefully education will be evolving for the better.       

Taming The Chaos

This article is a very good read and an has a very important topic. We all know technology is evolving at a rapid pace and can work wonders for learning, but it can also be detrimental to students learning as well. Many students spend their school days texting, playing with their phone, or listening to music instead of paying attention in class. This article went through all the scenarios that schools can adopt to help fix this problem. The first option was to ban the use of those technological devices in schools. The author does not think that would be the best idea, and goes through many more option. The main point the author seems to try and get across is that the technology can be used to benefit students. Teachers instead of banning technology need to come up with ways to make them useful in class. I agree with this one-hundred percent. No matter what a schools stance on cell phones and ipods are they are going to be used in the school. If a school has a ban on cell phones, a majority of the students are going to find ways around it to use them anyways. Since this is the case I would argue that schools need to stop fighting it and just find ways to utilize them in ways that can benefit their students. Many examples as to how to use technology were given throughout the article. I think it is time that teachers stop getting frustrated with students using their cell phones and ipods and class and make good use of them. If teachers set up rules as to when students are allowed to use them, and also use them occasionally during lessons then I think the problems would be fewer. One example that I thought was a good idea, was that students were not allowed to have an ipod in during any full class discussions or lectures, but if they were working on stuff individually they were allowed to be listening to their music. This makes sense because it can often keep them more focused because they will not be distracted by other noises and classmates. This was just one good example and teachers need to be constantly think of new ways to incorporate these technologies into their classrooms.

Taming the Chaos 

Schools Kill Creativity

My first impression I got from Ken Robinson's talk was that the guy should be doing stand up comedy. I almost felt like he was putting on a show, and it was very good. The audience also seemed to enjoy it very much as well. I also agreed with some of the things he said, but I almost feel like it was more funny than it was informational. I don't know how much I truly got out of it. I certainly understood his feelings on the topic, but he did not really offer any solutions to the problems.

His main issue was that young students are very talented, and at a young age they are less worried about being incorrect in responses and are more creative with their answers. He thinks that through time, schools teach students to grow out of creativity. He said people don't tend to grow into creativity but they grow out of it. He also believes that schools focus all their time on math, science and the major subjects and spend too little time on the arts, such as dance. He also discussed the idea of academic inflation and how earning your MA is the equivalent to what earning your BA was in the past. He also told a story about how a student was thought to be mentally ill in some form because they could not sit still, and most likely had what we call today as ADHD. One of the doctors came to the conclusion that it was because the student was being couped up all day, and came to realize she was really a dancer and needed to have the freedom to move around. This particular student went on to be a very successful dancer in her life.

I can see Ken Robinson's point that we need to encourage creativity more in our students, but at the same time I do not think creativity is limited to dance and art. When he discussed creativity that seemed to be all he talked about. I think those subjects are very important, but at the same time they are probably not emphasized because a majority of students will not be moving on to careers in art or theatre. I think the issue may be that we do not emphasize creativity enough in all subjects. Robinson described creativity as original ideas that have value. I agree with this definition, and if that is the case then their is definitely opportunities to be creative in all subject matters. If we teach creativity in all subjects then students will be able to come up with new and fresh ideas, which will lead to a very positive future for our country.

Schools Kill Creativity

What? Wikipedia In History Class?

I have always been told Wikipedia is not a reliable source. I was never permitted to use it in college while I was conducting research for any of my history classes, and I can understand why. Pretty much any human being could write something for that website, and who would know if it was really true or not. With myself being the history fan that I am I would want to make sure things I am studying are reliable sources of information. One of the first things I remember learning when it came to researching information online was what sites to trust, and which ones not to. Often any sites ending in .com where not as reliable. The safer internet sites for information ended in .org, .edu or .gov. So when I am coming up with ways to teach high school students about how to conduct research one of the first things I wold tell them was to use safe sites, and not to use Wikipedia. This article What? Wikipedia In History Class? may have changed my views on wikipedia.   

In this article the author explains how he uses Wikipedia to teach his high school students about conducting research. In the process of the article he also explains Wikipedia and how it works, and made me realize it isn't the easiest thing to do in terms of publishing something on Wikipedia. The site has a lot of administrators and monitors that will delete your contribution, article, or corrections if it is deemed incorrect. This was one of the more fun parts of the lesson the author discussed. His students would choose a topic to research, which would have to be approved by the teacher, and would need be on a topic that Wikipedia had little on. Once the students had their topic they would then conduct the research and write their own article and place it onto the Wikipedia site, or correct an existing one. Once they published it, the students would have to monitor the site to see if the post would be flagged or deleted. If it was flagged then the students would have to collaborate with the administrators to plead their case as to why it would stay.

I think this is a phenomenal teaching tool, because it combines so many aspects of learning. It teachers students how to conduct research, and how to write a good research paper. It teaches those students how to properly site those sources, and it teaches them how to collaborate online with administrators of the site, and other Wikipedia contributors. This lesson also gives students a good idea of the type of information that is on Wikipedia and lets them decide for themselves whether it is a site they would want to use in the future for reliable information. I think this is a very cool lesson, because it would hopefully excite the kids even more knowing that the work they put in to this research could pay off by having their work actually appear on a website for the whole world to read.

This lesson was a very complex lesson with many steps needed to ensure it levels of success. It would be too much to explain them all here, so I encourage all to click on the above link and read the article for themselves. With the complexities of this lesson, I would definitely consider this for my classroom, and think it would be fun and exciting for myself and the students to take part in.

Archiving Early America

I went on the site eduTecher.net and clicked on the links tab hoping to find not only useful history sites, but sites that would be easy to navigate and interesting for students to read. One of this first sites I came across was Archiving Early America. This website was loaded with quality information on early America. Anything from the Boston Tea Party to the first-hand narrative of Daniel Boone's adventures through the Cumberland Gap can be found on this website. The website also has different forms of information in terms of primary and secondary information. Sometimes it can be hard to find good primary information on topics, and this site offers plenty of that. As I already mentioned the site discusses Daniel Boone's own narration of his journey's from his journal that he kept. The site also has primary documents that can be viewed right on the website. These documents include the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Constitution. The cool thing about these documents are that they are shown exactly how they appeared in the papers during that time. Along with the primary and secondary information which is mostly in written articles on the site, there is other ways to obtain that information. The site offers maps, portraits, games, music, and videos all with relevant information.
Archiving Early America certainly offers the interesting information I was looking for, but it also made it easy to find the information. The left hand side of the website offers all of the tabs and links to click on to get to the information you are wanting to find. It is very easy to use and very informative. The last thing I like to think about when looking at a websites value is exactly how this site could be beneficial to my students. In other words how could this site be used in the classroom to supplement the material. I think the first thing is the fact that there is a plethora of information on the site that would most likely not be found in a text book. The thing about history is that there is so much information that it is hard to fit it all into a text book. This site would be good for a teacher to use to supplement the text book. It would also be a good place to have your students go in order to see an actual copy of the documents that were discussed in class, such as the Bill of Rights. One thing important to the study of history is understanding the information that you are looking at, and what kind of information it is. This site would offer teachers the chance to teach their students about primary and secondary information. One final thing this site could be used for is to have your students learn, but have one while doing that as well. Games are offered on this site, and are a fun way to keep your students involved and learning but enjoying themselves at the same time. Overall, this website was a very informative and would be a great site to use with your history students.     

TIP Presentations

The TIP presentations have been very informative. I think more classes should go over strategies to use in the classroom. I spent years taking education classes and at the end of them I kept thinking that I still wasn't prepared to be a teacher. I am not the most creative individual. Sometimes I need help in coming up with ideas and fun strategies to use in a classroom. I even have this issue in coaching football, as a lot of coaches might. This is why their is a widespread sharing of drill tapes. We have thousands of videos on our computers in the office with examples of practice drills from other school that we can use with our players. All of our coaches watch these videos to see if we can come up with new and beneficial drills for our players to go through. This is why this class has been so beneficial to me. We have gone over lists of strategies to use in the classroom. I can keep this knowledge and my bag of tricks to refer back to, almost like my drill tapes in coaching, and I can use them in the future if I ever need to. The TIP presentations have really given me an overload of material and strategies to use. Not all of them will necessarily apply to high school history students but a majority of them do, and the other ones have given me ideas of other things I could do in my classrooms.  

Direct Instruction

Direct Instruction can take place in any classroom where there is a large set of content to be covered. This strategy may not always be the most fun to employ for yourself or your students, but sometimes it is a great way to get a lot of content to your students. Direct Instruction doesn't have to always be boring though. The teacher can make the lecture a lot more interesting by adding a PowerPoint as a visual and maybe attaching pictures to this presentation or video clips as examples for your students. The teacher can also add in some supplementary reading that the students may find more interesting. Direct Instruction is a very important strategy to use even if it is not always the most popular strategy. Some students may even prefer this strategy. Some might not like being in a group discussion or a whole class seminar, and simply prefer being provided the material from their teacher, studying it, and then being assessed on the material.

Socratic Seminar

One of the strategies we discussed recently was the Socratic Seminar. This was an interesting model, and could work well in a high school history class. There are plenty of debatable topics in history. This would be a good chance to use this strategy and have the students discuss possible scenarios and outcomes of historical events. A teacher could use it in so many forms, such as taking a historical event and discussing what the outcome would have been if certain variables were changed. This is a good chance for the students to think critically, and learn from each other through the class discussions.

Their are a few negatives to this strategy though. One of the negatives is that students who do not like to speak in class may not participate. Discussions may be a few students who like to speak out going back and forth. The teacher needs to figure out how to make the students comfortable in the setting and figure out a way to get students more involved. The teacher also needs to be aware of the potential for the discussions to get faced paced and jumping all over the place and for certain students to not get a chance to speak.  

TWS

I think the major thing I am getting out of the TWS is the idea of really focusing on the small details of the lessons. Usually I would plan a lesson but not really focus on how the contextual factors will really come into play. I would have the learning goals and objectives but I might not have really focused on how my activities and assessments are going to address those specific goals. The TWS has really gotten me to take an in depth look into the planning of a lesson to make sure that everything I am doing is really being beneficial and is the most efficient way to get the material across to my students. By really going this in depth I think it will make for a better lesson and really reach my students. I think this will also help me to think more in depth about how I plan my lessons from here on out.

Project Based Learning

I enjoyed the virtual class we had last night on project based learning. It gave me a good chance to really examine it in depth. The Buck Institutes website was really in depth and had some great videos on there explaining what PBL is all about. I did not realize how complex it can get when you are trying to conduct one across all the subjects. It takes a lot of cooperation between teachers to be able to tie all the concepts together to fit into the different disciplines. It also helps when teachers have some concept of how the project relates to the other subjects, therefor they often have to learn the material in a different discipline. This is not any easy thing to do and takes a lot of work on the teachers part. I do, however, think it is worth it, because PBL is a great way to get students to think critically, work together, and use the tools necessary to be successful in today's world.  

Jigsaw Cooperative Learning

I think the Jigsaw method of cooperative learning is a great exercise. Not only does it allow students to work together cooperatively, but it allows them to work on several other skills as well. During the jigsaw exercise students can work on social skills and communication skills. They will also be working on note-taking skills if they are writing down all the information that they are obtaining. I think the jigsaw method is also a great way of getting a lot of information in a short period of time. I think the jigsaw exercise could be used a million different ways in a history class depending on the topic that is being studied. If a certain war is being studied each group can study a specific battle in depth then they can switch members and each learn about a specific battle. If the student are learning about early America and Indian tribes they could each teach each other about a different Indian tribe.

I think the graffiti method could be used on those same topics but maybe for more of a review, with each group describing each event and then summarizing what everyone has said at the end, and coming up with the important information that would be needed for the test.

Reading Selection #6

"It's In The Game." Irish Sports Daily.Com. 2010. Irish Sports Daily. 4 March. 2010
 http://www.irishsportsdaily.com/football/2045-its-in-the-game

I decided to use this article, because it had a direct correlation with me as a football coach. This article discusses XOS PlayAction Simulator, a product of XOS Digital, Inc. This simulator is a virtual training tool for football players. It plays just like a video game, such as Madden or NCAA Football. The thing that makes this simulator unique is that it has been modified from the game to a more realistic version of football. The main reason it is a good simulator is because a team can load their offense onto the game and a player can run his own offense and help him not only learn the plays, but how they are supposed to look and what he should be looking for when he runs those plays. The simulator can also allow the coaches t create a list of the plays they would like to run and the types of defenses he wants them to run against. It really is the best thing for learning outside of actual practice. A couple of paragraphs really stuck out with how much this program can do:
“We go so far as to give coaches, when they’re scripting the session, to specify who can and cannot catch a ball,” Tsai said. “For example, on a given play against a certain defense, if my read is to the X receiver, and I throw to the Z, we can actually force an incompletion, interception or whatever, to ensure that wrong receiver doesn’t get the ball. That’s just another mechanism to provide feedback for the player.”

 “The main benefit there is, your starting quarterback, he’s going to get most of the reps on the practice field,” Tsai said. “But your second-stringers and the younger guys, that can just sit and observe and watch film, they’ve got a way now, where they can train and go through that decision-making process in a virtual environment.”

This coaching tool is a really impressive piece of technology. I knew that you could play a video game and put in your own playbook to help your players learn the offense, but the aspect of it that I did not know and that is so impressive is the fact that you can script the plays and defenses and have a certain look to a certain offensive play. It is also amazing that the technology can understand when a player made the wrong read and throw and force the negative outcome to occur as a result.

If this technology isn't efficient, effective, and engaging I don't know what is. This allows coaches to virtually get in extra practice time. This is the next closest thing to actually physically running plays. It allows players who may not get as much work on the field to stay prepared. It can also allow players who are hurt to still get in practice. It can also prepare a player for an upcoming game, because they can run their plays and put in the opponents defenses to work against. It is efficient, because it won't take as much time as a normal practice would and you do not have to get all pads on and what not. It is effective, because it simulates almost exactly what a player will see on the field. This simulator is probably more engaging then it is anything else, because the players like to play it. To them is seems just like they are playing a video game.

Overall, this simulator would be ideal to have as a couch. I would definitely love to have it for my players, the only problem is I am sure it costs a boatload of money. This is probably why only a handful of schools have it, and those schools are the major division one Universities.     

Reading Selection # 5

Panturu, Stan. "The Informative-Formative Valneces of Multimedia Technologies in the Intercultural Education Framework." Univeristy of Ploiesti Bulletin, Educational Sciences Series LXII 19-24.

The reason I chose this article was because it not only dealt with educational technology, but because I am also in a multi-cultural class and this article deals with iintercultural eduction. The article first discusses the mission of education in a multicultural world. The article's short version of the mission for a intercultural school is "to provide equal educational condition for all children, taking into account their physical, cultural, national and religious diversity. The article then goes into discussing the role of the school as a unit for modern learning as well as the pragmatics of intercultural education. The article then goes into the integration of multimedia technology in the intercultural education. The author discusses challenges such as generating an adequate environment for learning, but then discusses the methodology of integrating the multimedia. The article says that an educational program where the new technologies are used involves certain logical, physiological and pedagogical stages. The author also states that "by using the new information technology, the learning process is enriched, involving transformational learning, effective teaching (adequate to students needs), effective learning, improving and diversifying the methodological repertoire."

I think the biggest thing I learned from this article was how technology relates to the learners, and how it effects the education and how it can work in a multicultural classroom. I did not necessarily learn any new technological tools to use in my classroom or with my players. Since I did not get any new technological ideas out of this article I will not be able to take those directly and use them with my students or players. I will be able to take some of what I learned in this article, however, and use at as a base thought process when it comes to multicultural education and the integrating of technology in the classroom. This article has given me a base core of knowledge as to what should be the mission in intercultural classrooms and how technology can apply itself and make in an impact in these classrooms.  

Reading Selection # 4

Johnson, Laurence F. Alan Levine, Rachel S. Smith and Keene Haywood. Key Emerging Technologies for Postsecondary Education. Austin, TX: Horizon Report, 2010.

This article was written to discuss the up and coming technologies in the field of education for post secondary education. It brings up not only the key emerging technologies, but also the key trends in education that are requiring these updates in technology. The first trend is that "the abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making coaching, and credentialing." The second trend is that "people expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever they want to." The third trend is that "the technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based, and our notions of IT support are decentralized." The final trend is that "the work of students is increasingly seen as collaborative by nature, and there is more cross-campus collaboration between departments.

The article goes on to discuss some of the critical challenges of new technologies then goes into the new emerging technologies. The first technology is Mobile Computing. This is definitely a technology that can be taken advantage of, because almost everybody on a college campus now-a-days has a mobile device, or smart phone. The second emerging technology is Open Content. This involves placing academic content online and freely available for their students. The third emerging technology is electronic books. This makes sense, because they are becoming so popular with the public, and it would save students tons of money. The fourth emerging technology is simple augmented reality, which refers to the shift that has made augmented reality accessible to almost anybody. The last two emerging technologies are gesture-based computing and visual data analysis.

The first few emerging technologies I already knew about,  but the last couple were totally new to me. I did not really know anything about simple augmented reality, gesture-based computing, or visual data analysis. This article has opened me up a little bit more to some new technologies in the education world. Learning about these new technologies will cause me to probably look into them a little more, and keep an eye out for them, and to possibly put a few of them into use as long as the technology is available to me.

Reading Selection # 3

Huang, Chuanbo. "On the Misunderstanding of the Integration between Literature Curriculum Teaching and Modern Educational Technology." Asian Social Sciences, (2010) 6, 167-169.

The third article I have read is also a very fitting article written on the connection between education and technology. The basis of the article is the misunderstandings that teachers have about integrating technology into their classroom. I agree with the the theory that technology is not always used properly in a classroom. In fact if not used correctly technology can hinder a student's ability to learn.

The memorable points of the article were the three main points discussed in the article. The first point discussed how "modern educational technology can well displace the traditional teaching way of blackboard and chalk." The article just goes more in depth on this point by describing how videos have became a substitute for reading aloud in class, and having the teacher read aloud. The author discussed that more pictures may not draw more interest and attract their attention and that it can hinder a student from thinking or using their imagination. Another point the author brought up was that an emphasis in media can sometimes marginalize the teacher. The teacher almost becomes the "mouse" and does not realize their their own function. A third point is that teachers may use technology to find lesson plans and materials instead of preparing and accumulating more knowledge on certain topics.

I do not think I learned anything substantial in this article. If anything it just reaffirmed my feelings on education and technology. I am a big believer in using technology in education, but you have to know how to use it. If you use technology the wrong way it can have the opposite affect that you had intended on it having.

What I can take from this article that will make my classrooms more effective, efficient, and engaging is the idea that I do not want to over use technology. I need to make sure I carefully plan my technology lesson plans as much as I plan my lessons without technology.

Reading Selection # 2

Colombo, Michael W. and Paul D. Colombo. "Using Blogs to Improve Differentiated Instruction." Phi Delta  Kappan 89 (2007): 60-63.

My second article selection was entitled Using Blogs to Improve Differentiated Instruction. As soon as I read the title of the article I knew it was one I needed to read. Blogging can be a beneficial technology in a class room, and I am sure that is one of the main reasons we are blogging our article reflections. By blogging our responses it gives us an idea of how to set up and maintain a blog. I wanted to read this article to see what other ways I could use a blog to benefit my class.

The most memorable part of the article for me was the examples it gave of a teacher and how she used her blog. They gave descriptions of how blogs can be used to reinforce strategies, introduce new topics and concepts, review important class points, review for tests, and provide enrichment. It then went into details about how the teacher, Ms. Daniel's used her blog. She used it to post discussion questions in which students could respond to, study guides that outline key points, and also included links for advanced material for those students who wanted to explore more on the topic.  

I don't know if I learned any specifics on blogs themselves, but I definitely got an idea of how to use them in a classroom. I guess I knew that blogs did not have to be all writing and that they often have audio and video files that go with them, I just never thought about using them in a class. It did give me the idea that teachers could set up blogs and post the information students need for homework test and quizzes. Teachers could also post links for even more information on a specific topic if students wanted to get more in depth on a certain topic.

What i learned about blogging definitely could make my class more efficient, effective, and engaging. It would give my students a chance to use technology to find new resources and to learn in different ways. As long as all my students had access to a computer. I could use a blog to reach all my learning styles. I could post information in writing, audio or video to appeal to all my learners. I could also give assignments and study guides to help my students keep up in the class. If the students had access to the Internet at home it could also give their parents a chance to stay involved with the students school work. Blogging possibilities are almost endless, and although a lot of work, could be very beneficial to your students.  

Reading Selection #1

Shriner, Daniel A Clark, Melissa Nail, Bethanne M Schlee, and Rebecca Libler. "Social Studies Instruction:     Changing Teacher Confidence in Classrooms Enhanced by Technology." The Social Studies 101 (2010):  37-45. 

Being that my discipline is social studies this article was a perfect read for me. It was a study based on enhancing technology use by social study teachers, but it really gave me a lot of ideas and insight on technology as it relates to social studies in a classroom. I had some ideas on ways to use technology in classrooms but this opened up my eyes to a few new things.

The main points of the study was to discuss how social studies teachers tend not to use as much technology based instruction in their social studies classroom. The study was then conducted as a workshop to also help show the teachers new and exciting ways technology can be a part of a social studies classroom. The people hosting the workshop went through several examples of technology based lessons that apply for social studies.

The aspect of the study I like the most was the introduction of different techniques of how to use technology for social studies. Social Studies and history in general is a subject that involves a lot of imagination to really try and get a good feeling for the topic that you are covering. It is often hard to really see and understand what things were like for the people or places you are studying. One technique I liked was the Virtual Field Trips. The workshop discussed how teachers can go about finding virtual field trips online, and also how they can create their own using PowerPoint's or similar tools. They also discussed how they can have their students put together virtual field trips by taking their own pictures, uploading them to the computer and sharing them with their classmates.

This article did not necessarily teach me specifics of how to make my class room more efficient, effective, and engaging, but it gave ideas on how I can do that. the article discusses the workshops and the topics and ideas discussed. These discussion have given me ideas, but the article is not nearly as effective as it would have been for me to actually have attended the workshop itself. I have and idea on the strategies but not the complete now how as to go ahead and proceed with them right now.