Education Project

The largest similarity I found through Google, Yahoo, and MSN was educational.blogs.com. I also found a website for kathyschrock.net/edtechblogs.html. I think these results came up because both websites were great resources for examples on "Educational Blogs" and could be helpful for anyone who wants to start a blog.

The things I discovered through my search for RSS readers and for aggregators was blogspace.com/rss/reader. This was the main website that I looked at because number one, it said it was free and number two, it had the definition at the very top. I have learned that an "RSS reader" is a great tool that provides all the news updates but in a form for your computer. I actually talked to one of the practicum teachers about this tool and she said it even comes with an icon at the bottom of the screen that pops up with current events.

Through the blogs in the education project, I discovered how blogs are being used in -12 settings. From what I saw when I explored some of the educational blogs, many teachers and schools are taking advantage of blogging to keep the students and parents informed about what is going on in school. One blog posted school news that informed students and parents about upcoming events at school. Another blog posted information about fundraisers and also asked for requests for the fundraisers. Also some of these educational blogs posted the school news letter on their blog site, which is a great way to keep parents and students informed and also save on time and postage instead of sending out a school newsletter in the mail.

I also learned how blogs are impacting K-12 classrooms. Some teachers are making blog posts of classroom notes. These notes are to inform parents about what their children will be learning in upcoming lessons. Also some teachers are using their blog posts to request needed classroom supplies, and other favors from parents. Some teachers even produce a classroom newsletter on their blog site which is yet another way to make sure parents and students are staying informed.

RSS readers/aggregators would be really helpful as I stated above because of the great use it gives for teachers. There are so many websites you could go to for downloading a RSS reader and it would be a very helpful tool for current event lessons. I would probably use it in my classroom if I had to teach English with current events. I could easily download one of the free RSS readers and have current events at the click of a button.

From this assignment I've come to realize that blogs can be useful in a classroom setting. Three ways that I would use blogs in my future classroom are to post a classroom newsletter to keep parents and students informed about what we're doing in the classroom, post classroom news about upcoming events for the students and parents, and to post weekly assignments so parents can stay informed about what homework assignments their children have. All of these are ways in which I think blogs can benefit my future students and their parents because blogging is a great way for us to stay in communication with each other concerning their student's education.

Two pros that I have already talked about were to keep in contact with parents and allowing parents to see what is going on in their children's lives at school. The second pro is the fact that teachers could put up news, upcoming events, etc. and that will also help for teachers with bad memory (like me) remember when we assign something. As for the cons, some students might not have access to computers or internet to check the blogs. The second con , especially for high school students, is probably the fact that we can't sensor what students write. Since there is public access to blogging and RSS readers, there really isn't a way to sensor anything written or read from the internet.

My Multiple Intelligence Test

Multiple Intelligence Tests

The activity given to me was to go on the Enhancing Learning website, however, during class we were able to go to a different website and do an activity, so I decided to write my paper on that activity. I took the Multiple Intelligence test from the Ablongman.com website and found some interesting results. I thought that it would be interesting to take a MI test so I could see if I was in the correct major and was studying what I should be studying. The results showed me that I was in the wrong major and it actually made me somewhat sad.

The reasoning behind a Multiple Intelligence Test is to try and find which learning style best fits for each individual. It was started by Howard Gardner and is mostly helpful for students with learning disabilities and students with Attention Deficit Disorder. Knowing your learning style will help you cope with your weak areas and learn how to go around them as well as learning to build you stronger styles. There are seven different learning styles which include: linguistics, logical-mathematics, visual-spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.

On the website, it gives a brief paragraph for each learning style that tells you the description of that particular learning style and what areas you are strong in. For example, if you are an interpersonal person the description would be like this, “The ability to work effectively with others, to relate to other people, and display empathy and understanding, to notice their motivations and goals. This is a vital human intelligence displayed by good teachers, facilitators, therapists, politicians, religious leaders and sales people” (Gardner). This is actually one of the learning styles I scored 100 on and was very pleased with this score because I do see myself as a person who can “work effectively with others” and so on.

The MI test was found by going to the www.ablongman.com/lever-duffy3e and then you click on Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundations. After you get to that page you go to the left side and click on “On the Web! Activities” and click on “On the Web! 1.7 Howard Gardner”. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on the second to last website under Multiple Intelligence Tests: http://www.nedprod.com/Niall_stuff/intelligence_test.html. After clicking on this website I took the test for my MI.

My test scores basically told me that I was more into logical-mathematics than I was in linguistics. This was rather disturbing since my major is in linguistics. I started to doubt myself because that means something might be wrong with me. The test showed me that we can be strong in some areas and weaker in the styles we thought fit us best. I know that just because this test told me I was not as strong in the linguistics learning style, it doesn’t mean I am not good in that area. It simply means I have other strong styles that I may not be aware of.

It did tell me like I stated above, that I scored a 100 in interpersonal and that is still better than scoring a 77 in logical-mathematics. My top three styles that I scored 100 in were musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and interpersonal. Therefore, I could be a music teacher or even a P.E. teacher. I do know I want to be a dance/cheer coach so that helps me feel a little better. This test helped me narrow down my strengths and weaknesses and I am glad I was able to find my strong learning styles.