And Last But Not Least

Final Portfolio Reflection

Well, it’s been a great semester and I learned a lot of new things about useful tools that a teacher could use involving computers and technology. Included in this portfolio is my Mindmeister, my two lesson plan ideas, my Prezi on technology, a voicethread on my favorite poem, and a link to my wallwisher site entitled “Mr. Sandoz’s Prose and Poetry Corner”. Of all things, I’m most excited about my wallwisher site because it is free, easy to use, and helpful. I actually intend to use this site to upload different bits of poetry and/or prose for students to read. This site is great because one does not need an account to view the information. As long as a user clicks on the link, they will be able to go to my wallwisher site and read all of the information provided. I also intent to use Prezis and voicethread in the classroom. A Prezi is a great alternative to Powerpoint and voicethread is a cool way to get your voice and thoughts on a certain subject online for others to hear.

I am glad to have learned many useful tools to use in the classroom. I think it is important to learn these things because the age of computers is definitely upon us. I would believe that most classrooms (if not all classrooms) will have computer access for everyone in 20-30 years within each class. With this technology-heavy society, it is important to use the tools that students are most interested in.

I would be for computers for all students in the classroom. As it is, I am already planning on using online sites and tools to help me with the teaching process. I have the wallwisher site ready to go as well as ideas for a voicethread that involves students writing and recording their own creative writing pieces. I feel that the students will be more interested in homework that involves online interaction on sites that are easily accessible for the class. I would, however, want to make all of these things private and only accessible by me.

With technology will surly come frustration. As it is, it seems like anything I do that attempts to use technology fails. If I use a computer or a projector, it inevitably breaks down or malfunctions. I know that I will need to get used to such instances and learn how to deal as they come along. I will make backup plans for such shenanigans.  I’d also foresee struggling to keep up with new pieces of technology, especially as I get older. I am still young, but I already did not know about most of the things I’ve learned about in this class. I will need to be sure to learn about and use new pieces of technology.

To be honest, I think technology in the classroom is very important. I would rather show a clip of tv show/movie or project text onto a big screen than stare at a book. I feel that the students will interact more when they can see something visually before them as opposed to reading something to themselves. Though I don’t want the physical books to go away, I believe that technology is a better way to go when teaching. Armed to the teeth with Prezis, blogs, and wallwishers, I am ready to teach the students anything. 

Prezi

I made a Prezi!!

Here is the link. Check it out!

http://prezi.com/zysjbxypaqbv/edhd-presentation/

Have You Ever Wondered About The Berlin Wall?

Well look no further!

I was standing in front of the Brandenburger Tor for the 20 year Mauerfall event in October 2009. The dominoes represent the wall falling.

And for a bit of history:

And just for fun:

Mindmeister

I made a mindmesiter that shows my progress of doing this assignment. I had a tough time trying to figure out how to make this thing and I don't even know if the link below will work. If it does, awesome! If not, well shit.

http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/69925851#

My Favorite Poem!

What is your favorite poem? Well, if you are like me, you just can't choose one. One week it will be something by Robert Frost, the next something by Edgar Allen Poe. But for the sake of this assignment, I decided to go to voicethread and record a poem by the name of "looting walmart" by Andrei Codrescu. The pome is mainly about the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, but can have several different meanings. Listen carefully and see what other themes, symbols, metaphors, etc. you hear

http://voicethread.com/?#u1403059.b1428614.i7555399

Lesson Plan 2

Mr. Sandoz

9th Grade Language Arts

Physical Comedy Within Literature

Objectives: Students will be able to critically analyze physical comedy within a scene from "The Simpsons" episode entitled "Cape Fear".

Essential Question: When is it funny when someone gets hurt? When is it not funny?

Materials: a computer, a projector, "Cape fear" clip from The Simpsons, paper, and a pencil/pen.

Procedure: First, the students will be asked to think about their thoughts on comedy involving pain and injury. They will be asked to write a paragraph on what they think is funny and why. This will take about 5 minutes. 

Next the students will be shown the clip from "The Simpsons" where Sideshow Bob is attached to the bottom of the Simpsons' car as they try to flee to Cape Fear within the witness protection program. While on the road, Sideshow Bob is hit by road bumps, scalded by hot coffee, hit by cactuses in a cactus patch, and finally hit by several rakes as he gets out from underneath the car. The clip is about 3-4 minutes in length.

After the clip, the students will be asked if they thought the clip was funny. We will have a full class discussion about why it was or was not funny. Ideally, the instructor would like to hear arguments from both sides. The instructor will note that cartoon violence shows people getting hurt without consequences, the character may be fine in the next scene. We will discuss how real-life violence has consequences (i.e. broken bones, bloody noses, and even death). This should take 10 minutes.

Finally, the students will be asked to write their notes on the clip in their notebooks, underneath their first free-write. They will explain why the clip was or was not funny to them and give a compelling argument that backs their opinions. This will take about 5 minutes. The students will be asked to hand in their writing at the end of this activity.  

Rationale: This clip shows how comedy can involve pain in many ways. This is a good introduction to novels or plays that involve a lot of physical comedy. An example of a book to use is Pride, and Prejudice, and Zombies by jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith because it uses a lot of cartoonish violence. Plus, this book is a great way to make reading a classic work of literature more fun or interesting to young students. 

Evaluation Method: The students will turn in their writing on comedy. The instructor will read their paragraphs and makes notes or comments on them before returning the writing to the students.

Lesson Plan 1

Teacher: Mr. Patrick Sandoz

Subject Area: English/Language Arts

Grade Level: 10^th grade

Unit Title: The Poetics of Writing

Lesson Title: Introduction to Poetry

Standards

9.4.10.10 Students will read and comprehend literature and other texts including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

   a.   Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks.

   b.   Read widely to understand multiple perspectives and pluralistic viewpoints.  

9.7.3.3 Write narratives and other creative texts, develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Objectives

1. Essential question: what is poetry?

2. Students will be able to learn important elements of writing poetry such as meter, rhyme, grammar, etc.

3. Students will be able to write basic pieces of poetry.

Purpose

The students will be able to define as many terms of poetry that we discussed this day.

Input

Students know the basics of writing. They should also be familiar with simple and/or popular poetry. I will assignment Poe’s “The Raven” before this class.

Guided Practice

Aside from the outside work online, I will encourage students to start free writing on their own. I will also tell students to come to me if something is confusing or vague. I would also be happy to read anything the students are comfortable sharing with me.

First Lesson

Materials- I need a book of poems that are suitable for high school Language Arts students. I will also need a computer to show how to access the unit’s webpage (Mr. Sandoz’s Poetry Corner on wallwisher) and the VoiceThread I will have all students use. I need something to write or draw on to show my examples.

Procedures- 1. Introduction to poetry. I will discuss what poetry means to all the students. I will then introduce a strong poem and “perform it” before the class. This involves moving around, stressing certain words, and using my voice to make things more dramatic. An example of this is to read “The Walrus and the Carpenter” aloud. 5-10 min.

2. The students will be involved with a free-writing session after the reading. They will write about their reaction to the poem, how it made them feel, what they liked or did not like. 5 min.

3. I will then introduce different poetic terms and discuss them. The first day we will talk about rhyme and meter. And if time permits, I will introduce important elements of the language use and grammar (such as consonants, assonance, alliteration). We will have a class discussion of the terms introduced and I will provide examples for each term. 30 min.

4. I will use the last minutes to introduce the webpages the students are to visit. I will go over the VoiceThread that each student will participate in. I will show the students how to create an account. I will then show the students my wallwisher page and instruct them how to create their own account and follow my page. I will expect the students to visit the page, read the poetry and watch the videos I upload. I want each student to leave a short comment that tells me how he or she felt about what they read and/or watched. This will take us to the end of class, about 15 min.

5. By the end of this unit, all students will have read a good amount of poetry, have learned several important poetry-related terms, and will have written at least one basic poem and recorded it on VoiceThread.

Evaluation methods- Students will be given a traditional assessment on the literary terms. This will help me to evaluate how well the students understood the material. A more informal assessment will be given by having the students write their own poetry. I will not so much grade them on how good I think the poem is, but how well they follow directions and if they actually tried on the assignment. Finally, students will be graded on whether or not they did the required online tasks.