Education 504 - Teaching with Technology
Opportunity. This course is about exploring the vast opportunities that technology can provide to teachers. The first day of the course examined the story of a middle school science teacher who implemented the use video cameras to encourage more and better class participation. What the discussion in class made me think of was the way in which the most inspirational teachers in my high school used technology, and how I hope to use what I learn in this class in my future Spanish classrooms.
Señor is the teacher who inspired me to study Spanish at the University of Michigan. In his classes we would listen to music to study vocabulary and pronunciation of words. We would play "¿Qué dice la gente?" (a Spanish language Family Feud) with Eggspert (a colored buzzer system that were shaped like eggs). It almost never worked because even in 2005 it was outdated, but having the chance to buzz and know the answer before another classmate was exciting! And the game itself, presented in PowerPoint, was beyond interesting, because I would learn cultural nuances about places like Mexico (for example, they think that purple is the worst color for a car - and that's something I've held onto since the 10th grade!). There's a website that he introduced that I actually still use as a Spanish tutor here at the University of Michigan, conjuguemos.com, to help students with conjugating verbs in the proper tense.
It was activities like these that made my language learning more engaging. In my classes I hope to be able to incorporate more up-to-date technology, like iPad or iPhone apps to help with vocabulary or cultural knowledge. I also hope to use music like he did in class, because I know that my pronunciation is very good because of repeating the sounds I hear from the musicians (even if I don't know the word, I can say it properly).
I hope that this course will give me the opportunity to learn how to use fun and exciting activities and technologies in my future classroom, to inspire students like Señor inspired me. This blog is therefore more than just an assignment for Education 504 - it is a space for me to explore how I can be an exciting teacher, who is "in" with the technology of the day, and who can ignite a passion for Spanish in doing so.
