I enjoyed reading the poems from The New Kid on the Block software. This program would be nice to have in the classroom to help introduce poetry to the students. I feel that younger grades could use this software as well because this program reads to them and lets them play around with the poem so that they could click on words they might not know.
I had fun creating our own poem, with the help of the template (When ____ went to the _____,) in PowerPoint. It's really amazing how many things you can do using PowerPoint. I am going to keep this poem activity in mind to teach to my future students.
Oh keyboarding... I remember, in fifth grade, we would go to the computer lab and work on typing letters in some typing program. If I remember right, I think there was a runner on the screen and he would run when you typed the letter correctly and fall when you didn't type the correct letter. I also remember that we were able to type a project or two using the computer. To this day I still have a typed paragraph that I created about brown bears. In middle school, I remember that I was bored of typing/keyboarding because for most of the time, at the beginning of the year, all we did was drill and practice.
What I thought was interesting was that I feel that I learned how to type best from AOL Instant Messenger. I feel that learning this way is a pro/con because yes I did learn how to type better but, I typed more 'slang' and abbreviations of words. I don't even want to think about how many times I typed LOL or GTG to my friends when I was on AIM. Even today when I am typing e-mails, I still want to type using abbreviations because it's a habit and often go back changing the words. I know that I might have to use a typing program in the future for my students so I will try to think of an innovative way to use the program so that it still engages the students.
I agree that the New Kid on the Block software would be fun for younger children to expose them to poetry. It makes the poems come alive for the students. It also gives an example of how poems can be read and written. I had fun creating the poem as well. I always thought coming up with poems was difficult, but when you work with a partner it always seems easier because you can bounce ideas off each other. I will definitely keep this poem activity in mind for future use in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would be really fun to use that software in the classroom to teach many different things. A friend of mine student taught with middle schoolers, and he was always complaining about the amount of "text language" that he got in papers and on tests and in writing assignments. He said he spent so much time conferencing with them telling them that they couldn't use words like l8 and cuz and K.
ReplyDeleteI have not witnessed "text language" in the classroom specifically but I do believe there is a problem with that. I would be interested to know what other teachers are doing to correct this behavior.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about teaching appropriate writing skills for different audiences. Students need to understand the difference in writing for "school-related" assignments and texting. There is a difference and it is OK for us to up the standard of writing. In fact, it has to be done.
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