What can we do to make our children concentrate and work on spellings in class or even at home?

The usual question parents ask or are worried about is how they can make the child concentrate in studies or in any work they do. I know it is tough and as teachers we really need to make sure everyone is focused. But, it is not only up to the teachers to make sure children are really concentrating and learning, right?

For concentration, this is what we can do- instead of sitting in the usual place for study (the classroom) take the class out in the park or on the field. In the class, they usually want to know what the other person is doing, but outside they were really at ease and read out the lesson for them role play the stories or lessons with them. It can be real fun.

Learning spellings can be real tough for some kids and teachers can actually help kids by making this is a fun exercise.


Let the children play teacher and they do love playing teacher, believe me. Let them teach you the words they are learning to spell. You can spell them orally (out loud). Let them correct you and then have them dictate to you and you write them. Have them score your paper. This can be exciting for kids in elementary school and also be a good and interesting way to learn spellings. For teachers, if there are a lot of kids in class, this can be done in pairs in the class too.

Listening skills also help with spelling. "What letter does ‘soccer’, end with?” What letter does 'travel' begin with?" Play these games just for a few moments as they are having breakfast or eating a snack to develop their ability to hear sounds in words.


Write one word on a piece of paper. Leave space underneath it. Tell them to look at it as long as they want, that is, until they can remember the letters, and then have them fold the paper so that they cannot see the word. Then tell them write the word from memory. In case it is misspelled, then they can try again later.


This one is also a good exercise where they have to find the wrong word. Write a short sentence for. Tell them that there is one word spelled incorrectly. Ask them to see if they can find it. To begin, make it a rather obviously misspelled word. Leave a letter out, or add an extra letter to a word. Ask them to first read the sentence, then to circle the misspelled word. Then make sure you erase it and write it correctly. This can work wonders for the child to learn spellings faster.

Use of Technology in the classroom—

Initially before taking this class on integrating technology in the classroom, I was not sure nor was I aware of any other ways to use technology in the classroom apart from power point presentations or the overhead projector. This class has taught me so many things right from starting a blog to using visual maps, concept maps, podcasts, wikis, and you name it.

I always thought teaching should not be restricted to the classroom and the traditional teacher speaking and students listening methods, but was unsure of how I could go about it. This class has almost opened doors for me and I am thankful to my husband Kedar who told me that I should take this class.

Teaching and learning process can be made so much fun with the use of technology and why not, when I can see everyone using ipods and laptops and other fancy gadgets around me. The students in fact are more aware of technology than we grown-ups are and I think we should make the best out of it. It is not easy to use technology in order to integrate it into the curriculum, but trust me it is not impossible.

Then there are some creative minds who have really put in so much for us to study and follow in our own plans with our own modifications and use. Personally, I think technology not only helps the learning process, but also makes it a fun way of learning. For example, if I am planning to teach a Shakespearean drama to a High school class, I can actually create a story maps, concept maps, and use power points and even an entire web page full of activities for the kids to make it interesting otherwise Shakespeare can be overwhelming for children.

For any play, you can actually explain the themes, symbols, plot, characters, and story line in a power point presentation for kids to provide a background of the play. I feel that the original text is extremely important in the teaching of Literature but still I feel that taking some help of modern techniques is not harmful, right?

You can also make the children do some presentations about the clothing style during that period or lifestyle and the theaters where the plays were enacted just to help them understand the setting and also help them to relate to that background.

Go Web 2.0 teachers!!

Come September and with the starting of the new academic year, we teachers are racking our brains to find new methods of teaching and sharing our experiences with the class. So, this year why not try out something dealing with technology?

Today I find everyone around me hooked on to an ipod or iphone listening to music or surfing on the internet on their laptops. Everyone has become so dependent on technology today. So, why not put this technology to a better use?

I too was a little hesitant about the inclusion of this technology around me all the time, but I convinced myself because of the need to change with the changing world.

The latest Web 2.0 has evolved into many communities, blogs, Wikis, podcasts and other networking sites. These are commonly used by companies for internal communication and teleconferences and conference calls. Companies have been using blogs to talk about their experiences and there are also educational blogs written by professors and teachers to talk about their experiences with technology. Isn’t this a novel idea that allows us to learn how teachers around the world are sharing their knowledge and experience?

All of us want our children to prosper and find a good place in the future where they can accommodate themselves. To ensure this, they need to given all the experiences so that they don’t feel lost in the outside world. As they venture out into the workplace, they should feel accustomed to the use of technology and our school needs to give them this exposure.

Well, this type of learning is not a replacement for old-fashioned traditional teachers, but just a helping hand to fast developing technology. Integrating technology into the schools will help prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

There are two types of teachers- one type who simply teach and second who change the student learning process or shares new learning experiences. The second type can be used to define Educational Technology. If the teacher herself learns in a different way i.e using technology, then this teacher will think differently and this difference will result in the use of technology in classrooms thus making the student learn more effectively with this style.

Education technology consists of a wide range of hardware, software, and technical equipment used in schools to promote learning. Computers, CD-ROMs, the Internet, e-mail, television monitors, video equipment, and satellite systems for distance learning are some of the education technologies that schools are already using. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to introduce all this in our school?

Technology is like an additional tool to help restructure the ‘already known’ knowledge of a student into something constructive and creative. Utilizing the technology tools in education is in fact Instructional technology.

This can prepare students for their work in college and jobs in the future and it helps them to address real-world problems and learn to tackle them.

So one might ask, is Educational Technology actually like using technology in the process of teaching and learning? Yes, it is. Technology used in making learning and education more interesting and reaching the modern way of teaching. Let us try to understand more about Educational and Instructional Technology here.

According to ICT (Information and communication Technology), Educational Technology refers to the application of technology skills for learning (NETS project, NETS). With the use of technology in classrooms, you can:

• Save notes created in class everyday.
• Reading can be facilitated for strugglers
• Digital story telling made easy and fun in the classroom and more...

So, how exactly is Educational Technology different from Instructional Technology? When I started reading about it, I thought there is a thin line between the two. To learn more, let us look into some definitions and comparisons of the charactersitics of both.

According to Dr. Reeves, one difference between Educational Technology and Instructional Technology is that educational technology "is more craft or art than science" whereas instructional technology "claims to have a scientific foundation."

Instructional technology if not understood properly by the teacher or the student, it might fail (Michael Spector et. al) and so while using it in school you want to be very clear about what you want to do.

Using Educational Technology adds value to teaching, learning by adding, extending or changing what teachers and students do with the effectiveness of technology (Patricia Rogers, 60).

“Instructional technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning”(Seels, BB & Richey).

"Educational technology is the application of research, learning theory, emergent technologies, and child and adult psychology to solving instructional and performance problems. The Presidential Commission on Instructional Technology highlighted four areas in which educational technologists perform:

• design of instruction,
  
• production of instructional products and services,


• management of instruction, and


• evaluation of instruction" (Tom Cutshall, Domains of Instructional Technology).
  

References:

Cutshall Tom, Domains of Instructional Technology, Retrieved on 6th March, 2009.
http://cutshall.myweb.uga.edu/domain.html
http://cutshall.myweb.uga.edu/edtech.html

Forder Anna, Technology Plays Prominent Role In Classrooms. Retrieved 6th March 2009. http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-i-2009-02-20-85213.113117_Technology_Plays_Prominent_Role_In_Classrooms.html

Rogers Patricia, Designing Instruction for Technology-enhanced learning Retrieved on 6th March 2009.
http://books.google.com/books?id=NV0gbN1gawcC&pg=PA59&dq=compare/Contrast+Educational+technology+and+instructional+technology&lr=#PPA60,M1

J. Michael Spector, M. David Merrill, Celestia Ohrazda. Innovations in instructional technology Retrieved on 6th March 2009.
http://books.google.com/books?id=97o0N4jtnKAC&pg=PA165&dq=%E2%80%A209Contrast+the+characteristics+of+educational+technology+and+instructional+technology#PPA166,M1

NETS Project. ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Retrieved on3rd March, 2009. http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

Key stone Area Education agency: Retrieved on 2nd March 2009. http://www.aea1.k12.ia.us/technology/NETS_list.pdf
http://www.aea1.k12.ia.us/technology/techliteracy.html

Seels, BB & Richey, R.C. (1994) Instructional Technology: The definition and domains of the field. Washington, D.C. Association for Educational Communications and Technology

Using Technology to Support Education Reform, September 1993 Retrieved on 7th March 2009. http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/TechReforms/chap2a.html