Assignment 1.1 Technology Autobiography
When I was a university student, I first encountered computers (at that time with “real” floppy disks). Since then, I have realized how education is impossible without computers and technology. I find that high and middle school students for the most part are difficult to reach anymore unless technology is involved in the lessons.
As a German teacher, I have always had very few resources and mediocre textbooks. There was nothing available to teach the culture unless I brought it back from the German-speaking world or baked it myself. Since the internet has grown into today’s dimensions including the German web, I have a multitude of resources available to me. I also do not feel like a lone soldier anymore, I can share and network with German teachers all over the world.
I use technology in my classes in many ways: I have a blog that I update regularly for my students and the German club and honor society. I have a website where I post lessons, syllabi and unit plans as well as information for my students’ parents. I have another blog that I use for my university course work and to communicate ideas. I have accounts on My Space and Face book that I originally opened for a research project and to find out what all my students and my children at home were talking about. I now use them to communicate with former students and nieces and nephews who live far away. My current students think it is cool to post a comment on my page occasionally. My own kids, however, will not add me to their friends list.
I assign web quests, PowerPoint presentations, vocabulary practice on Quia and internet assignments to my students. I would like to create a wiki for my upper levels so that we can discuss some of the projects on famous people or places online. I also love Microsoft Picture Story 3 because students can record their voices and tell stories. The program is not available in my school yet, I am working on getting it installed on the computers.
I use unitedstreaming.com to show some fun videos about German culture and places in Germany. Discovery Education, the sponsor of unitedstreaming.com also broadcasts an educational series of 13 episodes that teaches foreign language in a fun Friends-like setting. If the school district were not restricting the access to many sites, I would encourage e-mail pen pals from Germany and more video viewing on sites like utube. Students love to see and learn things that they can relate to and teens in foreign cultures are always interesting and intriguing to them.
Assignment 1.2. Thoughts on Technology Integration
Technology integration is imperative if we want to keep our students interested. Students are growing up in a very different world from the ones even ten years ago. Our “digital natives” are “multitaskers” who need instant gratification and who do not relate to old world instruction anymore. I believe that textbooks are soon going to be outdated. We do not use textbooks for foreign language instruction in our school. We teach through telling and writing of stories. I believe that foreign language is acquired and not learned (like young children pick up language). It is all about exposure to the language and then at a later stage to produce it. Technology offers many products and venues for students to practice and experiment with language. The Internet in other languages offers a pathway to foreign cultures and opens the students’ eyes to a whole different dimension of the world.
I do not think that we are behind in technology in comparison to other places outside the USA. However, I feel that the gap is closing very rapidly. We used to be much ahead of the rest of the world as far as standard of living and education is concerned. Technology and business was always innovative. Today, we are barely keeping up with the competition. We are no longer alone at the forefront.
The world is changing drastically and so is the job market. Students who will graduate this year will change careers much more often than we will. Job descriptions are changing and qualifications employers are looking for are changing. It is our duty to prepare our students for their future, not force ways and information on them that will not be useful to them once they graduate. We can no longer continue to teach what we are comfortable with if it will not serve students in their education.
My school is in the process of being updated with wonderful brand-new technology. We have new computers and all teachers have laptops. We are getting smart boards and LCD projectors as well as interactive game sets to play games and assess students with digital quiz programs. We will have plasma TVs and new DVD players. I am very excited to have access to all these tools in my own classroom.
The one item I would change at my school when it comes to integrating technology into the classroom the restrictions on access to the Internet. I think we should form committees composed of students, teachers, parents and administrators to discuss and create guidelines for the use of the Internet in schools. I do not think teachers should be blocked from any sites at all. If teachers decide to navigate to sites that are inappropriate for school, they know that they run the risk of loosing their jobs. We are adults and we should be allowed to make our own decisions. I find it offensive to be treated as if we are not responsible mature and educated adults.
Assignment 1.3: Technology Integration
After reading the articles and viewing the film segments, it is very clear that technology is being effectively used when the student s are engaged in the learning process. The examples mostly showed younger children. I have found in the past that elementary and middle school students tend to stay on task and work on their assignments as the teacher closely supervises the activity. In high school, I see that either students are very autonomous and complete the projects with great skill and in little time or they tend to get off task and visit internet sites that are of interest to them but not part of the lesson.
In my opinion, students will be students whether technology is integrated into the lesson plan or not. They ones that are focused on learning will learn well and are engaged, the ones who tend to get easily distracted in the classroom will act the same way in front of the computer.
It is not difficult to include technology into the curriculum and to use the standards for all subjects. Technology is the future and I am learning new things every day that would be valuable to use during instruction. The challenge lies with the teachers who do not keep up with the developments in technology and who rely on the students to turn on the DVD players. Our student population is very well trained and knowledgeable wit the use of technologies. We need to show them that we are up to par with them. I do at times include them in a problem solving process, but they are aware that I know what problem I am trying to solve.
I would be thrilled to adapt all the new technology available in my classroom. As a German teacher, my resources are very limited and I have to rely heavily on websites from Germany to teach my students about the culture, the geography and the people of my country. Pictures bring lessons to life. I would love to integrate online message boards like wikis and blogs if my student had access to technology after school. I also would love to integrate an exchange with another class in the German-speaking world where the kids could see each other and talk to each other through video conferencing and e-mail. It would be very cool to work on collaborative comparative projects where students from both countries supply the required information to each other.
Topics like project-based learning and school-to-career programs came up throughout the articles and are important to be mentioned at closing. I have been using project-based learning before I started integrating technology
into my lessons. Projects are wonderful ways to teach a bigger picture and to make lessons come together into lasting life lessons. The simple fact that we are integrating technology into the instructional process enables students to learn about procedures and programs that they will need to know once they join the work force. It is important to stay up to date on the developments to enable students to be competitive in the workplace.
Assignment 2.1: Reflection on Understanding
I love to cook. Cooking for me is like going on a culinary journey around the world as well as therapy through creativity. I have always loved good food and grew up in and around the restaurant business. My mother owned a restaurant when I was a small child. We lived in Frankfurt in Germany and the restaurant was a traditional German eatery. We had a several chefs over the years but my favorite one was a gentleman from Tunisia who opened my young mind to a world of tastes and smells. When I was five years old, my favorite foods were salad and escargots. Sidi, the chef nicknamed me Salatschnecke which translates to salad snail. I never was exposed to the idea of being fussy about food. For me, food has always been an adventure and a delightful discovery. My motto in the kitchen is: “I will try anything once.” This motto pertains to tasting and creating dishes. On Christmas Eve my children put together the menu and I cook the food. That night, the sky is the limit (and the budget). Now that they are older, they join me in the kitchen more and more often. They enjoy the process of creating something awesome out of basic ingredients.
I started experimenting in the kitchen when I was a small child. My mother was never home, she was in the restaurant and actually not a very good cook. However, we always had good and non-traditional food at the house. I have always been exposed to eclectic foods and have an open mind.
When I was 17, my family owned a French restaurant and because it was a family business, I had to be able to fill all the positions in the restaurant. I spend most of my time serving guests and bartending, but I also had to be able to cook every meal on the menu. Whenever the cook was out, I was in the kitchen. During the summer months, I also cooked at lunch; the cook did not come in until 5 o’clock.
I moved to France when I was 19-years old and I stayed with a family. There, I learned a lot about French and Moroccan cuisine and preparing foods from scratch. I learned a lot about vegetarian and “extreme budget” cuisine when I was in college. I became an expert in “making something out of nothing”, - or almost nothing. At that time, I had my first vegetable garden and no money for meat. I learned to create main staple dishes in as many ways as possible to diversify what landed on the table. I think this is when my desire to experiment with food was born.
Later, I moved to the United States and discovered yet another whole world of tastes. I fell in love with all the different peppers, salsa, and foods from Mexico and South America. Over time, I learned a few things from my Indian neighbors and find their way of preparing foods and their spices fascinating. Now, after almost twenty years in this country, I am very comfortable creating dishes from those parts of the world and I am experimenting with Asian and African dishes.
I think that we know that we are good at something when we feel very comfortable and at ease while we do it. We do not have to think about the process, we just enjoy the ride. That is how I feel in the kitchen. Cooking to me is being creative and it is therapeutic. I recently realized that when life gets too busy and I only “fix” a meal, I really miss cooking and it affects my mood negatively. My life does not leave me a lot of time to be creative in other domains like painting or writing, so that cooking has become my only outlet for being creative.
I know that my creations are good because my dinner guests are very happy to finish their plates and come back for more. My friends love to come and eat at my house and volunteer to clean my kitchen and do the dishes afterwards.
I also know that I am good at creating a fun atmosphere in the kitchen, because I don’t make my children help me, they want to be part of creating the special meals. They have learned through watching at first and now are starting to create their own dishes by adding different spices or replacing ingredients with things they think would work in the dish. To me, cooking is all about having fun and creating amazing things with what is at hand.
For the special occasions like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and other celebrations or when I get requests for certain dishes, I will use recipes. Usually, I make up things and combine ingredients that sound good to me. I think, once we reach the level of understanding of a skill, in this case what goes with what and how to prepare it (temperature, method of cooking, etc.), instructions become superfluous.
I love to challenge myself by cooking ethnic dishes. I learn to prepare food in different ways. I discover new plants and spices, new ways to marinate and combine spices. I find it very exciting and I consider these excursions into foreign cultures as learning experiences. I think that food tells a lot about a culture and what is important to people of that country.
I spent some time in Korea and I was fortunate to stay in a family where the mother loved to cook. I learned about their customs and traditional cooking. I learned to prepare several dishes. Koreans distinguish between “long-term” and “short-term” foods. They spend a lot of time preparing staples that they use regularly and in several dishes and they prepare meals from scratch daily and with fresh ingredients. They also have dishes like kimshi that they marinate and ferment for months before they eat it. Different cultures, different customs. Before I went to Korea, I thought their cuisine to be similar to Chinese, but it is very different. The Korean cuisine is very health conscious. They are very proud of their foods. Foods and herbs are also often used for healing purposes.
I know that I am very good at creating European dishes. I love playing and combining my cooking skills that are mostly continental and Mediterranean with newly acquired ideas from American, Asian and Indian cultures.
Assignment 2.2: Generative Topic Statement
This teaching unit will be about the changes in the German capital of Berlin since the 1930s. It will highlight some famous people who played pivotal roles during the 1930s and WW2. The topic is very interesting to me as German and for the students as well. They students have some prior knowledge of the subject, but will discover many new facets to this topic while exploring this unit. We have talked in class about Berlin in the lower levels and they have learned in social studies classes about World War 2.
There are many websites on the German and English Internet for research on the subtopics like geography, history and personal accounts of Germans who lived in Berlin during the time between the 1930s and today. In addition to the Internet, students will watch a film about the underground student movement during the Nazi regime called “White Rose”. Students can identify with the youths in the film and learn about completely different perspectives of what happened during WW2.
This is a very interesting unit for me as teacher, because Berlin has changed a lot since I have lived in Germany. I have visit
Technology Plan for Curriculum Unit "Berlin: 1930s to today"
Student will do guided research of the German and English internet to find information and images about the changes that occurred from the 1930s to today in and around Berlin. I will supply an assortment of websites (listed on the German 5 webpage on my blog). They will watch several video clips of interviews and historical footage about Berlin and people who lived there during that time period. The students have access to new computers in the media center of the school. Those computers have access to the internet and have all the applications necessary for this unit. During the instructional time, students will have sufficient time to work on their research and compose their presentations.
It is always difficult to determine if students learn much about technology because their level of expertise is differs. All students know how to surf the internet for their own interests. They usually discover some aspect of the German internet such as instead of .com or .net, German site addresses end with .de, Austrian ones with .at and Swiss sites on .ch. Almost all good European sites have translations of the sites into two or more other languages. Unfortunately, the translations do not always provide verbatim translations and are sometimes divided into different categories. That can be challenging to students.
I am not sure if I can use wikibooks as an online tool to publish my students’ projects. I would like to research the possibility, because upper level German materials, especially for high school are scarce and usually mediocre. I will use this unit as template for future projects to research historical and cultural aspect of Germany and the other German speaking countries.
Students will use computers as word processors and research tools to create their presentations and broaden their knowledge about the topic. They will also learn about web publishing.
The students will use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, and teacher blog / Wikibooks (if possible) http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German to publish their projects. I am very interested in publishing student work and wikibooks is a great tool to do just that. I read the guidelines at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Guidelines_for_class_projects and plan on presenting the idea to my department chair. If I used wikibooks, I am sure my students would learn a lot about technology as that is an area of the internet they are generally not very familiar with. They know how to publish pages on sites like MySpace. This project would be an academic version for them with possibility to express themselves and therefore definitely would peek their interest.
WEBLINKS for the teacher:
WIKIBOOKS (see main body of paper for more information)
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German
The National Archives Learning Curve Focus on Film
http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/focuson/film/
I found this site when searching for pictures, film footage from the 1930s to 1950s. The site offers links to other sites, activities for whiteboard and PC and an extensive archive of video clips
Aktuelle Seite von Berlin
http://www.berlin.de/
this site is a great source for current information about Berlin and a prime example of how the English (and all the other languages) site is different and more geared towards tourists and visitors while the German site is more in depth about current events and political issues.
WEBLINKS for the students:
Berlin Heute
http://www.berlin.nongjo.de/include.php?path=start.php&PHPKITSID=865fa8a8c5779f8118b4522dcfa19cfa
Great site with slide shows and picture galleries of today’s Berlin. This site has many pictures or restored and rebuilt monuments and will serve as reference and comparison to the historical pictures the students will collect.
East Germany in 1953
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war_east_germany_1953.htm
in English, good summary about what the allied forces planned about the separation of Berlin.
The Berlin Wall, 1961
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war15b.htm
good information about the tension between the US and the communist block. Kennedy’s visit to Berlin
In The Shadow Of The Wall: The Meaning of Berlin Today
http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/focuson/film/film-archive/player.asp?catID=3&subCatID=3&filmID=14
from The National Archives Learning Curve Focus on Film
Geschichte in Fotos von der Berliner Mauer
http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_imagegalerie/0,2172,1023708_page_2_lang_2,00.html
Great eye-opening site with pictures and comments telling the developments from 1960 to 1989.
Fotos von den Ruinen in 1945
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/berlin.htm
best site for before and after pictures and comments
The following three sites are about a famous German author of children’s books. The book “Emil and the Detectives” takes place in the Berlin of the late 1920s. The pictures on the sites are great.
Erich Kästner (author who wrote in the 1930s) für Kinder
http://www.kaestnerfuerkinder.net/
Emil und die Detektive – film
http://www.film-kultur.de/filme/emil_und_die_detektive.html
70 Jahre Emil
http://www.zlb.de/projekte/kaestner/emil/index.html
This is a journal entry with pictures written by someone who lived in Berlin in 1945. The German is easy to read and therefore a good authentic resource for the students.
Ein Tagebuch von 1945
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/forum/kollektives_gedaechtnis/011/index.html
Additional WEBLINKS:
Weisse Rose Lesson Plan
http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/white-rose.html
Biographie: Sophie Scholl
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/SchollSophie/
1930s Bilder von Kulturmagazinen http://www.flickr.com/photos/47967505@N00/sets/72157594303453623
