Joeos’s Weblog

Welcome and thank you for visiting my Arts Education Weblog and Homepage. This site is intended to be a resource for any teacher wanting to learn about how to use technology in the classroom. (The best way to navigate my site is to use the ‘Pages’ box, on the right side of your screen.)

The main theme of this page in Online Communication or Interactive Resources. All of the main or featured websites and resources in this site are tools students can use to express, create and communicate for education purposes.  More specifically these applications were chosen with the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom in mind. 

I wanted to not only find Online Communication tools, but learn how they can be used in an ELA classroom.  In any ELA classroom, expression and response are important tools for students to use.  Though I find a lot of worth in traditional ELA classroom practices such as the essay, I think it is equally worthy to find new and different ways to communicate just to keep student interest high and to make the work for the student more authentic.  Most students will never write an essay outside of school, but they will however use their computers and internet to communicate and be social.  So why not have students use a forum they are already used to at home, in the classroom.  I think connecting a students school life, with their home or ‘real’ life is important and causes better response.

A very large part to the English Language Arts curriculum guide here in Saskatchewan, (and I am sure this is common in many guides) is the viewing and representing objectives.  The curriculum guide stresses fostering students ability to view a piece of literature or any art piece for that matter in a critical way, and then respond to it critically as well.  I think the more ways students have to view and represent, like online for example, the more students will engage in their responses and keep them critical and fresh.

I find these resources to be important because they give students new and different ways to express things they have learned. Since most of today’s students are using and working with technology a lot at home, it only makes sense that educators try and integrate technology into the classroom so that students can connect their home and school life and therefore get more authenticity out of their school work.

This website is also meant to be interactive. I encourage anyone reading my content or following my links to comment on the material. This website and blog post should act as a great way for teachers to share lesson plan ideas and resources. I also encourage anyone to write about the successes and possible failures they had with the material in this website. If you have used any of these resources in your own classroom, please share how you used them, if you were successful, and how you would advise other teachers to use the resource.

Most of the material in this site will have an art theme to it. I think in the classroom there is a lot of value to communicating in different artisitic forms whether it be music, visual art, dancing, drama or literature. However, everyone has varied experience in these fields and does not always feel comfortable making art for an audience. However, online artwork gives structure and guidance to someones work, adds another element of fun and also automatically gives a forum to show off the work, and an authentic audience to view it.

I feel if students are given different and unique opportunities to communicate for school, they will find a way to do it which they will enjoy more than writing the traditional essay or response paper. Therefore students will become more engaged in their work, look at it more authentically and result in a better final product.

A lot of these resources are directly linked to the English Language Arts classroom.  Some of them however are concerned more with art or music.  So though these resources do not have exact links to ELA, they can still definitely be incorporated.  Even something like GarageBand which is a music application can find a use in the ELA classroom I believe because it is a form of communication.  I don’t think in an English classroom students should be limited to responding always with just words.  I think the more mediums students have to choose from, the better they can express themselves and share their ideas in the most appropriate way possible.

One of my main inspirations for this weblog was a video I watched on multi literacies.  I like the idea of finding ways to communicate in new and very different ways.  As mentioned above, I think the more ways you have to communicate, the better you can shape, structure and convey your feelings.  The link to watch this video is:

http://www.edutopia.org/george-lucas-teaching-communication

I really hope you enjoy this site and find it to be a useful resource. Contributions are always appreciated as they enrich the site for everyone who is viewing.