Bear Blogs

Throughout the module our class has teamed up with the Modern Languages elective to send off a teddy bear to a foreign country. We named him, took pictures and sent him away in a little box with a few treats for our friends in Germany.
We are connected to Sharon's bear blog and posts are going up from our class and from our friends across the world. I think that the whole process has been engaging and would defiantly work in a classroom. The bear's adventures are exciting for the learners as they will be interested to see where their bear has been and will be able to take the bear sent to them on adventures of their own. Sharon's stories of the bear on the bike rove that pupils love this idea as they wanted to know exactly where it was and  the excitement generated when a bear arrives in our input is enough to sow how much fun pupils will have!
Our post for the bear blog hasn't been added yet as it was the responsibility of somebody from the modern languages group however, although she volunteered for the job I think it would have been better if Kirsten or myself had done it as we have more emphasis on the blogging aspect of the project. This is about decision making and I feel that we did not anticipate as a group that blogs have less importance outside of our elective. I would like this not to be the case as I am finding blogging useful and although I can fall behind due to my laziness, I feel that I am learning as I write. I am coming to conclusions about the activities because of my reflections.
I think this is what separates the two blogs as this is my reflective blog which I can learn from and use in the future whereas the bear blog is used for communication and documentation. This shows me that blogs have many uses and I should be more focused on completing mine on time as I am the one who will benefit.
 I think that my new found appreciation of blogging helps me to use the skill in my own practice as Ganley (2004) states that, 'when a teacher believes in what she's doing and is confident in her tools, well, it rubs off on even the most resistant of students. As reflective research teachers, we must continue to circle back and look at how what we do ties into our long-term educational goals.'
Richardson (2006) writes in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms that, 'If we want students to learn from blogs, we have to experience that learning firsthand,' and that, 'teachers should blog to show students that it is something of value and to model appropriate ways of doing it.'
I agree with this point as throughout this module I have gained a better insight into the obtacles learners will face during each task. This will help me overcome them myself and be able to teach them with confidence.

Introduction to ICT (2CM8)

I chose ICT as my elective as I enjoyed the previous inputs, especially the games based learning and movie making. I'm looking forward to trying out these aspects of the module.
In the first workshop of the ICT elective, our class was given an overview of the activities we will be participating in this semester.
We made wikis and began our blogs. I have experience of wikis from the modern languages input last year and will hopefully further my knowledge of them as the module goes on.
Blogging is something I've never done before so I'm interested in the new experience and predict that from this experience I will learn the benefits blogging can have within the classroom.
We teamed up with the modern languages elective class and formed our working groups in which we will be movie making. Our group has 2 modern language students and 3 students from ICT. I'm glad that the numbers turned out this way as I'm keen to edit the movies we'll be making but feel that I don't have a full enough understanding to take on the ICT aspect on my own.
During the workshop Collette spoke about the negative relationships of some of the groups from other years. This has made me wary of the fact that I don't know two of the members of my group and haven't met them yet as they were both absent. I hope our group can work together well, it seems to be working so far as we started thinking of ideas for our movie together.
Combining modern languages and ICT has complicated the task as our group has French and German students so the topic must include both. Thinking of a topic which can include all five of us and cultural aspects of France and Germany was hard. We came up with 'Paris to Berlin' and had rough ideas of what to include in the video but will need a lot more input for perfection!
I'm looking forward to the Strictly Come Movies as it's an example of active learning and also sounds fun. I think that the Smartboard and Promethean training will help me use these resources to their full ability in a classroom and the bear journey is a great activity!
I think over the module I will struggle with the animation as last year I lost patience with the endless clicking!