Tuesday, October 21, 2008

What do I do next???

I know, I know that I have not posted in a while. I have been having a crisis of sorts. My life is so busy right now and I am being pulled in so many different directions that work on my project has come to a stand still. I am actually not enrolled in my project course until spring, but I need to be making progress on it in order to complete this course. I have even considered taking next semester off. I am going to post over the next few days, and hopefully get myself motivated to tackle my project again, words of encouragement would be appreciated.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I'm Loving All the Love For My Project, But...

I thought that I needed to clarify a few things about my project after reading some of the comments left by my esteemed colleagues. Thank you for all of the great ideas and enthusiasim. I have had to simplify my ideas for my project, because I'm really trying to see if using visual presentations that are computer based are an effective means to improve academic achievement for EL students. This is the real aim, so students actually will not be a part of the creation of my movie presentations because I have to control as many factors as I can and having them be the creators would move the focus to how well they are able to use technology rather than how technology may improve their achievement.
That brings me to the second struggle of my project. How will I measure their progress? I do not want to use a written test, because then I will be measuring how well they read and write in English and not how the technology effected their understanding of the material. I think my brain is beginning to hurt...That means short oral quizzes, which is really the only way to take as many obstacles out of my way. Now I just need to get all of my lesson presentations done! I am looking at some pre-made ones that came with the current social studies curriculum to see if they will suit my needs, but I have a feeling that I will have to continue to make my own.