In one of my classes this semester, I had the privilege to work with students from Carver Middle School. Throughout that class, we focused primarily on how to build relationships with students, as well as the benefit that relationships with students can bring to both the teacher and student. At Carver, teachers are encouraged to spend the entire first week of school focusing on getting to know their students, rather than jumping right into teaching content. The staff at Carver was extremely helpful in facilitating our experience getting to know the sixth grade students from Carver. I also had the chance to integrate technology into the activity we used to build relationships.
To begin the semester, our professor had us create an “I Am From” presentation, where we explained where we are from, and the things that are important to us. After that, we were to show our presentation to a student from Carver, and help them to create their own “I Am From” presentation.
My sixth grader was shy at first, and he was reluctant to say much to me. However, the more I got to know him, the more he opened up to me. We both had a lot of fun making his project together. He doesn’t normally get to work with technology, as Carver is not a 1-1 school, so it was a fun and engaging activity for him, and a nice break from the usual classroom routine. Not only that, but I got to teach him about fair use and creative commons as we searched for images that we could use in the presentation.
In my opinion, learning about copyright usage was one of the most vital pieces of information I gained this semester in my EdTech class. I had spent most of my life pulling images from the web to use in schoolwork and for personal use without knowing copyright regulations. Now when I search for images, I know where to look for images that I can use without worry of breaking copyright laws, and I know how to properly cite them as well. This is a concept that I will use long into my teaching career, and I plan to pass on to my students eventually.
Ideas Like Cats 