GINA HECKEL'S VITUAL TOUR

GINA HECKEL’S

TOLEDO SPAIN VITUAL TOUR

Start out by watching this video on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gopnmLCLUQo

(ProudBasque, Jan. 14, 2012, Toledo A walking tour around the city / Un paseo por la ciudad, retrieved from https://youtu.be/gopnmLCLUQo )

Then visit the following sites: 

http://www.toledo-turismo.com/en/the-well-of-el-salvador_140 under the what to see tab  you can gather information on museums, monuments and other historical buildings. 

From there go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo,_Spain#Politics to read up on the history of Toledo Spain.

https://travel.sygic.com/Spain/Castile-La-Mancha/Toledo-Spain/Toledo-City-Hall/ is the last site to visit and as you scroll down the page there is a map that allows you to click on bubbles to get more information on a spot in Toledo. 

I decided to do Toledo Spain because of my previous experience and only getting information from encyclopedias and from our teacher.  The sites I used will give students pictures and information of the various structures in this beautiful city.  I would combine this virtual tour with a worksheet or some sort of research project so student build their knowledge of the City. 

Mod 11 article review and virtual tour review

Gina Heckel Mod 11

The global issue document was interesting to read and I did agree with much of what was written but I am not sure teachers could realistically prepare students to think and act “globally”.  This is why, first getting students to think about others and not just how something affects them is big.  This generation is more me oriented (though I see a little shift away from that train of thought).  Teaching students to think about consequences and to have empathy is difficult. 

Diversity has been taught in schools for a while now, but are students making connections between of why learning about diversity is important.  Do they understand that the differences and similarities of different cultures are important to understand so that we can relate and tolerate differences and work together to make world decisions?  After all, we share one planet and all our actions affect this world. 

The final piece that had me thinking is here in the U.S. teachers often are limited to the time they have to teach more in depth “global competencies” because we are required to cover “tested” subjects.  Making sure our students do well on those core subjects is hard enough.  Can teachers go back to teaching without pressure on tested curriculum and then you could find teachers that are able to integrate global competence into their lessons.  

The sister city/sister school was short and sweet, the biggest point being that with the technology has provided teachers with a greater opportunity explore and connect with a city and/or school.  With the invention of the internet, facetime and skype the connection is as simple as a mouse click or phone call.  During my 5^th/6^th grade year my school did a sister city project with Toledo, Spain and the El Greco art exhibit visit to the Toledo Museum of Art.  The teachers had us write a letter to a school, we did a mini time capsule with items from our school and town and then went to the Toledo Museum of Art’s El Greco exhibit.  It is something I remember to this day and hope that the students of our sister city do too!  I believe this gives students a look at oversea schools/cities and provide that global connectedness the article discusses. 

I went on several virtual tours on the listed page, I liked the Louvre best because you did not have to join anything and you just clicked and saw different rooms in the Louvre.  I don’t want to have to register with every site just to explore!  This particular tour would be wonderful for art students and could give those that love art but can’t afford to travel overseas a way to experience the museum.  I wish more museums had such an easy and great virtual page to share.  

Mod 10

Gina Heckel Mod 10

As I read the “Tweeting” article I was surprised that tweeting was even part of a educators tool box but as I continued through the article I understood some of the usefulness.  The authors discuss how using this informal communication (tweeting) would enhance student/teacher relationship by providing insight to each other outside of the traditional relationship perimeters.  This gives each group a glimpse of what happens outside school walls and gives each a way of relating to each other on another level.  I have to admit, I feel I have a better relationship with many of my grad professors because of the sharing we have done in the past.  I feel that this friendship has helped me stay invested in my education. 

But I believe as with any tool used in the classroom, we have to “rules” in place.  I think if you are using twitter in the classroom, it should have time restraints on responses, it should not be used to “share” information and should be monitored by teacher regularly.  By monitoring you can make sure no bullying or bashing is occurring and make sure students are using correctly. 

And when Dunlap and Lowenthal mentioned that bad grammar could be a drawback because of the 140 character limit I was happy.  Students need to be encouraged to at all times, to use proper grammar and grammar rules!

I LOVED THE IDEAS IN THE HERRINGTON, HERRINGTON, KERVIN AND FERRY ARTICLE!  I think the Austrian Department of Education has developed and designed a program to help new teachers and retain them.  The online support for novice teachers has to be an awesome tool and give these new teachers another place to look for help.  The BEST program that the University of Wollongong put into place is something the States should consider.  I know after we graduate (in Ohio) there is a mentoring program but I think the BEST program is more intense.  Students are actually paired up with mentors while student teaching and in their final college courses.  I think this is a great way to build self confidence in new teachers and give them someplace to go with questions.  I believe with these tools new teachers could do nothing but succeed.

O’Brien’s post on what parents want from communications with their school and school officials brought back memories of trying to find and get information from my daughter’s school.  We had to either call or rely on the brown envelope for information.  I agree that schools should have some sort of email system in place because this would provide privacy to sender and receiver and not put it out in the public events and such.  I don’t think that schools should not share too much information because you are just giving those that may prey on kids more information than they need.  The big point in the article that I liked that O’Brien brought up was all information shared with parents has to be accurate!!  Whether you post on some sort of social media or emails the information has to be true because parents need to know fact not hearsay.

O’Keefe’s article on school communities needing to build partnerships with the businesses they share space with I think is very important.  I really think this is something that has changed in the last 50 years; if you look at how those without children in school now vote for levies and how businesses are not involved as in the past you can see how schools have lost out on money, support and knowledge.   O’Keefe reminds us that we are all stakeholders in a child’s future and how the school need to again reach out to the resources around them.  Again, we want to give our students all the tools to succeed.