Fair Use Law

Fair Use is federal law that allows for people to use copyrighted material for purposes of criticism, teaching, news reporting, or parody without authorization of the copyright holder. In terms of the fair use law and the classroom, my interpretation of the law is that copyrighted material can be used without the permission of its holder as long as it is used for educational purpose. The article written by Elizabeth and Robert Lagran called "Copyright and Technology" states that, "to qualify for fair use, there are four factors that must be weighed in: 1)purpose of use, 2) nature of the work 3)amount of use and 4)effect on the market." In order for us teachers to be able to use copyrighted material without permission, these four factors must be put into practice. As future educators, we need to make sure that what we present to our students is allowed and its of fair use. Since students tend to model what one does, they might believe that they are allowed to do the same thing and might follow in our footsteps without realizing the legal complications that come along with the issue. We need to ensure that we teach students how to use the materials or resources that they find on the internet correctly by teaching them how to implement and consider the four factors of the fair use law prior to using the resources.

There are resources that one can use as teachers to find resources that we can use fairly in the classroom such as "Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians". That book allows for one to analyze how the law works and can be used by us to not only understand it but now how to use it properly as well. Although it is becoming a little tough and complicated around these times since both students and teachers are becoming more and more technology savvy, there are ways to be able to use these copyrighted materials. We just have to learn and teach our students how to do it correctly. 

Flipped Classroom

This flipped lesson focus on the family. The student learn the family members that compose immediate families. I used the cartoon family of the Jetsons and used each character to represent the members of the family. I also showed the relationship between the member, for example Jane and George Jetson are the parents of Elroy and Judy Jetson. I think that this is a great lesson for them to learn at home since I speak at a very slow pace which they can understand, they have images to help with the understanding and towards the end, they get the definitions of the vocabulary learned. In the end, I think this is a very effective lesson.

What they would do following this lesson is create their own family tree and explain the members of their immediate family members. As mentioned in the video, they will be creating this tree focused on their immediate family members and the relationships between the members. The extended family is a part of the unit that they will be learning later on to then extend their family trees a little bit more.

Screencasts

I found that creating an audio to go with the powerpoint was a great idea to use in the classroom. The first thing that came to mind was that teachers can create Power Points and add the audio to be used by substitutes when the teachers are absent as a way to get the students to still learn their lesson for the day.

Another way in which this could be used is on blogs or teacher websites so that both students and parents can go over any lessons, homework, or materials that they need for the next school day whether they didnt understand anything or they weren't originally present when the information was presented. Its a great way to maintain communications with students.

Also, you can make small presentations with audio like this and place it on your teacher webpage as kind of an introduction to what you will be learning in the next lesson. This way, students can go to your page for homework and take the time to watch the video so they know what to expect and you may have them answer questions about the video to test their knowledge on what they learned.

 I truly believe that there is so much that you can do with this tool to implement it in the classroom. It gives you different ways to present information as well as maintain communications with students as well as parents.

Back to school night Power Point

This presentation introduces the 21st Century Skills and how they can be implemented in the classroom. Although there are many ways that I can many of the 21st Century Skills being used, I chose to do an activity that focused on the strand of Learning and Innovation skills, which I think are very critical in the foreign language classroom. All of the skills which include critical thinking and collaboration with other students are skills that will be used constantly in the classroom. Students will be challenged daily to think critically about culture and various points of views as well as many other issues.

The activity focuses on students doing some brainstorming prior to watching a short film on what they feel the traits are of a perfect/ideal mother. They are to analyze what mothers are like and what it means to be a mother. They will then watch a short film in which they will synthesize connections between what they said and what is shown and interpret the information being seen. After the film, they are to decipher what they saw and solve the character's problem which is presented at the end of the film. They are to do this in a group work which will demonstrate their ability to work collaboratively. I think this a great activity that not only involves critical thinking and problem solving but has the integration of technology as well. Lesson plans like these involving these skills would be common in my Spanish classroom and the use of technology only enhances the lessons even more.

Podcast response

For my podcast I chose to do a vignette of the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I chose this book to focus on for the podcast because its one that is crucial that high school students read, whether it is in Spanish or English class, since it teaches the typical stereotypes and racial profiling that Latinos deal with in the United States. Its also one that is filled with small vignettes, which made it easier to choose one and read it on the podcast.

The podcast is in Spanish and what I chose to do was read a Vignette entitled "A Rice Sandwich" and have students listen to me read it. Students are to then put themselves in the same situation as the main character in the book. They are to write their responses and record their own podcast as to what they would do the same or differently from the main character in her difficult situation in that chapter. I think that this is such a good activity for the students because it allows to see things from a different perspective.  They can see what many latinos go through (their struggles, the stereotypes, etc) and learn that things are not always as they seem. It allows for them to integrate themselves more into the latino culture by allowing them to understand its citizens a bit more.

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21st Century Skill

As I read through the articles and saw the two videos provided for this week's assignment, I stay a little confused, or rather torn, as to what to believe or which movement to side with. I do know, however, that there were some key things said in some of the content given to analyze that struck me and which I feel I have the need to comment on.

1) In the articles that critic the movement, the very first article by Diane Ravitch she states how she feels as though having these 21st century skills implemented will "put other subjects at margin" and how what matters most is the ability to make generalizations with our brains.

I feel that everything that is being taught in today's schools can all be valuable to students in their futures. Learning a language amplifies their ability to communicate with others, learning math can help them be able to calculate their checking accounts and know how much their spending, and learning English can help them to read between the lines and think critically about things. Every subject is important. Granted, I also feel that some of the aspects stated in the article by Judy Salpeter, are also correct. The skills that the movement is calling "learning skills" and the 21st Century tools elements are ones that I think should be implemented in students acquirement of knowledge. They are both key elements that everyone is required to do now both inside and outside of the school environment, making them viable elements to teach our students.

2) In the 2nd critical article by Jay Mathews, he asked a question that left me questioning the whole movement, "How are millions of students still struggling to acquire 19th-century skills in reading, writing and math supposed to learn this stuff?"

After reading this question I honestly was left perplexed. There are lot of students that need extra help on subjects in reading, writing, and math that trying to add any other skill or subject will just confuse the students even more and leave them upset with their education. Just this one question had me wondering whether or not this movement was necessary. 

3) In the video of Sir Ken Robinson, he says that creativity isn't taught anymore and they are pushed aside to be taught the essentials known as the "core subjects". 

I disagree with Sir Robinson to some extent. I do agree that there are people that are scared to pursue their dreams because of the fact that they feel that they won't find a job, as Sir Robinson said. However, students are being pushed and encouraged on a daily basis by their teachers to follow their dreams and to not give up on them. The majority of the students that pick a career to study in college are studying subjects that they want to know more of, that they love, that they want to be a part of and I feel that their creativity is what got them there. I don't believe that creativity is being pushed aside at all. 

In the end, I find myself in the middle of the movement, not really able to choose a side. I feel that it is absolutely necessary to teach the subjects that are being taught in schools currently. However, I also agree that students should acquire the "learning skills" and comprehend how to use the 21st century tools in order to enhance their skills in their core subjects even further. There are things that I feel could work with the 21st Century Skill and are necessary but other elements that I feel that we could do without. 

Learning Experience: Blog

For the learning experience that integrates technology, I decided to focus on the tech tool of blogs. For the assignment, students will be using a blog to communicate with a student from a hispanic country such as Costa Rica and/or Brazil. The whole purpose of this communication with other peers in another country is to identify any issues in Education that are occurring in countries outside of the United States and find speak to their pen pals about possible solutions that can help those students in which they are becoming acquainted with. This will also be their way to keep in contact with each other, informing one another about what is going on in their lives. Under the technology standards, this assignment would fall under the standard 8.1, strand C: Communication and Collaboration. The grade level would be 12 and the CPI number is 8.1.12.C.1.

For this assignment, students should be able to create and use a blog. They will learn in class how to make one and their options of sites that they can choose that is easier for them to manage. They will also need to know how to go about and search within the blogs to find their student pen pals blog and comment on their posts. Besides having to know how to use the blog, students should be able to conduct research on the Internet about their pen pal's country to find current events as well as they possible solutions to the issues that they become aware of. 

In my content area, students should be able to write their posts in Spanish in order to be able to communicate accurately with their student pen pals. They should be able to use the correct grammar and vocabulary that they are learning on a daily basis  to write their posts in a way in which students in other countries will be able to understand them. 

This blog  would be a great way for students to get a perspective of how students in other countries live and the issues that they will face on a daily basis. It's also a great way to practice their Spanish and it gives them a context as to why its important to learn the language.