Reflection / Discussion 12

Rich media I can apply to improve my teaching of first grade students would be visual and audio materials. Since my students come to me on a variety of different reading levels audio and visuals would come in handy during whole group instruction. This way their reading level would not be a hurdle when learning some topics.

It was encouraging to learn that almost all visuals are beneficial for students. When I started reading the section I was afraid that only the fanciest and most expletive visuals would prove effective. I like that there is a wide range of possible presentation from animation, screen shots, and word plus graphic diagrams. I sometimes get bored creating lesson plan with the same visual format. I know that if I am bored teaching then my students are bored learning and that is not the kind of environment I want to create in my classroom. With a variety of effective formats mixing up the form will help ease the monotony and keep students interested and engaged in learning the task at hand.

Audio is a component I have always wanted to include with my teaching but I just never had a clear understand of how do incorporate it effectively. When my students are working independently I often play, at their request, background music. It is classical music with nature sounds such as a summer thunderstorm or garden rain. While I understand this does not have much educational value, I have found my students work quietly and efficiently and it adds an overall serenity to the classroom. After reading about audio I plan to find ways to incorporate it with educational value. Of the top of my head I would like to include more books on tape, screencasts with speech, podcasts, and students recording their own stories to books without words to play back for themselves and their classmates.

Visual and Audio media can play such an important role in the classroom. Especially when using them together, the mixing and matching makes the possibilities endless.