Sunday, March 20, 2011

Anytime Learning...Anytime Teaching by Laura

I have been working in schools that have e-mail for nearly fifteen years.  E-mail makes it easier for me to teach. I would rather help a student get "unstuck," even during my evenings and weekends, than wait for them to come to school frustrated.  I wish students would e-mail me more!  Writing an e-mail to a teacher means you have to know how to ask the question so you will get an answer that is helpful. Being able to ask a question in a manner that will furnish the answer you need, is a hallmark of an educated person--and a good communicator.

Sometimes explaining concepts in an e-mail exchange can be tough.  I had a highly motivated student who corresponded with me a couple of times this past Saturday.  She was analyzing her data for an independent science project.  Because she is determining the relationship between atmospheric pressure and snow density, she needed to learn to do a scatter plot in Excel.  We had discussed this in person, but when she got home it wasn't clear.

Screenjelly made it possible for me to help her-- on a Saturday evening when we were miles apart.  I recorded this little movie in a moment or two.  It won't win any academy awards, but it did help my student to get "unstuck."  I have also used Screenjelly to record a movie for parents so they can see how they can navigate to information that is on my class website.

Anytime, anywhere learning, makes it possible to be an anytime, anywhere teacher too.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Laura,
    I think that email is a good way to communicate with students and other teachers because it helps students get “unstuck” and it keeps teachers “posted”. I didn’t know email was invented fifteen years ago....interesting fact. What is Screenjelly?

    Alex

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  2. Hi Laura

    This is Adrian. I like this post that you have about how email helps students. I think you are absolutely right. When I was in lower school and I had a problem I couldn’t ask questions. I did not know that you have been working with schools that use email for 15 years. I really like this post and keep up the good work.

    From Adrian

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  3. Hi Laura,

    I just found your blog and fell in love with it. I agree that e-mail helps students stay in contact with teachers. I have a class blog and the students sometimes post questions on there; however, I do not get updates when questions are posted. Students should use Google Apps for education and receive e-mail so that teachers can communicate with students.

    Please check out my blog that I started. I am beginning to review Internet resources for teachers and students.

    http://techyteachertips.blogspot.com/

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  4. Laura,
    I thought it was really cool that you made a movie to help your student. I always email my teacher if I don’t understand something. Sometimes I will even ask my classmates if I don’t understand something. I really liked your blog post. Come visit our blog at http://shirleys6th.edublogs.org/
    -Anna

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  5. Hi Laura,
    I really enjoyed reading your post called Anytime Learning, Anytime Teaching. I think being able email my teachers for questions is great. Email is easy and quick so if your in a rush you can just send out an email and come check it later. I also can relate to understanding something in school and then getting home and being confused on what I was supposed to do.

    --Hayley

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  6. Hi Laura!
    I read your blog post about Screen Jelly and email and I thought it was really interesting. I never heard of Screen Jelly before, and I think I could use it in some interesting ways. I also read the part about email in and out of school. I think that email really has helped how our school works and I think it can help students a lot. If we need help on homework or need some document sent to us, email can help us.
    John

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  7. Many thanks to Shirley's class for their kind and encouraging comments! I have been thinking about how you will all be in my class next year--and you have this little window through this blog and my class blog about what my class is like! Also, I have a little window into how enthusiastic and appreciative you are as students. You are definitely giving me something to look forward to!
    --Laura

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