The Importance of Visual Literacy

I really liked the introduction my group used in our Visual Literacy brochure and wanted to post it here on my blog as part of my reflections this week, so thank you Team Green.
            "When a child is born, one of the first things that they do is look around and see what is happening. Why should the students of today be any different? Students seem to be on a visual overload. They seem to be like flies to a light source. Wherever there is a video game, an X-box, a blue-tooth television, a laptop or graffiti, these students flock to the source as in a trance. To stay competitive with a student’s imagination; teachers need to step-up their lessons with visual enhancements. Student’s will subconsciously see these visual cues and follow the lessons that are being taught; enjoying, questioning and learning. These visual cues reach across all learning levels without the need to be differentiated. (Team Green Brochure)
I am a very vivid visual learner myself so the need to see and feel information when learning is very important in my learning process so I feel the need to always incorporate these activities in my classroom. Of course teaching science I have always had an easier time finding visuals to help teach the various lessons we covered. I have always been a firm believer that children retain more of what they see than what they hear. From infancy we as parents set them in front of the television and use flash cards with images to teach their young brains. When my own children were little the video series with all of hte images was very popular and a huge hit with my children. So much of a persons brains are connected by neurons which respond to images recieved through nerves in the eyes.
I hope that with the use of new technology and the internet I will be able to incorporate more and more visual images in my classroom. I know that in science with so many of the topics covered being "far out there", images often help children make connections.

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Thought this was interesting.....
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml

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My jukebox !

Next to his baptism one of my most proudest moments as a mom has been when my then 10 year old son earning his black belt in TaeKwondo from one of the best Karate schools in the United States.  He began when he was five.   Training began 8 weeks prior to the 8 hour test.  He trained for 4-5 hours a day 6 days a week to prepare himself physically and mentaly.  This is a video of his black belt form at a recent tournament.  GO UNITED!!

Blog Prompt 1

Blog 1 prompt:

(1) Describe the importance of the using a variety of instructional strategies and the value they add to education of students in the 21st Century. Evaluate the role technology plays in the implementation of various instructional strategies. How will this impact your teaching of students?
 
After reading this weeks materials I have come to the understanding that I have a lot to learn.  Education has drastically changed in the eleven years that I have been a stay at home mom.  I may find that I will have to start from the beginning just to catch up.  I do find it kind of frustrating to think that what I am learning right now will probably be out dated by the time I step back into the classroom.  I find it ironic that at the same time that I am taking this class and reading about the future in technology that I am reading the book "One Second After".  I am not normally an "end of the world is coming as we know it person" but realizing the very real possibility of what this book discusses, it scares the beegeezes out of me to think that what I am learning and what my children are being introduced to will be of no good to them and survival means knowing how to do the basics. 
This weeks discussion on instructional strategies took me back to my 8th grade science classroom.  I remember with struggling with the basic lecture and demonstration then without all of the wonderful technology.  How wonderful would it be now to incorportate my PRESENTATIONs with clips from you tube.  I can see it now>>> When introducing the lesson states of matter, I always used the demostration with cornsttarch and water.  Now before breaking out the demo I could show the very brief video of the Ellen DeGeneres show where she has a tub full of the goo and has sommeone in the audience walk across it.  Then we would play with the goo ourselves. 
Drill and Practice strategies have also evolved drastically with the use of technology.  No more boring flash cards all of the time but acutal computer games that can incorporate the fun of online games and the ability to learn.  I wish that I could remember the math game the class I subbed in was playing oneday  It was really cool and very hard.  Students were given equations with missing factors and required to come up with the final answer by plugging in different numbers.  They worked in coopertive learning groups and used all kinds of problem solving methods to try to come up with the final answer.  Each gropu would race against their neighbor. 
I can't wait to be able to use todays technology in the classroom.  With all of the handheld learning gadgets and students being such digital learners , I can see the future classroom teacher being more of a facilitator and anaccountability person that the sole provider of ones information.