Visual Literacy and the net's impact

Visual literacy is a needed skill for all students.  If a student is visually literate, they are better prepared to succeed in school and society.  I think the impact on teaching with the use of internet and visual learning is profound. In using visual organizers in class via Kidspiration or Inspiration software, for example, students are scaffolded into the automatic process of thought that most adults use.  An online thesaurus called Visual Thesaurus at http://visualthesaurus.com looked promising as a visual resource my students could use and it even had multiple meanings divided into parts of speech.  But honestly, the overall layout was not age appropriate and a little overwhelming.  I really like the tutorials offered at my curriculum website for math at http://www.macmillanmh.com because it is age appropriate and the "teachers" work through the problem step by step for each chapter and you can pause it whenever needed.  I have decided I want the Internet to play a large role in my classroom as I am more willing to try new things right away and not get discouraged if one doesn't work well.  Our attempt at a fable WebQuest today went very well and the feedback and enthusiasm was terrific.

Instructing 21st Century Learners

Using a variety of instructional strategies in the classroom is of vital importance today and always.  How do we ensure that no child is really left behind?  When do we stop making it some other teacher or parent's problem?  The reality is that we do not all learn the same and although many of us have adapted to survive and learn, that survival is not always a quality a student may possess.  Those students who do not adapt fall behind and become frustrated and never gain a love of learning.  It is not only our job to teach, but to make what we teach "teachable".  Developing one's toolkit of instructional variety was not taught to me in my college prep classes, but rather filed into my membrane at every opportunity.  When I say "opportunity", I mean child that I was not reaching.  Through colleagues help and many years, I sought out ways that I could reach those challenges with more confidence.  Sometimes, it was much simpler a solution than I could ever have imagined.  Maybe a child just couldn't see and needed glasses, but was too shy to say anything.  Maybe a parent didn't speak English and luckily I was able to find out there was a hearing impairment.  But most often, however, I had to just get out of my box and try something new.  Some children respond to music, visual stimulation, or body movement, so it's no wonder they love to learn in the form of a game or song.  Technology is a huge part of my class's success last year.  Every opportunity, we would use a math game to reinforce a concept we just learned.  The game might ask us questions that with each correct response, we got closer to building a huge robot.  We would use the internet to go on virtual field trips to places we couldn't afford to get a bus for. We would use Power point to create a Jeopardy game to review vocabulary.  By integrating technology, it impacted my teaching in a way where I remembered that there is no one way to do my job and every year it didn't have to be the same.  It helped me refresh my view of what teaching was and made me more open-minded.