Lesson Four- Using Technology To Save My Crickets

For a while, many people thought that the word technology referred to computers and their progress. However, over the course of time, the world (especially me) has come to understand that the word "technology" encompasses so many things: cell phone, gaming equipment, Smartboards, Interwrite Pads, smart houses, and the list goes on and on. Sara Kajder makes her readers aware of the various tools they are privy to in her book The Tech Savvy English Classroom. I, one of her readers, just have to find the time, no take the time to use and incorporate them. (I am trying; I am not as successful as I would like to be.)

Reading Sara Kajder's book Bringing the Outside In gave me so many ideas to think about. Some of the same children she speaks of in the book sit in my classroom, but they have different names. In chapter 5, Kajder speaks of using the digital camera and video camera to help students with their vocabulary, to capture images of "how a word may look." I recalled that particular chapter last week when we were discussing the word "ignominy" in my SAT/ACT test prep class. I tried to help the students make the connection to Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter; I knew that all of them had been assigned to read the book in their sophomore English class. ("Assigned" is apparently the right word.) Some opted not to read, I guess, because at that moment, the moment that all teachers fear happened in room J211- everything was completely silent for two seconds, and then the crickets started chirping and a milky film covered the students' eyes. With little time to rescue the crickets from the big- mouth bass- called "complete oblivion"- and before he jumped up and grabbed them, I conducted a "Google" search of recent dishonorable instances in American society and found one or two- shoot I found dozens- about which the students were familiar. The crickets quieted and the discussion started. We pulled up a few other images to help visualize other vocabulary words, and we had a very interesting discourse. One young lady said that she did not realize that "big, old-sounding" words could connect to things in today's world.


So this week, the students are making connections to today's world with "big, old-sounding" SAT words. I have 20 students in my SAT/ACT Prep class. We have 10 new words a week; students are paired and have been assigned one of this week's words and two from previous lists for which they are to bring in an image (of some sort) of each word to help us understand what it looks like today. As every student does not have and digital camera or phone or Internet access, students were given the option to draw or create in some way at vision of what the word looks in today's society. I cannot wait until Tuesday. It will be very interesting.

My contribution- indolent- lazy

After eating a savory and filling Christmas dinner, the family could hardly move from the couch and indolently lay around all afternoon.

(With apologies to my family.)