As our classes become more “tech savvy”, we as teachers need to follow suit. A great way to teach our students it to teach them in ways that are “culturally” relevant and let’ face it the culture of our students includes these new technologies. More and more students communicate via Facebook, Twitter, AIM, Skype, etc. All of these technologies are the result of some awesome science! So let’s use this great science to help our students learn.
With the onset of the social networks, there has become a new literacy to teach and work with in the classroom. Fortunately, most students are very aware and well versed in this new technology and its conventions. If we can take wikis, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks into the classroom, we may be able to use the literacy they already understand with this media and help them convert it in to a more formal and academic media. A blog like this is a perfect example of how we can incorporate this media in the classroom.
On this blog, I will continue to post website and other information about science and literacy, as well as examples of literacy strategies I am using in the classroom. As a new teacher, I am sure not everything will go was well as my little idealistic plan and I am sure you all will hear all about what is working and what has not. My current project is a unit based around science literacy. I am currently working on a unit plan for genetics and biotechnology which is based around misconceptions and how we can use scientific literacy to alleviate these misconceptions, starting with these students! I am looking forward to them working with a variety of texts including political cartoons, movies, TV shows, articles from newspapers and articles from magazines.
