Journal 10: "Making History"

Shein, Esther. "Making History." 7 Jan 2009 http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23394.

The ideas presented in "Making History" were really creative and great for technology the technology savvy generation. Creating a podcast to share with the class based on past events in World War 2 was a great way to get the creative juices flowing while helping the students learn and try to connect with what it would be like during those times. Using material outside of the normal textbooks was also a great idea because many times as students we are just given what is written in our texts and if it is not in there then we never hear about it. Using videos would definitely help assist students with history projects. History can be so interesting if the teacher really works at finding ways to help the students connect with it.

I remember in high school creating a business and having to come up with marketing strategies, numbers, and present on the new business; the hard part about it was that we had no feedback to know if are business would actually be successful or not. Having a program where it teaches you to make business decisions and their are consequences to those decisions gives it a very life-like feel and I think really helps students own their projects. Obviously other teachers have seen improvement in economic understanding of the students and will really help them in the future when going onto college and searching for a job.

In some cases I think paper assignments are necessary, but I think the future is moving more towards interactive assignments. For me as a teacher I am going to need to be up to date on what programs work well in the classroom and which ones do not. I think throughout these programs too the students really learn more about technology and how it can be of assistance in the future. For me it will be a challenge but one I am willing to take in order to benefit the student's education.