Technology

I think that advances in Internet and technology are mostly beneficial. It has become easier to share video and audio clips in the classroom which provide additional ways of learning besides lecturing. Email has become useful because it is a quick way of communicating with both students and parents. Grade reports can easily be sent to parents with email so that they can get updates and can express concerns with a teacher. Internet also allows students access to a lot of information that they would have to search pretty extensively for in a library. I especially enjoyed online articles for my Paideia research project because it made information available to me in my own room.
Despite the many advantages there are some problems with Internet and technology. It is sometimes difficult for students to sort the vast amount of information on the Internet and because anyone can make a website it is hard to know what is a reliable source. Certain Internet aspects such as myspace and facebook have also made it easier for students to be subject to stalking. Unfortunately some safety settings are unable to protect our youth from Internet prowlers. Finally, it can sometimes be discriminating to require students to use computers and Internet because there may be students that do not have access to this in their home and are not provided with transportation to places that they may be able to use it.
Overall I think that these advances in technology have benefited the classroom but there are some things that we must be careful of in using it.

Ethnic Arts Festival

I had no idea that we had international students from such a variety of places in the world! I thought it was amazing to be able to go to one place (the CFL) and be able to experience the culture firsthand from say 30 different countries. I was especially surprised to hear students speak about the group dynamics in their countries. A student from South Africa explained to me that there are three religions that are predominant in her country, Islam, Christianity and Traditional. I was astonished to hear that they have a black Muslim as President and a white Christian as vice president. The student said that there is a great deal of religious tolerance in her country and that national holidays are observed for all three religions without much conflict. The importance of tolerance became clear to me when I visited the Somalia booth. The student explained that Islam accounted for 99% of religion but there is still great conflict in her country. She said that there is much fighting between different tribes even though they are united by a common religion. I think this experience of learning about varying levels of tolerance and conflict was quite interesting and it increased my breadth of knowledge of the actual situations of the world. I hope that as an educator I can share this knowledge of diversity to help people better understand differences and their implications.

Leahy

First, I REALLY enjoyed this concert! I thought this was an amazing opportunity to hear music from several different genres. I especially liked hearing about the different heritages that the family had because their grandfather came from Ireland, and their mother from Nova Scotia. It is difficult to categorize the music of Leahy because it has such broad roots. I think that this concert helped to teach me that as a teacher it is important to incorporate music from many different areas so that my students can appreciate and even grow fond of music they may not have considered before. Also I believe that this was a good exhibition of the benefits of teaching music in the home environment. Because these brothers and sisters were exposed to a variety of instruments and music types they were able to further explore and develop their musical talents. I think that support and practice in the home is essential to growing as a musician. This was quite obvious in this concert!