Recent Changes

"Young Adult Literature (ENGL3470) with Dr. Kathleen Deakin"
The semester of Young Adult Literature with professor Kathleen Deakin gave me an opportunity to re-discover my love for discussing literature. The course combined many styles of novels, excellent educational reading, and seminars that allowed for viewpoints to be debated and discussed. And we read, a lot. I consider myself an avid reader, as they say, but I haven’t read like this in awhile. I haven’t taken a course like this in a long time, and despite the wide berth of material, I found it enjoyable. Part of the fun for me was the exchange of ideas with my fellow students. Of course, the best part was being turned on to new material within a genre I had almost forgotten about.
During this course, we occasionally read from a reading packet, and a small but effective text called “Reading Ladders: leading Students from Where They Are to Where We’d Like Them to Be”, by Teri S. Lesesne. This book really opened my eyes when it came to understanding how we can help students become lifelong readers. I was not aware of how much simply reading aloud to a class can affect a student—from their test scores, to reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Another concept that I was unfamiliar with was “book-talking”. Although this is mentioned in Lesesne’s book, Professor Deakin actually used this method in her classroom. I found this to be very effective in helping me choose a book that appealed to me from the options she had given. Not only was it informative, but it switched up the pace of the room and tapped into something that I remembered from my youth: being read to. And so it not only proved Lesesne’s theories, but it helped inspire me to get reading right away!
Although we discussed structural criticism, reader response theory, censorship, and other topics related to reading in an educational setting, as an older student I felt like I had been over some of that ground before. Although all of those things are necessary, while reflecting on the course, I again felt drawn back to Lesesne and her “building blocks” for lifelong readers. She discusses two things that I had never much considered before: access to books, and time to read. Lesesne does stress that it is always good to have “models of literacy” (parents, other family members, friends) to help encourage and influence future readers, and I was fortunate to have this in my life, as well as time to read (outside of class). But my classrooms did not have a book selection, we had to use the library in our spare time. Nor were we given a brief respite from our day in order to read. Lesesne demonstrated how even 15 minutes a day can vastly improve a student’s performance. I would have to say that even though I enjoyed the book selection that we were given, Lesesne’s book was my favorite. It is elegant in its simplicity, and in my opinion it is a “must-read” for anyone planning on teaching literature.
While this course offered many book options, with a new theme each week, and excellent group discussions that followed, I will say my favorite assignment was the Reading Survey. I haven’t had much of an opportunity to interact with high school students, and this activity got me out of the classroom and out on the streets talking to teenagers about literature in their lives. It was an eye-opening experience and I am grateful to have participated in it.
Finally, because we did read a lot of books, I will compile a list of them in a separate section here for you to peruse. I hope you will choose to read some of these if you haven’t already.

My Reflections on CO-PBST
7.1 Apply technology to the delivery of standards-based instruction.
I have met this standard by creating a WebQuest site. The material on this site was developed according to Colorado standards for high school English courses. The site was designed by using Google sites. Therefore, I have demonstrated my ability to apply technology to standards-based instruction.
7.2 Use technology to increase student achievement.
By using SmartBoard to demonstrate how to solve problems and to identify geometric shapes, and by using WebQuest to show how to write haikus, I have shown how technology may be used to engage students in a more effective manner, thereby increasing their achievement.
7.3 Utilize technology to manage and communicate information.
By creating a digital presentation using iMovie, I have been able to inform students on the history of certain writing styles, and how they may duplicate those forms.
7.4 Apply technology to data-driven assessments of learning.
I created a rubric in order to asses and evaluate each student’s comprehension of assignments. This rubric was used on my WebQuest site to grade how the students performed the assignment that would be given after watching the iMovie, and using the tools from the website.
7.5 Instruct students in basic technology skills.
I learned how to create a podcast, a wiki site, a digital movie, and a webquest site. I will pass these skills on to my students so that they may become more actively engaged in the course material, and become more technologically savvy along the way.

Hello, welcome to my wiki! My name is William Christopher Baggett, and I created this wiki as part of a class project. The pages on the left are also projects that we did for class. I hope you enjoy visiting them.
{IMG_1642.jpg}
I decided that I wanted to teach when I was in High School. Both my mother and my grandmother were teachers, and the field always interested me. I often mused about becoming a teacher, what the world would be like when I was ready to teach. I waited many years between college semesters, working, playing music, traveling. During that time, I shunned technology, but now I am ready for the final stage, and I consider myself lucky to become part of a profession that has embraced technology so that all students may benefit.

{Smart project.notebook.zip}{Fun With Geometry.notebook}
Smart Board and Smart Notebook are amazing tools that may someday make the chalkboard obsolete. This is an amazing leap of technology…it is basically a program that you can use to develop lessons using games, internet images, videos, and hands on writing all at once. The board itself is similar to an erasable whiteboard, yet it is also a computer screen. You can project videos or images onto the screen, and using the smart pen, actually make notes right on the board, superimposing them onto the projections. You can make the font and writing large enough for the whole classroom to see, and use the screen as a ‘touch-screen’ to drag and place text or images according to your wishes. And no more chalk dust! While part of me may pine for the simplicity of days gone by, I believe this excellent tool should be put in every classroom. If I am not provided this tool, I will purchase it for myself. With it I will be able to engage the students in a more effective manner, by importing information and images from around the world, and having them learn to use this tool so that they may use it for future presentations.

{Smart project.notebook.zip}
Smart Board and Smart Notebook are amazing tools that may someday make the chalkboard obsolete. This is an amazing leap of technology…it is basically a program that you can use to develop lessons using games, internet images, videos, and hands on writing all at once. The board itself is similar to an erasable whiteboard, yet it is also a computer screen. You can project videos or images onto the screen, and using the smart pen, actually make notes right on the board, superimposing them onto the projections. You can make the font and writing large enough for the whole classroom to see, and use the screen as a ‘touch-screen’ to drag and place text or images according to your wishes. And no more chalk dust! While part of me may pine for the simplicity of days gone by, I believe this excellent tool should be put in every classroom. If I am not provided this tool, I will purchase it for myself. With it I will be able to engage the students in a more effective manner, by importing information and images from around the world, and having them learn to use this tool so that they may use it for future presentations.

https://sites.google.com/site/wcbaggshaiku/
This assignment was called WebQuest. It is essentially a way to build a website, which can be used in and out of the classroom. I created it through Google sites. This tool can be used to give an assignment that requires several steps in order to achieve a desired goal, while also providing resources in order to accomplish the assignment. In my case, I developed a site to teach students about haiku and also about the natural wonders of the world. It was pretty simple to use, and I am going to apply it in my classroom in two ways. The first would be akin to the aforementioned assignment, and the second would be to have the students also develop their own sites.

This assignment was called Podcasting. I learned to use a program called Audacity and was able to record my own voice with music in the background. This tool is an excellent way to provide instructions and guidance to students via the internet. Whether I am sharing music, or tips on how to do certain homework, this will be a valuable tool that I intend to share with my students so that they may also be able to broadcast their ideas and creativity by using their own voice, music, or other content from web based sources.