Blog 2 -B- 9 Square Listening/Learning Game

In the middle of February, we were assigned to make a listening learning game using Microsoft Word. In this assignment we were to use a story from our first essay (Five Educational Experiences) and use pictures (that we captured or created) that represent the story we are sharing. We were to break up the story in 9 sections, with 9 different pictures that relate or express the material in each section. After we completed that we were to record the text from each section of the story with our own voices from a program called Audacity. Then we were to add all three sections together in a 3 by 3 grid to form a little follow along listening game. Now the students will be able to click on the picture and a piece of the story will start to play. Then the students will follow along and try to figure out the path of the story. This will help them with their listening skills as well as give them some fun assignment to do at school.

I learned that there are some fun activities that we as future teachers can create that will enhance the learning and participation of our students where they will not be as bored in school. I also learned of an awesome program called audacity where I can record my voice. This project inspired me with a bunch of great ideas that I can use in my future classrooms as a history teacher. I can not use a listening game like this one (since it is geared toward lower level classes) but I thought I can record questions with my voice and make a quiz of the material I am covering. I also have thought of a couple more ideas but that is one that stands out in my mind.

There were not many challenges to this assignment, other than a little time consuming and I had a problem with setting up my microphones. Audacity made it very simple to record my voice altering pictures was not a problem, however getting to that point gave me trouble. I used my brother’s set of Headphone/microphone (which is a $100 set) but I could not seem to get them to work on my computer. It took me about a hour of struggling and messing around with my setting on my computer. Then I got upset and tired and called my brother and he walked me through the process on how to get to work and then finally did and my life was easier after that. Other than the installment issue, this project went by very smoothly for me.

As a learner myself, I found out that there are so many tools out there for me to utilize and after I used just one of them, I got sparked with many great ideas that will help my future teacher career tremendously. Without every doing this project I would have never have thought of these new teaching tools or every encountered these tools to work with in the first place. After the completion of this project, I feel like I am better equipped as a future teacher and I have gained more experience as a learner.