Exit Slip 10/21

After our group presentation today Professor Boyer explained a great strategy that I feel I will utilize in my classroom some day. The Jigsaw strategies consists of students being part of groups and discussing a single topic per group, then break up those groups and have the students teach/discuss with other groups about their topic.

We discussed the importance of locking items on our interactive whiteboard lesson.  This is great to know how to do because students will accidently move objects that should not be moved if they are not locked in place.  We learned about the infinite cloner which is another great trick to learn with the smart notebook program.

It was interesting that we touched on font and color choice for our lessons; it’s something that you never really think about but it’s extremely important.  Boyer bought up an interesting rule, the 6x6 rule which means no more than 6 lines of text, each line consisting of 6 words per line when looking at a presentation/PowerPoint.

It’s great when we get to learn some of the tricks of smart notebook. I wish that we would spend a lot more time on the different tips and things we can use on this program, because we will be using this program a lot within our career, and a lot of us are brand new to this program.

C. 6 Eras of Education

In chapter 6 of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology it discusses the different eras that break up the history of education. It's strange to see that years ago children were expected to do the same jobs as their parents. I could never imagine myself doing the exact same thing. It seems like the children were expected to mirror the parents; they were taught to think and do as their parents.
It is interesting to read that early education was to prepare children for the work they would do when they became adults. The subjects that they were taught were basic skills like reading, writing, basic computations, and most importantly, skills like reading the Bible and tasks like buying and selling goods.  It’s strange to me to think that many of the classes we have now were unheard not so long ago. Each subject eventually added on to form a curriculum depending on the type of jobs. History, English and civics were stressed for preparation of children becoming citizens. Then later on it was decided that there should be a set of courses students should take, involving English, math, Latin and Greek, history, science and geography. Most of these are still offered in our general schooling.

In the new age, the responsibility is leaning more towards parents and students rather than the states, as it did in the first era.  Students are given more options for their learning and education has expanded. Now teaching can be done nearly anywhere.

I feel that students should understand how we came about the education system we are using today and what each subject’s origin is within the system.

Smartboard Lesson

I completed a lesson appropriate for first graders on Nouns in SMART Notebook, compatible with SmartBoards. I have never used this program before and found it extremely difficult to work the program. I was up until late hours in the morning working on my project to get it to the standard I wanted it at. In total I spent at least 6 hours on it. I tried to utilize some of the games that were available in the program but had difficulty figuring out how to alter them to the grade level I intended it for. I wish we were given more instruction on how to use this program. After working on it for quite some time I did get the hang of it and feel it would be a great program to use with any Smartboard. If I am privileged enough to get a teaching job, yet alone a job with a smart board included in the classroom, I will utilize this program to its potential because it is an excellent source to get students involved in the lesson.

I got an itch for Scratch

I have just finished my Scratch project and am really excited about it. Although Scratch was difficult to start and I had many questions along the way I feel it is an excellent teaching approach for many students. My project consisted of Dino-addition with dinosaurs using basic addition facts. This would be so great to individualize different levels in a classroom and have students work at their own pace. I feel that Scratch is a little complicated at first but after you have an idea of what you want it to look like and you get the hang of it, it really isn't so bad. I spend a fair amount of time on my project to get it to how I wanted it to be, and am proud of what it came out to be.

Flicker Fun

Photography is a favorite hobby of many and it is great how many websites encourage this.  Digital cameras are a necessity in many families and photos are essential as well. Great ways to share the captured moment in this time period is by sharing pictures over the internet so many different can view them. Flicker is one of the most well known picture sharing sites and can be a great thing to use to share with family and use in the classroom.  This would be a great resource to be able to share moments with the students with parents and the community to have a visual of what the students are actually doing at school.  I feel that posting pictures online of a classroom helps relatives from a distance know what the child is doing in school and allows people to view what the school is actually doing.

Putting together a photo stream gives many visuals and can even be given to the students at the end of the year to recap of what they have done.  It gives students a yearbook of just their classroom, and all the material and activities they covered.

I thought it would be a great thing to do to have students interact with the pictures as it described in the chapter, to add notes to parts of pictures. This would work fantastic for vocabulary terms, for example, in identifying parts of a plant.

Adding pictures online is similar to adding different projects online as we talked about in previous chapters, but this gives a clear visual, and even with help of video, it can paint a full picture. This allows the community to give positive feedback and even push students to work harder because they realize that others will see their work.

With more knowledge of the subject I feel that posting pictures online and/or on a website similar to flicker would be a fantastic way to help parents and community members visualize what is taking place in my classroom.  I feel this could only benefit my classroom. It’s strange to realize how many resources we have on the web that we are yet unaware of and we don’t utilize to their full potential.

Exit Slip 10/14

I thought today’s discussion went really well and the group did a fantastic job hitting main points that were brought up in the chapter. I found it most interesting when Pam brought up a situation that occurred at her house and computer based learning software.  Pam has a child that plays games and after they switched his game playing to games with more text, his reading level skyrocketed. I thought that it was an interesting thing to incorporate if a child is struggling with reading.

Homeschooling, Distance Education, Learning Centers and Internet Cafes OH MY!

The chapter of new systems in education was fairly interesting. It explained the different approaches for schooling including home schooling, workplace learning, distance education, adult education, learning centers, educational television and videos, computer based learning software, technical certifications and internet cafes.

I was surprised to find out that homeschooling enrollment increased by 29% in the last 4 years, I always thought that in our decade many people would send their children to public school rather than home school.  I myself know very few people who have been home schooled.  This section really opened my eyes; home school students overall score was significantly better on standardized tests in every subject area.  This could be relevant because home school students are use to individual tasks in a less distracted area.  There are many benefits to homeschooling which include the individualization of the coursework and the ability to spend a longer amount of time in certain areas.  Homeschooling also allows parents to not worry about violence at school and the peer pressure that is relevant in public schools.  Homeschooling does allow the students to have much more variety in the subjects that they are being taught and gives extra time for special activities including different classes, homeschooling groups and or additional online courses. This chapter reemphasizes the fact that it is difficult to home school when both parents maintain full time jobs.  I thought it was extremely interesting how most home school students are very active and involved; the girls talked about in the chapter take regular gym classes at the YWCA.

Distance Education definitely has its benefits along with homeschooling; it consists of being in a classroom with a teacher talking to your physical class through a screen or online schooling.  This allows for many more options for students. I personally have taken a distant learning class and really did not enjoy it as much as in classroom learning but still felt the experience was nice. It is great for students who may not feel comfortable in a large lecture hall and would rather do their work at their own pace with a teacher involved.  I found it fascinating how many students are enrolled in distant education courses and I think it’s great that it allows people with 9-5 jobs to be able to go to school.

I feel that learning centers are excellent resources for all students.  This way all students can get specialized help in a particular area. These learning centers can really help students and parents. I remember when I was in school and needed additional help I would ask my parents, and most of the time they wouldn’t know how to explain it to me. At learning centers there are many fantastic resources for parents to take their child to get immediate help on many different topics.  Learning centers seem to be a great learning environment with many resources available.  It allows for a positive learning environment.

Internet cafes are a fantastic idea as well and allow students a use of the internet if their family doesn’t have the funds to maintain it at their house.

This chapter was interesting and gave many different viewpoints that I have never thought about and each of the benefits that these different systems play. Although personally I feel some side effects are possible with a few of them they were all extremely interesting to learn about. I feel that there are more options that students can utilize the resources including the learning centers and distant learning for topics that are not offered at their particular school.