Sunday, September 29, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Blog Post #6!
In her YouTube video Asking Better Questions in the Classroom Dr. Joanne Chesley explains the difference between a close-ended and open-ended question. Close-ended questions are questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no, or a short phrase. An open-ended question is one in which the student must think deeper and answer in more detail. I think that as educators it is our job to know the difference and to be able to pose open-ended questions to our students. In the 21st century classroom teachers are seen as guides. We are supposed to guide our students in the direction of knowledge and a deeper understanding of the world around them. How can we encourage and educate children when we can not ask them questions that require a working knowledge, or more research in order to give an answer? Posing open-ended questions to your students can be done in many ways. You could ask it after a reading of a chapter or during a class discussion about a topic. You could even pose it as a homework/project assignment in which the students have to do more research and seek out the information needed to answer the question. This is where project based learning comes into the picture. Asking open-ended questions and having your class participate in project based learning seem to go hand in hand. Students would need time to research and an opportunity to present the answer they have found for the open-ended question asked of them. Dr. Chesley uses the question "What if Rosa Parks had given up her seat to the white man on the bus in 1955? How would our country be different? How would have the civil rights movement been different?". Students could think about and discuss this question as a group then have the options to preform a skit in front of the class depicting how things would be different, or they could video themselves.
To be an effective teacher we must know how to pose questions in a way that allows our students to think outside the box. Questions that make them want to learn, that engage their minds and their imaginations. We have to inspire our students to make a difference and to hunger for knowledge outside of a textbook or a simple worksheet. A knowledge they can only get through investigation and imagination. This is what I believe we need to know as educators about asking effective questions.
To be an effective teacher we must know how to pose questions in a way that allows our students to think outside the box. Questions that make them want to learn, that engage their minds and their imaginations. We have to inspire our students to make a difference and to hunger for knowledge outside of a textbook or a simple worksheet. A knowledge they can only get through investigation and imagination. This is what I believe we need to know as educators about asking effective questions.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
C4T #1!
I was assigned Larry Ferlazzo's blog for my first C4T. I found his blog to be very interesting. The first post I chose to comment on was, A Little Respect Goes a Long Way in the Classroom. In this post Mr. Ferlazzo tells the story of him calling out a student for a minor offense in front of the whole class, therefore embarrassing the student. A few moments later Mr. Ferlazzo comes back into the room and apologizes to the student and class for the outburst. He then tells the class that he wants his room to be that of mutual respect.
Below is my comment:
I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. As a future teacher, I hope that I can use that same technique in my classroom. I think the idea of mutual respect is important in every relationship we have. I can remember teachers all through my K-12 education demanding respect in the classroom but never giving it in return. While the demanding technique will work for some students it will not for all. This is such an inspirational and encouraging example! Thank you so much for sharing! For my second comment I chose his post A Very, Very Beginning List Of The Best Resources On Bullying. In this post he gives lost of statistics about the types of bullying, the effects of bullying and the reasons why people bully. I loved this information. I definitely plan to take this information to help my future students deal with bullying and to help prevent it. This photo is a sample of the information Ferlazzo posted.
Below is my comment:
Thanks for sharing all the information on bullying! Being a victim myself I have a passion for preventing bullying. All educators, parents and administrators need this information to help their children and students be successful. I hope to be able to help my future students with this issue!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Blog Post #3!
The slideshow, Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial and the video What is Peer Editing? give really good definitions of what peer editing actually is. A peer is someone your own age. Editing is giving someone feedback on something they have written. Peer editing is giving someone your age, usually a classmate, feedback and suggestions on their work. There are three steps to peer editing, compliment, suggestions and corrections.
Compliments are used as step one to sort of break the ice between you and your peer. It's your opportunity to tell your peer what it is you liked about their writing. Did they tell a joke or say something that made you giggle? Did they use good detail, so you could visualize the experience? These are the things you want the writer to know that you noticed!
Suggestions are step 2. When making suggestions to the writer you are trying to give them ways to make their writing better. You could suggest synonyms for words they repeated or just a word that was a little to plain. Always remember to keep it positive! You do not want to embarrass or insult the writer, you just want to make them better! You can make suggestions about their word choice, or the order in which they talked about things. Does it make more sense another way? Simple things that the writer may not have noticed. It's always good to have another point of view.
Finally, corrections, when doing corrections you want to check for spelling and grammar mistakes. Does that word need to be capitalized? You can't learn from your mistakes if you don't know what your mistakes are!
When you are peer editing you want to make sure you stay positive and encouraging.The kids in the video Writing Peer Reviews Top 10 Mistakes, show you exactly what not to do while peer editing! This comical video is a perfect example of what not to do! No one wants to be a Picky Patty or Jean the Generalizer, and no one wants them editing for them either! You also should pay attention and take what your editor says into consideration. Being a Whatever William or a Defensive Dave is no good either! You should always be receptive to feedback and suggestions and want to get better!
For our group posts I am in the group Pissarro with Kaley McDonald and Jordan Neely. We chose to peer edit in a private way, using Google Drive and text messages. I personally like this better for the corrections part, for two reasons. One, I don't want to embarrass anyone. I myself can get embarrassed rather easily, especially if it's over something I feel like I did good or worked hard on. I would never want anyone to think I was picking on them or trying to draw attention to their faults. I would rather correct them using an email than to post it for the world to see. Two, I myself do not want to be embarrassed. I don't want my mistakes posted for all the world to see! It's one thing to make the mistake it's another to have someone call attention to it. I want to be corrected but not publicly. I also think private corrections work better in the classroom setting as well. As a teacher you should never call attention to a child's mistakes. With bullying being the issue that it unfortunately is, calling a student out in front of their peers could potentially lead to bullying outside the classroom. I think that it also has the potential to discourage a child from participating in class. When a child is embarrassed in front of their peers it could cause them to not want to participate anymore for fear of embarrassment.
I think teaching students to have a positive attitude while peer editing and trying to not embarrass anyone is the key to peer editing. If you follow the steps and guidelines I think you will be able to efficiently edit anyone's work!
Compliments are used as step one to sort of break the ice between you and your peer. It's your opportunity to tell your peer what it is you liked about their writing. Did they tell a joke or say something that made you giggle? Did they use good detail, so you could visualize the experience? These are the things you want the writer to know that you noticed!
Suggestions are step 2. When making suggestions to the writer you are trying to give them ways to make their writing better. You could suggest synonyms for words they repeated or just a word that was a little to plain. Always remember to keep it positive! You do not want to embarrass or insult the writer, you just want to make them better! You can make suggestions about their word choice, or the order in which they talked about things. Does it make more sense another way? Simple things that the writer may not have noticed. It's always good to have another point of view.
Finally, corrections, when doing corrections you want to check for spelling and grammar mistakes. Does that word need to be capitalized? You can't learn from your mistakes if you don't know what your mistakes are!
When you are peer editing you want to make sure you stay positive and encouraging.The kids in the video Writing Peer Reviews Top 10 Mistakes, show you exactly what not to do while peer editing! This comical video is a perfect example of what not to do! No one wants to be a Picky Patty or Jean the Generalizer, and no one wants them editing for them either! You also should pay attention and take what your editor says into consideration. Being a Whatever William or a Defensive Dave is no good either! You should always be receptive to feedback and suggestions and want to get better!
For our group posts I am in the group Pissarro with Kaley McDonald and Jordan Neely. We chose to peer edit in a private way, using Google Drive and text messages. I personally like this better for the corrections part, for two reasons. One, I don't want to embarrass anyone. I myself can get embarrassed rather easily, especially if it's over something I feel like I did good or worked hard on. I would never want anyone to think I was picking on them or trying to draw attention to their faults. I would rather correct them using an email than to post it for the world to see. Two, I myself do not want to be embarrassed. I don't want my mistakes posted for all the world to see! It's one thing to make the mistake it's another to have someone call attention to it. I want to be corrected but not publicly. I also think private corrections work better in the classroom setting as well. As a teacher you should never call attention to a child's mistakes. With bullying being the issue that it unfortunately is, calling a student out in front of their peers could potentially lead to bullying outside the classroom. I think that it also has the potential to discourage a child from participating in class. When a child is embarrassed in front of their peers it could cause them to not want to participate anymore for fear of embarrassment.
I think teaching students to have a positive attitude while peer editing and trying to not embarrass anyone is the key to peer editing. If you follow the steps and guidelines I think you will be able to efficiently edit anyone's work!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Blog Post #2!
Pissarro:
Mr. Dancealot
The teaching strategies in the comical YouTube video, “Professor Dancealot,” communicates what NOT to do for our future students. In the opening, Professor Dancealot introduces himself and the purpose of the class from a power point. Power points are an extremely useful method for teaching, but the Professor in the video actually reads what is on the power point. A teacher should be so informed of the subject he/she is teaching so that they are able to put in their own words what they’re trying to convey to their students and give concrete examples in the lecture. The purpose of a power point should be a visual of information for students to summarize in their own words in order to use that information and apply it to actual reality. The fact that he’s supposedly been teaching this class for 12 years and can’t remember the objectives of the class is quite humorous. While he’s going through the power point he does demonstrate the dance moves presented on the slides, but there is a large podium and desk right in front of him preventing the class from being able to see what he’s acting out. One student actually attempts to stand, watch the professor’s feet, and carry out the presented dance move, but the professor commands him back to his seat. He assumes every student understands what to do, so he proceeds to the next lesson without further explanation leaving the class to fend for themselves. His students were falling asleep, talking to their neighbors, and completely uninterested in what he was trying to teach during class time.
By the time this class reached the final exam, which was not paper/question based, but performing the actual dances they had studied about, they had done no dancing throughout the course and were completely clueless when he told them to begin. As a teacher, you have to teach in ways you think your students can best learn. Obviously, teaching dance moves from a power point but never actually allowing your students to practice them is not the ideal class. This concept can be used in an elementary classroom. Fire drills are a great example. If you just gave elementary students notes on what to do when there is a fire, it would be chaos. That is why schools have fire drills so the students can have practice and know what to expect. Another example would be something as obvious as teaching math. If you, as a teacher, stand up at the board and work out problems all day but never give the students the chance to work them out on their own and ask questions when they struggle, they are never going to learn the correct way of doing the math problem. You have to give the student the chance to practice on their own and figure out their own way of learning and working through concepts and problems.
When students are complaining about material more than actually learning and completing assignments, this should communicate to the teacher that something needs to be done differently for positive results to occur. There is always a way to get students “hands on,” involved, and up and moving in the classroom, especially in a dance class. Teachers must be willing to discover different learning styles and carry them out. Learning in different ways ultimately aids in students being engaged in what they’re doing and helps them to actually learn and remember the material for future use.
Brooklyn Rowland:
The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler
What is a networked student? According to the YouTube video "The Networked Student" by Wendy Drexler, a networked student is one who utilizes the Internet to learn about a particular topic. This type of student doesn't just use the typical search engine though, this student has subscribed to blogs, uses google scholar and is in contact with other students and professionals that blog, write, lecture or work in the particular subject of interest. Being networked helps students to learn on their own. Subscribing to blogs and other websites and using an RSS feed and a PLN, a personal learning network, to stay organized, helps the student to stay up to date with any new information on any topic!
In this video, the question "Why does a networked student need a teacher?" is asked. Simply put, the teacher is the student’s guide. While there are no textbooks and lectures in a classroom based on networked learning, the teacher is still a necessary tool. A networked teacher guides the students through the creating of their PLN. The teacher also gets the students started in their networking by linking them with people he or she may already know. While the teacher doesn't actually teach the students about the topics of interest, she does teach them how to find that information!
I love the idea of being a networked teacher some day. I wish I could have been taught to be a networked student earlier in my schooling. I think it is very beneficial to the students. It promotes lifelong learning! And I believe wholeheartedly that we should all be lifelong learners!
Jordan Neely:
"Harness your Students' Digital Smarts" Video and "Edutopia" Website
In a small school in rural South Georgia, Vikki Davis uses technology to connect her students to the world. She blogs on the “Cool Cat Teacher” blog and it has over 6,000 readers. It recently won a reward for being one of the best teacher blogs. Vikki teaches full time. She believes every student can learn but she says certain students can’t learn to their best ability when all they have is paper and a pencil. She accomplishes the curricular but does it by seeing how her individual students best learn. She is comfortable with about every form of technology and is teaching her students to feel the same. If she gives them an unknown term, she expects them to look it up on Google and do the research for themselves. She is teaching her students to be “thinkers”. Vikki uses a program in her classroom called “Open Sim”. This program lets students host a virtual world. The students taught themselves and each other how to work this program better. There is also a project called “Digi Teen”. This allows students to post about different topics for other teachers and students to look at it blog about it. There is also the “Flat Classroom Project” this lets students interact with other students all over the world. In January 2009, Vikki and some of her students traveled to the Middle East to attend the “Flat Classroom Project” conference. She believes the idea of empowering students to share with one another can create a better classroom.
The Edutopia website has a vision of new world learning. This website allows you to browse by grade, view blogs, and watch videos. It also has a section labeled “Classroom Guides”. This tab has all sorts of downloads with guidelines on different topics for teachers and parents. When clicking on the blog tab, it gives you different categories of blogs to explore. One of the blogs is titled “New-Teacher Support”. These blogs give advice about the first day of school, time management in the classroom, and resources to look at. This website has information for new teachers to use that can be helpful when starting a new school year. Edutopoia is really about project-based learning and helping to encourage teachers to use different teaching strategies in the classroom.
I loved the video and the website. Vikki Davis’s way of doing her classroom and using technology is great. The way she shows her students how to interact with students all over the world is so exciting. This way students can learn about new trends, new cultures, and new technology in general. Vikki seems very passionate about teaching and investing her time into her students by the way she took a group to the Middle East. She proves that she wants to best for her students and to help them view the world in different ways. This form of teaching and technology helps her to be able to do that. When Vikki stated that every student can learn but some can not learn with just a pencil and paper, that comment made me think. Teachers always talk about how every student learns differently. For some, technology may be the best way for them to learn certain concepts. Vikki Davis is very serious about helping her students learn in whatever way possible and she also seems to be a firm believer in that technology is changing classrooms for the good.
Kaley McDonald:
Teaching in the 21st Century
What does it mean to teach in the 21st century? Kevin Roberts is the Chief Executive Officer Worldwide for an advertising agency known as “Saatchi & Saatchi.” His Prezi presentation on Teaching in the 21st Century is very clear that the future of education is changing dramatically. Pencil and paper are now considered “old school,” while laptops and iPads in every classroom is becoming the norm. The world is constantly changing around us and with it, education. Students are no longer satisfied, if they even ever were, sitting still and quiet at their desks while completing in-class work sheets that relate to the topic of the day. Engaging students in current technology and information by teaching them how to use it properly and effectively has incredible results. Teaching them how to, in Roberts’ words, “remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create.” If teachers are not open to endless possibilities that technology can administer, such as a ginormous variety of information through blog posts, twitter and facebook discussions, which betters student’s communication skills, Google searches, you tube videos, skyping with other students around the world to learn different cultures and ethnicities, constant current events at their fingertips, and so much more, their students are going to miss out on numerous opportunities to learn skills that are essential in applying to real life situations. Learning is not memorizing facts in a textbook to be able to record those temporary memorizations onto a written test. Learning is seeking and gaining useful knowledge and remembering said knowledge in order to, dare I say it, USE it. This relates to one of our EDM 310 mottos, which expresses, “No more burp-back education!” Roberts emphasizes that “Teachers are no longer the main source of knowledge, we are the filter.” Students have the means to search for anything they desire and at the press of a button it is instantaneously in front of them. Metaphorically speaking, the teacher’s job is to filter or reduce their search results from 144,000 to 12. Showing them the skills they need to communicate information, problem solving, collaborating with others, making sure the information found is valid, and so forth.
Curriculum should be centered on skills rather than facts and content. Teaching them also, the dangers of plagiarism, pirating, copyrights, and what to do when certain problems arise. Technology haters often bring up the fact and question of how to control misbehaving students who bring laptops, iPads, and cell phones to school. Roberts says, “The tools provide temptation, but they are not the source of negative behavior.” Students only lack creativity when you rob it from them. They should be challenged to get up out of their seats and learn in new ways using new tools, while the teacher monitors whether it is relevant, challenging, and engaging.
Another argument is that students should not need to be entertained constantly. Entertainment indeed should not be the goal, but rather, engagement should be the focus. Students get enough meaningless entertainment throughout their lifetime without us adding to the madness. Engaging students is the key to long-term skills that stick. It is the way in which we will provide students the opportunity and skill to learn and think for themselves. Just as another one of our EDM 310 mottos states, “never tell, always ask.” Meaning, never give a student the complete answer to a question. Instead, always answer with more questions in order to get their brain gears going without the teacher manually turning the crank. Being told information isn't nearly as effective as searching and discovering it for yourself. Usually, the more difficult it is to achieve a goal, the more rewarding that goal will be. All of this begins and continues with the educators. Change is, say it with me, “GOOD.” Never stop learning in order to never stop teaching. The world and its information doesn't stop, people do. Keep running the race and never give up!
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