Sunday, December 8, 2013

Blog Post #16!

In my first post I talked about my dream classroom and the type of teacher I want to be. My ideal classroom would be full of 3rd grade students who feel completely at home. I want to have a classroom where we learn for the sake of learning. When I say we, I mean my students and myself. I want to be a lifelong learner and that's what I want to inspire my students to be. I also believe in project based learning and using technology as often as possible in the classroom. Those are definitely two things you will see in my teaching strategies.

I want my classroom to be a safe place for my students. I want to teach them and show them that they are special and capable. I will not tolerate bullying of any kind in my room. We will be friends. All of us. I want to create a safe haven for those students who do not have it at home. I want them to know that inside those walls they can be anyone and anything they can imagine. It's true not every student is the same and they all won't succeed equally; even though not every student can be President of the United States, shouldn't we teach them all like they can? We should instill in our students a love for learning. They should read because they love it. Students should enjoy math and science. We as educators have a responsibility to give our students inspiration. Some teachers inspire their students to be teacher, some to be doctors, some to drop out! I want to inspire my students to be learners.

Why should we be lifelong learners? Well, that's easy. Being a lifelong learner means that when our society advances, we do to or when we are faced with a problem that we don't know the answer to we find it. Until this class I had never heard the term lifelong learner. Honestly, I had never even given the concept much thought but being a lifelong learner is an essential component of being successful.We have to be able to expand our knowledge at any time. We need to be able to be flexible and adapt to the world around us. I feel that another part of my job as a teacher is to create successful people not just 3rd grade students. In my ideal classroom all of my students will want to learn and will be prepared for life as lifelong learners.


involve me and I learn
Every aspect of my classroom will be interactive. The best way to learn is by doing or seeing and that's what I want in my classroom. In my dream classroom I would have access to everything I need to help my students interact with their learning. To have hands on experiences and see every concept in action. If we can't recreate it I want them to be able to watch it happen. I want SMARTboards and projectors, iPads for every student, blogs and every item needed to any type of experiment.

The concept of my dream classroom hasn't really changed from then to now. All the of the things I've learned through this have only reinforced the ideas I had. The only thing that has changed is the emphasis I will put on technology and project based learning. I didn't realize before how much can be done in an elementary school classroom with project based learning.Project Based Learning Part 1 and Project Based Learning Part 2 are two interviews with Anthony Capps. In these interviews Anthony talks about his use of project based learning in his third grade classroom. These videos really helped me realize how much I will be able to incorporate the concept into my own classrooms one day. Also, in the videos iCurio and Discovery Ed Anthony talks about the benefits of each website. These videos helped me see how much technology could help me in my classroom, even if I don't have access to a SMARTboard or iPads.

My overall thought process about technology in the elementary school classroom has changed. I realize now that anything is possible. You just have to think, dig deep and research. There are so many options out there for every teacher, every lesson and every student.

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