10 Big Ideas for the Classroom

10 Big Ideas for the Classroom

I really liked the different ideas in this video. Project based learning and technology integration were my favorites. Projects were always my favorite part of learning and school and even when at work. It's a chance to display your knowledge on what you worked really hard to learn. Also, you get to display your creativity to yourself, your teachers and your peers. Parent Involvement is really important as well. If you have a parent who is passionate about their students education then you will almost always have a successful student. Our parents are our partners and involving them is more important than almost anything else we do. Also, from the other side of involving parents if we are involved with the parents we can see what kind of environment that specific student resides in which will in turn help us to figure out what that one child needs from us. 

Of course technology integration is important as I've made evident in my other postings. Very, very important to developing our students for the world outside of the classroom. I also really liked the Emotional Intelligence idea for the classroom. I think we sometimes forget how much how a student feels affects how they learn and interact. If they are being bullied at school or abused at home that child is going to shut down. If we incorporate other or more ways to find out how our students feel emotionally we can put what we learn towards how we teach. Emotions dictate life. Especially when you are so young and you don't necessarily have control over your emotions. 

Mr. Winkle Wakes

Mr Winkle Wakes

This video is about Mr Winkle. Mr Winkle slept for 100 years and woke up in today's modern world. He went to an office building and was overwhelmed with all of the machines and noises aka the technology. Mr. Winkle Wakes started out kind of silly. I honestly wasn't sure where it was going. I thought, "Well this is cute but what is it?" Then came the part where Mr Winkle goes to the school. After being bombarded with technological advances in literally every other aspect of the world he found "comfort" in the fact that in 100 years school was still the same. This instantly made me sad. He took comfort in seeing the kids sit in rows and listen to the teacher lecture while they took notes. 

Lecturing has it's place and time in the classroom but I don't think it should be only lecturing;or only worksheets. Incorporating technology and new techniques like game based learning into the classroom will break up this monotony. We can teach our students common core and basic knowledge but when they graduate and go out to start college or get jobs they will be utterly lost. There is not one job I can think of off the top of my head that doesn't in some way use technology as a tool. Even something small like an iPad in the classroom or a single computer would change things drastically. Embracing technology is the smart thing to do. Not embracing it is only hindering our students and ourselves. 

Technology Integration

This post is about technology integration. Bringing technology into the classroom to make learning fun and exciting and effective.

This video on edutopia.com (Edutopia) is mainly about a little boy named Rhys who creates his own video games. He talks about how he feels challenged in the process and how it makes him think. His mom talks about how it has really helped him to develop strong problem solving skills. They are talking about learning from technology that is really "disguised" as play. He is making a video game that to him is fun and also challenging but he is developing skills that will help him in the classroom and also in his day to day life experiences. Also in the video Kurt Squire talks about how with this website there is a "vibrant community". He says that with this you get real feedback that we aren't really giving in our schools. I don't necessarily agree with using technology to get your students work onto the internet but having peer criticism, to me, is very important. Research shows that students learn more hearing from their peers than they do from a teacher lecturing. What kid wouldn't want to play a video game his friend made and tell him what he thinks about it?! Or an animated video made by a student to teach their classmates a simple lesson like addition or conjugation? It's fun! It's exciting and it's ever changing and evolving so it brings them in interested and KEEPS them interested.

When I was in elementary school and even in high school the furthest we got with technology was a fancy and very expensive calculator and I hated it. We used computers at the library only ever so often. Maybe 4 times a year and that was only in high school. I don't remember using it at all in elementary school. Of course I was elementary school in the early 90's sooo....yeah. So much has changed since then and I really feel like if we don't embrace it in the classroom we will really be cheating ourselves and most importantly our students; our future leaders and educators. I am amazed everyday by what my two children, who are just six and seven years old, learn daily and how they apply it. Every child has this ability and technology is an amazing tool. Embrace it.