PART #1
My Response in Blog Post #1
I can still remember my kindergarden classroom and my teacher. She made everyone feel so loved and special. I remember her giving me hugs and how wonderful she smelled. She was always smiling and just a pleasant lady. She was well kept in appearance with beautiful black hair. I remember wanting to learn the alphabet, so she would be proud of me. She motivated me to want to learn. Her room was organized and I especially remember the letter family. She was a perfect role model in my mind. I hope when I have the opportunity I can give back what she gave to me. She gave me a desire to learn in a pleasant enviornment, where I felt loved and cared about. This is how I want my students to feel. I want to create an environment where the students feel connected and have a desire to learn.In my classroom, I would like to create a learning environment with lots of structure. I know from driving a school bus if you don't have order it is chaos. In order to focus on learning, I think structure will be very important. If kids know what to do and what is expected, more time can be focused on learning. Keeping the room organized and giving the students jobs to help accomplish this will help.
Next, I would stress the importance of treating each other with respect. When mutual respect is present in the classroom, students are will to be an active learner in the classroom. Gaining respect from the students can be a valuable tool to a teacher. If students respect a teacher they will bend over backwards to please the teacher. Without mutual respect, there is no real foundation for a student-teacher relationship or foundation for a good learning environment.
Another method of teaching I have experienced is group based learning. Last semester, I took a class and they used group participation. It really got everyone involved. The students worked together as a team and we learned more than any lecture. We weren't just sitting in a room for an hour writing every detail as fast as we could. The team had to come up with ideas and solutions, using all of our resources. It really made you dig for information. It motivated me to work harder, because I didn't want to let the team down. As a teacher, I would like to try some of these methods.
Response To Blog Post #1
Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration...this is how I want my classroom to be. After watching the many videos in EDM310, I realize students gain knowledge through collaboration. With the use of technology, they can communicate with students around the world. The traditional style of teachers is burp back education. The teacher gives the students the information they memorize it and take a test on the information. Students are not allowed to collaborate with other students, but just sit and listen. Some students can not learn like this. It is so much easier to learn by looking for the information yourself it helps a student retain the knowledge.
Some things I woud do in my classroom woud be allow students to make wiki's, make blog posts,
use the internet, use the smart-board make a social network with other schools. Students are going to need these tools to succeed in life. Taking a written test is not always a good evaluation of knowledge. As a teacher, I want my student to be creative and curious. Anyone can follow step by step instructions, but being creative is using your mind. EDM310 has inspired me to want to be the best teacher possible and to be creative in the ways I present material.
