Sunday, February 17, 2013

Blog Post #5

If I Built a School


Krissy Venosdale wrote, If I built a School. She is a passionate teacher. Her goal is to let her students have a blast at school while learning too. I hope to be as passionate of a teacher as she is. I can tell she genuinely cares about her students. In her blog post she wrote about if she were given an opportunity to build a school, how it would be. She described her dream school very vividly, I could picture everything in my mind. It would be extremely colorful, comfy, hands-on, tech savy type of learning environment. She did not want a strict curriculum, or grade levels by age. She wanted a school were children progressed by their knowledge and wanted to give them more options in a field of study they were interested in.

As I read through the blog post I began to think of how I would want my own school to be. I would want it to be a beautiful modern building that was filled with different wings for each field of study and each wing to have classrooms for each grade level. The wings would be math, science, English, history, music, art, and electives. All the wings would be decorated beautifully according to the subject. All teachers in the wing could collaborate together since they are interested in the same field and help each other grow in their field of study to provide the children with the best teaching possible! Electives would include useful classes like cooking, agriculture, wood shop, edicate, and a class called workplace. All of these classes could provide new interest and give the children real world skills. The class I called workplace would take the students to job sites of many different professions. I think this could be a great class that can help students save money in college. While in college many students change their major many times. Why? Because they didn't know how many job options were out there. I would also like all classes to be as hands-on as possible. Each subject will also take educational field trips. If I have teachers like Krissy Venosdale, my students would be extremely blessed!

If I built a school




Virtual Choir
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir has me completely amazed! I have never seen anything like this before. The fact that these people have never met or sang together speaks volumes too. I love this!


Teaching in the 21st century


Teaching in the twenty-first century

I think Kevin Roberts has a very strong opinion on how teachers jobs will change in the 21st century. He thinks teachers will not be teaching the "information" as they have been. Students can find this on Google, in blogs, on twitter, etc. He thinks a teacher will teach students how to properly use this new technology to learn. I both agree and disagree with Kevin Roberts theory.

I personally do not think a teacher will never teach again. I think while we may need to implement the use of new technology in a classroom, this will not take out teaching. I think of kindergarteners, will we just teach them how to use technology? No! We must start off teaching fundamentals. The way we teach this may have more technology involved, I do think though. I think Kevin Roberts may be right on some things too. We must teach children about lots of technology and lets them explore and learn some on their own to be prepared for jobs of the future!

Flipping the Classroom

I'm starting to think I should take back about what I said in the previous paragraph, about teaching in the 21st century. Maybe I won't actually be teaching to the class, but recording my lessons for them to watch at home, known as flipping the classroom. I have to say I am a huge fan of this idea already. I would like to be able to teach math one day, and this seems perfect! Katie Gimbar's video were my favorite and has me extremely excited to begin my teaching career. I also watched the FAQ videos she had and any questions I may have had about this system working, she completely cleared them with her answers. This is the first I have heard of this teaching style and I am surprised. Last semester in college I had a math professor who taught the lesson in class and gave us his youtube channel where the lesson also was. This approach is the only reason I passed the class, because I was able to go back and review. I would deffinately like to use this teaching style in my future classroom!





3 comments:

  1. Hey, Jana! I really enjoyed your blog post. Krissy Venosdale is a true inspiration for all teachers, and I too wish to be like her. I really liked your "workplace" idea. I agree that if children got to see what different careers were like first hand, it would help them decide a little sooner what they might want to be when they grow up.
    Eric Whitacre is one of my favorite composers. Do you think, if you had the opportunity, you would try to make a video like this with your students?
    I agree with your view on Mr. Roberts' video. I strongly believe that technology will not wipe out teachers, but we as teachers must become more technologically literate to teach younger generations how to use the constantly advancing technology around them.
    I have some concerns about "flipping the classroom", but I like your enthusiasm on the topic! I seems like a great idea in theory, but how would you know if your students are watching the videos? Would you set it up to where they were required to watch the videos and take notes?

    Your post is great! Keep up the good work.

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  2. "If I have teachers like Krissy Venosdale, my students would be extremely blessed!" Ah yes!

    Ah, "I'm starting to think I should take back about what I said in the previous paragraph, about teaching in the 21st century. " I agree.

    Thoughtful. Interesting.

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  3. I agree when you say technology will not wipe out teachers, but we do have to become more evolved with technology. If students are leagues ahead of their teachers, then a teacher is not doing their job to their full potential. Teachers will have to evolve with the age of technology so that students are able to take advantage of every tool.
    I was happy to read your ideas about flipping the classroom. It is such a foreign concept to me and hard to wrap my mind around. I liked to hear that someone is excited about the idea. You are right, though, her FAQs answer every possible concern with the idea. I would have to try it out first hand to decide if I liked it or not. I know you said your class was lecture and online lessons, do you think that is a better idea than completely flipping? Or do you think flipping is even better?
    I also watched your sentence video. I liked it a lot! That is exactly what everyone should do, live life to the fullest and live it like there is no tomorrow.

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