Sunday, August 31, 2014

What Will Teaching in the 21st Century be Like?

Professor Dancealot 
The way that kids are being taught in classrooms is constantly changing. My elementary school classrooms didn't even resemble the ones you see in most schools today. If you would have handed me and Ipad in the second grade I would have had no idea what to do with it. Now, most of these second graders that know how to use Ipads better than I do! 21st century teaching is more about guiding students rather than just teaching them. A good example of this is the Professor Dancealot video. It shows a teacher trying to teach a dance class by lecturing. Students spend the entire class sitting in their seats listening to a power point presentation about dancing. When they show up for the final exam at the end of the semester there is a camera and the teacher tells them to grab a partner and dance. After an entire semester of just taking notes, they are expected to know how to dance. I think the video is over exaggerated, but it definitely has truth to it. This is the method that a lot of teachers are still using. Just giving kids information and testing them on it later is learning. It's just memorization.


Teaching in The 21st Cenury

Role of the Teacher
     -Filter
Main sources of knowledge for students
     -Social Media
     -YouTube
     -Google
     -Blogs
     -Cellphones
Where will the learn about...
     -Pirating
     -Plagiarism
     -Slander
     -Copyright
     -Crowd sourcing
     -Confidentiality
Engagement vs. Entertainment
     -Engagement and entertainment are not the same
   Entertainment                                      Engagement
      Passive                                                  Active
      Enjoyment                                             Learning
      Short-term                                            Long lasting results
      Doesn't require relevance                      Meaningful and applicable
     Creativity of others                                 Creativity of participant

Teaching in the 21st Century is a prezi presentation by Kevin Roberts that describes the way you should prepare yourself to be a future teacher. There are a lot of things that students need to learn about when using technology in the classroom. It's our job as teachers to be the filters with what they're learning. Most students are going to learn how to use Google and social media sites from home or their peers. Our job is to make sure that they use these tools correctly and responsibly. The prezi also compares entertainment and engagement. I agree that students should be engaged more than entertained. A student that is engaged is going to get more long-term effects than a student that is just being entertained.

The Networked Student

The Networked Student is a video by Wendy Drexler that describes the learning method of a student at a 21st century high school. He doesn't use a textbook and the teacher almost never lectures. He learns through connections that he has formed with other students, teachers, and more. He stays connected through blogs and other tools. He creates a blog to reflects his thoughts and subscribes to other people's blogs as well. I think that this could be a very effective way to learn. The student is learning a lot more because he is going outside the classroom to learn. In the video, the student had classroom lectures on his Ipod from a teacher at Berkeley. 

Harness Yours Students' Digital Smarts
Vicki Davis is a teacher in a rural town in Georgia that uses technology to connect her students the world. They connect and collaborate assignments with other students from different areas or countries. I really like that she doesn't just tell her students the meaning of new words that she uses in class. She expects her students to find the definition for themselves. I think that teaches her students that she isn't going to do everything for them. It probably helps them remember the terms better as well. In the video, she says that her students were also teaching her some thing about what they were working on. 



I definitely think that Elementary students are ahead in the learning race. If I were to walk into one of their classrooms, they would be teaching me how to use macs. I don't know how to do half of the things that the students were working on in the video. Macs are foreign to me and I have no idea how to use a QR. These students are more literate in technology than I am and they're only in elementary school. I can't even imagine how much they are going to be able to do when they get to college.

Bringing the Locker Room into the Classroom
Bringing the Locker Room into the Classroom describes how Craig Owens uses coaching techniques in his classroom. He started to notice that he was the center of the class. Students always looked to him for the answers instead of trying to find the answers for themselves. He got the idea from a basketball game where he was an honorary coach. While in the locker room, he saw the players discussing, debating, and asking questions. Everything that he also wanted to see in his classroom. I think that using coaching methods could work very well in a classroom. Students could work as teams to solve problems like teams work together to win games. I think it helps students a lot more when they work together. It gives them team work skills and forces them to find a solution together. I would definitely use a method like this in my classroom.  

Sunday, August 24, 2014

What about EDM310?

I've heard a lot of different things about EDM310. Some people say that it is a great class and really helped them learn what teaching in a 21st century classroom will be like. Most people talk about how hard it is and how much work it is. I've also heard people say that it was a waste of time for them because they don't plan on using much technology in their classrooms. I've also had a few people ask for my opinion of the class. I always tell people not to take the class if they don't have time for it.
My biggest fear about this class is the group projects. When I took  this class last fall I had a lot of problems with my group assignments. Parts of blogs were always missing, no one ever showed up to group meetings, and I didn't even know that most of my group had dropped the class. I plan on communicating with my group a lot more this semester so it won't be so unorganized like the last group.
EDM310 is a lot different than any class that I have taken. Most of the classes I have taken have just been ordinary lectures classes. Teachers just teach the material and test you on it later. EDM310 is a lot more hands on than other classes. You have to learn how to use different tools to be able to complete assignments.
The most difficult thing for me will be making time for assignments and getting them done on time. I am really used to being able to wait until the last minute to do my homework because it's usually just a study guide or review sheet. I tried to wait until the last minute when I took this class the first time. I just ended up with a lot of late and incomplete assignments. I've already started planning to do things differently this semester. I can't do a lot of work at once because I get really distracted and end up putting it off until it's too late. Now i'm splitting the work up into smaller assignments and spreading them out during the week. It's a lot easier for me to do smaller amounts of work over a longer time period.

Source: http://4-designer.com/2013/12/Beautifully-computer-vector-material/#.U_pz1qJX-uY

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Who am I? Why do I want to be an educator? What does an educator do in his or her practice? What are my passions?

My name is Raven Williams. I am from Ashville, Alabama. If your not from there then I can almost guarantee that you won't know where it is. I have two brothers and I am expecting to have another one in October. I attended Ashville High School and graduated in 2011. While I was there I was involved in Future Teachers of Alabama, art club, and cheer leading. My hobbies are are anything that gets me outside and active.


Ashville was the only place that I lived until I moved away for college. The first college I attended was The University of North Alabama. I probably changed my major about 10 times my freshmen year, but I always came back to education. I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I just didn't know what I wanted to teach. I decided to become a physical education teacher last year after I transferred to the University of South Alabama. I want to be a PE teacher because I want to help students learn what it really means to be healthy. My PE classes in elementary school were all about playing sports or some random game. Sometimes the teacher would just give us a ball and let us run free. That is not the way I want to teach. I want student to truly learn what it means to be healthy and how important staying active is.


Outline

  • About Me
    • Hometown
    • Family
    • Hobbies
    • School
  • Why I want to be a teacher
    • College
    • Wellness 


Source: Raven Williams