This post is regarding a lesson plan that I felt my students really enjoyed. It was actually quite simple to set up. I divided the students into 4 groups 5 students per group. I used the questions from the next exam to access their prior knowledge of the topic. The group had one minute discuss the question and write A,B,C, or D on these mini-white boards that I had passed out.
I noticed the first few questions the students were talking about non-topic issues. I then addressed the class and said I am hearing a lot of non-topic related chatter so I lowered the time to 30 seconds with my timer. This really seemed to help and got the students in a competition to answer the question correctly. This was the first time I actually enjoyed being in front of the class.
I had my first disciplinary confrontation this past week with a student in my Marketing class.
There was a student that had his phone out and I asked him to " put it away " .
The student responded " I'm coping my notes". I responded " put away your phone". This student was obviously not taking notes because during lecture. He was not writing anything down. He had a sarcastic tone as well.
He then stated " Fu***** Teachers". In front of the entire class of 20 students. He then slammed his laptop down and proceeded to put it back on the laptop cart. When he got back to his desk I told the student "it was not personal" but the student just seemed to ignore me.
I spoke with my co-op teacher about the issue and she said to give him a lunch detention.Which in my opinion was a bit on the lighter side of punishment but you do not want to lose the student entirely for an overly harsh punishment.
When pondering the thought regarding gaming in education there is one game that comes to mind for me. It was a typing game and the object was to type words that appear on the screen as quickly as possible before the time ran out.It did help me to type around 40 words in a minute. The implementation of games can have a profound impact on students and their learning.
Games can be very beneficial for students especially when there the learner has a predisposition for the topic of interest. When the content is of interest to the student the learning increases dramatically There is a stigma associated with gamers that they are just in in it for the entertainment value alone. This is very true for many of the most gamers today but there has yet to be a gaming developer that has tapped the true potential in educational gaming. The video below has several valid points regarding the use of games for educational purposes.
The popularity of Wikipedia over the last decade, especially in education, has grown leaps and
bounds. The general sense is that the majority of content found on Wikipedia is factual and can be
used for assignments and project. This assignment has shown me that Wikipedia's content
needs to be evaluated carefully with a watchful eye for sources cited and the author's
named examined. It was very easy to find a Wikipedia page and start editing it. My thought
is that if I can do it anyone can meaning people not credible.
In terms of the Wikipedia pages, I personally,edited the Leesville Road High School
Wikipedia page. I added a section on the school's D.E.C.A. student organization. I checked on the
site a week later and the whole entire section was erased and deleted. It was rather upsetting
honestly to have my hard work just erased with a click of a button. The reason why this was
upsetting was because I took the time to research this topic with my co-op teacher
who is the adviser for the student organization.
Wikipedia is a asset for the Internet, but students must understand how it works and
use it effectively. The use of credible sources is vital for educational projects and research
Wikipedia if used must watched and evaluated carefully for credible content validity.
The reason I created my twitter account was not for educational purposes to say the least. Charlie Sheen had just been fired from the show " Two and a halfmen" and I wanted to keep up with his crazy " winning" tweets. I just found them so funny and absolutely insane all at the same time.
The twitter chat I attended was # n.t. chat. This stands for new teacher chat and will be a great tool for me to use ,especially when student teaching next semester. I plan to attend the new teacher twitter chat again and look forward to next weeks meeting. The different types of teachers styles,content areas and locations all add to the twitter n.t. chat being a great tool and could be considered a professional learning committee.
In the beginning of the chat I was a little bit confused on the whole #ntchat and how to make sure my comments go to that specific chat. Once I figured that out it was fairly simple to use. In regards to interface I just used twitter's web page an updated the tweets as they were coming in. It was simple and easy to read teacher comments as they were streaming in. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment and feel I have extended my P.L.C.
It is very important for a teacher to have an online presence. In the digital age,
teachers staying relevant and having an online presence is vital for their success.
As an educator teacher's must be aware of their digital dossier. A digital dossier,
in a general sense, is your online identity. The more aware we are as educator's
of this the more effectively we can communicate to our student the course curriculum.
Providing all your course content online is a key step to staying relevant in a digital world.
Having a teacher website is a great tool for students to have access to curriculum content
anywhere there is an Internet connection.
There is a difference between having a teacher website and a L.M.S.
( Learning Management System.) Most L.M.S.'s require a user name and password and the
instructor or institution must allowed digital access into the L.M.S. system. The teacher website
is accessible without any user name and password free for anyone to access. This is a major
advantage over the standard type of L.M.S system because it allows for easier access for student and parents alike.
