Sunday, August 25, 2013

Blog Assignment #1

If You Built A School, What Would It Be Like?

Building a school from the ground up seems like it would be every teacher's dream. However, it quickly becomes overwhelming when trying to decide what would be included in all aspects of my own school. Krissy Venosdale's blog and Sugata Mitra's talk give their audiences wonderful ideas of how their own personally constructed schools would operate. The viewpoints of both are intriguing and inspiring, and combined, they become great groundwork for others pondering the idea of building their own school. In my school, I will be teaching English in a Secondary setting.

What I Want My Students To Know

First and foremost, I want my students to know that they are valued and that their their thoughts, opinions, and experiences matter. Instilling self-esteem and confidence in my students would be an unending task. In addition, I want my students to know that their is a world that needs to be discovered outside of their classroom, their community, their state, and even their country.

What Do I Want My Students To Be Able To Do?

After listening to Sugata's talk, it is apparent that students will find a way to learn without guidance once a little encouragement is provided. Therefore, I want my students to desire knowledge and work collaboratively with their peers, those sitting next to them as well as their peers across the world.

What Will Be My Primary Way Of Teaching?

Honestly speaking, I do not yet know what methods I would employ in my classroom. Students learn in different ways; therefore, many methods would need to be used. I want to provide options for students so that each of them learn in their unique way; whether it be via verbal communication, visual communication, or a hands-on environment, I want these options to always be available to students who need them.

Tools

Technology is advancing even as I write this post, and who knows what the future holds? I do know that I want my classroom to be filled with the latest technology so my students can access their world and have every advantage for maximized learning.

Learning Environment

I believe the aforementioned points in conjunction with a physically comfortable classroom will create an inviting place for my students to learn. My students will participate in each step of the learning process, from collaborating with their peers to collaborating with me, they will learn to respect the opinions of others and how to use those opinions to grow their own knowledge.

Collaboration

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

My Test Post Title

This is my First Post. I clicked the HTML button which I should always do in EDM310. I am now a Blogger!