Posted by: cummia on: February 8, 2010
This week while discussing the disconnect between what students are suppose to learn and how they are taught I had many aha moments. At first I thought most of the disconnect had to do with the curriculum in which you use. After reading the required reading this week I then realized there are other disconnects such as time and instruction. Many times there isn’t enough time in the day to teach everything necessary so things don’t get taught as in depth as they need to. I also realized instruction can have a lot to do with the disconnect. As Parkay states on page 311, “Activties must be meaningful and authentic for students.” If a student feels the activity isn’t meaningful they won’t put as much effort into it and won’t get as much out of it. It’s also important for teachers to give clear expectations to students so they understand what they are suppose to learn from the lesson and why.
Posted by: cummia on: February 1, 2010
This weeks discussions and reading about standards gave me a clearly picture on why we have them. I started to reflect on my teaching and realized that the standards are the complete focus of everything I do in the classroom. I guess I just got so use to it that I didn’t really think about it. I not only teach the standards but I make sure my students understand the standard they are learning. I of course use kid friendly language to let them know what they are going to be learning. This quote summed it all up for me, “The teachers’ and learners’ goals for a learning experience must be understood by both the teacher and the learners, and the goals must be compatible or they are not likely to be achieved.” (Parkay, p. 258). This made me think how important it is for everyone to understand the goal. My favorite part of teaching is when a student is able to identify the goal and then explain how they met the goal. I have also found in my teaching that many times students set themselves to a higher standard then what is necessary and they rise to the occasion to meet the standard.
Posted by: cummia on: January 25, 2010
This week while discussing curriculum and society I realized that there was much more to curriculum that I had really thought before. Before I thought of curriculum as the textbooks and subjects we taught in class. Really curriculum is so much more than that it’s really everything we teach our students which includes social, textbook, subject content, community, and much much more. After reading discussion post it made me realize that curriculum has quite a bit to do with society. As society changes the curriculum does as well. If we didn’t change with society our students wouldn’t be prepared for the real world. We still do teach subject content but also include how it associates with society today. Which with this goes to show that there is a reflection of current society throughout the curriculum. As a teacher I want to make sure that I am always making changes so that my students always see the relevance in what they are learning and understand why it’s important for them to learn what I am teaching them. I also want them to realize that there is a world outside of their own so I think being a part of society and including it in curriculum is so important for all students.
Posted by: cummia on: January 17, 2010
This weeks module and discussion really had me thinking a lot about the standards we use in our state. I looked through the OSPI website and read through some of the EALR’s. At first I completely thought they were subject based but after reading some of the discussion board I went back and looked at them again and saw where some of it was learner based. It was ineresting to look at the standards for a different purpose then just finding a standard to go with my lesson. I came out with a better understanding of the standards. Made me realize that their organization is subject centered but that they are also organized by grade level. This would also make them learner based because of they are developmentally appropriate for each grade level. Great weeks discussion to really make me think and look at standards in a different way. This allowed me to reflect on my teaching and think that I need to make sure that my lessons are both subject and learner centered. This is important because I need to focus on the subject I am teaching but also to the students in which I am teaching.
Posted by: cummia on: January 17, 2010
After looking over the syllabus I am really excited to get started in this course. There are many people in the course from a variety of different backgrounds. I did notice however that there are a few that teach primary grades so I am excited to have great discussions with a variety of colleagues. I think it will be great to make a curriculum plan. Since I am fairly new to the teaching field it will be a wonderful experience to dive into curriculum development and actually make a personal philosophy. It is something that I have thought a lot about but haven’t actually worked through the process. Through this course I hope to gain a better understanding of curriculum design and be able to apply it in my own classroom.
Posted by: cummia on: December 19, 2009
This class taught me so much more than I ever thought I would gain from any one class on technology. Technology classes that I have taken in the past have only focused on one piece of technology. This class taught about so many different technology pieces that could be used in the classroom such as Jing, Voice thread, and many others. I have never used any of them before so it was great not only to learn about them but also use them in our weekly work. I think they will be great tools in the classroom. Watching everyones 5 minute videos showed me so many great tools that I have never even heard of that could be used in my classroom. I think we just need to look outside of the normal pencil and paper and get creative in how we teach and include technology. “For today’s children, nothing is more important than learning to think creatively – learning to come up with innovative solutions to the unexpected situations that will continually arise in their lives” (Resnick). Technology would be a great way to show children’s creativity. The area that it becomes a challenge is the cost of many of the technology softwares that are needed to do certain things with technology. In my classroom we use many free programs from the internet such as keyboarding games, google and other internet search engines, and other forms of technology that are free. It’s important to look into grants to see what is available to get extra funding to allow for extra technology.
In this class I realized that you just need to try new programs and see how they work. Practice until you feel comfortable before doing a project or a lesson with the class using the program. This allowed me to have so much more confidence and understanding on all the great useful tools in technology that I can have in my classroom and pass on to my kids. In the article, “Bridging the Divide” it talks about how many teachers are non users of technology. Many times this is due to lack of understanding. Through this class I better understand all the options available and how truly important it is to make sure that I have technology available to my students. I found that when I used Kidspiration to do a report on African animals the kids were so excited to do the report. Where if I would have just had regular pen and paper they might not have had the same enthusiasm for the project and completed such great work. I will continue to learn about all the great technology and make it my goal to always have the latest information to bring into my classrooms so my students can get the most out of their education.
Bogle, M. (2008). Bridging the divide: facilitating the exploration of emerging technologies that support innovative learning and teaching.
Resnick, M. (2007). All I really need to know (about creative thinking) I learned (by studying how children learn) in kindergarten. Creativity and Cognition. New York, NY: ACM, 2007.
Posted by: cummia on: December 19, 2009
Click on the link below to see my 5 minute technology activity on Kidspiration.
http://www.screencast.com/t/ZTIxYmJhN
Here is my handout explaining the activity
Posted by: cummia on: December 13, 2009
This quarter I have learned so much about communication and collaboration. Communication and collaboration is the key to a successful school as well as being a succesful teacher. When first starting this class I thought it would be about communicating with parents and the basics of communication. This class really opened my eyes to all the other forms of communication and collaboration that go on in a school. By doing the action plan I learned so much about my school and what we are doing well and where we are lacking. I can’t wait to take this information and implement the action plan and see the great changes that can happen while implementing the plan. I have attached the action plan that I have created for my school. Since I am new to teaching and new to the school I think the action plan will help guide me to become a leader in the school. It also aloud me to learn so much more about my school by looking at the report card as well as different improvement plans they already had in place.
Posted by: cummia on: November 30, 2009
This weeks reading from the book, “On Common Ground” was great at really showing me some great points about action plans. You can’t just look at the plan but you also have to look at the action that goes along with it. In Chapter 12 it showed a lot of the problems that could arise from the implementation of this action plan. So it made me think about how much planning you need to do but also make it simple enough that it is doable and the school will buy into acting upon the plan. “The culture of any organization is found in the assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and habits that constitute the norm of its people, but these elements of culture tend to go unexamined” (pg. 235). I think this can really be an issue when implementing an action plan. So many people go with the attitude that “we have always done it this way.” They never seem to question it or look deeper to see if there is a better way. I think this is an important point to look at when developing an action plan and be prepared for many people to have that reaction. By reading this chapter it really helped explain the problems that could come from an action plan while in the planning process as well as taking action. I hope with this information I can eliminate many of those issues while planning and implementing this action plan. I also hope that my school culture will be open to the change.
Posted by: cummia on: November 24, 2009
I really enjoyed reading this weeks article by Mitchel Resnick, “All I Really Need to Know (About Creative Thinking) I Learned (By Studying How Children Learn) in Kindergarten.” Since I taught kindergarten last year it really made me miss kindergarten and made me think of how I can use some of those same strategies in my 3rd grade classroom this year. I also found an article, http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/succeed.html, this article was for parents called, “Helping Your Child Succeed in School.” It basically told parents that children need to use their curiosity and imagination to learn and that as a parent you need to awaken that within their child by encouraging them. I think this really explained it perfectly. Parents seem to always want this big answer of what to do to get their child reading and to be ”smart.” So this article really shows that just let children explore and learn through their own creativity. So it went right along with what the article in class talked about. I want to continue to do this more in my own classroom to allow my 3rd graders to be more creative and explore new things across the curriculum.
