Class Outside of the Classroom

While looking at different educational blogs and their posts I came across the blog Teacher Reboot Camp with the post about having a goal to change the learning enviornment in the classroom. This really interested me because I always strive to have a safe enviornment in my classroom where students are more open to learning. But I never really thought about how my classroom and the learning could extend beyong the four walls. It was really interesting to think about whether or not I could complete the activites suggested, and I am going to now talk to the principal at my school about perhaps having a scavenger hunt since my current unit with my 7th graders is scbool vocabulary so it would be cool to have them get out of the classroo and search the school. It also made me think about how when I was in high school taking Latin we got to go on a field trip to the zoo and look for the latin names of the animals. It clearly was something memorable and brought out classroom outside of a normal context.

Mod 4: Post 2

When looking for a group that would be useful to me professionally, I came across EFL Classroom 2.0. This is a great site for me since I am currently learning how to teach English as a Second Language. At first I thought the site was going to be easy to navigate due to the home page, but quickly found out that it was a little overwhelming on the inside. I did like the surveys though that popped up such as "I ____ correct my students when they are speaking" and you can then select from how often and vote. I feel that there is really a plethora of information available on this site as far as forums to connect with other teachers and resources. This will definitely be a site that I will frequent often for support from experienced teachers as I make my way into the ESL field.

Mod 4: Post 1

A learner to me, as cheesy as it sounds, is like a tree. It is constantly growing and if it does not adapt itself to its environment it will die. That is why trees are different based upon where they are from. Learners are constantly growing with their funds of knowledge, and if they do not keep up with the the times or the ideas in their environment, they will fall behind. This is shown in a quote from the video “The Network is the Learning” where he said “if I'm not continuously learning I'm becoming obsolete I my particular field”. We sometimes forget as teachers that we are also learners, and we forget that we too have to keep up with the current knowledge and practices and constantly be adapting ourself. A quote from the article "Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime" lets us think about the learners path as a series of stages throughout their lifetime, just as a tree moves from a seed, to sapling to full grown tree. Learners have many transitions and because they all vary from one another, specifically the fields they may choose, they need to consistently be growing. Networks make that possible because it gives us people to help support us in our growing and adaptation. This can be taken in the sense of my analogy to a learner as the forest around the tree. One tree by itself may not be able to survive, but with a forest, it gives it strength.

Mod 3: Video Reaction

Well when I first looked at the list of videos to choose from, I decided upon A Vision of K-12 Students Today, because it seemed both relevant and interesting. I got more than halfway through watching and taking notes when I realized I had actually seen it already. I know that the instructions said to choose a video that I hadn't seen before, so I decided to go with Educational Change Challenge. I was picturing some sort of a high energy video with the word "challenge" in the title, but I got anything but.

I honestly have to say I did not care for this video. I understand that the main point it was trying to make is the importance of technology in the classroom and how education and the classroom itself needs to be updated, and that students don't learn like they did hundreds of years ago. At one point in the video the narrator makes a point of saying that if you take a doctor from 100 years ago and put them in an operating room today they would be lost but that if you take a teacher from 100 years ago and put them in a classroom today they wouldn't. That to me is a little much since so many classrooms do in fact incorporate technology at least minimally in the classroom. The narrator mentions that the classroom is born of an industrial mode of thinking. I completely disagree with that since classrooms have been around way before the industrial revolution in the 18th century. He also states that society doesn't have a clear vision as to what school is for. I know that when I went through undergrad at Canisius they told me that a teacher's job is not just to teach their subject but to help students to learn how to become productive future citizens. That to me is what school is for.

What I did like about this video was in the beginning when the narrator mentions how all students learn at different times, through different ways and at different levels speeds. Thats very true and it is something that an effective teacher should constantly be taking into account while hitting upon different learning styles and paying attention to Gardner's multiple intelligences. I also liked the quote at the end where it is said "Because the generation of students that I am teaching is an instant pudding, drive-through, microwave, download-it-from-the-Internet, media-driven generation, I know that I must be innovative to keep their interest and to inspire in them a creative curiosity." Doug Martin. I notice this everyday, even with myself and my lack of patience. Students are so used to

getting everything within a few seconds, it is tough to keep their attention.

Again I do agree that it is important for teachers to constantly be changing and improving upon their practices and making sure their instruction meets the needs of the students, but I also think we have really come a long way from the time of one room school houses and 100 years ago and it is unfair to say that education has not been advancing.