This week I am responsible for moderating a discussion on the flipped classroom. The flipped classroom is an idea in which students read information or watch a video lecture at home and then complete enrichment (or homework activities) in the classroom. One of my coworkers does a modified form of this. The students read a section of their textbook the night before and the next day in class the students and the teacher take notes, discuss the topic and perform a demonstration.
I think that this blog would become a great resource for my students to use a resource if I were to try to implement something with a flipped classroom. While there are many challenges to a flipped classroom including student motivation, internet and technology issues. I think that for a short term unit, the flipped classroom might be another way to reach students in a different manner.
For more information on the flipped classroom visit this following site:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2012/12/11/what-is-the-flipped-classroom-model-and-why-is-it-amazing-with-infographic/
The above link is one of my favorite resource on the flipped classroom. It gives the reader the information in a non traditional manner and it allows them to analyze the information in a new format.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Methods of Classroom Collaboration
This week in my graduate class, we have been reading about different tools that we can use in the classroom to better help our students collaborate. While a blog might be a wonderful way for our students to share information, pool their resources and reflect on specific types of information given. There are several other types of resources available to teachers to better help our students learn. Tonight's objective is to provide a couple of examples mentioned in the Richardson text.
The first resource that Richardson describes is a wiki page. The most commonly known wiki page of course is wikipedia.org. However, there are a number of wiki pages that are created, edited, and published on the world wide web for all sorts of information. For instance, several popular tv shows have wiki pages where fans can chime in on information about their favorite character and provide information about what happened on last week's episode. I could see one of my Language Arts classes creating wiki page about a novel that we have been reading in the classroom.
A second resource described by Richardson are the many different social media sites that are available at our disposable. I might not use these in my own classroom because I feel that my students are a bit young, but the students could create a fake posting in the same format. Richardson mentions Twitter, but I might have my students create a Twitter post in 140 characters or less, and posting their "tweets" within the classroom. A great, safe, alternative to Twitter is edmodo.com A web network for teachers that has many discussion elements of other online education systems (like blackboard, moodle, etc).
What are some ideas that you might think of in order to help your students to collaborate in a non-traditional way?
The first resource that Richardson describes is a wiki page. The most commonly known wiki page of course is wikipedia.org. However, there are a number of wiki pages that are created, edited, and published on the world wide web for all sorts of information. For instance, several popular tv shows have wiki pages where fans can chime in on information about their favorite character and provide information about what happened on last week's episode. I could see one of my Language Arts classes creating wiki page about a novel that we have been reading in the classroom.
A second resource described by Richardson are the many different social media sites that are available at our disposable. I might not use these in my own classroom because I feel that my students are a bit young, but the students could create a fake posting in the same format. Richardson mentions Twitter, but I might have my students create a Twitter post in 140 characters or less, and posting their "tweets" within the classroom. A great, safe, alternative to Twitter is edmodo.com A web network for teachers that has many discussion elements of other online education systems (like blackboard, moodle, etc).
What are some ideas that you might think of in order to help your students to collaborate in a non-traditional way?
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Methods for Parent, Teacher, Student Communication
Author Will Richardson, describes six functions of educational blogs in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2010). Two of his functions describe the class website and the class portal. A blog can be useful for teachers to communicate information to parents and students on a regular basis in a safe, efficient manner. For example, on a weekly basis I send my students' parents an email updating them on what their children are learning in Language Arts. Through this email, parents are informed of test dates, assignment due dates, and changes in policy and procedure. This information could also be easily streamlined and posted in a weekly classroom blog. Parents could subscribe to the RSS feed of the blog and would be able to receive an email when the blog is updated and read it at their convenience.
This method of communication would also be a resource for students. Students might not always remember to write down homework or when assignments are due. They could access the blog for reminders and updates. It would also be a great place for the teacher to post assignment descriptions, rubrics, and models so that students and parents would be able to see what she is looking for without having to either go through an email with multiple attachments or contact the teacher directly.
This method of communication would also be a resource for students. Students might not always remember to write down homework or when assignments are due. They could access the blog for reminders and updates. It would also be a great place for the teacher to post assignment descriptions, rubrics, and models so that students and parents would be able to see what she is looking for without having to either go through an email with multiple attachments or contact the teacher directly.
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