Saturday, August 24, 2013
Blog Post #1
If I Built A School
Krissy Venosdale is a gifted teacher who teaches third through sixth grade. From reading her blog Venspired, I have gathered that Krissy is very inspirational and has a passion for teaching. Krissy's blog "If I Built A School" taught me to not only think outside the box, but also taught me a new way of learning. Not only should learning be demanded and expected of a student, it should also be taught in a more passionate way to where the students are actually withholding the giving information. I think her way of going above and beyond and creating a dream school has more of a meaning to a child. Krissy's idea of wanting to put a tree house in the cafeteria, for example, would inspire kids to come to school daily just to see the tree house. Inspirations through different crops are what we need in schools. Demanding learning to a child is not everything that it is cut out to be.
Sugata Mitra’s video “Build a School in the Clouds” taught me the importance of technology and how it can improve a child’s learning. I loved the fact that technology was used around the world to teach children from different foreign-speaking countries. I enjoyed watching the clips where the children would keep speaking into the computer’s text engine until they could say the word properly. I found that to be a neat and creative way to teach children from a different region how to speak a specific language. It will gladly help improve their pronunciation, speaking skills, and get a new job when that time comes. I really enjoyed Sugata Mitra’s video and I think that if people started to use his creations that education would largely expand across the universe.
My Classroom
In two years I hope to become a teacher and have my very own unique classroom. My dream is to be able to teach younger students, specifically Kindergarten. If I do get to teach Kindergarten I will teach a variety of subject matter. I hope to teach at a public school, only because I was taught Kindergarten through twelfth grade in a public school. I still have an open mind towards a private school I just prefer public. When I get to create my own classroom there are a few things that I would like to do.
What I Want My Students to Know
On the first day of school I want my students to come into my classroom with an open mind to learn. I do not want any of my students to walk into my classroom terrified of school. Not only do I want to make learning fun for the child, but I also want to create a positive meaningful learning experience. I want my students to actually gain the knowledge and be able to take it with them, not just memorize a few facts. You can only flip a flash card over for so long until it just becomes memorization. That is not what I want my students to leave with.
What I Want My Students to be Able to Do
I would like for my students to be able to not only understand what they have learned, but be able to demonstrate it. In general terms, I would like for my students to demonstrate two plus two. For example, a student would be given building blocks and would arrange them according to the math problem. Demonstrating is a key to success because you are representing the value of which you have learned over a period of time.
My Primary Way of Teaching
I want my classroom set up in a unique, unordinary fashion so that students feel comfortable with my classroom setting. I loved Krissy Venosdale's thoughts about creating her own imaginary classroom. Her blog post opened my eyes to new things. The fact that she had already had an entrance sign leading into the classroom will put a smile on a child's face. Reading her blog opened me to teach with my surroundings and make learning an experience no student will ever forgot.
My goal as a teacher is to make sure that each individual student understands the information that is being taught. I want to be able to explore how each student learns. Maybe they're a visual learner, or maybe they're an independent learner. That's a characteristic of a student that takes time to recognize. I do not want to assign busy work to my students. I think that assigning busy work takes away from a child's learning and shows that the teacher does not have time to go over the material.
The Tools I Will Use In My Classroom
I plan to use several tools to teach my Kindergarten class. I would like to enforce the use of technology. I know that some schools do not offer many resources to technology, but if so, I would highly recommend it. I think technology is becoming a big impact in today's world and starting a child off early would help improve their knowledge and skills. Sugata Mitra's video highly reflects that. The use of a computer, ipad, or even a phone could help improve how a child speaks, or even how a child spells. I do plan to use other materials as well, but this one is the most important element.
Students Participating in the Learning Process
Every student needs to somehow participate in the learning process. I highly believe it should be required of all students of all age groups. Without the learning process where would our students be today? Or even us as teachers, what would fulfill our purpose? The learning process takes someone with a lot of passion to teach and without that I do not think that you fulfill the right to be a teacher.
I want my students to ask questions, show that they have developed an understanding of the topic, and demonstrate what was taught. Yes, the learning process may be a bit challenging for younger students, and it may be one of those things that take time. As being teacher, we need to help a child participate and understand how the learning process works. An starting early is the biggest step. Involvement with the students is very important and will help progress the process.
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Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI also loved how Krissy encourages all present and future teachers to think outside of the box. I also want my students to come and leave my class with an open and thoughtful mind! Technology plays such a huge part in children's education today. Hopefully you get a school that can provide what you are looking to use in the classroom. We have a lot of the same views and ideas on how we want our future classrooms to be. Great blog post!
Dear Amanda,
ReplyDeleteYour excitement to teach is undeniable. I think it is absolutely essential for someone to have that much excitement when becoming a kindergarten teacher, and I am glad that there are people like you who maintain it.
I can tell that Krissy Venosdale had a big impact on your thinking for this assignment. I think she go all of our creativities soaring. I love the tree house in the library idea. At my elementary school our library had a big Noah's Arc with stuffed animal pillows on it. I remember how excited it made me to read on it.
As far as your ideas for your future classroom are concerned I can see you have a very open and creative mind. However, if you are going to be a kindergarten teacher, kids will be afraid the first day. They may not have that thirst for knowledge quite yet, but remember that it will be okay if they don't. After all you are there to help them gain it. Also, I suggest you not to "enforce" the use of technology, but utilize it. Make it fun. I'm sure that you already know these things, and can't wait to see this creativity in the classroom.
I do have one sentiment that I wish you to be careful about in the future. When you wrote, "to teach children from different foreign-speaking countries," I'm certain you didn't mean anything bad at all. In fact, I'm certain that you were excited when you wrote this. However, be careful with your phrasing when making posts. I'm sure you don't mean it to, but it sounds a bit uppity and racist. Remember, it isn't "foreign-speaking" in those countries. Reread your paragraph on the Mitra video from the perspective of someone who lives in India, and I think you will see my point.
I really did enjoy your post. And look forward to others in the future. Also I would love to know what your views are on the "learning process" you mentioned. What is the learning process to you? I can't wait to hear.
Sincerely,
Thomas Leytham
"Inspirations through different crops are what we need in schools. " Different crops? What do you mean?
ReplyDeleteThoughtful. Interesting.