Blog Post #5

If I Built A School

Krissy Venosdale has been teaching for 10 years and is now a special education teacher. She uses blogging and her PLN (Personal Learning Network)to become a better teacher for her students. She has a huge passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or STEM. She believes strongly in inquiry based learning and teaching them how to think and not what to think.

In her blog post If I Built A School, she describes how the school looks and interacts with the students. The way she describes it is very cozy and makes students want to go to school and learn. Everything seems more modern. For example in the cafeteria there are cozy chairs where student can sit at and collaborate. There's a lot of new equipment for science labs and computers, laptops, and Ipads in every classrooms. Her school is a place for innovation and thinking. If I were still in high school I would definitely look forward to going to this school every morning.

I think building a school would be a great experience. I have never thought about building a school before but I love design and function so I would incorporate that into my building plans. There would be reading and study nooks where students can do homework before and after school. The classrooms would be colorful so students feel welcome with comfortable chairs and tables. The tables would be round to encourage team work. Hands on learning will be part of the everyday curriculum. In the library there will be comfortable reading nooks in every window and there would also be a small student coffee shop managed by the student body. There would be technologies in the classroom to encourage students to research answers to current problems and to help them to learn to be technologically literate. The school will be painted in bright colors so that it will have an energetic atmosphere with a lot of windows to incorporate some environmental factors. I think there should be a lot of plant life so students can be environmentally aware. I believe there should be designated rooms for the arts and social sciences. For example there should be music rooms, art studios, a museum room and a dance studio. I believe a focus on the arts along with science and math is what makes a great school. Giving all students the opportunity to explore their interests.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

I have never heard something so beautiful and soothing until I listened to Eric Whitacre's virtual choir sing Lux Aurumque. The way that this ensemble was put together further explains how technology is used to connect people across the world. According to Jennifer Chamber's post, the performers in the choir have never met and have never sang together before. The performance was put together through the internet and posted on Youtube. I would love to do something like this. Not just for my personal use, but also in the classroom. To connect with other students through the internet is a great way for students to learn and to respect others throughout the world. I am so thankful that Dr. Strange introduced this video to me. It really has got me thinking and I cannot wait to do something like this with future students.

Teaching in the 21st Century

Learning can take place at anytime and anywhere thanks to the internet and the technologies that provide internet. So what does this mean for teachers? The video Teaching in the 21st Century addresses these issues. Students can easily find the information they want via Google, Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter. So why are teachers still needed if students have the information at their fingertips? Teachers are still very important for learning and engagement. It is up to teachers and future teachers to harness the skills needed to ask questions and to solve problems. The video made feel like educators will no longer be needed due to the readily information on the internet. However, our duty is to engage our students in today's technology in challenging way; to make them think in challenging ways.

Flipping the Classroom

Flipping the classroom is cool way to get students interested in learning and engaging in the classroom. It allows students to got home and look at videos that the teacher wants them to go over and come up with questions, discussion and strategies to share in the class the next day. This allows struggling students to get caught up, for middle students to understand and ask questions and for advance students to go forth to the next level. This allows teachers to focus on each students skills and give help to where it is needed.

I believe that I could use this strategy in my future classroom. I think that furthering education outside of the classroom is a brilliant idea and strategy to help kids to get engaged in learning by asking questions. As a future history teacher, I believe that this would be a perfect way for students to come into class with some really great discussion topics.