Thursday, February 12, 2015
Tobie Pillstrom
@DCMSEnglishLady
14 minutes ago
@mccandlj Twitter is a great way to keep up with my favorite authors as well as spotlight my students.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
FlippedClassroom
I have recently learned about a new teaching style called the flipped classroom. The idea is that a teacher would video his or herself teaching a lesson. The students would then watch the video at home in preparation for executing the lesson the next day in class. I have a love/ hate opinion about this concept.
I like the idea of freeing up class time by teaching a lesson online. I like the idea that the kids would view this before class and they would be ready to discuss the next day. And I like that this would allow more time for one on one instruction with students during school hours.
hiwever, I feel like we don't live in a world that is ready for this type of learning. Many of my students don't own a home computer or have home internet. This would cause the teacher to have to set up time in the day for the kids to come to her room to use a class laptop. I also think that it would cause my students a lot of confusion. I answer a lot of questions while I'm teaching a lesson. By watching the lesson online, the kids will miss out on instant answers if they are confused. Many middle school students live in the moment. I can't imagine them remembering their reason for asking a question by the time they see me in class the next day, especially if they are in my last class of the day.
This is a cool concept but I'm not sure it's something I would implement into my classroom routine.
I like the idea of freeing up class time by teaching a lesson online. I like the idea that the kids would view this before class and they would be ready to discuss the next day. And I like that this would allow more time for one on one instruction with students during school hours.
hiwever, I feel like we don't live in a world that is ready for this type of learning. Many of my students don't own a home computer or have home internet. This would cause the teacher to have to set up time in the day for the kids to come to her room to use a class laptop. I also think that it would cause my students a lot of confusion. I answer a lot of questions while I'm teaching a lesson. By watching the lesson online, the kids will miss out on instant answers if they are confused. Many middle school students live in the moment. I can't imagine them remembering their reason for asking a question by the time they see me in class the next day, especially if they are in my last class of the day.
This is a cool concept but I'm not sure it's something I would implement into my classroom routine.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Video Games in the Classroom
While I believe that there is a time and place for everything, unfortunately I do not believe that there is a place in my classroom for video games. Teaching English is so different than any other subject. While it seems like all we do is read, there are a lot of other things that go on inside a Language Arts classroom. I'm all about using technology in my classroom. I love that the kids like to read on their phones/ tablets/ laptops. But for me, that's where it ends. I have not found any "games" that will help grow my students academically.
However, when talking to my science teacher friends, I have learned that there are many ipad apps that they can use to teach physics and the such. I love that they kids would be able to use those games to understand things like velocity. I think in today's world we do need to meet the kids where they are. That's why I use a class blog for their writing. I also like to have them create things like an Instagram for Edgar Allen Poe (or who ever we are reading about at the time).
However, when talking to my science teacher friends, I have learned that there are many ipad apps that they can use to teach physics and the such. I love that they kids would be able to use those games to understand things like velocity. I think in today's world we do need to meet the kids where they are. That's why I use a class blog for their writing. I also like to have them create things like an Instagram for Edgar Allen Poe (or who ever we are reading about at the time).
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Keeping Kids Writing
as an avid blogger for the past 9 years, I'm a huge fan of incorporating blogging into the classroom. I currently have three class blogs. I use these for timed responses to literature.basically, the students read an article or piece of literature and write an answer to a prompt. The kids really enjoy this type of writing.
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