Month: June 2015

Reading for week 3

I learned from the reading that I have a lot of learning to do! ☺ I am going to continue to learn and work on improving my blog and tweeting skills (not sure if that is a real thing) The best way I can think to improve your PLN and make people want to follow you is like the article said is to explore! Look and find things that are popular and actually valuable. I think a major challenge i  see for myself is keeping up and not forgetting to actually do it or talk to people.

PLN

This website I found that I really liked was http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/

I really liked this website because it broke down each part of a PLN.  I think in order to have a successful PLN you need to figure out what your main focus is and what you hope to achieve from having a PLN.  I think a big step I will take with my PLN is to always stay up to date on what is going on in education and what other educators are saying or doing.  I think that is so important in education.  I find so many teachers who have been around for years but they are so stuck in their old ways of teaching that it may or not be working for their students.  I think this would be a great idea to present to all educators and encourage them to try it out.  It never hurts to try.

Independent Learning Topic

So for my independent learning I chose crochet.  My future mother in law is very creative and can sow just about anything you want, which sparked my interest to find something like that to learn.  I started looking at videos on youtube because you can just about find anything you want on the internet.  I have found numerous videos for all different crocheting techniques.  I have started crocheting this week but it is very minimal which is ok for me because I can be a perfectionist.  My end goal would love to be able to crochet a hat or scar or maybe even a blanket!

My TED talk

Wow!  Linda Cliatt gave me goose bumps.  I didn’t even search for a video,  the title “How to Fix a Broken School?” immediately caught my eye and boy am I glad I watched it.  This woman is amazing, she is a principal at a high school that was on the persistently dangerous list.  Her and the faculty have completely turned that school around and even got test scores up!  You know why?? Because she never gave up on them and pushed them and herself to succeed.  That is so inspiring to me! When I am teaching I want every student of mine to feel special and loved like they should be!

I want to use TED talks in my classroom like the student in the article said, to spark thought in my students.  Challenge their creativity and really make them think of how others see things.  I am just not sure yet how to use it for lower elementary.

Reading Response

When we are growing up it seems logical that learning is done at school, our parents send us there to learn like they did.  As we get older we realize that we learn constantly!  It is everywhere we go, I am still learning to this day and sometimes it is in an unfortunate situation or at a random place.  I like how Georg Cuoros’s blog showed what it looked like when you separate school and learning.  All educators should take a look at this blog.  It gives you a great sense of how we need to encourage more learning in schools rather than making students little robots constantly looking in books for answers rather than thinking.  Kind of how Logan Laplante was saying.  Obviously all these assignments we are doing tie in to the other but it all makes sense after you read everything.  To spark interest in learning for students you have to be passionate about it.  You need to make them feel like they can do anything!  Let them know they have all your attention and make them know their interests are just as important as the next student.  I want to read more articles on passion based learning and see how it worked for other teachers or even see how it inspired students to want to learn! I am still unsure of what my passion is but in a way it would be I love to know what other peoples passions are and when they talk about it their faces light up with peer excitement.  That to me is an amazing feeling.

Hackschooling

Well this video was not what I was expecting.  First off I want to say how refreshing it was to see a young teenage boy out in this great big world expressing his feelings about education.  That hardly every happens!  I liked the nontraditional approach Logan talked about, I think it is a wonderful idea to teach kids all the things they need to know but in a way that fits them.  I was a little confused at first because he did say his parents took him out of a traditional school,  but after he talked more about what he was learning I realized in a way it was sort of like home school.  He isn’t in a “school” but he is taking what interests him and incorporating it into how he learns the essential studies of a school.  I think we need more of that, I am not saying it would be easy but it would be interesting to see if more kids liked school and actually wanted to be there.  Plus graduation rate could turn out to be greater then the drop out rate.  I would like to know more about other students who have gone through this kind of education.  It would be interesting to see where they are now if they have gone off to college or have jobs.  Also it would be interesting to see how they liked it compared to a traditional school.  I can understand how frustrated his parents must have been with people asking them why all the time.  It would be stressful to take that sort of chance on a different education for any parent.  It took courage and it obviously helped their son out more than anyone probably thought it would.  In my opinion that it is what we need more of in the education world, we need people who aren’t afraid to take risks and push for what is best for the students.  We need to get away from the constant testing and constant stress both teachers and students.  Learning really should be fun and we should be encouraging students to follow in their dreams not destroy them and make them into unhappy people.