674+Reflections

﻿ 674 Reflections
 * Reflection 1: 21st Century Learning **
 * There are 9 Essential 21st Century Skills that are critical to the learning process. After you have taken time to read through one or more of the external links about these Learning Skills (found on class wiki) write a reflection. Consider the impact these skills could have/do have on your teaching and on your students' experiences in the classroom. What issues were addressed in the article(s)? What is one thing you could do in your classroom, that is not being done yet, to help incorporate one of the 9 skills?
 * Your reflection needs to be at least 10-15 sentences long. Please include the title of each article you read and are referencing.
 * This reflection is due by the Saturday after our first weekend's class.

At this time, I know I need to work harder on trying to incorporate some of the 21st Century Learning into my classroom. I find it difficult to embrace these skills though because I feel as though I'm on my own. Creating a classroom that focuses on 21st century learning will require an overhaul of what I am currently required to do. In the article, 21st Century Skills: Getting There from Here, there was a list of ways to start incorporating the skills into the classroom. The final idea really stuck with me and that was decisions about 21st Century Learning need to be made at the system level. Individual teachers should not be required to do so on their own, nor should you with the high stakes testing requirements that we currently have. In some ways this put me at ease to know that I shouldn't be trying to figure out how to transform my classroom into one of the 21st Century. Waiting for the district to start making these changes could be longer than I would like though. We are under a great deal of pressure with all of the high stakes testing and I don't see that going away. Until it does I'm not sure that my district will be able to focus on anything other than that, in the meantime we will continue to lose the interest of our students because we will still be stuck in the 20th century style of teaching.

I also watched the video, Comprehensive Assessment: An Overview. I was inspired after watching this video because I realized that I don't have to wait for my district to change the way I assess students. In the video teachers had been giving students performance based assessments instead of paper pencil assessments. They reiterated the fact that paper pencil tests are not a good judge of what a student can accomplish. I completely agree! Performance assessments can assess much more than just a child's knowledge in a specific subject area. Performance assessments allow students to show their creativity, collaborate with others and produce products that are meaningful to them. Students can learn life skills by completing performance assessments. When they graduate from high school and college and enter the workforce kids are not going to be asked to fill out paper and pencil tests; they will be asked to create, collaborate, problem solve and evaluate themselves. I cannot control all of the paper pencil tests that the government and my school district require me to give, but I can change the assessments that I have control over. I hope to offer my students more opportunities to show their understanding through performance assessments. 

[|http://www.ecb.org] or [|http://www.badgerlink.net]
 * Reflection 2: Videos for the Classroom **
 * After you have found a video to use in the classroom, post the link to the video on the "Reflection" page of your wiki. Then, write at least a 5 sentence reflection as to how you will use this video in the classroom and what impact you think it will have on your students' learning.
 * Please find a video that is new to you and your classroom.
 * In addition to sites such as YouTube and TeacherTube there is a free online educational video service available to Wisconsin residents on the state's online library, Badgerlink. It provides streaming and downloadable video programs for K-12 students and teachers. See links below:
 * This reflection and video link are due by the Saturday after our first weekend's class

I am currently beginning a unit in math on place value and operations with decimals. Year after year this continues to be a chapter that my students struggle with. I have found that the two major things that they struggle with are concepts that have been taught starting in first grade. The two areas that always need reinforcement are identifying various place values in numbers and rounding decimals. What better way to make these topics stick than to show students videos or find songs that teach the subject. Below you will find a video that is a "Place Value Rap." My hope is that this catchy tune will stick with some of the kids who are having difficulty remember the digits. Here is a link to a great site that has a variety of math instructional videos that have been created by kids. The two videos you will see on this page are teaching the kids who to round decimals. I think it will be much more engaging for the students to listen to a similar 'voice' than an adult who is trying to teach the concept. I plan to show these videos as introductions to the lessons, but I also hope to create a math wiki that will include many different instructional videos so that students can use them to review for tests or a place that they can visit when they are absent from school and miss the lesson.

 media type="youtube" key="bWgZsJmATsI?fs=1" height="307" width="384" align="center"


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 170%;">Reflection 3: Types of Learner in the Classroom **
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Think about the types of learners found in your classroom. Are they active, sensing, visual, sequential, reflective, intuitive, verbal, global? Now consider the ways you have used technology in your lessons.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Create a t-chart like the one below and brainstorm what could be fixed and how you could use technology in a new way.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What is not working with curriculum / Technology to experiment with

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">writing samples || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ask students to type more of their papers in Microsoft Word so I can give feedback using Track Changes, instead of having to hand write all of the comments I would usually make. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">What is Not Working with Curriculum ** || **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Technology to Experiment With ** ||
 * Group Work || Lego Activity-use flip cameras to video tape groups and review as a class to point out areas of strength and weakness. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student independence on basic skills (correcting misspelled words while editing) || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students lack effort and motivation when they are asked to use dictionaries, possibly because they do not know how to spell the inital part of the word. I would like to offer students the ability to use online dictionaries to help them in the editing process. [] ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student effort on homework tasks in math || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use 10 Marks to assign as homework once in awhile instead of the student lab book pages that they currently work on each night. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Providing timely feedback on student
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students with chronic absenses have a very difficult time catching up in math || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Create a wiki for my math class that will include video demonstrations from YouTube or [] ||