I really enjoyed the integration project. I was a little overwhelmed when we got started but as the project came along I realized that the lesson plan would be a ton of fun to do at my school. Our project was centered around building a website with tutorials for English and Spanish but it could go even further. Students could get their own Kahn Academy going at school. We have a graphic design class at my school and they do website design. I am going to be talking to the teacher of that class this week to see what he thinks about the project. I have a feeling he’s going to love it. I also heard some other fantastic project ideas from the class. I want to go over the videos with some teachers on my campus. I think they would really like the idea and being that we are a specialty school with CTE pathways, we are always looking for projects like this. Thanks for an amazing class, Andrew. You make this class fun, engaging and educational. You challenged us to think outside of the box.
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Questions A: I think technology has strongly impacted education even in its current form. Students have access to material covered in class from anywhere. Parents can see what their kids are working on in Google Classroom and have regular access to the “classroom” from anywhere. We are also able to bring engaging content to the classroom via technology. Kahoot, for example, is a fantastic learning tool that students love. That being said, we definitely have room for improvement regarding our use of technology in education.
Question B: I think I can definitely use the station rotation model in my classroom. It would not be difficult. We have a block schedule. I could split the class up into 2 groups. Half of the class would work with me in a smaller group while the other half works on something that I have assigned them individually. At the halfway point, the groups could rotate. This idea is definitely interesting for me and I think it could be effective. Its definitely something that I will try in class. We had an interesting discussion about what school is for. THe first answer that comes to mind is simple really. School should prepare students for life after high school, right? That can be challenging because students can go in so many different directions after high school. I think our education system has made more progress in this area than people give it credit for. We still are trying to prepare students for college but we are also trying to prepare them for careers. Many skills that they use in class such as problem solving, critical thinking and public speaking are important pretty much anywhere in life. They will need these skills when buying their first car, interviewing for a job and so on. Schools are offering choice too. In Stockton Unified you can go to Health Careers academy if you are interested in that area or Merlo if you are interested in Engineering. We can definitely improve and I know a lot of schools have a long way to go.
THe mind map was an interesting activity because by the end of it I kind of realized I didn't really know what I wanted to research. I was all over the place and a discussion after class with Mr. Griggs got me thinking about a different topic altogether. I'm excited, though, because my new topic is going to be incredibly relevant to me this year. I am taking on some leadership roles at my school and would like to learn as much as I can about leadership in education. I have worked with some people that are amazing leaders. I hope that I can bring some of those leadership skills to my campus. The part of class that I enjoyed most was the discussion with my peers about our top 10 problems in education. When I talk about this with others, the first thing I usually think about is parent involvement. I notice that whenever I am at a school with parent involvement, they tend to do well. I don't think I have ever seen a "bad school" where the parents are involved. So, how do we get parents more involved? Most of my peers listed safety in schools. Not only do they have to worry about outside threats, but many of them are scared everyday of what might be posted on social media. We see fake accounts come up with pictures of students that they do not want on the internet. We see students bullied on social media. How do we stop this from happening? Students should not feel unsafe at schools from the obvious outside threats and from other students at their own school.
I find myself lucky to be in education. I always enjoy talking about my job and how to be better at it. Tonight, I really enjoyed our conversation about how education can evolve to be more beneficial to students. I find this topic fascinating because people have strong opinions on it and so many people, whether or not they work in education, think they know exactly how to fix it. Personally, I have some ideas but I think “fixing education” is much more complicated than people realize. Also, is it really broken? How do we know?
One of my classmates discussed building relationships. I think that should be the foundation of every classroom. You get so much more out of students that way. I feel like our professional development does not focus on this area enough. We learn so much about standards, pacing guides, EL strategies and much more. Some teachers need help building relationships with their students. I am fortunate that this is an area of strength for me. Without it, I would be lost. Something that I took from this class was the idea to use intro music to get students talking. That was really fun and I think my students would love it. I think I will do that with my students to start off the school year. |