Puppy Love

Puppy Love
My new puppy Rory and I summer 2011

MY 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM

Welcome: 

This is a visual essay of my belief statement. I believe reading allows students to explore new worlds and discover who they are.  I believe reading forces students out of their comfort zone which in turn gives them confidence.  Creating this was fun and I learned alot during the process of making it.  While doing the This I Believe project I learned alot about myself. I learned that I truly am not technologically savvy nor do I like creating movies. However, on the positive side I really enjoyed reflecting on how much I enjoy reading and how I cam to love it. I liked looking back on that story of how I fell in love with reading this was very rewarding for me. I was also very impressed with myself for quickly learning how to use the PhotoStory3. I really liked this tool and it helped me create this project. I did not find anything in the project easy aside from writing the essay itself, as that was my favorite part. I could see me using this project in my classroom some day as I think it is more appropriate for a younger group. The project was interesting and I learned how to use some new tools as well as put my first video on YouTube!              



     My Classroom:

The design of my classroom is for young children of course, this is why I like to keep it as open as possible.  I designed my classroom with plenty of room so  children are able to walk around freely without clutter in their path.  I also grouped students together at tables because I believe that when students work together in groups it allows them all to learn from each other.  I think that the more gifted students will help other students who aren't understanding some material which promotes collaboration and student centered learning. I have book cases with all sorts of books lining all of the walls, this way every student has the opportunity to read.  My favorite part of the room is the reading loft.  This area is for 5 special students everyday who get to come to this area to read their book during free reading time.  The 5 children alternate everyday and everyone gets the same amount of time in the loft.  The loft area has couches and pillows and is a treat to students.  When I read to the students, we all sit in the loft area together which promotes communication. 

Rituals and Routines:

Everyday when my students enter the classroom they will sit at their tables and work with their groups and answer the Question of The Day.  This will get the students working together and promote collaboration.  Each student will then pick up their DEAR time books and read until all the groups are finished answering the question of the day.  DEAR time is drop everything and read. When all groups are finished we will then go around the room and each group will say what they think the answer to the question of the day is which promotes authentic assessment.  If a group gets the question right they will then earn a star on the board which will add up to earn them a pizza party once all groups have enough stars which makes the students work together as a team.  Every day we work on the laptops and each child will walk over as I call their group number and pick up a laptop.  The students will write their name in a binder in the corresponding spot that has the number of laptop they used that day.  At the end of each day we go around the room and each child says aloud one thing they learned in class that day this promotes communication between myself and my students.


Instructional Glimpse:


   In class after the question of the day we start the lesson of the day.  Today I am teaching fact and opinions.  I want the children to learn the meanings of fact and opinion and also the difference in determining what is a fact and what is an opinion.  I like to work together as a class to learn new things so  I have a PowerPoint to teach this lesson.  In the PowerPoint I have put the definitions of each term fact and opinion.  I also embedded statements for which I would ask students to come up to the smart board and click wheather the statement was a fact or an opinion.  The final part of the PowerPoint is a game that the students will get to play on the laptops to practice determining what is a fact and what is an opinion.  Here is the PowerPoint that I will use in class today!

Fact or Opinion PowerPoint


       My Technology Integration: 

I believe that technology will be extremely important in the future, so I like to integrate a ton of it in my classroom.  Technology allows us to connect with people thoughout the world who may have knowledge that we ourselves may not have.  I will use podcasts in my classroom, those of students from around the world using Kids Educational Podcasts . I think that doing so will allow my students to better understand that other students around the world are learning things just like them.  I think that this will open the students minds and will allow them to think outside the box.  I also plan on requiring each of my students to create a blog of their own using Blogger.  Each student will do a short  reflection on the nightly homework, what they liked or did not like and what they learned. I will ask that the students post this in their blog each night.   The last thing that I will definitely use inside my classroom is googledocs this is one of my favorite tools to use because kids can collaborate with their group mates and type on the same document at the same time.



PLN:
          I will continue to use my personal learning network as a learner because I am able to connect with other people who's interests are the same as mine.  I like to look at other students work who plan on teaching Early Childhood Special Education and get ideas from them.  I plan on using my Blog while I am a teacher to check my students blogs and to get in contact with my students.  I will use this blog as a network to reach out to my students and check up on homework and other things.








Annotated Bibliography:

I did not use any outside sources for this project, other than the tools that are linked above.






5 comments:

  1. i just wanted to let you know that i was browsing through this to make sure that i was doing mine correctly, and i think that you are doing a wonderful job on this :)!

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  2. I too checked yours out and you did a great job Gabs!! It was really fun getting to know you while working on our projects :)

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  3. Thanks Andrea. And I agree ! hope to see you around campus! :)

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