Reflection
Throughout this course, we have been introduced or reacquainted with many different learning theories and strategies, all of which are very important in education. As I encountered each, I thought about how and if I use it in my classroom. I still believe that it is a combination of theories and strategies that are needed in the classroom to have successful learners. However, I am more convinced that a constructivist’s approach is much more beneficial to many more students. The student-centered approach is what allows students to become more hands-on in their learning.
As I begin school this year, I have planned to make my classroom a more student-centered classroom. I am going to hand more of the technology over to the students and allow them to experiment with it and learn from it. Students were not truly learning from me using the technology and teaching them. Rather, they need to be the ones using and interacting with the information that is being presented. As well as giving the students more use of the technology, I am going to try to create more of a constructivist classroom, with students being much more hands-on than in the past. I used to be afraid that students would take too much time, but have learned that we need to make the time, because this is what is best for our students.
One technology tool that I would like to integrate into my classroom is that of a voice thread. I think that it has many different uses and am excited to have the students try it out. First, I think this tool would be great for use in a report. Students can work alone or together to create a report and then present it to the class. Their classmates can then leave comments and questions on the voice thread. This could lead to a deeper and greater understanding of the topic. Secondly, I think that the voice thread would be a great assessment tool. After obtaining an account, I can have each student log in with their own password, to comment or explain items that they see in the voice thread, as sometimes concepts are easier to explain in words than in writing.
A second piece of technology that I would like to implement in my classroom, not so much with the kids, but with the parents, is a blog. I think that if I could set up a blog for my classroom, the parents would be responsive to answering or commenting on items that are on the it. This could cause better communication between not only the parents and me, but also the parents of all of the students. In today’s society, people would rather send emails, post items on facebook, etc, rather than speak on the phone. Therefore, I think that a blog for my classroom would be a way to involve more of the parents in what we are doing.
One long – term goal that I have for my classroom and myself is to have the students use technology more. Instead of me always using and teaching from the white board, I need to have the students work more with the board. There are many different ways for the students to be interactive with the board, and I am going to start to implement them this year. One of these ways is to create lessons on RM Easitech (a program that works with our white boards) and have the students complete them by moving and adding words, or answering math problems and more.
A second long-term goal is to become a more student-centered room. While I try to integrate different strategies into my teaching, I don’t always do as well as I can. I plan to use the jigsaw approach more often, have students create power points to share and teach others, and to construct other items to assist in their learning. In having a student-centered room, the kids are going to be much more focused and responsive to the concepts that they are learning. They are going to be able to create experiences and memories that will allow them to remember the information that they are learning.
