The biggest takeaway that I received from this class was to make the classroom enjoyable and beneficial for students to attend school. Students are not receiving their potential with the traditional approach from the early 1900's because it no longer applies to our learning model. The tools we have implemented within the 21st century are effective and benefit our students. The tools such as technology, curriculum, and standards need to make a meaningful impact for the students. Lessons are just lessons; standards are just standards without any clear directive from their presentation. The driving question of "Why" should be engaged in every classroom for both the teacher and the student.
The annotated research opened my perspective of how climate and culture widely affect teachers, staff, and the community members. Even though I did not include every article I read, I believe there is so much to learn about my research. I read many interesting facts that made me realize some of my downfalls as an educator. There are some staff members that did not understand or see eye to eye with me and I did not handle the situation as I should. Reading these articles provided me insight what were the necessary steps of seeing artistic differences between staff or parents. These skills will assist me throughout my administrative journey. The PBL project also helped me realize what is necessary for the students. Collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativeness was addressed in our class discussions while creating our project. Although some of us had no problems in our groups, students working with other students would prove a challenge. Students need to have a solid grasp on how to work with other students. This would require some classroom structures and norms that help guide students toward success. I loved this classroom and I am happy to incorporate the things I learned this year. I hope to see a great improvement in my teaching strategies!
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After watching the videos about blending learning, I was intrigued about the possibilities. Throughout the pandemic, Manteca Unified has been pushing teachers to realize the potential of online learning. There was a lot of pushbacks from educators; however, I believe that it was possible to do this during online learning. The three models they explained: station rotation, lab model, and the flex model were definitely interesting. I cannot knock what is working, but I personally will take some of the stuff that I like and make it work to my benefit. I understand that blended learning is meant to change the way we teach to benefit students, but I strongly believe that this may only work for a select few students. I understand my demographic well at my school. The students I had last year were a 50/50 bunch. Some of them really took blended learning by the horns, while others found an opportunity to diss out on their work. To me, I would rather try to benefit all my students in one go than burning all of my energy teaching only half the population in my classroom.
Do not get me wrong, these models seems to have their strengths. Also, I am willing to try some of the aspects of each model again this year. I will try to make the education engaging and interacting, but I cannot force them to love what they are doing. I have had much more success watching my students during their instructional time rather than on their own time. Even if I were to assign it as homework, majority of the students would not watch what they needed to. . . AGAIN, maybe I just need to try a different answer. Thank you. . . "Things are getting real. . ."Tonight's class really put things in perspective. We are almost done with this classroom and we have two big assignments that are due soon. I feel confident that my annotated project will be okay, but now we have another project coming up. I feel pretty good about our group and our direction.
One of the big takeaways is that we talked about chapters 4 and 5 in the "Big Picture" in small groups. My group discussed about "the one size fits all" model that we do in our school systems. We also talked about some of the disparities with our diverse students. We hope to address some of these issues by guiding as a leader in our schools. The only issue we discussed is that some people are set in their ways. We hope to take the initiative and be the leaders we were meant to be in our schools. Working with our small groups for Integration project was a lot of fun. I had more time to collaborate with Canva (which is something I plan to use with my students a whole lot more!). It was amazing creating something for the 21st century for my group. It was also noice to explore a different type of media to demonstrate understanding. I will be definitely using this resource during the school year. "Would kids show to my classroom if it was not mandatory?" A student who wrote me a message before the COVID-19 shut down. Students definitely missed being in my classroom during the shutdown.
It is always nice to get other input from professionals. Reading other blog posts, hearing their stories, and also have the ability to see the different levels of creativity definitely inspires me to continue the path that I have chosen. It was also nice to hear from others about their hopes and dreams of traveling the world. I hope to go to Tokyo one day with my wife and son. Italy would be nice to venture to as well. When COVID first hit in March 2020, one student took the
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