Chapter 1 Response

After reading Dr. Haskell's chapter 1 in the zombie guide, I found that the idea of goal setting is extremely important. For me, I need to clearly organize and focus my goals in order to succeed and see them through. Organizing and envisioning also allows for more than focused goals, there becomes much more room for creativity. If you make a plan, you see more things you can add to it. I really liked the idea of thinking about all aspects of your classroom. Beyond just how it may look, but how it will feel, and how students will be influenced and inspired by it.

Each individual students schema is one of the most important factors contributing to their education. This even includes my own as a teacher, and the schema of anyone working with another person. This can apply to both children, and adults alike. Knowing your audience, their needs, and experiences will allow you to better help them. Everyone has a different collection of knowledge, and there is nothing that makes one persons collection better than the other. One might be larger, or more extensive, but neither of these defects on ones ability to learn more or be more successful.

After watching Dr. Haskell's video on blowing up the grade book, I honestly felt inspired. I think it is incredibly true that the future of education is going to change drastically in the future, and our grading system should as well. The comment made about "Playing the game" I can relate to a lot, it was honestly my motto almost all through middle school and high school! Thinking more on this, you find some real problems in our current system. There were kids I knew that probably knew far more than I did, but were just not as skilled at "playing the game". This isn't fair, and a new way of learning is definitely needed. The one good thing that comes from our current system however, is actually the way we learn the game. Currently the teacher-student relationship is very similar to the boss-employee relationship, and I think there is value in understanding this type of situation very well. This being said though, I'm sure the passion of learning could be restored in students if game-style teaching was widespread. Lets blow up the grade book!

After watching Dr. Haskell's video on technology invention tools, there were many that I found very interesting. While teaching, connecting all of your iPads over bluetooth to your computer opens up a lot of really cool ideas. I really was drawn to the ideas addressed in the video, that a student from anywhere could be connected to what was happening in class. The augmented reality visualization tool was my particular favorite. It lets you use iPads to toggle and view an object that you don't have in real life, to be seen and experienced in 4D. This tool would be amazing for teaching science, and letting students explore things like cells, or electron levels, when the real 3D models aren't affordable or available. The hands on participation that students would take would really grab their attention, and enhance their understanding. It truly is "magical" as is said in the video.

CLASSROOM NETIQUETTE

Miss Kellie’s 8th Grade class online use

Participate: This is a shared learning environment. No lurking in the cyberspace background. It is not enough to login and read the discussion thread of others. For the maximum benefit to all, everyone must contribute.

Help Others: You may have more experience with online discussion forums than the person next to you. Give them a hand. Show them it’s not so hard. They’re really going to appreciate it!

Cite Your Sources: Another big must! If your contribution to the conversation includes the intellectual property (authored material) of others, e.g., books, newspaper, magazine, or journal articles—online or in print—they must be given proper attribution.

No YELLING! Step carefully. Beware the electronic footprint you leave behind. Using bold upper-case letters is bad form, like stomping around and yelling at somebody (NOT TO MENTION BEING HARD ON THE EYE).

Emoticons and Texting: Social networking and text messaging has spawned a body of linguistic shortcuts that are not part of the academic dialogue. Please refrain from :-) faces and c u l8r’s.