Learner - To me as a learner O.E.R. means a new way to discover the contributions of other teachers. Teachers have been using this resource to share with others for over ten years. Some of the O.E.R's I found were very informative and could be utilized to help teachers create their own lessons. There is a wide variety of O.E.R's out there spanning almost every grade level and every subject.
Student - As a student this tool will help me start to formulate my own lesson plans to bring into a classroom someday. As i move through the remaining courses geared towards my major, I can use O.E.R's to assist me in creating final products and projects when ever it my be applicable to future courses. It is worth sometime to read and discover the different methods and lesson created by other teacher. There was a lot of time spent creating these O.E.R's and worth consideration when taking on any new assignment to find out what lesson plan had already been created.
Teacher - As a teacher I can use O.E.R's to help form lessons and form the curriculum for a given classroom, the resources are so detailed and descriptive it leaves out a lot of guess work in filling in the holes. That may also be the problem, a lot of teachers may just use these O.E.R's and not give it their own personal touch. It could create for some complacent teachers, just regurgitating the same thing over and over making the classroom dull and unexciting for students.
The visual essay project was a great opportunity to learn a new tool, I used the free photo story program to complete the project. It was simple to use and I can easily see how I can infuse this program into lessons after becoming a school teacher. Being able to make the videos available to students in a centralized location would add another dimension to my classroom. Animated stories, various subjects review, projects and assignments could all be incorporated in the academic success of all students. The virtually anytime access to these videos allows students to view and review all posted assignments whenever they choose. The simplicity of the program allowed to me complete my first use of the program in a small amount of time. Not only learning a new program I can easily use in the classroom, it reinforced the reason and motivation of wanting to return to the classroom as a teacher. I have a lot to learn still and will always keep an open mind to new and exciting ideas, this project defiantly open my eyes to new ideas and opportunities in the enhancement of my future classroom.
This is my personal Visual Essay, the assignment reassured me of my decision to become a teacher. It is a personal story with some of my life experiences. It made me realize that I am on the correct career path, it offered some motivation to continue along in my journey
I believe that education is the way for a better tomorrow and has been a passion of mine for quite sometime. I wanted to become a teacher many years ago. This story is going to tell you a little about my past and the series of events that lead to the ultimate decision of my career choice of becoming a teacher. The day I knew I wanted to become a teacher was over seven years ago. I remember the scenario like it was yesterday. It was a cool summer afternoon one of my buddies was throwing a party out on his 10 acre farm. We as city folk always saw my buddy’s farm as a place to party, somewhere that our parents couldn't reach us due to the lack of cell phone signal and distance away from the inner city. I at the time had turned twenty-one that past winter. During this one particular outing there seemed to be an abnormal amount of young children attending this party. As all the other adults let their children run around aimlessly in this huge field, I found myself amused of these children’s energy and pursuit of happiness. Their laughter and excitement was not due to the consumption of alcohol or reminiscence of old times. Those fifteen to twenty kids where running around having fun due to being free and living in the moment, playing whatever spontaneous game they had been playing at that time. Their ages must of ranged from eight to fifteen years old. I had found a football a few feet away from where they had been playing. I decided it was time for me to introduce these children the wonderful game of football. It was when I gathered them all up and asked who had played the game before over half of them raised their hand; I was pleasantly surprised by their answer. So the game began, the rules were those of a typical football game accept as opposed to tackling we played to hand tag, to bring a play to an end. I put myself the all-time QB position, this means I played quarterback for both teams. I was drawing up passing plays and run plays on the fly and led each team to touchdowns almost every drive. The kids loved it and embraced playing this game we had played for over two hours before the game ended. It was playing this game that I realized I had the most fun, not drinking and goofing around with all the other drinkers at the party. It was then I realized teaching kids was a career I wanted to pursue, Although it was a distant dream because at the time I had a two year-old son and a full-time job, better than most, and paid the bills.
The day came where I lost my job, for over nine years I gave a lot of my life to this company and to just let me go like they did was really devastating for me. Now at the age of twenty-six years old I was jobless and in panic, how will I pay my bills, how will I support my family? Luckily, I had qualified for unemployment which allowed me to take some time to figure out my next career move. A few weeks of being jobless I had been invited to my good friend’s bachelor party. It was at a Buffalo Niagara casino where I got in to an in-depth conversation about teaching with a high school teacher from McDowell. We talked for a few hours walking up and down the aisles of the slot machines at the casino. I had told him about my story of the football game and a few of the things I believed about education and what teaching is all about. He told me that teaching is something I should pursue, and gave me the confidence, that made me knew that I fit the mold and had the passion to become a great teacher. It was then I realized if I could do what I wanted to do for the rest of my life it would be teaching. After some long discussions with my wife and our future together, we decided that school was a real possibility. So here I am today, taking courses here at Edinboro, working a part time job. Taking care of two kids, a six years old son and a one year old daughter, and I couldn’t be happier.
The tool I selected is a website called LeeSummit.k12. It is geared towards Early Childhood teachers to assist them in creating inter-active lessons. This sight is full of tools pertaining to the following elements of a childhood classroom, general ideas, animals, body parts and senses, colors, food, and shapes just to name a few. There is a little exploring to be done to find which link will help you in creating a lesson. There are many possibilities when creating a multitude of lessons for the kids ranging from Pre-school to up to 2nd grade.
There are some tools that could make your lesson interactive, and there are some ideas for creating lessons around. It is a huge collection of ideas and interactive activities that will boost the engagement level for all students. If there are students that are becoming disinterested and bored with the class a teacher could accommodate these students by providing more challenging tasks and activities by utilizing some of the tools found on the site. In turn, the site can accommodate students struggling with certain lessons. The beauty of this tool is that it can span a multitude of different age groups and skill levels. The overall generality of the site helps the teacher find ideas and activities pertaining to almost every subject covered in class.
This blog is taking a look at
online classes and traditional classes, the advantages and disadvantages of
each. Education had been evolving forever, more so ever since the technological
boom of the past couple decades. Where once a few Apple computers in the back
of the room where something to behold to the point where we don’t even need a
classroom to conduct class, how long will it be before we don’t even need to
leave the house to gain a college degree, or can we already accomplish it?
Online Learning Benefits
Online classes allow for education
in distant or disadvantaged locations. It provides students an easy and
convenient way to gain access to homework, course material, exams, and
progress. The easy access is provided by just an average internet connection
and a typical run-of-the-mill personal computer. Since the course information
is usually accessible and transferred electronically via E-mail, it is possible
for tasks to be completed at any time.
Communication is based on simply
sending and receiving e-mail, providing a simple way to communicate with the teacher
and other students. Classes that provide chat sessions regularly for students
give them the opportunity to interact with each other about a certain subject in
turn enhancing the overall learning experience. Making the student become technically aware of
different outlets of communication could eventually benefit them by being able
to apply this knowledge to situations in the work place.
Online Learning Disadvantages
Online
classes take away from personal face-to-face social interaction a traditional
classroom can provide. The lack of social interaction can inhibit a social
skill which is a necessary skill in most all jobs in the work place, especially
in teaching which applies to most of the readers of this blog. The chance of
making new friends is limited during online chat sessions. People are more opt
to becoming friends meeting someone face-to-face and carrying a personal conversation
as opposed to typing messages back and forth to someone miles away.
Traditional Learning Benefits
Now this
may be a disadvantage to some but I feel as if it is an advantage: Traditional
classrooms make you be somewhere on time. This maybe an inconvenience to some
but I feel as if this teaches discipline and responsibility which are important
attributes when pursuing a career in teaching. They give you a chance for
one-on-one social interaction speaking with real humans and not in an electronically
designed “chat room” or E-mail. Social interaction in the class room is
important even for the most timid student .Getting people to break away from their
comfort zone (I once heard) helps people learn and gain different perspectives.
Traditional Learning Disadvantages
Having
to buy the text books for a traditional classroom is a burden on a student’s
wallet, whereas online courses, the material readily available for download and
found in a centralized location. We all have professors we don’t like,
traditional classrooms force you to see that teacher and take the class for an
entire term (if you miss the drop period). Online classes you may never see the
teacher. The more timid students are able to get there ideas across more effectively
in an online setting because the anxiety of speaking up and in front of people
is not existent.
Some of the disadvantages to some
may actually be advantages to others, depending upon student preferences (quiet
versus outgoing). Some of the advantages may actually be disadvantages, (maybe it’s
best for a timid student to be forced into a classroom and interact with
others) the student may not like it but in the long run better off gaining some
social skills.
There is no real evidence of the effectiveness
of online classes being better, equivalent, or less than that of traditional classes.
The proof just isn’t there yet that online classes educate better than
traditional classes. I believe it has something
to do with your own personal learning preferences. I’ve noticed while attending
Edinboro more classes are putting more content online and utilizing D2L. I’ve
never taken an online class and some of the views I have may lean towards
traditional over online. I have taken some classes where it would be considered
a traditional (be here Monday ,Wednesday, Friday for lecture) but all the work was found and turned in online,
making it an infusion of both. Shouldn’t the evolution of future classes lie somewhere
in middle?
I can see how Twitter can be used as a method for
communication to students in a classroom, as far as educating students, not so
sure. I have had a Twitter account for a while now but have not immersed myself
in it as some others. I am not totally aware of all its capabilities, I am new
to hash tags and I don’t tweet as frequently as others do. I have had my
twitter account for over a year and have posted a total of four times, all
about sport. I was first intrigued by twitter to follow various sports figures
and writers but lost interest fairly quickly, due to more informative content
on other websites. As with other forms of communication on the web, I can see
the possibilities of becoming a more effective teacher. A teacher can post a
homework assignment, or deliver various websites in an instant to students that
maybe be having trouble with a homework assignment. Teachers could also update
the students on future lesson plans and post reminders and reviews for upcoming
assignments or exams.
I don’t think it would be fair to
fully rely on twitter for teacher delivery; the same sources of information
should be made available in the classroom and possibly on another social
network. Also student should not be punished if the teacher posts an assignment
only on twitter and only few complete the assignment. Twitter one of many ways
to create a “social network” between students and teachers and I believe it
would be most effective if only one was used. Opening all the doors to all the social
networks can become confusing and over whelming. If twitter we’re to work out
there should be a training session and made clear what exactly twitter will be
used for. We also have to assume that everyone has the internet and online capabilities
and this may not be true for every student walking through the door. As an elementary
school teacher I see it being more difficult infusing twitter into a classroom
as opposed to students in high school.
The PowerPoint project was a bit confusing at first. I was fimiliar with the older version and took a little while to get to using the newest version. One I figured out how to complete the simple tasks on makung it a "fun and creative" presentation it went along fluently. The creattions that can be made using PowerPoint are endless but should not be the main focal point in the lesson. PowerPoint should be part of teaching, not the Teacher itself.
I have
finished the first chapter of the Personal Learning Networks book. Will
Richardson and Rob Mancabelli really want to drive the point home that the old
way of learning is out and the new way, infused with technology, is the way of
the changing world. They go on to describe the six shifts supporting connection
and network building, all of which I tend to agree with. The one thing that is
going to have to remember is Isolated to Connected. In a sense we can become
isolated by being connected all the time. A perfect personal experience of
isolation by being connected occurred at the mall just the other day. While
walking around the mall a majority of the shoppers had their cell phone out
either texting, or on Facebook updating a status, it is not necessarily a bad
thing and only goes to show that world is connected all the time. We just have
to remember to unplug every once in a while.
The
tools are now readily available to become more connected with the people around
us, as students and teachers it has never been easier to contact or make a
connection outside the classroom. From Facebook to Skype, and Twitter to My
Space, it has never been easier to make yourself heard. The chapter does make a
good point but fails to elaborate on the subject and that is the idea of being
able to trust everything that is out there on the internet. Student and teachers
alike have to be cautious of accessible content and not cross moral boundaries
when searching for knowledge. It states that students are responsible for their
own education; well for the older student that is true but the younger students
I believe it is up to the teacher to share the burden of responsibility of
education.
All in
all I am open and willing to incorporate a learning network into a classroom in
the future. I am excited to learn and find out more about the possibilities to
advance the learning experience. I do have a grasp on technology but have a lot
to learn about setting up Personal Learning Networks. It seems as if future
teachers are going to have to embrace technology and incorporate it in to the
classroom, but we have to be mindful that it stays a valuable tool and not
distraction. All though there are a lot
of connections to made and technology has always been interesting to me we all have to remember to unplug and
take a break from it once in a while.
I am Robert Anaya but I go by Bob. I currently attend Edinboro University and am aspiring to become an Elementary School teacher. I was born and raised in Erie and graduated from Collegiate Academy way back in 2002. My wonderful family includes my wife Jessica and two beautiful children Xavier and Addison. Xavier is six years old and is in kindergarten, Addison was born just this past April and will be ten months in February. I am perusing a career in teaching because my passion lies within helping children gain knowledge and a sense of unity. I am a sports fan and believe that by working together we can achieve more, especially in the classroom. "There is no I in team". Presenting a team effort attitude to the classroom brings acceptance of diversity and a sense of helping each other up when one may fall.
