My 21st Century Classroom

Welcome to Bob Anaya's 21st Centruy Classroom

 I believe that education is the way for a better tomorrow.

The video is a personal testament about a huge chapter in my life. It conveys key experiences that ultimately led to the pursuit of my true passion; becoming an educator, leader, and role model for today's youth. You can find my refelctions about completing this project by clicking HERE

Classroom Design 

My Personal Learning Network inside the 21st Century Classroom needs transparency, collaboration, student centered learning, accessibility, communication, inquiry based learning, and to promote authentic assessment. In the classroom you will see a Smartboard an interactive tool to be use during lecture and instruction. Students will be seated four per table and be able to contribute and participate after the lecture portion of class is complete. The computers will all have online capabilities and will be the nucleus of our research center of our classroom. When bringing all the research together and collaborating on a final project the students will convene at the kidney tables. All of which can be found within my classroom intended for second graders. 

Transparency - will be integrated into this second grade classroom by opening up to the world to students through online resources.Some of the tools that will be utilized are Skype, Youtube, and  Google Blogger.Through Skype there will be specific lessons and projects based on journeying to other classrooms through video conferencing. Ideally traveling to a second grade classroom of another city of another country like Tokyo, Japan. Second Graders will be provided the opportunity to discover the heritage and culture of an unfamiliar nation of people. The students will travel to this country 9,000 miles away almost instantly through the ability of online resources. Transparency will also be exhibited in the classroom by having a full functioning website through Google Blogger for students and parents to visit at any time. The website will include our syllabus, a weekly agenda, lunch menu,  key concepts and lessons. for the week . One special feature the website through the use of Youtube, students will have access to video review of lectures and instruction. The students will have access to videos feeds to help them with homework and preparing for assessment.

Collaboration - The job of the teacher does not stop when the bell rings. Being able to find social media outlets and using them to enhance your your lessons and activities it the key to becoming and remaining an effective and exciting  teacher. Using tools like Facebook., Twitter, Skype, and Celly are all methods of achieving great collaboration. Twitter and Facebook can be set up to make announcements and share resources, research, and ideas for upcoming projects. Celly a tool that virtually every parent can use since cell phones are so prevalent today, this is ideal to alert parents of emergencies and send reminders of due dates for long term assignments, it opens the door for parents to collaborate with students and teachers. The use of Skype will allow for the collaboration of teacher to teacher. It will open the door for other classrooms to be apart of other classrooms if not for just a lesson or two. The way for a Japanese classroom to visit our classroom successfully would take tremendous collaboration on the part of the two teachers attempting to put the lesson together. Issues of the language barrier would have to be addressed, the content of the material being presented to both sides, and the overall purpose and final product. All this collaboration would not be possible without the tools previously mentioned.

Communication based - Students will be encouraged to utilize Facebook., Twitter, Skype,and Google blogger, the same tools as the teacher, to communicate and create ideas. The process may take a few weeks to be implemented into the classroom so there will need to be some instructional time used to get the students familiar with and comfortable using all these new online communication media.  In the classroom it is important to research, create and share final projects. There will be a lot of group assignments that require students to share researched information and come together and create a final project. After the final project is polished and ready to be presented it is important to share with everyone. It is not enough to just be presented orally in class. It is necessary to share the projects online so they can be discussed and expanded upon in the future. Each member needs to contribute equally, to make sure this happens each student will need to blog about each assignment. Blogging is not to extensive since they are second graders, I just want to know their role and thoughts about the project. Utilizing these tools and finishing these assignments will better these students for years to come.  

Routines and Rituals

The rituals and routines will address inquiry based learning by providing students a routine of group activities intended for discovery and understanding. Group activities will challenge students to go forth and seek out information and knowledge. Students will have the opportunity to use all five sense to obtain the research they need to complete final projects. It is up to me to provide a list of questions for the students, ones that will require them to use the internet and other research tools to answer. Students will also be encouraged to ask questions, if they discover something they think may be on the right path I will continue their path, or redirect their path towards the content they need to be researching. This infuses critical thinking back into the classroom, something that has been missing for sometime now with the overall commitment to having students memorize information for certain state exams. It is up to me as a teacher to infuse a new routine of technology based, critical thinking projects and assignments so students become better doers and thinkers. 

This routine of specialized group activities will promote authentic assessment. Students will be tested not just quiz scores and essay tests but be able to provide a product that could improve our daily lives. Students provided with the opportunity to solve real problems today will be able to go on and solve bigger problems that may arise tomorrow. Through a routine of multiple critical thinking projects students will able to develop the skill of thinking and doing on their own. The students will be tested on presentation and production of final products. It takes time to put a quality product together, through the use of blogging students will be able to reflect upon their experience and gain an understanding of the task at hand. So in the end students can be assessed on use of class time, presentation, final project, and reflection. This in turn will take away from students having to cram for exams and hopefully develop time management skills.

Instructional Glimpse

Precipitation

Students will learn the cycle of precipitation, different kinds of precipitation and different kinds of clouds in the sky. They will answer the questions Why is it important to our existence? What happens due to the lack of precipitation, and give an example in history when it became a problem... too much or too little.

This lesson is intended for all students in the second grade class. There will be brief introduction and lecture while students sit at the student tables. Graphics and pictures will be shown on the Smartboard to further enhance the lesson being taught. We will go over the types of clouds and the cycle of precipitation. The questions to be asked during lecture will be the different types of precipitation;rain, sleet, snow, hail etc. The type of research and discovery is the concept of too much and too little precipitation.Hopefully the discussion of devastating weather, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, comes up during the lesson if not I as the teacher will open up the discussion.Students will have to distinguish the difference between them and which are caused by precipitation and which aren’t. To further the lesson students will report on their effects and find  a time in history that this occurred and the effects it had on the environment. Students will be permitted to use the computers, library, and teacher as resources. 

The students will be assessed on their presentation of droughts and floods, and presenting a time in history when droughts caused slowed food growth, famines, record setting precipitation causing floods or record setting snowfall etc.

My Technology Integration

Technology will be integrated through various facets of social media. There will be multiple lessons through the use of Skype. I plan on having lessons using the teleconferencing tool by traveling to other classrooms in the United States and even other countries. Through the use of Facebook and Twitter students can collaborate and share ideas and research instantly to take discovery outside the classroom. Various computer programs can be used to make polished and impressive final projects. Students will be encouraged to use PowerPoint and Presi to create their presentations. The use of the SmartBoard will be used to enhance and promote student participation during lessons, lectures and instruction during class. Students will have the access to computers to access Google and complete research and discovery in a timely manner. Google blogger will be infused into the final product so students can reflect on lessons and discoveries during class.

PLN

Personal Learning Network to expand and grow as a teacher I will have to learn from other teachers using similar methods and tools in their classroom. As a learner I need to be searching for new ideas and tools to use in the classroom. Through the media outlets Facebook and Twitter I can find other teachers finding new ways to reach students and enhance lessons. I can communicate with them to gain new ideas and perspectives on enhancing and adding excitement to my own lessons. Through the use of Skype I can collaborate with other willing teachers to combine classes and see how other classes run. Also, I can possibly introduce my students to new cultures and heritages. Instead of showing students a video from 1998 on what it’s like to tour China, we can actually go inside another classroom and verbally communicate (if language barriers permit) with Chinese students and ask questions in real time. All these ideas promote the expansion of Personal Learning Networks and allow me to grow and learn as a teacher to enhance and enrich the learning experiences for my own students.

Feed Back

Annotated Bibliography 

"Build Private Communication Networks Exchange Group Messages, Polls, Reminders, and AlertsMembers Join with One Text." Celly. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://cel.ly/>.

"Classroom Architect." Classroom Architect. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://classroom.4teachers.org/>.

"Find Lesson Plans for Your SMART Board and Connect with Teachers." Lesson Plans and Resources for Your SMART Board. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://exchange.smarttech.com/>.

"Free Skype Internet Calls and Cheap Calls to Phones Online - Skype." Skype. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home/>.

Richardson, Will, and Rob Mancabelli. Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2011. Print.

"Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More." Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://www.facebook.com/>.

"Welcome to Twitter." Twitter. Web. 08 May 2012. <http://twitter.com/>.