Moving to the Partnering Pedagogy

I really like the idea of partnering with your students, making them feel more like equals while guiding them with questions and discussion. I think it would increase their respect for you as a teacher, which in turn would increase the work they put into the assignments. It's just like in the workplace, employees that are treated with respect work harder and are more productive. I plan on teaching high school and I think setting up my classroom in small groups will be very beneficial to this concept. Working in small groups, and changing those groups up occasionally, should allow them to discuss topics among themselves and give each student a chance to lead the discussion. I'm excited about where this is going and I'm anxious to see how it works in the classroom.

Podcasts and Vodcasts

Wow what a class on Saturday! Prior to this class I was a little intimidated by podcasts and vodcasts but I had so much fun creating them with my group I left the class feeling energetic and inspired about what I could do with them. I'm sure the humor my group found while working on our activities in class had a little to do with my relief but I also am encouraged about the possibilities of where technology can take you. I can definitely see where a vodcast could tie into the classroom. A great idea that my group came up with is the possibility of bringing the outside world into the classroom. I know I've said before that I'm from a small town and funding is limited in the schools. To be able to bring a trip to the zoo, or the aquarium or the space museum into the class so that students aren't missing out on those educational types of field trips would be amazing. For those schools that are really too far from any sort of cultural education, it would be pretty great to incorporate it into the everyday curriculum.

Partnering in the Classroom

When I think back to when I was in school and the level of interaction between my teachers and my mom, I'm a little amazed at how different the classroom is today. Even in my daughter's class, who's in first grade, there seems to be so much more effort on behalf of her teacher to keep me informed on how she's doing. If she's had a bad week I can expect to receive a note in her bag discussing what's going on and what my husband and I can do at home to help. I appreciate that so much. Granted,we live in a small town, there's 10 kids in her class, and she only goes to school 4 days a week, but if teachers everywhere are making that kind of effort I feel good about our education system and where it's going. The same goes for in the classroom. I remember getting in trouble for getting out of my seat or talking in class and now it's encouraged! I can only explain it as "controlled chaos" when it's allowed  in first grade and kuddos to any teacher that can contain order and encourage learning at the same time!!

Blogs

So I'm just getting my first blog done. When I first set it up I was in class and using Internet Explorer and for some reason when I got home I couldn't open my blog, I couldn't even open blogger.com. Thanks to our fearless leader I was able to pinpoint the problem and am finally able to start blogging. Apparently, Internet Explorer was trying to connect to the NMSU server, even from my house which is 150 miles away. I tried opening it in Google Chrome and everything seems to be working fine. What to take away from this lesson? Try different search engines!

Now on to the subject at hand, blogging. Prior to this class I knew what blogging was but I had no interest in it whatsoever. My group had the first in class presentation and I have to admit, I was a little nervous about what I could bring to the group since I had the least amount of experience in the classroom and blogging. I think the presentation went well and I learned a lot. I was amazed at the different avenues you, as a teacher, could incorporate blogging into the classroom. My favorite one was the WebQuest blog. What a fun and interactive lesson for the students!

I hope you enjoyed this blog, see you next week!