Chapter 6 journals

It is important to remember that all children have not always been exposed to problem based learning. They may be from different cultures or places where this is not the primary way to learn. In fact, many of these children may not have the language skills to succeed in this type of environment.

Our problem based learning needs to:
involve learners in gaining and organizing knowledge of content
include communication and collaboration
contain specific objectives that must be met along they way in order to solve the bigger problem

I also see now that discussion is not the only way to communicate and for children to learn. As teachers, our focus should be on our children working and learning to solve problems and grasping the content of what they are learning. In order to this, we need to integrate reading and writing instead of just discussion. These tasks are shown to “ encourage students to think about issues and contextualize their thinking practice.”

- Chapter 6 also stresses not to do things that the students can do for themselves. In fact, the shift between responsibility from the teacher to the student can be part of the learning process for the student. Allowing them to create the rubric, control the mouse, write on the smart board, or develop the questions for the assignment can not only allow the students to be interactive in the lesson, but also allow them to work through the problems and hopefully lead to success of grasping the content without just reading it from a book or listening to the teacher tell about it.

Problem Scenario #1

I think the most valuable thing the students will take away from this lesson is truly understanding the effects of their pollution on the environment. It can become easy when reading directly from the textbook to forget that what we are reading about is directly affecting where we live and not just the area mentioned in the textbook. I believe by allowing the children to use computers, they are able to explore not only the area in which they live in, but areas around the world, taking into consideration factors such as climate or population and seeing how pollution is dependent on those as well as resource depletion. For this project, I believe Amy should facilitate for her class to choose certain regions of the world to explore. She could go so far as to link her classroom to another class around the world. They could explore what the current situation is in their classrooms, schools, and communities is as far as pollution is concerned. Then, they could give each other options on how to fix it or programs which may work for their schools and communities. These could be communicated on programs such as skype and twitter, and students could also use programs such as glogster to create posters and presentations to show how they are doing the programs and what could be done differently, etc.
I chose to use these technologies because I believe each one provides a unique way for students to express individuality in projects, as well as communicate simply and effectively to people in other areas and in their classrooms. Using Twitter, the students could post in real time what projects they were doing and where it was located at. They could give minute by minute postings on how well the projects were going and if any of their efforts in trying to fix pollution and resource depletion was working. They could also easily share with others at their school ways in which they could get involved or how they can help make the project an even greater success. Using Skype, students could communicate with other classrooms around the world or around the country who are interested in doing the same project. They could share ideas, share what worked or didn't work, or even show the other class their project in action as it is really happening. I also think Glogster would be effective for the students to use because they could show other schools or their own schools and community how this project worked through these online posters and links. I believe it truly helps with involvement when people can see their efforts or money is truly going to something that will better not only them individually but the community and future generations as a whole. I believe the most important part of the lesson is for children to understand how much of an impact they have on the environment. By seeing or being in contact with people around the world or the country may make them realize even more that if we all work together and do our part, which we can see with the use of technology, things can change for the better like they want. It also teaches the children how the processes are also interrelated.

Technology Matrix

My example explores the active adaptation part of the matrix. In middle school, I clearly remember doing projects for social studies classes that allowed us to take a topic from our unit and present it and teach the class in any way that we saw fit. When learning Georgia history in 8th grade, we were studying the unit on slaves and Antebellum days. We were allowed to use any teaching method which we felt fit best. My group members and I wrote a script including slaves, owners, and the members of the family and how we thought this process affected each part of them. I feel as though we were independently using tools and exploring the topics in a way that was the most interesting to us.

My classroom

This is the classroom I designed for my high school Family and consumer Sciences class. I have targeted a class of about 16 or 17 students simply because this class is taken by choice so the class sizes tend to be smaller. Fortunately, home economics classrooms have multiple materials and needs so the size of the rooms tend to be much larger. Therefore, I had a little bit more room to work with.

One of the greatest feature in the room is the computer tables and computers in the center of the room. These computers can be used by the students to conduct research, look up recipes, create recipes, and complete projects for the class. There are not enough computers for every student in the class to use at one time, which I did on purpose in order to have the students engaged in different activities. One of the ways I learned the best in the classroom was when I was taught by other students. I plan to implement that same technique in my classroom. While some students will be researching our unit on the computer, the others are doing hands-on activities at our cooking stations or at the media center in the other corner of the room. In order to engage those learners who identify well with games, I have placed game consoles in the classroom which can be used to play games designated for things like cooking techniques and learning and converting measurements.

The classroom also has 2 flat screen televisions, which can each be used by the students to display their projects and have other students interact using games or other teaching tools. There is also a projector screen located there for use by me to present power points or to demonstrate things for the entire class.

I decided to use the red and black theme in the classroom because it is my favorite color combination. I also think that keeping the colors simple and basic allows the students to focus on what they are trying to learn rather than what is all over the walls or hanging from the ceiling. It also keeps clean up easier in the stations, especially in the kitchen.

I believe that, in a class such as this, students are constantly doing hands on activities or preparing to do projects because most of the material cannot be taught from a textbook or from internet sites. Therefore, I tried to create an environment that was easy to move around in and easy for the students to interact with one another and do group work in an organized, spacious classroom.

Journal 2

1. As a student during this current era, I feel as though I am a digital native. I have been acclimated with current technological programs such as Microsoft Excel, Word, and other programs used to create documents. I wouldn't have known how to use these had I not been taught in computer classes in school, though. I feel for older generations or students from schools who didn't receive the funding my school did because they didn't receive the instruction I did and are having to teach themselves how to use these or read instruction manuals.

4. While I am sure these teachers in P-12 are still using hands on activities to teach their classes, I specifically remember doing these hands on activities in class and many of them are still stuck with me. Many of the songs we learned or things we memorized helped me learn more than I believe watching a video would have. However, I believe as technology is advancing, children who are born with all of these advances of technology already in place, they need to be engaged with more advanced technology in the classroom. It is also encouraging and helpful for teachers to give ideas or options to other teachers who may not be able to think of good ideas or innovative ways to teach their lessons.