Olivialein's Blog

NETS, 21st Century Skills, Blooms Taxonomy

olivialein — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:12:03 +0000

NETS, 21st Century Skills and Blooms Taxonomy are all important aspects of being a good teacher. Twenty first century skills recommend higher level thinking. Higher level thinking is good because it consists of six different ways of learning information. There is remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. I believe that as a good teacher you need to reinforce what is taught in the classroom in ways other than just lecturing. When students apply what they learned to an activity and create a way in which they can use what they learn it is more likely to stick with them. NETS suggests collaborating and communicating. I think that the more ideas that come together about information that is learned, the more interesting and easy to understand it can become. When teachers collaborate ideas they have on teaching a certain subject, each teacher than has different ways of teaching the subject. This is good because some students learn in different ways than others. So the more ways you have to teach a subject the more likely all your students will understand the material.

second grade math review

olivialein — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:43:16 +0000

102+45= 147

there are 102 hot chocolates and your mom gives you 45 more, how many do you have?

All About Shift

olivialein — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:45:41 +0000

As I watch the YouTube video Shift Happens I realize that change is coming weather we like it or not. Learning is becoming more about knowing how to obtain inf0rmation rather than memorization, which is what many of us have been taught to do. In our world there will eventually be too much information for anyone to memorize, so it is important to know how to find answers rather then know them already. Other countries are becoming more and more able to take on our jobs and speak our language better than we are able to. We need to know how to be problem solvers rather than memorizers. New technologies come about everyday and like the video says we need to learn and be ready for jobs that we don’t even know exist yet. The way to do that is to be able to know where to go to learn about things and have your questions answered. We must advance into a new way of learning. Our world is constantly in motion and not just literally but figuratively there are always new things coming about and new things happening. In the video there is a statement about the New York Times that amazes me ” one week of New York Times is as much information as there was in the 18th Century”. To me this is amazing. For any teacher to believe that memorization is beneficial to learning at this point in time is wrong. We must learn and understand and be able to solve problems and reason if we are to be successful in the world the way it is progressing.

Challenges in the Classroom

olivialein — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:51:52 +0000

While technology is becoming more and more prevalent in society, integrating it into the classroom effectively could be an issue. As teachers we need to understand how the programs work in order to use them well, so taking classes to familiarize ourselves could be helpful. Also, when we do understand these technologies, it is important that the school system we are teaching in is up to date as to why and how technology should be incorporated. A lot of times you have older teachers who are set in their ways already and resist the idea of incorporating something they are not familiar with into the classroom. One way of alleviating this problem is to make an easily accessible website for teachers at the school that show how to go about doing a web activity step by step. Also, maybe having a blog on the website where teachers can share their ideas.
The technology we use in the classroom has to be manageable for the students at the level we are teaching. Teachers have to be active in the use of the technology while the students are using it so they can monitor what is going on. Essentially teachers need to make sure that there are no acts of plagiarism or anything else like that and that when in the classroom the web is being used for educational purposes rather than socializing with friend.

Technology in the classroom

olivialein — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:06:13 +0000

As I reflect back on the first Tech. in Ed. class, I realize there is a lot more to using technology in the classroom than I thought. The key is to do it effectively. Many teachers will do things such as web scavenger hunts but they will not allow for the student to use higher level thinking. The answers will simply be one word answers found in the text provided by the teacher. Hence the student is not required to use his or her brain to the fullest; they simply just skim the article and find the one word answer. I have learned to use higher order thinking as well as the National Educational Technology Standards. I have looked at two other blogs related to technology in the classroom. In the blog “What Does a 21st Century School Look Like?” I learned that many teachers are reluctant to using technology in the classroom and many are trying to make it a requirement so the teachers will be forced to use it. I am excited to get into the classroom so that I can effectively incorporate technology into my classes. In the blog “Beth’Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom,” I learned that it is indeed important to have technology because it helps us to improve many of our skills that are necessary in the 21st century. Skills such as communicating in a variety of media, responsible publishing, searching for vast information and criticaly thinking. I think it is important for students to have these skills because it will help them to learn and remember which is what Higher OrderThinking says we need.