Blog Reflection #4

There would be a major impact on students if a project ended by just ceasing work without any of the things that were talked about in chapter 9. I say this because there would not be any wrap up for the students. The students, and maybe the teachers, would not really know if the objectives that the students were suppose to accomplish were ever achieved. Teachers need to give students feedback on what they worked on so everyone can justify or discuss their thinking on what the students learned. Also, it validates the reasons why the students had to do the assignment. It also benefits the teachers. Because in the chapter 9 it talked about how the teacher is the coach in this environment, he/she is often involved in the biggest struggles and problems. It is easy for the teacher to lose sight of the learning that has taken place. After every online student summit teachers exclaim later in the teacher forum how much their students learned and how much joy it was to hear the students share. It also is good to listen to the students perspectives because the teacher can listen to what the student says and then ask himself/herself "Did the student have the outcome I was planning for? Did the students have frustrations that I can prevent? Were these frustrations important for their learning process? This helps students and teachers have ongoing improvements. These ongoing improvements help teachers know what they need to work on (scaffold) with their students. It also is a great assessment tool that all teachers need to know how to do before the 1st day of school. Personal reflection, celebration, and feedback are an essential for students. If a teacher instructs his/her students to do any type of work then the teacher needs to take time out of his/her busy day to look over and provide feedback for each of his/her students.

Blog Reflection #3

There are many reasons for giving students choices in their learning. If a student is interested in what they are working on, then they are more apt to have authentic learning. In all the classes that I have observed since I have graduated high school, I have noticed that most students preform better showing what they know in different ways/forms. For example, instead of making a student write a paper a teacher can allow their students to create some type of presentation such as a prezi, powerpoint, or something along those lines. Students can also create a movie or write a song about what all the student has learned. Giving students choices leads to more student engagement. As a teacher, student engagement is one thing we strive for our students to have. Having different choices in their learning also makes students better problem solvers. This will make students enjoy school more and help them in becoming lifelong learners. These choices will help teachers cut down on lectures and allow students to be more creative in their learning in school. 
As a teacher, we should make sure that students have these choices and that differential instruction is a good thing for a teacher to have in their classroom.

Chapter 6 Guided Question

As a future teacher leader I can use Twitter in my classroom so that I am “visible” online while contributing meaningful content in conjunction with others around the world. I can participate in online chats on Twitter that enhance my teaching in the classroom. I can connect with educators around the world and collaborate and learn best practices used in education. This will allow me to continue to grow as a learner and hopefully help others in their learning. Twitter also allows documentation for my administrators and parents for what is being taught in my room throughout the school year. Twitter is effective for developing PLNs and becoming more knowledgeable in areas that one may need to work on. Twitter is an excellent way to stay current with education practices today. I know teachers that use Twitter on a daily basis “tweeting” about what is happening that day on their classroom. I also know that most of the teachers that use Twitter follow professional educators and incorporate their learning into their classroom. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved.   

Feedly - Good or Bad?

1. What do you think about Feedly? Do you find it useful?

I personally thought that Feedly was very useful. I liked all the different RSS feeds that I could click on and read about all the interesting things that they had to say. I believe as a future teacher, I would want my students using Feedly to stay updated on certain things that we could be discussing in class.

      2. From your reading of your feeds, did you learn anything that you used in your future classroom? Provide an example or two.

I learned a ton by just going through the 10 RSS feeds and skimming the posts. One of the blog posts I read that stood out most to me was the post "1 Easy, Fun Way To Ignite A Love Of Reading." This post was about how a mother got her kids to love reading by reading a book to them while on a car ride. She said that she would start reading them a book, Chronicles of Narnia, and right when her kids got super interested in the book she made up an excuse and stopped reading it out loud to them. She said that it drove her kids crazy, so she would tell them to "finish it themselves" (cue the mom pulling out 2 sets of the same book to her children that she "so happen" to have in her bag). I believe this is a great idea. I am a big reader, but my brothers aren't. I grew up always being by my mom's side and she always encouraged me to read when I had free time. Even today, I will grab a good book and go lay out outside rather than listening to music or taking a nap (not that those are bad things). I believe it is great to love to read and that all students need to love to read. Being a reader is a big part of becoming a lifelong learner and that is one thing I will strive for my students to become before they leave my classroom.

       3. Where did you comment? Did you get any response when you commented?

I commented on blogs from the RSS feeds from: TheCoolCatTeacher (1 Easy, Fun Way To Ignite A Love Of Reading), Edudemic (Play Nice! How to Promote Digital Inclusion and Stop Cyberbullying),
and 2 cents (What Would You Like To Be Doing?). 

So far I haven't gotten any comments from anyone about my viewpoints on the blogs, but I only posted a few hours ago so there is still time!