Reflections

Taking the time to reflect on the type of teacher I have been as well as the type of teacher I would like to become gives me anxiety! Twitter feeds me so many great ideas, time in the day limits the depth in which I can explore each. Latest idea of flipped class seems as if it may answer so many questions. The big one, What do I do about students who don't do homework? Do the homework in class. Project Based Learning is another piece of the classroom in which I am diving into head first. I am ready to further push the students to become active learners, to learn for themselves and not for a grade, to know enough to ask the higher level questions, to   be able to discover that knowledge in a manner in which they have never done before. Step out of their comfort  zone -- DESIRE TO LEARN!  I recently turned the page and now have all seniors and juniors at Starmont signed up on twitter; this even seems archaic at this point, as if they all should have been signed up years ago. But, for our rural district, I am pretty dang excited that ALL of them are signed up and are following each other. Currently, we are just using it as a medium for research, but would really like to see that change. Asking each student to create an educational twitter site may be too much -- how is that handled? See, one paragraph and my mind is already just bouncing around!

Blogging assignments, having online conversations, using Moodle for class format, incorporating Facebook to create collaborating tools for a PBL in American History. The amazing thing is that EVERYONE was engaged; off task behavior was incredibly minimal. We have spent nearly one week just PLANNING the research -- they are going through Bloom's taxonomy websites/links as well as the 7 learning style project ideas to brainstorm various ways to not only demonstrate their knowledge but to GAIN their knowledge