SlideShare - Changes in Georgraphy

With the exploration of slideshare I've discovered a new way to help my students make presentation and be able to post them online. The positive about slideshare is also that while I'm in the class I'm able to take pictures of what the students are doing in the classroom and its another way to share this. It's a great way for parents to take a look at my blog to see how their children are doing and what they are learning about. With the fact for these kinds of activities it's very important for teachers to make sure they are getting the consent of the parents before they are able to post pictures.

A great thing about taking pictures of the activities and the work is that you're able to do this without even having to take pictures of the students faces. It's extremely easy to take the pictures of the students from behind, and just take pictures of the work that they are doing. Being able to do this helps keep the students privecey if that is what what the parents asks for.

There are many different ways to use technology to teach students, and with voicethread you are able to stories and students can all recored themselves talking, and they can put together soemthing really neat by themselves. Teaching powerpoint for students is a lot of fun because the students will learn all the cool things they can do everytime they use it. Practice is the key, and by the students learning how to do SlideShare by themselves they are able to learning more about PowerPoint and another technology resource.

My SlideShare powerpoint that I put loaded was more in an example of something a student could do on a certain subject. I picked my stubject to be about How the geography has changed over time. While a student would research this subject they will start to be learning various information that stupports their TEKs in different subjects. For example on my presentation I learned about the Georgraphy, and how it has changed and what caused it. I found a graph so I had to be able to read it, to be able to see the changes. Graphs are introduced in math, but thy carry over to every subjects for example history, and science. Language Arts and comprehension was very important, because I had to be able to understand all of the information that I was reading and draw conclusions. Learning about the glaciers melting is a big part of science, as students will have to be able to comprehend what is actually going on.

Helpful Websites

There are various websites that can help teachers in the classroom in all types of different research, learning about these and the effective ways to help students with learning effective research is the key to success. Personally I know that when I have projects to do, it becomes so much easier when I figure out where to look for things up at, and how. For students this process can be very frustrating! I used my Essential and Unit based questions, while also looking up the TEKs to help me research various sites to see what was useful. As we have also been using Blogger to help us, in using the resource effectively, some of the websites I included were blogs, and many of them include links to other wonderful resources!! While researching I also took the opportunity to just look around to see what search engines were helpful for students. Please take the opportunity to read and learn what I found was effective and I've attached my Works Cited. This way you print this document to have your own personal copy of these websites, and what the websites entail.

Blogs in my Future Class/David Warlock

Blogs to me are similar to the modern day newsletter that is usually sent home to a student for their parent to read. Now as more people are trying to "go green," blogs can be very useful as they save paper! It can be helpful for High School teachers to put helpful information for students to look on to help them with projects that they might have. Or as students are preparing for college, helping both the parent and the students looking for scholarships, grants, volunteer opportunities, and etc. It is also something that can be used positively in the summers and during winder breaks as students can look up good books they might wants to read, or various "things" just to keep them busy, and out of trouble.

I plan on working with Special Needs students in a Special Education Classroom, and the more that I think about what a blog is the more I'm considering immediately making it something that I start using at my first school. It can be something where on my weekends or during the weeks I can make post about what has been working in the class and what hasn't been working. This information will help me, make note of this information so say 5 years from now I don't keep making my mistakes. It will also be just as usefully for my coworkers can get on and make notes about what they think, about what I say is going on. Eventually what I'm aiming for is to where I can make it to where all the teachers in the district are able to get on and make notes and comments. Everyday we learn something new, and I want Blogger to be something where it becomes so positive in the classroom. I plan on updating it as I search online for various websites that have helped me come up with creative ways to help my students further their knowledge, and I hope that all the positive feedback that I get on my will help other teachers, that are in the same position as me.

Reading various blogs is very effective - it's almost like reading a newspaper. As I was reading David Warlock's 2 Cents' blog I found this part about "More on What Matters..." to be really interesting! He is talking about why students are doing better now a days in school and how it is said that it is because of the new establishments of technology. He says..

We are just now starting to pay attention and to understand some of what our students are doing, but it still looks like technology to us. We see the machines, because we’re looking in from the outside. To them, it’s the information.

I believe he is right, as students are starting to be monitored better, and finding ways to help them with what they are struggling in - it is easy to say it's just the technology which it isn't. He does a wonderful job with adding in the videos as he explains what he is talking about to make it seem almost like we are talking face to face with him. It's a wonderful blog although it might seem overwhelming if it isn't read on a daily basis because there is so much to read on it!

Inquiry and Project-Based Learning

The process of learning is probably something that most, if not the majority, of people don't think about that they do on a daily basis. But there are two important various types of learning, that if we are able to understand the easier it will be for our students to be able to become more effective in the classroom.

Inquiry-Based Learning is the means in which information is finally processed for students. It's common that people can memorize without actually learning anything, and as teachers we are trying to work out students up to the point where they are able to actually learn. There are many different essentials that help students learn, for example organization and rules. Chaos is not really good for anyone in the learning atmosphere. As a teacher when a students comes to you to ask you for help on this homework, sometimes we might want to go back and check the answers on our master sheet. Well when all the papers all over your desk, you are taking time for that student as you are trying to search for your papers to find the answer, or the explanation.

Project-Based Learning is learning that the students obtain through activities. This sort of learning helps students learn in a different way. It requires the teacher to instruct the activity, and then it kind of put it on the hand of the students in groups to work together. This helps a lot of times because when a students doesn't want to ask the teacher a questions because they think it might be "dumb" they are able to ask their peers. A lot of times they will realize that it is a common question that they share, that way the group is able to ask together. For teachers Project-Based Learning helps us out, because we are able to help 4 or 5 groups of students rather then 10 individual students.

There are benefits to all types of learning!! And the more strategies that we are able to come up with the more comfortable we will become in the classroom. Here is a paper that I previously wrote explaining Project and Inquiry-Based Learning, with an example for an activity for both that can be used. I made some words italicized and bold to make it easy to locate the different topics throughout the paper! I hope you enjoy!...

Importance of Essential and Unit Questions

Welcome to my very 1st Blog!

There is a great importance in understanding the difference between Essential and Unit Questions, and believe it or not if you are able to ask these questions in an effective matter the easier it will make for us, as teachers, teaching our students.

An Essential Question is asked broad enough to make students think, for the answer, rather then just looking for the easy way out, in answer "Ummm I don't know it just is...". An example of a question that could be tweaked in ways to make it more effective is "Why are working in groups helpful?" The question doesn't give room for students to think in dept to answer it. The question can be answered by a students just saying "They help you see where you are..?" or "Because they just are Miss". Common answers that teachers are trying to avoid when we ask a question expecting students to think about the answer. The ability to ask a question is a task in it's self and we have to be able to ask a questions with figuring out the proper wording, and in a certain subject it is important for students to understand how this one topic can help the individuals in other courses/classes as well. If students are able to understand the importance the easier it is to get through to that child that didn't care before. We are teaching because we already have learning the power of knowledge, most students haven't learned that, yet.

Unit Questions are something drawn from that broad Essential Question that gives the students individual answers that they are looking for. It's important for Unit Questions to be specific to help our students know what exactly they are looking for, and this keeps the students from being confused. Confusing in a students can be difficult, because personally I know it use to be so common for me that if I didn't get something I'd just give up and not want to ask because I wouldn't want to be embarrassed.

...Here is an example of an effective Essential Question, and 3 Unit Questions. Along with how one topic can help the students with 3 different subjects and it's TEKs at one time.