Blog Post # 5

If You Built a School:

I think about things like this all the time! Mrs. Venosdale has some awesome ideas for a school! She is very creative and imaginative and that is exactly what your dreams should be like. The smallest details matter and that is exactly what she is going for. I love her dreams for the big painted bus, that will send children to school functions. That would be wonderful to just take kids wherever and whenever! I think school would be such a great place to be, if that was the case. Her large board where parents can post thank-you notes and good notes to their children. I think if i were to have the opportunity to build my own school I would do everything different, well, I'm sure everyone would! I would make sure that learning could be done every where and anywhere on campus! I would make sure that every one was comfortable inside of the school. It would be "your home, away from home". I would love to have as much color and craziness inside the school. It would be completely decked out in FUN! Students would be happy to come in every day and see the different things going on in the hallways or outside. I would love for my students to have access to all types of technology inside our technology labs. Smart Boards would fill every wall for student interactions. They would have iPads and computers so work can be done fast and every class would have a full set. I think I would have an interactive play ground; something that the Exploreum would have! Something where kids could learn but also have fun and play on! I have so many ideas I do not think this one blog post could contain it all!

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir:

This was very interesting to watch. It looked like a real choir! I thought this was an awesome use of the internet. It was very productive and the fact that so many came together and created this awesome video was just AMAZING! I really enjoyed watching it. I think it would be pretty awesome if some famous singers did this together. It would get A LOT of hits on YouTube! I can not help but think of how someone would think of making a virtual choir and how to obtain so many people. Did they put out an announcement on a website? or did they all some how know each other through the connection of the internet? I just think this could be a very powerful thing even if done by talking, dancing, etc. I think this will eventually become a huge project for people to do.

Teaching in the 21st Century:

Mr. Roberts does a great job describing different ways to teach in the 21st century. He thinks a great way to teach with computers and other types of technology is to treat them just like the basic types of school material we use every day in school such as: pencil, paper, books, etc. Just because there is technology involved it should not change how students act or react when they get to use different material for school. Roberts also understands that teachers are the ones that teach students how to effectively use technology in the proper way. I think Roberts did a great job explaining how teachers are using technology and how it interacts in the classroom. He is correct about the fact that students will use different types of technology to do different assignments in a classroom. A student would use Google to search a topic but then use their blog to information on it for their assignment. I do not think this will affect teaching in a too dramatic way. I think that there will always be some one needed to provide the information for the students to learn; whether it be in a classroom or on a computer screen. I think we are a necessity of learning and without someone to provide the information then no one will be able to learn it effectively.

Flipped Classroom:

This was a very great way to show teachers how to flip their classrooms. I think this is a great idea. I think it is very effective in a classroom. It makes sense for teachers to have collaboration time in the classroom to do applications; instead of just talking to the classroom with no interactions. The only bad thing about this idea is getting the kids to actually watch the videos before class so they can be apart of the discussions inside the classroom. Other than that one factor, I think it can be a huge transformation for students their teachers. Personally, I do not think I could use this inside my classroom because I want to teach on a younger level of students such as, kindergarten. Students at a younger age need more instruction where they can raise their hands and ask questions during my lecture time. However, I do think this is a great idea for high school students.