Blog post #5

Krissy Venosdale



Krissy Venosdale is a third through sixth grade teacher who teaches gifted students. Krissy has been teaching for 10 years. She loves technology, photography and learning. She is very creative and fun. Mrs. Venosdale seems to be very passionate about her students and loves her job. Krissy’s blog post If I Built A School was very inspirational. She wrote this post about her dream school. She defines every feature of the perfect school she even mentions that she would create values built on rooms and subjects. The library would have a tree house in a huge tree where students could read. Math would take place in a problem solving atmosphere. Science would take place in a real laboratory where students could do experiments. Art would be in a real art studio. Also she would advance technology in the school and allow students to be able to use their laptops, phones, ipads, tablets etc. She also mentions that the cafeteria would be like a coffee shop, which is very creative to me. Ms. Venosdale's also would not have usual grade levels in her school but would have a system where students advance based on their personal readiness and skills. In Krissy’s dream school students would love to learn because it would be a blast and the teachers would love to teach, which we definitely need more of. I do not know where to start if I built a school. I do know though that I would want it to be very similar to Mrs. Venosdale’s. I like how she would like the science to be in a real lab and the art be in a real art studio because that shows students how it would really be if they weren’t in school. I think her dream school is extremely creative and that’s how I would want mine because I would not want mine like every other school. I would like for my students to have a lifetime experience and never forget it and especially love to come to school and be ready to learn because that is the most important thing.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir and NPR Interview



Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
I don’t even know how to explain this but just simply amazing!! There were 185 people all toning together and don’t even know each other. It is crazy how the internet can bring people together from all over the world and not even know each other but through this they all connected. In the NPR interview with Eric Whitacre’s he shows a remarkable use of the internet. He mentions he got the idea from a friend but he recorded himself directing the music and then posted a blog telling singers to learn it and record themselves. It is astonishing how he then patched all the voices together and created a choir that is unbelievable. I think it is very cool how Eric did this and put together all these singers that made something in common. It is crazy what you can do with technology these days and it is just going to keep advancing!

Teaching in the 21st century



This video pointed out that students can get answers to any questions they may have at any time in any place without a teacher having to be current. Students of all ages and anyone else need to learn how to use the Internet successfully. Modern Technology and the Internet have been revolutionary. They have also forever changed the way that we teach and learn. Rather than allowing our students and ourselves to roam with no direction and get “lost in cyber-space, we need to emphasis on the important information that is effective. Textbooks are very expensive and unfortunately they usually go out of date. The Internet can be updated with little cost and it can be done immediately. This is very important this means that our students will be able to absorb important material that is fully up to date.

Flipped



Flipping the classroom is a wonderful idea that I wish we had when I was in school. It gives children the opportunity to start their day prepared and ready to learn. Students can watch lectures online before the class so that they can learn and know what they will be learning about before they actually learn and talk about it in class. This opens up many doors for one-on-one learning at school. I think it is a great idea and would save a lot of time in class learning about it unless some students don’t watch the videos before class which means to me that really don’t care. This whole idea seems motivating, exciting and effective and I would love to use this in my classroom one day!