Blog Post 1

“If I Built A School”

Krissy Venosdale is a third through sixth grade teacher who teaches gifted students. She loves technology, photography and learning. She is very creative and fun. 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 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. I then watched the video On Sugata Mitra’s “Build A School in the Clouds.” This video is very interesting as well. Mitra reminds everyone just how smart and amazing children are by showing their development with technology. Based on Sugata Mitra's experiments in less-fortunate, foreign-speaking countries around the world, if children are given something that puzzles their brain the children will figure out not only just how to use it, but how to use it proficiently, and teach others how to use it as well. Mitra poses an idea of a school that is computer based. Where there is only a computer, a question, and someone there to motivate them. They find the answers themselves by using technology instead of being lectured by a teacher. I believe that if we were to use the ideas that Sugata and Krissy express, we could build a better educational system for the future.

My classroom

In my Education career I would like to teach kindergarten or First grade and due to me wanting to teach them grades I would want my classroom set up with A,B,C'S, Shapes, colors, and etc. I would want my classroom to be colorful and fun because a positive and colorful classroom would be a more productive place to learn rather than a plain and boring room. I would like to have many books and activities in my room but not too many to distract the kids when I am teaching. I would want a fun, colorful, positive, and organized room so my students feel comfortable, positive, and ready to learn. I would want my students to know the essentials. There is so much in school that we have to learn that we never use. I would like to focus more on the things that we will have to use and make sure my students know them and know them well. The primary way that I would like to teach my students is by hands on. I feel that engages te students and motivates them to get involved and learn and especially at a young age. I learned in school that the more you are attracted to something the more you’re going to learn and the easier it is. There are many tools I would like to have to help the learning process but I am going to just name a few. The first one I would like to have is Learning Centers set up in my classroom. Learning Centers are important to me because while a child is in a specific learning center it keeps them focused, exploring, imagining, and learning to play with others. The second tool I would like to engage in my classroom is a seating arrangement. It is important all the kids can see what I am teaching at all times. A seating arrangement also keeps students from leaving another student out or arguing about where they want to sit and who they want to sit by. I also think it would keep the classroom organized and friendly. The last tool I am going to mention is a book area. I would enjoy a book area that I could stock with many varieties of children books. It is extremely important to me that students have a book area that is comfortable and calm so they can read. Furthermore I think it is important that all classrooms have an area to calm down and read because some students might not get that at home.

Time Management

The video by Dr. Pausch was primarily about time management and the value that time has in our life. He was very clear on how Americans do not value time management in the same way that they value money management. If we can learn how to manage our time in the ways that Dr. Pausch described, then we can reduce our stress level and live a better life. What I learned from this video is that it is very important to make a plan but also to be flexible enough to allow the plan to change and evolve. This is especially true in the field of teaching as we make plans for ourselves and our students. The main points that I took away from this video are that if we can learn to set goals on a daily and weekly basis, then we will start to learn how this process will help us reach and go beyond our goals. It's not as important to do everything perfectly, buy it's more important for us to do it from the perspective of doing things with integrity. We need to ask ourselves, "Why am I doing this?" and “What is my goal?" whenever we are setting goals as well and learn to prioritize our plan according to our goals. Also, whenever setting goals we need to understand that when making plans know that plans have a way of changing. I, personally, liked his analogy of, “If we fail to make a plan, we plan to fail" because planning is such an integral part of teaching children and it is something we must do to help our students reach their own goals.