674+Reflections

Reflections for class

Reflection 1: 21st Century Learning
 * There are 9 Essential 21st Century Skills that are critical to the learning process. After you have taken time to read through one or more of the external links about these Learning Skills (found on class wiki) write a reflection. Consider the impact these skills could have/do have on your teaching and on your students' experiences in the classroom. What issues were addressed in the article(s)? What is one thing you could do in your classroom, that is not being done yet, to help incorporate one of the 9 skills?
 * Your reflection needs to be at least 10-15 sentences long. Please include the title of each article you read and are referencing.
 * This reflection is due by the Saturday **//after//** our first weekend's class.

 ﻿I read through the Route 21 website clicking on the various links I was intially overwhelmed with all of the information and how it was organized. I did find several good websites that I think will help me develop the PBL for the final project. In order to try and bring some semblence to order to my understanding of the 21st Century framework, I read through the Intellectual and Policy Foundations of the 21st Century Skills Framework white paper. I found that many of skills they are mentioned I should be imparting to students are things I intend to do, but because of a variety of distractions, I haven't followed through on.

The article was comprehensive in its coverage of the skills and how they should be shaping school policy; so I will focus in on a couple of issues that were brought up. One issues was the teaching of material in depth rather than for breadth. I certainly would like to do that, but when I think about my US History class, its seems daunting. One thing that I might be able to do is develop a year or semester long project where students read several articles about one person. We could start small with something like an encyclopedic article, then go larger with several other articles about the person, then a book about the person and finally have the students construct a paper on the contributions or effects of their person on their era and on the US today. I think that this deeper knowledge project would be more meaningful and more revealing for them than some of the smaller projects that I have students attempt. I think that several of the skills could also be incorporated into such a project: They would be using "systems thinking" as they try to figure out how their person was a part of their society and how they fit in, they would have to communicate clearly as they wrote and made a presentation, they would be taught how to access information and given opportunities to evaluate and judge information based on the background knowledge they are bringing to the task, and this project would have them working more independantly and be more self-directed as they gain expertise about a particular subject.  ﻿ Another issue that mentioned in the article was teaching for transfer. This means that the knowledge and skills taught in school and classes are transferable to other areas of life - be it work, personal or perhaps other classes. The article mentioned that a good way to try and do this is through projects. I think that is why we are doing the PBL for this class; but it would interesting to see our school do one that would truly incorporate all the disciplines. I was reading about the Friends school that the Obama children attend and the students their have to develop their own senior project that incorporates their learning from their various classes to a real world setting. That would be really neat to do and it would be fun to develop these projects with students.  ﻿ Here is a quote from the article I read:  “Anthony Carnevale and Jeffrey Porro have explained that as industries used to be measured on productivity and efficiency, now they are held to a more complex set of performance criteria, including their ability to rapidly and continuously innovate, customize, and adapt, all while maintaining high standards of quality and reliability.”

Those are excellent things to be striving for, but I was thinking what I would have to do in order to consistently meet those standards myself. Will the public pay for school employees to become skilled in the use of these new technologies? I am currently paying for myself to become more fluent in technology and I do not have the resources to continue to do so. With the current budget woes only likely to get worse and technology continuing to evolve, who will pay for the continuing education (and time) necessary to educators to be able to impart the new technologies to their students?  

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Reflection 2: Videos for the Classroom [] This is a video clip that I came across as I was looking at other economic teachers' websites and resources. I thought that this video could be used as an introduction to the idea of the velocity of money after we have discussed what money is. Students would be asked to identify how the money used in the segment illustrated each of the characteristics of money. Then they would be asked how the loaning of money created velocity of trade and how that impacted the sale of candy. I would also ask students to consider what would have happened to the amount of trade if Butthead had been unwilling to make a loan. Then I would explain to students how the Federal Reserve uses open market operations to manage the money supply and facilitate trade. Then I would have students listen to a segment from This American Life called The Invention of Money []. Finally, I would ask students to explain how money is basically just a figment of our imagination using the Beavis and Butthead scenario and the sale of government bonds as examples. Then I would ask to explain what trouble Beavis and Butthead created and how that is similar to what the Federal Reserve is doing when it sells additional bonds. Finally I would ask them why the Fed sells these bonds if it just creates addiotnal debt. htt<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|p://www.ecb.org] or [|http://www.badgerlink.net]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">After you have found a video to use in the classroom, post the link to the video on the "Reflection" page of your wiki. Then, write at least a 5 sentence reflection as to how you will use this video in the classroom and what impact you think it will have on your students' learning.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Please find a video that is new to you and your classroom.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In addition to sites such as YouTube and TeacherTube there is a free online educational video service available to Wisconsin residents on the state's online library, Badgerlink. It provides streaming and downloadable video programs for K-12 students and teachers. See links below:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This reflection and video link are due by the Saturday **//after//** our first weekend's class

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">﻿ Reflection 3: Types of Learners in the classroom


 * Think about the types of learners found in your classroom. Are they active, sensing, visual, sequential, reflective, intuitive, verbal, global? Now consider the ways you have used technology in your lessons.
 * Create a t-chart like the one below and brainstorm what could be fixed and how you could use technology in a new way.

What is not working with curriculum / Technology to experiment with This is to be done on the first Saturday of class. Post your reflection to your wiki. Discuss your t-chart with fellow classmates.

Reading assignments are not working Students are not engaged in material Students goof around all of the time instead of focusing on material Students do not see importance of material Group work ends in chaos - only about half are engaged Students do not participate in simulations Students do not do necessary background work in order to contribute to class || Weekly effort reflection on rubric analyzed in excel Create checklists for projects so students can analyze their progress Glogster: have students put together their own meaning about subjects and have them present Brainpop: have students look at videos online and have them answer questions. Use webspiration to have students break down material and figure out meaning ||
 * Not working || Technology to experiment with ||
 * Students do not put forth effort on assignments