Blog Post #3

How can you provide meaningful feedback to your peers?

I really enjoyed this assignment about peer editing. This is something that I will need to be comfortable doing as a teacher, but it is a little different when you are critiquing someone's work that is the same age as you. However, after reviewing the various links and assignments given to us to view, I feel much better about peer editing. I learned the correct way to peer edit.

I loved Paige Ellis' Blog Post regarding peer editing. She addresses concerns that I believe most students and future educators encounter. How do you really give someone constructive criticism? Like Paige stated, this criticism is not always accepted with open arms. Instead, it can be taken the wrong way. I loved how Paige brought in the aspect of us being a "learning community". That is exactly right! We are a community and all benefit from peer editing.

The video What is Peer Editing and the slideshow Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial definitely helped me to understand the correct way to edit my peers' work. There are three steps to peer editing. First, you need to begin with Compliments. You can tell them what you liked about their post and what you think they did well. It's important to be specific and not just tell them you liked it. Remember to STAY POSITIVE. Secondly, make Suggestions. Suggest to the author of the writing ways they could make their writing better. This could be anything from word choice to organization. Again, be sure to be specific and stay positive. The last step to peer editing is Making Corrections. Examples of these corrections could be spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. Again, be specific and be positive. Don't just say there are some spelling errors. Tell the author exactly which word is spelled wrong.

The comical video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes gives some examples of what NOT to do when peer editing. Some examples of these are Mean Margaret and Picky Patty. You can edit people's writing without being mean. Like I stated before, some people do not take constructive criticism well. It's important to be nice when doing it. Also, don't be a Picky Patty meaning you don't have to overdue it. Explain some mistakes they made or suggestions for next time, but things that are very minor like more than one space between two words do not have to be addressed constantly. This video was very entertaining but also informative.

There are a couple of ways that you can go about peer editing in this class. One way is to offer your suggestion and critiques publicly like commenting on their blog. This could be a great idea when stating suggestions and compliments. I would probably use this approach for these two steps. However, you can also state your remarks while peer editing privately through email, text messaging, etc. I would probably use this approach when stating corrections. People sometimes don't want to hear what they did wrong or want others to see that either. It is sometimes best to do it privately.

I really enjoyed this assignment and learned a lot about peer editing.

Blog Post #2

Professor Dancealot
by Elizabeth Johnson, Calah Reynolds, and Rachel Hinton

The Professor Dancealot video was very interesting, unique, and eye-opening. Most people who watch this video would have to agree that his teaching methods were extreme. Professor Dancealot expects his students to come to his “dance” class and sit down while he lectures on how to dance, but he never actually lets the students participate. At the end of the semester, he wants them to perform the dances for their final. How can you expect someone to learn how to dance without actually physically teaching them? To teach dance, you should start off in the ballroom on the first day and learn basic dance steps, not watch a powerpoint and take notes on it. None of his students learned anything about dance whatsoever. All Professor Dancealot did was show powerpoints, he wouldn’t even let the students watch his footwork while he danced. His teaching method seems impractical and ineffective. This form of teaching appeared to be very boring to the students. They were falling asleep, talking, or not paying attention to anything that was being taught. The students were not engaged in the lesson. This is like many teachers today. They teach their students things by lectures, but never give them anything interesting to do to actually remember what was taught. Things like this lead to the “burp back” education that we all want to avoid. The students try to cram all the information in at the last minute because they find it boring, and not worth really knowing. So, the Professor Dancealot video was definitely an interesting video to watch. It was a great example of the wrong way to teach.


Edutopia
by Elizabeth Johnson

The video “Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts” features a teacher named Vicki Davis from Westwoods Schools in a rural town in Georgia. She uses all different kinds of technology to help her students learn more about all that technology has to offer. She believes that all students have the ability to learn. However, if they only learn using pencil and paper, only certain students will be able to succeed properly. She does not like to be up in front of the class to strictly lecture the entire time. She prefers to walk around, instruct, and help students while they explore technology. She teaches students about different forms of software, blogging, Wiki, collaborating, and other forms of technology. She believes in allowing students to look up things for themselves and not have every definition spoon fed to them. She also likes to let students teach the class. It helps them to learn more and also teaches Vicki things she does not know.

The Edutopia site offers great tools and teaching materials for educators. Visitors to the site can browse resources for the classroom by grade levels, which is great when a teacher is looking for a grade-appropriate activities and strategies for the students. Teachers can also search for specific programs, topics, strategies, and schools. The site features different blogs that visitors can read, as well. So this site is a great tool for teachers and educators of all kinds. There are great resources that are easily accessible.


Teaching in the 21st Century
by Calah Reynolds

When you teach in the 21st century, it is a lot harder to get your students engaged in the classroom. They are too involved in social media and communicating with each other and not enough in their school work. A lot of teachers nowadays simply tell their students to ‘google it’ or look it up on the computer instead of merely teaching it themselves. The teachers and the students have gotten lazy since it is easier for the student to just ‘google it’. I think that Roberts thinks it means that people rely too much on the internet and that whatever teachers teach, students can just look it up anywhere at anytime. Roberts is saying that although students CAN look up information, the internet doesn’t teach you how to use skills. Teachers can bring internet into their classrooms to make it more enjoyable for the students, such as blogs and other programs online.

If Roberts theory is correct, it will affect me as an educator because the majority of the classes will eventually be all online. It is coming to the point where a lot of classes are already incorporating internet, such as class blogs, sakai, and edmodo. As the years advance, so does the technology.


The Networked Student
by Rachel Hinton

The networked student gives us a very good idea of what our role as teachers will be in twenty first century teaching. As teachers we need to show our students how to use the resources we are given. In today’s world there are so many great things at our students’ fingertips. The internet and computers give them such a wide range of teaching and learning that we should take and use to our advantage.

The video shows us that we not only should teach our students, we should let them discover things for themselves. They should not be told step by step everything to do. We should allow them to explore the resources they are given and find out for themselves. If we teach our students how to efficiently use the resources they have access to, it will not only broaden their ways of thinking but also help them when advancing in life to college or even a job.

According to "The Networked Student", a teacher’s responsibilities in twenty first century learning includes teaching students how to build their network, guiding them when they cannot find their way, teaching them how to respectfully communicate with their teachers and others, and shuffling through information and organizing it in an understandable way. As teachers if we can master these things our students will be well prepared for a world of technology.

If I Built A School, It Would Be Like...

I loved learning about Krissy Venosdale and Sugata Mitra. Their ideas really intrigued me! Venosdale's ideas of her "school" involving creativity and free-spiritedness in the classroom inspired me so much! I love her ideas of making technology a constant part of the day and not being so concerned about the curriculum, but focusing on digging deep in learning. Mitra's ideas were very thought-provoking as well. He discussed things that I had never really thought about before. I loved his creativity involving his dream school. I think it is so awesome to dream of a school in the clouds where it is not necessarily run by adults. Instead, students are taught through technology and only a "granny" is available for health and safety. Instead of people being spare parts, students are able to use technology to increase their intellectual minds.

If I were to build a school, I would make it so kid-friendly. I would be teaching third grade because it is right in the middle of the elementary school years. Children are not babies anymore, but there is still so much to learn. Below I will explain some details about what I would like my dream school to be like and the methods I will use in my classroom.

What I want my students to know...

I would want my students to know that they are all equal. I promise to never treat any child differently than others. I believe it is important that children know from the very first day that they have the exact same opportunity to learn and succeed as everyone else. They should not feel inferior, but know that we are a family and show no judgement. I want my students to know the importance of an education and how learning can be and is fun!

What I want my students to be able to do...

I want my students to be able to have confidence in themselves in order to work independently. Yes, asking questions is acceptable and greatly needed, but I want them to know it is all right to try and make mistakes. I want my students to be able to work well with each other and in groups. I want them to be able to learn not only from me but from each other.

My primary way of teaching my students what I want them to know and do...

My primary way of teaching my students everything that I want them to know and do will be through exciting technology, experiments, and activities. There will be lots of hands on type activities that allow students to visually see what we are learning and to also be creative. It is often very difficult for students to pay attention primarily through lecture. Their attention spans are not very long, and teachers often lose students' focus. I want my students to have fun while learning!

What tools will I use in my classroom...

In my classroom I will use lots of technology. iPads and personal computers will be available to work on. In addition, we will have at least one smart board for the students to use very often. Technology is growing very quickly, and it is important to expose children to this at a very young age. We will also use tools that everyday classrooms have like markers, crayons, paint, etc. Like I stated earlier, we will be doing a lot of hands on experiments and activities, so we will need these types of tools as well.

The role my students will play in the classroom...

My students will have a VERY important role in the classroom. They will participate in the learning process in many ways. I believe that students are the just as great of help to each other than a teacher can be sometimes. Students can often explain lessons and subjects to each other on a more practical level than a teacher could. So, the students will have set times and days where they teach the class something. I think this is so great! This is great for the class but also for the student who is teaching. They learn it better themselves when they teach it to others. This will also help with the students' self esteem and confidence.

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