Friday, May 3, 2013

Blog Post Assignment #15 Final Reflection

My Final Reflection
Reflection bubble on a leaf

After re-reading my response to Blog Post #1, I would imagine my classroom to be a little bit different. I still imagine that I will be teaching kindergarten or first grade because I just love little children and they are so eager to be at school and learn at that age. I imagine my classroom will look fun and exciting with lots of bright colors to really catch the attention of my students. My classroom will be set up with different learning activity centers like a technology center, a reading center, arts center, a fine arts center (like a little stage for acting and music center to learn different genres of music and maybe instruments that they can make on there own to create their own music), and a science center. Ideally I would love to have enough computers for each one of my students but hopefully I will at least have 2 or 3 that all students can share. I still plan on being a very creative and active teacher and using a lot of tools from my theater and communications backgrounds to keep children engaged in a high paced learning environment. I will also be a technologically literate teacher thanks to Dr. Strange and what I have learned in EDM310. I also hope, really hope, my classroom has a SMARTboard because I think that is one of the coolest pieces of technology I have learned how to use and it makes learning a more interactive process.

Classroom cartoon image


Without a shadow of a doubt my classroom will have a class blog. I think this tool is extremely important in teaching children how to use the Internet to share what they are learning with the world around them. I think it also helps in keeping the parents up to date with what is going on in our classroom. I would love for all of my students to also have their own individual blogs so they can express their ideas and share their work with their classmates and other students around the world. In my reading center I will have book trailers that they can watch so that they can have a preview of what they are going to read. I would also like for them to be able to make their own book trailer or participate in making a book trailer each month about their favorite books. In the fine arts center I would love for students to have a chance to make their own iMovie. Like maybe dress up with different props to say a My Sentence video. I would also love to have a green screen in the technology center so the kids can go on different adventures and star in their own movies. I think it would be so fun when we are learning about weather to pretend to be weather men and do our own version of the news. Or maybe when we are learning about different animals or climates we take an adventure to a zoo or to Alaska, kind of like an in class field trip. I would also like to use Edmodo as a network for me and my students to communicate through and turn in their assignments or just to keep up with what we will be learning week to week. This is also a great tool to keep them informed about assignments and tests. This is also a great tool to communicate the week's lesson plan with their parents. Edmodo is a learning environment that can be accessed at school or at home.

Fine Arts on an artist's pad

I still plan to use Cooperative Learning and Group Collaboration as one of my teaching methods. This will teach children how to create and share ideas with their classmates in a group. I believe it is important for children to learn this technique early because group learning will be an activity used throughout their education. I also plan on using the Hands-On approach because children learn more when they are physically active in the learning process. Like using actual props when teaching math so they physically see me add or take away an item when learning how to add or subtract. I also plan on pushing them to be self learners. I think when you learn how to research and do things on your own you retain the information more than if someone stands there and tells you how to do it or do it for you.

Kids and teacher using a SMARTboard in the classroom


My classroom learning environment will definitely implement the use of technology. I think that technology is an extremely important tool in educating our children and it is an absolute must in today's world. Computers, cameras, smart phones, SMARTboards and tablets promote interactive learning and are great hands-on tools for the classroom. They allow the students to physically take place in the learning process. Technology is every where and it will only continue to be more advanced in the future so my students will definitely learn how to utilize these tools on an every day basis in the classroom.

Blog Banner

I have definitely added quite a bit to what I first imagined my classroom to be like. This class has allowed me the opportunity to learn how to use these tools so I can teach what I have learned to my students. When I first wrote this blog the extent of the technology I would use in my classroom was confined to computers and blogs. Now my list of tools has expanded greatly to include, computers, blogs, SMARTboards, book trailers, iMovies, Edmodo, Green Screens, iPads, video cameras, and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and Pinterest. These are all tools that I will utilize in my classroom.

Teach Share Learn Banner One of the greatest resources I have learned in EDM310 is the use of a Personal Learning Network or PLN. My PLN has greatly expanded since I started this course and will continue to expand throughout my teaching career. One of the resources I use most in my PLN is Pinterest. I have re-pinned so many classroom ideas on classroom setup, student activities, classroom organization, lesson plans on the new core curriculum, and classroom projects. This will greatly contribute to my classroom one day. I even have a "techy board" where I follow all the latest learning apps for the classroom and the different ways technology is being used in the classroom. I also have a huge group of teacher friends on Facebook that I can ask questions to or bounce ideas off of that will definitely help me in starting up my own classroom one day.

Teacher appreciation image

I am SUPER excited about being a teacher. I am going to be a GREAT teacher! I love children and I want to teach them all the new things I have learned to use in EDM310. I have so many creative ideas running through my mind and I am just ready to get my career started. I will use anything I can to keep the learning environment in my classroom fun and exciting so that these feelings are always associated with learning. I want to keep their minds engaged with physical and technological activities because children have a short attention span and they actually learn more when they do not think they are learning at all. What a child learns in a classroom should not be confined to just the classroom alone. With technology, students have a chance to actively participate in what they are learning and what other kids are learning in classrooms around the world. I plan on making my classroom not like a classroom at all, but more like a new and exciting adventure each and every day.

My Final Reflection Video

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