1. Identify and briefly discuss at least 5 pros and 5 cons of having virtual schools.
Pros
o Flexible curriculum that is based on how children’s minds work.
o No Tuition Fees are involved in WAVU
o The K-8 program is self-paced and flexible within the parameters specified by state law.
o Students are invited to participate in school outings, field trips, picnics, and other social events.
o WAVA accepts dual enrollment through their “shared attendance agreement” with resident school districts
Cons
o Some funding is required for several Online Schools
o If the student does not participate in social aspect of the Online Schools, they may lack social skills.
o It may be hard to find motivation when a time frame is not enforced and attendance is relaxed.
o Expected 4 to 6 straight hours of school work- can get tiring for parent as well as younger students.
o School is less personalized when the teacher/instructor is unknown.
2. Discuss some of the key skills teachers need to have to be successful when teaching a virtual school.
o Educators must achieve the knowledge, skills, and unshakable confidence to thrive in a virtual environment.
o Educators must also feel comfortable and be skilled in technology
o Being creative to provide the most compelling, comprehensive, and effective K-12 education
3. Discuss your findings on one other key issue that you found interesting (from those listed above).
I found the curriculum of the Washington Virtual Academy in particular to be very interesting. Washington Virtual Academies use flexible curriculum that is based on research about how children’s minds really work. The curriculum was designed to let Kindergarten through eighth grade kids find a pace and learning style that works best for their individual learning. It also holds courses in six core subjects that are wrapped with rich, engaging content that is minds-on as well as hands-on.
4. Think 2-3 years from now and discuss how virtual schools and online courses might impact your teaching.
o Virtual schools and online courses are very beneficial in certain situations. I feel that in an instance when one of my students are sick or in a position where they are not able to come into class, online schools are very convenient and allow all students to engage when it’s inconvenient for them to attend regular class. However, I do not see a future in being an online instructor permanently.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Teacher Web Critiques
I found most features of Teacher Web extremely helpful! First and foremost, it is a great website that allows all students to stay informed on what is going on in the classroom. Online it provides easy access to homework, handouts, a calendar, and much more. Secondly, this website provides students with a grade update. Looking back to elementary school, my parents always found it important to know what my grades were on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. With this website, checking students grades is so much easier and easily accessible. Lastly, this website would be beneficial because it is a safe way to provide learning links outside of the “safe” classroom website. With guided direction, students are able to find informational websites rather than smack. With a brief introduction, I am positive that students will be able to master this website and use it as a helpful tool throughout the year.
I feel that the top two ways that students could use a class website to enhance their learning is by the calendar of events, and assignment instructions. A calendar of events is important because it allows the students to keep updated and know what is due, and when it is due. This allows students to keep track of dates on their own, with extra reminders from the teacher. Also, assignment instructions are important on a class web site because you can provide an example, and overly-descriptive instructions to guide your students through an assignment. I always felt that I didn’t have enough information on projects when I was younger, and a class website would be the perfect place to provide more of it.
I feel that the two strongest features within the Teacher Web system were the Quiz page and the Student Grades page. I feel that the Quiz page was one of the strongest because this allows students to study what is going to be on an actual quiz and gives them practice. It also helps me as a teacher find out where the students were before they studied or took the actual quiz. I feel that the Student’s Grades page was also a very strong feature because it allows students to always be updated on the grade book. It is helpful to be able to log on and see your progress.
I feel that the top two ways that students could use a class website to enhance their learning is by the calendar of events, and assignment instructions. A calendar of events is important because it allows the students to keep updated and know what is due, and when it is due. This allows students to keep track of dates on their own, with extra reminders from the teacher. Also, assignment instructions are important on a class web site because you can provide an example, and overly-descriptive instructions to guide your students through an assignment. I always felt that I didn’t have enough information on projects when I was younger, and a class website would be the perfect place to provide more of it.
I feel that the two strongest features within the Teacher Web system were the Quiz page and the Student Grades page. I feel that the Quiz page was one of the strongest because this allows students to study what is going to be on an actual quiz and gives them practice. It also helps me as a teacher find out where the students were before they studied or took the actual quiz. I feel that the Student’s Grades page was also a very strong feature because it allows students to always be updated on the grade book. It is helpful to be able to log on and see your progress.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Engaging Students with Concept Mapping
After exploring concept mapping, I feel that this would be great innovative software to use in my classroom. Concept Mapping can be an extremely effective method of taking notes because they show not only the facts, but the overall structure of the subject. Concept mapping helps to associate ideas and makes connections that might not otherwise be made. The fact that concept mapping is now available through software is so cool! It allows students to bring together the strengths of concept mapping with the power of technology. This program makes it easy for users of all ages to construct and modify concept maps in a similar way that a word processor makes it easy to write text. In this way, concept maps can serve as the indexing and navigational tools for complex domains of knowledge.
Concept Mapping software is a useful technique that will improve the way my students take notes, brainstorm, design a complex structure, communicate ideas, and much more. It will support and enhance my students’ creative problem solving. I will be able to use concept mapping when I want my students to understand the structure of a subject I am teaching and the way that pieces of information fit together. Concept mapping will be important in research topics, as well as free writing time. I feel that these will benefit my classroom a lot!
Some specific examples of concept mapping that I can bring into my classroom are to have my students create a concept map before writing any essays, before constructing any projects, before completing any math assigments, and many more activities. It’s a great brainstorming tool and engages many thoughts that might not have been available before thinking outside the box!
Concept Mapping can be an extremely effective method of taking notes because they show not only the facts, but the overall structure of the subject. Concept mapping helps to associate ideas and makes connections that might not otherwise be made. It is a useful technique that will improve the way my students take notes, brainstorm, design a complex structure, communicate ideas, and much more.
I feel that it shouldn’t take too much time to learn this type of application. I feel that my students would be able to learn and understand the process within two days of instruction. It would definitely be worth the time! I feel that concept maps are very helpful in the brainstorming step to any project or assignment!
Concept Mapping software is a useful technique that will improve the way my students take notes, brainstorm, design a complex structure, communicate ideas, and much more. It will support and enhance my students’ creative problem solving. I will be able to use concept mapping when I want my students to understand the structure of a subject I am teaching and the way that pieces of information fit together. Concept mapping will be important in research topics, as well as free writing time. I feel that these will benefit my classroom a lot!
Some specific examples of concept mapping that I can bring into my classroom are to have my students create a concept map before writing any essays, before constructing any projects, before completing any math assigments, and many more activities. It’s a great brainstorming tool and engages many thoughts that might not have been available before thinking outside the box!
Concept Mapping can be an extremely effective method of taking notes because they show not only the facts, but the overall structure of the subject. Concept mapping helps to associate ideas and makes connections that might not otherwise be made. It is a useful technique that will improve the way my students take notes, brainstorm, design a complex structure, communicate ideas, and much more.
I feel that it shouldn’t take too much time to learn this type of application. I feel that my students would be able to learn and understand the process within two days of instruction. It would definitely be worth the time! I feel that concept maps are very helpful in the brainstorming step to any project or assignment!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Blogs and Wikis in Education
When asked to use three different search engines while searching “Educational Blogs” and “Educational Wikis” I found that there were many similar results. I used the Google, Dogpile, and Yahoo search engines and found the same results on the first page for all three engines. For the blogs, the first webpage available was the same on all three pages! However, this was not the case for the wikis.
Blogs and wikis are being used in many interesting and innovative ways within kindergarten and 12th grade classrooms. For example, in budtheteacher.typepad.com Bud allows interaction through live blogging. He is able to communicate with his students as if they were speaking in person. A great teaching tool I found at edublog.com was a place where students can post responses to specific questions about a story and as a forum for sharing students’ individual responses about their readings. Lastly, at lewiselementary.org, I found many useful tools that can keep parents, as well as students updated at all times! The calendar of events, random announcements, principle notes, and curriculum are just several of the many examples that this website used to be innovative.
A RSS reader also known as an aggregator is a client software or a Web application which collects news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and blogs in a single location for easy viewing. Once subscribed to a feed, an aggregator is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and retrieve the update. This will be helpful with a classroom setting because when one of your students turns in an assignment then you would be aware of it right away.
Blogs and wikis have many pros as well as a few cons. Some of the pros these web technologies have to offer include that they provide important information to your students, your parents, and anyone that feels they need to know and also blogging and wikis are very environmental friendly; they don’t require paper so you can “go green” effectively. Blogs and wikis also have their cons. For example, if you are lazy with your blog and do not update your information when students and parents are counting on you, this can be a disadvantage. Also, if there is a power outage and no other way of getting to the assignments or handouts, this can prove to be difficult.
Blogs and wikis are being used in many interesting and innovative ways within kindergarten and 12th grade classrooms. For example, in budtheteacher.typepad.com Bud allows interaction through live blogging. He is able to communicate with his students as if they were speaking in person. A great teaching tool I found at edublog.com was a place where students can post responses to specific questions about a story and as a forum for sharing students’ individual responses about their readings. Lastly, at lewiselementary.org, I found many useful tools that can keep parents, as well as students updated at all times! The calendar of events, random announcements, principle notes, and curriculum are just several of the many examples that this website used to be innovative.
A RSS reader also known as an aggregator is a client software or a Web application which collects news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and blogs in a single location for easy viewing. Once subscribed to a feed, an aggregator is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and retrieve the update. This will be helpful with a classroom setting because when one of your students turns in an assignment then you would be aware of it right away.
Blogs and wikis have many pros as well as a few cons. Some of the pros these web technologies have to offer include that they provide important information to your students, your parents, and anyone that feels they need to know and also blogging and wikis are very environmental friendly; they don’t require paper so you can “go green” effectively. Blogs and wikis also have their cons. For example, if you are lazy with your blog and do not update your information when students and parents are counting on you, this can be a disadvantage. Also, if there is a power outage and no other way of getting to the assignments or handouts, this can prove to be difficult.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Multiple Intelligence Blog
After taking the Multiple Intelligence Inventory, I found that I identify most with the interpersonal intelligence. Some of the core characteristics that are categorized with this intelligence are collaborative skills, cooperative attitude, leadership, social influence, social empathy, as well as social connection. The characteristics that best describe me and my learning style are my collaborative skills and cooperative attitude. I feel that I relate most to both of these because I am always ready to hear and accept others’ input and I can always work well to complete tasks with others! I’m a very big people person and it’s no surprise to me that I identify most with the interpersonal intelligence.
Students with the interpersonal intelligence enjoy the support of a group, they value relationships, enjoy collaborative work, enjoy sharing about themselves, and they usually display a winning personality. In a classroom setting, they tend to be natural born-leaders and jump right into things. Some students can be described as a “team player” and many of them dislike working alone. To an interpersonal intelligence student, clubs and extracurricular activities are fun!
In order to support interpersonal intelligence students, there are several things that I could keep in mind to help them learn best. Students with the interpersonal intelligence are most successful in activities where they are able to form teams. These students also usually invite competition from their peers to promote higher levels of achievement. They also tend to form cooperative groups where each member has assigned roles. With all of this information, I will be able to help my interpersonal students succeed in class no matter what our activity consists of.
Many technologies stimulate the interpersonal intelligence. Any technology that allows interaction with another person is one that motivates the interpersonal intelligence. For example, class discussion, telephones, walkie-talkies, costumes, collaborative projects, chatting, and message boards all help promote learning with interpersonal learners.
After paying special attention to multiple intelligences, I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge of how students learn. In the future, I will be able to readily recognize students with different intelligences and know how to best get through to them. With the surfaquarium website, I found a lot of useful information of all types of multiple intelligences. All the knowledge that I gained could impact student learning within my classroom in the future.
Students with the interpersonal intelligence enjoy the support of a group, they value relationships, enjoy collaborative work, enjoy sharing about themselves, and they usually display a winning personality. In a classroom setting, they tend to be natural born-leaders and jump right into things. Some students can be described as a “team player” and many of them dislike working alone. To an interpersonal intelligence student, clubs and extracurricular activities are fun!
In order to support interpersonal intelligence students, there are several things that I could keep in mind to help them learn best. Students with the interpersonal intelligence are most successful in activities where they are able to form teams. These students also usually invite competition from their peers to promote higher levels of achievement. They also tend to form cooperative groups where each member has assigned roles. With all of this information, I will be able to help my interpersonal students succeed in class no matter what our activity consists of.
Many technologies stimulate the interpersonal intelligence. Any technology that allows interaction with another person is one that motivates the interpersonal intelligence. For example, class discussion, telephones, walkie-talkies, costumes, collaborative projects, chatting, and message boards all help promote learning with interpersonal learners.
After paying special attention to multiple intelligences, I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge of how students learn. In the future, I will be able to readily recognize students with different intelligences and know how to best get through to them. With the surfaquarium website, I found a lot of useful information of all types of multiple intelligences. All the knowledge that I gained could impact student learning within my classroom in the future.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Welcome
Hey Welcome to my Blog! I have created this particular blog for my Teaching and Learning 445 class at Washington State University. I'm looking forward to learn more about this technology and to explore blogging! :)
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