TeachLive Skype

Today I taught a virtual class on Skype.  I was nervous going into it but it actually went way better than I expected.  I was able to get through the lesson and teach the objective of it.  I thought I was able to keep the class under control well and I was able to include our non-verbal student.  Overall it was a good experience and I thought it was a unique way to practice teaching in our current situation.

Teaching Terms

Collaborative Learning
During my observation, the teacher incorporated collaborative learning in a news report they did.  They were put into small groups based on the topic they chose.  They were to create a script and record and edit a news report about their topic to share with the class.

Computer Marked Assignments (CMAs)
During my observation, the students took simple solutions quizzes on the computer after they finished a set of lessons.  They received feedback right after they submitted the quiz.

Harmony Elementary Tour

One thing that I found very interesting about this school was all of the games they had to help them learn.  I think incorporating games into learning is a great way to teach or reinforce content because it makes students interested and engaged in it and want to learn it.  I also liked how they had areas with tables where they could work together and not have to stay inside of their classroom.

Yong Zhao "Every Child is a Rudolph"

Yong Zhao made a connection that we are all a Rudolph in some way.  By this he means that we are all unique and have different interests and talents.  He said how schools don't tend to like Rudolphs because they don't fit into one mold.  They try to fix people's deficit rather than highlighting the things we are good at.  They don't realize that people have a different type of intelligences and can't have all of them.  Schools can crush creativity and aren't helping students reach their full potential.  Someone can be great at acting but they may not have enough room in their schedule to take theatre and then they don't end up pursuing it.  His main point was that we need to invent the future rather than trying to change the past, in school curriculum and just in general.

Teacher's Conference

One of the sessions I went to was about different learning styles.  During this session I learned that I am a kinesthetic learner.  This means that I like to learn things by doing.  I like to write stuff down or make something like a poster.  I also work better in shorter spurts rather than concentrated blocks of time.  I can get restless and fidgety and have a hard time sitting for long periods of time.  People may see me as disorganized but to me it makes sense.  Aside from learning more about my learning style I also learned how I can have different options for the same assignment to incorporate all of my students with different learning styles.

Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk

One point that Sir Ken Robinson made was that we need diversity in talents and shouldn't be pushing everyone to conform.  Everyone has different talents and different passions and they shouldn't be forced to conform to one single thing.  We can't just have doctors or just have lawyers we need doctors and lawyers and teachers and everything else.

Dr. Canada TED Talk

One point made by Dr. Canada is that innovation isn't present in schools and that schools have stayed the same for the past 56 years.  I think that this is a problem that is still present but there is more starting to be done about it.  Schools are starting to integrate more technology and procedures to incorporate the needs of more students.  Another point he made was that students lose ground over the summer and how year-round school should be considered.  I think this is an interesting point and I think that students could benefit from it. I know personally coming back from summer I do lose a lot of information that I learned and wasn't able to retain through rehearsal so extending shorter breaks throughout the years and not having that big break over summer could be really beneficial.  One of his last points was that tests are given to students to see where they are at and then they don't get the results back until the next year.  By the time they get their results back the information isn't as relevant and they don't use them.  I think this is such a waste of billions of dollars and a waste of time that is used to take these tests.  Schools are already struggling with money and hearing this is shocking.