One Missing Teacher..Ten Students

On Friday Dr. Smirnova was not in class but I think that it wasn't a bad class at all. We were able to work on our presentations, find out who are partners were on and even get to know each other a little better. I was kind of lost when it came to our "gmail" accounts that we created but Ashley Hastings was really nice, she sat down and showed me and my partner how to do a presentation and helped me to connect with the other students in the class online. I think that Ashley did a great job because she really took the time to make sure that I understood what I had to do over the weekend.
Tonight me and my partner Samantha finished our presentation on Independent Practice. I think it came out great and I am happy that we were able to work together and thankful to Ashley because we were able to be in two different places and working on the presentation at the same time! I think that was awesome that we could talk to each other and make edits and everything and we didn't have to be with each other.
If i ever teach in a high school class, I think this is something that I will make all my students use because then they would be able to work on presentations together but if they do not have a ride to meet up or they don't get it finished in school, this is a great way for them to complete the assignment.

Technology...Websites...Teaching..Pulling it Together

Today in class we started to discuss the text book that we are going to create online. It is going to be an on going project throughout the semester and I think it can help everyone in different ways. I know that I will be able to look back on this years from now and it will help me to look better in interviews with other members that I work with and it will especially help me as a teacher.

I think that it is not going to be easy and it will get frustrating at times but overall it will be a great experience for each and everyone of us. We also discussed Direct Instruction. I like this type of teaching but I know it only has the students reach one level of Blooms Taxonomy and that is never good for the students. In Blooms Taxonomy, it is in the best interests for the students to be able to reach all the levels of thinking, especially creating something because then the teacher will see that the students understand the topic at a mastery level.

I provided the different levels of blooms taxonomy because everyone should know the different levels. We all want to reach the highest level with our students and technology plays a big role in this also. Technoloy, like a web quest for example, will help the students to explore, analyze and create on their own so we are helping the students to learn on their own and reach all levels of Blooms Taxonomy.

Web Questing

Today in class we started our Web Quests for our lessons. I am going to be doing mine in the science content area. I am really excited for this but at the same time I am so nervous because I am not good with computers and I do not want to mess this up. I was already getting things wrong in class today because me and computers dont work well together, but i am determined to get this correct because I think it will be a great tool for me now and later down my road with teaching. Dr. Smirnova was extremely helpful and talked me through all my problems with the web quest today. I thank her for her patience because I had almost none with myself but she helped me and I finally started tounderstand what was going on. I plan on going on my Web Quest at least once a day even if its just to play around with it so that the more I use it the more common it will be to me!

Models and Strategies of Teaching

In class on Wednesday September 15 we discussed strategies and models. There are only two strategies which are direct and indirect. There are four different types of models; Behavioral Model, Information Processing Model, Social Interaction Model and the Personal Model. I learned that the Behavioral Model is a direct approach and the other three are all indirect approaches. I also thought it was interesting when i found out that the Behavioral Model usuallu only has the students gain knowledge on Blooms Taxonomy; Information Processing Model has the students reach the analysis; and Social Interaction and Personal Models reach synthesis and evaluation on Blooms Taxonomy. I really liked this because I like all these approaches so its nice to know that when I am teaching a unit and i want the students to reach higher levels of thinking then I can use all the approaches and we move deeper into the topic.

Lesson Planning

I really enjoyed class today. I think that working together to figure out what the similarities and differences are between the different types of lessons was very useful. We were able to use the smart board after that to figure out the order that we should be preparing are lesson plans in. I liked working with groups and then coming back together as a whole class because it gives everyone a little more insight on something that they may not have thought about before. Im glad that we did the order of the lesson plan because it definetly cleared up alot of questions in my mind.

Lesson Planning and Objectives

On Friday in class we helped each other fix our lesson plans. I liked this alot because I was able to get other peoples input in my group and everyone was so helpful and nice. It gets confusing at times because I want my objectives to be detailed but they cant be long so its hard to make sure that they are correct. I think working with the groups helped because we got to see that we are not the only one making mistakes and this is new to everyone so your not alone even if you feel like you are. It also helped to share with the other groups because everyone was able to get an idea of what everyone else is thinking. It was nice to share and work as a class because it makes us more comfortable with what we are doing and more people sharing their ideas can only make you smarter.

Aims, Goals and Objectives

In our class were learning about Aims, Goals and Objectives. I like working on my objectives although they may get a little frustrating at times. I wrote about A.G.O in my own words to help me remember them better:

What are the differences between Aims, Goals and Objectives?
1. Aims: They are the first thing a teacher should look into and are the most general. Most of the time they use words like; learn understand and know.
2.Goals: The goals give extra details on certain activities or areas.
3. Objectives: These are usually the most specific, they help with assessment and help teachers know how to find out if the students learned anything.

Sources for formulating A.G.O?
1. Aims: are the national standards
2. Goals: are the state standards
3.Objectives: are the teacher and district standards