Blog Post #16

As i re-read what I wrote in my first blog post I found that there isn't much that I would change, if any. As a second grade teacher I would challenge my students to go above and beyond when it comes to learning. Teaching is never about the instructor, but always about the students. I would encourage all of my students to be independent learners and critical thinkers. Every lesson would be engaging, in some way or form, for my students. If any of my students have a hard time learning I would take my time to makes sure they understand. All of my students would be happy to learn.
I would still use group work, class discussion, and individual students as methods for my students to learn. Group work has been very helpful to me so I would emphasis that in my classroom as one of my primary ways of teaching. This would be a great way for all of my students to not only get to know each other, but express their own ideas and thoughts to others. Learning would be

very easy when doing group work/projects. Students would also gain a sense of being independent while working in group. How? Well each student would be expressing their own thoughts and implementing them into the assignments. Class discussions would take place daily to let students share thoughts or concerns that they have about the material that we are learning. Each student would also have their own turn to express to the class that they learned the assignment and can help others if needed.
The iPad, SmartBoard, and Macs/ Computers would be a major supplement to my teaching and my students learning. All of these tools are great ways to keep students engaged in the learning process. Every student would most likely be familiar with these tools, but I would show them that there are more ways to use them then they already know. Using this technology in my classroom would be very exciting to my students because they are familiar with it. The most exciting part of using this technology is that I would show them more ways to use it. Every student would be happy to know that they can learn while using technology that they use regularly.
My classroom would be a very calm and open learning environment. Every student would be familiar with each other so no one would be shy when it comes to presenting. My students would use technology to find new ways to learn or assignments that think would be interesting to do. I would challenge my students mentally to be critical thinkers. As a teacher I know that there are more things to be learned and my students can play a part in teaching me new things.
The methods and tools that I said I would use at the start of the semester has not changed. However, since writing that post I have learned more ways to use those tools previously stated. There are always new things to learn and these tools would be the best way to show it. The SmartBoard is capable of doing things that I has never heard of. I still think this is a good way to engage my students.
EDM310 has shown me many new ways to use technology. Blogging, iCurio, Prezi, iBook, iMovie and much more would be implemented into my classroom. All of these tools are very useful for student learning. Just about every tool used in EDM310 would be used in my classroom. Why? All of these things I found interesting/useful and I am pretty sure that students would feel the same.