Korrie Schrock

My time in this class has taught me a lot about techniques used in the classroom, especially through these readings. Chapter 2 of the text talks about “leveraging their expertise”. Which basically means using these pros to help you move along the rest of your classroom. My favorite teacher from the 4th grade would do this. When I finished my worksheet early, he would then instruct me to help a student who was having some trouble with the assignment. Another method that the book mentions is “scaffolding”. Which is giving those who might have a hard time with the content some assistance until they get the hang of things and then letting them take it, on their own. Dirksen also talks a lot about making connections in order to move something from working/short term memory to long term memory and I think to really get our students to learn we really need to focus on that. Using things that students already know, to make connections while they learn is going to be the easiest and fastest way for them to learn.

           It seems to be easy to pay attention when something is important to you personally. It can seem difficult to get today’s lesson plans to relate to students on their own level however, I feel that at least at its most basic level just putting a student’s name into a problem can somewhat pique their interest. Now obviously there are more and better ways to bring lessons to the front of students’ minds, but this is a very simple tactic that I think is very effective. It can be a real challenge to pay attention when something doesn’t feel important at all. Many times, in high school, I remember classmates asking when we would need to use a unit circle in our day-to-day lives. Very few teachers were able to answer these questions and those who could really seem to be able to reel their classrooms back in to focus.

           Dirksen talks in Chapter 9 about habits and how they are created. I feel that for devices to be used efficiently in the classroom students need to be taught habits of learning through devices, not just mindlessly playing with them. Following Dirksen’s model their trigger would be getting out their devices and the habit would hopefully begin to morph into learning. This habit would be a very hard one to create however, given that the students would most likely be playing on devices at home and most likely they would not be learning. Therefore, I feel that spending time cultivating that habit would be the way to have the students fully use their devices for learning.

I watched Case #4: Collaborative Digital Presentations Enrich Projects and Case #6: Teaching Teamwork Through Video Game Development.

             In the first video the teacher’s role seemed to be mostly as a guide for the students. She was having her students create their own presentations in order for them to teach their own peers about their section of the lesson. She really put the actual teaching aspect on the students which seemed to make them take learning about it more seriously. In second video the teacher was maybe a bit more involved, but it was mostly the same. He basically gave the students their projects and included a project manager even in the groups as a way to keep them on task. I’m sure that he was there for any questions they had, but the students really engaged and managed the project on their own.

             The students in the first video, as I said, acted as educators for their peers. They spent time creating their presentations, as well as notes to go along with the presentation as a way to keep them engaged, and finally created an activity for students to complete after the lesson in order to really cement it in their minds. Students were expected not only to learn the material themselves, but know it well enough to teach it, which is the highest level of learning. In the second video students were placed in groups of three and each had a different job. As a task manager the students were expected to keep their teammates on track and on task, as programmers the students were expected to program the game, and as designers students were expected to design graphics for the game, not only concept art but what actually showed up in the game. Furthermore, all of the students in the group were expected to contribute to the game’s theme as well as its overall concept.

             I wasn’t really surprised by anything in the first video, I’ve been in classrooms or had teachers who’ve had me complete assignments like that one. However, I really liked how she made them go a bit further than just having them create a PowerPoint and had them extend that learning for the students they were teaching. I was pleasantly surprised in the second video. When the teacher brought up creating these games for 5th graders that these students had actually met, I thought that was an amazing idea. Students are so much more engaged when a ‘problem’ becomes ‘real’ to them. Having students complete an assignment like this with no foreseeable purpose can make students feel like they’re just completing busy work, “no one is ever going to play this game, why should I even finish it?” Spending time to connect this project to real life and giving students a way to get actual feedback is a wonderful way to get and keep students engaged and definitely a way to get them to work hard on it.

The first thing in this PowerPoint that I felt needed to be changed was that the entire presentation didn’t have an overall theme. Each slide was very different and there didn’t seem to be any sort of organization in how the slides were set up. I settled on a sort of neutral navy-blue background and to add some variety I made some different gradients or patterns to the background. The next thing that really stood out to me was how the graphics on each slide really varied. Some slides contained around seven photos and others had none. I did my best to balance out the number of graphics on each of the slides about two or three for each. I also varied my graphics by putting them in different shapes or instead of using photos using icons/clipart.

Given my experience in classrooms it seems to me that using devices in classrooms can be a good way to reiterate a lesson. Kids can often get distracted during a lesson and playing some sort of review game can help refocus students and evaluate what they understood and what they missed. In Chapter 7 Dirksen talks a lot about structuring to make sure that your students aren’t always biking uphill.  Dirksen also talks about feedback a lot and how often we should use it. In lessons I think that integrating short breaks of online play can be very beneficial especially in groups of younger children. This changing of activities as well as pace will really help keep those students engaged in the lesson.

             Dirksen talks in Chapter 9 about habits and how they are created. I feel that for devices to be used efficiently in the classroom students need to be taught habits of learning through devices, not just mindlessly playing with them. Following Dirksen’s model their trigger would be getting out their devices and the habit would hopefully begin to morph into learning. This habit would be a very hard one to create however, given that the students would most likely be playing on devices at home and most likely they would not be learning. Therefore, I feel that spending time cultivating that habit would be the way to have the students fully use their devices for learning.

Personally, I think that in a world full of new and exciting technology the really interesting thing would be to bring back techniques from the past. With the way that technology is moving, more and more kids will be playing inside on a screen and though they may protest at first, I really think that lessons that occur outside with ‘unfamiliar’ surroundings will really capture students’ attention. Of course, this method will work better for some subjects better than others. Most outside field trips will probably be related to science. In chapter 5 Dirksen talks a lot about the two characters inside the mind: the rider and the elephant. Using the outside environment, I think, will really guide the elephant along instead of having to drag it.

             It seems to be easy to pay attention when something is important to you personally. It can seem difficult to get today’s lesson plans to relate to students on their own level however, I feel that at least at its most basic level just putting a student’s name into a problem can somewhat pique their interest. Now obviously there are more and better ways to bring lessons to the front of students’ minds, but this is a very simple tactic that I think is very effective. It can be a real challenge to pay attention when something doesn’t feel important at all. Many times, in high school, I remember classmates asking when we would need to use a unit circle in our day-to-day lives. Very few teachers were able to answer these questions and those who could really seem to be able to reel their classrooms back in to focus.

             I really liked Dirksen’s metaphor for the human mind and its two parts. I think that as an educator its good to know and really understand how the brain works and where its downfalls are. By knowing that the rider is not always able to control the elephant educators are pushed to see just how they can make the rider's job easier and keep the elephant in line for as long as they can. I think that this lesson especially applies to younger students who have a less experienced rider and need more practice controlling their elephant. This will also translate the other way, in that, younger students will need a much more entertaining classroom, for a better behaving elephant.

So, I plan to teach (hopefully) in either the 4th or 5th grade. I feel drawn to these grades because I really feel that these ages were when I personally had a real sense of curiosity and that I really wanted to learn. Obviously, in any grade, you are going to have students that are hungry for knowledge and those are planning their next summer break. What I really want to achieve as a teacher is to get those students excited to come to school even if it's just for a little while.

Personally, as a student, I was mostly bored in school even though I loved to learn. I would quickly grasp whatever lesson was being taught and then want to move on, but we would stay with that topic for THREE MORE DAYS. As a kid, it was pretty agonizing. This resulted in me talking… a lot. I still have issues with it to this day. I’m hoping that as a teacher I will be able to lessen this feeling for students who may be able to grasp some concepts quicker than others. Chapter 2 of the text talks about “Leveraging their expertise”. Which basically means using these pros to help you move along the rest of your classroom. My favorite teacher from the 4th grade would do this. When I finished my worksheet early, he would then instruct me to help a student who was having some trouble with the assignment. This also ended up basically being my career choice as well. However, just because this method kept me occupied doesn’t mean that it should be used with everyone. Students that are really impatient would be more likely to just fill in the student’s worksheet that they were supposed to be helping them with.