Education ~ with a different approach.

After the progressing weeks, I am finally putting the finishing touches on my Genius hour trailer... Everything is coming along wonderfully and I am getting excited! I have not only been planning out some relative ideas that can work well, but extensions for students that require accommodations and modifications of any sort.  The only limitations that I can expect thus far is a lack of instruction or understanding of what can be done... Hopefully the students can see the potential in elaborating on their ideas, but I am assuming it will be an awesome classroom experience for all which will help spark motivation and engage all the class in its entirety. 

Today during our session we investigated the different movie or comic applications that we could use in order to peak student engagement. While using both ToonDoo and Windows Movie Maker, we were able to create enjoyable comic style cartoons and an intense "Movie Trailer" involving my Genius hour idea. I think I am getting the hang of this technology type stuff and am gathering some great ideas for future educational use in my lessons. I can't wait to put down the finishing touches and see the final product! Until next week!

Last week I was unfortunately down-and-out due to a medical issue with my eye, although this week I am ready and "looking forward" to this weeks session, activity and post.  Firstly, it was really difficult coming back into the classroom and trying to stay up to date with all of the assignments and material missed in session. It really makes a difference being absent and I do NOT recommend missing classes, if health permitting of course.  Secondly, I had a lot of support from my peers and instructor which helped me a substantial amount. I was brought up-to-speed with most everything I missed and it made me feel less-stressed having the help I needed. A supportive classroom environment absolutely makes a huge change to those who need it.  Lastly, this post is dedicated to those who have concerns and issues that affect people's lives. Especially when regarding academics and schooling, students and youngsters should not be distracted by exterior factors. It makes lear...

My Genius Hour concept is progressing and elaborating with each week that passes and continues to close-in. My overall goal goes along with my personal motivation which is to allow students to tap into their own meta-cognition. I would like students to know their own learning limitations and combat them by creating a comfortable and engaging learning environment that will elaborate on interesting subject matter. Each student will create their own five question quiz on the content being explained in the class by said student. The instructing student will collaborate with their peers to create fair and interesting questions that provide affirmation on what was learned.

As the ever progressing world continues to shift through educational paradigms, I cannot help but to think; "What would comprise a twenty-first century present day classroom?..." The only reason I recall such a thought is due to the sole reason that I wish to become a top educator who truly encompasses the power of higher level thinking... ... And so I think I will incorporate this theme of self-reflection, self-discovery and self-proficiency in order to try and achieve "What is the greatest learning environment for students...", but with a twist.... The students will be the one's to decide 'how' and 'why' certain things, lessons, content, tools, materials, and so on... to create the greatest learning environment possible in a school setting.

The final couple weeks of  class have been very informative and quite appealing. Seeing the progression of curricular expectations has been beneficial for my personal learning and an understanding that I can apply to my future practice. Students have a keen sense of learning when it comes to the world around them, so by incorporating the newly advancing influences, theories and impacts perceived globally; students can use this knowledge in order to develop themselves into citizens suitable in a critical and global sense. The course material proved to be easy to understand yet very protrusive in its manner. The topics and subjects of the various 21st century literacies proved to encounter issues and dilemmas in a present context but also provided necessary altruistic factors so that students had an intrinsic source. It is often quite difficult to get students wanting to learn at an implicit level without any extrinsic motivations. Allowing students to learn through meta-cognition i...

Through the continual studying, reading and learning I have been doing through my undergrad studies, I have come to a very important topic of educational discussion. When depicting the key elements of what comprises our curriculum today, it is beneficial to think, discuss and talk about the 21st Century Literacies and what they are defined as. As mentioned in the previous blog post, the traditionalist style of schooling has taken a rather large transition. In correlation with the advancement in technology, medias and global connections; I talked about the impact and analysis behind only a few of the key literacies, though they are vital. Media and digital literacy were of those two that have been shifting in a progressive manner (Berger et al., 2009). Yet even though the advancement of literacies may be essential to keep things relevant and updated for education, the most important literacy that ushers a complete connectedness with each and every 21st century literacy, is in fact Crit...