Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach
If you want to see a very good student blog from the College of William and Mary just head over to Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach. Rachel will be graduating in the Spring of 2007 and she has viewed many edublogger’s sites. Her post about the Oregon Trail brought back some memories of my beginning days in technology with the kids. I taught a summer enrichment program and Oregon Trail was a big hit then!
The Jeopardy games are great fun too. My students would each create their own questions in Inspiration using the note feature and then the calculator to keep score. They tried to devise the best questions for their classmates to try out. It’s good to think back and then see now and where we are and then project ahead. Wow! It’s fun to imagine. It is a joy to view through the eyes of an emerging teacher. She talks about planning for the unexpected. I’ve always thought that the one with the most flexibility is the one in control and is able to use those unexpected moments and make the most of the opportunities they bring. I can tell Rachel is going to be one of those flexible teachers. Isn’t it great to see our student teachers blogging?
October 10th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
A Creative Response to Violence
Teachers and leaders of after school programs should know that the YWCA is sponsoring a “When I Get Mad I Draw†art contest to give kids an opportunity to show how they express their feelings of anger. Because of the recent tragedies involving school violence, the YWCA USA has decided to expand the contest to a national competition. Part of the Y’s annual YWCA’s Week Without Violence campaign (October 15-21, 2006,) the contest is sponsored by TiVo KidZone for kids between the 3 and 16.
The idea is to get parents, caregivers, and teachers to engage children in a discussion about ways to deal with anger and how to cope with violence. The kids are invited to draw and use their creativity to express their emotions.
The YWCA will honor twelve of the young artists that participate by selecting three finalists from each of the following age categories: 3-6 years old, 7-10 years, 11-13 years and 14-16 years. TiVo Inc. will provide the winners with prizes including a free TiVo and free service, among others. All entries must be postmarked by October 21, 2006.
April 6th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Teaching children to learn is constantly changing as the classrooms are becoming more diverse. Students with disabilities, and children from many different cultures are being included in some classrooms. It is important to include everyone into the studies and to make sure that all students have equal opportunities in their education. A new teaching concept called, e-Learning developed promarily by Bryn Holmes and John Gardner (2006) is changing the way students learn. According to Holmes & Gardner (2006), e-Learning offers students, “online access to learning resources, anywhere and anytime” (p.14). This can help students learn at their own pace and sometimes in their own enviornments which can be more comfortable than the classroom. e-Learning allows students to collaborate with one another through the use of ICTs and can guide students through their own learning. This new methodology can be helpful when students are coming from such diverse and different backgrounds with different styles of teaching.
-Alex
Holmes & Gardner. (2006). e-Learning: Concepts and Practice. London: Sage Publications.