Blog Post 12

What I've Learned This Year

There are many things that Mr. McClung show us in his two years as a teacher. In comparing these two years, we can defiantly tell that there was a big change with Mr. McClung's response to different things that happened. He is quick to admit that his year wasn't so great but he also says that he is learning from that experience. That is the title to his first post (Never Stop Learning). He is really getting to know that there are many challenges to teaching that he didn't see coming. These post are going to be extremely helpful to me as I become a teacher one day. There were a few things that stood out to me as I was reading the post that I wanted to talk about.

Change makes us better teachers.
Mr. McClung shows that he was on the verge of getting too comfortable in what he was doing and his students were not benefiting. I think change is very important for all teachers to embrace.

Class discussions are important.
I haven't really thought about a class discussion being used in my class before because I didn't think it would be useful in a science class. Then I started to think that I know if I was a student and I really didn't like science, then a class discussion would make things seem more relevant to me as a person, not just as a student. If I can somehow make class discussions work in my classroom, I think I can get my students wanting to come and learn something from each other.

Being the Salesmen
I know Mr. McClung talked about selling his way of teaching to his students and making them want to learn. I think this is important because we must have the desire to make our students want to learn. If my students don't want to learn anything then they probably won't. I really think that we need to get our students to buy in to what we are trying to teach them.

What is important?
Should we be more concerned about what another teacher thinks about us or should we be more concerned about what our students are learning from us? This is a question we must ask ourselves when we go into the school and start our teaching journey. I don't think a teacher can do what is best for his or her students if they don't put those students first.

Comment:
I really have enjoyed your two end of the year post. I think that this post shows how you have really changed and how you have had to change. I think your topics in this post will really help me to become a better teach because you show so much of what it is really like to be in the classroom. From comparing your two post and from you talking in this post, I can really tell that you have grown as a teacher. I think my favorite part of the post is " Don't Lose Sight of What's Important". I know that when I become a teacher there will be many things that will be challenging. Like you I want the students to be number one. We teach so that they might have a good future. Thanks for your post.

Stephen

Engineering In the Classroom!

These videos show me yet something else I had no idea about. I can really see the reason that this is such a hit in these schools because kids love it, and it is a new way to help them with math, science, and other problem solving skills. I think this is a really great idea to get engineering into the schools because it does more that just makes shapes. It helps students to use the math formulas and really makes them think about what they are doing. Most of all I think the engineering concept makes the students proud because they have accomplished something. What a great way to use something new and cool to help students use their knowledge.

M-Cubed: ISTE Presentation Video

The Classroom Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab)

The Principle of Least Change

The Children's Engineering Initiative