Week 3 Assignment

Pro's and Con's of Others Blog's

Liz Davis

I read the post “Passion Driven Professional Development - Teachers Unplugged at NAISAC14” posted on Friday, February 28, 2014. I really liked that this was a chance for teachers to get together to discuss ideas that they want to in small groups. It was like an organized meeting to discuss issues that they all have in common. It was broken down into two rounds, or more if there was time, where they could choose what topic/group they wanted to join. I think that this could work also with elementary aged students for given topics by a classroom teacher. If you know that you are moving into a new topic such as plants, you could have different groups talking about what they already know, what they want to find out and any questions they may have. The blog was set up well, as I scrolled through it I noticed links, pictures and on the left hand side there were categories that you, as a reader, could choose.

Lisa Neilsen

I read the post “Why the flip’s a flop” posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2012. Lisa Neilsen wrote that she “doesn’t like the flipped classroom approach because its foundation is in flipping lectures from classwork to homework.” I would have to disagree. She has a picture posted that states the difference of what a “Traditional” teacher would say vs a “Flipped’ teacher. The traditional teacher would say, “You have to read from pages 12 to 36 and tomorrow you will answer 20 questions about the topic.” The flipped teacher would say, “Why don’t you watch this video tonight, so we can discuss your ideas tomorrow?” I, personally, would rather be the flipped teacher in this situation. Giving something basic to watch and then have a classroom discussion about it would probably work a lot better than reading chapters out of a book and answering questions about them. Within the discussion you can ask different questions, relate answers to real life situations, and even connect them to other texts that the students have background knowledge to. I definitely think that by reading this blog post I can better understand the pro’s and con’s of a flipped classroom. I can also say that I will, as a classroom teacher, be more open to having more discussions about topics, lessons, ideas and less on the, read this and answer these questions, type of teaching. I enjoyed this post and think that it is worth reading more of what Lisa has to offer as an educator.

Darren Draper

I read the post “When should you buy your child a smartphone?” posted on April 7, 2014. I liked that he wrote “The answer to the question in this post’s title varies from family to family, and from child to child. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.” Darren mentioned a few different recommendations that he thought would be helpful to keep in mind. He stated that parents should “regularly speak with children about technology,” and that parents should “define the boundaries of inappropriate and appropriate conduct and content,” and to always be safe when using technology “kids will make mistakes and parents will make mistakes but the best advice is to always work together as a family to ensure technology use strengthens family relationships.” I think that these points are huge. I have a 3 year old cousin that has low vision and was recommended to use an iPad to strengthen his eyes. He, at 3, can unlock the iPad, flip through the pages, find the app he wants to play, play the app and know exactly what to do. I know so many young children that can do this already at such a young age. I also agree with Darren that parents should monitor what their children are doing on the iPad, laptop, or any type of technology. Even though Darren's blog posts were not that long, they were definitely informative and I could refer back to his blog if I was looking for information about a different topic. 

My Water Cycle Webquest

For my Webquest I am going to be writing a lesson plan for a 2nd Grade classroom to learn all about the Water Cycle. Luckily, I have two wonderful teachers at my school that have resource books that I will be able to borrow to help me write the lesson plan. I will also do lots of research online by finding other webquests to help with ideas, searching out lesson plans, using the website Teachers Pay Teachers (which is an amazing place to go for anything and everything) and any other place I can find information. I will come up with vocabulary words with definitions and a few hands on activities for the students. It would be very interesting if each student could make a virtual water cycle. Where they can create their own picture with animation, text and video.