From Carly Peterson
Chapter 1 Reflection: As a second grade teacher who facilitates a student-centered classroom, I now believe our use of social media is an opportunity for students to partake in the type of learning in which they can thrive and shout their story to the world. When we allow students to write and share their work with the world, suddenly their work becomes more valuable. Some ideas I took away from this chapter that I would like to implement in my classroom this year are some well known apps that can help teach students to be creating a positive image for themselves which does result in doing your best in school. Two apps that I would like to incorporate starting in the beginning of the school year are instagram and seesaw. The app seesaw is a place where students can create a digital profile about their own unique self and promoting their educational side by sharing their best work. The second app I would like to incorporate right on the first day of school is Instagram to help students learn to leave a positive digital footprint. I want to help students prepare for the "real world" by teaching them to only share positive messages, to broadcast their own work, and share the culture of our classroom/school.
Chapter 2: The main concern of course is trying to find time in our already busy schedules. It will take me at least a full year to really get in the swing of 20% time and a lot of trial/errors. The 20% time will look different in my 2nd grade classroom compared to a classroom in the middle school. I envision my students learning the basics of 20% time. I have found some great sources for my students to use to help their research process. I also foresee myself assigning my students a specific topic for quarter 1 and 2 (especially my first year implementing this and their first year!). In 2nd grade, we create habitats. We learn about many different habitats and then the students pick their favorite. I thought this would be a way to "ease" into 20% time. It could be more broad and the students would be in charge of picking their own habitat, researching their habitat, creating their habitat, and having a report at the end. This moves away from projects and turns this task into a PBL. Hopefully by quarter 3 and 4 students could venture off and pick a topic of their own interest/desire.
Some of the research sites I have used in the past and my students could use on their own were: brainpop, kidrex, wonderpools, animal planet, national geographic, and certainly using books in our classroom or library.
Chapter 3: Once again, time can be such a factor in the classroom. There are many times that it is just easier to "hurry up" and "help" so you can move onto the next lesson in the school day. Instead, we need to allow for our students to have time to collaborate, express their ideas/concerns, and take the time to listen. It is truly amazing seeing a spark in their eye when they are interested in a topic you are teaching about. It is time to be making schools a place where innovation happens all the time throughout the school day but, does not stop there!
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