In Krissey Venosdale's "If I Built A School," she starts out with how she would love to create her own school. She starts out with the baseline for school, the motto "Welcome: Now Entering an Innovation Zone." She states that it would be a neon sign that innovation would stand out more than the other words. She done this to say that the kids better know when they get there they better get ready for some change in knowledge and their lives. She goes on to explain how she wants it to be "oozing" with creativity. ONe major factor in this blog is the curriculum she wants for her school. She wants it to loose to run wild, but she wants this to let her kids explore what they want to do in life. She wants them to dig deep in their future careers and find out what they love and what keeps them interested. She showed her care for the community by putting a large whiteboard to allow people and parents from the community to say thank you or have ideas for the school. One of the last two things she really talks about is how she would put an aquarium for the kids to explore and those who want to know about marine biology could learn from watching and pondering about the fish. Lastly she says one thing that every kid in America would love to hear and that is no STATE TEST!!!! She wants the kids to be there to learn and read about things and truly love what they are learning about and remember that information forever.
All of this is good and I love her ideas, but I would do the school a little different. Well firstly, my sign on the front door would say, "If you don't want to learn, Stay HOME!" I know. It's kind of catchy, and I would probably not have any students. I think this would open their eyes to let them know when they come to my school they are going to learn. Then my school would set up in departments. For each department, I would have large building for every one of them. It would sort of be like a college, but each building would connect in a way to make it into one large school. The departments would "ooze" with information props (such as aquariums, physics labs, libraries and historical museum replicas.) In other words, each department would have hands on objects that you could look at and learn better. The curriculum would probably have the same outline as today's school curriculums.
Reaction to Virtual Choir
I just watched Eric Whitacker's Virtual Choir, and it was pretty awesome. I am amazed that the creator of this found out how to get the singers in unison like he did. The thing that puzzled me is that these people have never met in their entire life. You can say my reaction to the use of internet in this video is that it is amazing. This video does post a question in my mind. That question is how many times did they have to do this to get them in unison like they did? What if they had internet problems, how do they fix that? As amazed as I am with video, I am just concerned with the trial and error. This problem would be solved if they were all in just one place.
Teaching in the 21st
In the video teaching in the 21st Century, he put forward a point of the children teaching themselves through the internet. It had a lot of points that had google, twitter, facebook, and social networks that has a way of communication with people across the world. The kids would have the questions of everyday life, but they would rely on the internet to learn about them. They were the type of question that teachers could not answer for them. Well this video made me feel like in the future of teaching school, teachers would not be needed very much. The only type of teaching you would need is computer teachers, and others that taught about new technology.I guess I kind of over exaggerated the point of not needing teachers, but it means that everything would be online. Students would get their curriculum online and follow guidelines to learn the things they needed to know for their grade. Eventually, the only thing teachers would need to do is post the curriculum, and just be there for simple questions. So I guess in my near future that I am going to learn more about technology and how to use it.
Hi Ethan!
ReplyDeleteI think your school would be just awesome! I would definitely attend. I like the idea of having the sign in front of the school because it would simply let the students know that games are not being played and if they don't want to learn then they can stay away. I know that I hate sitting next to students in class that just distract everyone and aren't ready to learn.
I was completely amazed by the virtual choir as well! I thought it was just so interesting that those people have never met before. I think your question is a great one. I bet it took a few times to get it just right!
I think that your post on Teaching in the 21st Century was right on point. I agree completely with you that all the teachers would have to do is post the curriculum. Since we plan to be teaching in the 21st century I think it's in our best interest to keep up with the advancement of technology in the classroom and I believe that EDM310 is giving us a sneak peak of how it may be when we are teaching. Great post Ethan!
-Gabby
I really liked your idea about having a lab for every department to cater to the needs of hands on activities. I think students would learn the material way better if they could physically do everything they are learning. I also really like your idea about the welcome sign. There's always kids who could care less about participating and learning, and having them not come at all would allow the teachers to invest more time in the students who actually want to be there.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of the errors with the virtual choir assignment until I read your post. Those things never crossed my mind, and now I'm curious about how long it took to make too!
It's scary to me how teachers may not be needed one day. Personally speaking, I love being around children. I want to be around kids and teach them things they need to know. Most importantly though, I want to be a good influence on them because some kids don't have a good role model to look up to. To think that one day teaching could be done solely through a computer really upsets me.
" This problem would be solved if they were all in just one place." It would cost a lot to bring them all to one place. Did you listen to the NPR interview? Many of your questions are answered there.
ReplyDelete"If you don't want to learn, Stay HOME!" I could add that as an EDM310 motto.
"and just be there for simple questions." That is certainly not the argument Roberts makes. He believes that teachers must move from being information fountains to educators who teach students how to find, vet, and use information; how to vet sources; how to compare, contrast, argue, ask questions. Information sources are no longer needed since we have the internet. But we do need educators!
Where is your discussion of the Flipped Curriculum?
Wnat about the flipped classroom?