6+Reflective+Journal+December+14th

I love the idea of creating assignments that give the students "real world" training. I'm a strong believer that everything we teach needs to be taught with future application in mind. Through project-based learning, the students get that, and they get to work cooperatively.

I was thinking of the first time I got on the internet. I saw websites for the first time, and I immediately thought, "I want to do this..." I figured that it would never be attainable for me because I figured I would need years of training in HTML, programming, etc. I just thought the internet was for the tech "nerds." As I've grown older those "nerds" are the majority now. All the skills you need to build a website (or other computer skills) are easily attainable and many of our students already have the necessary skills to do it. What we as teachers need to do is build on that fascination. Show them work, and try to get that " I want to do this" attitude out of them.

From the Concept to Classroom website, I was intrigued with cooperative/collaborative learning. I do feel teachers often times have an arrogance about them that makes them think that 50 minute lectures are absolutely fine. The attitude is that "I'm the expert; you are stupid, so listen and learn." Some students //will// learn under these conditions, but most will not. The guidelines for cooperative learning seems common sense to me. They are:


 * learners actively participate;
 * teachers become learners at times, and learners sometimes teach;
 * respect is given to every member;
 * projects and questions interest and challenge students;
 * diversity is celebrated, and all contributions are valued;
 * students learn skills for resolving conflicts when they arise;
 * members draw upon their past experience and knowledge;
 * goals are clearly identified and used as a guide;
 * research tools such as Internet access are made available;
 * students are invested in their own learning.

That's the kind of classroom I want to be in both as an educator and student.

As far as our survey went, there were some key observations that I made:

What I found most intriguing is that most of the students say they have access to the internet and a computer at home (87 and 96 respectively). However, when I assign a project where a computer and the internet is needed, many of my students complain about not having access to either of these items. I feel, now, like I can assign a project over the internet, and not feel guilty about the students who don't have internet because they can also have access at school pretty readily. Another surprise is that 28 of our students say they don't have a social networking site. That seems like a high number of kids who don't with as common as it is. Lastly, 25 students do not have flash drive. This also surprises me. I would like to make it a requirement for the students to have a flash drive. This would save a tremendous amount of frustration.