My Name is Rachel McKenzie.
I am an Early Education/Special Education major at Edinboro University.
This is my 21st century classroom.
I have prepared a video about my teaching story, as well as my personal teaching beliefs.
I am an Early Education/Special Education major at Edinboro University.
This is my 21st century classroom.
I have prepared a video about my teaching story, as well as my personal teaching beliefs.
21st Century Physical Classroom Set Up
by Rachel McKenzie
Lucy - My Autistic student
I am a teacher at Creek Side elementary in Boulder, Colorado. Creek Side’s curriculum is emergent, and based on the students interests.
I am teaching a Kindergarten class with 16 students. There are two gifted students, One student in a wheel chair, one with a learning disability, two with vision impairments, and one with autism. As for diversity there will be two asian, one native american, and four african american students. In my classroom I would like to have a collaborative management system meaning that it is both the responsibility of the student and teacher to manage behavior.
Creek Side prides themselves on their technical advances in the classroom. We also have a mobile Touch - and - Speak communication device for my student with autism. She is able to communicate with her peers not only with this, but also with an app on one of the 10 ipads we have for my classroom. Ipads are really one of the most amazing pieces of technology I have ever had the chance to use. The possibilities with them are endless. There are literally thousands of apps that contribute to many developmental areas. They can entertain/educate your students infinitely. For more information on ipads, check out this website - Ipads are cool!
My student with a learning disability also uses an ipad for most of her work and has shown much improvement since practicing the different apps working with reading comprehension and literacy. One of my students with a vision impairment has low vision, and uses a magnifying glass for reading. Many of my students use the computers in the computer space for many reasons, whether they are behind grade level and work on individual progress programs or use the computers during free choice center time. I use the computer at my desk to monitor what the students are doing on theirs, and also have a blog publishing their work that I manage on my computer. Blogging is a very interactive way for teachers to communicate, it is also a quick, easy, and cheap way to get ideas for lesson plans. Blogs!
I also have a live classroom Pinterest account, and connect with other teachers about creative lessons. Pins When I am planning a lesson I will find 5 different fun, adaptable, interesting approaches to a lesson, and then let the children pick which one they would like to do. When I have a creative lesson I would like to share, I post it on pinterest as well. I also use a website called OER Open Educational Resources for helpful lesson,activity, and project ideas. The website also has tons of awesome games that the kids love learning from!
The children work with each other and myself when making decisions about the classroom. For matters that their input is going to be needed, I will use voting for other decisions as well. Such as the set up of the room, or what activity they would like to do first for the day. I want to give them enough voice in the room that they feel responsible for what is going on, while still being under instruction. I created a play centered classroom to develop the social needs as well as the cognitive needs of the children, I grouped the desk for this same reason.
I model an emergent curriculum, building lessons on what the students are interested in. I like to think of my classroom as Reggio Americana (an american version of the Reggio Emilia model that is popular in Italy, Australia, and other parts of the world). This system is much more about controlling the environment the students learn in, rather than controlling the student.
I model an emergent curriculum, building lessons on what the students are interested in. I like to think of my classroom as Reggio Americana (an american version of the Reggio Emilia model that is popular in Italy, Australia, and other parts of the world). This system is much more about controlling the environment the students learn in, rather than controlling the student.
This is an example of a Reggio themed school
I believe it is important to implement an emergent curriculum because there is much more that children need to develop than just cognitive skills. When children learn through play and experience they develop all kinds of skills that they will need in the real world such as problem solving, communication skills, social skills, and many others. In short term, play creates a classroom atmosphere of cooperation, initiative, and intellectual challenge. Focusing on supporting children's growth in broad, inclusive ways such as self direction, and industry. All while making the classroom fun at the same time. I want the children to enjoy learning, and love being at school.
Self Reflection
I have learned a lot in this technology class. It has really changed my outlook on technology in the classroom, and inspired me to dig deeper and explore the available resources that are provided. I also really enjoyed learning more about Mac books. I had never made anything on imovie, or garage band before this class. I even put the first video we did on youtube. I thought that was really cool. My family enjoys it as well because of how easy it is for them to see my projects. For example if I want any of my family to look at my 21st century classroom, and give me feedback, I can just tell them to type it in the address bar of their computer. I plan on using these kinds of interactions with families as a teacher as well, providing online sources of grades and weekly lessons. The only thing I regret not doing in this class is spending time learning about the smart board and how to use it. I have never used one and would like to explore the possibilities they hold. I liked this class and am actually going to miss it. It has inspired me to explore the virtual world I live in a little deeper, that's for sure!
Annotated Bibliography
"Apple." Apple. Apple Inc., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://apple.com>.
Copyright 2012 FloorplannerFloorplanner HQ. "Create floor plans, house plans and home plans online with Floorplanner.com." Create floor plans, house plans and home plans online with Floorplanner.com. FloorPlanner, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <http://floorplanner.com/>.
"Create a drawing - Google Drive Help." Google Help. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=179740>.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike . "Open Educational Resources." Welcome to the Commons. ISKME, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <http://www.oercommons.com>.
Hoorn, Judith Lieberman. Play at the center of curriculum. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2003. Print.
"Reggio Emilia approach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. wikimediafoundation, 28 Jan. 2004. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach>.
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