Open Education Resources...

What does this mean? Open Educational Resources is pretty self explanatory. Unlimited "free" resources for using while teaching. Because of recent budget cuts made to the education department, this could be the future. As technology grows inside our learning environments, we are seeing paper less and less. OER is just another step in the path of a paperless classroom. 

When I was looking around this OER website .. OER Resources I was amazed at how many activities/lessons/ideas/projects there were for every subject. I was really interested in the arts, but I made my way to the primary category because I am an early education student. Primary Section There were literally THOUSANDS of resources. I think this could be extremely helpful to teachers all over America trying to save. I also was surprised at how detailed the lessons are. This resource on Zoo's and the problems with pulling an animal from its natural habitat has 3 days worth of activities and planned lessons, with all of the necessary tools and aligned standards. The Zoo is coming! I am excited to explore even more this website in the future when I have my own classroom.

Another feature of this awesome website is the games section. Resource Games as a child I loved learning while playing (I still do actually..) This section gives educators thousands of ways to adapt a new fun way to a lesson. The art's section is just as fascinating, giving me so many ideas about what I could do with a general education class to incorporate art into other areas of education.. Cool Art Stuff!

With the countries socio economic status being in the situation it is in, this is exactly what teachers need. What is wrong with sharing our successful ideas and methods for others to try out? In my eyes this is just a good way to spread the word quick, and cheaply about a successful lesson. 

This website could also help me out right now! It has 890 textbooks, I'm sure I could find one that would assist me with my many learning needs! Books that are text

All in all, I am SO glad we got to learn about this website because I know I will be using it often as a future educator. Thanks Dr.Smith! 

Flipped Learning

          What is flipped learning?

Flipped learning is a new technique switching things up in the classroom. Giving students teacher created videos of lessons and lectures to watch at home, and have discussions and questions in the classroom.
The idea is that a student doesn't need a teacher present to be able to listen to a lecture and comprehend it, but they do need an instructor to ask questions. Moving lectures outside of the classroom gives the teacher more one on one time with individual students rather than speaking to the class as a whole about what could have been watched as homework at home.

This method also builds better and stronger relationships between the students and teachers because of the provision of more one on one time, it also offers a way for teachers to share information within the entire education community more effectively..(students, substitutes, parents, faculty, and the general community). I thought this was a cool video for parents to get a better understanding of a specific flipped classroom... <--....





This method would also be very helpful for students who may need to have things repeated, or "rewind" the lecture, it will also aid in avoiding issues that may be embarrassing for students confronting the teacher about not understanding something, when you can post a question silently, without anyone hearing it. While at the same time letting more advanced students move at a productive rate without being stalled by questions they already understand. Letting students learn at their own pace has proven to be very effective (65% higher test scores). This method also creates a more collaborative learning environment in this classroom. On the other hand there are some faults to a flipped learning environment, such as students not paying attention, or not watching the videos. Teachers may argue that some students "refuse" to learn and are simply unmotivated, and that adding a simple fill in the blank worksheet or simple quiz covering the basic material at the end could provide a simple solution to this problem. Parents also may argue that there is no "real" interaction time during the videos between the students and teachers...but if there is a program implemented such as a twitter account or a message/discussion board where the students can ask questions, or even email them to the teacher they could get answered (it may not be immediate, but the teacher could check their email at the same time every night when the students KNOW they will be checking it, say by 9 pm.). Probably the biggest con is for children who don't have internet access at home. This is an issue in many poverty areas. Solutions may be open computer labs throughout the day and before and after school, or letting children check a laptop out to take to a public library or wifi spot, a last resort could be burning dvd's for these students of the lectures to watch on a television at home.

 This method will definitely be something I will be considering as a future educator. Especially because half of my major is special education, and I will have students with learning disabilities that will need to hear parts, or whole lectures more than once. I think that this method has some serious strong points that I am surprised haven't been thought of before. With technology expanding in our homes and classrooms more and more everyday it makes me excited that this could be something for all schools to try in the future. It seems this practice would yield great results and hopefully improve the learning environment for everyone!

Here's another video showing many teachers explaining WHY they flipped their classrooms:
Underneath the teacher views video is a video showing what real students that have used this method think of it :)

Sources :
http://www.techsmith.com/flipped-classroom.html
http://www.voxxi.com/flipped-classroom-pros-cons/
http://flipped-learning.com
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=4oWF_kyWbi8
 http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-pro-and-con-mary-beth-hertz

Word Cloud!

My Word Cloud :) 

Reflection of Power point project ( :/ )

For my SEDU 183 class we had to create a non direct instruction powerpoint, so something more interactive. I think I was a tad bit too adventurous going into this project. In the beginning I wanted to teach a pre school setting in Italy, similar to a Reggio Emelia classroom. I looked for standards Italy had and I couldn't find any, I asked a professor who had toured the school but she said she didn't know of any, and said the education system there is very different. I then chose to do Kindergarten in Pennsylvania, and use the PA early learning standards found on this pdf ... Pa early learning standards - Kindergarten from the PA keys website. Realizing most kindergartners can't read, I tried using voice add ins to my power point but failed at every attempt. I asked three friends who also own macs who are experienced with garage band and still didn't know how to add voice clips to Key Point presentations unfortunately. Other than the fact that I failed at adding voice clips, I am very pleased with the lesson. It seems like it would be interesting and fun if I was in kindergarten, and somewhat enriching. All in all, I thought it was enjoyable, and interesting. I was discouraged however after seeing the other people's projects. I guess not knowing ANYTHING about key note really hindered my abilities. It just didn't seem as fancy or intriguing as everyone elses..but I'm still proud of my work. Here is a website about the book included in my lesson. Action Jackson Book also, here is the website I included in my powerpoint that lets you create a picture like the works of Jackson Pollock with your mouse, Jackson Pollock Painting  <-- This one is REALLY cool I recommend trying it out. :)

Two more for the roll

Crafty Crow!  and The art corner

I chose to follow two art blogs, although I am an Early/Special Education major, I have two minors in art, (One in general art, and one in print making) Art is a passion for me and I am always looking for new crafting ideas to do with young children and my nieces at home. I like both of these blogs for different reasons, the crafty crow has really interesting, and unique ideas that I have never seen and probably never would have heard of. The art corner has tabs with various categories making navigation of the blog website easy and user friendly. I like them both because they have really cute fun ideas that I think won't be too challenging for young kids, and will engage different areas of development.

My Beliefs about Technology and Learning

I have a love-hate relationship with technology in the education system, there are definitely places where it helps, and there are for sure some places that it hurts. Having limitless information at your fingertips can be nice, but some people may think it is making younger generations lazy. Technology has been expanding in classrooms more in the past decade than it ever has. It is revolutionizing the learning environment in some places. My niece Makayla is autistic and she uses an ipad to do a lot of communicating, something that was never possible for many people before. Technology is helping students with disabilities especially in all types of ways. Especially those with communicative disabilities. This is a serious change, and movement in our classroom's across the nation. The question is, whether this movement is productive for the classroom or not? I grew up being exposed to a lot of technology, computers, video games, etc. I feel that because I'm so used to the idea of it already, that I am okay with it being in my education environment. I like that we're using smart boards in this SEDU class, and are encouraged to bring our computers to class. I think there are more benefits than cons when it comes to this issue. I think the bigger problem is getting the older generation to jump on board. I'm sure there are older people who ARE on board with this technological jump in society but I know many elderly that think that computers are actually evil. I come from a small town where a lot of people STILL don't have computers and don't understand them at all. I honestly don't think my dad would even be able to get on the internet if he wanted to. Some people in some areas (farm towns/small towns) are really unexposed and uneducated on the subject.

Important to me

The budget cuts schools are getting are creating problems all over the curriculum, an issue that hits home for me is the cut to different types of arts programs, and how they are becoming smaller, and vanishing right before our eyes. Even though I am an Early Childhood/Special Education major, I am an artist as well. As a child art was a creative outlet for me, it let me use my imagination to the fullest potential and really think outside of the box. I know children today who are so used to sitting in front of a tv all day that they don't really know what to do when they have a paintbrush in their hands. I'm a big fan of the Reggio Emilia system in Italy, letting kids explore and wonder, and putting their creations on display for them to be proud of. I think it is an important part of growing up, getting that release. There aren't many videos on the internet of Reggio Emilia style classroom's because of how exclusive it is, but I'm putting a video in here with a Kansas City School adaption. The classroom is inspiring, and also relaxing at the same time. I found it cute, and interesting.