Synthesis:
The important factors we all agreed on for this chapter were the two major points that the author tried to get across. First was to be passionate and empowered towards your content. Once an educator shows that enthusiasm and connection to the subject students are more apt to connect with the material. For most of us the teachers that inspired us and really got us engaged were pretty clearly described by this chapter and the strategies it presented. For each lesson plan we must keep the knowledge of student’s particular learning style in the highest regard in order to successfully motivate each student and effectively communicate with them. We must all keep in mind the variety of activities and games we can use to let our students feel interested with our content and classrooms. Finally what we must all keep in mind for our student’s is the mood and atmosphere in which they all learn. Creating comfortable, relevant, engaging learning experiences for these students is the only way in which we can become better middle school teachers.
Analysis:
The things that we have all found through the reading of this chapter is a general consensus on the best way to reach our students. In practicum and throughout our general education courses we have all learned about the Multiple intelligences and Meaningful Engaged Learning which I am sure we have all had experiences where we use these models in practice. This chapter is a good one for all of us to consider because it gives us all a chance to reflect as pre-professionals and see what the most effective methods for ourselves are and what we can do to challenge ourselves for the benefits of our students. We need to keep our students interests and personalities in mind constantly while planning if we hope to be the most competent and successful educators.
I like the last link - can never have too much Multiple Intelligence!
ReplyDeleteSo I really liked the link with the ideas for games and stuff. I think they are a fun way to get kids to learn, and can be very helpful. Also, the game Banana Race sounded pretty nice.
ReplyDelete-Erich
Bravo! I especially enjoyed the link regard the proper classroom environment. As a behaviorist, I agree that a positive classroom environment yields the best results for learning content and having a good student-teacher and student-student relationship. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI really feel that it is important for students to know their learning style or multiple intelligence. The quiz on the third link would be an awesome way to pre-assess students and look at the diversity of the group! Awesome find!
ReplyDeleteI really like the first link about the different classroom activities. I am always looking for way to make the information I'm teaching interesting and have it make the biggest impact at the same time. This site will be really helpful for this.
ReplyDeleteYour last link to Edutopia had some good ideas about real world examples for project based learning. I will be using this "tag", good job.
ReplyDeleteHey,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the last link on the multiple intelligences. Although I already pretty much know my learning styles it's still cool to go back and look at it again. I also like the first link that gives us activities. That will be very helpful in the future.
Darcie
I think that a lot of the time, I say that I want to create a comfortable and happy classroom environment, but I don't really know how to physically make my classroom more comfortable for students. The "Creating an Effective Physical Classroom Environment" webpage gave some great ideas of how to create a classroom that is a positive environment for students. :)
ReplyDeleteThe activities on the first site are awesome! That is going to be a really rich resource when we go to make lesson plans. I agree with you that I can never come up with anything interesting and fun for the students, so this was awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe website about comfort in the classroom is a good reminder to keep the students needs and mind and to make sure that the classroom is a safe place for students.
I like the quiz, because it is an easy tool to use with my students. It's always nice to have interesting resources that I can use that will address the needs and also be quick and understandable.
I liked the wide variety of games on the first link.... too bad most of them are for young learners, I wonder if there are other sties out there that would have that wide a range of more Middle school, High School levels
ReplyDeleteYour link about classroom environment reminds me of a quote I hear often, which goes something like "buildings don't educate students." I think that buildings and classrooms are actually a very important part of a school's culture, and the physical environment of a classroom means a lot to the learning environment of a classroom. Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the site with all the games and activities. They seem good to incorporate into the classroom in order to build a fun, but structured environment. I think it is important to include student input in creating the classroom floor plan and other things for the wall.
ReplyDeleteso many games! love it
ReplyDeleteI like your 'activities' link because when I run out of things for students to do after a certain lesson these would be handy to have on hand.
ReplyDelete