Classroom Management & Enhancing Direct Instruction

We're going to cover a lot of ground in class today, and you'll probably need to spend a bit of time on your own this week to more fully explore the concepts introduced to you- even veteran educators face a dazzling variety of challenges everyday.  However, as new teachers, you'll be faced with the enormous additional task of creating an organizational system to manage your classroom.  This takes on many facets:  student work collection, grading systems and assessment, behavior challenges, parent communication, professional development, etc.  The list of jobs that you will be expected to successfully juggle from Day One is daunting.

Fortunately, your more veteran colleagues will have plenty of tips for you.  Today's lesson will introduce, discuss, and apply technology to those practical considerations that you'll have to address in your future classroom.

We'll also take a look at the evolution of direct instruction in the classroom for the 21st Century.  The widespread availability of technology that allows multimedia streaming, anytime access for students, and almost unlimited resources for teachers has given rise to new twists on old issues (like copyright laws) and radical approaches to teacher driven instruction. You'll examine the implications of these new strategies, explore the educational applications of lots of software, and create your own teacher lesson using the newest of presentation platforms.

It's also getting close to research paper time.  Don't forget to look at the rubric for your Tech Ed in the News Paper due next February 12 by classtime.  You'll email me your finished paper and I'll add my comments via track changes.  Need some ideas?  Think about the weekly class topics or use the internet to search and find great sites like Edutopia, Classroom 2.0., or Edudemic.

Week Two- Collaboration and Communication

Welcome, everyone.  I'm glad to see that we're all back for Week 2.

Last week we created our blogs and added some useful links to them.  We'll take some time at the start of class and let you revisit them, as well as providing some feedback for your peers.  This is the time to help each other with issues that have arisen over the past week, plus begin the process of revision and tweaking to make your blog as professional and useful as possible. Think about the characteristics of what a good teacher blog would have- what is its purpose?

This week we will continue to utilize our blogs, adding  Wikis and RSS feeds into the mix and give you some time to explore the potential of both of these in school settings.  Lastly, we'll explore an index of useful Web 2.0 tools, picking three useful applications and discussing their uses in the classroom.

Let's Do This!

Hello, everyone!

It's nice to finally get the chance to see you all in person!  Today we will have the opportunity to get to know one another by completing an introduction activity, as well as participate in several group activities.  Then, we'll click on the Blogging link and get started on our journey...

We'll start by looking at the various perspectives on technology integration, and give you the opportunity to participate in a role playing activity.  Next, we'll look at the importance of standards and analyze how everything that you teach is ultimately determined by them.  After that, you'll examine a Google lesson plan or two and see how to actually incorporate technology into your daily learning.

Finally, you'll spend a bit of time looking at the uses of blogs in the classroom and ultimately begin to create your own blog.  You'll then use this blog to link to your classmates, post your weekly reflections, and link to your classroom assignments and projects.  It will become the storehouse of your experience in this class and will ultimately serve as a valuable portfolio of your technology experience.

Our class time will be full of active learning methods and incorporate a balance of high and low tech approaches.  The focus will be on interaction with peers and learning how to problem-solve without the assistance of the instructor.  As teachers, you will have to do the same thing- every day, with little or no tech support.  When you are ready, watch the video below to get started...

First Class Cancelled

So, here's some bad news (or good news, depending upon the level of your commitment to Ed 270!)...

Our first class, scheduled for Tuesday, January 8 from 9:00 to 11:50 am in ITC 001 will have to be cancelled.  I'm flying back from a conference that day and won't make it back in town until the evening.  Sorry about that.

However, don't fret!  There's still plenty to keep you busy until we meet the following week.  I've got a few things that I need to you to complete before January 15.    A list of items can be found below:

1. Download and read the course syllabus.  Pay particular attention to the grading policies and course calender.  
2. Take this survey.
3. Read the first chapter in the Richardson book- "The Read/Write Web."
4. Post a response to the question at Wallwisher.  This is a free website, but will require you to create an account.  Then compare your response to that of your classmates.