Experiencing Alice

When the assignment was first presented to me, I really saw it as an impossible task for me to make a game. I was overwhelmed with how complicated everything seemed, but I was determined not to give up. I continued to work with the tools on Alice and ask my peers for help when they figured out how to do something that I could not. I still, however, could not figure out how to make the people walk correctly without leaving random body parts behind. 

I honestly can say that I did not really enjoy my experience using Alice. I found the codes that were available useful, but I found it nearly impossible to create a new movement, or method, for a character to do. Since I had such a hard time creating my game, I do not feel that I will use this in my future classroom of second graders because if they needed help with something I am not sure I could help them. This software can be useful if you are well skilled in coding or if you are trying to do a computational thinking activity for older children, definitely not for second graders. A positive note about this experience for me was that I was able to keep working with the software and realized that I could create something, even if it is not perfect. I think an important aspect for teachers who would use this software with their students would be to tell them beforehand that it is okay if you cannot figure everything out perfectly, as long as they try.

Benefits of Education Societies

I feel that since I am going into the early education field, I would be most interested in joining the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). NAEYC works specifically on behalf of young children; it has many publications of books, brochures, and videos. The members are very active in becoming more educated on the latest advances in the early childhood field. Young Children is a magazine that is members only and contains much of this new and helpful information. I feel that if I joined the NAEYC it would help me professionally. One important reason is that I could be a step ahead in my field with all of the newest breakthroughs rather than finding them out after other educators are already incorporating them. Joining would also help me to be able to connect with other people who are passionate about the same things that I am, and we could share our views and ideas to advance the field even further. A final reason that I think I would be helped is that I could be a part of the NAEYC's different accreditation systems. Not only would I be able to provide programs to help the children receive the best possible education, but I am sure that it would look great to a future employer if I was involved in an organization that is so focused on helping the children I would like to teach.

Check out the National Association for the Education of Young Children's website at:
http://www.naeyc.org/

Feedback: What works for you?

I personally feel that giving or receiving feedback orally rather than just reading it typed out is better. This way social skills are promoted in addition to the ideas and suggestions being given. I think that too many people today are only comfortable with sharing typed ideas because they are afraid of speaking to others or feel that others will be mad at them for their feedback. As long as the feedback is delivered positively then the person on the receiving end should be grateful instead of angry. I believe that many social opportunities are lost due to the ease of communicating online. Another benefit is that if someone had a question about why the person delivering the feedback felt a certain way then they could directly ask them rather than going back and forth through e-mail, which can get confusing. Although speaking aloud is important, I think that it could also be typed so that you could refer back to it and remember what you could work on. Feedback in general is really great so that you can get an idea of how you are doing.

Multiple Intelligences- A Different World!

I think that teaching with and similarly being in a classroom that incorporates multiple intelligences truly is a different world when compared to the traditional learning environment. I had heard of multiple intelligences before today, but I was not really sure of what they were. I now realize that it is just a different method of teaching that covers not only the subjects such as math, science, and reading, which are most often what children are tested on, but it also covers skills such as being people smart, self smart, and music smart. Although these subjects are not tested quite as often, they are important because they can be tools to help children learn the more "core" subjects such as math, science, and reading. Since every child learns differently, I believe that multiple intelligences help each student to be able to use the tools and skills that will help them to grasp the information. This is important because if a student only learns by doing hands on activities and a teacher feels that providing these would take away too much from book learning then that child will suffer as a result.

The in-class activity that we participated in today helped me to get an idea of what my strengths and weaknesses are in the different intelligences. I think the assessment we took today may be good for future use if you would like to incorporate multiple intelligences in your own classroom. At the beginning of the year the students could take the same test I took today and report their scores anonymously back to the teacher. This would just be to help the teacher get a good idea of maybe what students should spend more time focused in on an area of learning that incorporates music or whatever "smart" he or she is best at.

At first I found it challenging to organize the data into a chart. I was having some trouble getting the labels on the side to be words instead of numbers. I then just decided to narrow down my table to a comparison of music smart and math/logic smart. I found this comparison really interesting because in the areas where students seem stronger in music they seem to be less focused in the math/logic area. Also where there is a spike in the math/logic area, the music area went down significantly. This was an overall interesting assignment for me to assess myself as well as to get a better idea about the fascinating world of multiple intelligences.

Endless Possibilities...

Expanding upon my previous idea of having the children post one fact per week I could focus the lesson in on individual subjects. It is nice to begin by letting the students post a fact about anything that they are interested in, but I could turn it into a lesson by assigning one post per day about a different subject. I would still leave one day for them to post about any fact that is interesting to them. For example I could have:

• Monday Fun Day- students can post about anything that interests them.
• Math Whiz Tuesday- students post about something new that they learned in math class.
• Wednesday Mad Scientists- students post about a new or interesting science fact.
• Bookworm Thursday- students can make comments about a favorite class reading or fun fact about an individual library book they enjoy.
• Artsy Friday- students talk about their favorite art project from the week.

This way the blog would be helping them to really focus into each of their school subjects. I would let the students collaborate and discuss with other classmates to help them decide what they would like to post about, and they would be required to comment on one other student's post per day. If they did do the comment each day, then I would know that they are learning in all areas of the subject matter being taught because each day would focus on a different subject. My goal for the students would be for them to really be engaging in the class lessons and with each other so that they take enough information away to create a fun blog post. This way blogging would be fun and exciting not just another assignment.

Blogging Basics

I have never blogged before, but creating a blog was very easy. When I began navigating the different features and customizing my blog it became a little harder for me. I like the idea of using a blog in the classroom, and I am excited to begin posting!

I may use blogs in my future classroom to have each student blog once a week about a new fact that they learned that week and their feelings about it. I would also require two replies to other students, so I would know that they were learning new facts. I would let the students put a fact about any topic they wanted so that they will stay interested in their subjects and really enjoy blogging. I would like for this exercise to accomplish three main goals:

• Learning about a variety of subjects.
• Incorporating technology into the classroom.
• Promoting relationships within the student body.

I believe that since students can post anything they find interesting other students who share similar interests will be able to bond with them easier. I would be able to check that they have accomplished my three goals by reading their posts each week. Participation is key! I can check not only that they did blog for the week but that they also responded to other students, which would constitute promoting relationships. The responses also would help me to know that the students did read the other posts, so they are learning new things in many different subjects. Blogging is a great technology to introduce children to.