Monday, August 20, 2007

Final Reflection

This will be be my last post for the class and I just wanted to review what I've learned and will be taking with me when I leave this class. Blogs; from an education stand point these are awesome. Especially for soon to be teachers because the resources out there from other teachers is astounding. RSS; Wow that sums up really what RSS is because getting the web to search for you saves time. Photostory3 or digital story telling is truly amazing, and I think the kids will think the same. It will engage and motivate them in a creative way. Wiki; I never understood what they were until this class and they are excellent. My wiki that I started has no content yet I just got it going so I could see how it all works, but I think I'm going to build it around the arts, lesson plans and links etc. Social Bookmarking I didn't really get into it or like it, but once I explained it to my wife she loved it. Shes keeps telling me it's addicting finding old friends on facebook and finding out what they are doing now etc. She loves it, i'm still not very crazy about it. I just about forgot about Flicker. The greatest sight on the internet I will be using this tons in and out of the classroom.
Now in thinking about my classroom design it will probably look something like this. One wall will be a wooden jungle gym with varying levels going all the way to the roof. There will be 12-15 spots or levels each one will have enough room on it for a pillow and a student. Below the jungle gym there will be a small library with a couple of hundred books. That will be my reading area. Students especially boys will read more if they are not in a standard desk so if they can climb up and find a perch to sit in and read I think it will work better than a traditional reading corner.
Second wall will be my media wall lined with as many computers as I can find. One per students hopefully, but more likely 10. A row of ten computers and then over top of the monitors there will be a projector screen from my computer and any other media needed such as a TV/DVD combo, CD players, speakers etc.
Third wall will be my arts wall with musical instruments such as guitars, drums, microphones etc for the kids. In a perfect set up it would be raised on a little stage so we could really have fun with the drama portion of things. This will be lots fun busting out a jam in the middle of third period. I'm sure the noise will piss off a few teachers, but it will be fun never the less.
Fourth wall will be student lockers with my resources above them. This last wall will also have a door and windows to the outside. So once I get yelled at for busting a jam we can all run outside and laugh. In the middle of the room there will be big round tables with enough chairs for all my students. No-desks, not even one for me. I just need a little podium so I present to the class but that's it. There is my perfect classroom, this might change but as for today this is it.
Last subject I wanted to talk about was the simple miss take I made with Dean's wiki. Dean has been pushing for us to embed our video's into our blogs so they just fire right up once you click on them. It's a good idea, but I was on Dean's wiki watching a video he had on wiki's made easy or something similar to that. I watched the video and when it finished up popped a bunch of other video's "UTube" connected with Dean's theme of Wiki's. Most of the other videos were fine, but one of them was of a young girl 12 or 13 dancing to a song called Wiki. This is where the problem occurred because here I am looking in one corner of the screen and there is a picture of my university professor and in the middle of his wiki page there is a hugely inappropriate video going on. I was shocked and disgusted, and alot of parents will make that same mistake that I did and it could turn out horrible. So all I'm saying is I'm going to stick to linking them for now because at least if I was on UTube's site and this video was playing there, it would have no direct link to Dean. But because you could see the images and Dean's opening page it was a problem. Anyway I think I've rambled on enough everyone have a great summer and I'm keeping all your links so we will hopefully be able to help each other when we get into our classrooms. Brian Nenson 3rd yr Ed Student.

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