Room 103 Backs up to the Basics

Jim Knight explains that when dialogue is learning-centered it will exhibit traits such as humility, honesty and critical thinking. Learning-centered dialogue allows for persons to really listen, learn, think, reflect, engage and demonstrate a great act of unselfishness. "Dialogue occurs when we start by trying to understand together, when we listen and learn rather than tell and resist (Knight, June, 2010).  Link to article

I agree with Nirvi Shah that a classroom with a personal and profession repport with students creates an environment of mutual respect that thrives on engagement. Link to article Rapport relation; especially: relation marked by harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity (Merrium-Webster online dictionary, November, 2012). Link to dictionary

How to I create learning-centered dialogue and rapport with my students and parents?
This year there was such an emphasis and high pressure to immanently implement the 1:1 initiative that my students and I have both been lost in the pressure to use computer. Yes, I do believe that computers are one of the most useful tools in the 21st Century classroom, but not at the cost of KNOWING my students and parents as people -- just like me. I sacrificed my some of my most important  beginning of year activities and hence, have not established the engaging classroom that I have experienced in the past. It  is time for me to back up and and really get to know my students and parents  by creating the dialogue and  rapport that allows students and teachers to learn everyday for the sake of learning -- not the sake a test or grade in the grade book. As educators we want to help develop individuals that are  thinkers, creators, collaborators, dialoguers and simply life long learners that are equipped with 21st century skills.

I have an idea -- students and teachers create individual Dream Board!! More to come!!
This week Room 103 will create learning-centered dialogue and rapport!! How do I begin!!
I start with the "Eat the Frog' video; my video about my dad; and let the conversation begin!!

Wolfboy's Blog: DimensionM: Evolver- A review

Wolfboy's Blog: DimensionM: Evolver- A review: All I can say is... Wow! DimensionU (formerly Tabula Digita) done an amazing job on this game! I'm using a HP Pavilion AiO with Windows...

The Power of Creativity: How Game Design Changes the Way We Think - The Atlantic

Interesting perspective on how 21st students think and play in today's world. Allowing students to transition from gamer to game designer is a means of empowering them to create and see their world from the inside out.

The Power of Creativity: How Game Design Changes the Way We Think - The Atlantic

Interactive Lesson made with PowerPoint

Interactive lesson on using formulas for area and circumference of  circles made with PowerPoint.

Interesting article on teacher evaluation

Schools Size Up Teachers Using Value-Added Evaluation Measures by

By Carolyn Cosmos
Written on September 28, 2011

The Washington Diplomat

DeBacker's Personal Learning Network

the Rocket City PLN

    Debbie Miser – Huntsville City Schools (HCS) staff development coordinator

    Leslie Graham - Mentor; Mt. Gap Middle School (MGMS) eighth grade English teacher

    Carol Spring – MGMS technology technician

    Kristen Robinson – MGMS sixth grade math teacher

    Virginia Taylor-Mounts – Grand Canyon University peer

the Experts

Angela Maiers- author of Passion Driven Classroom and Class Habitudes; twitter; Angela Maiers.com

Marc Prensky- “Visionary. Inventor. Author. Speaker. Consultant.Futurist. Learning designer. Game designer” (marcprensky.com, 2011); author of Digital Game-based Learning, Don’t Bother me mom , I’m Learning, Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning; Current; Marc’s blog; Marc Prensky.com

Howard Gardner- Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; author of Truth, Beauty and Goodness Redefined; Five Minds for the Future; editor of Good work: theory and practice; Howard Gardner.com

Marilyn Katzenmeyer- Co-author of Awakening he Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders (3^rd edition). She is the president of Professional Development Center, Inc.  

the Resources

Promethean Planet.com “Created by teachers, for teachers, Promethean Planet is a unique teaching, sharing and support community—your places to connect, create, and change the classroom!” (prometheanplanet.com, 2011). I also take online classes on the use of ActivInspire software and hardware via Promethean Planet.

PD360.com “This is the world’s first and largest online, on-demand professional development platform for educators” (pd360.com, 2011).

ISTE.org International Society of Technology for Education) “ISTE advances excellence in learning and teaching through innovative and effective uses of technology” (ISTE.com, 2011). Journals that I subscribe to via ISTE include: Journal of Research on Technology in Education and Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education.

Educational Origami wikispaces.com “Educational Origami is a blog and a wiki, about 21st Century Teaching and Learning. This wiki is not just about the integration of technology into the classroom, though this is certainly a critical area, it is about shifting our educational paradigm. The world is not as simple as saying teachers are digital immigrants and students digital natives. In fact, we know that exposure to technology changes the brains of those exposed to it. The longer and stronger the exposure and the more intense the emotions the use of the technology or its content evokes, the more profound the change. This technology is increasingly ubiquitous. We have to change how we teach, how we assess, what we teach, when we teach it, where we are teaching it, and with what” (edorigami.wikispaces.com, 2011).

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.org- “The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is a public voice of mathematics education supporting teachers to ensure equitable mathematics learning of the highest quality for all students through vision, leadership, professional development and research” (nctm.org, 2011).

An Apple 4 you resources.com- A website put together by Andrew Bonaparte. The site provides free resources for the 21^st century teacher. It includes ActivInspire math flipcharts!

TED ideas worth spreading.com

I plan on continuing to learn about how students learn and how technology can tap into the various learning styles for the benefit of creating a student centered learning environment. I am also very interested in learning more about graphic and instructional design principles and apply that knowledge to content development. Thirdly, I am continuing to learn more about content development with the use of ActivInspire software. In fact, I have just enrolled in a Promethean Planet class on the use of ActivExpressions. I plan on attending a curriculum development class this summer hosted by Promethean in Atlanta, Ga.

In short I am interested in the following:

ü  Cognitive development

ü  Content development

ü  Use of ActivInspire software

Math Textbooks and the needs of our students

Dan Meyer speaks on math textbooks and how they do not provide students with the opportunity to really solve problems. The textbooks provide students with all the data and graphics needed to just plug in information and solve. Let's learn how to allow the students to have 'conversations' about the problem-- let them ask the questions and put the data together ---- after all when in the real world the problem is not set up for us with all the necessary data, formulas, and 'how to's".--- we have to figure that out. "Math serves the conversation, the conversation does not serve the math!" Watch the video -- makes a world of sense! Thank Dan. (Meyer, D.)  Our school district will be adopting new textbooks this year -- it has been 8 years since we have even looked at new textbooks (math). I am looking forward to see if the books are meeting  the needs of metacognition in the 21st century classroom--????
Video: Dan Meyer: Math class need a make over
Retrieved September 23, 2011 from TED ideas worth spreading