The past two week in ED 307 we have been studying the educational theory of constructivism. Dewey, Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky are it's founding fathers. This theory states that student's need to construct their own knowledge and come to their own conclusion in learning rather than teachers simply "forcing truths" on the children. Something may be true, but the students need to understand why for themselves. Students come into the classroom with prior knowledge and experiences that act as a foundation for future learning. The PAR model for education supports this idea because it says that the majority of the time spent teaching a lesson should be allotted for the children to apply the knowledge and ideas being taught. Link to Zentation Presentation: http://www.zentation.com/viewer2/webcast/PNakUZQMMF/ED-307---Constructivism
0 Comments
This week in ED 307, we studied using the flipped classroom approach in teaching. It is something I have heard of in the past, but I have never really looked at in-depth. It was really cool! The basic concept is that the students read over the lesson at home the night before, and then they complete the activities in that correspond with the lesson the next day in class. This is an interesting approach with several benefits. I really liked that it gave students the opportunity to have the teacher there when they encountered questions about an assignment. It also gives the teacher more time to do fun activities with the lesson. I was really interested in the fact that flipping the classroom could lead to more project-based learning in the classroom. The students have to understand why it is important that they learn the lesson the night before to the best of their ability. Giving them a fun and meaningful approach to learning in the classroom the next day would motivate them to learn on their own the night before. It would spark their curiosity and hopefully give them so initiative.
As part of learning about flipped classrooms, we also made animated videos to display what we learned about the flipped classroom strategy. I was really excited to fund the website abcya.com where there is a really neat place to create animated videos. It is very "early childhood friendly", incorporating many of the same concepts and skills that are in the basic Paint program that comes on most computers. I can definitely see using this in my future classroom. This program has so much potential for sparking creativity and tech skills in young children. Below are the URLs to my flipped classroom videos. Enjoy! https://www.screencast.com/t/SK4LfZ18jzz https://www.screencast.com/t/GwlbslGSBKKb I recently read an article entitled Are They Really Ready to Work for one of my educational technology courses at Athens State University. It was a really interesting article that made me consider some elements that need to be included in my early childhood classroom. The article was a summary of a study done by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management between the months of April and May 2006. The goal of the study was to find out how ready young Americans were to enter the workforce by polling employers themselves. After polling around four-hundred employers all over the United States, the researchers came to a disturbing conclusion. American is lacking competent workers! The employers seemed to all indicate that employees were lacking the same 3 skills. Those three skills are the following: oral and written communication skills, professionalism and work ethic, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This led the team to see that education must be restricted to prepare students for a 21st century work environment. The Partnership for 21st Century skills is the leading organization in promoting students workforce readiness in schools. They have listed the following skills as necessary 21st century skills:
|
Meet the Author:Hello! My name is Katie Harris. I am an pre-k teacher with a love for all things kids! I consider myself blessed to be able to "do what I love and love what I do"! Have a great day! Archives
November 2017
Categories |