We are educating the leaders of tomorrow in our classrooms today. We have had to change our way of thinking of traditional classrooms a pump up the services and experiences we provide to the students. Education needs to be student centered and very personalized for each student allowing them to become fully engaged in their own learning. We are teaching our students that value of learning and inspiring them to become life long learners. It is important in our classrooms that we have many modes of education with project based, self directed learning and supporting it with the necessary direct instruction. Students will be proficient in numeracy and literacy skills. They will then take these basic skills and partnering them with communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.
Focuses in my classroom:
Focuses in my classroom:
- Developing a balance between teacher directed instruction and collaboration discovery and project based. It is way easier to actively engage the students when they are building their own knowledge. I am always amazed at what they can discover on a topic when given the opportunity to just go for it.
- We have fine tuned our Literacy skills and now we are using them with various forms of communication such as Storybird, 1000 word challenge. Our focus it to be blogging by the end of May this year.
- Collaboration happens daily in our class we work in think pair shares, peer tutoring, sharing of experiences, development of rubrics and projects together. We really are focusing on being responsible for our own learning. During collaboration we model respect, positive relationships and cooperation skills. Teaching them that when we work with people we need to be flexible and share responsibilities. We are good partners if we can show leadership, and help others become interested. We had to take some time to create a environment where the students feel safe enough to just try. Enhancing that it is better to try something, fail and try again that to do nothing at all.
- Self reflection is a imperative part of 21 st Century Learning. We use self reflection in many different realms of the classroom such as interaction with peers, development of projects, assignment quality and completion. Our focus is not on a grade but rather on growth and development. Everyone has the opportunity to revise any piece of work. The students are becoming very aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and will ask myself or others for help to enhance their own work. There are various forms of self reflection they can choose when an assignment is completed and they are encouraged to revisit their work after the reflection.
- We discuss openly as whole class, small groups, teacher student conference about how to logically solve a problem. We think about the benefits of different approaches and ideas. Then the students are given the opportunity to independently solve the problem. If a problem or solution academically or socially can not be solved they then can call in a "expert" to help. ( An expert is a trusted peer, myself, principal etc.)
- I have worked hard on providing enough resources that students choose the resources that fit them. They can research online, read about it, watch videos or discuss with others. It is important that in this process they learn to decide if the resource is reliable.
- Students are intrigued by their natural curiosity so I have been ensuring that no two students work needs to look the same. I have been allowing their own execution of projects. I clearly point out the outcome but it is their own personal choice how they meet these outcomes. They are challenged to never give up, part of learning is trying again. We encourage each other daily with this by sharing ideas and experiences.
- We have been working on various communication skills, written, oral, video to share ideas. This is an essential skill for the world in which we live in. We have practiced being a good listener, showing respect to others ideas and emotions. Growth for next year will be to publish some of these videos to a classroom website where they can share with their parents what happens in the classroom instead of with just their peers.
- Technology looks unique for everyone. It took a while for us all to be comfortable with technology as is not something they all have at home. We have used various devices such as cellphones to record information, voice to text, dragon dictation, Ipads, IMAC, laptops for research and writing assignments. We have created PowerPoint, publisher documents and used the Smartboard for presentations. Many students have been encouraged to use their own devices if available to enhance their educational needs.
- Have encouraged the use of various website for at home support for literacy.
- We use Wonderopolis website as a though for the day to encourage Lifelong Learning and they love it.
- I collaborate with the other subject teachers to ensure that I can make cross curricular links. This is something that I have been working hard on and included in our word work are academic words from all subject areas.
Below you will find a link to a resource that I have been inquiring about to find a way to incorporate next year. So that I can take 21 st Century Learning further.