About Me
Hello world, My name is Carmen Whitley Byrd, but I usually just go by Whitley. I have lived in Mobile, Alabama my entire 21 years of life and, I honestly do not see myself going anywhere else anytime soon. I live at home with my mom, dad, and our dog Jake and it's pretty much always a mad house. When I was in high school it was an easy decision to choose to go to South. The school is right down the road from my house, why spend more money to go far away and not go to a school that is well known for their education studies program.
Education was not exactly my first career choice, I wanted to be a lawyer (that didn't last long). Then I thought I wanted to be a doctor, then I remembered I don't do well with blood. Junior year of high school I started my fabulous job at St. Luke's Episcopal School as an after school care teacher and I was hooked! I love those kids with my whole heart and I knew from that moment on that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, so here I am in EDM 310, slightly terrified and excited all at the same time. This year is going to be incredible and I can not wait until I am finally a teacher in my very own classroom!
My Classroom
Teaching can be scary and not effective if you are an unprepared teacher, especially in the field I am getting ready to venture into. I have be studying and getting ready to work with the age groups of sixth through twelfth grade. These days this age group is seen as vicious and the kind that will wear you down. I am so ready to go into these rooms and try to prove those stereotypes wrong, I want kids to want to come to my classroom. I love hands on learning, and interactive ways to get involved and make sure all the kids are understanding the material, and having a hands on learning environment is the best way to do that.
Children today get a bad rap and are seen as having bad attitudes or are thought to not be interested in what their teachers have to say. I feel like that is unfair and that those kids are only seen that way because the teachers have simply given up, and don't even expect the children to show up to class. I want to change that, I want the children to want to be in the classroom and I want them to strive to be the best. I think if the teachers had more of an activity filled lesson plan those kids would flock to the classrooms. I think the kids want a classroom that seems more like they are hanging out with their friends, and if games and hands on activities were added to teacher's curriculum the kids would just see it like they were having fun instead of being force fed information that they will honestly just forget a few hours later.
Technology is advancing and becoming more and more useful in the classroom, before it was just a chalkboard and chalk, now we have things like smart boards and the kids all have smart phones and tablets, these are all useful tools in the classroom. I will be teaching history, and yes that is probably one of the more "boring" subjects we have all sat through at one point in time, but with all these technological advances there are tons of ways to turn the classroom into a sort of "knowledge playground".
I once had a teacher who for an entire week turned our history class into a 70's style game show. It is things like that, that make learning enjoyable and memorable. I love the idea of making game shows, or board games, or even historical puzzles. Making slide shows on the smart boards, even making their very own movies portraying historical moments in time are all great examples of things I would love to do in my classroom so that the kids are having fun and want to come everyday and learn something that they didn't know the day before. Teaching the high school/middle school age is going to be a challenge but I can not wait to put all my ideas into affect and see the out come!
Randy Pausch Video
I have never, seen or heard public speaker Mr. Pausch before, but this small bit of video that I watched was quite informative, I learned that failing to plan is just planning to fail and that time management is crucial in life. I learned that the older and wiser I become the more experience I will gain and that will help me with judgment issues later in life. I also learned that when eating frogs, never start with the small one, or go for the bigger problems first when working out your life issues.
I think all educators should work at turning their “boring” classroom into a “knowledge playground.” There are so many things a teacher can do to create an interactive atmosphere within his or her classroom. The idea of a game show is a great idea! And the perfect opportunity to utilize that idea is during a unit review.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of creating a video representing a historical idea, as it also inspires creativity! You could have students work in small groups and have each group do a different event. Then, the students could present their video in the order the events occurred. You could allow the students to act out parts, have other people act out parts, or use figures and drawings while narrating. With such an assignment, access to technology may be an issue. If the school does not have the resources for students to use and a few students do not have access outside of school, then you could accommodate them by allowing that group to act out a skit in the classroom as opposed to using video. The day the video is presented would also allow you the opportunity to invite parents into the classroom. For those parents who cannot attend, you could post the presentations on a website. However, be sure to follow all the legalities of doing such.
*I see your break codes are appearing. Try putting a space after the / before the closing bracket.
You must not have had the HTML button clicked. Otherwise the break codes would not appear.
ReplyDeleteAmanda though you might be missing a space. Good thought. My explanation is the more likely one.
Why do you have to use the HTML tab rather than the Compose tab? So you will be forced to learn a minimum of HTML which you must know for other activities in this course.
You will watch Randy Pausch's Last Lecture later this semester. It is a powerful and moving video!
Well written. Welcome to EDM310!