After being in the grind of student teaching for 12 weeks I really fell behind on my reflective practice. Thankfully I left a chain of breadcrumbs with my lesson plans. I was up late last night writing and reflecting on my observations/experiences in the classroom and tech integration.
One specific reflection stands out amongst the rest. In my third week of teaching 10th graders, I was struggling to assert control over the class in a non aggressive, non authoritative way. The students saw this as an opportunity to run all over me. In the middle of the episode I gave up my instructional plans and sent the class across the room to the computer lab to work on our class wiki.
When the students got online they created a "smack talk" page and started having a flame war in the comments. It was embarrassing to watch, yet I hesitated to ban the students. After the bell rang I cleaned up the wiki and deleted the "smack talk" page, but I had to find a way to clean up the damage.
I had a discussion with the class about their behavior and asserted my control over the class and the wiki and reminded them of their roles as digital citizens. My classroom mgmt problems changed and the behavior on the wiki changed, but I never saw the same raw enthusiasm on the wiki again. I am kicking myself for not tying some of this together earlier, because I think I could have harnessed the energy in a better way.
I should start posting again.
Hi Friends -
For all my talk of Web 2.0 evangelism, it is about time I stake my claim on the interwebs.
In the past year I have taken a journey into the world of education: taught 15 weeks in the high school social studies classroom, integrated a classroom wiki for an AP Microeconomics course that I taught and I am living to tell about it.
I will complete a M.Ed. with licensure in Social Studies this summer and if all works as planned I will begin coursework in the Center for Information Media at SCSU in the fall.
As a part of my participation the social studies cohort I created a ning for collaboration on instruction and lesson planning. I have also created a website with a Social Studies resource database.
Looking forward to integrating my experience in education into the study of educational media.
For all my talk of Web 2.0 evangelism, it is about time I stake my claim on the interwebs.
In the past year I have taken a journey into the world of education: taught 15 weeks in the high school social studies classroom, integrated a classroom wiki for an AP Microeconomics course that I taught and I am living to tell about it.
I will complete a M.Ed. with licensure in Social Studies this summer and if all works as planned I will begin coursework in the Center for Information Media at SCSU in the fall.
As a part of my participation the social studies cohort I created a ning for collaboration on instruction and lesson planning. I have also created a website with a Social Studies resource database.
Looking forward to integrating my experience in education into the study of educational media.
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