Digital Blog Post #L

Digital Blog Post #K

Digital Blog Post #J

Concept 1

I will be entering the Bachelor's program next fall, and as I begin taking classes in the education department, I am going to start building my own digital teaching portfolio [a collection of educational and professional material in an electronic format (page279)] so that I can use all the activities and ideas from classes and field experience as sources of material for my future teaching career.  It’s also important because in the future, having this online portfolio will serve as a reference to my career-related accomplishments as an educator for school administers and teaching colleagues. Taking this class has definitely made me feel more comfortable using various online tools and helped me become more computer savvy in general, which I think will be quite useful to me when it comes to actually creating my digital teaching portfolio in the near future. I believe that having an impressive online portfolio to showcase my accomplishments will absolutely put me ahead of the rest when it comes to interviewing for a job as a teacher someday. 

Comic made using BitStrips

Concept 2

"Democratic schools and classrooms are places where students and teachers together make substantive decisions about important aspects of educational operations, from the academic curriculum to school climate and rules" (page 283). This is a concept that interested me a lot because it was never practiced in any of the schools that I attended, but I would have loved for it to have been a part of my educational experience. One of the biggest benefits of giving student's more of a say when it comes to their academics is that it would make them feel like they have choices, which causes them to feel more motivated to get involved in what they are learning. I understand the argument that if you give students too much of a say, that they could abuse this power by requesting less homework, more free time to socialize and things of that nature, but there's definitely a happy medium. Students should not be able to have full control over what they're learning; there are, of course, standards that need to be followed, but the best option is to let students choose between equally challenging and engaging worksheets, homework assignments, and different types of assessments to complete. This will give students a feeling of freedom and responsibility for making decisions about classroom rules, assignments and procedures.

Concept 3

Online surveys are an excellent way to  pre-assess students and inquire about their previous knowledge on the subject you are about to introduce.  These surveys provide teachers with data that documents students' progress and learning. In my future classroom(s), I will always give some type of pre-assessment to my students because knowing your students' previous knowledge and level of interest in the subject matter is very important to how you shape your lesson plans to fit the needs and interest of your students. This will also help your students feel important because instead of just being presented with a lesson like "here, this is what you're going to learn", it's more like "okay, how much do you already know and how can we make this interesting for the class as a whole and the different types of learners in the classroom". 

References 

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.