My 21st Century Classroom

WELCOME to my 21st Century Classroom

This I believe. In my video I show and tell about my experiences in high school with my teachers. I tell about  three specific teachers that impacted my life.  Throughout the video there are visual representations of how I feel about those teachers and those experiences. To learn more about my experience making this video just follow this link.

My Classroom

In my middle level science classroomm the labeled projector would actually be an interactive smartboard.  The tables would be equiped with black top science tables for experiments.   To support collaboration, I thought that a design where students could see all other students and me would be best.  I put tables instead of desks because this allows students to work together on group projects and experiments.  I believe that this also aides in communication and inquiry based learning.  I want my students to be able to help each other by communicating and this setup will make it easy for them to do this. I have two areas in the back of the room that will promote communication and inquiry based learning. Both the computer are and book area will help these areas.  As  my class will have an online blog with every class recording and summarys of every class on it, the computer can be used to see these if they missed class.  The computer and books are both in the back of the room to be used for inquiry based learning.  In having these resources available I will also be promoting accesibility in my classroom.

Rituals and Routines

      In my classroom I would like my students to be interested in what they are about to learn.  I believe this makes it easier for them to learn things because they want to.  This means that in my daily routine there needs to be something integrated to grab their attention. To start the day I will have either an interactive bellringer or some sort of realistic use for the scientific situation I will be teaching.  An example of this would be using the smartboard in my classroom to have the kids answer a question about, let's say, animals.  I could ask what their favorite animal is and have them write it on the smartboard when they walk in.  Then, to start class on an instinct lesson, have them tell me one instinct their favorite animal has. Something that I would really like to integrate into my class everyday, is to have each class recorded.  This would give students a chance to have a copy of the class on a class blog and go right back to the class if they had a question.  Also it would be a better way to get students caught up if they were absent.  I believe this would be almost like some of the podcasts that are made for classes but my own remake of it.  At the end of every class I think it is essential to summarize the lesson, but I would like to let the students do this by posting a very short summary on the class blog.  This way students can look over them if they didn't catch something in class. It is my hope, that in using this form of accesibility that my students will be more apt to learn outside of the classroom.  If I give them the resources to learn our lessons they may want to go out and learn more on their own.  Communication will be interlocked with accesibility because students will be communicating in class which will make the students feel more comfortable to ask other students questions outside and inside of the classroom.

Instructional Glimpse

The usual lesson plan in my classroom will be given through an instructional but interactive smart board presentations such as the one I have here as an example.  This powerpoint presentation does not consist of me just droning on and on about a subject.  From the begininning bellringer to the end where students are urged to continue researching on their own, it is interactive and fun to learn.

Personal Learning Network

As a learner and a future teacher I will continue to grow my PLN.  I will learn to use the many available Open Educational Resources as a reliable source to continue my education on my own.  I will also continue to use blogger to not only use my blogs to help people that are just starting out, but to also learn new things that are available to me as a learner and new things that I can bring into my classroom.  Keeping a Person Learning Network will be key to keeping my classroom running.  This is a way to keep all students up to date and on track. 

Annotated Bibliography

Blogger. Web. 1 May 2012. <http://www.blogger.com/>. This site is where I started my PLN and where I continue to blog.

"Classroom Architect." Classroom Architect. Web. 03 May 2012. http://classroom.4teachers.org/.

This was used to create my virtual classroom.

"Free Software. Safe Downloads." Softonic. Web. 01 May 2012. http://microsoft-photo-story.en.softonic.com/.

I used Photostory to create my This I Believe video.

Google. Web. 1 May 2012. <https://docs.google.com/>.

I used this site to store documents and to create links to documents used in my blog and this page.