Gaming

A game that I have found to be fun to play with my family is HayDay.  As a family we have been playing for about a year.  It really is a collaborative adventure.  We farm, sell, feed, buy, ship, fish, build and have challenges.  It is age appropriate and you can collaborate with people from all over the world.  The game is a free app, you can buy packages if you choose to do so.  I find that it teaches my kids how to save money, to purchase animals, food, resources, etc. They also have to balance their trade deals with their own need of resources.  Things also take time.  From building, farming, fishing, cooking, baking, etc.  Something that i like a lot is you have limits on how many times you can grow things, so you need help from others in the game.  Plus you have to collaborate to get rewards and help buy and sell.  The game really is its own personal world.  You design it the way you want it! Use your own imagination, creativity and management skills.  Nothing is wrong!
This type of game would be good to use in classroom setting.  Even though is takes a while to do certain things, it gives you a sense of reality.  There are rewards and consequences.  We play this game everyday and have a great time discussing what we need.

Real or Fake Challenge

Ok, I got most of them right except for the first quote I thought was real.  After looking at the results I felt silly for not researching the quote more thoroughly. In the future, I will definitely take more time to skim the articles rather than just take the first source as correct. I will check authenticity of website more closely.  Where everything is out there on the internet it behooves us to take a little extra time to analyze the sources. 

http://searchresearch1.blogspot.com/2015/11/answer-fake-or-real-how-do-you-know.html

Blended and flipped Classroom

For my future classroom I really liked the ideas of blended and flipped classrooms.  I like that both ideas give students more independence.  Students are able to learn material that is applicable to their learning style.  It also gives the teacher more freedom to help individual students or groups.  I liked that the you can design groups depending on projects and the needs of the students.  These types of classrooms really benefit students learning styles.  You are always going to have students that aren't motivated regardless of classroom setup.  In my opinion having options that are not the traditional classroom set up would lessen the lack of motivation.  Plus I believe you can find unique ways to incorporate more material and hands on in a blended or flipped classroom.  It can lead to excitement in a classroom.  For example, at Milan Village Elementary School: Station Rotation, Individual Rotation models. Once identified as needing improvement, Milan Village’s principal redesigned the school’s model into one that would enable students to progress at a flexible pace while allowing them to access content in a blended learning environment. Beginning with 2nd grade, each student has his or her own computer and alternates between online and offline learning with the guidance of teachers, who assign online or offline lessons to students based on each student’s individual progress and learning style.

 

 

 

Sugata Mitra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpcEpmNbHds&feature=youtu.be

I found Sugata Mitra to be very inspiring.  I agree that with all the standards and testing we do in our educational system, we eliminate a tremendous amount of learning.  What I mean by that is our educational system does not allow for the changes that are taking place in our students abilities. The system expects students to learn how to pass test rather than learn more in-depth material. To sit back and be a guide and let students explore, research and create in my opinion would be invaluable. Our expectations on how problems are solved now and in the future are not the same as when we were growing up.  Students find work more efficiently and differently to solve problems. I think as teachers we should find ways to embrace and guide the students into self discovery using technology rather than hinder the use of technology. I hope that I can find ways as a new teacher to incorporate Sugata Mitra's ideas into my future classroom.

Here is the link to my webpage. http://danielledav.weebly.com/