Cell Phones in the Classroom?

Today in church our campus in Lake Orion streamed live into the campus at Troy to watch a message. This was really cool to experience, but the best thing was throughout the message we could text questions to the people that were onstage and they could read them on an iPad. This got me thinking about how you could do this same thing in a classroom! I could see this happening in high schools or middle schools. I was thinking that students could text in questions to the teacher instead of raising their hand and the teacher could answer these questions throughout the lesson. I think this would be very beneficial for those students that do not like to raise their hand or admit to their peers that they don't understand or are confused. I wish the students in my second grade class would ask more questions and tell me that they don't understand so I could explain the content in a different way. I think they prefer not to though because they don't want their peers to see them as weak or dumb. There would defiantly have to be rules and expectations in place for this to become a reality in the classroom because the issue of students texting their friends and not the teacher to ask question would arise, but I think this is something that could be used in the future. Just a thought!

Starting off 2012

I've come to realize that I jot a lot of notes and ideas down, but I never seem to transfer them to one area, a.k.a. this blog, which I hope to do more this semester. I also do a lot of reflecting and writing of ideas in my weekly reflections for class which is probably another reason why I haven't been writing ideas down in my blog. I figured with the start of a new year I need to set some goals for myself for the the rest of the school year and my internship. I want to do some things that will set me apart from other teacher candidates in the future and I don't want to wait until March to figure out some things to do to improve my school and get more involved. I have been thinking a lot about in the past few days and these are some goals I have for the rest of my internship year. 

- Use my time more wisely: This is my big overall goal for the year. I have a lot of time in the day that I waste watching TV or looking up random things on the computer and if I used that time to complete projects, assignments or coming up with creative and different ways to teach then I wouldn't feel so stressed and that I have made some type of difference in my school.

- Create a program or event for the entire school: What I have been thinking a lot about the past couple months is implementing a contest or event for March's reading month. I want to encourage students to read for enjoyment and not just because it's something you have to do. I was thinking about either creating a train around the school where students would write the names of the books and the authors of those books they read on a piece of construction paper and then watch it grow around the school, or I thought we could do a bare tree and every time a student read a book they would write the author and title on a leaf and we would add it to the tree. I would love to be able to set a goal for the school of 2000 books or something and if students met that goal they would get some prize or reward, much like how we did when I was in elementary school where all the students were able to try to dunk the librarian in a dunk tank. I think this would be a lot of fun and it would encourage students to read more than just what they normally do for homework.

- Make lessons more fun and get more family/parent involvement: This first semester I really was trying to get into the groove of teaching and just going through the motions while adding some fun projects or experiments, especially in social studies and science. I also tried to use our Promethean Board as much as possible in different lessons, but I want to go even more outside the box. I want to try using movement and kinethetics to get students up and moving. I want to try to incorporate our special subjects by bringing in music, art and more technology. I want to try to create more of my own lessons and really think through how I want to implement them in different ways to meet the needs of all my students. I want to try new techniques and new ideas just to see what will happen! I want to take more risks and try out things that we talk about in class or that I read on other people's blogs. To me this also includes doing more 'bonus homework' that will get the students more involved in their community and families will be more encouraged to participate in their students' education. I want students to bring things in from home that they can share with the class that relates to something we talked about. I want students to find examples from home and notice that the things they do in school is important for their everyday life. I hope to have more students engaged more throughout the school day and that every one of them will be excited to walk through the school doors every morning and leave wanting to share with their families one thing they learned. 

- Make an impact in the Green Committee: I want to do something that will encourage more students to be a part of recycling, reusing and reducing by coming up with fun projects that students and parents can get involved in as well as coordinating assemblies or fun family after school projects that will encourage student to think about what they can do to help make a difference in their home, school, community etc... I need to think a little more about what I want to do concerning this committee, but I want to make more of an impact and a difference than I already am.

In closing what I really want to do is step up my game. I want to separate myself from other graduates that are going to be going out searching for teaching jobs. I want to show people what types of things I could potentially do in their school through the actions I take this year. I am excited for the students to come back tomorrow. I feel like my battery is completely recharged and I can't wait to jump into the second half of my student teaching!