Thanksgiving Week

Teachers are designers even before they become a teacher. Teachers become designers by develping a lesson plan each week. They also have to think of how to design new ideas to helping kids learn in an effect way.

iStop Motion is a software that enables designers as young  as elementary students to use. It lets them create a little video and can compose animations frame by fream with its easy-to-learn application. Even though I will be teacher Theater to high schoolers I still think I could use this my classroom. The reason is because they can shot a video of a play show it to the other students and it might help them understand the play a little better. Though I think you could use this software in any class.

"Digital Storytelling" by Kate Kemker is an article offering insturctions on using technology to create a story. It tells about the proccess of creating a story on paper, the filming the video, and editing a piece. I would love to try this idea with Theater the reason is cause if we are reading about  William Skakespeare the kids can put it in thier own words so they can understand it. I would put them in groups to help the process of it though.

Making math seem more real will be excellent help for kids. I know that when I was learing math I had a hard time with it. So visualing help a little for me, though we didnt have some software that could help me understand it better. Like Visual Geometry With Geometric Supposer is one of the best-known visualizational tools. It allows students to choose a primitive shape and construct it by defining points, segments, parallels or perpenduculars, bisectors, or angles. This would have helped me a great deal. I think this will make math more real to students.

I think it is possible to learn from tv alone now in days. The reason is because kids now have tv programs that will help them learn and dvds and all that to help them. Though I think you can learn a little if they didnt have all the help that they do know. My mom used to watch a show called School House Rock and it was just a cartoon show that taught in a fun way. Though I think kids now can learn from tv alone but I would suggest it. Cause the tv can't give them all the information that they need.

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Week 11 Blog

Gee's principle of probing states that learning is a cycle of probing the world (doing something) and reflecting in and on this action and forming a hypothesis. Select 3 principles you think it would be important for education.
The 3 principles I would choose is Active, Critical Learning, Semioic Domains, and Committed Learning. The reason I chose Active, Critical Learing is because I would want my kids to be active while learing but very critcal about it. It says in the book "All aspects of the learing enviroment are set up to encourage active and critical, no passive learing." I think its a good idea to have that so the kids wont get discourage. Semioic Domains because the kids can have fun while learning and see what level that can get at also they can work in  groups which will help them even more. Committed Learing is that they will be committed to learn what they are learing in class. The book says"Learners participate in an extended engagement as extensions of their real-world identities in relation to a virtual identity to which they feel some commitment and a virtual world that they find compelling.
Good simulations are hard to create. If you were creating a simulation for your class, what activity would you support? What variables could students manipulate? How would they affect each other?
The activity I would support would be them learning all about theater. Since that is what I will be teaching I think they could know about all the important rules that we have on stage so that way they will be safe. Also they will need to learn the background of theater and so on and so forth.
In conclusion simulations would  be a good idea to have in school that way kids will learn something while they are having fun. And the principles are really good to use.
Jonassen D.,Howland J., Marra R. M., Crismond D.,(2008) Meaningful Learing with Technology Third edition.