521 Blog Post 3

Blog Post 3

In my classroom there is a huge lean towards the common core I have seen a little more creativity in the classroom more then I have ever seen before.  The main thing we are trying to get the students to think critically everyday.  This critically thinking usually comes in at the beginning of each lesson.  We try to get the students to think critically before we give them any information or notes on the topic.  This is also when discussion occurs in our classroom.  At the beginning of the unit or section we give the students a serious of essential questions for them to think crucially and have a discussion with their classmates.  This is something that’s very hard for them to try and do they want the math just given to them so they can work on their classwork or homework.  We are trying to get them in the mode of thinking critically before any answers are given to them.  The main literacy point in our classroom is using quick writes for the students.  One problem with it is some students do not take the quick writes seriously.  Technology in the classroom is limited where I am the main thing we use is a doc cam and that’s about it.  I would really like to see the use of technology and media literacy to be used more in the classroom.  A lot of the work we do in the classroom is with a partner or group.  One way I try and get my students self-directed is trying to motivate them to care about their grade.  If they care about their grade they hopefully will be self directed to learn.  I don’t have a problem getting the students to work with others but they usually get to choose their groups.  There hasn’t been much experimentation to see how they worked with others and diverse teams in the classroom.  That is something I would be interested in seeing my class do.  In my classroom I try to get students to use creativity in multiple ways with group work or working individually.  Having many strategies to teach students makes the content more accessible for them to LEARN!