July 18th, 2011 Class - EDUC 504

     Today in class we were able to explore the Brandon Center! 

It is a brand new center, soon to be opened.

Talk about a beautiful, functional, technological adventure!

     The center is broken down into several small group areas with power sources readily available.  This is what every coffee shop on campus should be like.  It is a highly functional and cozy space at the same time.
     We were already split into groups by teacherK and teacherJ.  We were grouped by our major and minor to create a lesson plan related to the tsunami in Japan.  We were provided the most useful resource, visitor Addie!  Thank you teacherK and teacherJ for making those connections happen.  She was able to take the big picture ideas we had researched last night and put them into useful context on the previously structured wiki page.  She had fantastic ideas on how to integrate technology usefully with the lesson plan.  We were able to conceptualize small ideas that are priceless, such as creating a resource page that was duel purposed.  First the information that the teacher would utilize to create the lesson plan, and also as a resource for the student to access during the project.
    
     Some random things I learned as an outcome of being in our group were technology tools, book and game resources, and even classroom management ideas.  Below are these separate ideas broken into notes.

Notes on new technology exposure:
     VisitorA talked about using Facebook pages for the week and a half lesson, but also pulled up Google Plus as an alternative option.  I was not aware of Google Plus.  She quickly demonstrated the use of the circles in Google Plus and a few other features.  

Notes on resources:
     While we were finding resources for the tsunami lesson plan, group members showed us Energy Games and suggested some books to read such as Carbon Diary.  Carbon Diary is a book that helps conceptualize what life would be like with limited energy resources.  This could help bring home the struggles that exist in Japan, a way to relate.

Notes on class management:
     Some random classroom management ideas were simple such as cutting tennis balls and putting them under desks so that you can move everything around with less noise and with greater ease.  Take them home and wash them in the summer!  Think of outside of the box ideas to be able to successfully physically transition the work spaces in the classroom.  We also discussed the importance of creating a routine in the classroom.  Not just what you start with each day, and what you conclude with, but also with the tools you utilize.  If in the beginning of the year, you make a resource page in wiki that builds throughout the class duration, you will spend some time created in early on, but it will turn into part of the routine that can be seamlessly utilized.

Notes on group divisions that we discussed:
      It is important to contemplate how you break your students into groups.  There can be many different focus areas depending on what you want to accomplish.  You can group with people next to you, give numbers around the room, set groups ahead of time based on interest areas or ability levels, etc.  Perhaps you group people with different abilities to compliment each other.  Or, you could group people with similar abilities so that high functioning groups can take off on their own and you can concentrate on groups that need more assistance.  One teacher suggested having classmates write down on a piece of paper two people they would like to work with and two people that they would not like to work with.  It was a tool for her to recognize who was causing issues in group work to address and solve what might be going wrong.  She also suggested still pulling random names even after obtaining that information.

Notes on inclusion:
     There was mention of a program on Mac that helps to read the text out loud.  If you can show your entire class the tool, then not just struggling readers can utilize it, so can advanced readers to excel at a an even faster rate.  That way, struggling readers don't feel singled out either.  For reference if you are interested, visitorA told us to go to the settings for Mac, and look for Text for Speech under system preferences in accessibility.  Not only can you use this for your computer, but also for iPads and iPhones.  I am going to check it out for sure.


     All of the details are tidbits that I collected today to assist in the overarching goal of class today, creating lesson plans with backwards planning.  It was evident to me today the importance of first thinking about what you want the student to learn, then back up and figure out details on how you would like to accomplish that.  It is much more difficult then the overall concept.  I wish we had many more hours to interact with our visitor.  The time went by in the blink of an eye.