CLRN

CLRN is simply a great website, I know this blog is simply going to be a re-hashing of a lot of the other blogs I already read on this topic, but really, what an unbelievable resource to have come across. I have spent some time going through it and am not sure I have even scratched the surface of what could be useful in the classroom. I am not sure what else to say, there is a wealth of information and ideas available, we should all be made aware of it.

Lesson Plans

Lesson planning is always fun, actually it's hardly ever fun, in my experience about two-thirds of lesson plans end up being a waste. As much as you try you will probably never be able to stick to the specifics of your plans. Questions will come up or the expected questions may not come up, someone may need something else explained to them, someone may want to bring something up that you didn't think of. At the end of the class you are hardly ever where you thought you would be or where you think you should be.

With that being said lesson plans can actually pretty useful, but in my opinion they have to stay away from specifics. I think lesson plans can be more useful if you keep them general and allow them to be flexible. The classroom can not be a completely rigid place, structure has its place, but we need to be able to move in different directions all the time.

Classroom Technology

I love the idea of bringing technology into the classroom, but I think the classroom of the future in the video is a little to cluttered and has too much going on. I almost feel like we are encouraging students to be a little too hap-hazard. The video talks about a teacher circulating the room to oversee the completion of tasks, basically making a teacher more of a babysitter in my opinion. All of the technology is great but it seems to me that at some point it will take the personality out of the classroom. Not every student learns the same way, but in this case we are forcing them into a mold that not all will be comfortable in and furthermore we are forcing teachers into a mold that may not be comfortable.

Different teaching styles is generally what makes a day exciting in the high school setting, how are we going to reach students or keep them from getting bored when they are being told to do the same things every day in every class. Personality and style have got to be just as important to a teacher as they are to anyone else. Technology is great, but too much of anything can be bad for you, we need to have a balance to make sure we are reaching everyone at some point.

Social Networking Videos...

The two gentlemen in the first video confused me a bit, odd to think about the simplicity of a book, and that at some point it was a new, novel idea, that needed to be explained. It made me think about how I would instruct someone to open and read a book and what to do when they are done, and furthermore how would I explain other really simple tasks...like creating a blog or navigating the internet! Then in turn made me think about the way I explain things in my classroom, am I simplifying enough? or too much? Am I encouraging them to think? I'd like to believe I am and have been careful to choose my words, but I think for the next few days anyway I will be a little more conscious of it...I think I overthought the video a little.

Videos like the second and third videos regarding social networking and internet safety always frighten me a little bit and make me nervous for my students. I know they all have Facebook and Myspace pages and I fear exactly what goes on when they become faceless internet users. I've seen fights between kids and heard some downright MEAN things passed amongst students when they are face-to-face, I can't imagine what goes on when they do not have to look each other in the eyes and are simply typing to a screen. You'd like to think these kids would be nicer to each other but as we saw in the video even polar bears can have a mean streak...