Blog Post #9

The flipped classroom is where activity that usually happens in the classroom happens at home, and where what usually happens at home, happens in the classroom. Teachers assign recorded educational videos to the students to watch for homework so that the students learn the material at home rather than having the teacher lecture to them during class time (Lever-Duffy 238). Then in class, the students work on assignments and activities that will engage them in the material and help them better understand it- something that is usually homework. This allows teachers to spend time guiding the students to make discoveries for themselves, gain hands-on experience, and go deeper in the content, rather than lecturing, which may not reach many students. Khan Academy is an outstanding source for educational videos that teach material effectively. Here is the link to their website:  https://www.khanacademy.org/

A great web-based resource teachers can use for professional development are blogs. Blogs allow teachers to get ideas from what other teachers have done in their classrooms, and to see how teachers handled classroom management, time management, and disruptions/problems with their students. Also, according to the podcast on Technology and Professional Development, new teachers can learn what to expect in the classroom before they are placed in one, and when teachers are assigned a grade level for the first time they can find out how to handle that age group by reading blogs by teachers who teach that grade level. A very interesting blog I came across is by a teacher who instructs 6 year olds. Here is the link if you would like to see some interesting and fun activities she has recently done with her students: /http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/

I enjoyed the PowerPoint Interaction assignment because it was fun to make a game for students to learn from in an engaging way. I learned how to make objects move on a single slide and how to time the length of their movement and at what action they move on. Although it was challenging at times to make the PowerPoint move on its own without multiple clicks, and to make my information flow with the template, it was something I know I will do in the future with my students. Next time to improve I would attempt to create the game by scratch instead of using a template. I would use a game like this for review for a quiz or test. I would also use it after reading a book or watching a movie in order to test the student’s retention.