My 21st Century Classroom

I am Victoria Olesnanik, I attend Edinboro University as a middle level math and science major. I would like to change my major to be a secondary earth and space science teacher. I find those topics to be more to my interest. I would also like to work with high school students rather than middle school students. I am also a lifeguard and I have just stated being the assistant swim coach for a high school swim team.

My plans for the future is that I would like to teach high school earth and space science. I would be teaching meteorology, geology, astronomy, and basic science class.  I would like to be teaching in a high school some where close to where I grew up, and that is in the Erie area. Well I am teaching I believe I will be learning everyday, I think teachers learn just as much as the students do. I am happy I will be learning everyday at my job when I am a teacher because I love to learn and I enjoy learning. I want to make a difference in someones life.

The school I would like to teach at is McDowell High School. This high school is for grades 9 to 12. There were 2359 students in the school year of 2010-2011. This school has 159.9 full time teachers, the student to teacher ratio is 14.7 to 1. Which is a vary good ratio for the number of students there are. The school is primarily whites at 92.3%. The school is 3.3% African Americans, 2.5% Hispanic, 1.7% Asian, and 0.2% American Indian. For free or discounted lunch the percentage is not that bad it is only 18.5%. So it is safe to say that the level of income for the school district is higher. In 2011 the school ranked 116th  in the state for PSSA testing, the PA state percentile was 83%. But in 2012 the school only ranked 285th for testing, PA state percentile was only 57.8%.

The class is astronomy, there are 25 students in the class. It is mostly of white students if I am to be teaching at McDowell. In my class room I would like to have my grouped so that I will have to whole class working together. I would make my class a room where all my students are willing to work with everyone in my class. I would also have the special needs students work with the other students. I would also use visuals to help the students understand. I would hope that my class room would have a smart board also. I would also like to use some new tools with technology to help  with the class, like online chats or even use a blog to post what was taught in the class that day so that if students have questions they would be able to ask me out side of class.

This is how I would like my classroom to be set up.

I would like to have my class room set up like this because all the students would be able to see both of the boards. I would like to have all the tables have 5 students. I also have it set up this way so that I will be able to walk around and check every table. The tables are set up in a circle so that even if students are at different tables they can still work with each other.  But along with this set up it is easy to use folders to crate a kind of wall so that students are not cheating with one another on a test. I feel that it is a very open environment for the students to work in. 

One thing I would like to use in the class room is a smart board. I have used them before and I enjoy using them. I know that some times with them they do not always work corrector but for the most part they are a good tool. I would like to use the smart board so I could have me information  on something clear for the students to see. I would also use the smart board I could have students interactive with the information. 

Inside the class room I would like to use Prezi, it makes something that could have been a power point look a lot better. I would like to have the students use it so that is I would like them to create a project that they can do it on that.  If my students need help or to contact me out side of the class room I would like to use email as one tool, I would also like to know if the school I was teaching at had some kind of cloud online like  one of thing we have at Edinboro is or D2L and there is a chat on that I would use if the school does not have something like that I think I would like to have my class have a blog. I would have a blog page for every class, and have a post or like of what things were taught in the class that day. Also the students would be able to comment and ask questions. To connect with experts I could use the web to look things up and I would also use my blog page to follow NASA, and other science sights. If I need to share some kind of idea with other teachers in my department I would like to use Google drive, or emails. To give out ideas or get them. I can also use twitter and follow other teachers around the world that may have new teaching ideas to help in the class room. 

One of the students in my class is Kelly Way, she is dyslexic. Dyslexic is what you call someone who has dyslexia, which is a developmental reading disorder. This makes it hard for her to read and write. Dyslexia also makes it hard for students to understand and comprehend information.  It tends to run in the family. One way to help her in class is to have individuality tutoring. This sometimes gives Kelly a low self esteem, and sometimes causes her to act out in class. 

One tool that Kelly is able to use to help in the class is Kurzweil 3000 it is a software that will read papers to her. Another thing that helps her understand is by using brackets and other graphical forms of separating  information. On the website Dyslexia Victoria  its gives many other ways for teachers to help accommodate   dyslexic students. Another way to help her learn is to do more hands on activities. Some other things I can do is to have more projects instead of test to show she understands the information.  Another thing that helps her in class is using the smart board, or using tape recorder help with reading. 

I fell that in this class, SEDU 183, I have learn allot of things that will help me as a future teacher. I have learned how to use so many things online that will help me find information and make it easier as a teacher. Also it will help me stay up to date on all of these things so that I am not one of those teachers that does not know what is going on. I had a hard time learning how to use the Mac Books but in the end I really enjoyed using them and would like to one day get one. Before I would never have used a Blog but now I think that is different I can see how it would be a nice tool to use in the classroom, I really think I will be using this tool latter on in life. I also feel that this class has helped me learn how to use allot of sights I have never thought of using and will use them for other class in the following years I have in school, one example being Google Drive, I would have never used it before or would have known what it was I have already used it for one of my other classes and it made working in a group that could not meet up so much easier. I believe I have grown as a learner because I am now not worried about how hard it is to do thing on the computer, now I see that if you set your mind to it that using technology you can find the answer to  almost everything. 

Sources

         

           "Developmental Reading Disorder ." PubMed Health . A.D.A.M. Inc. , 10 2010. Web. 13 Dec 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002379/>.

           "Dyslexia Victoria Online ." . Dyslexia Awareness, n.d. Web. 13 Dec 2012. <http://www.dyslexiavictoriaonline.com/>.

           Marshall, Theodosia J., Kadejha Adams, Cindy Mathura, and Hermese Williams. "Dyslexia & technology ." . N.p., 25 2012. Web. 13 Dec 2012. <http://www.slideshare.net/Sweetteacher/dyslexia-technology>.

          "McDowell High School ." School Digger . School Digger. com , n.d. Web. 13 Dec 2012. <http://www.schooldigger.com/go/PA/schools/1533007320/school.asp&xgt;.