Classroom Arrangement

These two images are two different room arrangements for the classroom I am currently working in. Both arrangements have their pros and cons, and both use all the same furniture that is present in the room. A key to deciphering the pictures:
Blue= Desks, the little blue squares are one-student desks, and the large blue rectangles are 2 student computer desks. The trapezoid desk in the teacher's and the small blue rectangle in the upper left cornor belongs to another teacher who works in this roo.
Purple= Bookshelves. There are multiple book shelves in an array of sizes, hence the different shapes.
Pink= My mentor's built-in non-movable office.
Dark Blue= A supplies shelf
Navy= A small filing cabinet
Peach= A microwave and mini-fridge.
Red Brackets= Whiteboards
Green Brackets= Doors

Both set ups include good room arrangement strategies. Let's take a look, shall we?

Arrangement is Consistent with classroom goals and activities

1. Room One (on the left) is set up to facilitate group discussion. Since the classroom is set up for teaching English, the desks students primarily use are set up in a U shape, with the teacher's desk at the front of the open area. This allows students to face each other and the teacher, which is important in class discussion so that everyone can see who is talking and who they are talking to. There is also a small cluster of desks to facilitate small group work, which often occurs in Study Skills, another class taught in this room.
   
2. Room Two (on the right) is set up to facilitate individualized work. In this English classroom, all reading in done in school, and students often work on their own to write up their thoughts about what they are reading. By having desks in rows, individualization is the primary focus.
   

High-Traffic areas are accessible

1. Room One has two major "high-traffic" areas, the supply shelf, and the book shelves. Both areas are free of congestion-creating road blocks.
   
2. Room Two has the same "high-traffic" areas that are also relatively free of things to trip over or block pathways

Students can be seen by the teacher

1. In Room One, all students face into the U and can be seen by the teacher, since they sit at the opening of the U. The computer desks allow for students to have their back towards the teacher, which also puts their computer screen towards the teacher. This makes it easier for the teacher to monitor student's activity while on their laptops.
   
2. In Room Two, all students face the front of the room and can therefor be seen by the teacher, provided they don't slouch and crouch behind the person in front of them to detract attention. The computer desks in this room serve the same purpose, but the students seated at the computer desks by the office have their screens facing the supplies shelf, which doesn't allow for an easy view of their screens.
   

Frequently used supplies are easily accessible

1. Since books and supplies are located on the book and supply shelf in "High-Traffic" areas, both are easily and readily accessible
2. Once again, the situation is the same as in room one, since both set ups work well.

Students can see the board and projector

1. In Room One, all students face inwards and toward each other. The white boards and projectors are at the front of the U and are therefor generally visible by all. Some students might perfer turning in their seats to see a bit better, but the view is generally good.
2. In Room Two, all students face the front and have a clear and easy view of the board and projector, provided that tall students don't seat themselves in front of shorter ones.
   

The Great Gatsby Student Sample

My contributions to the WebQuest wikis

On the page about WebQuest components, I added the Music Theme Park WebQuest under weak evaluation. The evaluation is a list of questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. No rubric, no real scoring. Just questions. Pretty weak, if you ask me.

On the page about WebQuest audiences, I added a wonderful example of a real-world goal for students: the Frankenstein 2018 WebQuest. This WebQuest is thoughtfully designed and planned and really gets the students engaged in a conversation among teachers and students who visit their collected work that is linked to the WebQuest.

On the page about creating a product in a WebQuest I added a link to the Rewriting Romeo and Juliet quest I found. The process in this WebQuest is amazingly clear and easy to follow with out being too simplest. A wonderful example.

SMARTboard Team Presentation

To explain the FAQ's about the SMARTboard, we wrote, directed, starred, and edited a video about teachers learning the basic ins and outs of the wonderful teaching tool, the SMARTboard!



The lesson plans we found to use with SMARTboard were the following:

Bridget Ferry's Lesson Plans
Romeo and Juliet Jeopardy (Referenced in the Video!)

Copyright Law for Students Writing Research Papers

An Introduction to Figurative Language

Kristen Tripp's Lesson Plans

SMART Exchange "Bill of Rights Quiz Show activity"

SMART Exchange "Branches of Government"

SMART Exchange "Constitution influences"

Copyright and Fair Use SR

7) I can't really comprehend how it is okay to post work that uses copyrighted material without permission, even if it is on a secure, password protected site. Work that breaks copyrights should not be published anywhere in my mind. If a student used the work without permission, they should be talked to, taught how to do it right, and asked to re-do the assignment properly in order to get credit. And their original permission-less work should not be posted anywhere. Doesn't make sense to me how this is okay!
10)I know that teachers can use these "legitimately acquired" materials in the classroom. But I didn't know they couldn't share it with other teachers. If they are putting it out there for other teachers to find and use in their classes, I feel that that is good networking and sharing. If it is okay for a teacher to use it, why isn't okay for them to say "this worked great, you should use this in your classroom too" and share?
12) It seemed strange to me that a teacher can tape something off TV or burn a DVD to obtain a clip to use in class or for student use. We can post copyrighted material on supposedly secure sites, and we can hand over burned copies of movies to students for their use in a project, but we can't share materials to use in class with other teachers? Some how most aspects of DVD burning seem illegal and the line looks really fuzzy to me.
15) Why is it a teacher can hand out burned clips to students, but they can't pile a bunch of clips together to show to a class? If it's okay to do with individual clips, it seems like it would be fine to compile those clips into a montage, especially if it's being used as a lesson starter.
16) Teachers can use now illegal-to-make machines to override copyrighted DVDs!? The law giving teachers the right to use technologically blocked material seems fair and good. What I don't understand is how we are allowed to do so through the use of a machine that is now illegal to produce.

Copyright and Fair Use LR

11) It really surprised me that students could take a video and edit themselves into it. I answered that this question would be false and was really thrown off when it was true! It doesn't make much sense to me that teachers can't show montages of clips in class, but they can help students edit themselves into a copyrighted movie or show. This would require burning that show, which is apparently legal with the use of an illegal machine, distributing it to students to edit, and then post the finished product on a secure school website, even though no copyright permission has been obtained. All of this goes against everything I thought about copyrights in schools and teacher's uses of copyrighted material. Some pieces of the laws make sense, but then they seem to cancel out or bypass other important laws. It seems as though the rules are quite clear cut, but very hard to piece together.

How to help someone use a computer

This article gives advice to help computer savvy people help computer newbies. The advice is broken up into two lists; "Things you need to tell yourself" and "Important rules." The thing I need to remind myself most often is to tell whoever I'm helping to actually read and pay attention to messages and prompts that appear on the screen. When a computer prompts you or asks you to do something, it's important to carefully read the message and not dismiss it because it's an interruption. By now, I'm very familiar with the prompts that come up on my Mac and can tell which ones they are just by the shape of the text on the screen. But just because I know them doesn't mean the newbie does, and I shouldn't just tell them what to click, but ask them to read it and help them get in the habit of doing so.
The important rule that really jumped out at me was "don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction." This really stuck with me because when I help my mom on the computer, I get frustrated because she is so slow and types with only two fingers and never does what I'm asking her to do right away. It's frustrating and often I try to take the keyboard and just do it for her. But she always demands I give it back because she wants to do it herself. Which is the only way she will truly learn.

I can use the information in my presentation by letting the class test out the Smartboard for themselves and not hijack it and try to show them how it's done.


Agre, Phil. "How to Help Someone Use a Computer." UCLA Department of Information Studies. Web. 04 Mar. 2010. .