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. .

Chapter 10: Going Beyond the Classroom

The idea of A Week Without Walls really struck me as something that could be beneficial to kids in so many ways. The idea is that students spend a week doing an project they chose from a list that teachers create and teach and each student who participated receives credit for a quarter long class. Going camping could earn a student who has fallen behind credit as well as teach them knew skills.
I think this is a fantastic idea, it gives students a chance to make up credits they lack, but in a way that they feel more involved, because they got to choose the non-traditional activity. Often, students might have more interest in a subject than imagine; they just haven’t seen it in a light that makes it attractive to them yet. By learning in a non-traditional way, students get more excited and involved than they might within a classroom. Instead of just reading about something, they get the opportunity to go and do it.

Chapter 9: When Things Go Wrong

Students’ advice to teachers is, “don’t judge your success by whether students like you.” They claim that being a popular teacher isn’t what matters: what matters is doing your job well. As time goes on, if students see that you’re a good an effective teacher, they will learn to respect you, which is better than liking you.
I think it’s important for teachers to understand that they don’t need to be everyone’s best friend. If practicum has taught me anything thus far, it’s that not being scared and being strong gains you more respect than being nice and friendly. My first day with my junior class I got called “fresh meat” by one male student. My mentor forced him to apologize and even though I was very taken aback, I didn’t let him see it shook me up. Now, when I come in the room, he says, “Good afternoon Miss. Ferry, how are you?” Being liked isn’t half as important as being respected.

Chapter 8: Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

Students who do not speak English as a first language often have a much more difficult time reading English than speaking it. These students usually find themselves reading books way below their abilities with in their own language because they are just starting to read English. But reading easy books written for much younger audiences doesn’t make anything easier; it makes the task insulting.
ESL students are usually very proficient in reading in their own language and can read books of the same level as everyone else in their grade; they just can’t read them in English. In middle school, I helped teach a Michael, a Spanish-speaking sixth grader how to read in English. He was exceptionally bright but painfully shy and that kept him from speaking in class and asking for help. Together, we read chapter books in the library a couple of times a week. He started to look forward to finishing the books and got excited to start new ones, but looking back, I wonder if he was ever insulted that we were reading books that were below his abilities in his first language.

Chapter 7: Teaching Difficult Academic Material

Students benefit from relating the material they are learning to their everyday lives. If students can connect with a piece of literature in a way that makes it relevant to them, they are going to be move invested and learn more. “Relate Romeo and Juliet to interracial dating,” or help students to view Hamlet as a teen who can’t decide which road in life is the right one (137).
Being able to connect to the material is often essential for students to connect to the material. And the more connected a student is, the more likely they are to want to learn. I always do a lot better when I can find a way to make literature relate to my life or something happening in my world. Even just relating Lord of the Flies to “LOST” to make an up-to-date connection can make all the difference.

Chapter 6: Motivation and Boredom

A student once had a teacher who was asked an off-subject topic and told the student they would talk about it later, and they all assumed that was her way of dismissing the question. But the teacher came in the next day and planned the whole class around what the student had asked. The teacher was willing to adapt to the students’ needs and desire to learn.
When teachers do things like this, it really makes the students feel listened to and respected. I’ve only had teachers do this a few times, but when they did, the whole class loved it. It shows the students that they really do have a say in what they learn and spend their time on: it makes them realize they can have a say in their education, and they should.

Chapter 5: Teaching to the Individual, Working with the Group

Teachers often dismiss questions that they don’t think are relevant or don’t require answering. But the truth is, all students’ questions, so long as they are appropriate, deserve to be answered. If teachers’ don’t answer students’ questions and dismiss them as unimportant, it can make the students’ feel like they themselves are unimportant.
I feel this is something teachers really need to pay attention to. No question should be left unanswered, no matter how simple or trivial it seems to be. It often takes a lot for a student to muster up the courage to ask a question about something they don’t understand, because they don’t want their classmates thinking they are stupid. If a teacher dismisses a question, it reinforces the student’s thoughts that they are not important. Teachers are supposed to create a safe and supportive learning environment, and that means responding to their students, because a question that seems trivial might be the one thing a student needs answered to really grasp a subject.

Chapter 4: Creating a Culture of Success

Comparing students to other students or praising and criticizing in class can be detrimental to students’ learning. One student even claimed, “most students do not want to be singled out—praise and criticism feel almost the same” (67). Students want to learn, but they also want to fit in, and honoring both of those wants is something students wish teachers could learn to do.
This really leapt out at me because I’ve felt the exact same thing, and this student said it so eloquently. In high school, I had English teachers who would pull good examples of essays from the class and copy them to hand out or put them on the overhead to discuss what made them good, and they made sure to never include names. But when you’ve been going to school with the same group of kids for years, you learn what people write like, you can always pick out the kid who’s fidgeting in their seat trying to look like they’re not the one who wrote the paper: I was often that kid. It’s so wonderful to be praised by a teacher and hailed as a good example, but sometimes it feels like criticism because your classmates are angry you understood what they couldn’t seem to grasp.

Chapter 3: Classroom Behavior

Teachers need to plan for their classes, and share the plan with their students. If a teacher comes in and is clearly unprepared, it is only natural for the students to ignore the teacher and chitchat with their classmates.
If the teacher shows up unprepared, they are signaling to the students’ that being prepared and ready for class is not necessary. It also makes the kids think that the teacher doesn’t care about their education, and sometimes, the only adult kids have to care about it, is the teacher. I think teachers always need to be prepared and ready and willing to share the class plan with the students. By involving the students, the teacher is allowing the students to take some responsibility in their learning and also showing them respect. Two things that I feel are essential in the classroom.

MEL Project

http://bridgetferry.podbean.com/#

Special Thanks to
Dereck Paige as Aiden
Dan Horne as Dan
William Glidden as Solomon and Issac
Justine Dimambro as Jane
Bridget Ferry as Viola and Heather
Amanda Martemucci as Interviewer and Gabby

Learning Style Inventory Results.

According to the test, I am a very verbal and social learner. These are my two strongest intelligences, so I believe the test to be rather accurate. I learn best when I can write, speak, and read about the material. I also learn well in an open friendly environment where I can participate in discussion with classmates, which makes me very social. I am in no way an aural learner, music doesn't make sense to me even though I enjoy it and if something tells me something and I don't write it down, I will probably never remember. My results reflect an aural score of 2, which I think pretty much only implies that I like listening to music, just never while I work. I would say the results were very accurate in pinpointing the different ways in which I learn.


The test and test results are from the Memletics Learning Styles Questionnaire at http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/questions.asp?cookieset=y

Web 2.0 Educator

I chose Wesley Fryer, a dedicated teacher who uses technology in his classroom in great new ways. He keeps his eye on new programs, computers, and other forms of technology that are coming around, but also keeps learning how to work with what we currently have.

He specializes using technology in the classroom with an Apple-biased focus. He is a teacher who thoroughly understands that technology is a great resource that can often bring teaching and learning to the next level. He also strongly supports 1:1, meaning that there should be a 1 laptop to every one student ratio. This will allow students to become more comfortable with computers and learn how to truly use them as tools in their education. While Fryer is a strong supporter of technology, he makes it clear that there is a point when dependence becomes excessive. He wrote about the "internet addiction camps" in China that abuse and harm youth instead of helping to free them from an unnecessary dependence on technology. He also mentions the idea of one-use digital text books and how it may seem appealing, but a real, physical book filled with notes and highlights is still a very valuable tool.

I agree with Fryer that technology is a very important tool in the classroom. Students should be able to utilize computers to advance their education and knowledge. Computers are fantastic tools that need to be brought into the classroom. But with this idea comes another equally important one: computers are just a tool. They are being integrated into our way of life and we are moving into a totally technology driven world. But that doesn't mean technology is the only resource we have. We still have real text books and newspapers that are equally good resources. Students should know how to navigate the internet to find sources, but they should also be able to navigate the library. I think Fryer believes in both of these statements, and because of that, I agree with almost everything I have read from him and want to continue to follow him.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I technologies are those that make the process of teaching easier and more efficient. Type II technologies are those that allow for new and more effective ways of teaching. Examples of Type I technologies might include online quizzes. While it's easier for the teacher to collect and grade, doing a quiz on a computer is no more beneficial than doing it on paper. An overhead project is another example, because it may be easier and neater than writing on a blackboard, but it is no more effective than writing on blackboards. Finally, websites like Quizlet.com are Type I technologies because they are simply electronic versions of vocabulary lists. An example of a Type II technology might be Skype, which allows for classrooms to connect with other classrooms or professionals who can be a guest speaker without actually being present. Another example is blogs like this one. Blogs allow for easy access to assignments for both teachers and students and allow for quick and easy to find feedback and provide verbal learners a new outlet for their learning style. PowerPoint is another example because it allows students and teachers alike to create presentations that are captivating, easy to use, and easy to present. The transitions and music that can be incorporated also reach out to bodily-kinestetic and visual learners.


The idea of Type I and Type II Technologies comes from:
Internet Applications of Type II uses of Technology in Education (2005) by Clebourne Maddux and D. LaMont Johnson, editors. NY: Haworth Press.

My MEL experiences

• Student/ Teacher Relationships: While I often times dreaded the work and was intimidated by the concepts of physics, my physics teacher was one of my favorites which helped me to learn to love the subject. After he knew everyone well enough to playfully make fun of them he would write all our test and quiz questions about kids in the class. Questions like "In a desperate attempt to be tan before prom, Bridget sat outside in a lawn chair..." and then would create a problem about the suns rays and how long it would take them to reach earth. Tests were less dreaded because they involved humor that everyone in the class could enjoy because the teacher created an environment where laughing at ourselves helped us through the tough work.
• Learning Styles: My AP English teacher was fantastic at teaching to all the learning styles in the classroom. Before starting a new era of literary work, he would show us a slide show of art from that time period, with music from the period playing in the background as he explained to us the popular art forms and famous artists and musicians and how they influenced the writers of the time. This drew in musical and artistic students and gave them a chance to see how their interests effected the works we would be reading. He also had us do Shakespeare scenes and encouraged movement, such as the Macbeth-Macduff fight scene played out with light sabers which really engaged bodily-kinesthetic learners. Once, we even we outside and made snowmen that represented authors we had studied and had to guess who each group's snowman represented, which really pulled in the naturalistic learners. His ability to reach out to all the intelligences in the classroom gave everyone the ability to learn in their strongest intelligences and strengthen and explore their less-used ones.
• Connections: The teachers in my high school had great relationships within and outside of their departments. They would talk to each other about their subjects and what was being taught, and quite often in math our teacher would relate it to what she knew we were doing in physics. An English teacher might drawn upon our knowledge from aquatic biology and ask us to relate it to Moby Dick. Once, my AP English teacher even asked if anyone saw CSI the night before, because they quoted Lady Macbeth. The connections they made between classes were crucial for me, seeing a network of my knowledge grow larger and more complex made me realize that no subject stands alone, and all subjects are practical outside of the classroom, in the "real world."
  
• Avoid Rewards: My government teacher had a bad habit of bribing students to finish their work or get a paper in on time. He might offer to bring certain students in donuts if they turned in their essay on time. This led to the students he rewarded to not doing anything without a reward. No extra credit for doing the required homework? Then they didn't do it. By giving rewards this teacher taught students to never do anything unless they get something out of it.
• Helping Students Succeed: My junior year English teacher was probably the hardest I ever had. He set very high expectations and didn't accept excuses. He was known for being a tough grader and many people didn't take his class because they were afraid to work hard. While his expectations seemed high, they were always achievable, and he made sure everyone in the class who did the work they were asked reached the goals he set. Tasks that seemed impossible were really just assignments that asked a lot of students, and forced us to work, think, and brainstorm more than we ever had before. By the end of his class, I felt like my B+ was the best grade I'd ever received, even though it was the only A I didn't get that year.
  

What is a WebQuest?

January 21st 2010
12:43 PM

A WebQuest is a Web site that has a set of instructions that the Quester must follow in order to complete a project. There are instructions, links, steps, and outside sources involved that allow a Quester to search the Web in a structured way to find the information in question.

January 21st 2010
1:09
A WebQuest is a fun way to complete a technology driven project using the scaffolding and direction provided by the WebQuest site to create a final product that meets all the WebQuest expectations and use the sources provided.

January 27th 2010 2:00
Ditto last definition

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

While addressing topics such as trust and fairness, Cushman supports the idea that it is more important to be a good teacher than a popular teacher. She supports this with quotes from students who explain that they would rather have a teacher that showed their class how much they care about teaching and helping students learn than have a teacher who is buddy-buddy with everyone, or even worse, a select few.

I felt that this might be a hard thing for teachers to accept, but if everyone looks back, they can probably remember a teacher that was not their favorite, but really prepared them and helped them to learn. One of my fears as a teacher is the possibility of not being liked by my students. This section of the chapter really helped ease my fear, because it reminded me that being a popular teacher and being a good teacher don’t always go hand in hand. And while this is true, I know I will strive to be both.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

In the first chapter of Fires in the Bathroom, Cushman makes it clear that teachers need to be “paying attention to what individual students say and do- and what they don’t- in the classroom and hallways, in their written work, speech patterns, and physical appearance” (3-4). Cushman expands on this throughout the chapter, explaining that if a teacher does not know their students and does not know how to read them, then the task of teaching becomes even more difficult. Knowing students is an important part of learning how to teach them and reach them.

This idea really caught my attention because it is so simple and so true. While learning to pay attention to all these things is by no means simple, the idea that it must be done is easy to comprehend. Students are all different, they learn in different ways and if one does not know their students, how is one expected to teach them? Luckily, I always seemed to show up on teacher’s radar; they knew how to motivate me and get me interested. I want to be able to do that with my students, and try my hardest to make sure I don’t miss what they’re not saying and doing as well.