How could you adapt or change one of your current class/course policies to reflect a moving mindset? Is this a change you are willing to make? Why or Why not?
This is our first year of having 1:1 in the classroom. Yes, I am in the group of teachers that are older and feel a little out of my comfort zone. I on the other hand am always wanting to learn new things, so I went to the extra classes they offered this past summer to learn our new chromes. It has been a learning curve, but I have learned how to use them with my classes. I feel I have learned a lot and continue to learn and revamp my classes. Since I teach at the 6th grade level, I would want to start the year out with the video Engaging Digital Natives. I like how Jason Roseberry tells us that we need to teach the students how to use the devices properly and not like a toy. We also want them to make the right decisions when posting online. I like how he shows his post about Purdue. This happened a long time ago, but now he worries about this post when he goes for a job interview. He says, “We should make it a goal that the students google well by the time they get out of school.” My husband and I have always told our children to be careful about what you put online.
This goes along with the, “Are you down with or done with homework.” Since I have been teaching for many years, I feel I never teach exactly the same way each year. This is because everything is always changing and we as teachers need to adapt to these changes. I’m also always looking for new ideas or things to add to my curriculum. This is where I feel that I have changed with the amount of homework that I assign each night. Over the years I started out giving a lot of homework to now giving a smaller portion. After Christmas this year, I even started giving only the evens on a worksheet, and if they did poorly on the worksheet, I could reteach the assignment and then assign the odds to do. This gives the students another chance to learn the content and do better on the assignment.
The “No-Zero Policy: Students Don’t See Zeroes The Same Way Adults Do.” This has me really rethinking how a zero really does look to some students. To me it has always been about teaching responsibility. Since I am not at the elementary, we give one grade for each subject taught. I do not give a grade for behavior. I do see how the zero could be a behavior grade, but I also see a correlation between the information learned by a student that does homework and does not get a zero to one that does not do their homework and gets a zero. You can’t learn if you don’t apply yourself. I guess, I should not say that, because I have a student that has not completed a few assignments and still has a decent grade. This is because he finds math easy. I just worry that someday, that easy is going to turn into hard, and is he going to know how to study when that day comes?
This has been a very interesting module to learn from. I see how each of the explore modules has me thinking in a different way about the different ideas presented. We are never to old to learn something new or look at something a little differently.
