The first post under Angela Maiers blog was a pitch to help Jerry Blumengarten get to his very first ISTE newbie project. Ms. Maiers had such nice things to say about her fellow peer.
My comments were introductory information. Who I am and what my intentions are for reading her blog. I praised her for encouraging Mr. Blumengarten with her nice words.
I also included links to the edm class, my personal blog and my twitter link.
Ms. Maiers tends to have guest bloggers a lot, I read the 5 blog posts of Passion Solves Problems that was written by guest blogger Lisa Cooley. She has very interesting ideas on why it is important to teach children the value of passion. Knowing that it can change lives is something every child should know.
Your summaries are inadequate. We only know that nice things were said. We do not know the context nor what the nice things were. Same for the next post. We know she discussed "interesting ideas" about why children should be taught the value of passion but we have no clue as to what these ideas (reasons?) are.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Maiers described Jerry Blumengarten as "a generous person who deserves all we can do for him and more." Also she expresses that "he's a rare person who takes more than he gives from his personal learning network." Jerry Blumengarten started a website for his school that over the course of a year blew up into this "main stream, go to" website for teachers. If memory serves me correctly his website has over 25,000 links and 500 pages. Please check his site out, Cybraryman Catalogue of Educational websites , it's actually very helpful, I've used it for other classes this semester.
ReplyDeleteThe guest blogger Lisa Cooley believes that passion drives the classroom and that making students' passions their first priority! I made sure to mention in my comment to Mrs. Cooley that I couldn't agree more. She wrote this post to express her views on how passion can solve a lot of problems in the classroom. Her first view is that most adults do not know what it is to respect children. You must give respect to receive it. Well there you go! Students should learn from the first day in the classroom that they're respected and what is EXPECTED from them. In turn you create values and make them want to be in school.
Secondly, most kids lose the want to learn. When students lose their confidence it causes stress which can affect their grades and how teachers view them. I am finding myself in this very perdicament right now. I'm staring stress in the face as it gnaws daily at my confidence and in some cases it has showed in my performances. (i.e. in my original post for this assignment.) And please do not take this as an insult, as I am PROUD to be in this class and often speak highly of your teaching methods to others.
Kids are not motivated is another point. When children are pursuing their passions or dreams it's an instant high. Letting kids work independently by deciding what they want to study gives them the motivation to not only pursue it but, show off thier confidence towards their passions!! That builds on the momentum needed to face difficulties head on, think about that brick wall Randy Pausch discussed.
Let students lead themselves. While I do find 99% of what Mrs. Cooley is saying to be factual I am on the fence with this idea. I think as a professional your job is to be the leader. Fact. Encouraging someone whether is be a student, co-worker, family member to follow their dreams and to keep that fire alive inside of them is what makes someone a great leader.
Lastly, she discusses how passion changes ones discipline and behavior. It's very true and I've seen it with my own eyes as a substitute teacher. When children are bored, they misbehave. I often encourage my students to throw ideas around about how they would want to do the lesson that has been left by their teacher. EX: Have them sit silently and read the 20 pages that make up chapter 12 in their history books. BORING. How about picking a child to read one paragraph and when he or she is finished, let them pick another student. Everyone gets only one turn and you must pick someone from the opposite side of the room to continue reading. Little things to let them know I care that they're bored to tears and I would do anything practical to make their learning more fun!