Final Course Blog

          In my quest for a masters degree, I have been very pleased with the program I chose.  Because I teach middle school, I  have been doing research on what a student in middle school feels is essential to learn.  With this program, I  have been learning about many aspects of educational programs that will help in the understanding of what is essential learning.  The concept of essential learning sounds vague, and it can be.  Since many of us are are tied to the curriculum at hand,  it is not in stone that we cannot deviate from this and enhance our teaching style by looking into the 21st Century learning as a way of propelling students into their future.  For middle school students, learning about the brain and how it is so different from other age group brains has given me a greater understanding of how to approach my students.  Being more creative can lead to more motivation.  I do know that certain motivation techniques with the students do not work, but the lesson on the types of motivation has allowed me to focus within the classroom using the motivation that does seem to work.  Being presented the flipped classroom model has also given me a better understanding of what it is and I was pleasantly surprised when I gained a greater understanding from one of the leading experts in the field.  I am excited to learn more, practice more and allow my classroom to reap the benefits of my energy.

Flipping the Classroom / CBLs

      Motivation that is driven by extrinsic rewards are not working, examples are numerous at my school.  They are short-lived and I rarely see the long lasting effects.  Although our school does feel that  "if you feed them, they will come" is our approach to getting parents to our Back to School Nights, Open House, etc.  And parents do come!  So much for my theory.  I feel that intrinsic motivation is what will guide our society to greatness.  My 8th graders perform ten hours of community outreach each year as part of their requirements for graduation.  Putting these students into a help your community mind set hopefully will be carried on through high school.  I was much more impressed with the CBL concept than that of flipping the classroom.  I can see the potential for great works.  Students are compassionate when there is a cause they can be part of.  I see this in my town especially when it comes to reaching out to fellow peers and problems.  Real world situations are hard to gain involvement in, but area involvement similar to the Resilience video (which brought a tear to my eye) is a great way to start this process, and then it can be expanded to a more global approach.  What I could envision is using a global problem that is also within our area, such as hunger, homelessness or drug abuse.  I was impressed with the technology used and how it made me feel was that we could do this.  Students can benefit from this type of education as well.  I do wish that the demographics of the pilot schools were more equally distributed when it came to cultures.
     Looking at the "flipping" model, I could not get over my own roadblock of students not completing their outside homework or projects when they are asked to complete them at home.  I read the cons regarding this way of teaching and it brought home to me that studying and homework at home is something I need to solve within the classroom culture.  No, more like the school culture.  But since I am always looking for ways to challenge the students, I have a lesson in mind.  We are studying the Constitution and for their upcoming assessment, a brief video in DVD format or online could give some of the students who participate the edge that some may need.  This will also be a start towards changing my classroom community in regards to the importance of "homework".