Saturday, March 7, 2009

Learning Spaces

I am a firm believer in learning spaces can occur anytime and anywhere. This transcends through the method I use to teach. I find it now a little harder to keep my students attention unless I incorporate the tools that they love and find innovative. An example I used this week was teaching dictionary skills, apparently a real snozzer for the first 10 minutes of the class when I explained to the students that when I went to school there was not inventive spelling we had to use print dictionaries. The were astonished that we didn't have computers in class or even in a lab. I explained to them that instead of the computer lab we had Home Ec.-"huh?" was what proceeded that statement. To this very day I still know how to make a mean eggs if a frame!(lol)thank you Mrs. Sommermeyer :). Well the rest of my lesson went online to a really cool dictionary game website , Word Central http://www.wordcentral.com/ ,that I linked to my Web page and the kids went wild trying to see who received the most points buy the end of class. I find that this methodology works best for my students now it allows them to learn at different paces and unlock various levels on their own, no one gets left behind because everyone takes from their lessons what they are able too. Second life I find astonishing just the other day I went to Paris and spoke with a few people, I have also been to Colombia, Spain , United Kingdom,Egypt, and Malaysia and have exchanged information with various people from all walks of life. As a society we have crossed oceans with regards to technologies and educational resources I am so excited to see what the future has to offer my children and future grandchildren. Picture on top of of my SL Learning Apace Dorm room I even have a Kitty called Pickles, my daughters named him