My Personal Results for Strategies Class

Strategies Class: The New Technology Era and My Results

I have to admit that this was one of the most intriguing and challenging classes that I have had and without a textbook. I am thrilled that we had to take on the challenges of a fast moving curriculum and we had to do it with our own expertise and structured guidance by the professor. I really wish that I was more computer literate. I feel that if I was I would be able to apply it better to my personal life as well as my professional life. In my personal life I would just like to do the basics like personal postcards, photos, etc.
I have come to the realization that we must be in the race in order to win and if we do not have computer skills we will never make it. I am wondering how many students, especially in urban areas are a disadvantage because they do not have computers in their classrooms that they can use to do their class work, projects, homework, etc.? It is a known fact for all of us that students do not learn well by lecture only. It has been comprehensive learning in this class from day one. I know when learning has taken place, especially in grad school when A few things occur:
• The material is applicable to the real world
• The material is something that you take to the classroom the very next day and implement it with your students because you felt empowered and confident to bring students to the next level with what you have learned.
• The strong desire to share all of your new knowledge and implement it immediately.

I took my curriculum class and implemented it in my own class especially with bogging and making the video. It was a great experience and my students were very receptive to it. A few of them have shown interest in GOOGLE, New York after my description of it from class. I am very confident with the new technology that I have just learned about and I am going in an upwards advancement with what I have learned. The class brought everyone to a new plateau in education and I hope that I will be able to keep reproducing the valuable information and techniques that I have learned.

Useful links that are helpful

Web sites that are useful:

It is always a tremendous help for me to “borrow” useful links and work sites from my colleagues. Here are a few that I hope you enjoy using. They were instructional in my curriculum mapping and classroom technology.
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/languages/spanish/
http://www.mathsisfun.com/
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/science/biology/bio2004/
www.webfeet.com
www.glencoe.com

Middle School

While I was reading this article, it seemed to mirror many of the now existing districts and their barriers. The middle school in our district is a school that has adapted many of the models such as the Orange Middle School. I would recommend to our district to implement ROPE-W and the basketball math theory. Right now we have a video that is shown in homeroom to help improve math scores. The students do not even look at it, much less practice the assignments.
Like anything else in life when you make a personal connection to something you absorb the contents like a sponge because of the assimilation to the information. In Orange the students have impoverished life styles and the teachers are aware of the violence that they are exposed to. It is only through uniformed authority, strict school vigilance and a sense of cohesiveness in and out of the school that will deter violence.
When students have a voice they feel more important and at that age fostering their self-esteem is a vital element in their lives. While Orange Middle School is developing new strategies, another improvement that I would recommend is to not only voice their opinions about violence, but also to know where to turn to immediately if they are in a situation or knows of someone in a situation that may need their help. I would also implement a follow-up homework or lesson to be delineated with the basketball activity.