Today was the first day of class. Dr. Simrnova started class with a video called "A vision of K-12 students today" and she asked us what information struck us. From this video I took away the amount of time a student spends on technology and how it is an integrated part of their live. The other piece that intrigued me was the amount of teachers that do not let their students create things with technology. Students today use technology for everything, but are sometimes limited to create with technology in the classroom. In order for students to grow they need to create. Using technology to create work within the classroom can open up a new world for a student.
As an ice-breaker Dr. Simrnova had us create name tags. She told us to create with colors and designs to make the name tags personal to us. Then she posed four questions to us 1. Think of a Social Studies teacher from your past 2. What qualities do you need to be a good Social Studies teacher 3. Define Social Studies 4. What do you expect to get out of this course? Dr. Simrnova used the technique of Think-Pair-Share. First we answered the questions on our own thinking them through. Then we paired up with the person next to us to discuss our answers. After being paired up we shared with the class what we agreed on and what we had that was different. This technique is a great way for students to practice there communication skills and presentation skills. The topic Dr. Simrnova used was to help us as a class get to know each other, but it can be used for almost any topic. I have seen the Think-Pair-Share technique used in all the classrooms that I have observed over the last three semesters.
