#13 Guide to Creating Tech-Friendly Classroom Management Strategies

This article discusses how to use technology in the classroom and maintain classroom management while doing so. It is oftentimes hard to use technology without students becoming off task and beginning to do something that they weren't designed to do, but this article shows what steps teachers need to take to prevent this. For example, the first step was for teachers to do their homework by doing all of the lesson planning, leg work, and troubleshooting all before considering getting up in front of a classroom. This means not only know what you are going to teach, but knowing how you can teach it, preparing each workstation for students, and ensuring that if there is a problem that you know how to solve it and have a back up plan.  The second strategy was identifying learning goals and stating objectives out loud. This gives students a bit more motivation and as the article says, "sharpens them." The third strategy was stepping away from the computer.  Of course, in today's time, it is incredibly important to use technology but an overload of it can cause behavior problems and attention issues. The fourth strategy capitalizing on their desire to explore, which can be hard, but giving them time to find answers for themselves while monitoring them and giving them an objective is good for their brain and learning.
In my classroom, I believe technology will be used a lot. It is often hard to expect issues and realize how much work must be put into a lesson using a computer, because in our lives we use our personal laptop and can do whatever we please, but when using a computer in a classroom we must make sure they have to software and much more. Also, in my classroom I think it is important to state goals before a lesson has begun, so I can definitely see myself using that. One thing that I do find very difficult is allowing for free exploration. I remember in school, there were always certain students that would do just about anything to get onto a website that they shouldn't have. I think that as a teacher, especially upper elementary, that it would be difficult to monitor each students screen and make sure that they are behaving properly at all times.

#12 Why So Many Kids Can't Sit Still in School Today

This article was interesting, because it discussed not only that children in the classroom are less attentive now, but why. They also compared things about children now to children from the 1980s. I also found it interesting to see how it negatively effected a child's self esteem to be disciplined in the classroom. There are multiple studies out there that show that students need more movement in the school environment, but this article showed an instance where a student was punished for needing this movement and it ultimately led to him having lowered self-esteem.  Also, in this article they discussed that due to this lack of movement, students now have issues with muscles, flexibility, and have much more energy that is exhibited through disturbances in the classroom.
When I have a classroom, one of my major goals will be to create an environment where all of my students excel not only intellectually, but in social and other aspects. This means that if physical activity can be implemented it will be.  Some students need the ability to move to be able to calm down and focus in later.  Catering to the different types of students in the classroom is important to a classroom teacher, and with more students having ADD/ADHD is is imperative that we take that into consideration when writing lesson plans and making decisions about classroom management.

#11 Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXs8HPD-VYI

#10 Videos on 21st Century Education

1. Classrooms of Tomorrow- This video was interesting, because it was completely out of the ordinary to see a classroom where every student is on their cell phone doing work and the teacher is completely okay with it. Growing up, if you had your cell phone out in class then you would get it taken away. I do appreciate that the video suggested how high tech the classroom will be, because there are so many new ways to utilize technology in the classroom. I do, however, think it is a little bit far fetched to have that amount of technology in the classroom at this point in time. The amount of funding it would take to ensure that every student had access to the same level of technology is not very practical right now.

2.The Voice of the Active Learner- Education from a Digital Native's Perspective- This video was something that I have always considered very important. There is an increase of students that get their post-secondary education online now. I believe that eventually a lot of high school students will be given the option to take classes online. I think that this video was an accurate portrait of the "active learner", but I do believe that some students will not succeed as easily online. 

3.The Future Starts Now- This video discusses ICT, and how prevalent it is now, but how many teachers and districts are wary about using it in the classroom. They discussed how in Norway they spend a lot of money on school and still have average testing.  In their society, they have a lot of people dropping out of high school and they claim that they will motivate students and create a knowledge-based society. They believe that using technology will make their education better. I agree with this, but it's sometimes hard to train teachers and give them the resources to educate their students.

4. Designing Schools for 21st Century Learning- This video tackles the architecture and design side of learning and schools. He claims that innovation and creativity are the keys to success. Studies show that feeling secure is the key element to learning, and stimulus rich environments help learning.  His goal is to include that in schools. This video states that children need to be given the opportunity to be independent thinkers. I find this video incredibly interesting, and I wish that all schools were designed for learning like this.  I think that a lot of the problem with this video is that the funding isn't there to create all of these wonderful aspects into a normal district.

5. Tools and Resources for The 21st Century Education- I like the resources listed in this video, I wasn't aware of a lot of them. I will definitely use this video in my classroom. I believe that a lot of teachers are very unaware of all of the resources that are out there to make our lives easier.

6. A Vision of 21st Century Teaching- I enjoyed this video, because it showed the expectations and ideas that educators have of education in the 21st century. We are at an interesting point in history and there are a lot of improvements that we can make to give students coming up the best education that has been available before.