BP4_2009121_My Ideal Classroom

Welcome to my elementary classroom. Yes, you still need to get in your car and drop your child off promptly at 8:30. Social interaction is a crucial part of elementary school. As you enter, you will notice tables that do have personal laptops for every student. You will also notice students independently working on their morning quick start on their individual laptops. On their laptops each student has a very modified version of their own modified Personal Learning Environment (PLE). Each student has an individual homepage that has simple places the students can click on to go to websites to do their morning exercises, activities throughout the day, and our school website blog. You will also notice the projector screen I have hooked up to my laptop computer with the morning message and quiet classical music going in the background. While the students quietly work independently, I am pulling kids one on one to review their homework assignment. Each homework assignment is individualized to the students level and each time they pass it off it gives me an opportunity to assess the student’s progress.
A recent article, 7 things you should know about personal learning environments, Discusses the importance of having a PLE. Normal PLEs allow each individual to connect with others that share their same individual interests and research topics. It allows them to get more information rather than independent channels such as a library or a textbook. A normal PLE is created from self-direction so the responsibility and learning is only the learners. A PLE is self-directed learning. So, due to the importance of having some kind of PLE, I have modified a PLE to fit into an elementary classroom. The students will not have all of the independence of choosing exactly how to set up their own PLE. Instead, the teacher will set up a general web homepage for each individual student that the teacher can access. On this website it will have the basic tools and sites the students can just click on to get to different learning sites. The students won’t be posting their reflections in the early grades, but this will allow them to get used to going to a site and navigating through their own system.
Another article I read, AntiTeaching- Confronting the Crisis of Significance, a particular part really stood out to me, “visit a classroom and pay attention to the types of questions asked by students. Good questions are the driving force of critical and creative thinking and therefore one of the best indicators of significant learning.” Wow. That is a powerful way to observe classrooms. Students do take school as a game.
The problem that our society faces is how fast technology is impacting our world. Our textbooks are becoming outdated even before they are finished printed. If schools invest in the latest laptops or latest technology in a few years those will be outdated and further purchasing will be required.