April Blog

Learning Experiences

This month in Social Studies Methods the focus was mostly on finishing up our long-term projects like the Virtual Museum and our units, and in my case my clinical experience too. Another short project I did this month was the hour of code. I think the virtual museum is one of my favorites out of them all. I loved taking a physical museum and putting it into a new format. I actually did the Cowpens National Battlefield, which is more of a park than a museum which made the project very interesting. I thought my project turned out well but honestly I wish I could have done more. I would love to do something that worked out as a more virtual tour, where you could actually move around the park and interact with it more. I think it would also be cool to create something like an app that people could use while actually at the park to give them a guided tour. My problem with these ideas is that it would really need to be done by someone who had a better understanding of technology. I can do a lot but this project in the format I did took a very long time and I am sure taking it farther would be even more time-consuming. Doing the project, however, kept me thinking about other places that could be done this way and how museums from across the world could be done like this so that students from all over could visit without actually having to travel there.

When I completed the hour of code project I thought back to my museum and the things I wanted to do with it. The hour of code project was just that, it was an hour lesson in coding for computers. Creating programs, websites, apps, and other things. I realized in this project that learning this skill could help make my idea about the museums a possibility. In all honesty, I do not know if I will ever be able to manage something like this just because of lack of my own time to learn how to code on that level. But it is something I would love to get the hang of more. And even if I never make it to that level there are still a lot of things I can do with it. And even more possibilities for my students if I use this in my class and give them an opportunity with it.

Outside Learning

        Some of the experience I had outside of this class that stood out to me this month was one my clinical observations for my PHED 300 class. For this class, I had to spend 5 hours in an elementary PE classroom. I did not go to a public elementary school when I was younger so I never really had this experience as a student and definitely not as a teacher. It was very interesting to see how a PE teacher handled a class of students compared to a classroom teacher. My biggest eye opener though was when the teacher I was observing had his adaptive class. Every day there is a 30 minute time period for the EC kids to have PE. Now, these students cannot do the same activities as other students in this setting, but it was interesting how the teacher still worked with them on basic physical skills. While I worked with him we had the students out on the playground and was teaching them how to roll hula hoops, at times it was very productive and then out of nowhere a student would change moods and it would change the whole dynamics of the whole class, and we would have to adapt to it. It was just a completely new experience for me. I also saw how he made sure to include the students with muscle problems that was confined to a motored chair. Though this student could not do what the others were doing, the teacher used the hula hoop to do stretches and exercises that this student could do while still allowing him to interact with the hoop.

Connections and Future Classroom

With regards to the virtual museum and the hour of code, teachers who use this are really utilizing and integrating technology in their classroom which is what standard 4d of the NCTCS says we should do. If we included some hour of code projects in our classroom we would be helping students use the technology to do many things. I would love to take the time to practice more with this and learn more about it to use in my future classroom. Do this also fits standard 5b which says that teachers need to “link professional growth to their professional goals”. Learning how to code is just one way I can develop professionally as a teacher. 

When thinking about the PE observations, especially those in the adaptive class, standard 2d comes to mind. This teacher was adapting his teaching for all students involved. He was also collaborating with the EC professional teachers to learn more about the students so that he could be more effective with them. This is important to do no matter who you teach.