My 21st century classroom

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Welcome!

1.) Welcome

a.) Hi! I'm Sarah Yocum. I go to Edinboro University where I am currently studying Early childhood and special education.

b.) Here is my "This I believe" video about someone very close to my heart. I hope you enjoy!


c.) My future plans as a teacher include the completion of my bachelors at Edinboro, as well as possibly returning for my masters. As a teacher, I hope to one day be a special education teacher, more specifically, a life skills teachers. I hope to move somewhere down south where it's warm and the accents are deep. My goal is to help others and hopefully make a difference in someones life.

2.) My Classroom

i.) My school is located in Savannah Georgia. The total population in Chatham County, where I'm most interested is 236,091 people. About  28% of Chatham's residence that are ages 25 and older, have college degrees and the median household income is $96,089 (Chatham).
I choose Savannah Georgia because of the ratings in the public schools. Not only do I want to travel somewhere South, but I want to travel South to teach in a school that has the students best interest in mind, at all times. Schools in Savannah seem to have that, and are very successful also. Through my research I found that many of the schools in Savannah were rated 9 out of 10 or a full 10 out of 10 and after reading through the reviews this is definitely a city I would enjoy working in (Howard).

ii.) Present in my life skills classroom I have 12 students. 7 boys and 5 girls, with both caucasian and african american students.  Students in my class are disabled, one of the main disorders that I have in my class are students with intellectual disabilities. I also have students with autism spectrum disorder. Many of these students however, come from wealthy southern backgrounds and parents and guardians who are more than willing to communicate back and forth with myself and other staff of the school regarding their childs progress.

iii.) This class is a life skills class, which means I'm teaching students at low levels about skills that they will need in life. This includes learning about hygiene, manners, signs for different businesses, job skills and so much more.

B.)Setting

i.) Classroom picture

ii.)One thing that very important to me is organization. Without organization life seems so hectic, messy and inconvenient. I believe everything has a place and one place to start influencing others to be organized is in school. A clean, organized and welcoming classroom is a great way to encourage others to be organized. When designing and organizing my future classroom I took into consideration that I will have special education students in my classes. 

 

When you first enter my class you will see the projector and dry erase board which is the front of the class. Right past the board and projector is a round table with five chairs. This is my area to work with students 1 on 1. This can also be an area where students practice flash cards together, play games during free time, and complete missing or late assignments.

In the center of the classroom are the desks, which are all facing forward towards the front of the class. They are in rows of 4 that are 3 deep, which is a total of 12 desks. I decided on rows because I think this will be most beneficial when it comes to completing class work. Groups would only encourage socializing.

From the student’s desks, if you look to your slight right towards the entry way, you will find the television. I have decided to place the television here so it’s in a place where everyone can easily view it. The television will be used to show the morning/afternoon announcements, educational films and videos for enjoyment only on special occasions such as for reward, holidays and parties.

Right past the television is my desk. It’s placed in a space that’s close enough to the students but, not the center of the class because that’s not where a teacher should spend much of class time. When I teach, I will stand in the front of the class as well as move around throughout the room. It’s important not to teach from your desk, this is a great way to lose interest and show that maybe you aren’t as knowledgeable or confident in your teaching.

Something that’s important to students with special needs is having a restroom nearby. Having a handicap accessible restroom in my classroom is not only important to me but, also my students.  Having a restroom within the class is great for many reasons including emergencies, accidents, convenience and it’s a way to cut out distractions and issues with other students. For example, bullying that may take place in a restroom will be cut out. I have placed the restroom on the back wall of the class which is placed right in between the computer area and the reading area.

I have added a computer area which has been placed in the back far corner of the class. I decided to put it there so it’s away from the front of the class. The students have their backs turned to this area so it shouldn’t be much of a problem in causing any distractions.  There is a table with 4 computers located on it with chairs as well. I believe that 4 computers in a classroom such as mine, that isn’t all the big, is plenty. It allows 4 students to be on the computers doing any necessary work or research at any given time.

On the other side, I have placed a reading area. In this area I have added a reading rug, bean bag chair, a regular chair and a plush sofa. Not only is this a comfortable area to relax and read a book, it’s there for a very important reason. It’s important to have soft furniture but, more importantly a bean bag chair because they can be easily moved. Students who have seizures need to be careful with their every move. During a seizure, it’s important to catch the individual so that they don’t bump their head or any other part of their body for that matter. Bean bags are a great piece to have when lowering a student who is having a seizure to the ground. The bean bag is comfortable and whether or not it’s in the reading area or the front of the room, it can easily be moved to that student to help calm and ease the student.

 

C.) Integrations

i.) Choose and justify 5 technologies

There are many different technologies that can be used within a classroom. Technology is a great resource and with the correct knowledge of how it works it can be used to everyones advantage. One technology that I will use within my class to connect myself and my students inside the classroom is the Promethean and smart boards, depending on which is available to me. I think that this is a great way to show information, as well as getting the students up and active. The students can participate by using the boards for practice. Another technology that supports publishing students and teachers work that i could use would be blogs, such as Blogger. Although some of my students will not be at levels where this is a doable activity, some students will be able to participate. This is a great way to see how my students days went, maybe what they enjoyed, what they didn't understand and how i can improve the class. A technology that I will use that connects students and teachers outside the classroom could be facebook. Many people now a days have facebook and it's a great tool to keep in touch. Whether a student was ill and missed class, or just needs refreshed on how to do a homework assignment, facebook can be very resourceful. A technology that I most definitely will use in my future classroom that connects myself and my class with experts around the world is Twitter. Twitter is an awesome way to get ideas about lessons, advice from others and a great way to connect with other teachers in general. Finally, the last technology that I will use in my future classroom that allows collaboration with others to create and share knowledge is GoogleDocs. GoogleDocs is a site that allows one or more people to work on a shared document in different locations, and still be able to work together as if they were in the same room. It's definitely great for group work and I look forward to using this with my students.

3.) Assistive Technology

a.) The special needs of my student Molly include an intellectual disability, as well as the student frequently has seizures which is a huge issue. As you can see she's a very happy girl and she is quite enjoyable to have in class.

c.) Technologies that can be used to support Molly include, the Promethean board, which can be used to show information on a larger screen. It also gives Molly the opportunity to work hands on to get a better understanding of some of her work. Facebook can be used to help Molly with any missed work, and to communicate with her parents/guardian. Molly is fully capable of creating a blog as well, so this is something that can be used so she can communicate with myself and any of her aides about what she needs from us, or if something needs to be changed.

5.) Annotated Bibliography
 

"Chatham County, Georgia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Aug. 2012. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Chatham County Schools - Index." Chatham County Schools - Index. Public School Review, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.chatham.k12.nc.us/>.

"Classroom Ideas and Teaching Tools | X-ACTO." Classroom Ideas and Teaching Tools | X-ACTO. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Don’t Treat Technology as a Natural, Inevitable phenomenon." Exploration and Wonder. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Education." Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Education News." Education News Life Skills Program Launched for Free Nationwide Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Graduation Marks Sweet Victory for Students with Special Needs." Gilroy Dispatch. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Howard Elementary School." GreatSchools. N.p., June-July 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. 

<http://www.greatschools.org/georgia/savannah/329-Howard-Elementary-School/>.

"IT Solutions Blog." Technology in the Classroom Should Include These 7 Learning Tools. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Janelle Warren's Blog." Janelle Warrens Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"A Letter from Tulakes Elementary." Cynthea Liu. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Life Skills ~ Komposition Kids." Life Skills ~ Komposition Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"March 2011 Archives." Coach G's Teaching Tips. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Martin County Schools." Martin County Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Rethinking Education: Sharing School Reform Ideas and Education Reform Insights – an American Education Group Blog." Rethinking Education Sharing School Reform Ideas and Education Reform Insights an American Education Group Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Savannah GA Real Estate Appraisals." N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Setting The Mood." A Speechmommys Thoughts on Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

"Special Needs School Celebrates Largest Graduating Class in School History." Free Press Release Distribution Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2012.

6.) Self Reflection
I believe that this course has definitely helped me develop. I have become a better learner, and learned a lot about being a future teacher. Before this course, technology scared me. This is probably not something you would expect to hear from the average 20 year old, yet it's true. I have a basic cell phone, a normal pc, and just learned this summer, how to use my ipod nano that I've had for 5 years now. I wasn't much of a risk taker because with technology, it's so in depth. It can be so complicated and so confusing and I was intimidated. So, for that reason I'm thrilled that I had the opportunity to take this course and with such a knowledgeable professor at that. I was overwhelmed in the beginning, middle and end. But, I think that's why I'm so happy with the outcome that I'm left with. I'm left with wanting to learn more and become more up to date with my own technology. In the beginning, the blogs were confusing to me and I didn't understand why we had to do them. Now, I look at blogs with enjoyment. I enjoy writing and blogs are a great way to do so. Until I learned how to use blogger, I did the bare minimum with my posts. But, as I became more and more comfortable I began to experiment and risk taking with adding pictures, hyperlinks and videos. From this course I have gained a whole new perspective about technology and I'm eager to learn more, which makes me sad that this class has come to an end. Without Mr. Smith's encouragement and knowledge, I would still be that girl who doesn't know what to do when it came to technology which would have most likely haunted me through my teaching career and not only affected myself, but my students as well. I'm grateful for this opportunity and couldn't be happier with my progress.