Blog Post #5

Who is Krissy Venosdale?

Krissy Venosdale has been teaching for 10 years and is currently teaching gifted children. She has been to Space Camp and has loved it every time. She decorates her classroom with a different theme each year. You can even take a tour there. (Who knew?)

She is a teacher that wants to have the coolest and most exciting classroom of all the teachers out there. She wants to be remembered by her students. She wants them to take something away from their time together, too. She wants her classroom to be busy like the world and for her students to be creative. She wants it to be a habit. She wants learning to come from experiences, not just pages in books. She wants a child's gifts and struggles to be recognized and addressed. Krissy Venosdale is exactly the kind of teacher I want to be.

If I Built a School

Like she said, I have no idea how a school would even be started. Maybe one day I'll get the sticky note and can build my own school. Honestly, I think my school would be a lot like hers. It would be so colorful and exciting. It would have a cute WELCOME sign for the students. The principal, secretary, and all the teachers would be friendly. There would still be rules the students would have to follow, but kids wouldn't break them. The library, of course, would have the huge tree house. That is a wonderful idea. I want my school to be a lot like the Children's Hands on Museum in Tuscaloosa and like the McWayne Center in Birmingham. How cool would that be? I don't think the students would ever want to leave. Movie time in an Imax theater? YES PLEASE! I know I would be in Heaven. There would still be homework and tests to make sure the kids were still learning. Technology would be integrated into the curriculum. The lunches would be healthy and yummy at the same time. All students would be included in everything. No one would be left out. There would be classes on learning to tell the truth and trusting people. There would be field trips to all the cool places in the state, maybe some even out of state. I want the students to enjoy learning and being there. There would be NO SAT's or OLSAT's or any of that. No way. I liked her idea of the parking spot and having a student write what the teacher meant to them on it. That's definitely going to happen at my school. I guess I'm going to start buying lottery tickets so I'll have a chance at winning and actually building this school now.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir

If that's not amazing, I don't know what is. That blew my mind. I think that is a great use of the internet. I wish more people would do incredible things like that instead of putting garbage on there. Stuff like this could change everything if more people would be open to the ideas. I love this and I think he should do more of these!

Teaching in the 21st Century

I feel like Kevin Roberts is on the right track. I believe he is correct. I think all teachers should think and teach the way he does. He made some good points about entertaining and engaging. School should be engaging and students should have to put some effort into it. They should constantly be learning. This is going to affect me in the future by making me want to be a better teacher. He has already given me the motivation to be a better teacher than the ones I had growing up. I want students to enjoy my class and take something away from it when they leave. I know technology is going to be a big deal as the years go on. Now I am looking forward to being able to use it in my classroom. It will make for some interesting discussions and some pretty awesome projects made by students.

Flipped Classroom

I like the idea of flipping the classroom. It's a good way to get student's to engage in the material and in learning. I think it was really cool that Katie Gimbar actually Frequently Asked Questions videos for the parents, students, and whoever else had questions. I don't know how well some students would benefit from this if they are the type of learner that is a visual and hands on learner. I understand that they can watch the video and do the problems at home, but personally, I would have a hard time learning like that. I like being in the classroom and having the teacher physically there to teach and help me throughout the class time. I might use it in my classroom. I might not use it 100% and have all the learning material on videos. I will probably use the videos to maybe add some bonus questions on tests or for other things. I like the idea, but I wouldn't want someone to not learn because that's all the teacher does. It does save time, but I'm still old fashioned about teaching in the classroom.