Play video games in school?

I remember playing one game in elementary school, in fact, after playing it in school I liked it so much I went out and bought for home. I really learned a lot from it too. In Orgeon Trail, I learned how to budget money, and what some of the things one travelling to the west would have had to go through, among other things. I also went out and bought a book about one girl making that journey went through.

I think that video and computer games can be a useful tool in reaching kids, but in reason. The games would definately need to be monitored. As well, the amount of time spent playing the game would need to be set. Perhaps, the game could open up a discussion about a subject in upper grades, and help reinforce what the students are learning in lower grades.

Incorporting something that a student uses outside of home just might spark an interest that he or she might not have had otherwise. Being able to actually play the role as if you are living in a time period, etc. really can bring a subject to life, but it won't feel like work.

Project Based Learning

Based upon the experiences of project based learning that I have had in my EDIT class alone, I know that I definitely want to incorporate this into my classroom. I had fun while learning the technology needed to complete the assignment given. I would love for my students to think learning can be and is fun! Especially since I want to teach kindergarten.

Because I want to teach kindergarten, using project based learning will be a little more difficult, because they are so limited in what they can do. One idea I had was, towards the end of the school year, put the children into three groups. The first group will be given four or five vocabulary words, and have to write a beginning to a story with them. I would help with the writing if need be. The group will then present the beginning to the story, and then the second group would be given four or five other vocabulary words. This group would come up with the middle of the story. After they did this, the last group would write the end of the story with other vocabulary words. Then after this, I would present the entire story from beginning until end. I could also have the students draw pictures that go along with the story and then laminate it all together to look like a book. The students will learn about how a story needs to have a beginning, middle, and ending, as well as incorporate vocabulary into what they write.

For an individual project, I could have the children go home and try to find as many objects in their house that are a certain color, or shape. This way they can see how the things they are learning about in class are all around them.

Mabry's Goal

Mabry has reached its goal in reaching parents. The parents can read the teachers blogs, see their child's progress in school, and see if there is any disciplinary problems. The parents can also pay for school lunches, the yearbook etc.

I feel like reaching the students has not quite been met. The students can see what homework there is in case they had to miss a day of school, but connecting to the teacher is still lacking. Perhaps, if the students could keep a blog of their own, teacher monitored of course, there would be more of a connection. If the students even had the opportunity to comment on something the teacher wrote in their blogs there would be more of a reason for the students to come on to the web site, other than to see the homework, or to see when the fall dance is.

As far as teachers connecting to teachers, I think Mabry has the potential. If this school is set up the way my middle school ran, there were "teams" of teachers that each teacher in the team taught one subject area. If Mabry has this set up, then the teachers can each look at their lesson plans, and see if there is anything that they can incorporate into their own lesson plans. For example, if the Social Studies teacher has scheduled to teach about the Civil War, and the Literacy teacher has a good Civil War story she or he can incorporate, then perhaps the students can be immersed into the subject.