Showcase
Welcome to my showcase. Here you will find some of my best work from my master's career. You will find that the work is broken up into three main topics: Learning in the 21st Century, What a Classroom Should Look Like in the 21st Century, and What 21st Century Learners Need to be Successful. Take a look at these projects to learn more about my teaching style and classroom.
Learning in the 21st Century
My Personal Theory of Learning
As an educator my personal theory of learning is always adapting and changing with new experiences and training. Below you will find an example of how my theory of learning has changed over the past few years. It is important to have your own theory of learning because teachers must have a deep understanding of how different students learn and when the best learning takes place. In this essay I discuss my current personal theory of learning
Failure as a Learning Mode
Education seems to have many wicked problems. Wicked problems are tribulations that are not easily solved. Oftentimes they don’t have a correct or even a good answer but rather a suggestion of what makes the situation a little easier or more manageable. I teamed up with a group of three women and investigated the wicked problem of failure as a learning mode. Failure as a learning mode will allow students to attempt to solve problems on their own and when they fail they reflect on their work, make adjustments, and try again. We created a website to describe failure as a learning mode, what the problem is, how stakeholders feel about failure as a learning mode, and a solution.
Network Learning
Learning in the 21st century can look very different from the previous century. Today students have so much technology at their fingertips and can use this to gather information and speak with experts when confronted with a question or problem. Learning in the 21st century means you can gather information from multiple websites and outlets to gain a better understanding. In the link below you will find a YouTube video of me changing the oil on my car. I learned how to do this by reading online forums and other YouTube videos. I decided to share this piece of work because not only did I learn how to do something in a non-traditional way, but now I’ve now taught over 17,000 people how to change their oil!
What a Classroom Should Look Like in the 21st Century
Classroom Redesign
My current school district recently passed a bond that will allow teachers to transform their traditional classrooms into classrooms of the 21st century. They are looking for teacher input on how our classrooms should be designed with new furniture and cabinet space. In this essay I describe just how I want my classroom to look and feel.
Grant Application
When most people picture a classroom they picture neat rows of desks. I believe this look should be replaced with a friendly work environment that has the feel of home. Students are able to complete their best work in an environment that contains the best tools and resources, as well as furniture that makes them feel comfortable. This is an example of a grant application that I wrote in order to change the look and feel of my classroom in order to meet the needs of my 21st century learners.
What 21st Century Learners Need to be Successful
The Importance of Authentic Learning and Creativity
Learning isn’t just about memorizing facts. It’s about learning a skill and being able to apply it to something in the real world. In this essay I describe the importance of authentic learning and why creativity should play an important role in our schools.
Makey Makey Simile and Metaphor Game
This is an example of an English language arts (ELA) lesson I created using a Makey Makey. While this lesson focuses on knowing the difference between similes and metaphors, this lesson could easily be adapted to be cross-curricular. The Makey Makey is a circuit board and the process of setting up the Makey Makey could make a great science lesson that would allow them to learn more about circuits. So while the students are learning the differences between similes and metaphors they are also learning about how circuits work.
Photo Attributions
Technology at school courtesy of Wix.
In the Classroom courtesy of Wix.
Digital Social Media courtesy of Wix.
Classroom Redesign owned by Alyssa Monette (Alyssa Rubrich).
Working With Laptop courtesy of Wix.
Boy Thinking courtesy of:Â https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1428411
Elementary Classroom courtesy of Wix.
Two Friends with a Tablet courtesy of Wix.