When you walk into a well behaved, engaging classroom, you might ask yourself, "What is this teacher's secret?" Over the past 7 years in my teaching experience I have grown so much as an educator. I would not been able to do so if I didn't have my co-workers. We have discussed strategies that have worked and not worked! There are a variety of strategies to use in the classroom. As new teachers you might want to focus on a few and work your way up until you feel comfortable in strengthening all areas!
One of my biggest struggles teaching first grade is getting the students to work in groups. Students can learn a great deal from each but only if they are actually working and not arguing or off task. This is where technology comes in! Technology can play a huge role in group work. By assigning roles as you would in "non-technology" assignments, students will feel important in the group. Technology can eliminate moments of "off topic discussions" by keeping them engaged. Every student can feel successful using technology in the group. Students are able to display their work with talking using a computer. It allows everyone to show what they know.
Another strategy is to allow students to share their own opinions and ideas. This creates a positive learning environment. Allowing students to share their own opinions and ideas is great if you have a perfect class size of 10! These days our class sizes are about 22-26. To allow everyone to share their own opinion would take forever. You could go the "turn to your neighbor" route, but then the teacher and classmates can't really hear everyones opinion. Once again this where technology can help! There are many online chat programs that can be used such as My Big Campus, Blogs, Wiki's, or even Todays Meet. These are all great ways for ALL students to voice their own opinion and to be heard by everyone in the classroom. It allows those students who are shy and normally would be passed up on in the classroom to share great ideas.
Just by incorporating technology in these two areas will make a huge impact on your classroom. Not only will it allow students to feel successful but teachers will be able to pick out those students who need more support in content areas. Technology creates a fun learning environment that students don't even realize they are learning. It gives every student a chance to share their ideas and opinions. This is setting up children for the future of technology they are facing. If you could incorporate technology in your classroom, which area would you choose?
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