Cooperative Learning
Being a teacher of younger grades, I am immersed in an environment that makes way for many cooperative learning experiences. My students' assigned seats are in groups, and I facilitate an additional 3-4 cooperative learning activities everyday. These activities are primarily hands-on. Since beginning the Masters Program, I have taken this opportunity to challenge myself to give my students more opportunities for cooperative learning using technology. Some ideas I've come up with include email, blogs, and online survey and checklist tools. In addition, I would like to work with the district's IT department to allow use of a class wiki.
Reinforcing Effort
This strategy is also very at home in a first grade classroom. I believe in trying your best at all costs, and I impress that upon my students. This year, the district subscribed to Discovery Education. This site includes an online assessment component that has a fun extra feature for the students. As teachers create their assessment probes, we have the option to include a game feature. The way it works is that for every question, or couple of questions, that the students complete, a game will pop up as a reward for answering. Another way I have come to reinforce effort through technology is to use an online checklist to keep track of weekly assignments. My students are able to monitor their own progress and are held accountable to the amount of effort they show with completing assigned tasks.
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