After thinking about spreadsheets, I realized that I use them more than I originally thought I did. I used them in my previous position at my school as Director of Enrichment and now in my teaching position to create vocabulary, math, or social studies documents, typing results, budgets, etc. The issue at hand is that I"M using them and not teaching them to students as much as I would like to. I feel that spreadsheets and excel are learning tools that many teachers run from...maybe it is because of formulas or creating charts. Who knows, but at my school I know many teachers don't use spreadsheets/excel as a learning tool for the students. Incorporating the use of spreadsheets by students will definitely become a goal of mine in my teaching.
Another thought I wanted to share was about creativity from the text. I feel that I know many "Ms. Groves" that expect students to do things the "right way". I strive to not be one of those teachers, but find the "Ms. Groves" comes out every once and again. Last year I was talking to a colleague at my work and she saw some literature circle worksheets that I was using in my class. She mentioned that she has used the same ones in the past and was in the process of updating them because kids won't give her the results/answers she wanted. Being a first year teacher, I said "Huh" to myself because I felt just fine about what my students replied on the sheets. Fast forward to this year, I was talking with my instructor for our professional development classes at our school, which focuses on classroom strategies for dynamic teachers. The instructor and I were discussing the same literature circle worksheets and I mentioned how a teacher wanted to "update" them because students weren't replying with the teacher intended responses. The instructor mentioned that it is not the sheets...and when I heard that, I had an "A Ha" moment. It goes back what I said before about how I strive to not be like "Ms. Groves". I realized that I fit into this creative teaching philosophy and style.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hi Sandy! I ended up writing about the creativity subject in my blog, too. I think we are pretty similar in our thinking when it comes to creativity, based on our conversation during group work on Wednesday. I'm still trying to come up with some ways to use spreadsheets in my curriculum. You mentioned using spreadsheets for vocabulary... that might be something I'd like to explore for an English classroom.
Post a Comment