Hello! Today I read chapter 10 of my textbook "Transforming Learning with New technologies" by Robert W. Maloy, Sharon A. Edwards, Beverly P. Woolf and Ruth-Ellen Vercock- O' Loughlin.
I have been instructed to take three concepts from my reading, analyse them, define them, then discuss them.
My first key concept in which I would like to discuss is that of multicultural education. As the textbook defines it, multicultural education is "A term used to describe how teachers go about 'affirming' the expansive diversity of student interests, needs and talents present in every school classroom(Nieto & Bode,2011)".
It is important for teachers to account for all factors in which makes every student unique. An example of this may be accommodating for a student's religious beliefs.
The next concept I would like to discuss is differentiated instruction, or DI. DI is a method used to adjust the curriculum in order to fit the needs of diverse students(those with special needs, gifted and talented learners and English language learners). With DI, certain learning experiences are changed, like a student may watch a video instead of a book, or vice versa. As a teacher, it is vital to take all student's learning styles into consideration.
I also would like to talk about the tech tool in this chapter. In this chapter, they talked about interactive whiteboard( also called smart boards). These incredible pieces of technology can revolutionize how teachers differentiate their classroom. These smart boards are tremendously interactive, and engage the whole class in the activity!
So Anthony decided it would be a good idea to not go to sleep because that is not for him.
Anyway, I read chapter 7 in the textbook so these are a few of the key concepts I gathered from this:
Problem Solving!
This was one of the main ideas of the whole chapter, there are many steps involved in problem solving. 1) Understanding the problem.
This is...you guessed it! It is important to appropriately that students identify what exactly is being asked of them. it is also vital to identify what you previously knew that can help you solve the problem.
2) Using Problem Solving Strategies.
Strategies such as breaking the big problem into manageable smaller chunks is a very effective problem solving strategy, especially in math.
3) Checking your results.
This is the final step to solving any problem. One must first check to see if they are right, then resolve the problem if necessary.
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
No, I did not put this in all caps by accident, I just feel this was important. Open source software is any software that is open to the public. As said in the book, you should look into the website of "The Open Source Initiative" to discover more on the topic.
