5th Gear

   I have been always been an advocate for changing the way that students are learning in the classroom. This article basically backs up everything that I preached as a high schooler.   As a high school student, I was tired of the traditional opening up a textbook and reading a chapter then answering the questions at the end. Constantly reading out of textbooks will lead to students constantly falling asleep in class. Despite the study showing that there were no differences in the resources used in the classroom, I still believe that podcasts are more effective. My high school had a podcast called “Channel 1 News” that would air every Monday during first 15 minutes of 2 nd period (don’t ask why I still remember all this). It may not have seemed like much, but I guarantee you students actually looked forward to it. Students are easily intrigued with technology no matter how simple it may be. You could tell the difference in the classroom once Channel ...

    This piece is called  Crap Game by Andree Ruellan. Ruellan painted this picture in 1936 and it is currently housed at the Georgia Museum of Art. This piece could be used in different contents, but I would definitely use it in a social studies class. When I first took a look at this picture I could pinpoint many things that stood out to me. There are many routes I would go in class about this picture. The first thing that I would do is have the students make predictions about where does the picture look like its taking place at. It may sound basic, but it gets students creative juices going because there are many different places the picture can be based in. Outside of the location I would also have the students make predictions about what time period did it look like it could have taken place during. The time period wasn’t given so therefore most students would look at the type of clothing that the guys in the paintings have on to make a guess. To get more complex...

   Through all of the decades of education many resources have been used to try to make learning more fun. Teaching aids dating back to School House Rock to Kahoot have been implemented in many lesson plans to give students a break from the traditional school work. New resources are being invented every day to make teaching easier. I came across a website called the “Problem Site.” The Problem Site  is loaded with great games for students. Some of the games are traditional “hang-man” style games, some of the games are traditional games with a twist , and some of the games are completely new to me. Each game is designed to help students develop problem solving skills. The games are categorized as word games, math games, or strategy games. Similar to many other resources The Problem Site ranges from kindergarten to high school. Teachers can definitely add this to their repertoire when students get tired of Kahoot. -WC:156