Starfall

The technology I chose for my presentation is the website called StarFall. I find the website is excellent at being attention grabbing for the targeted audience. It is a website that makes learning about reading, phonics, and math fun for Pre-K – 1^st grade. With it being fun learning wouldn’t feel like a chore to students. When I see students are given the option for computer time, they will ask if they can use their computer time for StarFall. That right there tells me that it’s something that they are looking forward to doing when they want their computer time to include spending time on this website that provides learning is a great thing to hear. That excitement for learning is what can fuel students to love aspects of learning in the classroom where it can be fun.

http://starfall.com/

 

My thoughts on classroom management

Knowing what you are teaching to your target audience is important, however if you are unable to communicate the information in an effective way the knowledge you wanted to share didn’t effectively transfer over to your intended audience. I find when I am working with most grade levels what I do when I want my intended audience to show me they are listening attentively is that I point out the group of students or student that is showing me the behavior I am looking for and the rest will want to follow since students like it when you point out good behavior. I enjoy it too since I like giving students praise. It keeps the atmosphere of the setting positive since I am doing my best to keep it positive.

The other thing I keep in mind is to keep myself as animated as possible if I am talking for a long amount of time. If I am animated my audience is engaged and they want to listen. Overall staying positive and engaging has helped me out with classroom management.

I feel that kids learn better when they are having fun. It works for adults too. I remember when I had classes that did some pretty fun activities that engaged the students it made retaining the information fun and lead to more than just trying to force myself to memorize information for a test. Rather I was intrigued by what was going on.  I believe that if I remember to take that along with me when I'm taking the role of teacher that the students will have a good time with learning if I'm having fun with teaching them.

My Intro

I picked the name Miss Sam for my blog post because when I sub for the younger grade levels it's something easy for students to say. I love working with the younger grade levels. In my other job I'm a scientist and get to do fun experiments with kids. My other love is teaching kids how to play chess. I find the game is fun to play and love bringing that passion to share with students.