All Part of the Journey

I am learning to appreciate the double-entry journal more now. I don't think that it is very effective without asking specific questions. Those questions are key. Otherwise, it's almost just like a K-W-L, finding out what they know and what they have just learned from the lesson you taught. I will be excited to read the double-entry journals for the evaluation of my students. I realized Monday, and things did not happen as I'd hoped with my lesson presentation, that I do not like using the Blackboard Collaborate for teaching. I don't see myself wanting to be an online instructor anytime in my future because you have to depend on too much in order for instruction to happen. There's already the inability to view facial expressions because you can't see the students (unless they choose to put up their video) and then you don't know if you have their attention (no eye contact or body language). You hope that microphones and speakers and computers and internet c...

Wow, it's the sixth week already! We focused on hooks and closures today, which is good because you need to get the students attention and get them ready to focu on what the lesson is going to be about, and you need to have a quick time of pulling in all the information in a summary so they're more likely to retain it and then letting them know a transition is coming up. There were some really good ideas.  I have some favorite hooks and closures: Hooks: I had this on Powerpoint (the pangolin was supposed to be inside the burst. LOL) and it had sound and everything, but it just teaches me that I need to make sure that what I create will work on what it will be presented on.  And I was going to use it to introduce the animal, its habitat,  and the fact that its home was being destroyed (deforestation). This gets their attention because so many kids are into Pokemons, and I'm sure most of them don't realize Pokemon are based off of real crea...