Teacher Portfolio-Activity One: Organizing Classes for Active Learning

Question: How do you think teachers can design classes that rely less on lecturing and more on active learning by students?

•   Teachers can design classes that rely less on lecturing an more on active learning by students by first becoming a facilitator in the students’ learning.  Also, the classroom should be design with an Interactive WhiteBoard, a class set of laptops with numerous Wireless Routers stationed through out the school.  This way if all students are on the laptop at the same time, then the Internet connectivity will not be slow.  Teacher lesson now have to also be more engaging.  Teachers should probably invest in Interactive Software as well.  

Question: What teacher methods do you think will foster great student engagement and why?

• The teacher methods that I think will foster great student engagement are incorporating Before, During, and After Lesson Strategies.  This will allow students to know why they are doing the lesson because the teacher has caught their during the Before Lesson Activity.  This could be something like a BellRinger to activate prior knowledge.  During Lesson Strategies should incorporate Explicit Instruction such as the T.W.I.R.L method where students get a chance to Talk, Write, Investigate, Read and  Listen/Learn about the activity that they are doing.  After Lesson Activities should include things such as Exit Slips or Quick Writes to tie up the lesson so you and the students will know what they learned and what they did not learn based on the lesson.

Question: What do you view as strengths and drawbacks of discussions, role-plays and small group work using multimedia technology?

My view as strengths of discussions, role-plays and small group work using multimedia technology is that if all of these activities are done with the use of technology and occur at the same time, then teachers will yield a better result.  In contrast if discussions, role-plays and small group work using multimedia technology are not used at the same time, but individually, then teachers will still get results of student learning; however it will not be at the same rate if they were done collectively with technology.