Week 6 Reflection: Edudemic
About Edudemic:
A website created in 2010 that is inspired to present teachers with:
Edudemic's mission is to prepare educators for the classroom with innovative, informed, and engaging tech resources. Our vision is to provide a place for readers to discover and engage with information about the newest technology, data trends, and digital tools available to them in order to meet the needs of all students in the communities they serve.
A couple of things I really love about this website is its easy navigating and its innovative design that always keeps viewers interested. The website itself is extremely easy to navigate as everything is organized into sections. There are sections for teacher guides, student guides, and even just regular teaching tips for different categories such as social media, videos, tools, and more to help teachers excel in the classroom. They even have a How To section!
While searching in the How To section, I came across a fantastic read for prospective teachers of any age. Though this website is mainly centered around educational technology, this article is focusing on Setting Classroom Expectations.
A website created in 2010 that is inspired to present teachers with:
- Research and evidence-driven strategies for professional and improvement
- Expert guides and how-tos for the newest education apps
- Important education updates each week
- Compilations of the most useful edtech tools and tips
- Reviews of valuable and innovative products for educators
- Special features such as college reports
Edudemic's mission is to prepare educators for the classroom with innovative, informed, and engaging tech resources. Our vision is to provide a place for readers to discover and engage with information about the newest technology, data trends, and digital tools available to them in order to meet the needs of all students in the communities they serve.
A couple of things I really love about this website is its easy navigating and its innovative design that always keeps viewers interested. The website itself is extremely easy to navigate as everything is organized into sections. There are sections for teacher guides, student guides, and even just regular teaching tips for different categories such as social media, videos, tools, and more to help teachers excel in the classroom. They even have a How To section!
While searching in the How To section, I came across a fantastic read for prospective teachers of any age. Though this website is mainly centered around educational technology, this article is focusing on Setting Classroom Expectations.
Setting Classroom Expectations
Setting classroom expectations means laying down a clear foundation or framework for the class. This is something that should be done by EVERY teacher, regardless of how long they have been teaching and if they use educational technology in the classroom or not. This is especially important to note for novice and prospective teachers not only as a way to establish expectations for the social environment in the classroom but expectations for the online environments for which your students will be interacting in as well. Making sure clear guidelines are in place also allows the teacher to grasp control of what students are doing with their electronic devices as well.
Research has shown that classrooms in which educators have set clear behavior expectations experience nearly 30% fewer disruptions than classrooms in which teachers have not set expectations. But simply announcing the “class rules” isn’t enough to instill or curb specific behaviors. Just like regular school subjects, behavior expectations must be taught. Students are still students and we should always remember that. Students can not retrieve what they do not know so it is important to have clarity and use the same pedagogical teaching skills that have been instilled in you since the moment you decided to become an educator. Instead of creating a poster that lists out behavior rules and expecting the students to look at it and follow it, teachers should start a behavior expectation's discussion that involves the students. Try asking, “what do you think should and shouldn’t be allowed in the classroom, and why?” and then guide the discussion as needed. Students will then feel like they helped create the expectations, allowing them freedom in the classroom yet still enforcing student accountability.
Equally important to student success is learning expectations and parent involvement. When teachers enthusiastically detail what the class entails at the beginning of the year, it opens student up to looking forward to what is to come. Students also have time to prepare for certain material that they have been informed will be rigorous which allows them to be optimistic that they will do well on not only that assignment but all of them, which gives them piece of mind and creates a positive learning environment. Parent involvement is critical as educational research shows that how high education is valued in a home setting is the number one thing correlated to student success in the classroom. Teachers should encourage parents to be involved as much as possible and that is done through communications sent through email or through letters sent home with the students. They even give an example of what a letter home to the parents look like.
Research has shown that classrooms in which educators have set clear behavior expectations experience nearly 30% fewer disruptions than classrooms in which teachers have not set expectations. But simply announcing the “class rules” isn’t enough to instill or curb specific behaviors. Just like regular school subjects, behavior expectations must be taught. Students are still students and we should always remember that. Students can not retrieve what they do not know so it is important to have clarity and use the same pedagogical teaching skills that have been instilled in you since the moment you decided to become an educator. Instead of creating a poster that lists out behavior rules and expecting the students to look at it and follow it, teachers should start a behavior expectation's discussion that involves the students. Try asking, “what do you think should and shouldn’t be allowed in the classroom, and why?” and then guide the discussion as needed. Students will then feel like they helped create the expectations, allowing them freedom in the classroom yet still enforcing student accountability.
Equally important to student success is learning expectations and parent involvement. When teachers enthusiastically detail what the class entails at the beginning of the year, it opens student up to looking forward to what is to come. Students also have time to prepare for certain material that they have been informed will be rigorous which allows them to be optimistic that they will do well on not only that assignment but all of them, which gives them piece of mind and creates a positive learning environment. Parent involvement is critical as educational research shows that how high education is valued in a home setting is the number one thing correlated to student success in the classroom. Teachers should encourage parents to be involved as much as possible and that is done through communications sent through email or through letters sent home with the students. They even give an example of what a letter home to the parents look like.
Overall
Overall, I found this website to be incredibly insightful. Edudemic is a wonderful website just for those little helpful hints about teaching. The layout and interface of the website is simplistic and easy to use and it is incredibly organized, meaning it is quick to get to any page that you wish to get to in any category. It is free and applicable for any teacher at any grade level. The center around educational technology is great because it offers a way to view regular teaching strategies with integrated technology instead of technology with integrated teaching, in other words, the lessons and tips they give you make the technology secondary to the teaching. Teaching principles come first and I enjoyed browsing through this website as it is something quick and even a little fun, so I will for sure be using it as a resource when I am a teacher.