Exploring Project Tomorrow

This blog post explores the Project Tomorrow website. Click here to view the site. 

     The 2011 Trends Update highlights how online learning is changing the classroom. What surprised me the most was, that since 2007, twice as many middle school students are learning online. I feel this is good because more students are being exposed to learning online. I hope that this growing numbers also reflects that more and more families see the importance of education. What didn’t surprise me was how administrators are concerned with the student-teacher interaction as well as the quality of online education. I would like to use this information by helping my students understand what an online class consist of.

      After viewing the video, "Students Speak Up to President Obama about how to improve their schools," I thought information was well thought out. I found it interesting that one student wanted a national curriculum as well as how many of them wanted real world job skills incorporated into the classroom. It didn’t surprise me that many students do not want to be taught for a test at the end of the year. This information helps me because students are the ones who are posing the improvements. This information helps me reflect on my teaching by incorporating some real world situations into my lesson plans. I could have students create a skit on Spanish greetings or create a video showing what their schedule is like.  

      After looking at the “youthTEACH2Learn resources” I saw that the program is beneficial to both groups of students. In order to club a group at my school site there would have to be a minimum of five students in the group and have an advisor, a teacher. Then students would have to draft up a Constitution and fill out a club application and submit it to the Associated Student Body. Once the club is up running the meetings can take place during school hours, Extended Learning Period (ELP), or after school. The club members must also have someone take the minutes of each meeting. One of the benefits of starting a “Future Teachers” program is that whether students plan on becoming educator it will teach them to collaborate with others and they will learn to become teachers. Students will also gain firsthand knowledge on what a teacher does before, during, and after a lesson.