My 21st Century Classroom

Welcome to my 21st Century Classroom!

The video below is a an essay of what I believe about knowledge and personal education.  While watching, you will learn about how I had come to this theory and why it is important for all people.  This power of knowledge will allow all people to overcome obstacles and learn and grow as human beings.  For further information, you can click here to read my relfection of the making of this video.

 

My Classroom 

Here is a graphic layout of my classroom.  All students have individual desk in the shape of an "L" so all student will be able to see the blackboard/smartboard during lessons and can also see one another duirng group discussions.  This setup also helps me see the students' reactions to the lessons that we go over in class.  During classes I stand at the "Book Stand" while also moving around and creating interaction with the students for them to be more involved.  This classroom set up allows me to hve essay one-on-one interaction with my students and helps them comunicate with one another as well.  They are all able to see one another as I am able to see all of them to establish a productive, transparent, collaborting learning enviroment.

Rituals and Routines

At the start of every day, my students file in and take their seats and get out their books, papers, notebooks, and tablets to get ready for the start of class.  I start each class off with an interactive review of the material we covered last class. The class is split up into two teams which is already established because of the two "L" shaped tables in the class room.  The students can call out answers and help their other students work through the review on the smartboard.  After the short review, I bring the class back together and begin my discussion of the material.  I present them with new information using the smartboard and welcome any comments and questions the students have.  To help them learn the material better, I get them involved by asking how they can see this material within their everyday lives, or if they have experience something similar.  The group discussion ends with a quick review that the students conduct, by talking about the material with one another in a different way than I presented it.

  Instructional Glimpse

The material the my English VIII Honors course covers:
Shakespeare's MacBeth
Sections of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
George Orwell's 1984
Old English epic poems
 -- The Characteristics of an Epic Poem
 -- Gardner's Grendel
Carrol's Alice through the Looking-Glass
Literary Circle -- Choice of four novels
                            Martin's Game of Thrones
                            Harris's Dead Until Dark
                            Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
                            or Collins' The Hunger Games

The material that my English II Honors course covers:
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Path's The Bell Jar
Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
Writing, Editing, & Grammar lessons
Literary Circle -- Choice of four novels
                             Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
                             Hawthrone's The Scarlett Letter
                             Hinton's The Outsiders
                             or Wiesel's Night


While learning this material, my students will also learn how to think critically and interrupt what the author's message is.  During their sophomore year in English II, the students will learn the requirements of writing and editing to help them become better writers.  They will also learn more grammatical structures that will contribute to their learning.  In English VIII, the students will show their mastery of this material by working with the required course readings.  At the end of their year, the students will use their last Literary Circle to interrupt and analyze the author's stylistic tone and message.

My Technology Integration

Smartboard -- My classroom uses the Smartboard for class presentations and lectures/discussions.  Students are encouraged to use this handy tool to become more interact with the material they are learning.  Class reviews and trivia games are used on the Smartboard to help keep the students stimulated and interested in the material so that they are learning more as  they are also having fun.  Click on the link to see how my students are incooperating the Smartboard into our classroom.


Website -- I also have my own website/blog that I use to manage my classroom.  Here students can access the class syllabus and a list of the homework assignments.  They are able to also access my contact information for out-of-school contacting, and can look over the lecture/discussion notes from previous classes to help prepare for exams.  I encourage past students to continue to follow in order to be PLNs for current students and help them give advice and studying tips.


Twitter -- My Twitter account information can also be found on my website/blog for student access.  On my Twitter account, I follow different educational handles and re-tweet different educational tweets that I think my students would find interesting.  I also tweet about the productivity of our classroom and give updates on different information.  No students are ever mentioned on this forum due to privacy policies and respect.


Turnitin.com -- TurnItIn is a handy tool that allows me to check for plagiarism on students' essays and reports.  Students are able to submit their assignments in for grading but can also peer-review other students papers and give construction feedback.  It also helps show the student how much of their paper is plagiarised so they can learn the correct way to go about writing and citing information.

Desire2Learn --  D2L is were the students can access their study guides, grades, and classroom discussion board.  A link to it is also available on my blog.  Here students can discuss the information that was presented in class and help one another understand difficult material, collaborate/discuss their Literature Circles, and provide new and interesting views on the literature that is covered in class.

PLN

My Personal Learning Network is very well built.  I have my colleagues and peers to help build and gain information, along with the support of past teachers that I  have had during my academic career.  I will continue to grow my PLN by using the Internet to collaborate with other learners around the world, while also creating connections with other peers that I will meet along the way.  I encourage my students to use each other as PLNs and to use the technology tools that are at their disposal from the school to start building up their PLNs.

Feedback 

If you have any questions that need immediate attention, please feel free to email me or contact me here.

Annotated Bibliography

Cryan, Corinne. "Unifi Projector Combines with SMART Boards to Create Integrated System | The Wire on SVConline." The Wire. SMART Technologies, 2008 May 15. Web. 01 May 2012. http://blog.svconline.com/briefingroom/2008/05/15/unifi-projector-combines-with-smart-boards-to-create-integrated-system/.

Desire2Learn. "Hello, We Are Desire2Learn." More than an LMS. Desire2Learn Incorporated, 1999. Web. 01 May 2012. http://www.desire2learn.com/.

IParadigms. "The Global Leader in Addressing Plagiarism and Delivering Rich Feedback." Turnitin : Leading Plagiarism Checker, Online Grading and Peer Review. IParadigms. Web. 01 May 2012. http://turnitin.com/.

Schohn, Samantha A. My 21st Century Classroom. Samantha Schohn. Web. 1 May 2012. https://twitter.com/#!/SamanthaSchohn.


Schohn, Samantha A. "SAS-You're Gonna Hear It." SAS-You're Gonna Hear It. Blogger.com, 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 01 May 2012. http://sasyouregonnahearit.blogspot.com/.


Schohn, Samantha A. "Google Forms." Google. Google Inc. Web. 1 May 2012. <google.com>.


Schohn, Samantha A. "Classroom Architect." Classroom Architect. University of Kansas. Web. 01 May 2012. <http://classroom.4teachers.org/>.