Wed, April 11

This week we watched a few videos of different students in classrooms doing more hands-on activities.  My favorite video that we had to watch was the Signs of Spring video.  In this video, the students were doing a hands-on activity in which they made observations and researched different signs of spring.  This was a great project for them to learn about season change and gave them a real-life hands-on experience through the way that they conducted all the research.  They did different things like look at different resources in stations with groups in the classroom, as well as got to actually go outside and measure mounds of snow that were melting due to spring time that was approaching.  I am a big advocate for kids doing more independent learning and taking a more hands-on approach.  I really think that kids will learn more through actually physically doing something.  I also think that kids tend to learn more when they are more independent and the teacher acts more as a guide.  I think that this activity with the students studying the signs of spring is a great activity for kids to be more physically involved and independent.  The children seem to have more fun as well, being outside and being able to conduct their own research. 

Wed, April 4th

We read a great article for class today!  It was all about integrating toys into the classroom.  I really enjoyed reading this article.  I never really thought about doing this, but it seems like a great method and incentive for writing!  Children in the article would use their toys as things to identify with and write about.  Also, it was a great incentive because children knew that during writing time they could get their toys out. 

I also really enjoyed reading about gender stereotypes among toys and in the classroom.  I thought it was so interesting that some boys were okay and didn't even think about playing with dolls as something odd, while some boys found it strange and tried to get them to play with something more "masculine".  I left this comment at the end of the article:

"I think that keeping boys' and girls' typical interests in mind is important.  However, there are some who don't follow these stereotypes, and that's okay, and should be supported to deliver the message that boys and girls don't have to play with certain things or act in a certain way."