PLN #20

For my twentieth and final PLN I read an article titled "I'm a Slave to My Keyboard" on Cornils'21C blog where it talks mainly about how teachers need to find new and improved ways to teach their students, as well as about how everyone needs to learn how to manage their time in a better way

My Comment:
Dear Cornils,
You make some very interesting points in your blog and I definitely agree with a lot of what you say. It's very interesting that teachers are always trying to get one step ahead which does make sense, if teachers were to teach the same things over and over every year the same way it wouldn't be nearly as effective as using new and creative things would be. As a high school student myself I don't really see what teachers have to go through in order to come up with a creative way to teach their students something. You also talk about managing your time in a well fashioned matter. I think that everyone needs to manage their time in an efficient way as to not spend so much time on one thing that you don't finish another thing.

PLN #19

For my nineteenth PLN I read an article titled "Reflections" that I found on Mrs. Moritz's blog mainly talking about how when she hands back papers or assignments to her students instead of reading the content and comments she gave them to improve on they immediately flipped to their grade and then threw the paper away. She talks about why she thinks students do this and possible ways to improve on it.

My Comment:
Mrs. Moritz I think you made some very interesting points in your blog and I think most of the things you say are probably true. As a high school student myself, I can openly admit that I do indeed flip straight to the grade whenever I get a paper or assignment back. It’s not that I don’t care about the content and the teacher’s comments but to me the grade is much more important than the content. Even though looking at the content and what teachers have to say will most likely improve our writing, for some reason we seem not to care and kind of just assume that we’ll do better next time instead of sitting down, reading the comments and trying to improve our work. I can’t answer why it is most students do that, but a possible way to make them read the content you could offer points back or extra credit to kids if they re-write the paper making the corrections you pointed out for them. I can’t think of any other possible way to make students actually read the comments you give them. Another possibility would be to require students to come in and see you privately to talk about what they did wrong and reward them with ten points or so for doing that.

PLN #18

For my eighteenth PLN I decided to read an article titled "Beginnings..." on Cheryl's blog. I found the article very interesting as Cheryl talked about how she teacher sophomores and having a sophomore sun she sees the stress they go through and decides to cut down on homework, trying to create a balance between school and regular life.

My Comment:

You make some very interesting points in your blog and I think you have some very good ideas on how to improve the productivity of your students and not make their life so stressful, but have them learning at the same time. As a high school student myself I know that it can indeed be a very stress filled life with all of the homework given along with after school activities. I think that it is a fantastic idea to give your students no homework over the weekend, allowing them to refresh and come back on Monday rested and rearing to go and learn. Giving your students no homework over the weekend also allows them to concentrate more in class and will most likely absorb and learn what you’re teaching a lot better. I think that it is also a very good idea to assign your students a certain number of minutes they have to read each night, that way they don’t wait until the last minute to read it and then rush through it and don’t even understand the book.

PLN #18

For my eighteenth PLN I read an article titled "I'm taking a stand!" by LGaffney on her personal blog. Her post mainly talks about how when she assignees reading assignments to her class some of her students struggle on the quizzes even though they read the book.

My Comment:
Some pretty interesting stuff you bring up in your blog. I definitely agree with some of the things you noticed and talked about in your post. First off I want to start by saying that I myself am a high school student and although I do usually read the chapters that we are assigned in class I do still struggle to answer all of the questions on the quiz correctly. There always seems to be that one or two questions that just slip my mind when we are taking the quiz over each chapter, or sometimes I just do not pick something up that the quiz is asking. I think maybe instead of giving quizzes to each individual person maybe give a partner quiz or a group quiz. Or instead of giving a quiz at all teachers could give a group project, that way you can tell if they read the book as well as add some creativity to their work and the students that did in fact read the book won’t be punished or have their grade lowered just because they forgot a question.

For my seventeenth PLN I read an article titled "Retakes" that I found on Roger's personal blog. The article mostly talks about how a teacher is now offering all of his students to make up any of their tests or quizzes that they took in class for partial credit.

My Comment:
Hey Roger I think you definitely make some very interesting comments and suggestions to your students and on how they can improve their test grades. I think it’s a good idea to allow students to re-take their tests and quizzes because then it motivates them to actually come in and figure out what they did wrong instead of just accepting the grade they got and never learning anything from their mistakes. I honestly can’t see why a student wouldn’t want to make up a test that you’re willing to give them credit on especially if they got a bad grade on it. It’s definitely a good idea to allow students to make up tests and quizzes and I’m sure your students are learning more than they would if your didn’t allow them to make them up.

PLN #16

For my sixteenth PLN I read an article called "Quiet Student" that I found on Kristen's blog. The article mainly talked about how and English teacher doesn't really know how to handle students that are quiet during her Socratic seminars. This is what I had to say about it.

My Comment:

I think you make some very interesting points about both sides of the situation, and being a high school student myself I understand what it is like to participate in a Socratic seminar in class. Whenever my teacher’s do decide to hold a Socratic seminar I usually try to participate and contribute to the conversation as much as I can. There are however, as you mentioned always some students that for whatever reason choose not to participate. I don’t think it’s because they’re bad students or don’t have an opinion on the subject. It is more likely that they’re just shy or timid about sharing their opinions. I think what you are doing right now is probably the right thing to do and the easiest way to make sure your students are understanding what you’re talking about in class without having to force them to participate or embarrass them. I would however maybe talk to them privately or before class about why they’re not participating and set a goal for them to maybe talk two or three times in order to break them out of their shyness because in most jobs they’ll eventually have to speak up publicly and speak in front of other people and what better place to practice it but in front of their classmates in high school.

PLN reflection #2

I definitely think I did much better on my second PLN presentation than I did on my first one. I made much better eye contact than before and I was a lot more prepared on what I was going to say. I practiced before giving my presentation and went over what I needed to say in my head.