Unit 5 Personal Learning Community Google Alert Week 2

Once again I had a hard time getting any hits throughout the week from Google Alerts. I keep editing my alert to try and make sure that I can get a few more. Many of the alerts I received this week were ads. The one alert that I received that I found of interests is called "Learning Methods-Thinking Styles-Teaching Methods" http://www.basicknowledge101.com/subjects/learningstyles.html

This site discusses the optimal learning state for anyone to learn. Many times we, as educators, have been told about different learning styles, to try and reach out to as many different learning styles that we can, and to differentiate instruction. By using a personal learning environment reaching the different learning styles and levels of each child becomes more manageable.

Positive education: The one discussion on this page was about positive education. This was a term I did not hear before. This approach to schooling help to emphasize strengths of a child. Teachers create individual learning goals rather than trying to push children through in order to pass a standardized test. In my opinion, education is headed down a path that is making it harder to teach authentic skills that children need because of the strong push on standardized tests and funding that is attached to them.

This site gives hundreds of definitions and examples of educational terms that may be helpful for educators at any level. It is a site that I have bookmarked to use as a reference for my graduate work and my professional career.

Unit 4 Blog Post 1

ESL Alert

Throughout the week I was shocked to find that I did not receive any alerts for my google alert on creating personal learning experiences. I added another alert later in the week on ESL lesson planning. I did receive one alert for this search. The page that I read was on a blog by busy teachers.
http://busyteacher.org/16873-effective-lesson-planning-101-6-easy-steps.html
I was very impressed by the 6 easy steps that were listed for lesson planning, and I think that they are not only for ESL lesson planning, but it is good advice for all lesson plans. The author states to use 6 simple, short steps for lesson planning. The first step is an attention grabber. To help ESL students she suggests that the attention grabber has a visual component to it. The next part of the lesson plan should be to activate prior knowledge, then a short explanation part of a lesson plan should be conducted. Following that students should have a controlled practice, and then more practice with a little more freedom. To sum up a lesson plan a review and closure should happen. I think that this format is a great general plan for any lesson.