My 21st Century Classroom

Hello and welcome to my 21st century classroom. I am Mr. Cummings and today I will discuss with you my classrooms vision and the vision I lay out for my students learning using multimedia tools and software. I am an 9th through 12th grade history teacher and I love to incorporate video learning and hands on projects for my students to learn from. History is best learned through setting the scene and time for the students, not by power points and lectures. History is what students will realize by the end of my class that is not just something that George Washington did when he crossed the Delaware, but that history is in the present, not just the past; something that the students themselves are creating all the time.

Technology is becoming the new way of the world, and my job as an educator is to stay up to pace with the current technological breakthroughs and designs and apply them to my classes. Students will learn how to stay connected through social networks like Facebook and to create educational groups through these networks to stay connected with me and others. A great source for up and coming history teachers can be found here: http://thwt.org This is a great starting point for history teachers that are timid of technology use and is a great source of information that I apply in my learning objectives in my classroom. The website provides step by step analysis of the choices made in the classroom and how to better prepare my students for new learning objectives.

Now a good starting place for ideas for projects can be found in many places on the web itself. One that I enjoy reading on is http://www.historyteachersattic.com/ Found here are a large amount of topics about projects, ideas, and if they are applicable in a classroom. These projects have given me several ideas and starting points to my in class projects. Today I am going to introduce to you new project in my 11th grade art history class that we have been working on.

This image is a basic mockup of what my room would look like architecturally. The students would be able to visibly see the smartboard from any angle easily, with 2 students assigned to each desk with a computer for every student. I would be located at the top right close to the smartboard and students so I can easily see anyone who is having a problem or needs a question answered. The curvature of the desks allows for a more 'centered' feel on the smartboard and what I am going to show them for that days lesson. If the class size grew to large for this setup then I would simply have more rows of curved desks. Along the walls itself in the classroom would be inspirational posters, historical figures and quotes, and of course, student made work from the art history class itself. I believe this type of room allows for more focus on the objective at hand and allows for me the teacher and easy means to walk around the room to view the students current tasks.

Now, on to the lesson! I got my lesson plan objectives from here. This lesson is coming shortly after some photoshop tutorials that I demonstrated in class in the past weeks. It is going to be finding your favorite painting in history and incorporating yourself in the painting. This project will tell me several things about my students.

1.What are their art interests? Art style preferred?
2.What history period are they interested in? (When the painting was created)
3.How far along are their photoshop talents? What more can I improve on teaching them?

The answer to these questions are made much clearer after this projects completion. It allows me to know their art interests, their historical interests, and their technological prowess; all of the things that are important to me in this art history class.

The evidence of understanding the students show will be within the work itself. I will be able to easily see if they possess an understanding of the art form they are attempting to put themselves in to.

The lesson will be constructed as follows:

1.I will give a brief demonstration and show examples of previous work done in the class and give the students a week to complete the project start to finish.

2.They must use a painting from any time period and describe the paintings style, who painted it, when, and why they believe the artist incorporated what in the painting.
3.The end result will consist of a before picture and an after picture and a one page summary of the questions posed in #2.

To see the project in its fullest please click here to see my thought process. Also, here are some very great links to photoshop tutorial sites that I would relay to my students in class.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/

http://psd.tutsplus.com/

http://www.photoshopstar.com/

http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials/photoshop

I would encourage the students to look online for their own tutorials to advance their learning through their own means as well. Thank you for taking the time to review my 21st century classroom. I would like you to take a few moments of your time to complete this small survey below.




References:

Works Cited

"43 CHAPTER 4 LESSON PLAN & UNIT PLAN FORMS." Http://www.edinboro.edu. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

Cartoon Computer. Digital image. Http://mrsldixon.wikispaces.com. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

Cartoon Table. Digital image. Http://www.how-to-draw-funny-cartoons.com. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

Fischer, Adam S. Prezi. Prezi - The Zooming Presentation Editor. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

Hat. Digital image. Http://rlv.zcache.com. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

Smartboard. Digital image. Http://www.clker.com. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. .

Teacher. Digital image. Http://pphouse.org. Web. 15 Dec. 2011.