Educational blog

This past week I learned about the wordle program. This program allows you to generate "word clouds" from words you create. It can be viewed as a brainstorming cloud of words that have the same idea or concept. It is great because you can change the font size and even color! I think it would be great for children because it is a fun activity for them to brainstorm any thoughts that are on their mind.

Field Experience

Still havent recieved my field placement yet  :(

Weekly Readings

From Eschoolnews.com

What can schools do about bullying?

Bullying in schools has always been a reoccuring theme throughout the years. It is a hate crime and preaches bad morals where students are violent and immoral to their peers. Schools must find ways to stop this serious matter because it is hurting children and leading to fatal accidents. Teachers must be tentative to helping students and being mentors for them. The most recent incident occurred in Amherst, N.Y where a student named Jamey Rodemeyer was being bullied which resulted in himself taking his own life away. This is so tragic because something like this should have never happened. He even made facebook status' talking about how he was bullied and how he was going to end his life because he wanted the misery to stop. The Obama administration claims to have made bullying a top priority in preventing. As a future teacher, I know that I will always be there for my students if ever needed. I feel school is there home away from home and I am their guardian at school and am reponsible in many ways.

Weekly Readings

For this weeks educational reading response I looked at UDL, also known as Universal Design for Learning. This can best be defined as a set of principles for developing curriculum and giving all individuals an equal chance to learn. Universal Design for Learning provides all goals, materials, and objectives that would work for everyone. It allows for various methods and creates a flexible approach to teaching everyone. In other words, students with individual needs can be accommodated to, yet learning the same material as others. UDL is crucial to learning because there is a huge gap between excellent learners and learners with needs.There are three main principles to UDL: Providing principle means of representation, providing multiple means of expression and action, and lastly providing multiple means of engagement.

Providing principle means of representation is also referred to as the "what" of learning. Certain learners may have learning disabilities such as dyslexia  and may take longer to grasp information as opposed to others. It is crucial as a future teacher to be aware of these aspects because they must be treated and accommodated.

The second principle, providing multiple means of expression and action is known as the "how" of learning. This strategy of learning allows children to express their knowledge in various ways. For example, if a child has a language barrier and has a difficult time speaking, he/she can express their knowledge in a written text. Providing options for students is important for teachers to recognize. 

Finally, the third principle is providing multiple means of engagement, also known as the "why" or learning. This principle encourages teachers to provide various ways to keep children engaged and active amongst each other, but also independently. By trying different methods of teaching, it keeps kids interested because if they did the same things over and over, they would be bored of doing the same thing and eventually "tune out."

Blog

This is my first blog ever and I find it very stressful and confusing. It is giving me a bad headache but I think it can be a useful technological tool. Right now I only understand the basics of blogging but I hope to master it sometime in the near future. To alleviate my stress from blogging I have posted a funny link below and use it as a stress reliever. Hope everyone enjoys it! :)

Blog #1 About Me

Kevin Kok

I am a fun, happy, caring, and honest person.

I am the son of Simon and Janice Kok

I love being with my family, staying active, and listening to music

I feel grateful for who I’ve become, my health, traveling

I fear death, bugs, and missing out on love

I would like to see world peace, what my future has in store, and the whole world

I live in both Staten Island and Manhattan, New York

I am a camp councelor at a summer youth camp.