The 21st Century Teaching Mama

For our class virtual field trip, we went on an adventure to Canada to learn all about the life cycle of an apple and where they grow. In this 360° tour, we learned about how apples are grown, packaged, and everything in between. We also met Canadian apple growers Murray and Joel, who explained the importance of working together to keep the apple orchard thriving and how critical Seasonal Agricultural Workers are to their business (Apple Orchards Video, n.d.). To begin our discussion on apples and how and where they grow, we made predictions as to how we think an apple grows. I first made a list of student responses. I then had the students come up to the board and drag an apple to their prediction. It was interesting because some of the predictions did not match the original responses I received. Once they had their predictions down, we embarked on our virtual field trip to Canada. We later created our graphic organizer on the lifecycle of an apple. We will later complete a craft a...

  Behaviorist Learning Theory, Instructional Strategies, and Technology Tools Behaviorism is a learning concept that has been rooted in the education system for many years. The concept of behaviorism learning was developed by B.F. Skinner and John B. Watson who were strict behaviorist and they sought only to determine how behavior is caused by external forces (A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: B.F. Skinner, n.d). According to Orey, the behaviorist learning theory emphasizes the idea that behaviors are learned and can be  changed or adapted based on the stimuli-response associations made by the learner (Orey, 2010, p. 271).  Behavior is a key classroom element because of its impact on the students and the classroom (WGU, 2020).   Skinner related the behaviorist theory to education by implying that students can be conditioned to meet behaviors by being conditioned to receive a reward through positive reinforcements and will continue the desirable behavior in o...

    In his book From Master Teacher to Master Learner , Richardson states that teachers must be learners  first when understanding technologies today (Richardson, 2015). Throughout my time in this course, I  have gained a greater appreciation for technology and a better understanding of what it takes to  integrate technology into the classroom. The Covid-19 global pandemic has put educators in the world  in a position where we have to rely heavily on technology to teach our students. This course has been  great in providing us with a number of different tools that are instrumental in successfully integrating  technology within the classroom.      Prior to this course, I possessed the ability to utilize different technological tools in the classroom. I  was always reading and researching the newest and best ways to include technology in my lessons.  My eagerness to keep up with the changing technology correlates with the RW...

The 21st century as brought about a number of changes. Education continues to grow and adapt to new ways of thinking. It continues to incorporate new technology and bring new tools that make it easier to learn. One of the best web 2.0 tools that have gained traction over the years is blogging. There is literally a blog for everything on the internet. The amount of teaching blogs that have been developed over the years has skyrocketed. Teachers are eager to share ideas, thoughts, and lesson plans with the world. There are a number of teacher blogs I follow for laughs and ideas. It is very calming to know that there is someone out there who may think like me and share the same ideologies with me. It is easy to think we are alone in how we feel and think but blogging offers a connection to the average reader that makes everything make sense. Blogging requires interaction that engages the reader through questions, thoughts, and other incorporated links (Richardson, 2010). The conversat...