I
created a board with Discovery
Education's Board Builder, which is comparable to Glogster. I will utilize the
board to present recycling information to my K-5 students. The reason I chose
recycling, is due to the fact that our school just started a recycling program
last year, without much introduction or reasoning. Recycling is very important,
especially with all the paper our school uses, but I do not feel our students
understand the significance because of their lack of knowledge in the subject.
I can exhibit this board to my students at the beginning of the year to help
them understand why our school should recycle; how it is part of our civic duty.
There
are other ways I can employ Board Builder in my classroom this year, especially
to develop respectful and ethical minds in my students. Gardner talks about a
respectful mind being one that understands and positively regards the
differences in others. Using Board Builder, a teacher can help students achieve
this by presenting information about people from other cultures and societies.
This tool can also be used to explain, give examples, and provide opportunities
for one to understand what it means to be respectful to others. The same can be
true for forming an ethical mind.
Ethics
is a subject that can be hard to teach elementary students. In my example, I
chose a topic that exemplifies the embodiment of being a good citizen of our
community. Board Builder can be used as a model with other subjects such as cheating,
fairness, and acceptance. Videos, images, links, and assessments aid in making
Board Builder a successful way to meet various learning styles as well as offer
the opportunity to understand information in various modalities. Embedding an
assessment or assignment within the Board Builder aids the teacher in gaging
the effectiveness of the tool and comprehension of the learner.
