PL3.
The first reading "Active Learning" by Kathleen McKinney and the third reading "Strategies for Engaging Students" by Kathleen McKinney and Farmer-Dougan were very helpful to me in terms of getting ideas for my lesson plans. The approach on how to conduct new ideas through various activities reflected my personal preference on how to get kids involved in learning. The Think-Pair-Share task really appealed to me because it is very simple yet lets students experience individual thinking as well as group collaboration. I included this activity in my own lesson plan. They also discusses multiple intelligences and how to engage all students in a subject. They describe so many different ways to reach out to students to get them involved in what you are teaching. By giving students a choice and finding the best ways to relate to them makes students feel more comfortable with exploring the material. When my high school teachers did these kinds of activities it made me have more respect for them because I knew they really cared about us and not just getting through the material. I also liked the suggestion of redefining an "A" or a "B" all the way to an "F". I think that would help everyone understand what expectations were held for that class.

The second reading "Collaborative Learning" by Tinzmann discusses all aspects of learning through collaboration. Teachers become the mediator and the facilitator instead of just the instructor. The teacher works to involve everyone including the "parents and community members." There are so many aspects from which a teacher can transform a regular classroom to collaborative. Students are responsible for goal setting, designing and monitoring tasks, and assessing their own work as well as their peers. Scaffolding is an important element in the secondary curriculum as students are beginning to conduct themselves instead of being spoon fed information. The main focus of this article is to relate students to what they are learning so that they better understand the subject matter. I think that this article is spot on and should be read by all teachers. I can remember in high school that most of my classes were still very lecture based and while I can learn through this method I was much more interested when I was able to be hands on and master the subject on my own terms. The problem is, not every student knows the best way they learn yet. They should be asked to explore their strengths and weaknesses to discover the best ways that they learn.