My 21st Century Classroom

Welcome
Welcome to my 21st century classroom.  My name is Mitchell Travis Skladanowski.  I am a Secondary Social Studies Student at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.  I wish to go on after Edinboro and attend graduate school.  I hope that I will be able attend either Oregon University or a university in the United Kingdom.  I enjoy sports such as soccer, biking, hiking, rock climbing, and skiing.  I hope that once I am finished with my schooling I will move to Aspen, Colorado where I will be able to both teach and per sue these interests.  When I begin my career as a teacher I hope to make connections with my students, I hope to be able work with them on a one on one basis in order to inspire them to do more.  I hope to prepare them for the ever changing future as best as i can.  In the video below I will go into more detail as to why I want to make these connections and what inspired me to make them.

My Classroom

The school that I wish to teach in is Aspen High School.  Located in beautiful Aspen, Colorado.  This school services 540 students who are taught by 41 teachers.  It is the top ranked school in Colorado and ranked 59th in the United States.(Yes I've set my sights high)  The minorities at the school(mostly Hispanic) make up 14% of the school population.  4% of students are Economically Disadvantaged.  As I said before this school ranks as number one in the state of Colorado so as one could imagine the students are academically gifted.


My ideal classroom pictured next to this sentence has enough room for 20 students although the average students that I will teach is 13.  This allows me to group them together to work on group projects as well as be spred out for individual work.  My classroom will include a smart board(pictured as the red rectangle).  This allows my students to come up infront of the class and work on a fantastic piece of technology.  This will break the student-teacher barrier and will allow more one on one dialogue.  The projector in the room will allow the students to share their work with each other and with me on the big screen.  The t.v. in the room allows for a little old fashioned D.V.D. teaching.  This simple bit of technology is often overlooked by teachers but, with this I will be able to bring real experts in the subjects I am teaching.  The computer in the room allows for the students to publish their work online and in class.  This guarantees that the students work ends up online so I can check it and give them feedback that they can check on their own time.

I love it when kids raise there hands in class

Assistive Technology

This is Alberto.  Alberto has one of the most common special needs in the U.S.  Alberto is from Mexico and is an English Learning Student(E.L.L. for short).  He can speak english but lacks the knowledge of course specific terms ie. science terms or history terms.  On the computer in the room is loaded a special version of Rosetta Stone that teaches Alberto English science and history terms.  This allows him to expand his education in both Spanish and English which allows him to keep up with the fast paced school that he is in.









Self Reflection

In this class I took one major risk, I shared.  Normally in class I sit back and just let the information pass over me.  In this class i took a step out of my comfort zone and actively participated in the class.  I even took it further and shared my personal doubts and fears on my blog.  I learned that participating in class is more fun and it also helps me learn.  I have realized that by sharing my doubts and fears on my blog that people will tend to rally behind you and help you through any challenge you face.  This class has earned the official M. Skladanowski two thumbs up award for pulling me out of my comfort zone and me enjoying it.

Congrats you've earned it!