Reflecting on Others

 Week Three (2/9/2021):

"Welcome" Slides:

    This week dealt with a lot of reflection! Not just reflecting upon course content, but reflecting on my classmates' work and providing constructive criticism. This week, we gave feedback on two different Google Slides presentations and each other's Bitmoji's. 

    Constructive criticism is extremely important, not just in education, but in your life. Criticism provides you with a new perspective and opens your eyes and minds to new ideas you may have overlooked at first or never considered at all. Coming from a positive nature, constructive criticism helps you grow and realize your full potential. Constructive criticism promotes a growth mindset, which is very important for teachers to have, as you are always looking to grow, mature, and learn as you work alongside your colleagues and for your students. 

    To begin this week, we presented our "Welcome" slides on Google Slides. On our "Welcome" slides, we each created our dream social studies classroom, featuring our Bitmoji. It was very exciting to see how everyone viewed their space and what they plan for the future! For each presentation, we were asked to give each other feedback on the class forum, using three 'likes' and one 'wish.' The 'likes' explain what we enjoyed about their classroom and presentation, as a whole, and the 'wish' is what we hoped could have been different. There were some slides that definitely stuck out to me, including Katie's, Lindsay's, and Katelyn's. 

    I really enjoyed Katie's posters in her classroom. I agreed with a lot of the same reasons as to why she had them up, for example, the people in the posters were influential to her in social justice. I also found it super cool that she added real pictures of herself in her blog. I really enjoyed her enthusiasm she had while presenting. One thing I wish Katie could have done differently is shared more of her blog with us. 

    I also thoroughly enjoyed Lindsay's classroom! I really agreed with Lindsay's social activism posters and definitely agreed with her that they should be presented in a classroom. I also thought it was funny how she presented her Bitmoji as, "never having to do her hair," since it is a computer picture! I also liked how enthusiastic she was in her FlipGrid video. One thing I wish Lindsay could have done differently is shared more details of her blog. 

    Lastly, I liked Katelyn's classroom. I really enjoyed her enthusiasm and eagerness she had while presenting. I found her classroom to be super inviting and seemed very comfortable for students! I loved seeing her dog make an appearance in her FlipGrid. One thing I wish Katelyn could have done differently is explained more about the decorations, and the significance behind them, in her classroom. 

Group Slides:

    After we presented our individual classrooms, we presented our group slides! Our group slides were social studies related and really got us thinking about different topics in social studies. My group's slide was about traveling the world! We are named "The Globetrotters." Katelyn, Caitlin, Makayla, and I each added our own Bitmoji of us running around the world and flying on the plane to different destinations. We picked traveling as our group slide topic and theme because in social studies, you learn about the geography and the history of many different places around the world. Our catchphrase is, "It is never too early to begin exploring the world." We chose this catchphrase because we really value traveling and embracing new cultures. We believe that children should be shown different areas, languages, cultures, and customs!