OER

Open educational resources are resources available to anyone online that present learning material.  This material maybe lesson plans, books, quizzes, and others.  For the learner this tool is very useful because it allows the student to get a different approach to what they are learning.  This can greatly improve the information they take in and they are more likely going to be able to store the information in their long term memory.  For the teacher this tool is amazing!  They can literally find their lesson plans, activities, quizzes, syllabi, and anything they could possibly need in order to teach a class. There is also an opportunity for teachers to make comments on other teacher's lesson.  This is very helpful in bettering the material.  I think this tool is great and I am definitely going to be using it within my classroom.  

I have always been the student who second guesses my answers, it makes me nervous, and so I do not volunteer to answer the questions.  Sometimes I would have been right and others I would have been wrong.  The fear of being wrong in front of the whole class is enough for me to sit there silently.  There are always two to three people in one classroom who have the guts to answer questions.  They are the only students to participate in the classroom discussion.  While most of the time these students have the right answer it does not help anyone in the class when they directly answer them. If I had a teacher in my elementary years who made me feel comfortable with answering questions I probably would not have such a difficult time with it.   Something that simple could change a student's whole way of learning.     

            I think children learn best when they are in an environment they feel comfortable in.  It is the teacher’s responsibility to create a classroom with a comfortable environment for the students.  The environment alone can increase or decrease the students' ability to learn. I think this is most important when it comes to questions.  When students are fearful of asking questions or answering questions it limits the students' ability to learn.  In order for a student to gain as much information that they crave and want to understand, they need to feel comfortable with communicating with the teacher and the rest of the class.  I believe that getting down to the child's level is really helpful in gaining participation.  This may mean actually sitting in the small seats made specifically for the students. The teacher should get down and ask the students individual questions along with picking at their brains by prompting them to express their answers or concerns.  Children should not be taught by a teacher standing over them demanding answers.  I think this blocks the child's true ability because they are nervous of disappointing the teacher and not getting their approval.  So rather than demanding answers teachers should guide the students to discover through hands on activities and praise them for participating even if their answer is wrong.      If a student had a idea of what the answer might be and volunteered it can then turn into a learning process for the whole class.  The teacher can ask questions like "how did you get to this point?" and prompt the student to talk through the question.