Blog Post #11

Dr. Strange assigned six different videos for us to watch, and then asked a very good question. He asked us, "What can we learn about teaching from these teachers?" All these teachers had great advice and great things to say, but all of them had one thing in common, Project Based Learning.

The first video was Back To The Future, done by Brian Crosby at Agnes Risley Elementary school in Sparks, Nevada. In his class, every student in his class had a laptop. Mr. Crosby really took advantage of this tool in his classroom. One thing that I learned from him is that you really need to engage the students in their learning. He did an awesome project where students had a huge balloon. They attached a video camera to it and sent it up into the air. They watched this balloon float up on a computer. After watching what happened to this balloon as it got higher and higher, they wrote a narrative in their blogs. They wrote as if they were the balloon. Mr. Crosby combined a Science lesson with an English lesson.

This project brought something very cool to this classroom. It started a learning network for this class. Other students from around the world saw these students blog and wanted to know about their project, and how it was done. I learned that by getting students to blog about their experiences in the classroom, they are forming a learning network, and getting to connect with other students. I thought this was very neat. His students were so excited to know that other people were seeing their hard work.

The second video was Blended Learning Cycle by Paul Anderson. I learned two very important things from Mr. Anderson. The first thing was the five E's. They are engage, explore, expand, explain, and evaluate. He uses these five E's to get his class excited about what they are learning. The next thing I learned from him is the acronym QUIVERS.
"QU" stands for question, "I" stands for investigate/inquiry, "V" stands for video, "E" stands for elaboration, "R" stands for review, and "S" stands for summary quiz. He uses this acronym in his class on a daily bases. He always starts a lesson out by asking a question. This really gets his class thinking about what his is going to teach about. Then they investigate the subject. He always has a video of himself talking about the subject. This gives him time to get some one on one time with his students. He then elaborates on the subject, reviews with his students to make sure they are really understanding what they were taught. At they end, he gives his students a summary quiz on the subject.

The third video was Making Thinking Visible by Mark Church. In this video the teacher was getting his students to work in small group. They were asked as a group to come up with a headline about they puzzle they were working on. I learned that students need to interpret and connect what they know. At the end of the year they were going to look back on this project and see how their headline has changed and their learning has progressed.

The fourth video was Building Comics by Same Pane. Mr. Pane teaches fourth grade. Mr. Pane was teaching his students about being safe, responsible, and respectful online. He did this by letting they students build a comic using a special program on their laptops. They had to create a narrative and make it about themselves. I learned that by letting the students make their narrative about them, it makes it more meaningful to them. After finishing their comic, the students got to walk around and look at the "gallery", which was all they students different comics.

The fifth video was Project Based Learning by Dean Shareski. I learned a lot from him! He taught me that PBL increases students understanding about the subject being taught. I also learned that when students use technology, they bring to life what they are learning. The last thing I learned was to always ask your students what they can do to make whatever they are working on better?

The sixth video was Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program. This video taught me that PBL teaches students to think for themselves. It also starts students in public speaking early. This is good because it helps them to not be as nervous as the years progress. PBL also gives students that chance to make their own choices and use real world skills. PBL teaches students how to work together and communicate. I also learned that PBL helps to differentiate learning styles and curriculum integration.

photo source: www.edutopia.org

Project #12 Part A

C4K Summary for October

In Chris's Blog, he was writing about how boring school can get sometimes. He stated in his blog that he thought that bringing recess back to school would make it a little less boring. I thought his post was great! I suggested to him that maybe some hands on projects, that would help him get engaged in his learning, might help him be a little less bored in school.

In Elizabeth's Blog, she was talking about her grandfather. She said that she called him Papa Ray. She talked about how she love him so much! She also talked about family tradition. She said that she spends Christmas Eve at his house, and she loves that tradition. I commented that I love tradition too. It makes look forward to the holidays so much more. Like Elizabeth, I spend Christmas Eve at my grandparents house too!

In Austin's Blog, he was talking about Dot Day in his class. He said that his class worked with younger pre-k classes. They helped the younger students work on their colors and shapes. I though this was a neat project. This really helped them use what they have learned to help others learn it. This really engages the students in their learning.

In Lucy's Blog, she was talking about symbols. Her assignment was to think of something that is very important to her and then come up with a symbol to represent it. This is a great hands on assignment. It gives her a chances to share with other classmates what is important to her. This also is a great way to teach a student what a symbol is.

photo source: www.theinspiredclassroom.com

Blog Post #10

I believe that we could take away many new ideas from the interview with Mrs. Cassidy. I learned that using a blog can really help with the students writing capabilities. She said that her students writing only gets better with every blog post. She really encouraged staying up to date with all the technology. We are an ever changing world. Technology is here to stay. I learned that if that you are handicapping your students if you are not up to date with the latest technology. She also talked about how you should always explore new ideas and be open to always learning something new. The interviews with Mrs. Cassidy are listed below.
First Graders in Mrs. Cassidy's Class
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 3

I thought it was very neat that her 1st grade students were blogging once a week. This is definitely something I will do in my class one day. Like Mrs. Cassidy said, by having the students blog, this helps improve their writing skills. This will also get them excited because their work will be on the internet, and they will have an audience. They will get comments on their blog, so this will be even more exciting that someone has something to say about their work.

photo source:www.reynoldskathrynedm310.blogspot.com

Blog Post #9

r Strange proposed to question, "What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning?"

I believe that teachers and students can teach us a lot about project based learning. I believe that project based learning is a great tool to use in a classroom to get the students really engaged in their learning experience. Dr. Strange gave us a few resources to use to research this. Below I will summarize and talk about each one.

The first article is called Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning . This article gives great examples of things you can really use to enforce project based learning in the classroom. Things like what you need to know about project based learning. This article said that "Teachers can powerfully activate students need to know content by launching a project with an entry event that engages interest and initiates questioning". I believe that when teachers do not have an entry event to announce a project, it may seem unimportant or like busywork to the student. To get the students involved and interested in a project you really need to make it seem fun and interesting to them before they get started on the project.

The next source is a video by Tony Vincent. It is called Project Based Learning for Students. This video shares many great things about project based learning. It shows many ways of using it in that classroom and it also explains how it is helpful to students. This video really breaks it down for someone who may not know much about project based learning. Once I have my own class, I will definitely incorporate project based learning into my teaching.

The next article I used was Project Based Learning in P.E.. This is a great example students using project based learning in their high school P.E. class. This teacher really engaged his students in their learning experience. He got his students to create their own physical fitness programs. After creating them, they got to share them with the middle school students. They really got to go beyond the classroom with their project. I really think that this is really impacting the students. They are learning but also sharing it with others.

I also used the video of Two Students Solve the Case of the Watery Ketchup By Designing A New Cap . This video was so inspiring! These two young men used project based learning to create an awesome new product that could possibly be sold in stores. They really did great research. This video is a great example of students teaching others about their research. Students really can teach us a lot about project based learning, I just think that they have to be really interested in what they are researching or working on.

The last video was my favorite one. It was What Motivates Students? I fell in love with this video. It was just a video of students saying what their teacher did to help them get motivated. A lot of great things were said in this video. Things like rewards for doing a great job. This really showed me that a little encouragement from the teacher went a long way with the students. If the teacher is excited about it, chances are the students are going to be excited about it as well.

Photo Source:etec.ctlt.ubc.ca

Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning

This is a special assignment assigned to us by Dr. Strange. He gave us these recent findings from Zogby Analytics:

1. 87% say their smartphone never leaves their side.
2. 80% say the very first thing they do in the morning is reach for their smartphone.
3. 78% say they spend 2 or more hours per day using their smartphone.
4. 68% say they would prefer to use their smartphone instead of their laptop or personal computer for personal use.
5. 91% say that having a camera on their smartphone is important (61% very important)
6. 87% say they use their smartphone camera at least weekly. 59% use their smartphone camera at least every other day.
44% use their smartphone camera for still or motion picture taking every day.

Dr. Strange also gave us this extra information:
Cameras were added to smartphones starting in 2002. The first iPhone also had a camera. It became available in June 2007. Seven years later there are over 1.75 billion smartphones worldwide. (Source: emarketing) This means that 24.1% of the entire world population (7.263 billion as of 3:32 CDT 9/27/2014 - Source: World Population Clock) now has a smartphone. Your students will have lived all their life in a world with smartphones containing cameras.

From all of this information I can pretty much say that people who have smartphones, are probably attached to them. I know that I am guilty of this. People use their smartphones for so many different things. These include phone calls, cameras, email, social media, internet, and some can be used for GPS. From the sounds of it, all smartphone now, have a camera. I know that my smartphone has a camera. I don't own a personal camera, I use my smartphone for all my picture taking.

Technology is used in all aspects of todays world. It is especially used in the schools today. Teachers use technology to present their lesson to the class. This can also be used vice versa. The students can used technology to complete a project and then present it to the class for a grade. It is almost very important that a student might have a smartphone, tablet, or and iPad.

Photo Source: www.batterysource.com

There are many ways technology with cameras can be incorporated in learning tools for kids. These tools can also help cover Alabama College and Career Ready Standards in the classroom. Children could use their iPads, tablets or smartphones to record themselves reading, then watch it when they get done and correct their mistakes. They could also take pictures from their favorite book, and in their own words explain what is going on in the picture. Also, the student could take pictures of different things and this could help them compare and contrast. Using all of these things in the classroom could help bring diversity into the classroom. It helps kids with different ways of learning.

Blog Post #8

I really learned a lot from Randy Pausch's Last Lecture that he gave at Carnegie Mellon. This lecture was on achieving your childhood dreams. His outlook on life was amazing even though he knew he was dying. I thought it was very cool that he didn't want anyone to feel bad for him. He was satisfied with his life. He had completed almost all of his childhood dreams.

Randy Pausch had 6 childhood dreams. They were being in zero-gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, and being a Disney Imagineer. Even though he did not complete every single one of these dreams, he shared that he had learned a lot of life lessons.

I think that there is a lot we can learn from Randy Pausch about teaching and learning. One thing you can definitely learn from Pausch is that you have to be persistent in everything you do. Pausch was very persistent in achieving the things that he wanted to achieve. I also learned that there is always a better way to say something. An example that Pausch used, he said, "Instead of just I don't know, you can say I don't know because I don't have all the information about it." He also said, “The feeling that you have done something to make other people happy is priceless.” This just awesome. I love this. I feel that helping others is something that should always be done. Pausch had so many good things to say, these were just a few that really stood out to me.

Randy Pausch was a great man. He was such an inspiration to me. I took away so many things from his lecture that I will hold onto for a very long time.

Photo Source: www.wisdomportal.com

Video Book Commentary - Project #9

My group (Group 6) was assigned Topic #1 for the Video Book Commentary Project. Here is our video.

Video Book Commentary Group #6

C4T Summary

In Mr. Doug Johnson's first post, he talked about a well-balanced education and the true size of Africa. Two very different subject, I know, but together very interesting. When you think about everything you have ever learned in school, it probably doesn't cross your mind to think if it was all well balanced. Mr. Johnson talked about how many students don't know the true size of Africa, where it's at and things like that. He seemed to think that education is focused on other subjects. After reading this blog post by Mr. Johnson, I began to question my education. Is it well-balanced? How much do I really know about geography?

In Mr. Johnson's second post, he was talking about students not being interested in what they are learning, therefore not caring about their grades. He talked about how giving a child a "prize" for doing good, is not always going to work. They are really going to have to be using a tool that they are interested in to help them learn, in order for their grades to reflect it. I agreed with him. Teachers who are using the newest technology to engage their students are really helping their students to get better grades. They are also helping to make them more successful in today's world.

Project #13 Group 6 TT2

Group #6 did our Project Based Lesson Plan on the Seven Continents. Take a look at the plan we compiled and the rubrics the students will be graded on!

Lesson Plan

Project Rubric

Individual Rubric

Week Plan for Project

Blog Post #7

I think that I may have many strengths and many weaknesses. Of course, this is only what I think, because I have not had a lot of hand on experience. I believe that one of my strengths are that I pick up things pretty quickly. For the most part, I learn fast. I think that one of my weaknesses might be wanting to just do it for the student instead of explaining it and letting them try it for themselves.

The How To Make A QR Code video was new to me. I had never heard of it before. Ms. Bennett's video instructions were very informative and very easy to follow. I think that letting students record their own voices reading, may help them learn better and faster.

The iPad Centers video taught me a lot about helpful ways to teach students how to read well. I thought it was cool how students were videoing themselves reading, and then correcting their mistakes. This is a great way to for students to advance their reading skills.

After watching Poplet As A Center, I immediately loved this teaching tool. Getting students to take pictures and then in their own words, creating a sentence in their own words about the picture really encourages students in their writing creativity and skill.

The AVL As A Kindergarten Center video was about Kindergarten classes using Alabama Virtual Library to search for things that they might be learning about. This is actually on thing that I am familiar with. We used this tool throughout all of Elementary and High school. One thing that I did not know about Alabama Virtual Library is that it would read to the student and to help them understand how to pronounce the words that they may not know.

I also loved Mrs. Shirley's Discovery Education Board. It was very informative. I have heard of Discovery Education before, but the "build a board" part was new to me. I thought it was neat how the students could find the most interesting facts to them about a specific subject and add them to their board. This really gets they student engaged in their learning. This is a great example of project based learning.

In the two videos Mrs. Tassin's 2nd Grade Students Share Board Builder Project Part 1 and Mrs. Tassin's 2nd Grade Students Share Board Builder Project Part 2, students learned how to do research and upload pictures to the board. Both of the projects in these videos were very well done. After watching this video, I have come to the conclusion that 2nd graders are probably more technology savy than I am as a college student.

Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library is being used in Kindergarten, and I think it's great! I mean these kids are only 5 years old and they can do research and create an iMovie book trailor.

The video We All Become Learners has a message that is meant to say that everyone teaches everyone. This means that teaching and learning is a never ending circle.

photo source:www.teach.com

Project #7 Part B

Teacher Movie for Parents



Teacher Movie for Students