Blog Post #11

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning:

This week, we watched a series of videos from a variety of teachers.  Each of these videos provided great insight into the ideas of teaching and learning.

The first video, which was Back to the Future, was fantastic.  I enjoyed how Mr. Chamberlin taught his second language, at risk students through project based learning and technology.  As I watched Mr. Chamberlin's video progress, I actually forgot he was teaching second language learners.  The accomplishments these students made and the excitement they had for learning made you think they were never at risk.  This showed me that engaging students through projects that they find meaningful can truly transform the outlook of a student.  It helps the students have a learning experience that will stay with them as well.

The next video was The Blended Learning Cycle.  Mr. Anderson shared with us his classroom strategy which is using "quivers."  This is a system where he begins with a good driving question, follows with an inquiry, than a video, explanation, review, and finally a summary quiz.  His idea is interesting, but the one thing that really stood out to me was how important a good driving question is.  Mr. Anderson explained that a great driving question is what will hook a student into wanting to investigate more.

Making Thinking Visible, for me, is a video that shows how allowing students to reflect on their learning experience is important.  The students in this video write down a headline on something they have been thinking about.  After two weeks and a final project, they will write a new headline and reflect on how their thinking has changed through the learning process.  Using this process allows students to have a more personal insight to how they are thinking and learning.

Sam Pane's 4th Grade Video was awesome to watch.  Not only was the lesson on being a digital citizen wonderful, but it showed project based learning and how effective it can be in the classroom.  The parts that stood out to me was how Mr. Pane used the comic book feature to allow the issue to become relevant to the student.  He also allowed the students to view each other's work.  The students did express how they enjoyed being able to see other ideas.

In the video Project Based Learning, I saw again how powerful using this strategy of learning can be. Students had the chance to create a project that they were proud of because they could take ownership of what they were working on.  The topics were also allowed to be covered more in depth because of this type of teaching.

The final video was Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program.  One of the biggest ideas that stood out in this video is that students have a chance to truly show that they understand a topic.  They did not just pass a test.  Instead, the students have a chance to share the in-depth knowledge they have learned.  What was also interesting about this video is hearing how they parents feel about their children using project based learning.

Project #14: Project Based Learning Plan Part 2

Calendar

Lesson Plan
Individual Rubric
Teacher Rubric

Project #12 Part A

Project #12 Part A: How to Use a SmartBoard

Blog Post #10

What Can We Learn From Mrs. Cassidy?


In the first video, we were invited into Mrs. Cassidy's first grade class to see what they are doing.  It was amazing to see all of these first graders using technology in such a proficient way to learn.  We can see the students using blogs to write, Skype to be able to talk to other classes and experts, and wikis to help them collaborate ideas to help them learn.  Mrs. Cassidy uses the technology differently depending on the class for the year.  For example, this particular year she had a small class.  This allowed the students time to blog at least once if not twice a week.  In previous years, with larger classes, Mrs. Cassidy used the computers as a station while she worked with other students.  Mrs. Cassidy further explains how useful blogging is for the students in the first part of her interview with Dr. Strange.  She tells of how students are more excited to write on a blog than to just write a paper to a teacher.  This excitement comes from the fact that the students will have an audience for what they have written.

While blogging is a great way to improve the student's writing, it is not the only use of technology in Mrs. Cassidy's classroom.  She also uses a classroom webpage which gives the students a central place to go to find other programs and games that will help them effectively learn.  Mrs. Cassidy also allows the students to use wikis.  The wikis allow others to present their ideas about a topic.  The students can than use the information to learn from.

For my classroom, I think using Mrs. Cassidy's idea of blogging would be really useful.  I agree with her that the benefits from the students writing this way are great.  It will allow my students to take an engaged approach to their writing since they know they will have that worldwide audience watching them. Also like Mrs. Cassidy said, I think the parents will appreciate this approach.  They will be able to view their student's works online.  I think the challenge will be making sure students are respectful of each other.  Talking to them ahead of time on how to appropriately respond to other blogs, much like Mrs. Cassidy discussed, is important.

I would also use a class blog to communicate with students and their parents.  I found the tip Mrs. Cassidy gave in the third part of her interview very useful.  She suggested to an EDM310 student that even PE teachers could beneift from a class blog.  This blog would be a place where students could go to get updated information about class assignments and upcoming events.

C4KSummary for October

For my C4K Post #4, I had Joyce from Mrs. Tharp's class.  Her post was very well written.  She wrote about what would improve her school year and she had some great insight.  She wanted to have e-books added instead of textbooks and she also wanted to have a counselor in the school for the students to talk to.  I used  my comment to tell her that she did a great job writing and I hoped her school would indeed get e-books.

My C4K Post #5, was by Claire. Her post presented her case as to why she thought kids should not loose recess for having bad behavior. This was a really great post. Claire used facts from letsmove.gov and The National Institute of Health. I was impressed that she cited her work and used such great facts.

My C4K Post #6 was by a student named Madison. Madison used her blog to talk about how to babysit. This was a fun post to read. Her ideas on how to babysit showed she knew a great deal about watching babies. My comment to her was how knowledgable she sounded and that I liked her perspective on how to stay positive about babies even though they cry a lot.

C4K Post #7 is the last post for the month, and my child was Faauiga.  Her post was great.  She told of what she did over her New Year's holiday.  It was an interesting read because she spent the day swimming her mother and family at the beach.  For my comment, I made sure to tell her that the beach is something we do not think of doing on our New Year's holiday.

Blog Post #9

What can Teachers and Students Teach us about Project Based Learning?

When it comes to project based learning, students and teachers provide a lot of information.  Through the article, Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning and the video, Project Based Learning for Teachers, the basics of project based learning was covered.  The essentials include having a driving question, allowing students to have a voice, beginning with an "entry event", using 21st technology, grouping students to work on a project, and the chance to receive feedback and edit one's work.

From teachers, we learn how to effectively use project based learning in the classroom.  For example, the articles Project Based Learning and Physical Education and Project Based Learning in PE, we see that this type of learning can be used in any subject in school.  Both of these articles showed an example of high school students creating physical education programs for middle school students.  The teachers spoke of how proud the students were to know that their programs were being used by other students and how it taught the high school students that being active is the way to staying fit.

From students, we see just how engaged they become when using project based learning.  In the video PBL-High School Math we see students who might not find math interesting engaged in their learning.  In this example, students create their own game and than use the outcomes to learn about probability. The students themselves said the projects were fun and made learning the concept much easier.

Overall, it is shown by teachers and students that project based learning can provide effective, meaningful, and engaged learning in the classroom.  While it may be a departure from the traditional classroom lesson, project based learning is reaching a wide range of goals and successes in learning.

Blog Post #8

Mr. Pausch's Last Lecture is truly inspirational.  His attitude toward life and teaching is infectious.  Mr. Pausch makes several comments that contain great advice.  One of these is that "brick walls are not there to keep us out, they are there to show us how much we want it."  I found this to be a great way to look at the obstacles we will face in life and in teaching.  We as teachers will struggle, but as long as we keep looking past the obstacles and not let them stop us we will always be successful.  However, the one thing I took away from watching his lecture was to be passionate in what you are doing as a teacher.  Mr. Pausch shows us that through his passion for teaching he was able to help many, many students accomplish their childhood dreams.  He belived in his students and gave them the chance to be creative and express themselves.  This passion is what I hope to be able to bring to my classroom as well.

Special Assignment

Part A:

The EDM310 Class Blog and Zogby Analytics present interesting findings regarding use of smartphones in this day and age.  In summary, it states that the majority of people own a smartphone and need one that contains a camera.  The majority of people also use the camera at least once a week.  For the students, the phones and cameras are part of their everyday life and have been since birth.  They have seen their parents use them for a multitude of uses, in a wide variety of places and because of this they will expect their own smartphone to be used in the classroom.

As far as the teachers, the implications are different.  Teachers might find the smartphone a distraction for students in the learning enviroment.  Students will use the phones to do everything but pay attention to a lesson.  In some regards, it might also make a teacher seem less of an authority on knowledge because a student now has the power to look up any answer.



Part B:

Even though the smartphone might seen as a distraction, it could also have many uses in the classroom.  The students could use their cameras to make videos of places they have visited that could coincide with a report.  They could aslo use their cameras to take pictures of projects in the works to post to a blog, or they could use them to record speechs to show in a government class.

Project #9

Book Commentary...

C4T#2 Summary

C4T#2 Post 1 Summary:

My second teacher blog is called Speaking of History. The first post I read was called "Creating Videos to Keep in Touch with Students While Away." This was a great post that showed how creating simple videos is a great way to give students directions on assignments and show them interesting information while the teacher is out. The author of the post, Mr. Langhorst, visited Mt. Vernon. His video gave the students a sort of virtual field trip of the site. My comment made reference of this idea. I loved how he gave his students something tangible when discussing history and also gave them a chance to see a historical site with the students never having left the classroom.

In the second post from Mr. Langhorst, he discusses a project called Teach Teardown.  This is a really interesting idea.  He brought pieces of technology, such as cd players that do not work anymore, and had his students break them apart to see what was inside.  He explains that his students were really excited about the project and really created some engaged conversations within the group.  For my comment, I explained that I felt like this was interesting idea and that it gives the students a chance to use and practice their observation skills.

Project #7 Part B

Movie for Parents...

Movie for Students...

Blog Post #7

Summary of Videos:

1.  How to Make an Audio QR Code:  This video Michelle Bennet taught not only how to create a QR code, but it also gave great examples of how to use it.  A QR code is a box of squares that can be scanned by an app and contains a url full of information.  Ms. Bennet presented two websites to create the code.  The first one recordmp3.org, allows you to record your voice and translate it into a url.  Once you have a url, you can copy and paste into the second website which is qrcode-monkey.com.  This site will generate the QR code.  Once you have the code, you can copy and paste it to a word document.  Ms. Bennet gave a great example of how to use the code.  She suggested recording yourself reading a book and giving it to students so they could listen to the reading at any time.

2. iPad in the Reading Center:  Ms. Tuck, a kindergarten teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary School, showed us how the iPad can be effectively used in reading centers.  She showed how a student could set the iPad up to record while they read a passage.  After they recorded the reading, they could play it back and follow along.  This allows the student to see if they made any mistakes during the reading.

3. Poplet as a Center:  In this video, Ms. Tuck showed us the use of the app Poplet.  She used it in the kindergarten classroom as a center.  This app allows you to make a web of any subject.  In Ms. Tuck's case, she had the students make webs out of books they are covering in a given week.  The subject goes in the middle box, and the student can place pictures, video, or text in the boxes surrounding it.  This also gives them a chance to use search engines.

4.  Alabama Virtual Library as a Kindergarten Center:  The Alabama Virtual Library is a free website that gives students a chance to research on their own.  Ms. Tucks used it to have students research a word from a list that was based on different topics.  She showed how the site would read to the students and also provided them with images and video.  To complete this particular center, she had the students draw a picture of their word and write a sentence about it.

5. Mrs. Shirley's 1st Grade Class: How to Use and Build a Board in DE for a Project Based Lesson:  Mrs. Shirley went through the steps of how to use Board Builder in Discovery Education.  This program is a place to put facts, pictures, and videos about subjects that a student has researched. They can do all of their research through Discovery Education and the pictures and videos will load into their board for them.  She gave a student a chance to explain her project board on the moon and how she got for resources.

6. Mrs. Tassin's 2nd Grade Class: Students Sharing Board Builders Part A:  Students in Mrs. Tassin's 2nd grade class showed us how they used Board Builder and a search engine like Safari to find information on a particular research topic.  These particular students did their project on whales.
Mrs. Tassin's 2nd Grade Class: Students Sharing Board Builder Part B:  Mrs. Tassin gave us another example of how students can use Board Builder and search engines to research and present information in a project based learning format.  The students in this example used search engines such as word hippo.com to find new vocabulary words.  They did their project on the no kill animal shelter The Haven and were more than eager to explain how they created the project.

7. Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten:  This video was a fascinating discussion between Dr. Strange, Ms. Bennet of Gulf Shores Elementary, and Mrs. Davis of Daphne Elementary.  They discussed the use of iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in the kindergarten class room.  While it was interesting to learn how the programs can be used, the really surprising information was how apt the students are at using the technology and how excited they become by having the ability to use the technology.

8. We All Become Learners:  The last video continued the conversation with Ms. Bennet, Mrs. Davis, and Dr. Strange. In this conversation, they discussed how everyone is always learning from one another.  The teachers teach the students, but at the same time, the students are teaching the teachers about different aspects of technology.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

When it comes to teaching project based learning and using technology in the classroom, I feel my strengths would be my willingness to try new ideas and the ability to adapt readily.  My weakness is that I am not up to date on what technology is available for me to use.  In the next year and a half, I feel that I will need to spend time finding resources that give examples on how to use technology along with project based learning in the classroom.  I will also need to spend plenty of time practicing the technology to make sure I have a basic understanding on how to use a program. 

Project #13

TT2 Group #2 has decided to do our project based learning lesson on the solar system.  Our students to construct a project on an assigned planet.  Below are the components of are unit.

Lesson Plan

Calendar
Project Rubric
Individual Rubric