Project #14

Below is my lesson plan #2

Blog Post #10

In the beginning of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture he started with his child hood dreams and in each one of them he presented several thoughts. Three things that really stuck to me was you have something to bring to the table, fundamentals, and dedication. In his lecture he stated how he enhanced the learning for students by allowing them to participate in a NASA competition and if they won they would be able  to know how it feels when there is no gravity. He then talked about how it felt to help others achieve their child hood dreams through learning. He then states how he does a PBL project to learn and fulfill others dreams. As he explains the numerous projects he talks about how the students learned from each other and those in their life. This really showed how whether we now it or not we influence each other and help each other. Towards the end he states to not give up on child hood dreams because it can enhance not only your teaching but help others learn. What can we learn from Pausch about Teaching and Learning? In order to teach we must first be able to learn. Remember to learn something from everyone you encounter so that you can teach someone else that they are able to learn and continue the process we call EDUCATION.

BLOG POST #9

BACK TO THE FUTURE 
 -Carla Young, Danya Croft, and Nathalie McCarty

        In the Back to the Future video, Brian Crosby demonstrates how his 4th grade class can learn through project-based learning even though most of his class speaks English as a second language. Crosby says, "It's hard to be able to imagine what could be if you don't know anything about what is. And if it's hard to imagine, where does your creativity spark from? And if you don't have a lot of imagination and creativity, where do you build passion from?" When we get into our schools to teach, we are going to have students that don't have the same understanding about the world around them as other students might have. We will need to be able to bridge the gap in a way that connects all of the students and engages them in the same quest to learn. In Crosby's class, he informs us that he has a 1 to 1 ratio of laptop computers for his students, several digital cameras, and an interactive whiteboard that allows for interactive learning in the classroom. The students in Crosby’s classroom are learning to do various things that they can incorporate into their class and use throughout their educational journey. He talks of a project where the class released a High-Altitude balloon into the air that had a camera attached that recorded what it was like to rise into the different layers of the earth's atmosphere. During the release of the balloon, the students observes what was happening and immediately went into the classroom to blog about what they observed. Crosby also had them create a Flickr presentation describing what happened to the balloon from the perspective of the balloon. It was called the High Hopes blog which centered on setting goals for themselves, their community, and the world around them. It allowed them the ability to connect with people from all over the world. Another connection Crosby allowed the students to make was to set up a Skype conference with Celeste, a girl suffering from leukemia. She was a classmate of the students, but she was unable to physically sit in class due to her vulnerability to infections. However, Celeste was able to participate in learning with her peers in a way that was safe for her and exciting for her classmates. By using modern resources like blogging, Flickr, and Skype, the students were more easily willing to stay engaged in what they were learning. Attention was better kept when they were given a project to research and blog about rather than taking notes for an entire class period. It also offered the students a sense of self assurance; let them know they were capable of doing the task at hand. Crosby shows that active learning empower students to want to learn and to seek out learning for themselves. We feel that Crosby was exactly right when he said that, "A motivational experience shouldn't be limited to those from schools with high test scores, but should be the birthright for every child." We feel every child should have the opportunity to learn in an environment that allows for them to reach the peaks of their imaginations and possibly beyond. We feel that assigning projects is one of the best ways to challenge the mind and enlighten the senses. By engaging students in a multitude of ways and on a personal level, we are ensuring that our students will see the value in the 'why' and continue to search for the answers throughout the rest of their lives. Also, Crosby incorporates PBL in his classroom to prepare his students for what they have to look forward to once they are out in the “real world.” He strives to inspire his students and constantly pushes them to express their creativity.


 BLENDED LEARNING CYCLE
 -Carla Young, Danya Croft, and Nathalie McCarty


        In The Blended Learning Cycle, Paul Andersen recognizes the power of the question and the power of learning in the science classroom. He explains that Blended Learning consists of the key components of mobile, online, and classroom learning. The Learning Cycle consists of the 5 E's: engage, explore/experiment, explain, expand, and evaluate. Andersen decided to combine the two learning styles to create the Blended Learning Cycle which has 6 parts known as Quivers:

• Question 
• Inquiry
• Video 
• Elaboration 
• Review 
• Summary quiz

       He says that the Learning Cycle starts out with an engaging question; something that the students do not understand in order to strike their curiosity on the subject. It will also bring their attention to the second part of the cycle which is investigation. Having the students investigate and research on their own is a good way for them to not only learn the material, but also retain it and hold their interest. Andersen explains that showing a video on the subject is a good way to introduce the material to the students without just giving the normal lecture. It will allow the teacher to engage with the students and interact with them one on one. Next, the students would be able to expand on the explanation with thoughts of what they have discovered. Finally, an evaluation could be done to gauge their level of understanding of the subject studied. Andersen explains that he sits down with each student to review with them and make sure that they have a good grasp on the material. If he is confident the student knows the material well enough, they will take the Summary Quiz; this is the last part of his cycle. Andersen’s philosophy in the classroom is, "Let's start with a question and figure it out." By allowing the students an active part in the learning process, Andersen is teaching the students how to learn for themselves. He is teaching the students how to go from not knowing to knowing with understanding.

         


 MAKING THINKING VISIBLE
 -Carla young, Danya Croft, and Nathalie McCarty

              In Making Thinking Visible, the 6th grade teacher, Mark Church, tries to teach the students how to convey their thoughts in a written form. He gives his 6th graders an assignment in which they are to watch a video explaining the beginnings of the origin of humans. Then, he has them get into groups and create a caption outlining its meaning which he will display on a bulletin board. After a couple of weeks of study, he will give them an opportunity to come back to the caption and change it based on the changes in their opinion from the beginning of the study to the end. Having the captions displayed, and allowing the students to change them after they have learned more information on the subject, provides a good visual representation of the process they followed to get to their conclusion. It allows the students to not only learn the material comprehensively, but also visually. We think that this is a good way to get students to see the importance of expressing their thoughts in a visible way.

Project #9

Blog Post #8

The Ever-Evolving Teacher
- Danya Croft, Carla Young, and Nathalie McCarty

 We, as teachers, should never stop trying to find new and inventive ways to reach our students. In taking EDM310, we are learning some of those new and inventive ways at pace much more accelerated than any we will experience again. We need to take advantage of the skills that we are being taught and think of how we are going to incorporate them into the classrooms of our future. Let us not forget that we are to strive to become lifelong learners so as to better educate our students. It is extremely important to the students we will teach that we give them the best education possible. Therefore, anytime we come across a helpful website, we should save it. When we are informed of an excellent app that could be helpful in the classroom, we should write it down. When we are in the classroom observing our teachers, we should ask them what they use that is helpful; ask them what the students seem to positively respond to the most. As a habit, the Botticelli group has begun asking the students that we observe what they enjoy most about the class. We want to find out what works and what does not work. Our first few years will be a lot of trial and error until we figure out what works for us. Why not go ahead and get started so that we may cut down on some of those errors? Let us ALWAYS keep in mind why we want to be teachers. It is because of the students and the students alone. Let us make everything we do and learn about them. Let us strive to constantly better ourselves so that we may better our students in the process. There is a blog called The Ever-Evolving Teacher that is an excellent resource for creative ideas that could help you along your journey of improvement.

  SmartMusic   -Nathalie McCarty
    

  Classroom-Aid     -Danya Croft

  Pinterest    -Carla Young

PBL Lesson Plans Project #13

Project #2

My PLN Network 

         Symbaloo is now my best friend! Symbaloo is a site the allows you to collect different websites and data so it is there when ever you need it. Being very new to this website I am still in the learning process but so far I have been able to save every day websites that I frequently visit and get constant updates from them. I think this source would be very useful to teachers in their classrooms. It would not only save time but allow them to have every thing they need available. Symbaloo should be a website that Dr. Strange recommends to new EDM 310 students every semester. It will allow them to have all their information needed for this course. 

Blog Post #7

Learning Tools In the Classroom 
- Nathalie McCarty, Carla Young, and Danya Croft

         A student that is engaged, is a student that is learning. If this is true, what can we do to ensure active engagement with our students? Anthony Capps, a 3rd grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary, offers a few ideas in an interview produced by Dr. John Strange in Project Based Learning Part 1 and Project Based Learning Part 2. Capps discusses the benefits of Project Based Learning and how to incorporate it into ACCRS (Alabama Career and College Ready Standards). Capps explains that project-based learning is a way of teaching that can be used by teachers of all subjects. However, as Dr. Strange points out, it takes a lot of time and planning on behalf of the teacher. He also makes an excellent point that project-based learning should be about more than just showing that the students understand the material, but rather the means with which we teach the material throughout the week. Capps says, "The goal of a good project is one that has an authentic audience so that the kids are rewarded for the work that they do and that they are motivated to do good work, one that has student interest so that you can do something that is relevant to the kids’ lives, one that involves the community, and one that is driven by content." Teachers succeed with project-based learning when they find a subject that is appealing to the students, and incorporate the necessary information that is important for the student to learn. Anthony gives educators a bit of advice, "With project-based learning, you're going to get more than you expect so never limit your students by giving them exactly what you want them to do. Create an opportunity for them to go beyond what you want them to do and they will." He also suggests that we can further engage the students in the learning process by allowing them to critique their own work as well as the work of their peers. Whenever they disagree with the work of one of their peers, Capps has that student write out a defense that backs up the reasoning for why he/she disagrees and what he/she would have done differently. When students are allowed to make choices in project-based learning, the students tend to have more ownership and pride about the work that they do thus making it more personal to them. Doing things like having the students peer edit, teach the students to be more independent in the learning process and gives them the confidence needed to participate effectively. It is better to give the students the chance to figure out the answer instead of just giving it to them.
        In iCurio Anthony 070113,Capps explains that the main feature of iCurio is that it is an educational tool that students can use to safely search filtered websites, images, and videos that are centered around information needed to adhere to the standards set by ACCRS and other states as well. Another great feature of iCurio is that it has a storage area that teachers and students can use to store content that they find valuable; it helps teach virtual organization. This tool can particularly come in handy when a student maybe needs to go back and elaborate more on the day’s lesson, or if they happen to miss a day, they can pull up what they missed and look at it. This will allow the students to avoid getting behind in the class, or for the visual learners, be able to have the information right in front of them. Timelines, is another feature offered by iCurio that allows students the ability to research historical figures and events. The student can simply type, “1960’s, African-American male” in the search engine and Timelines will direct him/her to websites containing information associated with African-American males in the 1960’s. Capps believes that iCurio is a useful tool for all school-aged students.
         Capps states in Discovery Ed Anthony 070113, that Discovery Ed is a useful tool for project-based learning in that students retain more information when a text article is coupled with a visual aid. He says that Discovery Ed is the place to go when teachers want to support their assignments with some sort of illustration or video. Discovery Ed is also useful in that it brings experts into the classroom in the way of video which enriches the research experience and brings the texts to life. Capps proves that Project Based Learning can be a fun, rewarding, and constantly evolving process with which we can teach more effectively.

Additional Thought About Lessons
 - Nathalie McCarty

          Anthony Capps’ Additional Thought About Lessons is that a lesson plan should be narrowed down through a series of steps. It allows you to see the overall fit of the lesson and your content standards together. The main point one learns from this video is to make sure to have a set goal. In order to successfully fulfill that goal, one must evenly distribute those task throughout the weeks and even on a smaller scale to each individual day allowing yourself to have a starting point for the following day. Basically knowing what will allow you to teach every phase of that unit in those state standards and being able to break it down.


The Anthony-Strange List of Tips for Teachers Part 1
- Danya Croft

          In the video The Anthony-Strange List of Tips for Teachers Part 1, Dr. Strange comments that teachers need to be interested in the continuation of learning. As educators, it is important that we show students what it means to be constantly searching for knowledge so that our students can be exposed to and possibly mimic that behavior. Capps suggests that work and play are not mutually exclusive when it comes to being a teacher. In other words, Capps says that educators learn the craft of teaching in their free time so that they may better themselves and become more effective teachers. Another tip that Dr. Strange gives is that teachers must be flexible, creative, and willing to change plans at a moments notice. There will be times when problems will arise and we must be able to make adjustments to continue the forward progress of learning. As Capps says, “You should keep in mind the end goal, but if things don’t go as you plan, figure out what it will take to allow the class to get to that end-goal.” Another important tip that Capps suggests is that we should aim for 100% engagement among the students which is directly in line with No Child Left Behind. He says that it is easy to engage students when you make it about content that they care about, use a process that they enjoy, and give them an audience with which they can share. Reflection is an important aspect for the students to experience because it allows them an opportunity to consider how they could improve or revise their work in order to present it to an intended audience. Capps recommends that teachers should always ask themselves, “What can I do today to ensure I gain full participation from every student?” Another question that teachers should ask themselves is, “What can I do today to ensure that every student is learning?”

 Don’t Teach Tech - Use It 
- Carla Young

        In the video Don't Teach Tech- Use It, Anthony Capps explained the importance of technology in the classroom, and the benefits that comes along with implementing the use of technology into our daily lesson plans. He makes a very good point that it is better to not teach technology to your students, but to use it instead. This idea goes hand in hand with PBL. Allowing a student to figure out something on their own is a much more rewarding lesson for the student. We, as educators and future educators, can stand up in front of a classroom and go over the instructions for creating a blog all day for example. However, the student is more likely to retain the skill and be able to use it again if they learn the skill hands on. This can also be rewarding for the students as well. They will feel very accomplished and proud to have learned a new skill on their own. Capps mentions that it is important to build a “scaffold” with the technology; it is better for the students to learn and use one technology at at time and add another each week or so instead of all of them at once. This allows the student to learn and get comfortable with that particular type of technology and be able to incorporate it into the next one and put them all together. This way, the students are not getting overwhelmed with all of it at once. They are being able to slowly build their knowledge of technology and use them effectively together, and also be able to use them in future lessons.

C4K Summaries for September

This months C4K's have been very motivating. All of my C4K assignments were from students that were either approaching a difficult task or had successfully completed one that was significant to them. One example of this was one male student I responded to who wanted to beat a certain level in a game and was having a hard time. He expressed how at first he was so close but he lost the level and had to start all over again and that it was not until his third try that he succeeded. I responded to him by saying that if he applied this dedication to everything he did in life that the sky was the limit and that any thing is possible. We all can learn from these students and use this dedication in EDM 310 because it is always needed.