Blog Post #11

Brian Crosby is a fourth grade who does not take it easy on his students. He is not just satisfied from high test scores, he makes sure his students are understanding the material. Not only did he teach his students from their text books, the also used charts and had them complete numerous, fun activities. He also had his students blog. He would have them record their experiments and upload them in their blogs. The most important thing I learned from Mr. Crosby was to not rush our student into learning material. It is important to make sure they understand it, and having high test score results does not mean they understand it. He exposes his class to parts of the world like Dr. Strange exposes us when we do our C4K comments. At first I was all confused about why we had to comments, but now I love interacting with these kids, and seeing how our work interacts with what we are learning about.

Paul Anderson teaches AP Biology in Bozeman, Montana. He decided to do a something a little different in his classroom, so he decided to do blended learning. Blended learning is mobile, online, and classroom learning all blended together into one. Mr. Anderson says you need six things: a question to hook students attention, investigate and experience, a video for independent learning, elaboration, meet with students in small groups to review, summary, and a quiz to test them on everything they have learned.

Mark Church's video shows us some techniques he uses in the classroom. He puts his students into groups and gives them questions to talk about within their group. Each group will come up with a headline that represents their topic, and each group will present their headline. To completely finish the project, all of the headlines will be combined together to make a bulletin board. I believe this is a great way to introduce collaborative learning. It will get students familiar together in groups, and have them work as a team instead of individually and one person doing all the work.

Super Digital Citizen

Sam Pane is a fourth grade teacher who shows us the importance of teaching out students to safely use the internet to gather the information they need. The internet is becoming more popular in the schools, and I believe it is every important we as teachers teach our students how to properly use the internet. He also mentions how important it is for students to keep their information private. Pane also had his students use a website to create their own Digital Superhero. It was a fun way to learn in their own imaginative, creative situation what the superhero would do to save the day. I thought this was a cute idea to get the students involved in using technology. In this video, the students looked like they were having a blast, and I hope my students enjoy this activity as much as his did. Mr. Pane also states that it is important to create projects that are about the students because it makes them more meaningful. As teachers, we will be doing countless projects, so this is very important to keep in mind. We want our kids to have fun in our classrooms, but also remember and learn the material.

Project Based Learning

In this video, Dean Shareski teaches us how we can combine different subjects into one Project Based Learning. We learn how three teachers in Canada use Project Based Learning in their classrooms. Teachers integrate subjects like Math and Science or History and English with technology. I learned in this video that research shows integrated learning through projects which allows students to be more involved and provides them opportunities to deeper understand material. The teachers in this video stated it took time for Project Based Learning to be beneficial. I believe giving students time to complete their PBL will give them time to create something on their own, be successful, and proud of their work they have accomplished.

Roosevelt Elementary PBL

This video shows how PBL is really growing in schools and within the classrooms. There are five things PBL means in Roosevelt Elementary: in depth learning, integrated thematic instructions, lessons that are based on “real-world” problems, research driven, and presentations. They use Project Based Learning in groups and individually, which allows students to think for themselves. As students get older, they will not always have someone there holding their hand. This is a good way to get them going motivated and motivating themselves. I also like how they focus on public speaking skills at such a young age. In college, we have to take a public speaking class, and it is intimidating for so many people to stand up in front of a class and give a speech. As the teacher's at Roosevelt Elementary School said "It's not easy. It's a lot of work for teachers." I believe as long as our students are happy, having fun, excited to learn, involved in the class, and comprehending what we are teaching, that is all that matters.