Blog Post #11

According to Brain Crosby in his video Back to the Future, “We need to build schools that honor kids and make this happen for everyone.” Crosby focuses on project-based learning in his classroom, and he never gives up on his students. I teared up whenever he said one of his students had leukemia and could not attend class, because it would make her very sick. Instead of letting this student be home-schooled, Crosby video chatted this little girl every day, and Crosby and his students welcomed her into their classroom and included her in their learning and activities. This warmed my heart whenever I saw this part of the video, because no student should be left out, and everyone should get the same opportunities and education. Brain Crosby really taught me that teaching is more than giving tests and getting great scores. Teaching is about making students love learning.

Paul Anderson, in his video the Blended Learning Cycle, hooks the students by doing something that gets their attention. For example, a really great in depth question. Anderson uses many different ways of teaching in his classroom. Anderson uses technology, quizzes, reviews, textbook reading, and in depth questions. Anderson’s various teaching methods keep students interested in what they are learning. According to Anderson, students have not learned anything unless they are able to explain it to someone else, and I believe this to be true. You can give students a multiple choice test, but sometimes students decide not to study, because they believe that they have a better chance at guessing the right answer. In my opinion, giving a test that makes the students study and really think about the subject is the most effective way to test their knowledge. I recently took a midterm exam in my American Literature class here at the University of South Alabama, and it was by far the hardest test I have ever taken in my life. The test was 25 multiple choice questions, and two essay questions. One of the essay questions was worth 10 points, but the other essay question was worth 70 points! I admit, I freaked out a bit whenever my teacher explained the point value on this test, but it made me study harder. And guess what? After I wrote a 10 page essay for the test, my final posted score was a 99! I may not have enjoyed the hand cramps, but I am telling you, challenging questions on a test is the right way to go. Challenge your students every day, because without the challenge I fear they will never reach their full potential.

Sam Pane’s Building Comics project was amazing!! Even I, at 20 years old, would love to do this project! Pane’s project taught so many skills to the students and the students had so much fun creating their comics! Pane taught the students how to:

1. Write narratives to develop imagined experiences or events

2. Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to text

3. Ask and answer questions

4. Be safe and responsible online

Pane taught so many lessons from one fun project and he is a great teacher for being able to do this!

Project Based Learning by Dean Shareski sheds some light on this new way of teaching. Project based learning increases student engagement and provides an opportunity for deeper understanding. Students use technology to bring all of the content in the projects to life. Students become proud of their work because of project based learning and that is an amazing achievement.

In the Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program video, project based learning consists of a few things:

1. In depth learning

2. Integrated thematic instruction

3. Based on a “real-world” problem

4. Research-based

5. Project and presentation

Along with these things, teachers have to find a new way to teach. It is harder now for teachers to integrate the curriculum into the projects, but once the connection is made it has a wonderful outcome. The teachers at Roosevelt focus on public speaking at a young age so that there is less fear later on in life when students speak in front of a crowd. Students learn in so many different ways and project based learning allows teachers to create different activities that will help each individual student learn.

Blog Post #10

Mrs. Cassidy's approach to the use of technology in her classroom is wonderful! Mrs. Cassidy's first grade students write in their blogs once a week, and she believes that this helps them become better writers. Using blogging in a physical education classroom is also useful, according to Mrs. Cassidy. Blogging in physical education is not focusing on improving student's writing, but it is a great tool for teachers to post their lessons on. Teachers can post their lessons to inform students early about what to expect in class. This is a great tool for all teachers!

Mrs. Cassidy's first grade students play on Nintendo DS gaming systems. I think this is a really neat tool, because children learn so much from videogames. I know when I was little, I used to play Brain Age on my Nintendo DS and it helped me tremendously! Brain Age is a mathematics game. It has many math questions including: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Brain Age also includes a Sudoku section within the game. This is a great section for critical thinking and also utilizes addition and subtraction. This game lets students practice problems multiple times and analyzes their "brain age"; it also shows students their progress throughout the game. I would absolutely love to use this game in my classroom, because I believe students will love it, it will exercise their brains, and they will learn more.

During student blogging time, Mrs. Cassidy sometimes takes her students to the computer lab. I believe that getting the students out of the classroom and into another environment will make them more excited to learn. I think taking students outside every once and a while and teaching a lesson can really make students happy. Sure, outside could distract them but so can something in a classroom. Students need spontaneity in their lives and I believe this will engage students so much more than strict classroom procedures. Mrs. Cassidy knows what needs to be done to engage students and spark their creativity. I will absolutely use some of Mrs. Cassidy's ideas in my classroom.
This was my favorite video by Mrs. Cassidy:

Comments4Kids Summary for Month of March

Andre

 

 

I commented on Andre's Blog in the Moments That Matter Class Blog with Mrs. Maslowski. Andre blogged about Friday the 13th and some superstitions that are associated with this day. Andre has been the first person to ever inform me about these superstitions, so I made sure to tell him thank you for being a great teacher today! Andre did use some sources in his blog post, but left out the necessary quotation marks. I made sure to tell Andre to insert those quotation marks, but also informed him why it is important to use them each time so that he can give credit to the sources. Andre seems like a very well-educated student, and I look forward to reading more of his blog posts!

Harsh

 

 

I had the opportunity to comment on a student's blog, Harsh, on the class blog called Moments that Matter with Mrs. Maslowski. Harsh wrote about a test called the PLAN that all the students had to take at school. At first, Harsh said that guessing on all the answers was the best way to go until Harsh found out the significance of the test. The test is supposed to show Harsh's ranking in class and in the school as a whole. Harsh said that the only reason anyone does well on tests is because they get a good nights sleep and eat breakfast in the morning. I thought it was great that Harsh gave examples on how to prepare for a test. I told Harsh in my comment that I loved how much caring was shown throughout the blog post. But, I had to inform Harsh that the blog post did have some grammar mistakes and that they were simple fixes. Harsh seems like a very intelligent student!

Nathan S.

 

 

Reading Nathan's Blog really made my day! Nathan is so intelligent and he is only in seventh grade! He sounded so sophisticated, and I really thought that he had to be in high school. Once I found out that he wasn't, I was shocked but in a good way. Nathan talked about a book he read titled Theodore Boone Kid Lawyer by John Grisham. He explained a little bit about the novel, but Nathan never gave away the story. Nathan compelled me and made me want to read the book! Nathan is very good with his words. Once I read that it was a mystery novel, I was very excited. Mystery novels are my favorite type of books! I told Nathan to keep up the good work and that he truly impressed me!

Blog Post #9

What can teachers and students teach us about project based learning?

 

According to the article, Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning, I was taught what the essentials are for a good project. Projects should make students personally want to complete the task and should also fulfill an educational purpose. Elements of a good project:

1. A Need to Know

Start the day off with an “entry event” or anything that will get the students thinking about the topic. Many students wonder why they have to learn certain things in school. Do not let them wonder; show them why it is important.

2. A Driving Question

Gives students a sense of purpose and challenge. A driving question could be what you want students to learn from the project.

3. Student Voice and Choice

Give students freedom on their project, but make sure there are some guidelines. You want the project to reflect its educational purpose.

4. 21^st Century Skills

The project should let students work on their 21^st century skills such as: collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and technology.

5. Inquiry and Innovation

Student should want to learn more about the topic of their project. Do not give students specifics resources where they will have to “burp-back” information. Give the students their topics and give them the freedom to explore. You might be surprised with what they find.

6. Feedback and Revision

Rubrics are a great tool for feedback. Teachers and students can both use this tool. Create a rubric for individual students but also, create a rubric for students to critique their peers.

7. A Publicly Presented Project

If students know that they will be presenting their project to an audience, then they will work harder on the quality of their work.

In Tony Vincent’s YouTube video, Project Based Learning for Teachers, the importance of PBL is shown through Common Core Standards.

·         Rigorous content aligned with college and work expectations

·         Clear and understandable application of knowledge

·         Evidence-based

·         Inquiry-based

·         Open-ended questions

·         Problem solving

·         Personalized

The bulleted Common Core Standards can be reflected in PBL. While meeting Common Core Standards, students also learn…

·         Collaboration

·         Communication

·         Critical Thinking

·         Career and Life Skills

Students take charge of their learning with PBL by using their creativity and having freedom to make a high-quality product to present.

Project-Based Learning seems to have been a hard transition for these teachers in High School Teachers Meet the Challenges of PBL Implementation. The teachers were not sure of what PBL learning consisted of and so they decided that it would be best to just do a trial and error and see what worked best for each subject. Most math and English teachers found that it was hard to use PBL on every topic of discussion, so they made sure to put PBL into the subjects where it would fit best. The teachers at Sammamish High School did not want to lose content because of PBL and so, they have regular meetings to discuss PBL. I learned that PBL is not a good tool to use with every topic, because important content can be lost. But, when PBL is used with the right topic, it can better engage students in their learning.

I love the video titled, Students Solve Old Problem With New Ketchup Cap. I have always disliked how water squirts out of the bottle first and ruins the bun or splashes onto other food. I did not know that someone had actually solved the problem. And to think that it was two high school seniors. We, as teachers, need to give students freedom to explore their creative minds; show the students how much they can influence the world just by simply thinking!
 

In the video, What Motivates Students, students talk about what motivates them in school. Students love to be complimented and told that they are doing a great job, students want to have a great future, students want to have a great career, students want to be able to continue with their talents such as baseball, charts that show progression, candy, working outside the classroom, interesting class material, food, new school supplies, class pets, stickers, dancing, and any type of reward. Students like to be shown what a wonderful job they are doing and I know that this will be my ultimate goal as a new teacher!

Project #9

Comments4Teachers Summary

Jenny Luca

 

On Jenny Luca's blog, she posted a video titled The Time You Have (In Jellybeans). Jenny Luca watched this video for the first time in a school assembly. The student leaders asked the girls in the audience how they were spending their time that was left. Jenny Luca stated, "I think it made an impact on all of us sitting there watching it. Thinking about how much time you spend doing things that seem inconsequential when you look at life as a collection of jelly beans makes you take stock." She also goes on and says, "Have a good weekend. Make the most of these two days." Jenny Luca posts something on her blog just about every Friday and tells her readers to have a good weekend. I think that is a wonderful thing that she is doing! The video that Jenny Luca shared really makes us step back and take a look at how we are spending our time. It really made me believe that we actually do not have as much time on the Earth as we think we do, and that we need to make our lives greater. I think Jenny Luca's post was great motivation for her readers!

 

Jenny Luca's Blog: Lucacept-Intercepting the Web




 

I read Jenny Luca's blog post titled Technostress and she posted a video that she used to start up a discussion in her classroom.

 



This video sparked a discussion about sexualization of young girls and entrepreneurship as well. Luca says that this video had nothing to do with the lessons that they were learning in class, but that she believes in using anything that will get the brain juices flowing in the morning, which I think is great! The rest of her post simply stated all the technology that she used in her classroom that day. At the end though, Luca says that she believes that even though teachers are somewhat scared to introduce technology into their classroom, she also believes that teachers who do use technology would be even more scared to have it removed. I left a comment on her blog post saying how the video she posted had me in shock, because I had never been able to imagine the Bratz dolls in any other form than their original. It is amazing how someone can be so creative and simply turn a doll into something that speaks to the world in a positive way! Also, I love the way she uses to videos in the morning to get the students ready for the day.

Jenny Luca's Blog: Lucacept-Intercepting the Web

Blog Post #8

After watching the video Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, I believe I have obtained some new knowledge on how to teach and how to become a better learner. Randy Pausch spoke about indirect learning, which I believe is a wonderful way to teach. Pausch chose the topic of football in order to teach about indirect learning. "Indirect learning is a lesson that you learn within a task that you perform such as teamwork, sportsmanship, perseverance, etc.", said Pausch. What I found intriguing is that Pausch allowed the audience to believe that his lecture was about achieving childhood dreams and goals, but at the end of his lecture he asked, "Did you figure out the head fake?" Pausch states that the lecture was not about achieving your dreams, but it was about how to lead your life. Pausch used his own lesson of indirect learning to teach the audience more than what they thought they would be learning about. I believe indirect learning and fun within lessons is a great way to achieve amazing results from students.

 

Pausch said, "We learn from our students." He is absolutely correct. I believe that assessing your students is a great way to learn how much they have learned from you, the teacher. But, it also allows you to learn from them. "Brick walls are there for a reason: to let us prove how badly we want things and to give us a chance.", said Pausch. "Give people more time and they will almost always impress you.", said Pausch's undergraduate advisor Andy van Dam. Let students show you what they know first. Why start teaching when you have no idea how much knowledge your students have? Let students be creative and the might just do something beyond your imagination. I fully believe that we should let our students thrive in as many ways as possible. Students should also continuously improve. Pausch says, "After someone stops trying to help you improve or tell you are doing wrong, then you will know that they have given up on you." No one should ever be given up on; everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves capable of the task or lesson to be learned. Randy Pausch taught me so much from his video lecture and made me think about what I am going to do once I graduate and step inside my very own classroom to teach.

Project #7 Part B

To Parents...

 

 

To Students...