C4T

C4T for April

The blog I was assigned this month was "Little Voices, Little World". This is pretty much a class blog that Mrs. Jenny sets up for the students. She likes to write a quick statement then shows a video of the student talking about what they saw like one student, Hine, saw a scary big truck. Mrs. Jenny tells us that the school has been under construction and that is why Hine saw the truck. Mrs. Jenny tells us that Hine is coming from a different school and she is learning to write simple sentences and to construct sentences. Through this video Hine shows us her improvement. The next post I saw was Leilani's story about Harold, the giraffe. Mrs. Jenny posted that the students of Class 18 are learning how to write a narrative. Mrs. Jenny post a picture of the toy giraffe that was the inspiration of the narrative and also, a video of Leilani tell her story.By far this was my favorite blog from an educator. Mrs. Jenny keeps it up-to-date and actually displays what the children are doing in the classroom.

C4K

April's C4K

This month both of my comments were assigned from students of the PT England School. First, I would want to say both of the their blogs were great. They created their own backgrounds and really reflects their personality. This school, especially the class, has really dived into the blogging world. Each comment I did was for different weeks, but they focused on the same topic, "Native Trees". Kura showed her viewers what she learned about native trees by making a brochure. Through out the brochure she categorizes the three different trees by their environment, color, and growing conditions. Then with Tihi's post she created a Google presentation which was great to see the same topic, but displayed in different ways. Her post showed different pictures of the trees with a detail description of each. She even did some graphics for the names of the plants and trees. The students of Pt England School are learning great tools for their future in school and as a career tools. I hope they continue with this blog throughout their school experience.

Blog Post #13

Create My Own Assignment

This week the assignment was to create my own assignment, one that I thought should be used in the EDM310 classroom. The assignment I thought should be interesting and worth exploring more is, examples of flipping a classroom. I know we have learned about the experience of a classroom that is flipped earlier in the semester, but to remind others what exactly a classroom being flipped is here is a video: Flipped Classroom. As you can see through the video, flipped classroom is having the students learn through the help of videos at home, and this allows for more individual one on one time with students if need be.

Cell vs. Virus

My assignment was for us, the students of EDM310, to pick a video and an activity for the students to do as if their classroom was flipped. Since I love science, the video I picked is centered around science,Cell VS. Virus. This is a TED-Ed video, which is a great resource to use in general for anything, but for this TED has a hyperlink to click after watching the video that takes you to a website that is centered around cells and viruses. The website is ED-TED's Cell vs. Virus,has interactive tools, such as: a short quiz, more information of cells and virus in a graphic organizer, and so on. By having the tools such as TED-ed with such interesting videos to use for a flipped classroom it will help transition students to go from a traditional classroom to an unconventional classroom.

Blog Post #12

Interview Project

Blog Post #11

In this week's blog post Dr. Strange had our group watch several videos and give our opinion on it collaborating as a group. One of the videos we were assigned to watch was Blended Learning Cycle. He talks about how uses the blended learning cycle which is using online, mobile, and classroom learning all in your classroom and have students engage, explore, explain, expand and evaluate. Mr. Anderson also uses an oiler's disk and puts it on a mirror where it can spin for a while. He uses that to describe his classroom, because the kids are like the disk. You can leave the room and it keeps continuing to spin and the students keep continuing to teach themselves as they collaborate with each other. He also gives up his acronym for his blended learning cycle called QU.I.V.E.R.S. Which stands for Questions, Investigation, Video, Elaboration, Review and Summary quiz. Anderson it all begins with a question, you want your kids to critically think. You want your kids to experiment and collaborate with one another, Mr. Anderson reviews with his students and with the students data he can ask them advance and detail questions making sure the students learned what they needed to know and then he will give them a written quiz on it to grade them on their knowledge of the topic.

In the TedTalk Video Mr. Brian Crosby discussed how he uses technology with his 4th, 5th and 6th grade students. He first mentioned how his students come from families where spanish is predominantly spoken in their homes, therefore, english is their second language. He said that because of the technology used in his class, he had noticed a significant improvement in students learning. His student are provided with individual laptops to use in class, as well as cameras and smartboard are used on a daily bases. The project he discussed was when the students learned about helium and its effects on balloons. The students got to witness a giant helium ballon fly into the sky with a GoPro camera attached to it. The camera gave live footage of the all the layers of the atmosphere the students had been learning about. The students went back into the classroom to share with their blogs what they had witnessed as the balloon sored into the sky while the footage was streaming live. Mrs. Crosby’s favorite tools are skype,wiki webpages, flicker, and web2.0. His students skyped another school in New Zealand to share a hands on science project involving the outcomes of various temperature pressures on a tin can. Mrs. Crosby’s main goal is to promote active learning. He is doing just that!

In the next video Making Thinking Visible. Mark Church has his students watch a video about early human beginnings and had them get into small groups to discuss the puzzles and had them create a headline to interpret the puzzles. Mr. Church then says he will have the students regroup at the end of the unit to collaborate again another headline once they finish their project. They will compare their headlines from before and explain how they think differently and what they've learned. I think this is a great way for kids to critically think.

In this video, Sam Pane a fifth grade teacher in Omaha, Nebraska talks about teaching his class how to be good digital citizens. The term “good digital citizen” simply means knowing how and how not to use the internet appropriately and safely. In Mr. Pane’s class, he has his students separated into four people per table and when he asks them questions he first tells them to talk about it at their table. I think that is a really good idea, and plan on remembering that tactic when I become a teacher, I think it helps them brainstorm together as a group. I think we can learn a number of things from Mr. Pane, but the most important thing he portrays in this video is to make sure your students know their internet safety rules.

In this video, three teachers collaborating together to incorporate project based learning in their classrooms. A history teacher, an English teacher, and an Information Processing teacher has the students use technology as a tool to deliver the content of history and english. They show that PBL is allows the students to be more engaged and have a deeper thought process. One teacher says this has the students taking ownership over their own grades and projects. PBL allows the teachers and students to go above and beyond just the circurrlium.

In this video, it was all about project based learning; what that meant for their school and how they applied that into their classrooms. What PBL means for Roosevelt Elementary is in depth learning, integrated thematic instructions, lessons that are based on “real-world” problems, research driven, and presentations. The school uses PBL within group settings or individual. These projects allows children to think for themselves. This will show that students will actually understand the subject at hand. They, also, focus on building the skill of public speaking at a young age. One teacher said, “The students answer to themselves, which is how the real business world is.” I thought that statement was so true, we should help build the skills of students coming together to solve a problem. This video has parents telling their opinions about the new way of learning and all the comments were positives. PBL for the students of Roosevelt Elementary School has increased their desire to learn.

C4T #3

For the Love of Teaching

I read two post from Diane Dahl, her posts were very informative and well thought-out. Her first post, Engaging Brains, was about neuroplasticity and how this new outlook will help teachers understand their students learning process. She evens says this has a positive effect on the students' perceptions of their own abilities. Learning new strategies of engagement, from understanding neuroplasticity, has increase drive in the classroom. One strategy is "Students' desks are decorated with colorful "brain car" cartoons as reminders that they are in charge of their learning." That awesome strategy is used in a second grade classroom and helps empower the students. Another strategy is "Going Big", which tells the teachers to make the lessons a "big deal". This post continues with two more strategies, which are: "practice, practice, practice" and "room to improve". These two strategies focus on improving their skills and that there is always room to grow the brain plasticity.

The second post, "What does neuroplasticity research suggest about the potential of all students to master the 4Cs?", this post was very interesting, which I had to reread to completely understand it. Neuroplasticity is a big deal, "It contributes to a necessary foundation, a conceptual framework, for teacher education and professional learning." Psychologist found that the brain changes in response to different things,especially with see, hear and do. By this it should change how educators teach in the classroom, we should have more see, hear and do projects that will encourage and have effect on the potential of the student and that project at hand. She then has tips, which she talk about in the first post,"Engaging Brains". I find this very helpful for me, as an educator and just a life-time learner, this encourages to set goals, to strive for improvement, and to apply what is learned in the classroom to real-world experiences.