Interview with Sara Martin, a math teacher at Davidson High School in Mobile, Alabama
Sunday, November 9, 2014
C4T #3 - Will Richardson
My third C4T is on the blog of Will Richardson.He is an educator, an author, and a speaker. He says in his bio that he is trying to answer the question, "What happens to schools and classrooms and learning in a 2.0 world?" The first post that I read is titled We Need Discoverers. In this post, Mr. Richardson takes an excerpt from David Edwards' American Schools are Training Kids for a World That Doesn't Exist. This is a fascinating article about how the world around us is changing, and we need to discover new ways to survive in it. Edwards says that there is a disconnect between learning and doing in our culture. You go to school and learn how to be a doctor, lawyer, chef, engineer, etc. and then once you graduate, you get to do it. This disconnect is simply not functional within our society. So how do we teach our students to become discoverers? I believe that one of the best ways to do this is through PBL. In PBL, students are given a problem and challenged to discover the solution. These are the types of professionals that we need. We cannot move forward in the areas of technology, medicine, agriculture, etc without people who are willing to discover new and better solutions. The article written by David Edwards would make an excellent prompt for future blog posts in EDM 310.
Mr. Richardson's next blog post was another excerpt, this time from Gary Stager. Stager predicts that the amount of time students spend in school will decrease, potentially to nothing. I'm not sure if I agree with Stager, but there certainly has to be some sort of shift. The comment section of this post is where the conversation really gets started. One reader suggested that as long as parents need glorified babysitting while they're at work, schools will continue to monopolize our children's time. Another pointed out that government assisted families will continue to send their children to school for free food and access to technology. That comment seems a bit far fetched. I pointed out that the incidence of children who are home schooled has steadily increased over the past decade. I believe a shift like this is most likely to pull students out of the traditional school setting. However, I tend to agree most with Mr. Richardson's comment that schools will still exist, but what the children are doing in the schools will change.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Blog Post #11 - What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From These Teachers?
Back to the Future
Brian Crosby is doing incredible things with his classes. I was completely shocked to hear that the majority of his fourth grade students didn't know what city they lived in. That could be incredibly discouraging for a teacher, but he didn't let that hold him or his students back. Instead, he gave them every opportunity to become engaged in their learning. The main thing that I took from this video was to never stop looking for opportunities that could make a lesson exciting. Throughout this course, it has become clear to me that PBL is the best, most effective way to teach. However, I probably would have stopped at crushing the coke can or sending the tissue paper into the sky. Mr. Crosby continued with his lessons. He didn't stop with one project or one cool introduction into the lesson. He even incorporated other subjects into this lesson. That was so smart to me. Learning about the earth's atmosphere already had the attention of his class. There was no need to find another "need to know" or attention grabber. He simply needed to gear his writing projects more towards his science lesson.
Blended Learning Cycle
Paul Anderson is applying a Blended Learning Cycle in his science class. In this method, students go through a series of steps throughout the lesson. They cannot advance to the next step until they have "mastered" the one they are on. The steps are laid out as the acronym QUIVERS (QUestion, Investigation/Inquiry, Video, Elaboration, Review, Summary Quiz). What I found most interesting was that Mr. Anderson sits down with each student during the Review to check their understanding before they move on to the summary quiz. Getting that kind of attention from a teacher is rare, and I'm sure it has had a huge effect on his students' learning. This is an interesting approach. I'm interested to try it out with other age groups and other subjects.
Making Thinking Visible
In this video, Mark Church gets his students thinking about the origin of the human species. They are asked to get into groups and discuss this topic, then create a headline that sums up the question. That is a great idea in itself, but I like his plan for the future even better. He plans to continue with the unit for the next two weeks and then go back and look at their headlines. He will ask them to create new headlines, and then discuss how their thinking has changed.
Sam Pane 4th Grade
This was such a fun project! I'm interested to know what program he used for the comic book creator. You can tell the students enjoyed this project by looking at the show of hands when Mr. Pane asked for a volunteer to share their comic. I can't remember a time when an entire class was eager to share out loud! I also really like his idea of a Gallery Walk. This allowed for a peer review, but it left the option open for them to look at anyone's work. The peer reviews I remember doing always started something like "Pass your paper to the person behind you..." This was a great way to teach fourth graders about digital responsibility.
Project Based Learning
This is an interesting idea. I completely agree that there are many instances where literature and history overlap. To fully understand most literary pieces, we have to have an understanding of what was happening in the world at that time. If the time period being covered in both classes overlap, then combining these two courses is a no-brainer. We have seen over and over again that computer/technology courses can be integrated with almost any subject. I really like this idea. It would help me personally to relate to both the literature and the history being studied.
Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program
Roosevelt Elementary School has taken it upon themselves to use project based learning throughout the entire school. That is an incredible undertaking, and I'm sure it requires a lot of work. There are some excellent benefits to a program like this. Project Based Learning is a great way to gauge students' understanding of a topic. Oral presentations help to curb the fear of public speaking at a young age. Project Based Learning also gives opportunity for curriculum integration. Curriculum integration is discussing a topic in more than one class or subject. This is the best way to show real world applications. One lesson or idea can be relevant across several different disciplines. My favorite part of this video was the parent interviews. It is incredible to see parents who are so excited about what and how their children are learning. Many times it is hard to gain the support of parents when trying something new. Roosevelt Elementary School is doing a great job implementing PBL across the board.
Project #14 - Group 8
For our Project Based Lesson Plan, we decided to do a lesson on weather for third grade students. They will research and learn about predicting and preparing for extreme weather events. We will also chart the weather each day on a simple bar graph to integrate what we are learning in math.
Lesson Plan
Calendar
Rubric
Checklist
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Blog Post #10 - What Can We Learn From Mrs. Cassidy?
Little Kids...Big Potential
As I watched this video, I was amazed at all of the different ways Mrs. Cassidy has introduced technology to her first graders. She is using the typical routes like her smart board, but she is also using new ideas. This is the first time I've seen a Nintendo DS used in a classroom! I am also amazed at the number of teachers we have seen this semester interviewing professionals via Skype. I guess I underestimate the power of the internet. It's easy to think that they wouldn't have time or the desire to do an interview with an elementary classroom, but you never know until you ask. I'll definitely have to remember that.
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 3
Mrs. Cassidy, a first grade teacher in Canada, was interviewed by Dr. Strange and a group of his students. During the interview, Mrs. Cassidy explained her approach to using technology in her classroom. I was surprised to hear that she basically started from scratch. With very little knowledge on the subject, she decided to learn all that she could about technology in order to make her classroom a better learning environment for her students. That took some guts. It puts this semester in a whole new perspective for me. Students in her classroom are blogging, using wikis, and even skyping with other classes across North America. Even with first grade students, she is seeing success with this approach. It's encouraging for me to know that no matter what grade I end up teaching, there will be a way to integrate what I have learned this semester. Also, I will have teachers like Mrs. Cassidy who went before me and can offer advice or ideas. I love that she begins by teaching her students how to be safe online. As a parent, that would be my first concern. I believe that, just like the parents of Mrs. Cassidy's students, parents of the children I someday teach will grow to enjoy viewing their children's work online.
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