Blog Post #11

In Back to the Future, Mr. Crosby teaches high-risk students that mostly come from poverty. He serves as a motivator for these students. He believes that these students deserves to experience meaningful learning, regardless of where they come from. Brain Crosby focuses on incorporating technology apps into his classroom. He strives to make learning fun for these students. In his eyes, every child deserves the education that a "school with high test scores" gives. I really enjoyed watching how he incorporated Celeste, a student with Leukemia, into his classroom. He used webcams to record what goes on during a typical class day, so that she can feel included also. This is an example of a excellent, dedicated teacher.

Blended Learning Cycle is a great video about blended learning. Paul Anderson explains how the blended learning cycle is online, mobile, and classroom learning all combined together. There are five E's associated with the Blended Learning Cycle: Explore, engage, explain, expand, and evaluate. These five E's are used in science, typically. Paul strives for his students to be curious. He asks his students questions, which makes them investigate. He uses videos to help teach in his classroom. Once his students make it to this point, they then elaborate on the question given. Finally they review and summarize. All these components combined create the acronym QUIVERS. Anderson uses acronyms frequently in his classroom. I like the concept of QUIVERS. It reminds me of Project Based Learning.

In Making Thinking Visible, Mark Church has his students work in small groups to discuss a video they had watched the previous day. After having his small groups collaborate with their thoughts and opinions, he had them create a headline to capture "what it's all about." Whenever their project is over in two weeks, he is going to have them create another headline. This shows them how learning is a continuous process and that they are constantly progressing.

Super Digital Citizen is a video about a teacher named Sam Pane. He is teaching his students about using the internet safely, as well as how to be a good technology citizen. Pane does a great job of engaging his students because he gets his point across in interesting ways. After teaching his students about internet safety, they got to create a superhero in a comic strip. These strips also help the students learn how to peer review. I am very impressed with this video!

The last two videos go hand-in-hand. The first video, Project Based Learning shows a school that combines multiple subjects using PBL. I found this very interesting that a school combines subjects together. This is the first time I have ever heard of this. I feel as if that would be a major adjustment for me as a teacher. The second video, Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program, talks about teacher collaboration through Project Based Learning. This video explains that PBL takes real-world problem solving skills to learn materials in the classroom. PBL is a great learning technique that I have researched greatly while being in EDM 310. I like that it teaches 21st century skills that these children will be using in the job field later in life. This helps students learn while practicing life skills.