Blog Post #11

In Brian Crosby's video, Back To the Future, I learned many things about teaching. I learned it's very important to empower your students. Let kids shine through their work. Kids want to learn and we should expect high quality work from them. When helping students learn, we need to let them work collaboratively. Once students know their audience is greater than just their teacher, they would produce better quality work. Lastly, he showed me it's important to use different technologies to teach students. Teachers should use many ways to teach students so they do not become bored while learning.

Blended Learning Cycle is a combination of two separate techniques. One is blended learning. In blended learning you take online, mobile, and classroom learning about put them all together in the classroom as a way of teaching. The second is the learning cycle. This cycle involves five E's: engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. The blended learning cycle started by a driving question or something to get students hooked to what you are about to have them investigate. The teacher would create a video or have a video source for students to watch on the particular assignment. The teacher would review with each student before they can take a quiz on what they have learned. If a student does not pass the review question the teacher would tell him/her to go back and elaborate the assignment more. I think this is a great way to make sure students are really learning what they are investigating. Mostly, I like that students do this on their own. They are seeking the information they need to pass the quiz.

Mark Church's video, Making Thinking Visible is discussing small groups and how they are a great way to learn. It can help students extend their learning through other peers views. It's also important for kids to see people have their own opinions that may be different from theirs but they still need to collaborate to get the work done. Also, as they learn more on a subject, they need to see their opinions can change and that is okay.

In Super Digital Citizen I learned it's important to discuss online safety with my students. I feel this is something that will be done the first week of class. Students need to know the difference between good and bad information that is online. This video was cool because students were able to design a superhero who would become their super digital citizen. I believe students would enjoy the because many kids love comics and enjoy being creative. Kids were inspired from other peers work as well. This allows them to grow for the next assignment.

Project Based Learning has produced more engaged learners who have a deeper understanding of what they are learning. This video was neat. I've never heard off three different subjects being put together like that. I'm not sure how I would like that as a student. It is definitely something I would like to look into though. The main thing I got out of this video is that you shouldn't be afraid to go against the grain. These teachers took an idea they felt would really benefit their students to their administration and clearly they were on board with it. I do like that it gives more time on assignments and gives students the resources they need to do the best work they can.

In Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program  I love that the teachers are already helping these kids with public speaking. What a breeze public speaking would be if we would already have that comfort in us. We would also have more confidence in ourselves. PBL gives students many choices in learning. They have so much room to be creative in these projects. It's important to teach them how to be a good audience as well. Cooperation, to say the least, is so important. It's crucial in PBL projects. Students learn how to talk to one another and get work done. This is a skill they will need for the rest of their lives. Reflecting on a project is also important. Students need to know what worked and didn't work so they won't make the same mistakes twice.