Blog Post #11

What can we learn about teaching from these other teachers?
By: Chelsea Powers

Back to the Future
In this video Brian Crosby really knows how to get his class motivated. I have learned a lot from just hearing him speak. Mr. Crosby talks about empowering kids to learn on their own just like we do in EDM 310. He promotes hand on learning such as the project with the hot air balloon that his students did. The hot air balloon seemed to really get the class motivated and work collaboratively in groups. Mr. Crosby also involved the community and made this really a big deal for the students. The most important thing I learned from his video is that whatever the context is that you are teaching make it meaningful and motivational. This video also taught me the importance of technology in the classroom when he talked about Celeste that has leukemia. This is a little girl that cannot attend school because of her treatments and instead of just sending work home for her Mr. Crosby takes extra steps and has her on video in the classroom so she can interact with other students. It was a very touching story! This is a teacher that really cares about his student’s education.

Blended Learning Cycle
Paul Anderson Incorporates all aspects of a good Lesson. The picture that he shows in his video at first was very good understanding of how people thought that the future classrooms would be like. Mr. Anderson tells us how important the power of questioning is for their students. He starts off by getting the attention of the class with the disk that does not stop spinning. He then moves to a driving question and figures it out. They then investigate and experiement. He uses small group activities that involve collaboration with each other. Mr. Anderson also uses paper and pencil quiz to measure the students content knowledge of the subject. I believe this is important so that you can have a record of what the student has learned and what they have not. Mr. Anderson uses The five E's and Oilers disk to explain his techniques.

Making Thinking Visible
Mark Church demonstrates students having a deeper thought process about the content. It is very neat to see what the students think about the content before they actually review it. This also gives the teacher an idea on how to teach the content and different way of questioning. It is very interesting on how their outlooks change after reading and learning the content. This promotes critical thinking skills and group collaboration.

Building Comics
Same Pane taught his students the importance of using internet safety by letting them create their own Superhero digital citizen. This was a really engaging activity. He talke about making good choices when it comes to using the internet. I think this is very important for students to learn. As a parent and a future teacher I want my child to know how important it is to use the internet safely.

Project based Learning
In this video it shows the importance of teacher collaboration. They call this integrated studies which means deeper understanding. It combines technology, English, and History. By doing this it gives the students more time to blend ideas, content and quality feedback. They teach beyond the curriculum to give their students real life scenarios. By the teachers combining technology with English and History, this gives them ownership their work. They get feedback from all over the world which makes them want to do a better job on their assignments. This video shows me how effectively teachers should work together and collaborate to benefit their students.

Roosevelt's Project based learning
Roosevelt Elementary School seems to be a very community oriented school. They keep the parents well informed of what is going on with their children and in the classrooms. The teachers come together using state standards. The Teachers at Roosevelt believe posing real life problem solving skills for their students will make them not only become effective learner but good citizens. By teaching their student PBL they are taught how to work on a project from start to finish. It also teaches them public speaking skills by collaborating with each other. They are taught decision making by the teacher giving them choices on their projects. They are learning so many different learning styles which is truly amazing. There are so many different ways I will incorporate what I have learned in this video into my future classroom.