Thursday, February 13, 2014

Blog Post # 5

Dr. Strange's conversations with Anthony Capps taught me a mountain of information about what really entails EDM310. No one can ever get enough of Project Based Learning (PBL), and in PBL Pt. 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher, so I became more enthused about the subject after Anthony and Dr. Strange broke it down into a more simpler medium for me. In the video they discussed in fine detail that a PBL project should have the set goal of it getting to an audience within and outside the community, meaning it should be started with the intent of having others also learn from the finished product. Knowing that the project is content driven led me to a clearer understanding of what the focus of the project should be, specifically in terms of certain criteria (such as state requirements, student involvement, etc.) should be considered when planning a project.
Project Based Learning Immersion by Powerful Leaning Practice Network
Their conversation about iCurio had me clicking on the site before their dialogue really got started, I will come back to that a little later, but thought its significance to PBL was a valuable research tool. It was important for me to know that the PBL classroom should be set up democratically because it aids in the grading process and allows students to reflect on their successes as well as their failures.

In part 2 of Dr. Strange's and Anthony's conversation on PBL, it became clear that I should consider the feelings of the parents when selecting a project, but that if a parent chooses to exclude his/her child from a project, then have that parent and child work on an alternate one. As long as the project is a challenging one, it is good to be flexible because different situations will arise. When they discussed the comparison between Anthony's third grade class and the EDM310 students in terms of the quality of the work each produces, I don't know if it is wise to have a parent help their child, because it appears that college students (and more amazingly for a majority of Dr. Strange's EDM310 students) are being spanked by the third graders. This seems to be due to what I will term "the gimme syndrome" because many adults simply don't want to work that hard to get better at something, but expect it to flop in their laps like a TV dinner. Children, on the other hand, will drive themselves feverishly to learn about something, because as I learned from their talks, ownership and pride in a project (as small as singly learning about iCurio to a collaborative project) sets the pace for enthusiasm. Dr. Strange and Anthony convinced me that enjoying learning as a learner is far better than being a "burp it back" kind of learner.

iCurio is fantastic! It popped up so many times in Dr. Strange's conversation with Anthony that I immediately knew it was worth learning more about. iCurio appears to be a teacher's go-to place because it offers a safe place for student's to research and store all forms of media that can be used in their projects, as well as their daily lives.
iCurio My Way Slogan by Vimeo
The timeline and historical figure feature are just two of the many features that iCurio offers, and pretty much anyone can use it with relative ease. I learned from their conversation that teacher's should be considering sites like this one for anytime their students are required to surf the internet for their school assignments of all sorts. Learning that iCurio is aligned with the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards (ACCRS), reads aloud texts and website names for special needs students, and so many more fascinating uses, it is something that I will incorporate in my teaching life as well as my daily one. I've included the video,

When I had thought that Dr. Strange and Anthony had given me enough to chew on, they threw me some more meat in the guise of Discovery Education (DE). It's an amazing resource for teachers and students that brings experts and professionals to your monitor. You can find almost anything with a seasoned expert discussing it by way of video, tutorials, and other media. Its focus has a lot to do with learner/listener, because the concept of looking at what you are reading makes the subject more easy to learn and retain. DE covers every
African-American Student with Laptop by Discovery Education
educational subject that matters, and to boot, it has driving resources for teenagers and driving learners. I especially liked the lesson plans and how easy it was to access the material. You can even win classroom supplies, which made me feel like someone is out there who cares about the teacher being able to educate with as little stress as possible. Dr. Strange and Anthony talked about it enthusiastically, and I now I know why. I will be using that site a lot to help me brush up on all my academia, and thanks to DE, I can focus on the level of students I will be teaching. I've included a great starter video on iCurio and Discovery Education at the end of my blog if you are interested in learning more about them.

I will take a lot from the video, The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Pt. 1, because all six of them can benefit me as a future teacher. The first, be a constant learner, is something that I am more familiar with than the others, and I realize that had I not been a constant learner, I would be behind the curve in today's classrooms. Where a lot of people get discouraged in teaching is not knowing about the second tip they gave: Teaching never ends; it is hard work; and it is rewarding. I imagine a lot fall by the wayside not realizing the latter, but anything worked hard on is always rewarding. When they got to the third tip, be flexible because the unexpected
Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps Converse by Dr. Strange
happens, it was knocked home that you have to be resilient and teach resiliency to your students in order to be a good educator. Always have a goal was their fourth tip, and it is clear that without one getting to the ends of a project,etc., will be a more difficult task. One very important aspect of the tips was number five, which was to engage 100% of your students 100% of the time in 100% of their projects, because it is vital to not lose even one of your students in the course of the many lessons. I know that doesn't mean there is some perfect process to achieve this, but many methods are out there to get it pretty close. With their last tip comes the summation of what we want to achieve while teaching projects: reflect, revise, and share work with an audience. This is so important because any endeavor completed should be expounded on for an even better understanding of the lessons learned, in which the project can be revised, and then get it outside the classroom so that others can take a look at it and offer their feedback. It was a great conversation between Dr. Strange and Anthony about some of the things that can take the initial stresses of teaching off and well worth practicing.

I fully get the point behind the video, Use Tech Don't Teach It, in which Dr. Strange and Anthony points out how useless it is to teach about technology and never use it in the classroom. It reminds me of when I was in high school, hearing about the dreaded computer age and the technological leaps and bounds that were being made, but I didn't see a computer up close until after graduation. I would have enjoyed having some hands on with one, which is much better, because I wondered what it would be like but didn't know a computer until I turned my first one on. Having that same thing happen in today's classroom seems like an abomination, because at the least, you could use all the kids' cell phones as a tech tool to make something happen. Engaging in using the technology of today is the better way to go, and yes, it is a lot of learning, hard work, and missed sleep learning it, but in the end it is well worth it. I feel that I am already behind Anthony's third graders, but you can bet that I am going to catch up to them, or least trail slightly behind them.



Sources: Dr. John H. Strange,Vimeo, Discovery Education, Powerful Learning Practice Network, Kai Lopez, Jordan Neely.

2 comments:

  1. Very, very good!!

    "I've included the video, "--Did you forget to include the video?

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  2. Hi Kevin! I really enjoyed reading your post about Anthony Capps and all the advice and useful information he had to offer! I liked how you provided links to all the videos, so people reading your post know what you are talking about and have the choice to watch them if they'd prefer. I especially enjoyed reading about Discovery Education, I think it's an amazing way to bring the experts into the classroom so to speak!

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