Blog Post #11

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?

          Through out the education program I have definitely learned that one of the most valuable resources teachers have are in fact other teachers. After watching each of the assigned video clips each of the teachers brought something new and exciting to the table. I feel that I have learned a large amount of wonderful things that will stick with me on my journey to becoming an educator.

1.     “Back to the Future” – Brian Crosby

http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=854

Brian Crosby is a teacher in Sparks Nevada. He teaches at a school called Agnes Risley School. One of the most amazing things in the video is the specific type of school Mr. Crosby is a part of. This school in Nevada is in a community that is poverty stricken. The reason this stuck out to me is because it is my dream to work in an inner city school with children that are a lot less fortunate. Mr. Crosby explains to viewers that most of his students are not only poverty stricken but do not speak English.  But the dedication of Mr. Crosby is extremely inspiring. He teaches using the technique of PBL. PBL as most educators know stands for Project based Learning. By the use of PBL he strived to teach his students how to become active learners. He wants to empower each and every student to step up and strive to be independent learners. He explains that he tries to empower students to become learners. By teaching students to become active learners he has to teach in a way that students are engaged in what they are learning. He tells us that the students that are active learners then become able to learn on their own using collaboration from others plus motivation all while learning to connect with others. He also brings up a very familiar point in which he talks about how we as teachers CAN NOT keep facing student through school. I know especially as a high school student that teachers did exactly that. They raced us (the students) through high school just so that we could receive our high school diploma. Looking back on my high school experience I see how they simple raced us through 9^th-12^th grade simple teaching and assigning the minim so that we could get through to the end. So I loved that Mr. Crosby talked about this. Mr. Crosby has truly inspired me! I loved almost everything about his video.

2.     “Blended Learning Cycle” –Paul Anderson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-apJDi7cx9o

Paul Anderson is an educator in Bozeman, Montana. One of the most important things about this clip that he stares with other educators is his acronym. This acronym is something that Paul Anderson has chosen to teach by that I think it is wonderful.

Mr. Anderson’s Acronym
Q	Questions: Something that really gets the students attention, “The Hook” the question that hooks the students in so that they are engaged.
I	Investigation: the inquiry; you want students to become investigators, to investigate what is to be learned.
V	Video: It frees so that he is able to do other things while the students also feel free from the same regular lecture.
E	Elaboration: Elaborate on the subject, provide reading, diagrams, projects, details on the importance of the subject.
R	Review: Always review but instead of a class review meet with small groups or with individuals to make sure that each student is grasping the concepts.
S	Summary: After students meet and review do a quiz, students should take summary quiz (a couple times over) so that they can practice and truly learn the information

Another detail about Mr. Anderson’s teaching strategies is the way he ask questions to his students. The form of questions he ask is called “Probing Questions”. These types of questions are very beneficial. He asks individuals questions to make sure that each student is truly grasping the information instead of just memorizing it. Another special thing that he does is he allows the students to grade themselves individual on each thing (besides the summary quiz) sp that they can self evaluate. I loved learning about Mr. Anderson’s teaching strategies and I plan on using them in the future!

3.     “Building Comics”  - Sam Pane 4^th Grade

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-digital-citizenship

This video is about “Super Digital Citizen”. This is probable my favorite video out of all of the ones assigned. This teaches teachers and students about way to be safe while using the internet. This is so very important because of the numerous things that are extremely toxic to children and adults that can be accessed on the internet. Teachers especially have to be cautions and aware of what students are doing while using the internet. This video talk’s about creating a super hero that can help students stop problems on the internet. This gives students a project that allows them to be creative while using the internet on a safe website. One of the great things that I saw in this class was that the teacher allowed the students to discuss the topic with one another so that they became engaged. This clip provides a list of things that students should not do on the internet. For example, sharing personal information over the internet or hacking.

ELA TAKEAWAY’s
1.	Write narrative to develop imagined experiences or events.
2.	Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to text.
3.	Ask and answer questions.

4.     “Project Based Learning”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPQ1gT_9rcw

During EDM 310 we have talked a lot about PBL. (Project Based Learning) Not only have we learned about PBL but we have also gotten the opportunity to experience this class that is centered on PBL. This has been extremely helpful because we are able to learn this teaching technique hands on. By using PBL students are more engaged in learning and have a better opportunity to actually absorb the information. This clip shows a group of three educators that have a great idea to combine three different subjects into one lesson. These three teachers decide to address the administration at their school with this great idea. They tell the administration that they would like to combine English, History, and Literature together to accomplish a list of things. They explain that by combining these subjects that they will be able to have more time with the students, do better/greater projects with the class all while combining these three subjects together. What I loved and learned from this video is that power comes in numbers. The power of three teacher’s brains working together for a greater cause is much stronger than the power of one teacher working alone. I love that these teachers not only used PBL to teach their students but also used PBL within themselves to come up with wonderful ideas to help their students grow and leaners.

5.     “Making Thinking Visible” – Mark Church

http://www.edm310.com/edm310/makingthinkingvisible.m4v

In this clip the teachers Mark Church is staring a project with his class. He first asks his students to come up with a News Headline on what they learned just based on the video that had just watched about Human Origin. The video allowed viewers to observe the students collaborate within their groups to create a News headline. I love watching all of the student’s voice their opinion and thought it was wonderful to see how many different points of view that had within groups. This video also shows Mr. Church using a form or project based learning. The students are divided into groups to work on a project together. This project was not only a one day lesson. Mark Church shows how he is going to elongate this group project so that not only he can see but the students can see how over time and learning about this subject their views can change. This is so great because not only does Mr. Church get to evaluate the progress of each student but the children will get to see their own progress!

https://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/teachers-teaching-teachers/