Blog Post #9

After reading Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning, I learned that each project you give a student to do needs seven key factors in order to make it a great project based learning assignment. Those seven factors are: A need to know, A driving question, Student's voice and choice, 21st century skills, Inquiry and Innovation, Feedback and Revision, A publicly presented product.

Once I watched Project-Based Learning for Teachers, I realized how meaningful project based learning is. I learned that project based learning is mainly where you as the kids a question that needs to be thought of deep. If they have a deep question to ask, then they are more apt to answer that question and find more in the process of answering it.

I am really glad I chose to watch PBL-High School Math. This video is about showing how different teachers realize and overcome the complications of project based learning. This certain school was in year 3 of 5 in converting the school to straight project based. Many of the teachers at this school had been teaching the same curriculum for multiple years and did not want to change what they had done for so long. They finally decided to change and are so glad they did.

I watched the video where two students solved the problem of watery ketchup. They solved this problem by creating a new lid for the bottle. They were able to have a year long invention project. This is a really cool idea, and it makes it more interesting that they used a subject that they both like.

The last article I used was Project Based Learning in PE

. I read this article, and it was about how you can incorporate project based learning even in to physical education. This is interesting about how someone thinks outside the box to come up with ideas in order to incorporate the project based learning in every subject.

Project #12

Project #9

Blog Assignment #8

As I watched Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, I can answer the question "What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?" I believe one thing we can learn about learning is that you have permission to dream and dream big. He does not come out and say this is used for learning, but I could apply it to learning. Something I learned about teaching is sometimes you will hit brick walls. Even though they are hard to overcome, they teach to to work harder. Another thing I learned is that that you learn more by not accomplishing a dream then actually accomplishing it. Also a leader does not have to be the smartest guy in the group. Another key point I picked up on was wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. Even though this was a very powerful video, I recorded what I learned about learning and teaching from the key notes I picked up.

C4T #2

Summary of Teacher's Blog #1:The summary of Angela Maiers latest blog is showing her resources for a presentation she did in Austin, TX.

Comment on Teacher's Blog #1:I am so glad I got to read your blog. I enjoyed every resource and presentation. I will be keeping these for future references once I become a teacher. Thanks so much. Great Job!

Summary of Teacher's Blog #2:Angela Maiers had not posted a blog post since the previous post, so I went and read the next blog down called #Genius Hour. This post was about how a teacher makes a genius hour for his kids which allows them an hour a day to research anything they don't know so on hour of creation day they can create a presentation teaching the other students about what they researched.

Comment on Teacher's Blog #2:This was a great read. When I become a teacher, I am going to use this same approach because I think it will gets students minds thinking deeper. I also love how you used the work fail for first attempt in learning. Thanks for the great read, and I look forward to reading more.

Blog Assignment #7

In the video Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten, Dr. Strange is asking Michele Bennet and Elizabeth Davis questions about how they use iMovie and Alabama Virtual Library. Michele Bennet tells us how kindergarten students love to make iMovie trailers and are so eager to work in the program. She also tells us how they are constantly editing and get so upset when the teacher publishes the video because they were not done editing their video. Elizabeth Davis tells us about Alabama Virtual Library. It is a free website that allows you to research anything you would like to research. She also tells us how Mrs. Bennet's children research a list of animals every week. So kindergarten children are doing basic research on a daily basis!

In the movie We All Become Learners, Dr. Strange is have a conversation again with Elizabeth Davis and Michele Bennet. Michele Bennet tells us about how once everyone has a iPad, everyone becomes learners and teachers including the teachers becoming learners and students becoming teachers. She uses the example of when she was trying to teach the children to use Padlet. She did not know how to take a selfie, and one of the kindergarten students taught her how to take one. Dr. Strange explains how every time he has been to Gulf Shores Elementary, the students are so eager to show him their work and gets so upset if they cannot show him their work. This shows how excited the students are about their work. Mrs. Bennet goes on to tell us how the teachers are not so worried about learning the mechanics themselves anymore because they just say the students can teach them.

I chose the video Kirby "I Can" Statements because I want to become a kindergarten teacher and wanted to see what all students are learning in kindergarten. They showed me that they are learning to count to one hundred by 1 and 10s, read kindergarten books with purpose and understanding, count up from any number, identify the front and back cover and title page of a book, and identify the main topic and retell key details of a book. This video was so cute and encouraging for all other kindergarten students.

I also chose the video Career Day Taylor because this was another kindergarten class. They made a video about what they wanted to be when they grow up. They made an audio clip to go with their picture that explained what they were and why they wanted to be that. This was an interesting video to see what everyone wanted to be.

For my third video, I chose Sawyer's Story. Even though this is about a second grade boy, this video amazes me because he made a trailer about him in the second grade and how he enjoys being in class and learning with his friends. Mrs. Bennet told us that he went in the back of the library and did this video with a group of friends all by themselves.

For my last video, I chose CW PBL 1. This is a video about a 3rd grade teacher telling us about how teaching has changed now with all the technology. She tells us how Project Based Learning combines all core subjects. Children want to take their projects home and work on them there when they are not homework assignments. That shows just how excited the children are to learn and complete their projects.

With all the difference in technology, teaching is becoming different every year. I am all for children learning through technology. I believe this is a great aspect to bring into the school. Since I still have a year and a half left of school, I believe so much more will change by the time I receive a teaching job. I will start to research and learn more about project based learning because I need to know all I can to receive a job once I graduate. My strength in this aspect is that I am open to learning and researching more about this new way of teaching. On the other hand, I do have a weakness, and it is not wanting to change from how I was taught growing up. I always saw myself teaching students just like I was taught when I grew up, but I now know that I cannot teach like that once I receive a job. I need to start learning now how to teach with technology that is available to every student in every school. I am glad I was able to watch all of these videos and learn more about project based learning.

Blog Assignment #6

In Project Based Learning with Anthony Capps Part 1 and Part 2, I learned that children get very excited to engage in project based learning. Children need to know about the content that is being taught in the project based learning. I also learned that not all projects go as well or as planned. Which in my opinion, I would take that experience as you learn by mistakes.

I had never heard of iCurio before I watched iCurio: Conversations with Anthony. What I learned about iCurio is that it is a place where children can search and only be searching websites that have the content that pertains to the project they are currently doing. This is a very helpful feature because this can help the kids have a little more leeway instead of the teacher always wondering what they are searching.

Discovery Ed is a short video explaining what Discovery Ed is. I learned that Discovery Ed is a website that gives a video to what ever kind of project based learning assignment they are learning about. I have always heard that if you give a child visual with text they will retain it more because of the visual, and Anthony stated the same thing. This is way Discovery Ed is good.

I really enjoyed Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1. I have never heard that teachers need to continue to learn until EDU 346, and ever since then I began to see why teachers need to continue to learn and that shows that teaching is not an easy profession. I have always known that teaching was a non stop job. Anthony just confirmed that. What is learned most from this video was that: Even though teaching is a hard and never ending job, it is so rewarding in the end.

Don't Teach It. Use it! taught me that children already know technology. There is no need to teach children technology because they already know how to use it probably better than you. Instead of teaching technology just use technology, and the students will enjoy class just as much.

Additional Thought about Lessons taught me that a lesson is at least four layers thick. One layer is are you gonna cover all of your curriculum for the year. Layer two is your unit including projects. Layer three is your week. Layer four is your daily lesson.

I really enjoyed all these lessons by Anthony Capps. He is a very knowledgeable man. I look forward to becoming a teacher and never stopping my learning process clearly like Anthony hasn't.

Project #8

Rainbow Fish

Project #7

This is My Sentence



This is My Passion



Video to Parents



Video to Students

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Assignment #5

I created my PLN with Symbaloo. As soon as I created my account, I set Symbaloo as my safari homepage. I think this will be easier because my safari will open up to Symbaloo, and I can then just click whichever icon I would like to visit.

To start my Symbaloo creation, I will add Blogger, Gmail, and Twitter as an icon. I will also add my instructors such as John Strange and Paige Vitulli. I will also add my fellow classmates to get ideas from now and once we all become teachers ourselves. I will continue to explore on my PLN and learn more about each aspect of Symbaloo.

Project #4 C4Ta Assignment

Summary of Blog #1: William Chamberlain's Blog was a short and simple blog, but it really made you think about how many times we use others ideas for information. This article states that we are no longer innovators we are tweakers to others ideas.

Comment on Blog #1: I agree with you completely about this blog. I believe that we all want to just use others ideas in order to teach our students. To me that is not fair to our students. I believe as an educator we need to come up with new ideas and allow others to be the only one using their own ideas.  

Summary on Blog #2: William Chamberlain Second Blog post on his page was about how pat on the backs are being looked at as a bad gesture. He included a video and a paragraph of information he thinks about it.

Comment on Blog #2:Wow! Great Read! I am so glad I was able to read this post. I was not able to watch the video because my computer did not support it, but I wish I could have watched it. This is so powerful. I agree that a pat on the back is necessary for great work. Thanks for a great post.

Project #15

I have always just used Google as a search engine. I am glad I had to do this project because now I will try to use all different search engines. According to Reliablesoft.net, search engines are ranked in and order of use. The order is as followed:
1. Google
2. Bing
3. Yahoo
4. Ask.com
5. AOL.com
6. Blekko.com
7. Wolfram Alpha < br/> 8. DuckDuckGo
9. Wayback Machine
10. ChaCha.com
Bing is a Microsoft's attempt at Google.(Reliablesoft.net) When I explored Bing, I found out that it is just like google except pulls up different websites. Yahoo is powered by Bing.(Reliablesoft.net) When I typed the same thing in bing and yahoo, I got the exact same results. Ask.com is where users ask or answer certain questions. When I typed a question in Ask.com, I got an answer instead of different websites. When I used AOL.com, I figured out it still searches many of the most popular websites but is one of the older search engines. Blekko.com was originally created by ex-googlers.(Relaiblesoft.net) They have now joined IBM Watson. It is a search engine just like google and yahoo but gives different information just like google and yahoo give you different information. Wolfram Alpha is known as the "computational knowledge engine." (Relaiablesoft.net) Wolfram Alpha will give you calculations instead of word answers like the rest. I used Wolfram Alpha to help me with long and difficult calculations. DuckDuckGo only searches certain websites. When I tried to type something in, only a few websites came up. Last search engine is ChaCha.com. When I tried to use ChaCha, I noticed there were a lot of pop-ups and side advertisement unlike google.

Blog Assignment #4

In Asking Better Questions in the Classroom, Joanne Chesley pointed out a great point right in the beginning. That point is that we need to ask better questions in order to get better answers. We as teachers can not just ask a question that requires and yes or no answer and expect the students to elaborate. There are two different types of questions to ask: closed ended questions and open ended questions. Closed ended questions are those that a student can answer with a one word answer such as yes or no. An open ended question is one that leaves the answer to be said in whichever way the student would like to answer. With open ended questions, the student can elaborate more on an answer. If you as a teacher wants to ask more effective questions, try asking open ended questions.

The article Open Ended Questions is a short video that shows how you can change a closed ended question into an open ended question. Some open ended question starters you could use are: "For what reasons," "In what ways," "Describe or Explain in detail," etc. An example is "Why is water good for your body?" With that question, you will get a number of certain answers. To ask it for a open ended question you could say "For what reasons is water good for your body?"

Once I become a teacher, I will try to change each question I ask into an open ended question. I will do this so my students can elaborate more and have to think a little more about an answer instead of just shouting out yes or no.

Blog Assignment #3

Peer Editing can be fun, but only if you give a quality peer review. Number One rule in peer editing is STAY POSITIVE. I love this rule because I am a very positive person. Even though I know I have to critique my peers and other teachers, I try to critique them in a positive manner. To hear that staying positive is the number one rule was very important to me. There is a process you have to follow in order to give a quality peer review.

The first step to follow is to always begin your review with complimenting. Always try to compliment on their topic, sentence, humor, etc. The second step is to make suggestions. To make a suggestion means giving ideas about how to improve their writing. This is the hardest step for me because I always try to just do corrections instead of suggestions. Speaking of corrections, the third step is making corrections. You can make corrections on Punctuations, Grammar, Sentences, Spelling.

For a summary to a quality peer review, complete all steps. Always remember to stay positive and do not be a Meany Margaret or Picky Patrick. Also remember treat others how you would like to be treated.