Blog Post 9

What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

Teachers and students can teach us a lot about project-based learning. The teachers are daily working with lesson plans involving activities that can enhance the student’s knowledge. Project based learning is used by giving students a driven question that causes them to research answers then eventually ask more question. What we learn from teachers is that project based learning is valuable. It makes the students work meaningful and helps them feel like they serve a purpose in their education.

What we learn from students about Project-based learning is that it is fun. With using tools like blogs, Google docs, wiki, computers and ipad it makes it more interesting to the students. No more pens, pencil, paper, and books; a Project Based Learning classroom is full of technology. From the students we can learn that they love to see their work shared and viewed by the world.

Here are a few links that gives an example of what Project Based Learning can do and how kids are motivated to learn.

Project Based Learning

In this video you can see what life is without project based learning. You see this girl going through the routine class where the teacher is teaching and the rest of the class is listening or falling asleep. The teacher is explaining something in math but who really cares, it’s boring. The student then dreams about a classroom setting where the teacher is using technology and every student has a laptop. In this dream you can see sharing of information, collaborating and communicating. Even the teacher is more excited and teaching using a more hands on approach. In the end the video says make the dream of PBL a reality.

What motivates students

This video focus was on what motivates students and what rewards work. The video showed about five students talking about how they are each motivated to learn. One student motivation was to make good grades to go to college, another one was the fact that if he didn’t make good grades he wouldn’t be able to do the things he loved. One interesting motivation was a student felt motivated by being praised or acknowledge by the teacher in front of the class. In the end the video talks about what students like as rewards or what teachers uses as rewards. It mostly came down to teachers using some type of token or cash system. Some teacher gave out gifts and some let students do fun activities before or during class.

Project 12A SmartBoard Instructions

Project 9 Book Discussion

Project 14 Lesson Plan #2

In this project students will do a variety of activates and learn lessons on the importance of what they eat. The tittle of this project is "My Pyramid/Balanced meal". Over a week span the students will be engaging in creating their own personal pyramid and also making a rap video explaining the different food groups. The students final projects will be posted outside the class room as well as on the web. Each student will post a daily journal on their blog site which has to included one picture from something they learned during the lesson. This lesson will involve critical thinking along with working with others.

Calendar
Overview
Rubric 
Essential Checklist

C4Ta #1

(Just found this C4T in my Drafts)!!!!!! 

LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY #PHYSED TEACHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE

In this post Mr. Wickens is at a conference at Loughborough University. He is presenting new ideas on how technology can be used in physical education. He brings up topics like drop box and the future of education. He believes that 84-85% of 11-18 year olds own a hand held device. Mr. Wickens is all for using technology and media to connect and share information around the world. He believes that teacher should be trained to use technology because in the future technology will be the driving force behind education.

GOOGLE CHROME IN EDUCATION

In this post Mr. Wickens has just read about how google chrome could be used in someone else blog. He then decides to post how he feels about the tool and shares information on how it could be used in education. He mentions that google chrome can help personalize your online experience. Tools like google drive provides contact with many people to share information for learning. He also likes how the tools allows you to set up bookmarks for your social media. This was just a start for what Google chrome had to offer. Mr. Wickens believe it is growing  and it will be used in education daily. 

C4Tp #2

"Broadening Horizons" Summary

Sylvia's blog was about her teaching career and how the end of the year meant some shift in her job whether it be location, grade, position, etc. She happily announced her change in location. Sylvia will move to Brazil and focussing on Graded's Middle School in São Paulo, Brazil. She will not only face a change in location but culture as well. I find it enlightening and necessary that she is currently using all her resources to better prepare and acquaint herself with Brazil by visiting, using apps, listening to vid cast and podcasts? Making a bucket list, etc. I also found it interesting that she found it important that she keeps virtual relationship with her former colleagues by utilizing their digital literacy. They will continue to use these tools to "enable learning and collaborations". I believe Sylvia's readiness and willingness to learn about her new location, culture, and school while teaching her new students will further her career and her students educational advancement. 

"Leaving a Legacy" Summary 

Sylvia's post was about her grandmother being a gifted gardener. She passed 22 years ago however seeds that she planted those many years ago are still blooming beautiful roses. It was truly an inspiration to me because I know firsthand how difficult dealing with death of a loved one can be. To be able to see their fruits of their labor still producing and being notice long after their departure from this earth reminds you of their hard work & dedication. Doing what you love, working hard for what you love lives on forever in you & in the people you love. 

C4Ta #2

PEGeeK

For my second C4T I was giving the blog post with great PE tools and new ideas. In the first blog I found out about a First aid recording app that could be used to record small accidents. It also showed  the measures that should be taken to ensure the safety of the person involved. In the video the app is explained and it shows that it could be used to rid people of the paperwork that could get lost while trying to file accidents.

Stretch It

In the second blog I read, I discovered an app in which the PEGeeks described and made flash cards to show cool-down and warm up stretches. Each card has a picture in which it shows what stretch or activity is to be done and how it should be done. As a PE teacher this could be great for students to see actually what they are stretching and why it is important to stretch. The app can be used on any iPad or iPhone.

Blog Post #8

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

Final Lecture

Randy  Pausch

What I learned from Randy Pausch goes beyond just teaching and learning. He describes stories, tells us about his obstacles and leave us in shock in his final statements. We learn that we can’t change the hand we are dealt. What he means is that situations and things happen in life that we can’t change but we must accept them and move forward. Randy’s topic of discussion is not about how he is expected to die in 6 months from a tumor or about religion and what he feel he need to accomplish before he dies. Instead, he talks about his childhood dream and how he has worked his whole life to reach that dream.

Randy is a professor and he mentions how he gave a new assignment to one of his classes and the results he received were beyond his imagination.  His assignment was to have his students create a piece of work on a 2-week project. He was so mind blown from what they produced that he called his mentor to ask how do I tell my students that they all just received an A. His mentor said to him do not tell them, instead let them know they did ok but you expected a little more. He told Randy that he obviously didn’t know the limits of his students and that by giving away the excitement he could possible cage their possibilities. As a future educator that example meant so much to me because coming in as a new teacher you don’t always know your classroom limits and once you do limit them to certain work you eliminate the room for progression, creativity, and critical thinking. Never set the bar for your students because you are limiting them.

Randy left us with his final notes; he gives us ideas and things he thinks are important to use in life. The first was always remembered we can learn from our students. Always have fun with what you are doing, never lose the child-like wonders, help others, loyalty is a two way street, never give up, apologize when you mess up, and focus on other people. He also says brick walls let us show our dedication, they are there to separate us from people who really don’t want to reach their childhood dreams. Don’t bail, when people give you feedback but cherish it, show gratitude, don’t complain just work harder, find the best in everybody, and always be prepared. In the end Randy drops his two head fakes of the whole entire speech. The first one was that the discussion was not about chasing your childhood dreams but instead it was about how you should lead your life. And the second was that this final lecture was not for the audience or the people watching around the world but it was actually for his kids.

As Randy walked off the stage he received a standing ovation. His message was so empowering. I know it touched and open the eyes of many people in the audience. How could a man standing there in his final days smile, laugh and give credit to all those people who helped him along the way. Randy was a powerful man and presented a much-needed speech for the entire world to see. I will share his story and this link to others and hope they are just as motivated as I am to achieve my childhood dream and go after what I want in life. Thank you Randy Pausch.

Blog Post #7

Find at least three 21st Century Learning and Communication Tools not already covered in EDM310. Tell us about them. Tell us where we can find them. Give a thorough review of at least one of them.

mapul.com

Mapmyself provides a free site for users to easily create mind maps for any topic. The user must first conceptualize a topic that he or she wants to illustrate with mind mapping. There should be a central theme with several subcategories. Each subcategory can also have branch points and there is the option to annotate notes for any branch point.

Mind maps are fairly new educational tools that are still under investigation.  Mind maps help the learner associate thoughts and concepts with graphical representations.  Mapmyself provides a free site for users to easily create mind maps for any topic. The user must first conceptualize a topic that he or she wants to illustrate with mind mapping.  There should be a central theme with several subcategories.  Each subcategory can also have branch points and there is the option to annotate notes for any branch point.  MAPMYself also allows the user to upload pictures or graphics to the mind map to enhance the visual representations associated with the concepts.

This was a fun site for me. I actually set up an account and mapped my thoughts. I grade this tool a 4/5. The tool does has some minor problems with it and its not completely free. You have to upgrade in order to get full access to the tool. I believe it is a great tool for student to brainstorm and map out small subtitles and a main header.  

wetheteachers.com

We the Teachers is a free online social communication and collaboration platform for teachers in K-12. You can connect with other teachers and find and share learning materials like lesson plans and other instructional materials and educational resources.

Registration is very easy and in a couple of click you can join a big teacher network. Teachers can upload their lesson plans, search for related lesson plans, upload files, join different group discussions, add their friends, send and receive messages and more. We the Teachers is unique website in two perspectives. First is its social perspective: Teachers can easily integrate with other teachers in the world not just in a school or in a city. Second is its resource aspect: Teachers can easily upload and share different instructional materials. The website allows teachers to seek for help and share different ideas.

edheads.org

Edheads is an online educational resource that provides free science and math games and activities that promote critical thinking. There are several interactive modules, that can be used immediately such as weather where students learn about predicting weather and then can practice their knowledge online, design a cell phone where a student is provided with population demands and then has to create a desired cell phone, and virtual hip replacement surgery where learners participate in the virtual surgery. There are 15 different modules for now, ready to use and with easy access via the choose an activity tab.

Project #13

Members in our group (Daughtry) are: Corey Waldon, Erica Jeter, Chellyiss Nettles, and Melissa Neese. Our lesson addresses the following in math for Alabama State Standards: multiplication and division using whole numbers and also solving word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities. This lesson is intended for students in the third grade. This lesson will last a week with a day to review and a test the following Monday. Our ideas for this lesson came from ALEX, a web site used to give example lesson plan and grade objectives. Here are the links to our lesson:

Essential Checklist
Calendar

Overview

Rubric

Blog Post #6

Use technology don't teach it

In this video Anthony talks about many things that he is using in his 3^rd grade class. Anthony believes that as a teacher you cannot teach technology and how it can be used. Instead teachers should use technology to enhance the students learning by assigning projects using technology and allowing students to learn and correct mistakes to eventually master their technological skills. The teacher’s purpose is to serve as a review tool and allow students to present what they have learned. Each lesson should involve some type of usage of technology and once the students have mastered it they then move to another tool. Each new tool is used for future learning experiences.  Eventually, the student will be so technologically involved that they can use all those tools to create and evolve their work.

Anthony-Strange Tips for teachers part 1

In this video Anthony and Dr. Strange comes up with a list of tips for teachers. In the 21^st century learning will be completely different from what we formally knew it as. New technology and tools that are being used is making learning readily available and on the go.

The most important tip I got from this video was as a teacher, if you are not a learner teaching could be a hard job for you. As a teacher if you fail to continue to learn you will fall behind in a revolving learning evolution. Times have changed, teaching and learning is not the same as it was in the past. Everyday teachers are learning new ways to reach their students to improve their learning. The last tip I want to discuss is; let your work become a fun experience. I believe that when teaching becomes boring or seems like it is repeating itself is when you lose the interest of your students. Students need to be challenge, so learning shouldn’t be repetitive. Instead learning should be progressive, fun, and interactive. Doing daily journals, definitions and vocabulary words is what has drove education into this place of normality and repetitiveness. When a teacher makes teaching fun for them and their students is when students will learn without ever noticing it. Teaching is a learning experience for the teacher as well as the students. The more you are willing to be flexible and learn the better teaching experience you will have. Technology can and will open a window into a more progressive and successful learning experience for teachers and students.