Blog Post #7!

Project Based Learning Part 1 and Project Based Learning Part 2 are both video of an interview with Anthony Capps on how he uses PBL(Project Based Learning) in his third grade classroom. Anthony starts by saying that educators think of PBL as a means of having our students show us what they have learned, but really PBL is a method of learning. I think this is a very important thing for us to realize. Project Based Learning is actually a method of learning. Who knew? Anthony also says, "The students should need content that you need them to know in order to be able to do the project." Meaning, that if the students can complete the project without learning something new, then your probably doing it wrong. When presented with e project the students should have to do research, be taught a lesson, read a book,and discover new facts in order to complete it. If they don't are you teaching? We should always strive to challenge our students, and if we are taking up their precious time by having them create something they already know about or how to do are we helping them at all?
Anthony also talks about the goal of a good project and gives four points. First, you need to be sure that the project has an authentic audience. You need to give your students a reason to work hard. By having them present their work they are more likely to take more pride in the work they do. Having an audience motivates the student to want to learn.

Second, the project should be interesting. There are students somewhere right now reading, studying, creating something that they won't be able to tell you about in a week. Why? Because they don't care. They aren't interested. I think that it's pretty obvious that we are only going to make room in our minds for something that interests us. Not those things we really don't care about. If you liked football a lot more than you liked baseball, would you spend your time learning about and remembering everything there is to know about baseball or football? Of course not. We need to make every aspect of a child's education interesting and memorable.
Anthony also says that a good project should involve the community. How many times as a student or teacher have you heard a child say or said, "When am I going to need this is real life?". Hundreds of times. So why are we as educators not striving to make every lesson we possibly can relate to the real world! This helps the students understand the importance of attaining this knowledge.
The final point Anthony makes about the goal of a good project is, it must be content driven. Everything that happens in our classroom should be content driven. Why wouldn't it be? Why on earth would we assign a project to our class that does not meet standards? It happens, and it shouldn't. We need to engage our children in activities that are going to help them when they leave our class. We need to make sure that every thing we do i a learning and valuable experience. If it's not why are we even there!



iCurio Discovery Education both of these resources are very interesting to me. In these videos Anthony brought up several great things about each site that I was previously unaware of. Things that have definitely intrigued my interest in using both sites in my future lessons.
iCurio is a site that both teachers and students can utilize. It houses lesson plans, texts, worksheets, videos, pictures, etc. that teachers can use to enhance their lessons. Making it easier to find content related material. Students can use iCurio as a search engine to do research. iCurio is a safe and secure place for students to do research without the possibility of coming across inappropriate material. iCurio also offers students a way to save and organize the material they find into files and folders.

In the video Anthony mentions how the means of organization has changed in today's world. We no longer use hard copies but rather digital copies of documents and notes. The organization feature of iCurio helps the student become familiar with online or digital filing and also improves their organization skills. Some other really neat features that Anthony mentioned were the timeline, read aloud and historical figure features. I personally really like the historical figures feature. Students can use this feature to find out about people from different parts of history. If you are studying slavery for example, and you have assign a project to your class that involves them dressing up as an important person from this era, your students may not have ever head of Harriet Tubman (depending on their grade level). With this feature the student can simply search Slavery, woman, black and a list of black women from the times of slavery will appear. I think this is an excellent tool to use. It expands your students knowledge and helps them to learn to teach themselves.
Discovery Education is also a very helpful site to use in your classroom. This website is full of videos for you to use to enhance your lesson. Anthony uses the quote, "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth a million.". This is so true. Showing a video of something happening is the most effective way to get your students engaged. These videos allow your to "bring the experts into the classroom" and give your students a deeper understanding of the content. As teachers we are supposed to be experts on everything, we just have to know how to find those experts and give our students access to it. We have to engage while we teach and if we don't know enough about a topic to make it interesting, who does? Where can I find it? Discovery Education is the best website to make this happen for educators.



The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1
By:Brooklyn Rowland

Dr. Strange and his former student and current 3rd grade teacher, Anthony Capps create a list of tips in this video that could help teachers be at the top of their game.

Be a learner.

As educators it is important that we are willing to learn as much as we are willing to teach. The world around us is constantly changing, and advancing, and despite these changes we still need to prepare our students to be successful in the real world. The only way we can do this is by changing, advancing and learning with the world. We must move forward in order to help our students thrive. We must be life long learners!

Work and play are one in the same. Anthony brings up the fact that to be successful educators we have to take our work home. In order to be the best you can be for your students, no matter the grade level, you have to work outside the scope of 8 hour school days. You have to find a way to make what you do fun for you. Anthony says, "We are in the craft of teaching." and he is so right. Everyone has a hobby, something they like to do on the weekends and after work. As educators, teaching is our hobby! At least, it should be. Teaching is not something you just wake up and decide to do. Teaching is a calling. It is something you have to love to truly be good at it. We should all strive to be the best we can, and we can do that by loving our jobs!

Every classroom has a daily schedule. Without a schedule you could never fit all 7 subjects into your day. Your classroom has a routine and you stick to that routine. The only problem with that is that the school also has a schedule and routine and sometimes your classroom schedule and the school schedule do not coincide. What does this mean for us as teachers? We have to be prepared for ANYTHING. For a sudden assembly, a fire drill, no internet, computers are broken, anything. We have to be flexible. You have to be able to figure out how to get the concept across in another way. You have a plan and are prepared for your lesson but what if your plan does not work out? You have to be able to bounce back, think on your feet, and come up with something else and not let it ruffle your feathers. Teachers must be flexible.

One way to be a flexible teacher is to understand what the ultimate goal is for every lesson that you teach. When planning your lessons ask yourself, what is my goal? What do I want my students to understand? This way you have the most important aspect in the front of your mind and it is your focus. So if something does go wrong and your plan aren't quite panning out you can quickly find a way to bounce back and keep things moving in your classroom.

Dr. Strange and Anthony also mentioned presentations in the video. Anthony then takes it a step farther and says that reflection is important for your classroom. Presentations and reflection go hand in hand. Having your students present to an audience is a good way for them to reflect upon their work. They could self reflect and try to figure out before or after how they could make the project better for the specific audience. What would make it more interesting? They could all use audience critique to reflect on their work and their presenting skills. When students reflect on their work to make it better they are expanding their realm of learning. They are going beyond what you. as their teacher, can do for them.

The final tip discussed in the video is that you should engage your students. Anthony says you should have 100% of your students engaged at all times!

He also says that you can not leave any child behind, he is taking the phrase out of context to mean that you have to intrigue and engage EVERY student EVERY time. I think the most important job we have as educators is to make students want to learn. Children are not going to learn unless they want to. You can teach them something until you are blue in the face but if they don't have the desire to know the information, they won't. You have to make every lesson entertaining, intriguing and informational. When children have the desire to learn they will go above and beyond the classroom activities they will learn on their own. They will read, they will search the internet, they will succeed. Isn't that what we want? Do we not want every student that sits in our classrooms and takes our tests to be successful adults? If this isn't your goal you might want to rethink your profession. I want to inspire and motivate. One day I want to say, "You see that man/woman on the news? I taught him/her!" Our teachers shape who we are as learners, and as people. They make us we are. I don't know about any of you, but I want to make successful, caring, passionate and lifelong learners. Those are the kinds of people I want walking out of my classroom at the end of the year.

Teaching is my passion and what I truly believe I was born to do. I also believe this video to be very insightful and helpful to any future or even current teachers. We need to strive to make our world a better place and it all starts with our children. We as educators are responsible for molding young minds to be the future doctors, lawyers, teachers and leaders of our countries. The most important job in the world is the one that all of us strive to have.



Don’t Teach Tech- Use it
By: Jordan Neely

Technology shouldn’t be taught; it is natural for kids and everywhere in their lives. Kids are going to like to use technology to prove they are learning. Anthony used an example of Discovery Ed. The first week of school you could use Discovery Ed to teach your students a certain topic, the next week you can have the students use a video portion of iMovie to create a reflection or summary on a story you have read in class. Dr. Strange asked Anthony if his third graders have had any problem using iMovie or learning how to work it and he said absolutely not. They could use research tools and video tools to create a project requiring a movie component to it. Eventually the students will be able to combine all the skills they have learned. At first, you need to choose one technology at a time and focus on it. Make sure the students learn it and are able to use it to the best of their ability before introducing them to a new program or website. Using technology allows students to express themselves and has several benefits. Anthony mentioned that most programs are free and if they do cost it is normally only a one-time fee for membership. Technology doesn't need supplies and doesn't have to be cleaned up after, such as messes and spills. The tools that students will be learning in the classroom today will help them to learn the new tools that will be created in their futures. As a teacher, Anthony suggests you to scaffold the learning and let them use one tool at a time. They can share what they are doing with people from all over world and be excited about doing the work. As a teacher you cannot expect perfection, your students are going to make mistakes with their first research project. This is when you set aside a time for reflection to fix those mistakes and the next week those mistakes will be fixed and they will be ready to move a step ahead. The students will love being able to share what they have learned and accomplished while learning new tools. If you are worried about how a certain project is going to work out, do the project yourself first. If any questions arise in class, you will have already done the project and will hopefully be prepared to answer any questions. If neither of you know the answer to a question, this can teach the child problem solving skills and you can work together as a class to overcome the obstacle. In order to learn, questions must be asked.



An Additional Thought About Lessons

By: Kaley McDonald

How do we as teachers create an effective, successful lesson plan? Anthony explains in this video that developing a successful lesson requires four components. These components are year, unit, week, and daily plans that require the skills of time management and abundant planning to construct. The first, year plan, is to decipher how the lesson will fit into the year and making sure all the expected common core standards will be met and accomplished. Next is the unit plan. The unit plan can be formulated by asking and answering the question, "How will I unfold the unit so that it's relevant and all information and standards tie in together with the unit?" This concept involves beginning with an aspect and continuing to develop the material as time progresses so that by the end of a unit students should be able to accomplish the outcome expected. Next is the weekly plan, in that time must be managed in order to get everything that needs to be done, complete. This involves planning what will transpire through the week, what projects will be constructed, and assessing the student's accomplishments in the short time period of a five day week. The final component of the four, would be the daily plan. The daily plan affects how you deliver information to your students on a daily basis. Being flexible and observing what is working and what is not is key to daily planning, in that you'll know how to plan for the next day, and the next, and so forth. You must hook them, meaning you must obtain their attention with elements that interest them, keep them engaged while delivering content, and then offer entities afterwards to determine and record what they’ve learned for that day so you'll know where to begin the next day. All these components must be equally performed for the outcome of a successful lesson to transpire.