Blog Post #6

Video 1

In the video Project Based Learning Part Anthony Capps discusses his use of Project based learning in his 3rd grade class. Anthony explains that when they involve a real audience and include the community they care more about their project so they do better work. He also talks about using project based learning in your teaching and not just as a side note to your lesson. He talks about how his students sent in letters to Jo Bonner about women in combat. This project included writing, reading and social studies. Students were also able to learn from their community and that was really cool. I love seeing things that we learn in this class applied in a real classroom.

Video 2

In the second half of Project Based Learning Anthony discussed how not all projects have a great outcome. Anthony shares that his class was studying Afghanistan and learning all about the people and one of his parents did not want their child learning about that culture. They also did not want their child participating in the project in anyway. This shows how not all projects are successful. His students learned a lot from this project. I really loved when Anthony said "create an opportunity for your students to go beyond what you expect." I think this is a great motto to teach by!

Video 3

In this video title iCurio Anthony Capps moves on from his discussion of Project Based Learning to iCurio. Anthony uses iCurio to help his students stay organized and keep track of all of their notes and information. I love that iCurio is kid friendly and blocks thing that could be inappropriate for children. I found how you can search with categories. I feel this could be very useful in my future classroom, when my students need to do a research project or assignment.

Video 4

In the video Discovery Education we learn about the site Discovery Education. In this video Anthony uses the quote "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth a million" I agree with this quote, and also in the use of Discovery Ed. Sometimes I feel that videos are used to take up time not actually teach but if you find any informational video that your students will enjoy they are more to learn something. I really liked Anthony's example with studying plants and using Discovery Ed to enhance the study and viewing pictures and videos about the plants.

Video 5

In the video, The Anthony - Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1 Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps give tips to future educators. These tips covered key topics, that any new teacher should think about. Dr. Strange and Anthony suggest that you should be interested in learning yourself. Teaching is work but it should be interesting and enjoyable. Another tip is to be flexible. You must keep your students engaged or they won't pay attention and learn anything. I feel that if that means cutting your lesson short because half of your students aren't paying attention then you do it and come back to your lesson later. Anthony emphasizes that you can keep your student attention by talking about things the students care about.

Video 6

I really agree with everything Anthony said in the video Use Tech Don't Teach It. Gradually adding in the technology is a great way to help the students understand how to use them. Anthony uses the term scaffolding as a way to describe how he introduces it into his classroom. Every week he adds on to what he taught the week before. His example is starting with research tools and video tools and turning them into research videos about the information they researched.

Video 7

In the video Additional Thoughts About Lessons Anthony made some very good points on how there are four tiers in lesson planning; the school year, the unit, weekly, and daily. You start with everything you need to cover in the whole school year. Then you break it down into units, which would be about 6 weeks long. By the end of the unit the students should be able to do X in that subject. When looking at your unit, you should divide the lessons into weeks. For example if our unit is plants, week one may be all about what is in the dirt and what needs to be in the dirt for something to grow, week two could be focusing on the roots, week three could focus on the stem and leaves, and so on. At the end of the unit  the students should know all about plants; how they work, what they need to survive, etc. Your weeks then need to be divided into days.

The days to week act just like the weeks to unit. On Friday, your students should know X about that subject. If we continue with the plant unit, in week three the students should know all about stems and leaves and their functions. So Monday the students should learn where the stem and leaves are on the plant, Tuesday they can learn why the stem is important, etc. On Friday, the students should know all about stems and leaves. My biggest fear about teaching is not having enough time to cover all of the material well enough that the kids understand it, but I think that this tier lesson plan idea will help.