Sunday, April 21, 2013

Blog Post #13

Brian Crosby
Back to the Future by Brian Crosby was very interesting. The beginning of the video he tells how he asked his fourth grade students questions that they should have been able to answer. He asked them if they knew the city they lived in, only nine knew the answer. He asked them which state they lived in, twelve knew the answer. Three students knew the country they lived in. There were twenty-four students in this class. Ninety percent of the students had attended the school since kindergarten. The majority were second language learners and were at risk due to poverty. The students need to be able to answer these simple questions even with the factors they are faced. He decided he needed to make sure he did interesting and intriguing activities to insure that the students will actually learn. They students conducted an experiment with a balloon that had a gps enabled camera. The students were able to track it on Google. They were to write a story about the journal as if they were the balloon. They used many free internet sites to use in their stories.
Mr. Crosby stated that he was told he would have a new student that his class would never meet due to her having cancer. They just needed her on roll so that she would qualify for home study. He didn’t like the idea of not meeting her. He decided to use technology to be able to include her in the classroom. I imagine that was great therapy for her as well as learning experience for her and the other students. I am excited about the use of technology in the classrooms and can’t wait to have my own classroom.

Paul Anderson
Paul Anderson ‘s Blended Learning Cycle video was very interesting. He was talking about how he has mixed blended learning with the learning cycle to create his blended learning cycle. He says blended learning is using mobile, online, and classroom learning in the classroom. The learning cycle he uses includes the five E’s engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. He uses the acronym Quivers to explain how he comes up with the steps the students take. Qu is the intriguing question that the students are given. I is for the investigation/inquiry of the students as they form their own questions about how they think this works and why. V is for video. The students are given a formative video to watch after they have formed their own opinions. E is for elaboration. The students are to do more research on the topic to go beyond the facts in the video. R is review. The teacher takes the students individually and talks with them to see if they completely understand what is being taught. S is the summary quiz that the students will receive after the teacher feels that the students understand the concept. I really like his ideas and feel that I can and will use this in my future classroom. I hope that I can find a way to use it in other subjects besides just science.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Marie, I am pleased to visit your blog for our last C4C. I am excited to be one more semester closer to becoming a teacher and I can imagine you are too. These gentlemen had a lot to offer us with their enthusiasm and ideas. As we become rookie teachers it will be important to learn from some of the veterans that has witnessed education change some through the years. However, I believe we will see schools change more in our careers than they have in theirs. We have to be prepared to embrace the coming changes and help foster in the new technologies in learning. Good blog post. I only discovered one small typo "They students" should have been "The students". Keep up the good work.

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