Blog Post Assignment #11

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?

In the video Back to the Future by Brian Crosby, I learned new technology tools I can use in my future classroom. My favorite was allowing the class to make a Wiki page. This idea was exciting for me because it goes beyond just having a class blog. I believe the students would really like this idea because Wiki pages are viewed by so many people around the world.

In Paul Andersen's Blended Learning Cycle video, he discussed blended learning and the learning cycle. Blended learning includes online, classroom, and mobile learning. The learning cycle includes the five E's: engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. When you combine blended learning and the learning cycle you get the Blended Learning Cycle. The steps of the Blended Learning Cycle are questioning, investigating and inquiring, giving video instruction, elaborating on the instruction, reviewing the subject, and giving a summary quiz. The Blended Learning Cycle is definitely something I want to use in my future classroom. This technique would be a way to get the students more involved and also a way to see if they are actually learning.

Mark Church's Making Thinking Visible discussed looking at things differently. Church encourages teachers to teach for understanding and to think about their student’s culture while they are teaching.

Super Digital Citizen by Sam Pane was one of my favorite videos in this assignment. Pane let his students create comics in order to teach them how to use the internet safely. He stated that the comics are a visual presentation of learning and teaches dialogue. I think this way of teaching internet safety would be very effective and would show the teacher if their students know what not to do on the internet. It would also be a fun and enjoyable project for the students to do.

The last two videos were Project Based Learning and Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program. Project Based Learning is in depth learning based on real world problems. With Project Based Learning students learn how to work independently and in groups which helps them with communication. They also learn how to solve problems and the students get engaged in learning. At Roosevelt Elementary the teachers also got the community involved in their projects. Some Project Based Learning classrooms includes combining English, History, and Technology into one. I think inclusion of other subjects is a great idea for Project Based Learning.