Blog Post #6

Project Based Learning Videos
Anthony Capps discusses his use of Project Based Learning in his 3rd grade class. He teaches at a Baldwin County school called Gulf Shores Elementary. The schools in Baldwin County are becoming more technologically advanced with the incorporation of new computers like Macbooks. Anthony talks about how involving the community and a real audience really grabs the attention of his 3rd graders. He gave an example of how his students wrote to congressman Jo Bonner about a real life situation. The class all wrote a letter however, only 8 were sent to the congressman. The selection of the letters to send aloud for the students to all work together to come up with something they could all be proud off. This involved the students, and was rewarding to them to be able to work together. Applying Project Based Learning to your classroom he said may not always workout the way you plan for it to. Since things do not always come out the way you plan then you have to be flexible, and make the changes you need to as you progress in your teaching career.

iCurio and Discovery Education
The next video was a discussion on the program called iCurio. This program is very new to me. I have honestly not heard of it before this class however, I was very interested to find out more after watching this. iCurio is a kid friendly program that allows for chidlren to keep their notes organized and even blocks content that are not appropriate for students. This program allows for students to save where they are and come back to it at a later point. I find this could be very useful in the classroom on those hectic days! Discovery Education is a website that Anthony also uses in his classroom. How it works is you can type in what you want to research, and then the website will link you to a video to watch and learn more about the subject. It is hard to try and describe something verbally, so using technology like this can really show your students what you are talking about.

Tips, Don't teach tech - use it, and lessons
Mr. Capps and Dr. Strange discussed 5 tips for new teachers. 1 tip that really stuck out in my mind was being flexible. Teaching younger students you need to always be prepared for things to not go 100% according to plan. When something goes wrong whether it is at fault of the teacher or the student then it is always important to be flexible and positive to improve next time. If you have to cut a lesson short and come back to it at a later time to keep the attention of your students then that is ok! I think the video on not teaching technology but using it is very important. It is important for teachers to continue to be learners as well so that we can keep up with the technology. In my future classroom I plan on practicing with the technology myself before asking the students to use it. The video on lessons was tips on how to arrange your lesson plans. I found this video very interesting and helpful. I have not begun my teaching career yet, and so I have not had to make a lesson plan yet. Something important that he mentioned was that you have your yearly plan, unit plan, weekly plan, and equally as important youir daily plan. I found this video interesting because I have wondered about how creating lesson plans happens. So with these lesson plans ties back into being flexible. Your plan might not always follow through on time, so it is important to stay positive and flexible to your plan!

New Teacher