Blog Post #13

Paul Anderson has been a high school teacher for 19 years, so he has had plenty of years to come up with great teaching strategies. The style he is passionate about is blended learning. The way it's blended is it uses three ways of learning and blends them together. The resources he uses are the internet, mobile, and the classroom. I like that he uses acronyms to help himself and his students remember things. That is one the things I use myself when learning new things. But, in explaining the cycle he uses in blended learning, he called it the 5 E's: Engage, explore, explain, expand, and then evaluate. This makes it very clear and easy to understand this concept.

I love that this allows children to learn how to learn on their own. Many people just don't know  how to do this. I believe that this day in age teaching is going to the next level! Mr. Anderson explained the six parts of his cycles and it included, asking good questions, the investigation, video lessons, elaboration, review, and summaries. After they go through the cycle they have a regular paper and pencil test. I like how he makes it so important to make sure every child understands the material before going on. The students are not even allowed to go on to their quizzes until teacher approves. He also makes sure he asks his students many questions to get an idea of what they know and if they are ready to move forward. These are awesome teaching tips! Too many times are made to fend for themselves if they are left not understanding. Mr. Anderson is such a great role model to future teachers.



Brian Crosby is a fourth grade teacher, and has been teaching for over 30 years. He values community service, he believe it is a powerful positive influence on students. He is a believer that having creativity will spark children's desire to learn. I like that he uses he blogs as a way to assess what the children know. After their science experiments they are required to answer in depth questions about the project then have a quiz. I like that he makes sure they have a understanding in the topic before hand.

I hope one day to have a project like High Hopes, that goes global! How exciting that must be for the students. That is something they will never forget, and to just think of how many people he helped.  This video also showed how amazing technology is by allowing a sick child to still be included with her classmates. Even five years ago that may have been impossible! It's moving so fast, and for the good.The most stand out thing he referenced in this video was talking about how the basics can  be addressed more effectively, and skills can be developed when learning is made in a meaningful way. That statement will be with me for a long time.

 C4K# 9
Tyson is a 4th grader from Nebraska. Tyson describes some of the food he likes. He also gave us some facts about Nebraska like, how the weather changes from sunny to rain very quickly. They also have the biggest hand planted forest. He explained his love for sports, and that his brother is much different from him. He asked about where everyone else is from, and is our state is famous for anything.
My response was that I am from Alabama and we are known for our beautiful beaches. I told his how lucky we are here to live only an hour away. I explained that I have never been to Nebraska, but him describing how nice it is makes me want to visit!
Tyson 

C4K#10
Jarrod is a nine year old student from Victoria, Australia. In this blog he wrote about a interview he did with his five year old brother, Tyler. Jarrod asked him to name some of his favorite games, and what his favorite things about school. Tyler said that he really enjoyed being with his big brother, and playing games together. Jarrod put together a sweet video about his brother life.
My response was that I loved that him and his brother are so close. And I told him I had one sister, and that I had three little girls. I told him his video was very sweet, and I asked him if he enjoyed putting it together.
Jarrod

C4T #4

  

Comment #1

Johnny Bevacqua explains in his blog post the importance of working collaboratively. He believe it promotes children to be creative and promotes deep learning. He also feels that competition between students promotes those similar benefits, but feels that competition, and creativity should always be used together.Some research was found that said if the focus was on competition then the work will be done fast. If it was done with cooperation then it will be done right.  Johnny says to teach student when to use both characteristic will teach them to be better role models.

I told him that kids should never be in a hurry to get their work done in order to "beat" another kid. That sounds like we are putting the wrong ideas in their heads about school work. Their goals should always be to get the work done, but right!

Comment #2

This post by Dan Kerr was very uplifting for me at this time of stress from deadlines and finals, along with managing a household with three kids.. He explains the importance of smiles. Smiles have the power to directly alter your mood. He said that the simple act of waking up with a smile will set your day up much more positively.  It will make you more approachable to your students, and fellow teachers. It will help make students feel welcome in your classroom, which will lead to incredibly happier children. 

I wrote about how much I need to read this post tonight. With being overcome with stress at times it's east to forget that it's almost over and I'm a little closer to my reward of being a teacher. I realized I need to make more of an effort in smiling more often not only for my children, but for myself. It's such a simple act that can go such a long way.

 

Blog Post #12

For our assignment this week we will be looking at links discussing various ways to make presentations in the elementary classroom. There are so many sites out there that are similar, but better than a typical powerpoint presentation. These sites are allowing children to use there creativity in a way that incorporates what they have learned about.

Prezi in the Classroom

Introduction to Prezi

Learning Prezi

Glogster Information

PhotoPeach Tutorial

You will come up with three ways to present in today's classroom. Write a blog post about the tool's that you have found. Then out of the three you wrote about, pick one and make your own presentation using the tool. The presentation can be on a children's book, or any subject pertaining to a grade level you are interested in. Make sure your examples of ways to present would be engaging and motivating to students.


Rebecca's presentation:

You can use prezi to promote research presentations in a way that engaging for students to not only make, but also watch. You can make you slides have more creativity in movement and look. You can add video, and audio to your prezi slides. Prezi is great for grades 5th-12th. But if you are looking for something for the younger crowd glogster is the way to go. Children can make presentations or the teacher can describe her assignments in a fun way. You can use to present book reports and class projets. Photopeach can use a combination of music,photos, and text to present a topic. It is also very interactive so group work is greatly advised for this program.