Blog Post 11

What can we learn from these teachers?

In Back to the Future, Brian Crosby lectures on his way of giving high risk students a unique education. Most of the kids in his classroom live below the poverty line and English is considered their second language. He says it is important to use technology in the classroom to give students different opportunities. He believes that all students should be taught to develop skills in a motivational and meaningful context, not just the students that attend schools with high test scores.

In Blended Learning Cycle video by Paul Andersen, he tells how he uses the blended learning cycle in his classroom. The blended learning cycle involves online, mobile, and classroom learning- all blended together. There are five E's to remember when using this method: engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. This method can be used for almost any subject. 

In Making Things Visible, students in Mark Church's classroom are required to make headlines to answer questions for certain topics. I think this is a great idea to really see if students are understanding the topic. If they are able to sum it up in their own words, they are able to understand and analyze the topic. This is also a great way to get opinions and see the different way that children think. 

Super Digital Citizens is a video by Sam Pane showing how he teaches Internet safety to his students, who all have their own laptop computers. He says it is everyone's responsibility to be a super digital citizen. He gives the class the definition of a digital citizen, and gives examples of what digital citizens should not do. He then allows the students to create their own superhero (who is a super digital citizen). They are allowed to modify their superhero however they want. They then are responsible for writing a narrative story about their superhero, which ties this project into their English language standards. I thought this was a great project and it is definitely something I want to do in my classroom. 

In Project Based Learning, teachers worked on restructuring their day to incorporate project based learning. They used technology as a tool to bring content to life in their classroom. Technology should not be an add on to regular classroom instruction, but a key way in delivering information. Kids loved using project based learning, because it gave them a chance to really take ownership of their project. Seeing other students work hard on theirs makes them want to work just as hard. 

Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program really promotes project based learning and a more in depth learning environment. It involves a lot of teacher collaboration and them working on designing creative projects that fit into the curriculum standards. However, it is worth it. Parents of students love it! The children really show understanding and learning of 21st century skills. Even struggling children have a spark in them that is curious about the world. PBL is the way for students to ignite the spark. It takes a lot of effort to make this work, but the students' achievement is worth it.