Blog Post 11

In Brian Crosby's video, Back to the Future, it showed how awesome of a teacher he is. At the beginning of the semester, he took a survey to see where the children in the classroom stood. I found it very disturbing that the children didn't know common stuff like the country they lived in, their address, their phone number, etc. The project that this video was based around was very unique. The students first made a story about how they were a  balloon taking a trip. The stories would start out by the students talking about how they are getting helium put in them. They then made a wiki and used photos from their classrooms Flickr. Then, they used a free online software to make a book cover and used the embedded code to put it into their blog. Finally, they did an actual experiment. They had professionals come in from outside of the school and built a camera for the balloon. They then set it off and were able to track the balloon as to how high it was, and they could also see view from the balloons perspective. Brian Crosby and his children in his classroom have an awesome personal learning network going on. They talk often via Skype with other students in other countries. He allows kids to learn on their own and it makes them feel more involved. He had a student that was diagnosed with leukemia and she had to study at home because her immune system was poor. She would Skype in so she could become a part of her class. That just shows how is goes above and beyond for his students.  

Paul Andersen talked about his view on the blended learning cycle in this video. The six steps to this cycle is:

1. Question

2. Investigate/Inquiry

3. Video

4. Elaboration

5. Review 

6. Summary Quiz

In Mark Church's Making Thinking Visible video, he talks about how motivation is key. He also focuses on how letting children see things from a different perspective is important. Having the children be supportive of each other is crucial in the learning world. 

Sam Pane, a 5th grade teacher in Omaha, Nebraska, had a very unique way of teaching. In the video Super Digital Citizen, he had the children make a internet superhero. Some children designed their superhero to stop internet bullying. They built comic strips by taking pictures of themselves and using text bubbles. They also met all the English standards doing this. I have personally never seen anything like this before and it really shows how unique you can get with your teaching. 

In Dean Shareski's Project Based Learning video, he states what PBL is. He then goes on about how he and 2 other teachers incorporated English and History classes together. They went to their supervisor to present how they can incorporate Canadian English and Canadian History. They constantly push their students to do better. The students are also learning about issues such as state issues, poverty, and other issues. It is really interesting how they can incorporate two classes into one.

Roosevelt Elementary seems like an excellent school. All of the teachers have incorporated project based learning into their teaching. Not only does it help the students become more engaged, it also makes them learn more efficiently. A mother had a testimonial speech in the video stating that project based learning is working for her child. She also stated something that I haven't thought of before. Having project based learning at an early age benefits them by taking away the intimidation of speaking in front of others. In most PBL activities, the student must present to the class.