Blog Post # 7

Project Based Learning Part 1 and 2

Anthony Capp's ideas about project based learning are constantly evolving. Projects are what you do at the end of a lesson to show what you have learned. The goal and the shift is that it is not only a way to show the student has achieved a goal but also a way to get the students to learn something. Mr. Capps says that the goals of a good project are: one that has an authentic audience, one with student interest, one that involves the community to show real world relations, and also one that is content driven. Students have to know the content that the state requires them to know in order to complete the projects. One  project that Mr. Capps has utilized in his classroom was for his students to write a letter to Congressman Jo Bonner. This project covers writing, reading, and social studies with the state standards.  They used iCurio to find female or minority historic figures that demonstrates success when it was uncommon. They found someone that served in the military and wrote Congress about why or why not they thought that this was a good idea. The students selected eight of the best letters and sent them in to Jo Bonner's office. He also talked about a second time 3rd grade student that raised her hand and explained why an answer was correct using a t chart and pointing to the part of the book that described the answer to the question.
Capps said not everything will go well, and explained to us about a  project that one of his student's parent was not happy about the child having to write a story about being a child in Afghanistan. He had to give that child an alternate project to do. He gives the tip to never limit your students, create an opportunity for them to go beyond what you want them to do and they will.
Your going to get more than you expect with project based learning. When Dr. Strange asked Mr. Capps to analyze the projects of his class against the college EDM310 class, he said that his best were similar to Dr. Stranges' best and his worst were similar also. The difference was his projects were done by 3rd graders and Dr. Stranges were done by college students.
Project Based learning involves a method to evaluate students and a method that helps students learn. It takes a lot of work to make the project successful. The parents and students both have positive feedback on the use of Project Based Learning in the classroom. He also said that all of his "bosses" have high approval ratings because they think that as long as the students are engaged they are learning. They allow him to take the reigns. Mr. Capps then tells us about a Project where his Principal invited people into her teachers classrooms. Mr. Capps students had been working on writing a sequence chart from a story. The students then had to pick the three most important scenes that the story couldn't make it without. Finally, they had to choose the one scene that played the biggest effect on the outcome of the story. Their reward was they got to make a comic strip online of that scene. A lot of things were going wrong that day and Mr. Capps had to improvise. So he had to figure out a back up plan in a hurry, he decided that he would allow them to sit down and paint their scene. Before they were allowed to paint they had to write a defense on why they chose this scene. This all was happening while his principal Mrs. Julie sent around a large group of people to ask and learn about project based learning. As a result of his students all loving project base learning, Mr. Capps got invited to Montgomery to represent teachers around Alabama to talk about PBL along with other state departments. In the end, Dr. Strange summarizes project base learning as students being learners and engaging in the process of learning, they don't just memorize the information and burp it back. Project based learning is a very effective and exciting way to engage students in learning! Thanks for sharing a few of your projects with us!

 

Discovery Education

 

 

Anthony said Discovery Ed is a great tool for Project Based Learning. In this video interview with Anthony Capps, he stated "A picture is worth a thousand words, so a video must be worth a million."
Discovery Ed uses visual aids to help students take learning to the next level. If you watch a video about a subject you are more likely to remember it, rather than just reading about it.
If a child has a visual text, they will take in and remember a lot more. It is great for certain subjects like social studies and science. If the student uses Discovery Ed as a search engine, whatever they search will return a video to watch instead of a picture or just words. Through the digital world, Discovery Ed brings more to each lesson with the ability to research any topic and find a video about that topic. You even can compare and contrast things you have watched on Discovery Ed.
Capps said, "Discovery Ed really brings texts to life!" Discovery Ed engages students better than just books, and it is a tool that can easily be used in the classroom. Through using Discovery Ed, students can watch videos of other people stating facts and opinions about a topic, which as I stated would be more beneficial than just reading! Capp said his students had positive reactions to Discovery Ed. Every since we did the slide show on iCurio and Discovery Ed, I have been interested in learning much more about them. It was really cool to hear a teacher that actually uses Discovery Ed in the classroom talk about how it works, and also how it involves and engages the students.

 

iCurio

 

In the video chat about iCurio, Anthony Capps gives the EDM310 class a few examples on how he uses iCurio in his 3rd grade classroom. ICurio is a search engine that filters searches and allows students to pull up information that fits the ACCRS. You can search websites, images, video, etc. It has a place to store files in folders to help with student and teacher organization and also easy access. ICurio can be used as a read-aloud tool for students who have trouble reading, or students who are impaired in other ways. You can bookmark your place using iCurio, in case you are interrupted and need to go back later.  When using iCurio, you can search using specific criteria. Two other features are the Time lines and Historical Features, Anthony said he plans on using the Time lines feature more next year. They already use the Historical features in which students type in a keyword without knowing anything more about the subject, with the keyword only there would be a list of Historical Features of whatever they were researching. Example: If they wanted to know who built airplanes, they could type in "first airplanes built" and it would pull up the first airplane engineers.

Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1

By. Shanda Thornton

 

On the video The Anthony-Strange tips for Teachers Part 1, Dr. Strange's first question was, "What are some of the most important things to do to prepare yourself as a teacher?" The six tips they talk about are key factors that any new teacher should take into consideration before they begin their journey as an educator. The first tip was to Always be a learner, you won't be a successful teacher if you are not willing to always learn new things. We are constantly learning and we have to model that behavior for our students.Teaching is hard. When teaching, work is not separate than play. You learn the craft of teaching in your free time. You also put in more than eight hours a day. Teaching is never ending. Teaching is always rewarding. Teaching should be fun, so let it be fun! Be flexible. Start with a goal. You should never be so dead set on a lesson plan just in case the unexpected will happen. You should always have a plan “B”. Never be so committed to a lesson plan that you can’t be able to respond to the unexpected. Always start with the end in mind, it may not look like it is going to end up right like you planned but that will teach you what you need to change the next time you teach the lesson. Flexibility is key. Keep your students as engaged as possible! The goal is 100% engaged. It is critical to engage students. A good question is, “How can I get everyone of my students involved in this process?” Students should also be able to share what they have done and use audience critiques to help correct their work. Self evaluation is really important in the process of educating. All of these tips are sure to help all new teachers begin to find their way on their journey.

 

 

Use Technology-Don't teach it!

By. Chastity Westry

 

 

 

 Anthony Capps stated that technology comes natural to every child, regardless if they are in a low or high income area. He gave off the impression that he strongly encourages the use of technology in the classroom. During the video, Anthony explains that technology should be a part of a teacher’s curriculum. Basically, do not teach technology, use it in the classroom. When designing assignments switch up the technology you’re using. For example, Anthony chose one technology to focus on at a time. In doing so, this gave every student the opportunity to review and continue using this technology in their learning. Some positive aspects of this method are students being able to express themselves and it is inexpensive. To conclude, Anthony encouraged his readers to use technology in the classroom. He stated to let technology get your students excited about learning. When incorporating technology in your lessons, don’t ever expect perfection. The main concern is to focus on one technology at a time and let your students share their work.

 

 

Additional Thoughts about Lessons

By. Chastity Westry

 

 

In the video, “Additional Thoughts about Lessons”, Anthony stated that a lesson is at least four layers thick. First, a teacher has to think about how the lesson will tie in with the year. For example, you have to produce a curriculum map that includes the standards that are to be covered during the year. The next layer of a lesson is unit size. A teacher has to make sure that they have advised unit projects or assignments in a way that is meaningful and stair-stepped properly. This is very important and helpful because it will be a planned out map of what students will learn at the beginning of the year and will be able to master by the end of the year. After producing your unit, the next step is to advise weekly goals. These weekly goals will demonstrate what will be covered daily and mastered by the end of that week. The last step of the four layers of a lesson by Anthony Capps is creating the daily plan. The daily plan will consist of instructions on how the material will be delivered to the students. It will also include how the teacher will get the students engaged in lesson and the method of assessing them on what is being delivered.




photo credits to:
www.eaglesbiology.com Project Based Learning
 www.madison.d11.org -Discovery Ed
hofergraceedm310.blogspot.com - icurio
www.educatorstechnology.com Tips for Teachers
mooneydarriusedm310.blogspot.com use technology
www.thejournal.com Additional thoughts picture