C4T #4 Experts & Newbies

Experts & Newbies is a blog that is not currently actively being used. It was created by John Larmer, the Buck Institute of Education editor in chief.

In the post Project Based Learning vs. Problem Based Learning he talks about the many ____-based learning methods that have been introduced lately. Two of the most popular being Project and Problem based learning.

Summary:

• Project-Based Learning
• Involves designing/creating a product or performance.
• Solves real-world problem
• Involves Investigating to achieve a solution

• Problem-Based Learning
• Begins with a problem
• List what we know and what we what to know
• States possible outcomes
• Share information and solution found

• Both Problem & Project Learning
• Focus on open-ended questions
• Emphasize students Independence

My Comment: 

Mr. Larmer!

Thank you for the clarification. As a students in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama, we have been focusing mostly all on Project based learning and we haven’t touched base on PROBLEM based learning and what it entails. I thoroughly enjoyed your post.

Justine Spicciani

Blog Post #5.B

As I explained previously, before EDM310 I did not know what a Personal Learning Network was and most importantly, I was unaware of the benefits of having a PLN. Unfortunately, during the duration of my semester in EDM310, I did not utilize or develop my rtPLN as much as I wanted to. But I have intentions of using a PLN as a tool in the educational field.

The components of a Personal Learning Network that I plan to use and will continue to use are,

• Twitter
• I think Twitter can be a great way to spread ideas through educators alike.
• Pinterest
• I think the use of pinterest should be introduced in EDM310. It is a great tool for cultivating ideas and projects that motivate students and bring out creativity.
• Teacher Blogs
• One of the coolest ways to learn new ideas are through reading about other educators experiences and insights.

Blog Post #14

Joel Klein has a vision for the future of schools and the educators that make up a school system. In his article Teaching Our Children Can Be a Profession he explains the issues that are apparent in our current United States school system. He also provides solutions that would help the system become a more successful and efficient one. Although many of his propositions seem drastic, he makes many valid points and he presents solutions that may help the education system.

• Problem 1: Educators have a lack of knowledge with academic programs, which results in ineffective teaching.
• Solution: Better academic training for prospective teachers.

• Problem 2: Teachers are able to teach if they simply obtain a college degree.
• Solution: The system should be more competitive, recruiters should only hire from the top third of every graduating class.

• Problem 3: Teachers with more experience are often chosen over newer teachers.
• Solution: Seniority shouldn't matter, teachers should be picked only because of their excellence not because of their experience. 

• Problem 4: Teachers do not respect their career position as a professional position.
• Solution: Teachers should have control over the standards to ensure "incompetent" teachers are "removed" 

• Problem 5: Promotions occur through time, not through achievement.
• Solution: Promotions should be granted to those who have shown great achievement and results through their teaching. 

Out of all of Klein's problems and their solutions the one that I find the hardest time agreeing with is Problem 2, I disagree that it is a problem that teachers are able to selected for hiring if they have their degree. I dint think this is a problem. Interview processes are a tool used to sift through teachers who aren't up to standard. I believe the solution of only hiring the top third of the graduating class is unfair. I fully believe a person's Grade Point Average is not an accurate criteria in determining whether or not a person can be a powerful and influential educator.

Blog Post #13

This week I learned about different ways to use technology in a classroom to help motivate students to learn and to be involved.

1.  In Class Dojo - A short Film the students in Mrs. Giuliani's 5th grade class made an excellent dramatization. They began by showing their classroom before using Class Dojo and it seemed that the students were disruptive and bored and unmotivated. After using the positive and negative points system for every student  it helped the students to be motivated to strive to become helpful and motivated students.

2.  Grodek's Dojo Tutorial helps teachers understand how to set up a Classroom Dojo.  He explains how to create an avatar for every student. A great advantage that the program offers is the feature to create your own positive or negative features. Next he shows how the program can help with attendance as students can double tap their avatar to indicate that they are present that day. At the end of the day, each student and even their parents can pull up their chart and see their percentage pie chart which shows where the positive and negative points are being placed. It's awesome because parents can keep track of their child's behavior.

3.  The news video Technology to Motivate Students brings viewers inside of Ms. Meyer's classroom where the students are reading Bridge to Terabitha. The students are reading this book using many different tools, some are using traditional books, ipads, ipod touches, kindles and different e-readers. The students love using the electronic tools to read because children love being apart of the technological age.

4.  In Louise Morgans presentation, Motivating Your Students to Write Through Blogging she explains why blogging can be so beneficial to a students development in writing. Next she shares resources that a teacher can use to set up a class blog for their classroom. An essential aspect of successful student blogging is having concrete rules that the students abide by while creating their post and while commenting on peers posts as well.


In brief we can motivate students with technology by using tools like,

•  Class Dojo
• motivate students to choose good behavior over bad behaviors.
• motivate classroom participation.

• Ipads, Ipods, kindles
• motivate children to read
• help students have easy access to defining a word in the text
• give students the option of writing notes directly in the text they are reading.

• Student Blogs
• encourage students to write
• get students involved in a global community
• teach students how to leave proper feedback

Comments For Kids: April

In the month of April I was invited to see the wonderful work of three brilliant children from all different parts of the globe, ranging from America, to New Zealand, to Canada!

1. Collin, a 7th grader, wrote an informative piece about March Madness.

I commented and said, 

2. Cruz, a student in primary school from New Zealand wrote a persuasive piece about why children shouldn't be given money.

 I commented and said,

3. Keanan, a student from Canada, wrote a post about the his senses while encountering a Centaur.

 I commented and said,

Blog Post #12

C4T #3 One Principal's Musings

One Principal's Musings is a blog written by Julie Vincentsen who is the principal at an Elementary school in Massachusetts.

Summary 1:
Capturing Struggling Readers is a post about using audio books to help students who are struggling to read books that their peers are reading easily. Principal Vincentsen suggests websites such as:

• Audible.com 
• $15/month
• 1 download per month
• Bookshare.org
• Free!
• Read-along text
• Learningally.org
• $99/annualy
• Great for students with dyslexia

Comment 1: 

Justine Spicciani
Mar 30, 2015 @ 01:58:02

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Principal Vincensten,

My name is Justine Spicciani, and like many students above me, I also am in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama.

I appreciate your suggestion of audio books for struggling readers, I currently am tutoring an eight year old in 2nd grade who is a struggling reader and I hope to incorporate audio books into his reading time.

Thanks so much for sharing,

Your Friend Justine
http://spiccianijustineedm310.blogspot.com/

Summary 2: Thank You Dr. King is a post written in honor of Doctor Martain Luther King Jr., as a reminder of how far we have come as a society and espeically in education. Julie wrote this email to parents at her school to share the powerful legacy of Dr. King and to remind us to be grateful for this opportunity to be able to share a classroom full of beautiful people from all tyoes of backgrounds. 

Comment 2:

Justine Spicciani
Apr 12, 2015 @ 19:39:57

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Thank you Principal Vincentsen for this reminder of how great Dr. King’s influence was to us. It is almost scary, yet breathtaking that the separation appeal was made only 58 years ago. But I am happy to know we have come such a long way since that time. Thanks again for sharing.

Blog Post #11

This week I had the privilege to learn from a few outstanding individuals.

The first, Brian Crosby, a teacher at Agnes Risley Elementary shares about how he runs his classroom in his lecture Back to the Future. The majority of Mr. Crosby's 4th graders have English as a second language, but Mr. Crosby does not let that minor fact hold them back from becoming avid learners in his classroom. There are many things that we can learn from Brian Crosby about Teaching and learning; 

• Teaching involves...
• Helping children become independent learners.
• Including technology like laptops, wiki's, Flickr to keep students up to date.
• Creating projects that spark creativity, for example the balloon project that Mr Crosby did.
• Encouraging creative writing/ looking at something with a different perspective, like when the students wrote stories from the point of view of the balloon.
• Finding ways that motivate students whether it be through blog view counts or using the word "butt" while talking about a balloon's anatomy. 
• Learning Involves
• Actively searching for answers, independently.
• Outreaching to other parts of the country, to learn about different communities.

Paul Anderson is a science teacher who uses the Blended Learning Cycle to teach his students. The essence of blended learning is a process of meshing together information found on the Internet and information found in the students textbook. A teaching tool that Mr. Anderson uses during his science lessons that I would also like to include in my classroom is;

• The five "E"'s 
• Start with an Engaging Question.
• Explore the possibilities, answers, predictions
• Explain what and how.
• Expand on the subject and teach a friend about it.
• QUIVERS - an acronym he uses to teach.
• Question- start with a hook or phenomenon
• Investigate
• Video- students watch independently
• Elaborate- students find a deeper solution
• Review- students re-evaluate material
• Summary Quiz- students take a quiz to internalize material.

Mark Church is an elementary school teacher who uses the method of group learning. In the trailer for his book Making Thinking Visible, he explains how he transitioned into teaching his students about the origin of human society. 

• The teaching method he used was...
• He started the students out in small groups
• He had the students construct a headline about the subject without being taught anything about the different theories of human  beginnings.
• He involved an audience by posting the students headlines on the bulletin board.
• He taught about the subject
• The students learned about the subject
• The students created new headlines after being more knowledgeable about the subject
• The students reflected on how the headlines changed.

Sam Pane, a 5th grade teacher from Nebraska invites us into his classroom while his class learns how to become Super Digital Citizens. The objective of the activity Mr. Pane created was for the students to create a comic strip that included their new made up superhero and themselves as the main characters and the conflict was to do with safety online. 

• What I've Learned about Teaching through Mr. Pane...
• Speak with enthusiasm & excitement.
• Start with an inspiring quote that the students might be familar with, and also applies to the lesson: "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility.
• Have students sit at circular tables to encourage group learning & active participation.
• Turn the lesson into something that invovles the students.
• Have students take selfies (everyone loves selfies).
• Have students "whisper share" to keep noise level down.
• Have students go through a "gallery walk" to view other students work.
• Have students share their creation with the class.

Al Wandler, Melanie Delorme and Lona Froshaug all jointly teach one classroom full of high-school-aged children they each indivudally are in charge of seperate subjects including History, English and Technology but they combine the lesson so that it incorportates all subjects without segmenting them into time slots.

• Through this teaching lesson, I've learned...
• It seems this combining of subjects works very well in the classroom
• Time restraints arent an issue
• Opportunity and time to go deeper into lessons
• Creates proud students
• Teachers are able to go beyond the circulum
• Teachers LOVE IT!

The last video was from Roosevelt Elementary where the teachers use project based learning to teach. They define PBL as learning that goes in-depth into a topic, focuses on real-world subjects and does all this through muliple resources.

• What I've leaned about teaching this way is
• It's great because it invovles real-world teaching
• Students are more likely to become active memebers of the community
• Gives students ownership
• Students learn 21st century skills
• Students learn life skills like cooperation and communication
• Parents 
• Prepares students for their future careers.