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.