This week's blog focuses on how different teachers use their skills and technology to engage students actively in learning. As we have seen several times by now there is not just one certain way to teach. These teachers prove that!
The first is Mr. Paul Anderson. In his video, The Blended Learning Cycle, he discusses how he integrates mobile and online mediums into the classroom setting. His approach to teaching is that everything is a remix, you explore an idea, flip it, and then apply it. Further into his video he talks about the "5 E's" that he uses with his students. The "5 E's" are, engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. These can be used from everyday assignments to more difficult projects. It all ultimately starts with a good question though, something to get the students thinking and really drive the class toward the other steps of exploring and explaining the answers they may find for the question.
We then go to Mark Church. In his video he discusses how we can make thinking visible. The initial question or prompt in a unit, as he would do it, is to ask the students to come up with a headline that could introduce the unit that they will be covering. As learning begins and the students gain more information they are asked again to come up with a headline. This approach shows active thinking and learning and allows the students to dig deeper in their thinking and reasoning.
Sam Pane adds in even more creativity in his video demonstrating a Good Digital Citizen. While it is great that kids are so openly using technology and the internet it is most important that they are doing so safely. In the assignment the students create their own digital citizen and then create an internet problem that their hero may face, such as putting personal information onto the internet. It gets the kids to recognize what problems they may encounter and resolve them by creating responses for their digital citizens to say.
Last, but not least, we again visit the popular project based learning. We know now how essential it is to have this in the classroom and research proves that it increases student engagement, deepens understanding of a subject area, and can combine many subjects and standards into one assignment.
There is no one right way to learn just like there is no one right way to teach.
Very thorough blog post Kasey! I found very little in error here. I think that Sam Pane was my favorite video. I think that educating students on internet and technological safety is crucial to our being effective educators. It is our duty as teachers to educate students on the importance of how to keep themselves and their identity safe on the internet.
ReplyDeleteReally good job!