PBL#2

Can be found on my Google site!

Randy Pausch

When I realized that this week was the Pausch lesson I quickly looked at my EDM310 blog. I have to admit that I got sidetracked. My how I have grown in the past 2 years!

In Pausch's last lecture his ideas about dreams still jumped out at me. This time however, I was thinking more about my students and less about me. I can now see that I need to encourage my students to dream -- really dream. They can be anything and do anything they set their minds to.  All they have to do is dream BIG and know that they can achieve their dreams.

This time around, Pausch made me thing of -- let's call him "Jake". Jake is a student in my class that probably will quit school as soon as he is old enough. He reads on a 2nd grade level and sleeps in class --well, not my class! Jake has dreams of being a diesel mechanic. Dreams that he is told he will not be able to complete if he quits school. Does he listen? No! Does he care? No! He is going to quit - it is a matter of time. So, do I give up on his dream? No! Jake isn't smart - he probably will never be "smart" in the way that can be tested; however he is capable. I encourage Jake to read "Popular Mechanics".  Although he can't take an Accelerated Reader (AR) test on this magazine - he can write me a paragraph telling me what he learned in an article. Does he get AR credit? No. Does he get credit in my class? Yes! He has a dream - I want him to succeed. I love Jake. I am the only teacher that ever has anything good to say about Jake. No one understands why he likes me and works for me. I know -- I support his dreams. I encourage his desires and I believe in him.

Does this change the almost imminent fact that he will not graduate? No! Do I really care? No! I have talked to Jake about his options. I have found information about mechanics school. I showed him that I know he can make it. He may not graduate - but he knows that I think it is important that he graduates form high school. I have told him he can complete his education. I hope he will. More so, I hope that he goes to a Community College and learns how to work on diesel engines. He can do it... I know he can!

This is what Mr. Pausch was talking about. Teaching students to dream and them helping them achieve their dreams. Make the student believe in themselves. Show the student how they can achieve their goals. So -- teach yourself to dream and to see the dream in your students. Sometimes, you may be the only one that can...

Project PBL

I had some problems figuring out how to get the PBL onto my blog. I tried to link it through my Google webpage, but I couldn't get it to link.

However, I am hoping you can locate our PBL here.

Okay -- that link doesn't work! Dang it! I am going to try to embed it. I don't like how this looks. I am going to continue to try to publish it on my website and link to the site.


Ahhh.... I think I have figured it all out! Here is the link to my Google Site. It is a work in progress, but you will find my presentation and my projects. YAY!

Asking Questions

I have found that questions are very important. I am not talking about the questions my students ask me but the questions that I ask my students. Just asking a student, "Did you like that story?" is not acceptable. You have to ask pointed questions that will initiate and drive discussion.

I am remembering a moment last year when I was teaching Diary of Anne Frank. I asked students to name something about each character. I proceeded to pull characters out of a bucket. I would ask for volunteers to tell me something about the character. I had some IEP students in the class and I really wanted them to participate. So I told them there is no "wrong" answer. Just tell me what they think. Many students told me things from the storyline about the characters. What was really great was when one of my IEP students said, "I think she likes apple pie". When I asked why. He told me that she seemed to be interested in baking so she has to like apple pie. No one laughed and I acknowledged that she very well may have liked apple pie - we just don't know. This was the beginning for this student. He then felt comfortable answering questions.

We talked about WWII and the impact it had on our country. This same IEP student proceeded to tell us all about WWII planes. I had asked the class to tell me one thing they knew about WWII. He was so full of knowledge. It was amazing.

I say all of this to make one thing very clear - it is not always about what you ask. It can be about your reaction to their answer. I want my class to feel "safe" in my room. I want them to know that I value their thoughts. Now this doesn't mean that they will not go on a tangent discussing some obscure point that normally included food or football! I can always redirect their thoughts.

Questions are very important - just be prepared for answers. Any answer. Know how to redirect and re-ask a question. Know your class and what they like. That way you can ask questions that you know they can answer and then lead them into the way you wish them to be thinking. Good questions will insure that you are not lecturing your students, but that you are guiding them or coaching them to learn. I do not want my students to regurgitate my knowledge. I like to know what they know and think.

Once you get a student to analyze their thoughts, then they are invested in what they are learning. Once they invest themselves then they will not only learn - they will retain!

Project 3 - Google Presentations

Project Based Learning

So, I have researched this so many times. I have watched the videos and read the material. I have implemented ideas too. Students enjoy PBL. Teachers struggle with it. There is a huge difference between Project Based Learning and doing a project. I have seen teachers struggle with this concept. They feel they are doing a PBL. When it is only a project.

I have had my students do "batabualary" for Dracula. The students draw and color a bat. Then they were given a vocabulary word from the play that they had to illustrate and define. THAT was a project! I have done project based learning where we were doing a WWII unit. We read poems, short stories and The Diary of Anne Frank. At the beginning of the unit the student pulled a topic from a hat that related to WWII. They had to create a digital project on that topic. It ranged from WWII fighter jets and pilots to the Holocaust. It was a dual project with their history teacher too. It took 6 weeks. We worked in the classroom, at home and in the library. In between I made sure that every topic that was pulled out of the hat was discussed and they were told the relevance to the material we were reading.

That is the main importance of PBL. You have to make it relevant to whatever you are teaching at the moment. Luckily I had tons of guidance from another teacher and the history teacher. We encouraged and assisted the students right through the projects. Some were excellent, others mediocre and some were practically non-existent. The grades were given and we had 100s to 25s. It was awful. I hated that students just didn't do the work. There has to be a way to connect to every student. There is -- you will connect with every student, just not every time.

I think that is the point of PBL. Students do not learn the same way. Not all students are capable of doing amazing art PBLs, digital PBLs or even writing PBLs. You have to find a way to help a student find the information they need to learn. It takes trial and error. Do I know everything about PBL? Heck no! I enjoyed trying though. As much success as I had with the WWII project, I had a huge failure. It was awful -- really awful and very public! Yet, I learned what the students were not able to do. Not because they can't, but because they needed to be shown what to do. I just didn't prepare them for the project. I am not sure what the students learned from the failure - but I sure learned a lot. Preparation is the key. A lot of preparation.

When PBL works -- it is amazing and when it fails... well, that can be amazing too! Those students will always remember my failure. We laughed and did our best. We had fun and we learned. And to me that is what PBL is all about.

C4K

Post #1

This week I had the unique opportunity to view Dane's Blog at Mrs. Toal's Class Blog. Dane is a smart guy and I commented on some words of wisdom he had for his classmates on the subject of cyber-bullying. You can view his great advice here.

I complemented Dane on his sage advice and asked him if he or any of his friends had ever been cyber-bullied. I am hoping his answer is a resounding no!

Post #2 

This week I was given the delightful opportunity to post in Mrs. Geldes's  classroom. I was given the honor of commenting on Alex R.'s blog and Will K.'s blog. Alex's blog was about the Sochi Olympics and the sport of Snowboarding. Alex seems to really like snowboarding and ice skating. I asked him if he has ever done either of these sports and I complimented him on his blog. 

Will K. asked a question. The question he was given was would you rather live in the mountains or on the beach. He chose the beach. Then he asked, "Would you rather have a pet pig or walrus?" I said I would rather have a pet pig. I told him the reason I would rather have a pig is because a pig could live in the house with you. If you had a pet walrus you would have to live near the water. 

Post #3

This week I have 3 blogs to report on! First is a somewhat local teacher - Mrs. Miller's  4th block. I was assigned to read freebird's blog. This student was asked to comment - apparently - on whether she liked the text or film version of a book. She stated that she enjoyed the text version better. This really surprises me. I would assume that she would like the film version - but she chose the text version for the same reasons that I would have stated. I enjoy imagining the characters "my way" and sometimes a movie ruins that for me... she feels the same. I enjoyed delving into her blog a little deeper and it gave me an idea to use in my own classroom. 

I was also given Gillian from Mrs. Long's 10th grade class. Gillian's post was on a trip to Walt Disney World. Actually Gillian's entire blog is a guide for a teenager in Disney. She does a really great job of telling her version of how great Disney is. Sometimes her writing is poor - especially for a 10th grader. But over all the blog is very cohesive - especially for a 10th grader. I am not a huge fan of Disney World - but she has been on 2 Disney Cruises and that fascinates me. I think I may have to look into a Disney Cruise. It sounds like fun. 

The last blog I was given for this period is from Bode Middle School in Missouri. I was given MacKenzie's blog . MacKenzie recently wrote an argumentative paper on which city she would have preferred to live in in Ancient Greece - Sparta or Athens. In the paper she chooses Athens. She includes a link to her paper in Google and also says that she followed a rubric that was created by the students... very, very interesting... 

C4T Rotating

Post #1 

For my first post I was assigned to this blog. There wasn't a lot to look at this week. Apparently Mr. Bennett is doing a conference this week on Flipped Learning. I wasn't real familiar with flipped learning so I decided to Google it! Yay for Google! This is the page that gave me the most information. So -- EDM is a flipped classroom! I should have known!

This blog was mostly about creating a logo for the bloggers conference this weekend. I did find his instruction interesting and I am going to go back and look at a few of his methods. I think the way he created the text was pretty incredible. So here it is!

Pretty cool! I love how the words have texture to them. Something I can't seem to master - which is why I plan on taking a closer look at his tutorial! 

Post #2

This week I was privileged to Beth Still's Budding Art Project. She recently posted about some art supplies through DonorsChoose. It seems that the students really enjoyed working on art projects along with their other work. Ms. Still points out that she learned  more about her students while they were working on their art than she had learned during their regular lessons. 

I had some difficulty posting to her page so I am not sure that my comments ever posted. But I commented that I had found that even high school students open up while doing art related projects. 

What a great week!

Post #3

Oh this weeks assignment made me long for days of yore. Well --- it did make me take a side trip down memory lane. I was assigned Primary Tech for my teacher blog this week. Mrs. Kathleen Morris is on maternity leave after giving birth to her child. I praised her for being willing to take on the challenge of staying at home with a child. I know that it is important for the parents to create a bond with their children. It reminded me of the hard choices we made when I gave birth to my first (and only) child. 

Ahh... but her post was about more than motherhood (but that is what I took my side the trip on!). Her post was about staying in touch with education changes while she is on hiatus. I believe that what she is doing is considered life-long-learning! This is what we - as teachers/educators - are supposed to be. We are not supposed to stop learning about our job just because we have finished our degree. We are supposed to build on our knowledge and grow in our knowledge so that  we can better teach others! 

Her post was great and I hope you take a  moment to read it. 

C4T By Me Post

 Tina Barseghian's Mindshift Blog is my choice in a C4T blog to follow. I really like this blog because it has a lot of different ideas. 

C4T My Choice Post #1

In this post I discussed the ways in which creativity assisted me in my education. I commented on the blog titled "Will Degrees in Creativity Be the Next New Hot Commodity?" It made me think about how we are supposed to think critically about our studies. We often expect our students to only think critically. Sometimes it is more important for them to FAIL at thinking and succeed at trying. We need our students to also be creative. This allows them to use their thinking critically in different ways. 

This one teacher used post it notes to get the students to think of different ways to solve a problem. The students were given a problem and then told to come up with creative ways to solve the problem. Pretty awesome. 

The other thing that this blog discusses is having a degree program that requires a minor in creative problem solving. It was very interesting and made me think of EDM 310. 

Post #2

This week is very appropriate for this class. I know we are all looking for ways to use technology in a way that will assist our students. This blog post gives some alternatives. It talks about the use of education software and interactive whiteboards and how the use - or lack of use - effects education. 

When educational software is discussed it states, "If you expect software to raise test scores, that rarely happens." If educational software could raise test scores alone, it would have replaced teachers a long time ago. The article continues to discredit the use of software alone by saying that students learn more in a creative and engaging activities. These activities can only be provided by a well trained "good" teacher. 

The author has a more favorable opinion of whiteboards. Basically it is a use of technology that can be used by the teacher to engage students. 

The article continues talking about BYOD projects and the cost value of long-term versus short term investment. Very interesting. 

Post #3

Mindshift is certainly living up to its name. I have found that this blog is totally different from ANY blog I would have normally chosen. At this point I am wondering if I should have chosen "Teacher Tom" or some other simpler blog. But, I made a choice and I am sticking with it. This blog is NOT written by just one person sharing their thoughts. It is a compilation of many people. I find the diversity of the posts to be enlightening and sometimes difficult to comprehend.  I am stretching my thought processes and I am going to continue to "jump in!" 

This week I read a post by Elizabeth Blair. The post is titled "A Look into Teenagers Complicated Online Lives". I honestly thought that I would read things I had already read somewhere else. That was not the case. I thought I was going to see a rage against all things online. You know the thoughts, "they are stuck in a faceless world" ideas. No, that was not the case. Blair discusses a book and author. The book is titled It's Complicated by Danah Boyd. There are several quotes by teenagers that can give a teacher an insight into their students. I would encourage you to read it! 

Post #4

This blog post looks at the advancements being made by the Hidden Genius Project out of Oakland, California.  The author is discussing the advantages of having disenfranchised youth working on coding apps that apply to things that affect their daily lives. They are learning code that will give them better games and also will help them to make better choices. This video explains the post better than words ever could.

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C4T Continous

Post #1

My teacher has not blogged in while, but I am going to work backwards until he blogs again (hopefully soon!) 

I have been assigned to follow the blog "The Intrepid Teacher".  I must admit that the first post I read was -- well, inspiring. I would never have thought that 7th graders would go sit in the grass and discuss their experiences. I have taught 7th graders and I know that Jabiz Raisdana  has created this learning environment. His students must feel extraordinarily comfortable with him and trust him. My comment on his blog said as much. 

I feel that I could use his post and apply it to my classroom. Encouraging students to express themselves by changing their environment is something I have not thought of - yet! I hope to incorporate this into my classroom journal experience soon! 

Post #2

I went back into Jabiz's blog a bit and found this gem! This week I read his blog about parent teacher conferences. I do not like these conferences. Although I have only had to experience one - it wasn't pleasant. I think I am going to look at things a little differently now. Instead of this meeting being one of either gushing about how great the student is or how much the student needs to improve - I am going to look at it as a way of studying the student and his interactions with his parents.
It is really difficult to get a student to respect you if they do not respect their parents. It is also difficult to know if the student really doesn't have any respect for authority or if they just want to act like they don't care. Jabiz says in his blog, " I like to see my students with their parents to get a sense of what kinds of relationships they have with each other. Are they nervous, or timid, or funny, or courageous around their parents? A teacher can learn a lot about a kid by how they act around their parents. I like to watch moms and dads and the banter and tensions they bring to the table."He has a point. Watching your students interact with their parental figure and even in a social situation can give a teacher insights on why the student behaves the way he does. 

Post # 3

I am so excited! My teacher has started posting again. I love reading his blog. This week it was more than a little interesting. Jabiz Raisdana was discussing how he has never felt comfortable with his views, or the expression of his views. He states, "I was driven by an obstinate defiance. I was always pushing back against existing hypocrisies, instead of standing for anything on its own merits. There was little wisdom to my beliefs. Even less understanding."  I found myself being sad. Wondering how many of my students feel the same. Are my students so defiant because they are unsure of how they will be perceived? Have I started to disrespect my students individually? I took a moment to reflect. The answer is that I have become overwhelmed with teaching and underwhelmed with listening. Ahh -- but that is complete digression from Jabiz's post. But it was a bit of an "Ah Ha" moment for me. 

The post continues with a description of how his school began an honest discussion of religion/culture. The school gave a wide variety of religions and had the students discuss what they knew/learned. I really wish we could do something similar to this in our schools. Religion is a touchy subject with many, but if looked at in the context of culture instead of just religion - I think it would assist young people in becoming more tolerant of others and their cultural beliefs. 

I am so "into" my blogs that I am following. I find myself "whisked away" with ideas that flood into my brain while I read others experiences. I did not have this type of experience in EDM 310. So it is very pleasant. 

Post #4

Jabiz has really outdone himself this week. Once again he touches on a topic that I have been struggling with. I would encourage ALL of you to read it. He talks about being a "reading snob". A lot of times we "educators" become snobbish about what we read. In doing this we neglect to read what our students are reading. I am adamant that I will listen to their music (ARGH!) and watch their shows (PAIN!) and endure it with a smile just so I can have something to discuss with them on a daily basis. What I have neglected to do is read books that they enjoy reading. I guess I feel that reading such dribble is beneath me... I am not sure. But all that will change as of NOW! I am going to become well versed in YAL. I am going to read what they are reading. This is going to give me - yet another - way to connect with my students. 

Yet again, I have been motivated to push myself and demand more of myself.