Blog Post #7

What can you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

By:Laura Hamilton

1. Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher (10:03)



    In Dr. Strange and Anthony Capp’s video, they talk about how Anthony approaches being a Project Based Learning teacher. Normally when people think about Project Based Learning, they think of projects being something you do after the lesson to show that you’ve learned what you’re supposed to learn. But the goal of Project Based Learning in Anthony’s opinion is that it’s not only a means to show what they have learned, but a means to get them to learn something. Also he believes strongly in getting students excited about learning and being in control of their own learning. The goal of good projects includes having a authentic audience, student interest, community involvement, and students that are driven by content. So what kind of project can I create that will give my students an opportunity to want to know the material I need them to know?


2. Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher (13:45)



    In Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps second conversation, Anthony talked about a project that ended up being is favorite project so far. His class was studying cultures, and his country was Afghanistan. And his goal for his students was for them to write a narrative script, as if they were a child in Afghanistan. They could also record their narrations on their Ipads and then pull pictures from students safe search engines like Discovery Ed to use in their videos. The outcome he says is that students took this project above and beyond. Some students without instruction even did a blend of topics, or even the food and the religions. Well one parent had served in Afghanistan and felt very uncomfortable with the idea that his child was learning about this culture. So as the teacher he had to modify to respect the parents feelings for this one student. This child did a different Science project to replace this certain project. Project Based Learning involves a method to help students learn and take learning to another level. But there is a lot of work and preparation in these projects that take time. Anthony talks about how students really enjoy Project Based Learning projects, because there not trapped in say work sheets, or busy work. Everything they do in the classroom is meaningful and matters.


3. iCurio (8:08)



    In the third conversation between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, they talk about iCurio. Anthony talks about iCurio being a safe search engine for students to use in the learning aspect. But he also talks about iCurio being a storage capacity for students and teachers to save information and keeping them organized. iCurio allows students to get practice to organize different videos, websites, information and even pictures in the virtual world. Its kid friendly!


4. Discovery Education (4:33)



    Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps fourth video talks about Discovery Ed and its uses. Anthony talks about Discovery Ed being a very helpful tool in the classroom because it gives students a visual tool. And the great part about Discovery Ed is they have information about every subject, from math to science, history or even technology. Discovery Ed can bring professionals or experts on that certain subject into the classroom via video. Anthony uses Discovery Ed to bring different text to life. People remember far more what they hear, but even more when they can see and watch. Dr. Strange believes that students are now listener watchers, they listen and watch far more than they listen and write.


7. Additional Thought About Lessons (3:25)



    Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps Additional conversation talks about lessons. Anthony says that a lesson is at least four layers thick. The first being the year, and how the lesson fits in within your year. In the year you have to think of how all standards will be covered. The second is the unit, how you will unfold the unit and how it will be spaced out. The third is the week, how are you setting up and planning your week, and how to get everything done. And the fourth is the daily lesson. In the daily lesson you need to plan how will you deliver to your students and the information they need to know. And in the end you will have to have something to measure your students on what they’ve learned that day to know how and where to pick up at the next lesson.




Summary of Video #5 (Strange Tips for Teachers)

By: Brian Orr

    The teaching tips made by Anthony and Dr. Strange are the 4 tips, as follows: to be interested in learning yourself in general, to be flexible in the planning and delivery of your lessons, to find a way to motivate students with relevant applications of lesson content or otherwise, and to emphasize how to deliver a presentation or results of one's work. Anthony's point about learning on your own, making learning a hobby of yours, speaks to me more than anything else in the video. He stated that he became a better educator as he researched in his down time some successful techniques or ideas. Teachers, he said, need to be excellent learners before they can be excellent teachers, as that is the #1 skill teachers teach, how to learn effectively. The point about being able to teach in multiple manners is what only some of my teachers understand fully. If one student does not connect with a way you deliver the content, then the teacher needs to explain the concept in another way with various examples or terms to help the student relate. As well as this, Anthony and Dr. Strange suggested teachers to be flexible with techniques used in the classroom, as the environment changes with visitors walking in or students questions changing the pace or direction of the classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed their talk, and I think the last point made about having a student's content available for the world to see is how the classroom is most evolving. Not only the students' work will be available to the globe, but fully developed lectures, explanations, and examples will be free to any student willing to invest time to learn.


Summary of videos #6.

By: Sally Gajewski

Think about this: Both of you state it takes Mr. Anthony's third grade class no time at all to learn how to use Imovie I believe is what you both said. Of coarse it is easy for them with the age or era of technology they live in. Compared to how or where some of your students live Mr. Strange. I know from experience that I didn't grow up with with any of this new technology. You know with the new apps that come out every hour or programs every month. But you both talk like its easy for anyone to just pick it up and go with it. I'm here to tell you mot everyone learns at the same rate or the same way there are people who have to be shown step by step how to do something. Not everyone can read the instructions and do it. But instead of spending time with the student to help them they just get over looked and are told to figure it out. How can the student learn anything if they are struggling. Let me ask you both this group of questions. What is society going to do if the system or systems ever crash? What good will this technological teaching do? How will we as teachers be able to teach if the book we are teaching from is on a tablet or something that has crashed? I do agree technology technology is good and it does make things easier, but i don't think we need to depend on it to help us teach ours students. Let them use it, but not depend on it.