From all the videos that I watched I learned a great deal not only about different ways of teaching students, but ways to make learning more engaging and exciting to all of them. In this blog post I took information from some of the videos that I found and I expanded on them. From these educators I learned new information and about new tools that I hope to one day master in order to become a better educator.
In the first video I watched, by Brian Crosby he spoke about a few things that really caught my attention. One of the first things that caught my attention was when he spoke about his students overall lack of knowledge about where they lived. I thought that this was shocking. I think that we as educators are not only tasked with teaching students, but to help take care of them and inform them more about the world that they live in. After that I began to notice more positive things. Brian used teaching methods that not only covered the required material, but engaged his students. Through the usage of various scientific experiments and teaching methods Brian explained how he was able to have his students pay much more attention to the lessons he was teaching. I think that even though his students were younger and had shorter attention spans, this method should be applicable to high school as well. You only have a students attention for a short amount of time. If you are able to do something that not only covers what is required by your school, but can generate ideas and thought in each student, then that can be a powerful tool. This is a key problem that I fear as a future educator. The idea of having students not paying attention and not focusing on the material is a major issue. With Brian's ideas I think that I will be more readily able to tackle this dilemma.
In the Blended Learning Cycle I learned from Mr. Paul Andersen about his take on the blended learning cycle through his tool called Q.U.I.V.E.R.S. Each letter stands for a part of the tool. The first is Questions. We have to have start with a "phenomenon that really gets there interest and attention." The next part is Investigate. You want you students to investigate what is going on and to observe and experiment with the phenomenon. Then you use a Video. The video allows for him to review with his students and to interact with each student more often. Then there is Elaboration. You really delve into explaining what is going on with you hook so that the class is able to learn about it. After this there is Review. You use this tool in order to prep your students for the final part you meet with them in small groups to prepare them for the Summary. In summary you test them on what they know and proceed to move them back if they are unable to explain what is going on. I think that this would be an incredibly effective tool to use in a classroom. While it may take some time to tailor and perfect this method for my specific classroom, I believe this is a powerful and worthwhile tool. I feel like teachers should always be looking for new methods in which to teach their students. The idea of using technology through videos in one part was a wonderful idea in my mind. The usage of technology through this sets students at their own pace. They are ready to move on only when they are ready and their teacher also believes they are. I took a lot away from the methods that Paul was speaking about. Those methods are ones that I will be wanting to try in my future classroom as well.
As a future educator I think that I can never learn to much from educators now. There is no set way to learn and no set way to teach. It is a constantly shifting field that you have to be willing to shift with. Through these videos and throughout the course I've noticed the different methods that teachers have used and taken notes on all of them. Technology is able to show me all of this and I think that it is a must to be used as a teacher and it would be foolish to not use this valuable tool.
Boston, I thought your comment about Mr. Brian Crosby's geography of where children live and the world in which they live was very interesting on your perspective.
ReplyDeleteBut I still think parents should be responsible for kids knowing the city, town and
state they live in. Parents should also teach their kids about who they are and where they come from. With all the electronic devices parents allow their kids to
have like cell phones, iPads and home computers, kids should be equipped to
have all the knowledge they need to know their full name, their complete home
address including zip code and also all necessary emergency numbers should be
locked into their cell phone to catalog anytime they need them. We live in a world
where all these things are very necessary for kids to know.
Also about Mr. Andersen's Blended Learning Cycle made very good sense. He spoke about students being exposed to questions and investigating the research.
Without questions there cannot be inquiry, and without inquiry there cannot be a
reason to investigate the facts. It should be necessary for students to want to
investigate and find the facts on their own. They have so many available resources
at their fingertips. Kids are really a sponge of knowledge and if we allow them to
test their efficiency of finding the facts on their own we will never regret allowing
them the independence of brainstorming and finding their own limits.