Blog Post #6

In Project Based Learning Part 1, Mr. Capps made an excellent point by saying that although we're the educators, we can always learn from students. It's very important to keep an open-mind when we enter the classroom because we don't need to stand all high and mighty and pretend like we know everything because in essence, we surely don't know everything! Again, although the students are the primary learners, the teachers essentially become the secondary learners because we can all learn something from each other. The project that was mentioned is one identical to what I did when I was in grade school but we surely didn't have the technology to search for what these third-graders searched for. I think it's important at a young age to teach our students as much as possible because they'll be better equipped for their future. Mr. Capps also mentioned that it's so critical in PBL that the students are able to revise and reflect their work once it's been edited from a rough draft; being able to peer-review in third grade is quite the accomplishment! The aforementioned project is also one that is claimed to be content based in that it covers multiple subjects at a time; that's an important quality as well because you're learning to add on to subjects that have already been reviewed! This video gave a great introduction into learning what Project-Based Learning is.

After viewing Project Based Learning Part 2, I'm definitely becoming more of a fan of Project-Based Learning. I'm honestly just blown away by the complexity of this man's third-grade classroom! To reiterate my point about teachers becoming the learners, Mr. Capps made a point to never limit your students because by limiting them, you deny that opportunity for them to go beyond what you've taught them. As a future educator, I think that's a definite item that's going to be on my agenda (to never limit my students) because our students may be able to find something out there that we don't know and by letting them teach us something, I think that displays some sort of pride in themselves because they "taught the teacher." When we assign projects, we've got to be mindful that there are parents out there who will disagree with the topic (i.e., Mr. Capp's parent who served in Afghanistan) and we must accommodate as best as we can to our students' parents. Another point was made that collaboration isn't always an easy thing and it's not because we all like to think we've got the best ideas or the most knowledge on the subject. By collaborating with one another, that leaves room for creative thinking (as well as critical) and allows for students to debate with one another about the subject/topic assigned! My final thought on this video is the point made about letting the students have a choice on what they want to do for their project because that promotes ownership and lets them take pride in what they've done! When my mother taught fifth-grade, she assigned the same project every year to her students: she let them pick significant people related to the American Revolution and they got to dress up like their person and get up in front of the class and speak about who they chose and why! It was always so neat to see most of her students get so excited about their project! :)

The video about iCurio was an insightful one because I've never heard of it and its features seem absolutely astounding! I do agree with Mr. Capps on the fact that virtual organization is harder on adults because we didn't get to grow up with the technology that's available to students this day in age. We must learn to adapt to virtual organization because we need to able to teach our students how to use it so they can be better equipped in future classrooms! When thinking about what iCurio represents, it almost sounds comparable to a Google drive (well, a kid-friendly one). I think that having iCurio would be beneficial because it's a safe tool to limit what our students are learning on the internet. I love how this tool accommodates to the learning-disabled children in that it has a "read-aloud" feature! This feature allows all of our students to have access to such a unique tool.

Discovery Education isn't a new website to me because I've utilized many of its features in the past. I like how Mr. Capps uses this website to make science and social studies more entertaining subjects because not all students are eager to learn about plants or things of the sort. I completely agree with the fact that students retain information better when there's a visual in place. Even as a student in college, I fully rely on having visuals to help me in my studies because when a question is asked and you have a visual, you know you've grasped the topic when you can explain it by remembering the visual related to it!


After viewing Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1, I really thought about what it's going to take to become an educator. The conversations between these two men are enlightening and these tips that I learned are going to go a long way with me in that I'll keep them in mind in my own classroom. The first tip about being interested in learning is probably the most important tip in the whole video because like I've stated many times before, it's vital that students learn from their educators and vice versa. When we are open to the input of our students, we become more effective educators in that we do take the time to learn what they have to say and we do take their viewpoints into consideration! The second tip is a tip that I'll have to remember when I become frustrated in the future: teaching is hard but it's surely exciting. Mr. Capps has an excellent viewpoint by saying that we learn the "craft" of teaching because we should allow it to become our hobby and let it become a rewarding experience because learning never ends! That's a mouthful to take in but his point is to let your job become your passion because when you display your knowledge with passion, you never know who you may inspire. The third tip mentioned was that surprises do happen and we should learn to adapt to the surprise and don't let the surprise defeat you. In other words, you should always have a back-up plan in case your activity were to fail. The fourth tip mentioned was to have goals set in place not only for our students but for us as well! If your goal doesn't come into play toward the end of its entirety, be flexible and adjust your goal; this will be ever so important to know in the future. Finally, the final tip was to be able to reflect on what you've taught and be able to have a purpose on it as well. If this project is displayed to an audience, be able to use feedback to your advantage (whether it be negative or positive) and make it 100x better if you have another chance.

In the video Use Tech Don't Teach It, it just reiterated points that I've become familiar with. When you use your energy to teach technology and not let the students use it, it becomes mundane and boring. What I took away from this video was that you should let your students engage in technology while you're teaching it because with the advanced technology that we have these days, being able to use it while it's being taught ties in with the concept of having visuals to retain information better. Mr. Capps used the word scaffolding many times in this video but it made so much sense when he continued to explain it because we've got to dispel the idea of perfection in the classroom. In the classroom, we've got to realize that our students will make mistakes more often than not but letting them learn from their mistakes is an important concept because once they've learned from their mistakes, they can build on that explanation and be able to get it right the next time. I hope that my students will be as eager as Mr. Capp's third graders to share what they've created using technology!

In Additional Thoughts About Lessons, Mr. Capps gave an excellent visual that makes perfect sense. The "layers" that he describes are equally important in that the ultimate goal is for our students to be able to build on what they learn from each day to each week to eventually the end of the year. When a student leaves our classroom, we want them to take away a bountiful amount of knowledge and be able to use it for later use in their education!