Blog Post 13

Back to the Future
In this TED talk Brian Crosby talks about his fourth grade class who are 2nd language students. Mr. Crosby wanted to get a feel for where his students where when they arrived in his classroom. One way he did this is by taking a survey. His first question was how many students know what city they lived in only 9 students knew. The next question was how many students knew what country they lived in only 3 knew this answer. Mr. Crosby wanted to know why the students where so disconnected with education, why where they so disconnected in life in general. Mr. Crosby realized not all students learn the same way, so he had to make a connection with the students. By Mr. Crosby teaching in a poor school system he wanted all his students to get the same advantage as other students. One science project the students did was the High Hopes with the hot air balloon. All the students have a laptop with a webcam, in the classrooms. The High Hopes project allowed a lot of hands on learning so the students could get a feel for what was going on in the real world. The students also followed their own hot air balloon and had to act as if they where the balloon. This helped with the learning process it meet all the needs such as auditory, visual,and kinesthetic. The students got to see how the hot air balloon works, this project helps with creating well rounded students. Crosby also reminded me that as a future teacher my job is to make learning fun, creative, and to also empower and motivate my students.
Blended Learning
I really enjoyed Mr. Andersen video on how he has his blended classroom set up for his AP Biology class. Mr. Andersen key points that he wanted to remember in teaching was to engage with the students, explore, and experiment. Mr. Andersen used an acronym called QUIVERS to set up his classroom. The Qu stood for questions he used that to introduce his topic to his students to get them thinking. The I stood for investigation this allowed the students to do research on the topic. The V stood for video and this was Mr. Andersen he made a video for the class on the topic so they could go back for reference on what the topic is in class. The E is for elaboration this is the personal assignment for the student to do reading and get a better understanding. The R is for review. Mr. Andersen meets in small groups with the students and talk to them to see their understanding on the topic. If they do not do good in review he makes the students do it all over again so they can understand the concept of the assignment. The last letter is S for summary this is where the students take a quiz on the topic. I would use this blended learning in my classroom because it is very organized and I feel as if it really helps the students get a better understanding of the topic. Also this type of learning allows the teacher to get more involved on a personal level with each student to see how they learn and comprehend assignments.