Book Trailer

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

Conversations with Anthony Capps - Part 1 and Part 2
Anthony Capps is a third grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary School. He uses Project based learning a lot in his classroom. In the video he gave a few examples of projects that he has used with his students. My favorite project was the one when they were learning about different cultures. The students were told to write about what their life would be like if they were a child in Afghanistan. They wrote about things like the food they would eat or the clothes they would wear. The students created narrative scripts that they recorded on IMovie. They also added pictures from ICurio and Discovery Ed.
Anthony also talks about how Project Based Learning is changing. It isn't just projects that students do at the end of a lesson to show what they have learned. Now, projects are used as a method of teaching. He also says that we should never limit students by giving them exactly what we want them to do. He gave a few examples of how his students exceeded his expectations with their projects. Even the students family members were surprised with what they created.

Goals for a good project

• Authentic Audience
• Student Interest
• Involves Community
• Driven by Content
• Student Choices

ICurio

ICurio is a student-safe search engine. It includes content from every K-12 curriculum subject. It is also aligned with the Common Core State Standards. . Anthony Capps likes to use ICurio as a way to teach his students virtual organization. Students and teachers are able to create folders and store resources and information that may be useful later. SAS® Curriculum Pathways an Brain Pop are also available through ICurio.

Discovery Education
Discovery Education is a another tool that Anthony Capps' students use. It allows students to search for digital resources. It includes interactive games, videos, contests, and virtual labs. All of its content is aligned to state standards and custom curriculum.  It also offers homework help and free lesson plans.

Discover Education Offers:

• Interactive digital textbooks
• Engaging standards-aligned content
• Comprehensive professional development
• Assessment Services
• Virtual Experiences
• Learning Communities

Tips for Teachers

Anthony Capps and Dr.Strange had a conversation where they discussed their top 5 tips that they would give to teachers. The first tip was to always be a learner. I agree with this tip because everything in education is constantly changing. As teachers, we will constantly be learning about new teaching methods, new content for classrooms, and even new tools that we can use. I think that teachers that go out of their way to continue learning are going to have a lot more success in their classrooms. The second tip is to let your work become a fun experience. Work is always going to be fun if you are doing something that you love and are passionate about. I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I started out in elementary education and I absolutely hated it. I love kids but I wasn't passionate about what I was going to be teaching. Switching to Physical Education was the best decision I've made during college. The third tip is to always be flexible. It's important to know that things can always go wrong or not the way you expect them to. Being able to adjust to these changes is a great characteristic to have as a teacher. The fourth tip is to have your students engaged in what they are learning. Students are going to learn and retain more information if they are leaning about something that they care about. Anthony Capps said his goal for student engagement was 100%. I think that this a possible goal with the right materials and subjects. The final tip is being able to reflect. It's important that teachers are constantly finding ways to be better. Looking back at past work and projects is a great way to do that. We can see the areas that may need to be fixed or improved. Reflection can also be used by students on their own work. 

Don't teach tech - Use it

This conversation between Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange is about using technology instead of teaching it. Anthony says that technology isn't something that should be taught during class. Instead of teaching his students about technology, he includes what they should be learning with other assignments and projects so they can learn how to use it on their own. His third grade students can use IMovie efficiently without  it ever being taught to them. I think that the students retain a lot more information when they are learning independently. I think it also motivates them to use this way of learning in other subjects as well.

My Sentence/ My Passion

My Sentence

My Passion

PBL Presentation

What are Personal Learning Networks (PLN)? How can they help you as a teacher? How are they formed? How can you create your own PLN? Who will be the first additions to your PLN?

What are Personal Learning Networks?

Reasons for teachers to create a PLN - Catlin Tucker

Connect to other educators at any time

Teachers can stay in touch and share resources at any time regardless of their location.

Keep Learning

To continue growing, we must continue learning. Personal learning networks give teachers a way to continue learning.

Embrace the change; Don't fight it

Teaching methods are constantly changing with new technology. Being able to connect with teachers that use this technology successfully is a great way to expand ways to teach a classroom.

I chose to use symbaloo to start building my PLN. I included tiles like teachers tube to help expand my networks in education. I included twitter because I follow teachers who share valuable resources. I also added tiles that is linked to my blog, the EDM310 class blog, and other tools that I might need in EDM310. Some of the tiles I added are personal ones. They include music, social media, and some of the places that I shop. My goal for my PLN is to add a lot more tiles that will help me succeed as a teacher.

Asking Questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

I think that is really important for teachers to learn how to ask good questions. I didn't know that there was a wrong way to ask questions until two years ago when I joined Alpha Delta Pi. Going through recruitment was an amazing time for me. I got to meet a lot of new people and became a part of an amazing sisterhood. Recruitment was a lot like speed dating to me. You're basically trying to learn as much as you can about a person in a small amount of time. I didn't learn about asking question until I was able the other side of recruitment. We constantly had workshops and activities that would help us be able to talk to potential new members. The most important thing we learned was how to ask open ended questions. These workshops could go on for hours. We were always brainstorming new ideas and learning more effective ways to ask questions. I always hated going to those workshops but now I'm really thankful for them.

 It's really important for teachers to be able to ask good questions. Students need to be challenged and I don't think that questions that just end in yes or no accomplish that. I also think it is important that ALL children should be participating in answering. I just think that it's crazy that a child can sit in a classroom for months without answering a single question. How do  teachers know that they understand if they don't ask?

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

I always hated peer editing in high school. I always had trouble editing my own work so I never really wanted to edit anyone else's work. I didn't realize the importance of peer editing until I started college. I took an English course during the first semester of my freshmen year. To say that I was unprepared for this class would be an understatement. I was lucky that The University of North Alabama had a writing center. It had a staff of students that would help edit or review any writing assignment for any course. I practically lived in the student writing center during my first semester of college. I always recommended it to anyone that was having trouble with writing.

I feel a lot more comfortable about peer editing after watching the Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes and Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial. I've always been hesitant about correcting people on their mistakes because I thought they might get upset or offended. I've started to change my mind about since I started blogging in EDM 310. I don't get upset or offended at all when someone tries to offer me suggestions. They have all been really nice about and have shown me examples of how to give positive suggestions. I prefer to give my suggestions publicly. I've read a lot of blogs and never noticed any mistakes until I read someone else's review in the comment section.

What Is Peer Editing