Monday, April 22, 2013

Blog Post # 13

Brian Crosby (Agnes Risley Elementary School, Sparks, Nevada)
Brian Crosby's video Back to the Future is video of how his classroom is ahead of the game, by using technology and hands on experiments. His students are at risk students, because they receive free lunch and most are in the category of English as a second language. He explains how one topic which started out as learning different layers of the atmosphere and turned into releasing a hydrogen balloon into the air. The students all have their own blogs, flickr accounts, and wiki's which were also incorporated in with this learning experience. The students also had to pretend they were the balloon taking a trip a they had to write about it. This video got me excited about learning. I wish we could have learned like this when I was in elementary school. The video of the balloon going up was awesome. You can see pictures all the way up above eighty thousand feet. The students were also able to track the balloon in real time on google. Even after the balloon landed the students were still learning through their blogs and wiki's. They were able to share with other students how they did the experiments, so that they could do the experiments in their class. This put them in a position to be the teachers and tell what they had learned. One of the best parts of the video showed how because of technology that home schooled students can be active members in the classroom.


QUIVERS: A Classroom Filled with Learning Paul Anderson is an AP Biology teacher in Bozeman, Montana. His YouTube video he uses the Blended Learning Cycle in his classroom. His foundation is blended learning using the classroom, online and mobile. His learning cycle is an engaging question in which he allows his students to explore, expand, and evaluate. He uses the acronym QUIVERS which is the first letter of each step that he uses to teach a lesson in his classroom.


He uses the Euler's Disc as his example on the video.
1. Question
2.Investigation/Inquiry
 3. Video
4. Elaboration
5. Review
 6. Summary Quiz
By using these steps the students are able to expand on what they are learning, and commit the knowledge to memory. People who are wary about technology in the classroom will be pleased to see that a good portion of this is reading material that he that they are required to cover. It also includes, online investigation, classroom discussion, and small group discussion with the instructor to make sure they grasp the information and are prepared to be tested on what they know. They are allowed to re-do the test if they do not do well.
I think Mr. Anderson's strategy represents everything we have been learning about this semester in EDM 310. I would definitely use his teaching method in my classroom.

1 comment:

  1. I think you did a great job of summarizing the videos. I also believe that these are the types of things we having been learning about to incorporate in our classrooms.

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