Blog Post 11

After watching Back to the Future, I was actually really touched by it. I think it is awesome he includes 2nd language students in so many things to try and help them learn as much as he does. He really has a passion for teaching. Blogging for students at such a young age is great. At first, I thought it wasn't a good idea and was pointless really. In the video when he talked about how happy the students were to see others around the world acknowledge their posts, it made blogging that much more important to me. I also thought it was great how other students wanted their class to teach their teacher how to do something just so they could learn. The way he included the sick little girl in the classroom with the other students really touched me. I think that is beyond awesome for her to be treated as if nothing is wrong.
I watched a video on Paul Anderson's Blog. I like the way his mind is set on learning. He believes it should be something fun and a good experience for the students. I also think it is good how he lets students know it is okay to fail at something. We were always taught to just pass the test and move on. Teachers now, including Paul, want students to learn beyond what the state standards say we should. The Blended Learning Cycle was also a good and informative video. Like I said before, it allows students to learn beyond what they are told. They actually get to have more hands on and get more involved with what they are learning. I do think the QUIVERS is more for Science, but could be used for all subjects.
In Making Thinking Visible Video, they do something like our group is making our students do in the lesson plan part B. Letting the students begin by saying what they think at the beginning of the project. This can get an idea of what they know starting out, then ending to see if they wanted to change their assumption.
Building Comics was a good video/assignment for students now-a-days to use. This teaches them so many things in just one assignment. They learn how to be safe online and how to work better with technology in the classroom. This was a great idea. Both thisPBL Video and this PBL Video are great just to see how teachers engage their students in the classroom by using PBL. It is always encouraging to watch things like this and see how much the students enjoy doing what they are doing. PBL is great.
So overall I think what I have learned from all of these links is teach beyond what you are told to be teaching. Make sure students have fun, but are learning at the same time. Getting students involved and doing things they enjoy is the best way they learn. Having students do more hands-on activities lets the be able to explore things themselves, but also learn what they should be learning at the same time.