Blog Post #13

Brian Crosby

I really enjoyed Brian Crosby's Back to the Future video. He began his presentation with a survey he did with his class of 4th graders. In this survey, he asks questions that every 4th grader should know such as their address, the state they live in, and the country they live in. However, the majority of his class could not answer these simple questions. It was very shocking to me that only 3 students out of 24 knew the country they live in. However, I thought this was a great way to start his lecture because from there he went on to tell how his students grew in their learning and started achieving goals.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing of all the experiments and activities he does with his students. I loved the idea of the balloon launching with a camera on it, and having the kids write a story about being the balloon. To me, that just helps promote creativity in the story. By letting his students see what was happening to the ballon, I feel it helped them to imagine themselves as the balloon. After seeing the clip, I want to write a story about being a balloon!

Another activity I really liked was how his students wrote stories collaboratively with students from other states. That's just awesome to me! I would love to do this with my future students, so it is definitely going on my "To Do" list! I also loved how Celeste was included in the classroom via skype. So many kids are in her shoes and are not able to participate in normal activities like going to school. I hope to one day be able to involve my sick students via technology like Mr. Crosby involved her. I would be willing to use my own Mac or iPad if the school did not have the means to let me use something of theirs. I really feel this sense of normalcy are what kids with illnesses like cancer need.

I'm adding Mr. Crosby to my list of teachers to learn from!


Paul Anderson

I loved Mr. Anderson's Blended Learning Cycle video! He explains how blended learning takes parts of mobile, online, and classroom learning and blends them together in the classroom. The learning cycle, which is the five "E's" (engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate), are also incorporated into blended learning, and you get the blended learning cycle. He refers to this blended learning cycle as QUIVERS. There are six components to QUIVERS that he uses in this class.

They are:
QU- QUestion
I- Investigation/Inquiry
V- Video
E- Elaboration
R- Review
S- Summary Quiz

Mr. Anderson begins every lesson with an engaging question. He then allows his students to experiment with the question to form their own questions. Next comes video. This component of QUIVERS is where students watch videos to learn more information about the question, and then they expand on the topic they are researching. In the review step, Mr. Anderson meets with the students in groups or individually and asks them questions to see how they are comprehending the material. When he feels they have learned the needed material, they are given a summary quiz that tests them on the other five components.

I have discovered this week that Mr. Anderson is 100% right when he says you need to start out with a good question to get the students engaged, and then let them investigate. This week in my preschool class, we did a science experiment to see what happens to water when you put it in the freezer. I filled gloves with water, tied them, then sat them aside while I talked to the kids. I asked them what they thought would happen if we took water and placed it in the freezer. Most of them said it would just turn cold, but none made the connection yet that it would turn into ice. I then gave each child a water filled glove and let them play with it for a while. We talked about how it felt and how it didn't really hurt when we slapped people with our glove in the face (that part was not something I had planned on talking about but it happened). We then walked down to the kitchen and put our gloves in the freezer. The next day, we went and got our gloves out of the freezer. They were in complete amazement that the water turned to ice. We then left our gloves in the sun to see what would happen if the ice got hot. Once we came back a couple hours later and saw it had melted, I began reviewing with them. I asked what happens when water gets really cold and then gets hot again. They could tell me everything I asked. They even told their parents about it when they got picked up! I could tell that they fully understood the basic concept I was trying to get across to them.

This experiment I did really reminded me of Mr. Anderson's QUIVERS method. While I did not have my students watch videos or take a quiz, I did start off with a question to get them thinking and then I let them investigate that question with hands on experience. It went better than any other activity I had tried to do with them. I could have told them what happens to water when it gets cold then hot again, but by letting them experiment with it themselves, they got to see for themselves what happens. In turn, they understood the lesson better and therefore actually learned the material. Mr. Anderson definitely has a good learning method to use because if it will work for two year olds, it will work for any age! I will definitely use the QUIVERS method with my future students!