Project #15 - Final Reflection

Project #13

Google Docs Collaboration for project #15
Ashley, Windy, Amanda, and I used Google Docs to create our presentation for project 15. We distributed the planets between the four of us and we each gave 4 examples/facts about our topic. It took us about an hour to come up with a final plan. We then met later to record our presentation.

Final Project #16

Blog Post #13

Back to the Future
In this video, Brian Crosby is giving a presentation on the disconnection between students and education. 90% of his fourth grade class are 2nd language learners and too many of them were unable to name their city, state, home address, or telephone number. Crosby teaches science at Agnes Risley Elementary School. In his presentation, he proves that teachers can teach a variety of different skills and subjects within their class. For example, Crosby incorporates computer skills, communication skills, writing and reading skills, and 2nd language comprehension skills while teaching his students about science. It just takes a little bit of creativity.
A Vision of Students Today
This is a video about students and their thoughts about school. I'm not surprised that I've come across more than half of the things mentioned in this video in my own life. I buy expensive textbooks that I never open and have to read materials that don't apply to me. As teachers, I feel like some of these problems can be fixed. We could accomplish more in the classroom and give less busy work; homework and classwork that serves no purpose. I remember doing homework in high school and thinking about how pointless it was. Millions of worksheets that help me accomplish nothing but stress. I feel like the teachers who are willing to change with the times are the only solution to this problem.

C4T #4

Learning is Messy
Brian Crosby has been an elementary school teacher for 30 years in Sparks, Nevada. He uses technology along with field trips, art, hands on activities, and problem based approaches. In his post, Independence Day, Crosby talks about his latest achievement; Taking the position of Gifted and Talented Specialist. These are STEM Academics and are project/problem based, technology integrated approaches towards teaching. They are trying something new by giving all of the teachers HP Laptops for their lessons. If this goes well, the students will get the same laptops. He was interview for the position because of his experience. He is very excited about this change and is looking forward to the new experiences.  

In another post called, Writing Experience Made in the Heavens, Crosby talks about the Mars rover Curiosity. NASA just announced that the Mars rover Curiosity has discovered something groundbreaking or "one for the history books". However, NASA won't be announcing what it is for a couple of weeks. He suggests turning this into a writing assignment. Have the students guess what the Mars rover found. It could be a serious guess or something funny (he suggested your long lost sock). I thought that this was a very creative assignment. It keeps that students current with recent events and let's them show their personality with creative writing. I think that more teachers should think outside of the box like Crosby does. 

Final PLN

I still use my PLN frequently and I'm constantly adding new sites to it. I've added all of my C4T blogs and a couple of sites that we use in our blog assignments. All of the green buttons are education oriented. I set my PLN as my home screen, so whenever I open my browser it takes me straight to it. I like that I can access everything with ease.