Blog Assignment #6

What did I learn from the conversations with Anthony Capps?

Let me first start by expressing my thoughts about the interviews. I had limited or no knowledge about some of these offered computer based methods.  I thought Dr. Strange and Mr. Capps did a fantastic job explaining Project Based Learning, iCurio, and Discovery Education. I also found the Strange-Anthony tips to be very helpful, tips to take with me in my future career. It sounds like Mr. Capps is a great teacher that values his students and fully taps into their abilities, helping them to become better students and retain knowledge.

Project Based Learning is a good way students and teachers can learn together, by working on projects that engage the students. These projects relate to real-life experiences and particular areas of interest for each individual student. For example, Mr. Capps' third grade class did a project where they wrote a letter to their congressman, and in their letter each student could express their individual opinions/ concerns regarding women being able to serve in combat. While the students worked on this fun interactive project, they also worked on their writing skills fulfilling state writing standards, standards that help students progress in the education process.

I also learned about a search engine called iCurio. I wasn't aware that the school used this type of search engine. My son just completed kindergarten and they were not yet allowed to bring computers home, so the use of technology and programs in the classroom is unfamiliar to me. iCurio is a safe search engine that Baldwin County schools use in order to provide safe and accurate educational information while students are online. A neat feature that iCurio offers is the ability to research information about their assigned topics and projects and then they are able to bookmark this information and store it in folders. This bookmarking tool makes the information able to be recalled by the student at a later time.  This way they can easily return to their research and use it for projects.

Discovery Education is also something new to me. It sounds like it is a tool that has access to educational videos that will aid in student studies. At times children have trouble with reading comprehension.  So alongside reading, this video tool could be very useful in helping students understand what they are reading. They can look up a video that relates to their reading and watch someone explaining it or better yet performing the activity. This will help students learn better.

Lastly, Mr. Capps along with Dr. Strange give us some helpful tips on becoming an effective teacher.
These tips are:

• Be interested in learning. (As in learn something new yourself.)
• Work hard.
• Be flexible.
• Begin with the end in mind. (This a part of a cool habit program that my son's school participates in.)
• Engage students 100%.
• Reflect
• Use technology, don't just teach it. (Although this wasn't in the same video,  I consider a helpful tip.)
• Good lesson planning. (When planning a lesson they are 4 layers thick.)
• Plan for the year. 
• Plan for the unit.
• Plan for the week.
• Plan for the day.
Planning lessons this way will help teachers be fully prepared and help students learn better.

Resources:
Conversations with Anthony Capps Part 1
Part 2
iCurio
Discovery Education
Strange-Anthony Tips
Use Technology
Lesson plan thoughts