Blog Post 6

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

After watching all of the conversations between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I learned a lot about preparing to be a teacher that I had no idea about before. Project Based Learning is not something you can learn over night. It is a process you gain knowledge about throughout your entire teaching career. I learned how important it is to make sure your students are 100% engaged in what you are trying to teach them. When coming up with a project for your students you always need to factor in a few things, and always remember that it may not come out in the end how you have planned it. Make sure that important content is needed to be able to participate in the project. By doing so, it helps the students learn the key things they need to learn and have fun during the process. I have always thought that if you make a project seem like it is their idea, they will have more fun doing it and will retain the information longer. Create projects that will make your students go beyond what you are expecting from them. Make sure you get feedback from your students so you will stay up to date about what young people are into and incorporate some of those things into the projects you create. Let the students critique each other so they will all feel invested in each others' work, as well as sharing ideas to better their projects. Another thing I learned about is using art as a reward in a project. For example, if your students are doing a book report, have them paint a picture of their favorite scene only after they have written something about it and why it is their favorite. This gets them motivated to do their work because they have something exciting to look forward to. I learned a lot from watching these videos. It will not only help me as a student but will help me later in my career.

Discovery Education and Icurio are two websites that were brought to my attention after watching these videos. Icurio is a search engine that allows students to safely search the web for educational content. Meaning it is a safe reliable source that responsible people have filtered through to make it student friendly. The storage part of the site is a great tool to use to get young students used to virtual organization. It also plays a part in saving work quickly just in case of the need to vacate the classroom quickly. It has some really neat features to check out as well, like audio readings of everything you look up. That is very helpful for kids with disabilities. Discovery ed is a great tool for bringing text to life. Mr. Capps said in one of the videos that "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth a million." I really like that statement because it is very true. Children, and some adults as well, retain information better with visual stimulation rather than just plain text. Discovery Education also helps bring experts into the classrooms through educational videos that students can watch while they're learning about a certain topic. I learned a lot of useful information that I really enjoyed by watching Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps' conversations. The things that I learned and will continue to learn are very important to me as a student and will stay with me for several years to come.