In Project Based Learning Part 1 Andrew Capps talks about one of his projects he had his students do about when the law allowed woman to fight in combat a few years ago and the students had to write letters on why they agree or disagree with that law. Through this project the kids learned Social Studies, Reading comprehension, and Writing. They wrote letters to Congressman Jo Bonner on why or why they did not agree with the new law. I think this is a great way for kids to learn because they are learning about current events, as well as researching about historical women throughout history and their great achievements. It is really great to see what we are actually learning, being applied to in classrooms.
What I learned about iCurio is that it is an educational safe search engine for kids for all types of medias such as audio and videos, as well as texts. It also helps teach the kids to become organized and letting them save anything they find interesting on line and allows them to create folders and organize their research.
Another thing I've learned from Anthony in UseTech is that when it comes to technology, you don't teach it. You let the kids learn through experience as you guide them through a project. One thing I liked was "Don't expect perfection..." He then explains how at the start of a project he lets them learn by one tool at a time and he expects them to make mistakes, but then they can see what they did and apply that and learn from it. So by next week they wouldn't be making the same mistakes and move on to the next tool.
When Anthony is talking about in Additional Thoughts About Lessons, is that you have to focus on your daily plan. You want to grab your students attention, keep them engaged while you're delivering your content and then you measure what they learn. I agree with Anthony because it is very hard to teach students if they find themselves bored and not attentive, so as a teacher I think the best way for you to help your kids learn is to keep them busy and make it something the students can relate to, and find it interesting because if they are excited and are learning hands on, they will be more likely to retain that information.
Hi Josh! I agree with your that making the lesson fun and interesting is the way to get the students excited about learning it. Students spend so much of their time sitting in a classroom all day that it can become boring and monotonous so it is going to be up to us as teachers to turn that around and make it fun. What I was most impressed with about Dr. Strange's interview with Anthony Capps is when they talked about icurio. The kids are doing so much with technology, (and that will only increase), that having a safe search engine is most important. You refer to Anthony as Andrew in the top paragraph of PBL learning, part 1 so you might want to change that but other than that you did a great job on your blog. Keep up the good work!
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