Blog post 6 EDM310 Melissa Keeler

The several conversations with Andy Capp are enlightening and encouraging. I get excited and want to jump out there and start implementing some of these ideas! They will be so engaging. And even though it may be difficult or hard to put together a LBP, it is rewarding and you as an educator will most likely learn something new as well.
I like the idea of involving the community in some way so the students can relate the project to real world scenarios. I am so glad that the younger children are learning how to utilize technology because it seems to be more difficult to pick up the older you get. Maybe it is because the older student has been systematically taught in a totally different way and old habits are hard to break sometimes. The fact of the matter is, technology is a part of our everyday lives and we must teach our children and ourselves how to effectively use the technological tools of today and tomorrow.
We must also as educators be open to learning from our students and life in general. I like the idea of incorporating art into a project. It gives another chance for self expression. I was happy to learn of the child safe browsing tool called iCurio. The student has to sign in to use as a search engine. It will also store chosen information for the child which I find so very convenient. The information on this site has been pooled and then filtered so you can allow your students to independently browse without fear of something inappropriate popping up. Another neat feature is the site will read the information to your student, very handy for sight barriers as well as in Dyslexic cases. Another great site that was discussed is called Discovery Education. Again this is a safe, filtered site. It is great for video, music, voice thread, and pictures to enhance students' projects.
Teachers can also use this site to enrich the content of their class instruction.
I learned that being flexible and creative seem to be the keys to success. Even apparently "failed" projects DO teach the students something. Let your hard work be fun not drudgery, it will reflect in your lesson plan and in your students. Get students 100% engaged in the activity no matter how small or trivial it may seem to them. Peer review and self reflection. The ability to take constructive criticism and make positive changes from it.
These videos are helpful in learning what to expect in the classroom when I get out of school. It will be a very different environment than the one I grew up learning in. This is why I as an educator, I wish to learn as much about technology as possible so I can keep up with my students and also learn from and with them.





The conversations can be found at various sites: project based learning part 1

project based learning 2

iCurio

discovery education

strang list for teachers

don't teach tech-use it

additional thoughts about lessons