Blog Post # 13

Mr. Anderson uses an excellent blended teaching strategy he uses to teach his students. He refers to his method as Q.I.V.E.R.S. Each of these letters stands for a specific piece to his plan to get his students engaged in learning. First, there is (Q)uestion, this is usually the step where you start the
lesson of by presenting the students with a question. This is similar to a bell-ringer and is just simply used to get the students to think. The next step is known as (I)nvestigation. In this phase, the students are told to further explore what has been presented to them. Next, there is (V)ideo, and this is where students watch a video produced by the teacher. The students can watch the video independently or even watch it several times. The fourth step is known as (E)laboration. This is the step during which the students learn from reading and studying the information, charts, or other material given to them. The students then enter a step known as (R)eview. During this step, teachers may meet to discuss the material to see if the students are successfully comprehending what they are to be learning about. The process remains on this step until the teachers are satisfied that the students are successfully comprehending the material. The final step is the (S)ummary quiz. This is where students are accessed on what they have learned from the material.

In my opinion, this is an effective and beneficial method to both learn and teach in a structured way.Mr. Anderson's strategy made me think back on my assigned C4T teacher, Andrea Hernandez, who wrote about learning being messy in her blog post. Anderson's method would "clean up learning." The step by step process provides motivation for the students to become engaged and to be successful. The students must fully dive into the material in order to succeed in this strategy. This will benefit them because they will only learn more as they immerse themselves deeper into learning and reaching a goal. I also think the strategy is a great way to keep both students and teachers on track. It allows students to feel as though they have a path to follow when they get lost in new material. I like the idea of structured learning. I would use this strategy in my classroom to help keep students engaged in learning. The best part about this method is that students must successfully master the objectives before they are able to move on to the next step. This makes sure students are not just doing what they can to get by. All of these are reasons why this can be a highly effective method for not only students, but it can be a great resource for teachers as well.

Special Assignment Blog Post #13

Brain Crosby, a 4th grade teacher at Agnes Risely Elementary School is the author of the blog entitled "Learning is Messy." He posted a video of his presentation at TEDx in Denver where he discussed the activities of his class. Mr. Crosby was presented with an interesting challenge.

Mr. Crosby's class was composed of over 90% of students who spoke English as their second language. He gave a survey during the first week of school which asked questions such as "What is your phone number?" and "What country do you live in?" Through this survey he discovered a lack of connection among his students. He decided to turn toward the use of technology to engage his students. This was a different approach then the methods taken by others who had tried to teach them.

Each student had a laptop and their own blog to use. The class went well beyond simply just reading the textbook. They accomplished this through many hands-on projects such as constructing a hot air balloon that went up over 100,00 ft. The students embedded videos of of their activities and the new discoveries which they learned from these activities onto their blogs. The students explored the history of ballooning and created a wiki webpage. As the students imagined themselves as balloons, they wrote stories. The students then wrote high hopes for themselves, their community as well as the entire world. They put these high hopes on "Stratocards" which went up with the ballons. When it came back they placed pictures of themselves and part of the balloon on it. The students discovered world events that were going on that were not covered by the news through people around the world who began posting their high hopes. All of the students' amazing activities were recorded on their blogs.

Mr. Crosby is amazing. He is an excellent educator who makes use of his creative mind. He not only accepted this difficult challenge and ran with it, but he also went beyond his calling in giving them a worldwide audience. He helped his students uncover amazing possibilities under a broad area. Mr. Crosby learned alongside his students. This is an aspect of being an educator that shows true dedication.