Blog Post #9

By: Miriah Grantham, Michelle Detar, and Demetrius Hamner


Back to the Future

Back to the Future is an educational video in which Brian Crosby, a fourth to sixth grade teacher at Agnes Risley Elementary School in Sparks, Nevada, discusses the ways he improves student learning in his classroom. When this video first started It confused us a little. Why? Well Mr. Crosby informed us on the background on his students and just how little they were exposed to. The majority of his class came from low income homes and had very little knowledge of their surroundings.

Less than half of his class knew which city, state and country they lived in. This video shows the difference in the knowledge of students from middle-income and low-income schools. He has students use technology to connect with the outside world and learn from it. The students have their own blogs that they use to post their classwork on to meet state standards. Mr. Crosby reinforced the fact that every teacher should be creative, passionate, and imaginative. We learned that you shouldn't judge students on where they come from because with the right methods of teaching every student will be able to become an A+ student. They are more than capable of learning the advantages of technology and utilizing it.

Blended Learning Cycle

Blended Learning Cycle is a video in which Paul Anderson, a high school AP Biology teacher in Bozeman, Montana, teaches us what a blended learning cycle is. A blended learning cycle is a combination of the blended cycle and the learning cycle. The blended cycle consists of three parts: mobile, online and classroom. The learning cycle consists of five parts: engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. An easy way to remember the steps in this cycle is the acronym QUIVERS; Question, Investigate, Video, Elaboration, Review, Summary quiz.

Mr. Anderson uses this in his classroom to help his students learn. Each step of this method was to confirm the understanding of the students answer to a driving question. If the student was not able to complete one step of this method, then they were not able to move on to the next step. What can we learn from Mr. Anderson? We learned a new method of teaching. Every good teacher knows to ask a good question. Mr. Anderson’s steps make it easy to make sure students understand your questions. QUIVERS is a method we would use in our classrooms to keep our students engaged and check their understanding

Making Thinking Visible

Making Thinking Visible is a video by Mark Church. He starts by putting his class into small groups. He wants them to think about the topic of human origins. He lets them interpret the topic on their own and create a headline, or question, that helps them start their thinking process. After further discussion of that unit, the students will go back to their headlines and see if their view on the topic has changed.

This is a very good method of learning to help students become critical thinkers. What can we learn from Mr. Church? We learned to let students think for themselves. If you pose a question, the students will find a way to answer it. This is a method of learning that we all could use in our classrooms to encourage our students to think critically and learn to combine their thoughts with others as well.