Blog Post 7

How Do We All Become Learners?

Preparing Myself for Project Based Learning

Strengths:
-Experienced Digital Renaissance as a student during my senior year of high school
-Am currently observing a Baldwin County elementary school classroom participating in the Digital Renaissance
-Familiar with Apple, MacBooks, iPads, etc.

Weaknesses:
-Never experienced this kind of learning as an elementary school student
-Unfamiliar with Discovery Education Board Builder
-Somewhat unfamiliar with Alabama Virtual Library
-Unfamiliar with Poplet
-Somewhat unfamiliar with QR codes

The resources listed for this blog post enabled me to see current resources and teaching activities used in a true 21st century elementary classroom. These videos are important tools for helping us as teacher education students to prepare ourselves for when we are the teachers in the classrooms.

In "How to Make an Audio QR Code," Michele Bennett demonstrates how teachers can record files and transfer them into a QR code. This could be useful for many events such as Meet the Teacher Night, when parents can scan the code to find an introduction video by the teacher. These could also be used by students in their projects and they could also make their own recording for a code. "iPad Reading Center" and "Poplet with Ginger Tuck" both showcase ideas for kindergarten reading centers using iPads. In the first video, teacher Ginger Tuck shows how her students can record themselves reading and playback the recording to better students fluency and other reading skills. Tuck uses the application Popplet in the second video for her students to make visual web maps of books. Alabama Virtual Library is a resource that students can use to research and organize information, as shown in "AVL and Kindergarten Students." Another great online resource for project based learning is Discovery Education Board Builder, which allows students to create virtual bulletin boards of information. In "Tammy Shirley Discovery Education Moon Builder Project," Tammy Shirley's first grade student showcased her Moon Project Board she created. In "Mrs. Tassin 2nd Grade Students Share Board Builder Project" and "Mrs. Tassin students share Board Builder Project," Mrs. Tassin's second graders presented their project based learning group assignments using Board Builder.

It is important that we allow our students to use these resources to their advantage. In "Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten and "We All Become Learners;" Dr. Strange, Elizabeth Davis, and Michele Bennett discuss how kindergarteners are able to actively use tools such as iMovie and Alabama Virtual Library. Moreover, they are excited to use these resources. How can students being excited to learn possibly be a bad thing? I may be unfamiliar with some of these resources, but I am ready to prepare myself to be the best teacher that I can be for my students.