C4K Assignment

C4K Assingment October

The First student I was asssigned to was a student who was assigned to write about someone. This student decieded to write about "Tupac" and "Natorious BIG" which are two rappers who were steadily successful in the 90's. I was actually shocked that the student even knew who these individuals were because I belived that these rappers began before my own time. It was interesting to find out that this student knew he these rappers were when there stories and fame occurred long ago. There were alot of things that occurred throughout these two individual's lives that I was unaware of and the blog post was very intriguing to read and be apart of.I was proud to see that the author/student really became excited about what he was writing due to the subject chosen. It seemed as if the topic motivated him to write. There were a few grammatical errors that I addressed with the student and ofcourse I practice positive reinforcement. I encouraged him to continue to write on topics that interest him and allow that to be his motivation and inspiration in establishing writing methods.

The second student that I was assigned to was a younger grade level then the first gentleman I commented on. I read a student's blog whose name was Helen. She choose to write about "Dot Day". "Dot Day" has been inspired by a children's book by Peter Reynold's known as "The Dot". We actually recently celebrated "Dot Day" in a course that I am currently taking known as Arts in the elementary classroom with Dr. Vitulli. We celebrated by creating a quilt. We put together a quilt with each pice of computer paper that every student designed by makeing their "Dot" with crayons. Even as college stuents our classed was very inspired by Peter Reynold's book "The Dot". I told Helen of our experience with the freshly inspiring book, and what we created in our own college class. I thought it was fascinating to find an elementary classroom who was using this very same inspirational book and believed it to be funamenal.


Another blog that I read was a student who attends Pt England School in Auckland, NZ. Kaycee is the student whose blog I was assigned to. Kaycee is in seventh grade at her school. In New Zealand they refer to what grade you are in by saying "year 7" for example we would say seventh grade and they would say year seven. I found that to be extremely interesting and so neat to find the diversity of learning in other countries. I read a post that Kaycee wrote called "Outlook For Someday Workshop. Amamauls Studios". You can visit her blog by viewing Kaycee Pt England School. In this post Kaycee wrote "What a great opportunity it was to have two of the OUTLOOK FOR SOMEDAY representatives do a workshop with a class of students from Pt England School. It is definitely something worth remembering." Kaycee and some of her classmates made a video to apply what they had learned from the workshop. Please watch the video Outlook for Someday Workshop at Pt England School. In this video students demonstrated Project-based learning. This is the future method in which I would like to use in my own classroom. I was so excited to have the opportunity to watch these students learn by "doing". This method was much more effective for Kaycee and her classmates versus the teacher telling the students to open their book to a certain page number and highlight a few things to study. While the students made these videos to reflect what they had learn they were learning by having the privlege of a hands-on experience. How do you think students in Kindergarten know the color lime green? I can tell you it most likely is because they were coloring and someone said that is not green that is lime green. The kindergarten student learned by doing! I am thrilled to have hd the privlege to watch Project based learning occur in a seventh grade classroom! It is exactly the approach and vision I have for my own classroom. Are you not for Project based learning? Do you have an issue with attempting to figure out how to use it effectivly in your own classroom? Are you unsure if project based learning is even effective? These are all questions that can be answered by watching this video Kaycee and her classmates put together. This video reveals no only what project based learning is but how it functions as a tool in the classroom. Should you have any other furher questions on PBL visit WHAT IS PROJECT BASED LEARNING?

The last student's blog that I was assigned to was a fifth grade student named Saffron. I first introduced myself when commenting on her blog. I thought the name Saffon was a very different name. Saffron chose to write about an activity her teacher Mrs. Ripp introduced her students to do. The activity was known as "Brain Teaser". They were asked to get into pairs of two and they were not allowed to talk. They had to write the answer down to the question without talking to each other. The only thing they were allowed to write down was the answer, but they were allowed to use hand gestures to help lead each other to the correct answer. Saffron said she could not wait to talk again! I thought that it is an excellent way to practice coropoorative learning in the classroom. It also provides children with the idea of learning if they could not speak what it would be like. This gives children the ability to establish empathy and compassion for others with disabilities. I told Saffron it was an activity I would ove to do in my own future classroom. I encouraged her to apply more detailed descriptions to her writing. I explained that writing gives everyone the opportunity to be more in depth than in conversations. I hope Saffron intends to apply my advise to her own writing! After all, there is always room for improvement!