Claire_Smith_video

=Learning and Teaching Videos=

//**Video 1**//
http://www.edutopia.org/media-literacy-skills-video The video, Media Smarts, is about educating kids with and about screen media. A quote from the video says, "Most schools treat the written word as the only means of communication worthy of study." The video demonstrates how today's child who spends about 6 hours in front of screen media and about 55 minutes on homework can be more fully engaged in the learning process through media literacy. The quality of the video is excellent and thought provoking.

//Video 2//
http://www.edutopia.org/10-big-ideas-better-classrooms The video, 10 Big Ideas for Better Classrooms, is an excellent example of all grade levels incorporating technology into the classroom. The quaity of the video is excellent. The 10 Big Ideas are Project-Based Learning, Technology Integration, Integrated Studies, Cooperative Learning, Comprehensive Assessment, Emotional Intelligence, Teacher Preparation, Parent Involvement, Community Partners, and Maximize Resources.Many of the categories highlight the deep inquiry and study into classroom projects integrating technology. The other categories play an integral role in learning. Emotional Intelligence, Parent Involvement, and Community Partners enhance and enable the teachers to acheive the results in all the other categories.

The movie hightlights what better classrooms can be, but does not tell how to get there. To achieve the level of interactivity in the project based learning as well as student, teacher, parent relationships, there must be a top down approach from administration. The issue of time and resources are also not addressed.

A teacher, named Torres, tells how he remembers telling his Mom when he was in school, "Look what I did." His point is that children remember the projects they did, not the tests that they took. Project base learning is excellent, as demonstrated by the video, but the battle most all teachers face is standards based testing.

So how can we get all American schools to the place demonstrated by the selected schools shown in this video from across America? First, administrators and politicians need to see its viability. Once the vision is shared among these two groups, teachers will buy in and resources will become available.

Excellent video everyone should see! ~Claire

//Video 3//
http://www.edutopia.org/begin-end This video of Marin School of Arts and Technology in Novato, CA demonstrates project based learning on a twelve week watershed study. The teachers coordinate the project through their classroom instruction. Andrianne Smythe, one of the teachers, says the students take pride in what they have done. Once they have felt that feeling, they will want to acheive it again. Tony Harris, the digital media classroom teacher, say you must carefully guide the students through the whole process. He said, it can be like "herding cats." Tony states that "If you don't keep track of the groups, they'll shut down on you." The groups get behind, get overwhelmed, and then shutdown. Project based learning is about the child being in charge of his learning, but the teacher is not absent from duty.

The video is excellent.