Watching the videos and conversations that Dr. Strange had with Anthony Capps was both very informative and a great reminder of things I learned in some other education classes I took back at Southern Miss. Project based learning has been the main topic in our EDM310 class for some time now and every time we have assignment about it, I learn something new.
In Project Based Learning Part 1, Mr. Capps started off about by discussing what we have been learning and the basics of project based learning. One thing I think I have known throughout this learning process without even realizing it is that it is very important for the project to include enough aspects and requirements to make sure that the students learn all of the content and material they have to know and not just parts of it. Mr. Capps did a great job at reminding e of this and bringing it to my attention. From my experience from doing group projects, I found that it is very easy for us to gain the minimal amount of knowledge just so we can finish our part, not all the material that is outside of our role in the project. Sometimes we allow this to happen without even knowing its happening. Like Anthony pointed out, once again, we see that it is very necessary for the students to be involved in all facets of the project, enabling them to learn all of the content they can. Another thing that Mr. Capps reminded me of was the method of t-charts and how useful they can be. T-charts are something you use to prove your answer to be correct or incorrect. You simply put your answer and question on top and underneath you list your reasons for why you think your answer is correct on one side and incorrect on the other, whether those reasons are fact or opinion. Using the charts can really help the students by helping them learn to reason their thoughts and answers for themselves.
Like Part 1, Project Based Learning Part 2 Anthony brought to light some great thoughts and projects he did with his third grade students. One of his projects that he discussed was and exploration project. His class had been studying cultures before approaching this project, which allowed the students to apply all that they had learned throughout the whole process. Mr. Capps specific region and had them write a script portraying a student or child in that specified region. Once the students finished their script, they turned to iMovie to make a presentation and bring their script to life by including pictures and videos of their regions. Because they just studied the aspects of culture and all that implied, the students were able to cover everything from food, language, clothing, geography, and etc. From Mr. Capps enthusiasm while discussing the project, you can take that it was a huge success and that the students truly enjoyed it and were proud of their work. His statement, "With project based learning, you're going to get more than you expect. Never limit your students and create opportunities for them to go above and beyond," is something that I will definitely remember when teaching my future students because kids will seriously surprise you. Another topic that Mr. Capps and Dr. Strange briefly discussed was incorporating art into the classroom. I personally think the idea Anthony had about allowing his students to paint their final scene as their reward was a fantastic idea. Art has been seen by most students as the "fun" part of school, which can result in a great increase in motivation in the classroom when incorporate art in some way. Like I mentioned earlier these videos reminded me of some things I learned back at Southern Miss, especially my art education class. This art education focused on incorporating art into subject field possible to help motivate and encourage students to learn in their own way, while also learning the important techniques and methods of art to allow us to incorporate art properly. For example, when we studied the beginnings of art, we discussed the Lascaux Caves in France and their ancient drawings and meanings. In doing this, we were given our first project, which was to do a cave drawing of our own using various materials available to us and proper sketching techniques. In addition, we later studied Vincent van Gogh, his love of portraits, and the many letters he wrote to peers of his time, including his brother Theo van Gogh. Our project for this study was to create a portrait of ourselves invoking van Gogh and to write a letter to van Gogh about our portrait. One last example comes from a book we were asked to make about Walter Inglis Anderson, an artist from the early 1900s. The book included our own interpretations of his art, some of his poetry, and his home. Below are some pictures of these projects:
Cave Painting Project
Vincent van Gogh Portrait Project
(made only from paint chips)
Walter Inglis Anderson Project
Of course, I see now that my professor was actually using project based learning to teach us how to be successful teachers, even though we weren't working in groups. I also must admit, it definitely worked because I still remember all of those lessons from that class today, two and a half years later.
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