Blog Post #15

The first video I watched was iCurio. This video was a conversation between Dr. Strange and a previous EDM310 student, Anthony Capps. Anthony is a 3rd grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary in Baldwin County. Anthony talked about the important tools that iCurio have to offer. iCurio enables students to begin learning the basics of storing things in folders. This allows students to begin organizing things early in life. Another point he brought up about iCurio is if for some reason the students had to leave what they were doing in a hurry, when they came back, they could just pick up where they left off. I think the best thing about iCurio that was mentioned in the video is the fact that all the information is filtered to the appropriate grade level.

The next video I watched was about DiscoveryED. In this video Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps were discussing the facts about this useful tool that is used in the classroom today. One of the main facts that were brought up is, with DiscoveryED, the students are able to get a video with the topics that they are searching for.

The last video I watched was, It’s Hard Work: A Day in the Life of a 3rd Grade Teacher. In this video conversation between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, they discussed the downside of being a teacher. Anthony tells us that in the beginning, until October, he was spending 16 hours a day Monday through Friday working. On weekends he would spend about 8 hours a day. In October, he began to get exhausted and cut his days down to 10 hour days and began to hate his job, because he wasn’t able to find time to finish his work. He said that during this time he would go home and mark “yes” or “no” on the calendar. He did this because at the end of the year, he would add them up and that would be the deciding factor as to whether or not he would work the next year. In November, after talking to some of the other teachers, he was about to balance out his work schedule and began liking his job again. He also told us that teaching needs to be a hobby and is not for everyone. He explained that his work does not stop at the end of the school year. In order to be a good teacher, you must take the summer to begin planning for the next year. My favorite part of this conversation was when Anthony made the comment that teaching is a practice, you never master it.




Sherri Hudson's Blog #15

Interview with Anthony Capps

Dr. John Strange directed a podcast with third grade teacher of Gulf Shore Elementary Anthony Capps. Not only is Anthony Capps a third grade teacher, but he is a good friend of EDM310. They talked about two educational search engines throughout two videos, iCurio Anthony 070113 and Discovery Ed Anthony 070113. One search engine is called iCurio, and it allowed Mr. Capp's students to safely search the Common Core Standards. The other is called Discovery Ed.

The search engine iCurio allows students to access the account. There is a feature that allows the students to pick up where they left off. They can search by criteria, and if there is an abrupt disruption iCurio lets the students pick up where they left off. Students with disability can have the text read to them.

After listening to Anthony Capps I understood that Discovery Ed is much like iCurio. It does have a feature where a student can watch a video that matches the criteria that they have research. Dr. Strange said that our generation is "listen-watchers" which means we learn through visuals. Because it's more like a hands-on project, I think iCurio and Discovery Ed is a good addition to the classroom.

According to Use Tech--Don't Teach ItMr. Capps, "technology shouldn't be a list of things to do." He stressed that technology made executing the curriculum or lesson plan easier. His lesson plan didn't consist of teaching the technology either. He suggest that we allow students to figure it out independently. For example, his students rapidly learned iMovie. While they learned the technology, they made mistakes. He recommended giving them time for the reflecting over their mistakes since nobody is perfect. When the students ask questions about using the technology that is incorporated into the assignment they learn two 21 century skills. PROBLEM SOLVING and QUESTIONING.


Christopher Perry's Blog #15

ICurio
After watching the interview session with Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I learned quite a few things that I did not know about iCurio. ICurio has several different features to the program. The first is that it is a curated search engine, to allow students to safely search the web and find videos, music, and texts for their projects that they might be working on. The next feature is that iCurio allows you to store your information that you may have found that would be useful for your project. So you can create folders and then drop your items into those folders. The last feature that Anthony talked about was the timeline. You can go into iCurio and search for specific people from a specific place and a specific time period. It is almost kind of like a directory. But, I thought this program will be a great tool for students to use in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom.

Discovery Ed.
After watching the interview between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I feel like I have learned a lot about Discovery Ed. One great thing about Discovery Ed. is that you can use this program to add to your lesson and/or text. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, well then I guess a video is worth a million. Anyway you can keep your students engaged in the lesson and have them retain the information, then I don't think we should be opposed to using that method. I think that Discovery Ed. is a great tool and I want to do some more research to discover more for myself.

The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1
In the video, Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps discussed a few ideas to be a great teacher and the steps you need to take. These steps are:
Be a great learner to be a great teacher.

Be flexible, The Unexpected will happen.

Teaching Never ends it is hard work and it is very rewarding.

Engage 100% of your students 100% of the time in 100% of their projects.

Reflect, Revise, Share work with an audience.

I think that these are all great things that everyone who is aspiring to be a teacher should set as their goals every time they step into a classroom. I know I cannot wait until I watch the second part of the video series so that we can finish the list and that way I always have something to work towards and remind me of what it means to be a great teacher.