Blog #5

In the video with Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps on Project Based Learning Anthony talks about how project based learning is working in his classroom. Mr. Capps talks about how this technique is best used in the community. If everyone is involved it can and will be successful.Children can relate to eveyday things that they deal with and will be more intrigued to learn new things.
One thing that I took out of the video is when Mr. Capps says to never limit your students to what you want them to do, they will most likely give you more than what you expect. Dr. Strange also noted that PBL takes a lot of planning and work in order for it to be successful. Another tool that Dr.Strange and Anthony Capps discussed was the use of Icurio This is a search engine that can be used that has been filtered so that no unappropriate material is being displayed to students. This is a great idea, because anyone can use google at any time and search for a particuliar item. The information could sometimes be too subjective for children. The directory feature that icurio has stops that from happening. I liked the phrase that Anthony used about DiscoveryEd was that if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. I agree with Mr. Capps in saying that children learn a whole lot more from watching videos. Children today are so involved with technology that they will be very attentive to videos. I love how Baldwin County schools are using all kinds of technology tools in the classroom. In Anthony's additional lesson thoughts he gave an overview of how a lesson plan should be brokendown. He states that every lesson is four layers thick. There is your yearly plan, then you have your unit (subject). The next part is your weekly plan, and finally what you will teach daily. These componets will ensure that you cover exactly they concepts that you want your students tp be able to master.
It seems to me that Mr.Capps is utilizing all componets of PBL to help his class be successful. I would like to give a great BIG applause for the Baldwin County School System, they seem to have all the tools needed to be successful in the classroom.