C4T Summary #1

My comment for teacher assignment directed me to Frank Noschese's blog titled Action-Reaction. This blog has been awarded 2010 EduBlog Award for most influential blog post. The blog post that received so much attention is The $2 Interactive Whiteboard. It explains the concept of saving the $2000 being spent on smart boards in classrooms and instead using tile/shower board pieces that can be used as dry/erase boards. He suggests the money would be better spent on sending teachers to professional development workshops that promote methods of modeling instruction. Modeling instruction presents an environment where the students,as Mr. Noschese calls it, "think, pair, and share" their findings. While he does believe in and use a smart board in his classroom, he suggest that they are a great tool but if only used in a passive learning environment to merely lecture then students will still grow bored. The resources available on his blog give many wonderful suggestions on how to improve student participation and collaboration where thinking is a requirement.

Another great post on Mr. Noschese's blog is Angry Birds in the Physics Classroom where students get to play Angry Birds and learn about how the laws of physics applies to the application. How many students do you think were sleeping in class during that assignment? But even better they are all hands on and working together to understand why one small action can create such a large reaction while teaching each other. This is what a classroom is supposed to be and I will focus on ways to use modeling in my classroom.