Blog Post #6

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

     Anthony Capps has a great knowledge of the project based learning techniques and is someone I have learned a lot from this week.  As a third grade teacher in Baldwin County School systems, he has a lot of experience that is more viable to me because this is closer to home.  I enjoyed Project Based Learning Part 1 in that Capps talks about how projects must be interesting to the students before they will be worth anything to the program.  Students focus on content before they do anything else, and if a project seems boring to them, they will put in very little effort.  Capps discusses how project based learning takes a lot of effort and planning on the teacher's part, but it is well worth the involvement from the students and their learning during the projects.

       In Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1, Capps talks about how teachers develop their craft during their free time.  They do not get the chance to learn new techniques and methods during the day, they are too busy actually working.  Free time must be used to better themselves as teachers-just like personal hobbies.  I have seen this in my mom, she works her booty off every night and weekend to make things better for her student, and she does not get paid for time off the clock!  Capps offers the suggestion to "start with the end in mind".  As teachers, we must be flexible in our time.  As long as we get the end of our goal, which is to get a lesson across and learned by the student, we should not get flustered if that takes longer to come about.