Collaboration is the secret to success! Why because two heads always work better than one…
My Gifted Resource Teacher and I have been working together to create video hooks that help draw students in to Problem Based Learning assignments. The hooks are short and generally involve me being a bit silly, but they ask the students to complete a project to help me solve a problem.
A recent activity we came up with was to help Jack Johnson become governor of Virginia. Jack doesn’t know much about the state and needs help creating a bus tour to bring his message to the people. The students research the regions of Virginia and come up with a route that will take Mr. Johnson through all of the highly populated areas. With their help, Jack will be able to discuss the products that Virginia produces and better understand the needs of the people.
Here is a link to the youtube video we created- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiMFKd9y7q0
I am the Computer Resource Specialist and have the technical skills to bring my Gifted Resource Teacher’s ideas to life. The classroom teacher supplies the subject and the major ideas that need to be addressed, and the end result is that all of the students are excited and motivated to learn. Working together we are all better than we could ever be alone.
The enthusiasm that the student’s bring to their projects is incredible! The video hooks take a few hours to throw together but the response from the children is better than we had hoped for and is worth every bit of effort put into the video and then some.