Monday, April 28, 2014

Reflection video

Here is my reflection video I really enjoyed my experience working with technology!!!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

C4T April

The first blog post that I read was from Ms. Brokofsky, she was talking about her not posting a blog in a while and that she was back to blogging. Also how she loves teaching and she got a position as Vice Principal at a school and the differences in being a Vice Principal of a school and a teacher at a school. One of the main things that I agreed and noticed of the 6 things on the list was as a Vice Principal she has to watch and take care of more kids, but a teacher has less kids to be responsible for but don't get me wrong both Vice Principal and a teacher have a lot of tasks to handle. You have to have the talent and patience to be working with children. The second blog I read was from the same teacher Ms. Brokofsky, in this post there were 3 videos. Two people were sorting out candy (skittles) into two even amounts. The main question was "How many bags will it take to get two even amounts of Skittles?" The answer was 41 apiece and only two bags had to be opened.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Blog #13

Instructions: Teach a lesson on your favorite subject. Make a video of you teaching afterwards, post it on your blog. Then write your reflection on how you think your lesson went. Did it go the way you planned or did some parts of the lesson that needed work on?

Reflection: While I was making this video it was more difficult then I thought to teach to people who weren't real. But I thought the Blog Idea was a good Idea and it relates to my field. I really liked making my own blog post to me, it showed how much creativity I have. I do need to work on my speech there were some parts of the video I stuttered some which annoyed me.

The You tube Video:

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Blog post #12

In the video Assistive Technologies For Vision And Hearing Impaired Children we are presented with an alternative concept of the majority of our realities. I was reminded of a play I was part of called Children Of A Lesser God by Hessper Anderson and Mark Medoff. It is the story of a teacher and student coming to terms with different worlds. The teacher, able to hear is coming into a deaf school. The Student unable to hear, but able to form approximate words. (For the benefit of the audience I’m sure.) It was an experience that made me question my reality versus the realities of sight or hearing challenged people. Just as this video does. That is where the similarities end. My high school experience wasn’t one that lead me to seek innovations able to bridge the gap between the everyday world so many of us take for granted and the soundless or shapeless world of the minority. This video isn’t an in-depth expose of the various tools and their usage, but it does present several suggestions to alleviate the gap left in the wake of a sight and touched based technological world. For sometime now, 5 years if I had to guess, I have been exploring vastly different concepts of teaching from what I was comfortable with prior to a blind student. I’ll call her Mae for now. Mae was someone who became blind due to an accident. A car wreck left her unable to see anything. No shapes, colors, silhouettes or even light. Her mother helped her do a great many things including a bachelor's in Psychology. Mae lived alone and tried to be as much of a social butterfly as she was able. She had a very positive attitude and carried a smile on her face. She never missed an opportunity to make a joke about her condition and make people laugh allowing them to feel less concerned about hurting her feelings. I met Mae at a practice party. Her mother, an avid dancer, brought her out. Mae had clearly danced previous to our meeting, but a little more dancing with me and she was eager to take some private lessons to improve her ability. I must admit, the task was daunting at first. The way we teach the various ballroom dances are visual based cues. I often stand in front or beside someone and let them mimic my movements. I could no longer say, “here do this” as a method of education. I found that I had to understand the way she experienced the world in order to properly communicate with her. I first discovered the attention that I devote to visual cues, she must devote to known factors of the room. I would walk her around the dance floor so she was aware of how much space we would be using. When discussing degrees of a turn I would have to talk in percentages of a turn or first inform her of what walls to face. She was an excellent follower, as she relied purely on tactile cues to know what to do or where to go. My time teaching Mae taught me more than I was able to relate to her. I am a far better communicator and educator thanks to her. Memory lane trips aside, the driving question for this week’s assignment must be answered. First and foremost, I think our best tool to teaching anyone with sensory impairments is empathy. I don’t mean sympathy or pity in anyway and it shouldn’t be confused at this point. Empathy is the ability to see things from another’s perspective. Taking technology to task using empathy, how can we improve education for those with sensory impairments? My first thoughts goes to articles/videos I have seen recently about implants and the innovations science is creating to end the impairments of a vast number of ailments. Such as Bionic Eyes, Retinal Implants, and Bionic Ears. Those won’t help me in a classroom though. As a PE teacher who hopes to bring ballroom dancing into classrooms, I have to deal with the crux of that issue. The National Center For Learning Disabilities website has a great many suggestions to deal with traditional classroom settings. I happen to be concerned with a non-traditional, not even sitting down setting. As I mentioned in a previous blog, a vibrating metronome app can assist someone that is without the ability to hear beats of a song. As for blind students, there isn’t an app for action. Short of the bionic eye implants I mentioned above, I know of no technology that will help someone learn how to waltz better than doing the waltz. Perhaps, items like Kinect can be used in schools the same way VISIONS in Manhattan is helping senior citizens with vision impairments. Xbox Kinect is a device that is connected to the TV through the Xbox gaming platform. In the current form it responds to voice commands and uses cameras to track the motions of the user. No remote needed. But it isn’t designed for be full audio feedback, the system isn’t something that can be used without sight at this time. I’m not a programer but I’m sure, once it’s set up, it can be used to inform a visually impaired student of their body position and help them correct problem areas such as arm level or posture. Things like Microsoft’s Kinect, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Playstation Move are all using a similar approach to motion controlled video games. Hopefully these companies will begin to see the further use in the field of visually impaired learning aides. I would even lend my voice and knowledge to work on a dance game. “Raise your right arm to a height that allows your partner to travel under it in a clockwise motion.” Yeah… I could do that. The search continues.
A man holding a bionic eye
Aaron Ferguson

I watched the video “Teaching Math to The Blind-Professor Art Karshmer University of San Francisco”. This video mainly talks about how blind students can’t use a lot of mathematics only a rare amount of it. So this professor from the University of San Francisco is trying to experiment a better and more helpful way to let blind students teach and learn math as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk31xOMGSWM&list=PL1LmVhEG4FCg3ckSeV9Wq3r7Fp0Ee7Nvq&feature=share Art Karshmer is the professor explaining this experiment and invented this scrabble-like object to help the students who are blind. What this scrabble-like object does is it has wooden pieces just like the game of scrabble does except instead on letters on the pieces it has numbers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk31xOMGSWM&list=PL1LmVhEG4FCg3ckSeV9Wq3r7Fp0Ee7Nvq&feature=share When you put now numbers on the board it has a sensor to tell the student/students what the number is and if you put an addition or subtraction problem down it will read it too you as well. In my own opinion, I think that this a really cool invention for blind kinds because it gives the students hands on mathematical aids, just like when people who see they write the math problem on a sheet of paper and work it out that way. This scrabble-like object is this same thing for blind students as us seeing students use paper to solve problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk31xOMGSWM&list=PL1LmVhEG4FCg3ckSeV9Wq3r7Fp0Ee7Nvq&feature=share Leanna Willoughby

how FM systems work
Hearing loss is something that can be detrimental in life— and in the classroom, especially. I speak from experience. I have significant hearing loss in one ear and I remember having to ask other students what the teacher’s instructions were or what he or she said. It was a waste of my time, as well as the other student’s time. Luckily, I have learned to adapt with my hearing loss. I try to sit closer to the teacher and make sure I pay close attention to what is said. For those with more serious hearing problems, this does not help much. But a FM System can. This system uses “radio signals to transmit amplified sounds.” The teacher wears a microphone connected to a transmitter, and the student wears the receiver that is tuned to a certain channel. These signals can be transmitted from as far as 300 feet and are easily used in public places. Since radio signals can be transmitted through walls, users should be aware of other users nearby and pick a different channel. Another assistive technology is a personal amplifier. This is better to use from day-to-day life. It amplifies sounds levels and decreases background noise. A personal amplifier can even come with a microphone to direct at the source of sound. I believe both of these tools can be extremely helpful in the classroom. Sources:"www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/assistive-devices.aspx" Jennah Medlin

It may seem hard to imagine trying to talk to a child or an adult with Cerebral Palsy. That is just our assumption until we do further research. In this post I will be enlightening you upon assistive technology in the classroom for students with Cerebral Palsy.

Eye Access Technology (Tobii C12) allows students with cerebral palsy to communicate with
Picture of the Tobii C12 Speech Generating Device by Tobii C Series
just heir eyes. The camera on the device picks up the movement of their eyes. C12 Speech Generating device by Tobii with an eye control module device. The device is called the Communicator Device. There are word pages to make sure the student's speech is making accurate progress despite their disability.
Here is a video of a student with cerebral palsy communicating with a teacher using the Tobii C12 Speech Generating Device.

Sources: Tobii Series

Jonita Watkins

C4K April

I read a post from a boy named Noah and he was talking how he had a ladybug activity. Where it is a ladybug pattern and Noah and his other classmates had to color the pattern in and the finished picture would end up being a beetle. He did a really good job describing what the activity was about.
A lady bug
The second post I read was from a little girl in the United Kingdom. Her name was Efa-Lata and she made a video on her experience at the zoo and she also drew her favorite animal that she saw it was a Giraffe. Then she said that after the zoo she went to eat a Burger King. I really enjoyed reading and watching her blog post and video.
A Giraffe

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Blog # 11

This is the blog that we had to write as a group and our group name is Team Tokyo. If this is interesting also check out my partner's Jennah's or Aaron's blog page!

Brian Crosby, from the video Back To The Future, showed me how he has innovated the use of education to include experiments, technology and networking to not only meet the standards, but to educate and engage the students in their own education. He reached out to others in the use of blogs. Not only the blogs his students read, but blogs twice removed from his typical blog circle. In this way, he exponentially increased his student’s networking and influence. At the start of the video, he showed how his students were unsure of the city they lived in, throughout the video he showed how he made those same students, not only aware of their city, but globally aware. Perhaps the most touching element was when they brought a typical issue of health concerns that keeps most students at home, into the classroom. Celeste was struggling with cancer and through the use of technology, she wasn’t just a student who fell through the red tape cracks. Crosby set up video sessions that kept her involved in the classroom environment. This type of interaction would have certainly kept up her moral and helped aid her recovery. “Now we are including Celeste in a regular day in school.” This simple statement from one of the students foreshadows Crosby’s follow up statement “not only are we learning but we are learning to change each others lives”. I wish I could do experiments in a class. As it is, P.E. majors have other duties. I have considered sending a balloon into the atmosphere in the past few years on my own. While I haven’t yet spent the time or money to learn and invest in this fun and simple idea, I’m sure, without any doubt, that those kids involved in that experiment won’t soon forget it.
Altitude Balloon
Paul Anderson’s video on Blended learning brought an interesting concept to bare, QU.I.E.V.R.S. (QUestion, Investigate/Inquiry, Video, Elaboration, Review, Summary quiz) In his AP BIology class. He starts a class with a Question and a Hook. In the video he used an Euler’s disc to both bring up the question, and by his method of presentation it creates and sets the hook all on it’s own. He goes through one of his lessons on evolution and shows how he uses this method of QU.I.E.V.R.S. It’s a very student driven learning experience. He gives the students the content and informs them of what they are to know. If they haven’t met those standards by the time the quiz comes around, they are required to figure out what they are missing. He allows them to stumble on their own a few times before he intervenes. This self exploration and requirement to be self critical is essential to be an active learner. Again, if I were teaching a science class, I would steal a page from his play book. Self determination of education, is possibly one of the best things that a teacher can give a student.
Quiver of Arrows
Mark Church talked about the students using Critical thinking. His idea was for the students to think of a banner from the video that they watched earlier in the week. In my opinion, I think that this video was talking about how the students should brainstorm from stories things that they have listened too. For example, in the video the whole class reads a book and now they have to think and brainstorm on what the book was about. The teacher gave the student a piece of paper to make a banner about the story something that stands out to them. The question that video asks in the middle is “What’s it all about?”
Critical thinking
This video Sam Pane, a 5th grade teacher was talking about how to build your own superhero on the computer. This video talk also talked about Super Digital Citizen, I thought that this video was very good. I especially liked the quote from Spiderman “With great power comes great responsibility.” I also liked how the students built their own superhero and made a comic out of pictures of themselves and the superhero they built. Another thing that I learned in the video was how to use the internet safely.
Spiderman's saying
In the video Project Based Learning, the viewer visited a school in Canada in which they integrated History, Language Art, and Information Processing. Instead of having three separate class times, these three classes met together with all three teachers, and crossed-over subjects. By integrating each of these three subjects within each other, it created much more time for students’ ideas to develop. It also gave the teachers more time to spend time with each student to assist their developing ideas. I learned from the teachers in this video that it is extremely important to get advice from a variety of different people because this enables your ideas to fully develop.
PBL classroom
In the video Roosevelt Elementary’s PBL Program, the teachers explained how Project Based Learning presents in-depth, “real world” problems and allows students to research their answers. It also allows students to practice public speaking at a young age, which can help develop their skills and let them practice. I learned from the teachers in this video that through PBL you can bring your community into the classroom and it is a great benefit to the students. It also creates curriculum integration, as the prior video demonstrated. Curriculum integration builds background knowledge and helps students in all areas.
What is part of PBL?

Saturday, April 5, 2014

C4T for March

Technology is the main thing that this teacher Daniel Edwards says on his blog. Global inter connectivity through technology has transformed the world of work. But the question is How do we know the learning is relevant and students are actually learning the material? Students have been known if they use technology their more interactive, inquiring self reflection and also connected to social, economical and global contexts in which they live. Teachers are considering to "flip learning" to see how the students react to it (transformational feedback). But the weird thing is that most teachers remembered school as just textbooks and examinations. Basically it is all about the technology, today's future of education; technology restructures the learning process. Also there as been over 10 million tablets worldwide being hosted by schools. The good thing about all education being technology based is when students do there work they receive feedback faster. All in all, teachers need to understand the pedagogy first and then know how to use the technology to facilitate the pedagogy.
Technology logo
 A+ paper
I already read the most current posts by Daniel Edwards so I am reading the post titled "How do we prepare our children for Tomorrow". It was talking about the criteria that kids have to go through in order to move from one grade to the next. The criteria is so extreme that there is so much information that the students have to learn and the teachers have to teach. The teachers have to stay busy to teach the students to finish the requirements before the end of the year.Criteria

C4K for March

For the first blog post I read It was a little boy whose name on the blog was Visy Recycling Center. He and a couple of other classmates made a video of a story about Recycling. I commented on the post saying that it was really creative and cute how they had three different people with three different parts telling the story.
Recycle logo
The second blog that I read was a class from the United Kingdom, her name is Iron. She and also her partner Josephine had to make a movie of someones job or hobby. Both Iron and Josephine kept looking for someone to film and they found two hairdressers Vivienne and Marita, they both interviewed them and that was there movie project it was a success. They both wandered around again and there was a chocolate booth that was wanting people to take their surveys, which for their reward they got lots of free chocolate. They both kept wandering and found a chief that said that her mom (mum) inspired her to cook. Josephine and Iron both received more free chocolate.
Chocolate
The last blog that I read for this month and from a girl named Emmy in the United Kingdom. She posted a video of how she shows empathy, and she went shopping at the mall and saw a man asking for money. Emmy was nice enough to help out the man by giving him the rest of her change she had.
Coins

Interview with Mrs Kayser (Project #10)

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Blog # 10

What did you learn from Sir Ken Robinson? The YouTube video that I watched was called Sir Ken Robinson: Bringing on the learning Revolution! Here is the video on YouTubeYouTube Video. In this video I learned several things, one of the things is talent is important to each and every person. All people have talent some enjoy their talent others not so much. But sadly, some people think that they don't have any talents. Personally, I have a talent of being around young children and I enjoy it quite well which is why I would like to become a teacher.
The word talent
There is a quote that Sir Ken Robinson said in the video that Abraham Lincoln said on December of 1862: " I ought to explain that I have no idea what was happening at that time we don't teach American History in Britain we Suppress it." The 21st Century Education system is being taken for granted, the main thing that most people now are focused on is getting into college and they have a long ways to go before college. If a child wanted to get into a certain kindergarten class you would have to have an interview in order to even think about getting in. In my personal experience only the private schools require interviews with the parents as well as the up coming student. Another thing that I learned in this video talent equals passion; if you have a talent that you are interested in you have to have passion towards that talent or any talent for that matter. Another thing the video mentioned is time for talent if you don't enjoy the talent time will go so slow, if on the other hand enjoy the talent time will fly by. Another quote that Abraham Lincoln said "The dog-mere of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present the occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion; as our case is new so we must think a new and act a new we must dis-enthrall ourselves and then we should save our country."
Abraham Lincoln
I think the quote means don't focus on the past, focus on the present and that the journey to the present is going to be difficult at times but that is life and you must deal with one day at a time not all at once also we should be open-mind about certain things. Here is a video that I found on YouTube by Sir Ken Robinson about the passion of talents

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Blog # 9 (Rewritten to address the concerns raised by comments I received on my original post)

What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy?
Technology
I watched 4 different videos on YouTube that Dr. Strange interviewed a First Grade teacher Kathy Cassidy. I learned a lot from Kathy, one thing that Kathy talked about was technology and how it was taking over the education system and that not a lot of classrooms use pen and paper anymore. I think that the kids who are in school now know more about the technology world then the teachers would. As for teachers now their teaching methods and materials are changing at a rapid pace. Kids during the 21st century have more understanding and more knowledgeable with the new technology. Blogging is one of the most educational things for kids to write on and type their what they want too. The kids like to write on their blogs and they get really excited when someone responds to the blogs. As one of the students in the first video says "NEVER EVER say bad stuff, you might hurt someones feelings." When young kids have a blog of their own you only want to put your first name NEVER your last name!! In my own opinion I think putting your first and your last there is a better chance that someone could find more information about you. But with only your first name provided its a wider variety of getting more information on that person. Also in the video it talks about the kids looking things up on the internet.
 Internet logo
Another popular thing in the education system is Wiki's, I think a Wiki is a kid-friendly internet system where kids can look up information that is appropriate for their learning and education. Also their are many different things to use the Wiki on for example rituals, alphabet and even traditions in different families. My personal favorite technology based learning is Skype which in the classroom can be used for many different things. I think that skype can be used for communicating with people from other places like classrooms, overseas or from room to room. I also learned about how to use technology in schools education systems. In the video, Dr. Strange interviews Kathy Cassidy on the use of technology in her room and what programs she uses and how long she has used them. Facebook is also a popular online communicative program that the 21st century kids have to communicate with friends and family. Overall I thought that the interview between Dr. Strange and Kathy Cassidy was very helpful with her perspective on how she uses technology in her classroom and also how her students use it.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Blog # 8

21st century learning and communicating tools
Skype logo
There are a lot of different communicating and learning tools these days. There is YouTube, Facebook, Skype and there are even ways to communicate by mobile for IPhone owners there is even face-timing other IPhone owners.I think that technology has taken over students education and especially if everywhere kids go and there is nothing but technology around them everyone is on there cellphone (mostly Iphones) looking on Facebook or checking email. That's all the kids in the 21st century know of technology no pen, pencil or paper just technology. As for learning tools I would recommend Discovery Education, It has activities and Programs for all subjects (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and also World Languages).
Discovery Education logo
I would teach 4th grade students how to use skype skype because I think that at that age they are the ones that will make use of it the most with their friends. Here is a website with written instructions on how to use skype I reviewed how to use skype and skype is basically a visual chat room that you can talk to people all over the world through video. The cool thing I really like about skype is you can video chat more than one person at a time. Skype is also a good way to communicate with other classmates while being in a different place your house for example. I would use skype so that during the day for a few hours the students could skype me with questions that they had. When I become a teacher I really would like to use the "flipping a classroom" method. The main reason is the students can work at their own pace and as well as not fall behind on their classwork. Out of the video's that were on the blog instructions this video was my favorite one. It was the most descriptive of what "flipping a classroom" is and how it helps the students learn and understand better. I learned in this video that 90% of the kids in Katie's class were spending time delivering the message rather than learning in class. 10% of the kids in the class spent on the application which depends on the students application outside of class as well. So the big thing about a normal class is kids didn't have enough time to do there work.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Video Conversation Project

Denise Krebs C4T

On Denise Krebs blog, she talked about how she moved to Bahrain in the Middle East. She said that with her first week living there she has to get her sleeping adjusted and also the smaller streets and parking lots. When she moved she became a English kindergarten teacher with 50 students in her class teaching 1.5-2.5 hours per day. I commented on her blog about me living in England and how it was a huge transition for me with the time change especially. I liked reading her blog some of the things that she wrote I related to the experience and I look forward to reading her next blog. This is the second time I read Denise Krebs blog, It talked about how she was moving and she was getting rid of some of her daughters school papers and awards. The only thing that she kept was things that were authentic and creative like the Pandora box that her daughter made. But what surprised me is that she even threw away the awards that her daughter received.The main thing that made me realize is no matter how many papers you get in the past that say good job or 100% it doesn't determine who you are as a person.
Pandora box

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Blog # 7

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch? When I watched the Video by Randy Pausch, I was quite impressed with his teaching and learning strategies. I learned a lot of information from him but the one thing out of the whole video that stuck with me was the Brick Wall how he described it. A brick wall shows dedication in life. Here are some pointers from Randy himself:
Brick wall
- Don't bail; the best gold is at the bottom of the Barrels crap - Get a feed back loop; listen to it!!! - Show Gratitude - Don't complain; just work harder More Advice - Be good at something; it makes you valuable - Work hard.... "What's your secret?" - Find the best in everybody; no matter how you have to wait for them to show it - Be prepared "luck" is where preparation meets opportunity Randy talked about imagination and talked about a project called Aladdin and when he was a kid he wanted to fly the magic carpet, instead he cleaned the head caps. Then he talked about Charlie and the Chocolate factory and he heard someone tell him "Did you ever hear about the little boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted?" and he said "No what happened!!" and the guy said "He lived happily ever after." Randy other childhood dreams were the Virtual Jungle Cruise and also the Pirates of the Caribbean. How do you enable your childhood dreams? Tommy Brunet said I have a childhood dream "Tommy wants to work on the next star wars movie around 1993." Randy and Tommy both created a program called "Building Virtual Worlds" which contained:
Hello world
- 50 Students drawn from different departments at the University - Randomly chosen them (4 people per team) - 2 weeks to design each project - 5 projects through the whole semester What amazed Randy is that the groups finished their projects early and the professor didn't know what to do so he had to call his mentor and ask "What do I do?" His mentor said "To go back and tell the student's that you all did a good job but you can do better" and sure enough it worked. Hello world was the team project they designed a virtual program that a person creates a world with imaginary animals. There was one animals that always appeared a bunny and the bunny didn't want the student who was controlling the world do quit their world so the students just hit Control alt delete to go away. There was another project that Randy and Don Marinelli created called The Dream fulfillment factory. ETC (Entertaining Technology Center) - Artists and technologists working in small teams to make things - 2 year professional degree (MET): Masters of Entertainment technology) - Two kindred spirits: try things a new way - Don gets most of the credit for the success of ETC The main success from ETC: Focus on people and learning to work in groups Another program that they worked on was Alice: - Its a novel way to teach computer programming - Kids make movies and games the "head fake" is that they are learning to program - Over 1 million downloads, 8 textbooks and 10% of colleges use right now Lessons learned - The role of parents, mentors and students There are also other people that help us as well: - Teachers - Friends - Mentors - Colleagues Loyalty is a two-way street How do you get people to help you?
- You can't get there alone; Randy believes in Karma - Tell the truth - Be earnest - Apologize when you screw up - Focus on others not yourself Overview of the video - Randy's childhood Dreams - Enabling dreams of others - Lesson's learned: How you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others Lastly its not how you achieve you dreams its how to lead your life. Here is the video of Randy's Speech

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Blog # 6

What are personal learning Networks? How can they help you as a teacher? How are they formed? How can you create your own PLN? Who will be the first additions to your PLN? A Personal learning network is an informal learning network that consists of people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. The one thing that I think of when I hear the words Personal learning Network is Blogging. According to Dr. Strange "Once these students have a blog they won't know what to do without one." Twitter is another learning device as well and also to me face book would be the personal portion of the learning network but I don't know if it is a learning network though.
Twitter logo
I know blogging can help me when I become a teacher, It shows how creative a student can be from a teacher's point of view. It gives a little bit more information about students what are their likes, dislikes or hobbies, but it all depends on what the topic of the blog is. To me, as a teacher, twitter can show me how the students express themselves in their writing instead of them talking. Personal Learning Networks are formed by one person signing up with an account like twitter, google+ or blog and add people that you know on to your twitter or blog account. Every time you put a twitter or blog post they see if anyone sends you comments. The more you put posts up the more chances you will get more comments on those posts. When I started the blog for EDM310, all of his students added Dr. Strange first since he is our professor. After that we were assigned to add the lab assistants. I would create my own PLN for just my students in my class and I would ask them to add me there teacher as the first person to add and then add all of their other classmates as well.
Facebook logo

Friday, February 14, 2014

Blog #5

What did you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps? 
 In all 7 of these videos: 
 1. Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher 
 2. Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher 
 3. iCurio
 4. Discovery Education 
 5. The Anthony - Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1 
 6. Don't Teach Tech - Use It 
 7. Additional Thought About Lessons I learned a valuable amount of information about Project based learning. With Project based learning the kids in the classroom need to be consistently evolve more. I thought this was pretty interesting about what Anthony said about Projects are for the end of a lesson so it can show what the kids have learned that day. The goal for giving a project at the end of a lesson is "Its not only the mean that the students achieved something, It means to get them to learn something Authentic Audience- the kids are rewarded for what they have done."
 One thing that is a given when teaching is give something that the kids show interest in, do something that is relevant to the kids lives. An example of a project based learning that Anthony talked about is the kids wrote letters to Congressman Joe Bonner which involves writing, reading and social studies standards. The kids send the letters and they do get responses from the congressman but 

Anthony chooses only 8 letters based off of these three things: 
 -Peer editing 
 -Peer revise 
 -Peer select 
 A key thing that video #2 was talking about was Never limit your students with learning. What project based learning teaches you most is that almost everything in the classroom has some kind of meaning. 
      Another key aspect to project based learning is the students choose which gives them more ownership and pride in themselves. Project based learning is teaching someone so they don't have to learn, project based learning is fun but also is hard work.
      The program that they are using in Baldwin County Alabama is Icurio, Icurio is an online tool that serves a few purposes. 
 1. It allows students to search websites that have been pulled and filtered for educational purposes 
 2. Kids can use it themselves 
 3. Storage Capacity for students and teachers
project based learning and what is involved
-Store content is valuable
 4. Helps keep the kids organized better online - Its more convenient when you have to stop at a moments notice. For example for lunch, fire drill or dismissal. Also Icurio works with people with disabilities because it will read aloud to you. 
      In the video Discovery Education, there is a saying a picture is worth a thousand words so a video must worth a million. The key to education with kids is have a lot of Visual things when teaching. Anthony uses Discovery to bring texts to life. 
     Discovery is also a good program for the kids, its used for the student searches so that students can enrich there research experience. The teacher tips that were provided in the video called "Strange tips for teachers part 1" the 5 key things that any new teacher needs to know are: 
 1. Be interested in learning yourself
 2. Teaching is hard work (Work is not separate from play)
 3. Be flexible and creative - Not every plan you make is going to work out when and how you want to teach it. 
 4. Get kids engaged (100%) 
 5. Start with a goal 
 6. Reflect, Revise, Share, Work with Audience The video called "Don't teach tech use it", when you let the kids use technology let them use one tool at a time. 
     Then the next week add another tool for them to use on top of the tool they used the week before that. Never ever expect perfection from the kids no one is perfect. Never teach technology just introduce it a smart way. 
      When making a lesson there is at least 4 layers as discussed in the video "Additional thoughts about lessons". The 4 layers are: 
 1. How it fits in with your year
The difference from traditional learning and project based learning
- Cover all of your standards 
 2. Unit size -Have you devised unit projects
 3. Week - Devising your week? How? 
 4. Daily lessons - How do you deliver to your students I have learned a lot watching these 7 videos I hope one day it makes me a better teacher.

C4KSummary for February

I had a 4th grader named Shane and the blog that I read was the steps of dividing/multiplying fractions. He presented the steps he used to solve a certain problem. He showed on his blog 5 steps to getting the right answer.

I had a 4/5 grader her name Sierra and the blog that I read about her was of her lost cat. She described it in great detail. Sierra's words were "He is orange and has orange stripes. He is a medium size cat."  She said that she really missed her cat and the cats name was Savy.
Orange cat with orange stripes
She didn't know what happened to her cat she said a Coyote might of ate her. But she really wants Savy to come home.


I looked at a 7th grader's blog her name is Tayler and the blog I commented on was a color poem. It had a picture with her blog of a light pink background with a semi hidden white question mark. I commented on her blog that this blog post looked really good and to keep up the great work :)

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Project # 3 Presentation.

What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

We were asked this question for blog # 4, what do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? The answer that jumps in my head right away is do the questions make sense? But after reading the material that was provided for this blog post I had a different answer. There were a lot of answers to this question. After watching the video "Questioning Styles and Techniques", I noticed that the way to being an effective teacher is have students participate in the assignment. Which could consist of talking out loud in front of the whole class or to their partners about what they put as their answer to the question that has been asked.I also looked at the article called "Three Ways to Ask
Question marks
Better Questions in the Classroom" and the three ways they described to be ask better questions were: 1)Prepare Questions - Which is making sure they make sense and also making sure there are answers to those questions being asked. 2)Play with Questions -This means ask a question to the students and teach different ways of answering the question. It keeps the students minds thinking about the question and not let their minds wonder off. 3)Preserve good questions -If a students ask a teacher a good question then the teacher can use that question again in future classes.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Cathy Jo Nelson's blog

I read Cathy Jo Nelson's blog her newest one which is called "Going Flipped". On her blog she was discussing a program that she just discovered and found out that it was a cool video program. ActivePresenter by AtomiSystems also she tried other programs but her favorite was the active presenter.
The process of the program being discussed
The second blog that I viewed was about a movie that is coming out in June 2014. It was called "The fault in our stars" It was about a young woman by the name of Hazel and she is sick and she meets this guy named Gus and they end up falling in love. Even without watching anything else. The movie clip on Cathy Jo Nelson's blog that movie has more than one moral but, one of them is that life is short and you should not waste it.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Blog # 3

Peer Editing

In the video "What is peer editing", I learned that there are a lot of points to look at in editing a blog or a document. The point that was mainly made in this video were the three main parts in editing a peers work:
The three main things to check on when peer editing
1. Compliment  
2. Suggestions
3. Corrections
In my own opinion, I think a peer review is more effective and more influential than having someone who is slightly older comment on the blog or document. The reason is peers relate and understand better on what is said and what is meant to be said than peers who are slightly older in age do. Also, if a peer comments on a blog then there is a better chance of understanding what his/her point is.
A list of errors for peer editing

The slideshow "Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial", was basically a repeat of the video before but it showed more detail. It included definitions like: what is a peer?, what is editing? and lastly what is peer editing? In the slideshow, It goes into greater detail about the three main parts of editing a peers work. The slideshow also includes a short story that had mistakes in the paragraph some where noticeable right away others weren't. 
Lastly, watching another video called "Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes", I realized that there are a lot of different types of peer reviewers. Some are noisy, rude, loud, picky and some people who just don't care about what others say when it comes to them editing.
In conclusion I think that my favorite visual aid out of these three choices would be the video  "Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes", It involves the kids for an educational purpose and also builds there creativity more.  

Saturday, January 25, 2014

blog # 2


  1. 1) What is the central message of this video. 
    The central message in the Dance-along video was,you don't learn any subject unless you get to experience or practice it first.
    2) How does the author make the case for this conclusion.
     In conclusion, a teacher who teaches a dance class should actually let the students participate with the dances instead of just talking about it only. Its like if a teacher lectures but doesn't use a book.
    3) Do you agree with his conclusion? Why or why not? 
    No I don't agree because students need structure and demonstration in there classes so they (the students) will learn better.
     a)What does Roberts think it means to teach in the 21st Century? Create an outline of the
    argument made by Roberts, including the evidence and arguments made to support his thesis. How do you feel about the way Roberts sees teaching changing? If Roberts is correct, how will it affect you as an educator? 
    In the video "Teaching in the 21st century",Robert thinks that teaching in the 21st century, kids need to be more engaged in the learning process. That children these days, use nothing but technology for all of the subjects they learn.The teachers should provide content,facts,dates,formulas,research,theories,stories and information. One argument that I remember is when the video was playing all of the questions for example: How do I fix my car?, Whats the best credit card deal for me and also should I rent or buy.

    Honestly I feel like technology has taken over the educational system. That instead of pen and paper when I was little its now iPad's  and cellphones.
    It will affect me as an educator because everything is starting to be just electronics for books, tests even lectures too. Soon all education will be electronics and no more books or paper products. 


    Think about what you have heard and seen. Listen and watch very carefully when the question is asked "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" Write about your reaction to this video 
    In the video the networked student, the question appeared on the video "Why does the networking student even need a teacher"? I have an answer, to guide the student when he or she needs help in which case in the video its a boy. The teacher is also there to answer any questions and assists him when he gets stuck on something,also the teacher assists the student with what information he is looking up is true information or false.

    My reaction to the video was the animation was good it got the point across with the discussion.
  2.  
  3. What is the thesis of Davis’ video. What is your reaction to her argument?
  4. A chart of how the 21st century learning will be like
'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The thesis that I came up with from the Davis video was, All Education is becoming Electronic.I personally was not     surprised at all about how the students know more than the teacher in some programs.The teachers grew up with pen and paper, but as students grew up with electronics. 



    Is flipping a classroom new to you? Do you think this approach will be useful to you as a                               teacher? Why or why not?
          The phrase "Flipping a classroom"doesn't sound familiar to me     but I do know what the video is talking about.I had a             class in High School like that it was fun because personally     I understand and learn better as a student electronically         then on paper.I think that the approach was useful for when I     become a teacher, I think that If I grew up with using           electronics then my future students should too.