Sunday, November 30, 2014

Blog Post #5 Final Summary

Personal Learning Networks

When starting the semester, I really had no idea about what a personal learning network. After completing my assignments and projects that are required for this class I started to realize that my PLN was growing. Throughout the past few months there were many things that helped me gather people for my personal learning network, one in particular was the C4Ts and C4Ks that we were instructed to complete each week. I also added to my PLN by the classmates in my class. The reason I have learned from my classmates is because I learned how to give constructive criticism. The main resource that has helped me the most is the class blog. It has given me many different resources to add to my PLN. My PLN will grow every year and this will be a great tool to use to help me in the future. 

Personal Learning Network

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

C4T #4

C4T #4-1 J F Hadley     
Mrs. Hadley's post was about how she allowed students to make superpowers for the new school year that they would like to conquer throughout the year. I commented on her post and told her that I really enjoyed her post and was truly inspired and that I can't wait to use her idea when I start teaching.

C4T #4-2
Mrs. Hadley's post was about brains working. She talked about how she allows her student four minutes to think and would not allow them to take notes on it. Then she had them make a project about what they thought about. I commented and told her that I really appreciated and thought it was a great idea to allow her students to think for a few minutes and not allow them to take notes. I told her that I will definitely remember this concept and apply it in my classroom.

teachers

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Blog Assignment #14

     After reading Teaching Can Be a Profession by Joel Klein for this week's blog post assignment, I realized that a lot that was said is some of the exact thoughts that I have about teaching and some of his thoughts are the complete opposite than his.

The problems that he talked about throughout the article were:
  • Pick from the best 
  • Seniority Distraction 
  • Radical Change 
Klein's solutions to these problems are:
  • better training for prospective teachers  in reading and math
  • recruit teachers that our head of their class
  • change how we reward teachers 
   I do not agree with Joel Klein about needing to better the training for incoming teachers in reading in math. The reason why I do not agree is because it should be the older teachers that need to have better training to get them up to date with the latest technology and teaching skills. I believe that the incoming teachers are highly trained because they are the ones being educated with the latest teaching skills.

    The recruiting better teachers by picking the ones that are head of their class is very reasonable solution. I highly agree with this because the students should get the very best education. This is great because the teachers that worked the hardest to become great teachers should be rewarded with the job.

  I highly agree with Mr. Klein on changing how we reward teachers because I believe that teachers should be rewarded for what they are doing and I believe that if teachers that are great at their job get rewarded more it would help make other teachers want to try harder and be better teachers themselves to be rewarded also.

Furthermore, Mr. Klein's views should most definitely be applied in the school systems. I believe that if the school systems would apply what he has said to the way that they pick their teachers, the school systems would be a much better place. This was a great article!

Great Teachers
 


Monday, November 17, 2014

C4K Summary for November

C4K #8 - Nieka
Nieka's post was about similes and metaphors. In her post, she gave the definitions of a simile and a metaphor. She also gave examples of a simile and a metaphor by posting a simile and a metaphor that she created. I commented on her post and told her that she did a great job on her post. I also told her that I loved that she gave examples from her own work to help others understand what similes and metaphors are.

C4K #9- Carson
Carson's post was about an art project and how he believed that in one hundred years we will all live on  the sun and have to wear metal suits. I commented on Carson's post and told him that he did a great job and to keep up the good work. I also told him to always remember that "i" should be capitalized.

C4K #10- none- Veteran's Day
 Veteran's Day

C4K #11- Grace
Grace's post was about the end of first quarter in school. She talked about how fast the quarter flew by and how they learned some new words that were expanding her writing ability. I commented on Grace's post and told her that it is great how she is wanting to expand her vocabulary and how that is something that she will do throughout her whole life. I also told her to keep up the good work!

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Blog Assignment #13

What Did I Leave Out? 

How Can Technology Aid in the Improvement of  Language Arts/English Classes?  
 Make a list of different ways that you think that technology can help in an English/Language Arts Classroom and be sure to give a description.

  When doing research about using technology in an English/Language Arts classroom I came across a lot of good websites and apps that can help students not only in school but also when they are at home. There are plenty of more ways that technology can be used in the English/Language Arts classroom but what I found is only a few.

1. Edublogs- This is great to allow students to use technology and incorporate writing and creativity.
2. Studysync- This is a digital library that also allows writing practice.
3. Wordle- This is a great website that creates word clouds.
4. Mentor Mob- This website allows teachers or students to put different reliable sources to use for
specific projects.
5. Poppet- This is a great website to use for brainstorming.
6. iTooch Elementary- This is a free app that can be downloaded and allows students to practice different language arts skills in a fun interactive way.
7.  Come Learn Spellings- This is an app that can be downloaded and it helps students learn how to spell with the use of flash cards.
8. Solaro- This is an app that is used as an online study guide that covers language arts.
9. easyLearn English Grammar- This is a free app that will quiz students on the 8 parts of speech.
10. English Vocabulary Test-  This app allows the practice of vocabulary words.
Using technology in the classroom

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Blog Assignment #12

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

C4T #3

C4T #3-1 Jerrid W. Kruse 
Mr. Kruse's post was about how he takes his students to a sixth grade science class every Friday and allows his students to interact with the sixth graders. Mr.Kruse will teach a lesson to the class and will even have his students teach a lesson also. I commented on his post and told him how great I thought it was that he did this every Friday because this is a great learning experience for his students. I also told him that it allows the students to truly understand how it is to deliver lessons to a class and lets them know what he is expecting from them.

C4T #3-2
Mr. Kruse's post was about how people have a perspective of new ideas being like a pendulum of old ideas. I commented and told him that I enjoyed his post and that I agree that people should broaden their perspectives. I also asked him what he thinks will help broaden ones' perspective.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Blog Assignment #11

What Can We Learn about teaching and learning from these teachers? 

  After watching Brian Cosby's video, Back To The Future, I learned that teaching and learning should be empowering and that we should not try to rush students out of school. Students should be taught in ways that keeps them engaged and the teachers will realize that when students stay engaged they are learning a whole lot more. Using projects, such as the balloon project that Mr. Crosby showed in his video, allows students to have a better understanding of what is being taught because they are actually able to have hands-on experiences.
   The video Blended Learning Cycle teaches how to blend in the technology into teaching and how to do so. This video showed how to get students engaged and how to ask them probing questions to make sure that they are understanding what they are being taught.
 An amazing video to watch is Sam Pane 4th grade. This video talks about using internet safety and how to have your students not only use the internet safely but also how they can help others use it safely. Mr. Pane shows his students how to do this by creating super heroes and making comics of how to have internet safety. This is something that all teachers should teach to their students.
  For this post I watched the videos recommended gave a lot of good information about teaching and the learning process. Some of the best things that I learned about teaching and learning are using internet safety with the students and the empowerment of students.

Blended Learning

Project #14 Lesson Plan 2

Jessica Harris, Arneetia Johnson, and I made our lesson plan based on science and language arts skills. We created a lesson plan from Buck Institute, our own lesson plan, a group rubric, an individual rubric, and a calendar.

Fossil Excavation

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Blog Assignment #10

  I really enjoyed watching the video chat between Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy. In the video chats, she made a lot of good points about technology and about the use of it in the classroom. I loved how she talked about how technology has advanced so much and how it is used by everyone that teachers need to incorporate technology into their lessons and make it as an everyday teaching method.
  I think it is great that Mrs. Cassidy uses blogs in her classroom and allows parents to have access to view their child's blog. I believe this is a great way of using technology because students are able to work on their writing skills and their creativity. This is also a great teaching tool because it allows parents to see what their students are doing and the students' family members can post on their blogs and encourage the students to keep up the good work. When students are encouraged it makes them a lot more confident and makes them want to work harder.
 I definitely want to incorporate using blogs with my students when I start teaching because I want to keep my students engaged and this will give them the opportunity to better their writing skills and they will be able to interact with others by using the blogs. Some of the issues that I might have with using the blogs in the classroom is that some parents may be skeptical about having their children posting online. I would approach this issue by assuring parents that I will make sure that everything is safe and that I will have to approve comments before allowing them to be posted on the students blogs and make sure nothing is negative in the post. Also I will be monitoring that the students are only posted on the blog sites that I give them and that I will be sure to guide them in the right direction.
Students Blogs

Smartboard Project #12 Part A

Part A: Mastering SMARTboard Tools

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Blog Assignment #9

What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning? 

    After reading Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning, I learned that these seven essentials are great ways to keep students involved and excited about learning. These seven essentials consisted of a need to know entry event, a driving question, student voice and choice, 21st century skills, inquiry and innovation, feedback and revision, and a publicly presented project.A need to know entry event can be something like a video of what they are going to do the project on, a professional talking to the class, a field trip to get the students excited and to get them asking questions. A driving question for a project gives the project a purpose and a challenge to the students. The student voice and choice makes the project meaningful and allows the students to design,create and present the products in the way that they chose. The 21st century skills are skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology. Inquiry and innovation allows students to draw their own conclusions and allows students to formulate their own driving questions. The use of feedback and revision allows students to use rubrics to critique other students' work. A publicly presented product makes students care more about the quality of their product. 
    After watching the video Project Based Learning for Teachers  , students learn skills in collaboration, critical thinking, and career and life while meeting standards set by ACCRS and working on thir project based learning project. Instead of teachers teaching the students how to do projects, in pbl students take charge of their learning and this keeps them engaged and allows students to do the work themselves.
    In Project Based Learning and Physical Education, students see what and why they are learning by doing the project themselves. In this blog post the writer gives the seven essentials and how he applied them to a project for his students. The need to know allowed his students to generate questions and engage in the research. The driving question was one complex question that the students were to base their project on to be able to answer this question. The student voice and choice allowed the students to chose their own p.e. unit and had to prove how their project would meet p.e. needs. The 21st century skills that they used were collaboration and presentation. Inquiry and innovation consisted of an open-ended project and allowing students to create something new. Using feedback and revision allowed students to experience eachother's units and then allowed for feedback to help with the revision process. They presented their products to an audience.
    Project Based Learning in PE allowed high school students to create p.e. programs for students in middle school. This project gave students the opportunity to collaborate with other students and allowed them to apply teamwork skills. The middle school students then were able to participate in the program that the high school students created and allowed the high school students to act as if they were the teachers. 
    In Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in Project Based Learning, students are given the opportunity to network while using PBL by using communication and collaboration between students, teachers, and experts. This post gave many different resources that students and teachers can use to help in the learning experience of the PBL. Some of these sites were Titan Pad, Wall Wisher, Corkboardme, Google docs, and many more. These sites can help students collaborate and gives them more ideas.
Project Based Learning

C4K Summary for October

C4K #4- Sean

Sean's post was about "Genius Day". He says that on "Genius Day" he wants to learn how to be a genius. He wants to be a genius because he wants to be a political adviser for the President. He also wants to be able to heal athletes around the world. I commented and told him how it was perfect how he wanted to learn how to be a genius on "Genius Day". I told him how I also enjoy politics and I asked him what in politics interested him the most. I also asked him if he was planning on going to college to become a political adviser.

C4K #5- AanandM
Aanand's post is about "A Day In The Life Of My Pencil". This blog post is written as if Aanand's pencil was real and could express it's feelings. Aanand talks about the master of the pencil making the pencil do things that the pencil does not want to do. I commented on this post and said that I enjoyed reading this post. I also said that I hoped that pencils did not really feel the way that it was described in the post because I have to write a lot so I am sure that my pencil does not like me. I asked Aanand if they write with pencils a lot in class.

C4K #6- Rayne
Rayne's post is about "School". In Rayne's post, she said that she likes to read at school. I commented on her post and told her that I am glad that she enjoys reading. I also told her that I love to read also.I then told her to keep up the good work and that reading is always fun!

C4K #7- Mubashshir 
Mubashshir's post is about "The Man in the Moon". "The Man in the Moon" is written by Sue Farely. In this post, Mubashshir answered two questions about the book and created five questions that he would ask the character in the book if he could. I commented on Mubashir's post and told him that he did a great job and that I must now go and read this book so that I can figure out why Mubashir answered the questions the way he did. 

Children using a computer

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning

Using Technology in schools
    Part A
      A study by Zogby Analytics gives many different percentages about the use of smartphones of people ranging from ages 18 to 24. These statistics truly affect education, schools, teachers and learners in a very big way. They will be affected because with how much smartphones are used in the outside world children will need to be taught by using technology to actually understand what they are being taught. The use of technology in schools for education purposes is a great resource, teachers just need to be able to lead their students in the right direction on the usage of technology.
    The usage of smartphones has a huge impact on children because they have lived their whole lives using smartphones. The teachers must incorporate their lessons with things such as smartphones, iPads, and computers to keep the students engaged. In reality, students can use these devices better than anyone else and will even be able to teach the teachers more about the devices.     

Part B 
How a smartphone or tablet with a camera could be used in teaching: 
  • Recordroid- transcribes audio recordings into notes 
  • myHomework- lists deadlines and tracks the difficulty levels of homework 
  • Instapaper- turns any webpage into a readable offline content
  • Endless Alphabet- fun way to learn the alphabet and how to spell 
  • Studyblue- digital flashcards 
  • Duolingo- helps learn a second language 
  • Easybib- helps with citations 
  • Poplet- creates a book web
  • iMovie- students can create videos and book trailers 
  • iCurio- directory for educational use 
  • kidblog- students can create their own blogs 

Thursday, October 9, 2014

C4T #2

C4T #2-1

 Tyler Rice

Mr. Rice's post is about "The Curse of the Standarized Test". He talks about how an end of the year exam that decides whether students graduate or not has made him change his teaching habits in a bad way. He does not like textbooks and giving his students worksheets. He likes to teach hands-on and keep his students engaged in what they are learning. He is trying to figure out how to allow students to learn and be able to pass this exam and because not only does it depend on if a student graduates or not, but it also may depend on if Mr. Rice will be able to keep his job. I commented and told him that I really enjoyed reading his post and that he should not give up on teaching his students hands-on. I suggested that he teach his students hands-on about the information that will be on the exam and maybe once a week teach them about "real-world  learning" experiences.

C4T #2-2

Mr. Rice's post is "Make Time for...Getting Socratic". His post is about improving the questions that he asked. He wants to better his questions to get students thinking, improving the Professional  Learning Community of his colleagues and himself. I commented on his post and told him that I am so pleased to read his post because I just learned about asking the "right" questions. I told him that it was great how he was not only focusing his questions on his students but also his colleagues.I suggested for him to ask questions that are not looking for just one answer but asking questions that make others question why they chose the answer to the question.

Socrates quote


Blog Assignment #8

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

             After watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, I learned quite a few things about teaching and learning. In teaching, the power of enthusiasm goes a long way and gives the students confidence. A major thing that teachers should do while teaching is to have the opportunity to allow their students to have an opportunity to experience how it feels to make other people excited about what is being taught. The most precious thing to give is for an educator to make students learn how to become self-reflective. 
       When learning most of what is being learned is from indirect learning. Mr. Pausch explained that indirect learning is when someone learns but does not realize that they are learning. An example that he gives is playing some of the games that his students have created but in actuality it is teaching people how to create different things and learn how to make things, such as a java script. A major point about learning is to listen to feedback given to you. A great quote that Mr. Pausch talked about that pertained to teaching and learning is "when you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up". This quote is great because when one feels like someone is being hard on them whether it is a faculty member, educator, or a peer they need to realize that they are just being hard on them because they care and know that they can do better. One should become worried when nobody is saying anything at all because it means that they no longer care. 

Quote by Randy Pausch

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Project #13 Lesson Plan 1

Jessica Harris, Armeetia Johnson and I made our lesson plan from Third grade Science. Here is our lesson plan, rubric, and calendar.

The Water Cycle


Friday, October 3, 2014

Project #7 Part B





Blog Assignment #7

 After watching the videos that were given to us this week, I learned that I have a lot to do in the next couple years to get me ready to start teaching. These videos show how advanced these children are and I want to be able to teach them the correct way to use different resources and for them to help me learn different things from them. Some of the strengths that I have are that I have already had some experience with using iMovie and Padlet in EDM310. Some of my weaknesses are that i am unfamiliar with a lot of these different resources that were talked about in the videos and how to use them.
children and ipads



How to make an audio QR Code
 On this video the viewer is being taught how to create an audio QR code. One of the websites that is provided is recordmp3. When using the recorder on this website, be sure to not start talking until it has rolled over to one second. Students can record themselves as much as they want to and then when they are happy with their recording they press save recording and the computer will generate an URL for their audio recording. Then the students will go to the website, qrcode-monkey and past in the URL that recordmp3 created and then create a qr code. Once the qr code is created, copy the qr code and paste it onto a word document and have the student put their name underneath their code.

iPad Centers
  The ipad videos the students while they are reading and once they finish they can go back and listen to their video. Being able to go back and listen to these videos helps the students see if they made any mistakes and if so they can go back and reread and correct their mistakes.

Poplet as a Center
 Poplet is a free app that one can download onto an ipad. In the center of the poplet, the student puts the title of the book and then the students take a picture of the book. The students then type text about the picture and this creates a book web.

Alabama Virtual Library as a Kindergarten Center
    The students download an app and create a login for the Alabama Virtual Library. The students go to the elementary school section and go to a search engine. The teacher gives the students many different words and they choose what to use and type it into the search engine. It has a picture come up and an introduction. After they watch the information given to them, they have to fill out a worksheet about what they learned.

Mrs. Shirley's 1st Grade Class: How to use and build a Board in DE for a Project Based Lesson
  The students login by using a username and a password to get access to Discovery Education. Once logged in the students go to the board builder and will choose a background and make a title. Once this is done they will add a new board. When they click on the top of the board, a  keyboard will come up and the students will type in the title of their board. Then the students can add texts, videos, and photos about the title of the board.

1.Students Sharing Board Builders
  This board builder being shared is from Joey and Cayden. Their board is about whales. They give many facts and photos. They used Safari to get their photos.

2. Students Sharing Board Builder
  This clip of board builder is from Mary E, Haven, and Rachel. Their board builder is about "The Haven". "The Haven" is a shelter for dogs and cats. They provide many facts and photos about "The Haven". They used resources like wordhippo and safari to help them.

Using imovie and Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten
 This video is between Dr. Strange, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Bennett. Kindergarten students use imovie to create their own book trailers about different books that they read. The students make these book trailers on their own without the teachers help. Using Alabama Virtual Library is free for anyone in Alabama. Alabama Virtual Library is perfect for elementary students and the teachers give the students lists of words and the students choose what they want to research from the list given to them.

We All Become Learners
 This video is between Dr. Strange, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Bennett. In using devices, everyone becomes learners. The students use Padlet as one of the many tools to help them with the learning process. Students contribute to the teacher's Personal Learning Network because the teacher is learning from the students.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Blog Assignment #6

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?


Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps conversations

1. Project Based Learning Part 1: Experience of a Third Grade Teacher

A teacher is to use Project Based Learning to allow students to earn their own learning. A goal of a good project is to have an audience, student interests, involves the community, and using content that is driven towards the students best interest. An example that Anthony Capps used is allowing his students to write letters to their congressman about information that the students researched. The most crucial part about using Project Based Learning is revision.

2. Project Based Learning Part 2: Experience of a Third Grade Teacher

In Project Based Learning the teacher should make opportunities for students to go above and beyond the expectations of what was expected of them in a project because they are interested in the information that they are learning. Success in Project Based Learning is that someone was able to learn from the information that they are discovering by researching for it and doing projects for it  themselves. Student choice is a major factor that allows students to learn in Project Based Learning.

3.iCurio

iCurio allows students to look online for information that are for educational uses, allows storage of the information, and historical features. Students can look up historical figures through iCurio because it serves as a directory. iCurio also has a read-aloud component that will read the text to students if needed.

4. Discovery Education

Discovery Education gives videos of information so that texts can be brought to life to help students learn. Discovery Education is used in teaching in Baldwin County.

5. The Anthony-Strange List of Tips for Teachers Part 1

Teachers must be learners because you must always learn new things. Teaching is hard work but if you put your time into it it will be fun. Teachers are to be flexible and creative. Engaging students is a critical element in teaching by using content that motivates the students to learn. Reflection of teaching helps better teachers and students in making them better learners together.

6. Don't Teach Tech- Use It

Technology should be a part of your lessons and should not be taught. Using scaffolding allows students to build on their technology  that they are using and then gets them able to combine what they are learning. Do not expect perfection when allowing students to use technology. Using technology helps students use problem-solving and gets them to learn and ask questions.

7. Additional Thoughts about Lessons

A lesson is at least four layers thick. The lesson needs to be able to fit in the year by being able to cover all of the standards that are needed to be covered. Units should be scaffolding and breaking up information. Weekly lessons should be a breakdown of the information from the unit. Daily work is how you deliver content to you students and being able to figure out where to pick up the next day.

Friday, September 26, 2014

C4K Summary for September

 C4K #1
  Anisha

Anisha's post was about a Revolution Tour that acted out a skit called  #Stopthebull. She talked about how the Revolution Tour acted out the skit about bullying. Anisha learned a lot from their skit. I commented on her post and told her that I am glad that she learned a lot from the skit. I asked her what were some of the things that she learned and if the Revolution Tour was only a local tour in her town.

C4K #2
Sulaman 

Sulaman's post was about one of his favorite soccer players. He wrote his post about Christiano Ronaldo. He talked about how Christiano is his favorite and how he thinks he is a great mid-fielder and forward. Sulaman also plays soccer. He gave tons of details about Christiano Ronaldo. I commented on his post and told him that I see that he is very passionate about Christiano. I asked him if he was planning on playing soccer professionally when he graduates.

Christiano Ronaldo



C4K #3
Amanda 

Amanda's post was about a couch in her teacher's room. She said that she liked it because it was pink and comfortable. I commented on her post and told her that I was glad that she enjoys the couch in her teacher's room and that the best couches are the ones that are comfortable. I also asked her if she got to sit on  this couch a lot.

Project #8 Book Trailer



Sunday, September 21, 2014

My sentence videos

My Sentence Is...



My Passion Is...

Project #3 Presentation



Project Based Learning Presentation



Alabama College and Career Ready Standards and ALEX

Blog Assignment #5

What are Personal Learning Networks (PLN)? 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?

In the past week I have been working on creating my Personal Learning Network and figuring out who I want to be a part of my network. A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is a connection with people virtually and can be around the world and allows you to learn new things. A Personal Learning Network allows one to connect with many different people, places, organizations, etc. by using tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and Youtube. when forming a PLN one finds that the Personal Learning Network allows you to communicate, connect, and collaborate many different things to and from their network. My PLN consists of many of the connections that I have made through Twitter and through blogging. These connections help better my knowledge by allowing me to learn new information and experiences. The PLN has given me a lot more websites to go to and more blogs to read about different things that interest me.
Personal Learning Network

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Project #15-Search Engines

WolframAlpha
Wolfram Alpha has all of the algorithms, models, and methods. This search engine is best used as a knowledge based search engine that helps clarify the information.This search engine allows you to put in a free-form language input and then finds the information in a computerized result. I believe this would be a great resource when looking for charts and different data and simple clarifications for each.

Lycos
Lycos is a search engine that allows its' users to rank the relevance of the sites that are used. Reviewers of this site choose the top 5% of sites. This site allows you to use simple keywords to simplify searches. This search engine works by allowing you to search key words and then even simplify the search even more. I believe that Lycos would be a good search engine to use if you were just searching up information by using key words.

Dogpile
Dogpile is a search engine that is a one-stop shop because it finds the sites that are most relevant to your search and eliminates duplicates so that it saves you time. Dogpile works by taking your search terms and sending the information to many different search engines and just provides different gateways to receive the information. I believe this would be a good search engine if you are wanting the most information about different search items.

Bing
Bing is a search engine that one can merely search for brand names and be able to find social profiles. It also keeps track of how many clicks it takes to get to different pages and weighs the relevancy by the clicks. Bing works by taking each of its sources and calculating the word frequency. Bing would be a good source to use if you were looking for a source with certain words in it.

isoHunt
isoHunt is a digital mediabase search engine that allows searches and downloads of many different digital aspects. When on isoHunt you just search for whatever content that you are looking for and then one just downloads the content. I believe that this search engine would only be good for looking up digital information and not for any other searches.

Open Directory
Open Directory is the largest directory on the web to be human-edited. Open Directory allows different people to create their on websites about topics that they are familiar with. This would be a great search engine if one was looking for different opinions for different topics.

Yahoo
Yahoo is a search engine that gives the latest news, entertainment, and much more. Yahoo allows searches to be completed in the United States for a world wide audience. Yahoo is a good site to go to to get the latest information.

Ask
Ask is a search engine that is opinion based and allows one to ask questions and get answers from others. Ask would be a good source to get answers to questions


C4T #1 Summary Post

I was assigned the blog, Quantum Progress by Mr. John Burke. The first post that I read was "A solution to comment writing dread: video reflections" and this post was about how Mr. Burke was not interested in making comments to students anymore because they would never get read or even if they were read his criticism was more than likely never used. He came up with an idea to not have to merely make comments to students but make videos of his comments and make them as if they were in a conversation. He would then ask his students to make videos also and allow them to show him different elements to support the things that Mr. Burke was asking for. I commented on Mr.Burke's post and told him how much I enjoyed reading his post and how I believed that this concept would help him with using his time wisely and not wasting time and also allow his students to actually have to take his criticism and apply it to their work by showing him different examples from their work.

The second post that I read of Mr. Burke's was "A workshop on screencasting". This post was about how he was going to meet with the Math department and have a workshop on how to screencast. He believes that screencasting will allow students to receive background information, definitions, and other things that would help the students think deeper about specific problems. One of the key things about these videos is that they will be no longer than ten minutes. I commented on this post and told Mr. Burke how I really enjoyed his post and how I believed that it was a great idea to begin using screencasting to help the students have greater understanding on specific problems. I told him that I definitely believed that the videos should be no longer than ten minutes so that the students can stay attentive and use them as a learning tool. I ended my comment by asking Mr. Burke how the screencasting has worked out so far and I hope that it has worked out well. Maybe one day I can use this tool in my classroom to help my students better understand different problems.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Blog Assignment #4

Asking Questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

When pondering over the questions "what questions do we ask? How do we ask?" I began to get frustrated because all I could think about are the simple questions that one would ask their students to see if they really understand the material being taught. I came across a blog post from Ben Johnson titled The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom and in this post Johnson states that the most important question is "What does a teacher asking questions of a class expect the class to learn from the questioning process?". This is an excellent question to ask one's self because how can a teacher expect certain answers from students but does not truly have an understanding of what he/she is even expecting the class to have gained in knowledge. Johnson believes that the teacher should chose students randomly to answer questions to make sure that the whole class is thinking about the question being asked. When choosing students randomly to answer questions the teacher should pause a few seconds after the question is asked to allow the class adequate time to think of an answer before picking who will answer the question.

I also came across the post Asking Questions to Improve Learning. This post gave many different ways to improve the questions being asked and how to go about asking the questions. Some of the main ways to improve learning are to remember course goals when asking questions, follow a "yes-or-no" question with another question, and make sure that questions are direct and that you are asking for specific answers.

These two posts really helped clarify how to answer the question, "What questions do we ask? How do we ask?". I learned that if the teacher takes into consideration of allowing students to have time to think about a question and then picking randomly it will better the classroom as a whole because the whole class is having to spend a few seconds thinking thinking about an answer versus daydreaming when the question is only directed to one student. I believe it is a great concept to put another question with a "yes-or-no" question because it keeps a student from just guessing an answer but allowing them to come up with an answer and being able to explain why they decided on that answer.

bettering questions in the classroom

Friday, September 5, 2014

Blog Assignment #3

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?


In Paige Ellis' Blog Assignment #12, she uses personal experience to discuss how to peer review correctly. She was wanting to help her peer review's paper by pointing out different mistakes but did not want to insult the person so she decided to private message the person and give them specific feedback without letting everyone else seeing this feedback kept from embarrassing the person who's paper was being peer reviewed. She also commented on the person's blog and made general suggestions and gave some advice to show others that it is okay to give advice and help but just make sure that it is positive and will not embarrass the person.

The video What is Peer Editing? and the slideshow Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial discuss the three steps of peer editing. The first step is to start by telling the person what you like about their paper. The second step is to give suggestions. The suggestions should be specific and should include organizational skills, use of details, and help with their topic. The third step is to offer corrections. The corrections consist of spelling and grammatical errors, sentence structure, and punctuation. When peer editing always remember to stay positive and when giving suggestions and corrections be sure to deliver this information in a kind way. The video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes discusses the wrong ways to do peer reviews. The mistakes talked about in this video about peer editing were being too picky about spacing, punctuation,etc., not listening to revisions being given, and not being specific about suggestions. Some other mistakes were giving suggestions in a mean way and taking the peer review personally.

After reading and watching this material, I figured out how to provide meaningful feedback to my peers by following the three steps of peer editing which are compliments, suggestions, and corrections. When peer reviewing somebody's paper you need to be specific with suggestions, stay on task and edit your peer's paper to the best of your ability, stay positive and do not embarrass the person that you are peer reviewing for.

Three Steps of Peer Editing: Compliments, Suggestions, and Corrections

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Blog Assigment #2

What Will Teaching in the 21st Century be Like?

Mr. Dancealot

The central message of this video is that if a teacher does not have lectures and activities that are right for the class and for what the teacher is wanting to get across to the students, the students will not be able to learn anything. In this video, the professor expects the students to take notes when the class is a dance class and the students should actually be learning how to dance and not just watching the teacher dance. The reason why this is an issue is because when it is time for the students to be tested on what they have learned they end up not knowing a single thing. I do agree with the author's conclusion because if the teacher does not correlate all materials, lectures, and activities for what the teacher is trying to teach how do they expect their students to learn anything?

Teaching in the 21st Century Outline

I. If teachers only provide students with formulas, research, dates, and other information then teacher's roles are obsolete.
A. Students can find this information anywhere including Google,Twitter, Wikipedia, etc.
II. Students should be creative
A. blogging
B. pod casting
C. animating
III. When using tools to create any lesson, what should the lesson be?
A. relevant
B. challenging
C. engaging
IV. Students need to be engaged and not entertained.
V. It starts with the teacher
A. discover what is out there
1. discover sites for students to use
2. do your own research
B. Think small
1. What is one thing from the 21st Century that can be used to better engage students?
C. Collaborate with others
1. work with others and see what has been successful in their classrooms
D. Risk it
1. try something and see how it works
VI. Big picture
A. No matter what the question to ask is what does it mean to teach in the 21st century?


Roberts sees teaching develop with technology and believes that students should be able to be taught by using the technology in the classrooms. I feel that Roberts' views of technology are what will help students stay engaged and help them be able to learn. This view of teaching will affect me as an educator by having to learn how to use this technology before trying to teach students how to use it. Technology will help teaching in the 21st century and will also help in the learning process of the students and the teachers.

Why Does the Networked Student Even Need a Teacher?

The networked student needs a teacher because the teacher helps direct him/her on where to get information from, answers when he/she gets stuck, and how to communicate properly on blogs and other social networks. The teacher also teaches the student how to differentiate the information the student is getting and useful sources. The student also needs the teacher to show him/her how to not only search for information but how to find new information from the sources that the student is using. The teacher helps the student navigate through information and allows the student to learn how to apply the information obtained. This is what every teacher is should strive to do in the 21st century because the student should not just learn information but should be able to apply the information for the rest of their lives.

"Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts"

The thesis of Davis' video is by using technology in the classroom allows students to learn more and also allows the teacher to learn from the students. My reaction to this video is that I do agree with Davis about how students should be able to use technology and learn to work with people around the world. One major detail that I do not agree with is giving students information and projects to do that the teacher does not even have an understanding on themselves.

"Who's Ahead in the Learning Race?"

I am currently an undergraduate student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama and I am comparing elementary, undergraduate, and graduate students to see who is ahead in learning the use of technology. The elementary students seem to be ahead with the use of technology. The elementary students have already created rubrics and imovies and my undergraduate class and the graduate class at the University of South Alabama have not even began learning these concepts.

"Flipping the Classroom"
Flipping a classroom is a new concept for me. I do believe this new approach will be useful to me as a teacher and to many other teachers because it allows students to watch the lecture and learn how to do many different things or at least attempt the homework so that during class the teacher can answer any questions that the students might have and allow students to show how they figured out and solved the problem and may be able to help other students how to understand the problem without the teacher having to do so.

"Flipping the Classroom"
Source: De Valle Elementary School

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Blog Post One: What about EDM 310?

What I have heard about EDM 310 is that it is very time consuming and you must stay on top of your work and not wait until the last minute to try and complete because more than likely you will not be able to get it all done by the deadline. The fears that I have about this class is that I will not be able to adjust to the workload that this class entails and end up getting behind in this class and having it affect my grade. I also fear about having to grade myself and Dr.Strange not believing in grades but in honest self-reflection when I have never had to determine what I think I should have in a course. EDM 310 is a lot different from any class that I have taken in high school or in my two years that I have been in college because of how technology based this class is and how everything is on the computer. It is also a lot different from any other classes that I have ever taken because we are not tested on what we learn and have to memorize for tests but in this class we are actually hands on and apply what we learn in EDM 310 in our posts.EDM 310 is similar to classes that I have taken before with how this class requires that you must spend at least nine hours a week on a class but I feel like this class is actually going to require a lot more than nine hours a week.

I believe that the most difficult thing for me about EDM 310 is how everything that I do in this class is on my blog for the whole world to see. This is a very scary concept for me to get used to. I believe that the best way for me to address this "most difficult" aspect for this class is just to practice and give myself plenty of time to complete my projects. I know that with time everything gets easier it just takes a while to get adjusted to new concepts taught in this class. Also, I must practice blogging a lot more to become better at it and allow myself to be patient and not get frustrated and give up on myself and on this class. I do not have anymore questions about EDM 310 because Dr.Strange has been very clear on what he expects out of us in this class and the projects are detailed very well.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Practice Blog post

OUTLINE

I. Who am I?

A. my name

B. where I am from

II.What are my favorite things to do?

A. spending time with family and my boyfriend

B. scary movies

C. listening to music

D. beach

III. Why am I attending the University of South Alabama?

A. I did not want to go away

B. I am still allowed to live at home

IV. Why do I want to be a teacher?

A. help teach children

B. allow myself to learn from the children

C. to be able to allow the children to forget about everything else going on and just focus on school

V. What does an educator do in the twenty-first century?

A. find different ways to teach concepts

B. must have patience

C. allow students to have the opportunity to be hands on especially with technology in classroom

VI. What are my passions?

A. picture

1. What I do best?

a. baking

2. What do I like doing the most?

a. beach and boating

3. What is one thing that I want to get better at?

a. singing

VII. Important things about me

A. hobbies

B. have three younger brothers


I am Lauren Lee and I live in Theodore, Alabama. My major interests are spending time with my family and boyfriend, watching scary movies, listening to music and going to the beach. I became a student at the University of South Alabama because I have lived in Theodore, Alabama my whole life and I could not fathom having to leave my family and go away to college. While attending the University of South Alabama, I am able to still live at home and drive forty-five minutes to school.

I am wanting to become an elementary teacher because I want to help teach children and allow myself to learn from the children. I also want to allow the students to have a place where they can get away from whatever may be going on in their life and just focus on learning and having fun. In the twenty-first century, an educator's job entails not only teaching but finding different ways to get their students to understand what is being taught. An educator in today's society must have patience especially dealing with children and technology. The students must also be taught using hands on teaching especially with how much technology has had an influence in school.



Source:Stephanie Rector

One of my major passions and something that I am the best at is baking. I love to bake desserts for occasions and just because. Some of my other passions include going to the beach and going out on the boat even if it is just to go riding for a little while. I am a horrible singer and that is something that I have always wanted to get better at. Some important things about me are that I enjoy hiking and exploring caves, and hunting. I have three younger brothers and I have been raised with them always trying to beat up on me and act like I am one of the boys so this has made me become an extremely strong person.







welcome

outline
source: April Yancey

Test

Test

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

My Test Post Title

I have created my first post. I clicked on the HTML button which I should always do when creating posts for EDM310. I am now officially a Blogger!