Project 14 Smart Board Presentation

1st progress report on Project #10

I created an account on Symbaloo.com. I deleted many of the links they provided and arranged them according to my preference. I only have only added one link which is my favorite and I got it from my C4T. The link I added was a blog that offers free technology for teachers, this blog is by Richard Byrne. I hope to be adding more links in the future so that I can grow my PLN.

Blog Post 9

Mr. McClung
In Volume 4, Mr. McClung writes about his school year as a teacher. He got this idea from a mentor to write a reflective blog on the school year and what it has taught him. He has done this since his first year teaching and has received many great reviews. In this post, he talks about the one thing he struggled with this year as a teacher, the perception that he receives from his co-workers. That one thing took him almost the entire school year to figure out that it wasn't about his co-workers it was about his students. Many times in our lives we are faced with the one question, what does he/she really think of me? After reading Mr. McClung's post I come to realize that it doesn't matter where are you are in life, you are still going to have that taunting question looming over your head, unless you face it head on. Mr. McClung held on to the one rule that he set for himself which helped him face his problem head on, "are the kids having fun?" I believe that when I become a teacher I will want to set this rule for myself in order to ensure that I am not pushing myself into a race that I will be unable to win. The perceptions of others doesn't matter because everyone has their own opinion about others, the only perception that we need to worry about the our own. We could ask ourselves, are we fulfilling the things we want to accomplish/teaching philosophy? And the real question that we ,as future educators, need to ask ourselves is; are we in this for the students?

Mr. McClung continues his post by talking about another topic that he faced this year as a teacher. This school year he found himself relying on old lesson plans and falling into to a routine that bother him. He thought he lost this ability to be creative and fell into a comfortable routine, which reflected in his teaching. Then he was presented with an opportunity to teach a different subject and grade level the following year and he talks about how it will be a welcomed change for the following school year. I love how Mr. McClung has set so many standards for himself. He looks back on his years in school and realizes that he ball is in his court, that he is the one that can make all the difference. This is very refreshing to come across someone who has a passion to make a difference. I hope that once I become a teacher that I will be able to recognize where I have been lacking, so that I will be able to improve each year to become a better educator.

I chose to read Volume 1 of Mr. McClung's end of the school year reflection because I have a lot anxieties about being a first time teacher, so I felt this blog would be appropriate to ease my anxieties. In Volume 1, Mr. McClung talks about everything he learned his first year teaching. A few of his topics that I really enjoyed and hope to carry with me are be flexible, listen to your students and never stop learning. Mr. McClung talks about being flexible and how "the lesson your teach and the lesson you plan are always different." I feel this is something I am glad I learned now, because I like things to be in an orderly fashion, so I need to realized control isn't going to be an option in some aspects of teaching. Mr. McClung said that during an end of the year survey that one of the answers spoke to him. The question asked was "I know my teacher cares about me as a person when he" the response from the student was "-Listens to what I say." He states "I truly believe that teachers do not know enough about the students they are teaching." He talks about how this builds a student teacher relationship based on respect. I feel that he is totally correct in saying this, children thrive on our attention which is a form of respect. No we aren't going to be able to give our undivided attention to each of our students all day ,however just listening to what they have to say or their opinion on a subject could potentially make all the difference. The final topic which I really enjoyed in this post was never stop learning. Mr. McClung talks about how some educators refuse to learn and grow. My goal for my everyday life is to learn something new every day. This is something I feel will be fairly easy for me to do as a teacher. Teaching is something that you learn how to do with your students and I feel by doing this that I will be able to ease into the anxiety of becoming a first year teacher. Mr. McClung's blog post helped me to realize a lot of things and I hope to keep those thoughts with me throughout my years as a student and a teacher.

Project #12

Blog Post 8

Richard E. Miller
These videos share a lot of technology that was hard to me to comprehend the first time I watched it. I had to watch these videos 3 times so that I made sure that I wasn't missing anything that I could potentially use in my upcoming project. This video moved very fast through the different ways you can do a writing project.
In part one, Richard Miller ask the listeners to "think how writing in the academy has changed and how writing in our culture has changed." Richard Miller talk about our capabilities in writing and how that is changing. He stresses how right now is an important time in the teaching profession because of our technological capabilities.
I asked myself to think about the change in writing and the ways I thought about brainstorming. The major change that I noticed was the fact that I don't use a pencil and paper anymore. I write all my papers on my laptop and I do all my brainstorming there too. These videos showed many ways to write and how your writing can become interactive. He showed ways to add images and sound to your writing. He also showed ways to add live images to your writing.
Carly Pugh
Carly Pugh's post was truly inspiring. The assignment she created for the students to do to help them form their teaching philosophy was the best idea ever. I enjoyed all the videos but my favorite was The teacher's rap. I loved it! I laughed so hard, I think what topped this video off was the big glasses the little boy was wearing.
Edm310 is different
After watching The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies, I thought about what kind of video I would like to participate in doing for this class. I thought about this assignment and it was very hard for me to come up with something. So, I thought about what kind of video could I make that could help the class next semester. It would be a video like on time management. I know I am guilty of not using my time wisely so a video that would help students manage their time in this class would be very helpful.
Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Learn to change, change to learn talks about the world for learning. Many comments on this website were talking about the way children are learning these day and that it is not just classroom learning anymore. I completely agree that learning isn't just classroom based anymore. I strive to learn something new every day and all my learning doesn't come for classrooms. The world around us is teaching us new things, with the access we have to technology allows us to learn more than we can possibly imagine.
Scavenger Hunt
Emundo is a site used like many social media sites. This site is used for schools and allows the teachers to have contact with her students.
Slideshare is used to upload your power points and share them. The basic package is free. The silver package is $19 per month. The gold package is $49 per month and the platinum package is $249 per month. Education pricing is 50% percent off the prices annually.
View my Comic.
Photopeach is the site I chose. I have never used it before and it can be used to help with student's privacy. You can keep track of your student accounts.
Poll Everywhere

C4T Summary #2

I was assigned Scott Elias' blog he is principle at Conrad Ball Middle School in Loveland, Colorado. His post was about some teachers learning how to use an iPad in their classrooms. He was frustrated that some teachers couldn't learn to new tool faster than others. He was struggling with being a leader but still helping the ones who fall behind. My comment was on my personal experience in this class how I experienced panic mode in the first few weeks. I also commented on how my grandparents we taught how to use the internet.
I was assigned Richard Byrne's blog. His blog contains free technology for teachers. The post that I got to comment on was on making timelines. He shared 6 sites that are used to make timelines. The site that I found interesting was Dipity. This site allows you to link your tweets and other social media comments to your timeline. This site allows you to get detailed with your timeline. I think I would use this one over Time Toast. My comment was thanking him for sharing these timeline tools and how I think Dr. Strange would love to share these tools with his class.

Blog Post 7

The Networked Student
In Wendy Drexler's video, she explains the network student. Connectivism is the theory that students learn from various connection and ties. The student in this video learns from a network of people. He learns from blogs of professors, his classmates blogs, and other websites. The Student is aware that some blogs are based on opinions and not just facts. So, the student finds other sources on the internet that are solely based on facts.
Why does the 21st century student need a teacher? The student knows of various ways to do research on the computer, he learned this skill from a teacher. There are many skills that are needed when using a computer. They are needed to be able to use the internet in an effective manner. The teacher in this video directs her student if he gets stumped. She teaches her student how to build the network, and how to communicate properly with other professionals.
This video makes you wonder, if technology keeps advancing will we need teachers? The more I learn about technology the more I think that we will always need someone to teach us how to use it properly. I don't think that I know how to use it properly. I am just learning through exploration and assumptions. The more that technology grows,we will need someone to teach the proper ways to allow students to learn more effectively.
Personal Learning Network
In the video PLN,the student had a very impressive learning network. She had it all organized neatly. My personal learning network is based more on people and communication tools. Our PLN's are almost the same with the exception of school work, she has all her school work on the bottom row. I won't have this but I will replace it with other sites.

Project 8

Blog Post 6

Randy Pausch
Randy Pausch Last Lecture, is a very inspiring video and his words "We can't control the cards we are dealt but we can control how we play the hand" makes you think about how you are going to play your hand. Though life dealt him a bad hand he played it to the best of his ability, which allowed him to change people's lives. His will to push through the brick walls helped him accomplish many of his own dreams.
Randy Pausch had many childhood dreams and he achieved most of them in his own way. One of his dreams was playing in the NFL, which wasn't a dream he accomplished. However, he learned a lot of life lessons from his former coaches. Coach Graham taught him a very valuable lesson. He rode him hard at one of his practices. The assistant coach came to him to tell him that it was a very good thing that means he hasn't gave up on him yet. Coach Setliff taught him the power of enthusiasm. Randy Paush learned this expression through the electronic arts "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Even though he didn't get to play in the NFL, he learned many wonderful things from people that was placed in his path."
Randy Paush talked about what he calls "the head fake. This is where you learn how to do a task without the even knowing that you are learning this particular task. Your mind is too busy focusing on what is at hand that you do not even realize the other things that you are learning. Randy Pausch also learned many things for many different people, he even learned from his students. His "head fake" award goes to one of his former students Caitlin Keller. She was working with the Alice program, a virtual reality program, that she presented to a group of young girls as a story telling activity. The girls learned computer programming and didn't even know they were doing it because of the approach.
Randy talked about his many life lessons. One of the lessons that stuck out to me was to be self reflective. If each of us were able to be self reflective we will be able to recognize the areas where we need improving. I also think that this lesson will make you humble. Another lesson he talked about was "get in the feedback loop and listen to it." These are two things that I would want to use in my classroom. I would want to learn how to be self reflective and to get in the feedback loop. I would want to learn ways that I could get feedback from my students, to be able to use it to improve my classroom management skills. Each of these techniques would improve my classroom starting with me.

C4K Summary for September

On 9/24 I commented on Hiwarau's blog. A student at PT England School in Room 13 in Mrs. King's class. His post I commented on was about playing games. He talked about all kinds of games and how he loved playing basketball. He also talked about how the team he was always on lost every game. I told him that he needed to enjoy playing games because I haven't played games in school in years. I also told him that he needed to keep trying hard because eventually his team will win.
On 9/30 I commented on Anna's blog. A student in the 8th grade. Her blog was about her favorite song,Matthew West Strong Enough. I went to youtube.com and watched the music video. It was a great song and I thanked her for sharing her favorite song with us. The song was about how we aren't strong enough to deal with everything but God is strong enough.

Project 9 Timeline