Project 15 Smart Board Presentation Part 2

Blog post 12

When I originally looked at this assignment I was a little freaked out. How was I going to create an assignment? I decided to stop freaking out and think about what I would have my students do in my class. I would like to teach K-3, so in honor of Thanksgiving, I decided to do my assignment for my specialty area on Thanksgiving and it's traditions. My assignment is as followed;

1. Watch History of Thanksgiving Day
2. Summarize what the video was about.
3. Tell us what's your favorite part of the holiday.
4. Write what you are thankful for this holiday season.

The Video, the history of Thanksgiving was about all the traditions that we take part in today. The video, starts with a little history of Thanksgiving and the docking of the Mayflower in present day Massachusetts. After the Mayflower arrived in the new country the colonist faced many hardships and most of the colony died that first year. The colonist didn't give up and their harvest was very successful and had a ceremony in honor of that, in which they gave thanks! The traditions that we have today involves football, shopping and eating. These traditions came through the years.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the time I spend with my mother and sisters cooking our Thanksgiving meal.

I have many things in my life for which I am thankful. I am thankful for my family and the time they we have with each other, nothing is more important than FAMILY!

C4T Summary

I have been assigned The Langwitches blog by Silvia Tolisano. She post on her blog about how twitter is used as a sharing tool and how sharing is an important part of learning process. The reason for her post was she was questioned about whether she was bragging or just sharing. She was told by a coworker that teachers kept their materials to themselves. She then created a twitter slideshow that she used at a workshop. This slideshow was about how to use twitter as a sharing tool. My comment to her was that I feel that sharing is an important part of the learning process to. I also encouraged her to keep on sharing her ideas with the world. I have been following her on twitter for some time now and she always has something interesting on there.
Her second post was on first grade using the iPad. She posted a video on how the students are taught to take care of the iPad, such a cute video. I love how the students are learning responsibility. They are using the iPads to help them create a Hebrew dictionary. Each day they are given a new letter, they have to use the iPad to take a picture of something that starts with that letter and then edit the picture. Using the iPad will help the students learn in a fun way. My comment to her was how I enjoyed the video she shared because it it teaching the students responsibility. I also told her that I think it is amazing how something as small as the iPad can make a big difference in the learning community.

Blog Post 11

Ms. Kathy Cassidy
First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's class, was a wonderful video made by Ms. Kathy Cassidy, a teacher in Canada, who is grabbing technology by its horns and using it for every educational purpose possible. After watching the video Ms. Cassidy made and the Skype interview with her, I feel that she has the same understanding that I do about technology; Technology is here to stay and we must embrace it. I love how she is finding new ways to incorporate technology into to her teaching, with all the tools available it is easy to be linked to others. The technique that she uses and the one she talks about in her interview is using blogging to help with writing, like a writing center. I can see how blogging is a great tool to help students learn how to write because it allows them to see their work and to use other students as their critics. I don't have a full understanding about how wikis work. However, the little information about how the students use wikis in the video makes me what to explore the idea of using a wiki in my classroom. I know that wikis can help the students by receiving information from others on certain topics to help the students gain knowledge on a subject. Ms. Cassidy also has a classroom blog, where she attaches links to games that the students can play. She has created this site especially for the students and when they are allowed computer time these games and links are readily available for their use. In the Skype interview, Ms. Cassidy talks about using twitter as a resource for information. The little that I have used twitter, I have learned that it is all in who you follow. If you are following the right people you will have access to so many resources that will help you, as an educator, learn ways to use technology for its educational purposes. Some of the impediments that I may face is getting support from co-workers or administrators. Not everyone has adopted the idea of using technology in the classrooms, smart boards are available for use now but not everyone is using blogging. The fear of using the internet is the reason for this apprehension. Ms. Cassidy talks about how she protects her students from seeing things they aren't suppose to and how she protects their identities. These are things that I could present to my co-workers and administrators.

C4K Summary for October

Ethan in Mrs. Dunlop's 4th grade class,room 49 on kidsblog.org. His comment was on jumping in leaves he talked about how they smelled and they way they sound when you jump in them. He compared the sound to falling money and his suggestion was not to jump in them with your mouth open. My comment to him was about how much I loved the Fall and that I think he is right about leaving your mouth open because you could get little pieces of leaves in your mouth. I also told him that his comparison to falling money was good and that I have never thought of it that way.

Mike is in the 11th grade in Mike Gwaltney's class. His post was on the Exploration of learning styles. His learning style was partnering. Partnering is where the teacher engages the students by asking questions. Mike talked about how he tends to procrastinate doing his school work and how this style of learning keeps in more willing to learn. My comment to him was asking him if he thinks that this style of learning has allowed to learn more on a subject.

Dylan is in Mr. Capps class. His post was on the characters of the book My Rows and Piles of coins. He described each character. My reply to him was that I have never read the book but I think I may want to. I asked him if he enjoyed this book and which character was his favorite.

Ashley is in Mrs. Spencer's class in Alberta, Canada. Her blog post was a slide show that she created. It was pictures of what I am assuming is Canada. My comment to here was that I loved her slideshow and all the pictures. I also told her that I have never been to Canada but I would like to go. I also told her that I don't think I will be able to survive the cold.

Special Assignment

USA Today's article by Mary Beth Marklein

In USA Today's article, A World where grades will be left behind the writer is interviewing Sebastian Thrun. Thrun is talking about Udacity, an education company that he founded. The ways he explains the classrooms is that there is no grades, no one is late, failure isn't an option, and it's like a virtual playground. Thrun strongly feels that our education industry needs an overhaul and through technology this could be possible. The writer ask " How, exactly, will education look in 30 years?" His response," technology is enabling educators -- not to mention Silicon Valley entrepreneurs -- to personalize education and scale it up." Thrun feels that education should respond to you. He talks about making online classes free or affordable, like a cell phone bill.

I agree with some of the points that Sebastian Thrun makes on technology; that it enables educators and the idea of making learning fun. However, I have to ask myself the question whether this idea is even possible? I think that free college or college as affordable as a cell phone bill is ultimately impossible. How would you pay the teachers and who would teach for free? Another one of my concerns is, if you have no grades how do you comply to the standards set by the states. Along with complying with the state mandated standards, where is the accountability? Grades teach responsibility, you as a student are responsible for studying the material. Why would you take that aspect out of teaching. Thrun calls grades "the failure of the education system." I totally disagree with that statement, without grades you are teaching students nothing more than; life has absolutely no consequences. So, if I do not study and learn the required material, it doesn't matter because I will not be graded. Where is my ambition to learn? There is none, that is a scary thought! That brings me back to another statement that he made " failure isn't an option." Failure isn't an option because there is no system of grading, of course failure wouldn't be an option. I am 100% for the union of technology and education. In the next 30 years, we will have so much technology available to us and as educators our main goal will be to prepare our students for jobs and for the real world. If we integrate the technology we have available now and what we will have in the future into our classrooms it will not only make learning easier but it will make our jobs, as teachers, easier too. I do feel that if you make learning fun that it will be well received and some of the ideas that Thrun mentioned are wonderful however, some are just farfetched.

Blog Post 10

John T. Spencer
The cartoon Adventures in Pencil Integration, is a mock of the personal computer versus the Apple computer. The author is using brands of pencils to make the comparison of the two computers. A Paper mate is the least expensive of the brands and the author say it breaks a lot. He states in the cartoon that the Ticonderoga is the most expensive. In this cartoon, the pc is the paper mate brand and the Mac is the Ticonderoga. It's true what the cartoon says a pc is the cheaper of the two and it does tend to get more viruses and malware than a Mac does.
Why were your kids playing games?, Mr. Spencer's post was a conversation with a principle and teacher. The principle was wondering why the teacher was allowing his students to play games. He referred back to the hangman fiasco and the teacher was defending himself by saying how it wasn't violent and the parents had no reason to complain. The principle insisted on him not using games in the classroom. I really enjoyed this dialogue because I feel that some teachers stray away from the easiest was to get children to learn and that is through interaction. I love how the teacher is creating games to keep the children engaged. What comes to mind when I think about this post is Randy Pausch's head fake. The students are learning without even knowing it, which is awesome because generally children don't like to do school work. Making school fun by creating games, allows children to learn what may be a challenging subject for them in a fun and exciting manner.
I chose to read a blog post from January,Avoid Social Networking. In this post, there is a teacher meeting to discuss social networking and how the teachers must avoid it. I feel that this post is directed toward the ignorance to what social networking really has to offer and how it can be used in the educational world. It is quite funny how the teachers are confused about how social networking is classified. I really enjoyed this post over all the others that I read because it made me laugh. I feel that the proper social networking site could link the students with their teacher at all times, for questions and group conversation. Before college I really couldn't see how a social networking site could be used educationally. My classes that were online and the ones that were hybrid used a forum that allowed us to discuss different topics, per the teacher's request. This allows students to interact with others which stimulates learning. I learned a lot in those classes because it focuses on group discussion and you to see the ideas of others.
Dr. Scott Mcleod
Dr. Scott McLeod is a known for many things in the educational technology world. He is an author, founding director of UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) and co-creator of the video series; Did you know? (Shift Happens). Dr. McLeod is a regular blogger on this blog titled Dangerously Irrelevant.
I found his post on titled Don't teach your kids this stuff very true. We do live in a world that is scared of technology. I know that technology is growing, changing and that there are many cons to it. However, it is all something that we must embrace. I was in Wal-Mart and the woman on the same isle as me was complaining about not knowing how to use her phone and that her 9 year old daughter knew more about her phone than she did. This is the world we live in where the younger generation knows more about technology than the generations past. We don't have a choice but to embrace it with a smile. We need to learn more so that when we are faced with the unknown, it won't be so scary anymore.

Project 11 Green Screen Movie