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

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

Blog Post 5

The iSchool Initiative
Travis Allen makes some valid points in the video,The iSchool Initiative. He is trying to fix the problems within our public education system , to keep teachers from losing their jobs and budget cuts from being made. This video talks about how much money that the school system would save by using the iSchool. This video also talks about all the applications that are already available. All the applications available will cut out the extra cost that come along with keeping a school running such as; calculators, text books and copy paper. Travis feels that this program will help the students become more efficient , the teachers become more accessible and the parents become more involved.
The question that Travis ask in the beginning of the video is "Does technology belong in the classroom?" I feel that technology most certainly belongs in the classroom. Technology is advancing everyday and we need to teach our future leaders how to use it. The iSchool Initiative could help revolutionize the way the classroom functions by allowing the students, parents, and teachers to become linked together. This will do the one thing that I feel is absolutely important and that is parent involvement. Now, that everyone is so busy, parents tend to assume that their children are doing what they are suppose to be doing. This will allow them to have access to their children's classroom, homework and school calendar.
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir, I couldn't believe what I was watching. I was astounded by this video. I think that it is awesome that the technology that we have today allows us to be able to sing in a choir while we are miles away from each other. I loved this video.
Teaching in the 21st Century
I feel that the way Kevin Roberts sees teaching changing is that students will work more with technology to do their daily classroom activities such as turning in homework. Teaching in the 21st century video makes you question what kind of teacher you will be, will you teach based on facts, content or skills. By using technology, you can incorporate all those ideas into your classroom by teaching your students ways to use technology properly. This will give your students the opportunity to be efficient. This will change the classroom entirely. As a future educator, technology will help us stay in communication with our classroom to eliminate confusion and will make our job easier. Even though we are the filter for information now we can still ensure that our students learn skills that they will carry with them throughout their lives.
Flipping the Classroom
I watched the videos,Why I flipped by classroom,Dr. Lodge McCammon's Fizz Flipping the classroom,and Flipping the classroom- 4th grade STEM. This idea of flipping the classroom is a wonderful idea. This will allow each student to come into class ready to work This also allows them to be able to watch the instructions over and over for help. Flipping the classroom will help all the students needs by giving them instruction prior to coming into class and will help them be prepared with questions that they may have.