Additional Assignment #5

Tom Johnson's Adventures in Pencil Integration


I really enjoyed reading all of Mr. Spencers posts. The first post I read was Just Teach Them to Solve for X. I really enjoyed this post. I loved the metaphor technique used in this post. The post was about the problems he was facing from using metaphors to teach. I can definately see where students can learn from this and it makes me want to one day use this in my classroom. I then read The Medium Shapes the Learning. This post was about keeping the students engaged. I think this is very important because if your students are interested and engaged in the learning process, the more they will take away from them and truly learn instead of just going through the motions. This should be a main focus for teachers. The post Sketch Portraits was very interesting as well. It was about describing the pencil as many different things. It is important to recognize that students will change from day to day or year to year and it is the teachers job to adjust to these changes. We have to still make sure the students learn regarless of change. The last post I read was He Just Likes the Class For the Pencils. Teachers need to have a healthy relationship with their students. We want our students to look up to you and trust you as a role model. It is important to let students know you care about them and want to help them. If they see that you care, they will care in return. In order to get respect we have to give it.

Project 15

Blog Assignment #12

Teacher Expectations Raise Student Achievement-
The Article "Teacher Expectations Raise Student Achievement" discusses the expectations of all teachers and how important it is for them to have expectations to meet. The article tells us that if we expect our students to misbehave and have failing grades then that is probably what is going to happen. Also, if we expect good behavior and good grades then that is also what will probably happen. A teacher's attitude can mean so much when it comes to getting positive or negative results from students. The overall message of this article is if you have high expectations, your students will have higher achievements. If you have low expectations, the students will only achieve what you expect of them. I think it is important for all teachers to understand this main concept and all teachers should have to read this article. I hope that when I am an educator I will have a positive attitude that will positively effect my students.

Expectations: The Self-fulfilling Prophecy-
Like the article, this video is a discussion about the effect of teacher expectations. It explains how important high expectations are for teachers to have of their students. As a teacher, if you standards are high then your students are more likely to rise to those standards of learning. It gives an example of a teacher telling a student that they were expecting a D from them and that is what the student got. This comment made toward the student could have had no positive meaning behind it, so a student is probably going to give the teacher what they expect. The teacher clearly implied that the student was less capable. To me, as a future teacher, expectations are a must in order to get positive results from my students. I hope to let my expectations reflect in the students work.

Form Results and Summary

SUMMARY

Out of ten respomses to my survey, 7 people were for gambling in the state of Alabama and 3 were opposed to it. The people who responded seemed to have a strong view on the subject of gambling. There were two written response questions and everyone seemedc to have in depth responses. The ten people were split on whether the voting should be reopened in Alabama for gambling. What was interesting was that only two people said that they sometimes visited a casino and the rest never did. It was interesting to see what different people thought about this issue and google forms made this very easy for me. It was so easy to make a form and send it to a group of people and then get a summary of responses. I am very impressed with this online tool.

Gambling in Alabama Survey -Lets see your response!

Progress Report for Final Project

My group has made some progress on the final project. I met with my group partner this last week and discussed details. We have discussed some different ideas with each other and are trying to decide what it is that we think we are best prepared for. We want our final prohect to best reflect on how much we have learned through this course.

Summary Post C4K comments 3-7

Comment #3

Semi is a student in 3rd grade at Pt England School in New Zealand. Semi posted on his classroom blog by creating a video on his own and also recorded his voice onto the video. I thought it was very interesting to see how students are learning even in other countries. All over the world students are using technology to advance their knowledge. Semi's video was very creative and very well put together using technology, especially for a THIRD grader. I was very impressed with his work!

Comment #4

Brodie is a sixth grade student that regularly posts on his middle school blog. Although I didn't comment on all of his posts, I noticed that all of them are very educational. I could definately tell that Brodie was a bright young man. The post I commented on was a post on the Antarctic Stations, which I had no prior knowledge of before reading. It was a learning experience for me to read his post. the post lists all of the Antarctic stations and gives a brief discription of each mostly covering location and purpose. You can really tell that Brodie did some research on the subject. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his post.

Comment #5

Jake is a seventh grader who regularly posts onto his middle school blog. Like Brodie, I could tell that Jake was frequently using the internet to post all kinds of htings such as educational information or just posts about how he was doing or what his personal interests were. On his post that I commented on, Jake talked about his football team that he was a part of. He seems to be trying to win over support for his team by letting his readers know how successful his team was. They were the number one team in his division and had already beaten the number two team so he thought they would have smooth sailing. I'm sure his team went all the way!

Comment #6

Lucas H. is a sixth grader that I had the priviledge of reading his blog. I commented on a post of his that described a vacation that he had gone on to Frankenmuth, Michigan. He told me all about two water slides that were located at the hotel he was staying in. Another part of the trip that stood out to him was the smell of fudge when he walked outside. He later made a trip downtown and found some fudge that he thoroughly enjoyed. He also describes a store, Bronners, which he thought looked like Santa's workshop. I love how Lucas uses blogging to write about things that interest him.

Comment #7

My seventh comment was left on Mr. McCLung's classroom blog for a particular post on a race that his students had recently been apart of and been very successful. I thought it was awesome that he supported his students so much! I think it is a great idea for teachers to put posts like these where they are available to students, parents, teachers, and anyone else involved in the community. Mr. McClung was very proud of his students and certainly let them know how proud he was by posting a blog based on their success.

Blog Post #11

Little Kids...BIG POTENTIAL

What a precious video! During this video Ms. Cassidy has incorporated all of the different technological ways she is using to teach her students. I think it is great to have the students start using technology so young. It goes to show us that just because they are young doesn't mean they can't use it. I feel that teaching them young provides more expansion for learning in the future. I want to teach my students to use these tools, such as blogging, and let them explore learning in a new way. I think this was a great video because all teachers should be aware that no matter how young they are still capable of using technology to learn.

Discussion with Ms. Cassidy

It all started when Ms. Cassidy received 5 sunray computers in her classroom. The computers were unable to upload any type on program onto it so she had to find a way to teach six year olds using the internet. She uses blogs and other sites that the students can learn from. Ms. Cassidy starts at the beginning of the year and has a coordinator to help her with her teaching but mostly does all of it on her own. In order for her students to work with computers they must have a permission slip signed. They also have to have a permission slip signed to have their pictures taken and posted on their webpage or blogs. These things are understandable and smart. I feel as if I was a parent, I would want to know if my child's picture and such was on the internet. Also, as a parent I think I would love this because I could see what was going on in their classroom by just getting online. Ms. Cassidy also states the importance of moving forward and using more advanced tools to teach our students. A great factor in blogging is that the students get tickled to death about having an audience and getting to see what people comment to them. Ms. Cassidy makes sure to show them all the comments they receive and all the positive feedback using tools of her own. Something that has been stated over and over in this class, we must keep up with technolgy, is definately something that Ms. Cassidy agrees with. Ms. Cassidy is very enthusiastic on Twitter and finds it very helpful for homework. I thought it was great that the students in Dr. Strange's class asked Ms. Cassidy questions.

I think Ms. Cassidy in an inspiration for all teachers using technology. She studied and discovered ways to use the tools she had and make the best of her situation. She didn't hold back because of age and that is something all of us need to remember. I certainly plan to use blogging in my classroom one day not only because it is a great way for the children to interact with the world wide web but because I think it is great for parents to be able to keep up with their child's progress. I know I would certainly appreciate that as a parent.

Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

Dorothy Burt's Blog

A New Twist to Parent Engagement

This post by Dorothy Burt was very moving and tells a lot about Mrs. Burt's background and belief. It starts by explaining a project she did using 7 and 8 year olds. The unique twist about this project was that the students were the teachers and the parents were the learners. A lot of times we can learn more by teaching than being taught. Seh provides a video of a group of children teaching their parents. The part of this post that was moving was the prayer. This particular prayer was asking the Lord for help as the students entered their learning environment. It was particularly based around learning while using technology. She prayed for the students to thoroughly learn while she effectively taught. This prayer was awesome to me and a big indication of how great of a teacher Mrs. Burt is.

Student Internet Use in the Holidays

This post by Dorothy Burt was based on finding out how much access students had to the internet over the holidays and how they used their time on the internet. She also wanted to see what was popular in different age groups. She lists a set of questions that the students would be asked so that a survey could be taken. She not only wanted to know how much access the students had to the internet, but more in depth questions such as whether they actually used the mouse or were they just observing someone else use the internet such as a parent. This information can be very useful when teaching students using technology. We, as teachers, can have a basic understanding of their knowledge prior to teaching it.

Blog Assignment #10

An Open Letter To Educators
I was taken back by the fact that Morgan had just finished school this last Spring. She has accomplished a lot and has a lot to be proud of already. She claims we are still using the same teaching methods as one hundred years ago. We should all stop to think about whether we want to change the system. Since everything else in the world is progressing and changing rapidly then it is only normal to expect the same with the way that teachers teach their students. I can definately relate to Morgan when she talks about how hard it is to stay awake in class. I just don't think there is anyone who finds lecture classes intriguing ALL the time. I know I'm not the only person I know who has trouble staying awake and paying attention. Another reason I loved this was because I feel as though I can relate to her because of the work we have done in EDM310 such as using a PLN.
Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home
Instead of dwelling on our problems we should spend more time finding and fixing a solution. This was a great and entertaining example. It is important to demonstrate solutions to problems as well. I also thought this was an example of how sometimes educators focus so negatively on some things instead of finding the positive. I think in order to effect students the right way we must all be positive. No one is going to be drawn to a negative person.
Two Questions That Can Change Your Life
The first question was "what is my sentence?". To me this means, what does my life mean to me. How will I be remembered? Everyone wants to be remembered for doing good things. My sentence is: "I want to be the best person and teacher that I can be. I will encourage my student to want to learn and make them excited about it everyday. My students will learn through many different techniques. Learning can be fun".
"Was I better today than I was today?" This is a great question to ask because it is an evaluation of yourself. By asking his question we can improve ourselves each and every day. It can keep us aware of not only what we are doing wrong, but what we are doing right as well.

Additional Assignment #3

Sir Ken Robinson-
1. When he asks the question "how do we educate our children to take their place in economies of the 21st century?" I think this is very important because the economy is changing all of the time. Children must be able to adapt to situations in order to take their place in the changing economy.
2. Honestly there is nothing that I disagree with in this presentation. Everything Mr. Robinson states is well supported statements and he gives reason to believe. Everything he speaks about are things that I have been encountering lately.
3. The agreement and disagreement is that technology is being utilized however there are still many areas that do not utilize technology. For example the College of Education is doing a pretty good job of using technology in the classroom and also educating us on the technology. However we are still being taught like students were taught a hundred years ago which is not as beneficial to our learning.
4. You can educate people on these issues. If people knew what was going on they would probably be more willing to try and work together to make education a thing of the future. If people were educated on some of the issues discussed they would understand more on what is going on in the education system today.
5.I loved how a cartoon was used to illustrate the issues. I also thought the sharpie noise was a good touch. I would like to be the speaker of this kind of presentation, although I do think I'm a pretty good artist. I also believe I could probably play the role of the designer because I think I could be pretty creative.

Smart Board Project 13

Blog Assignment #9

"What I've learned in EDM310"
I have thoroughly enjoyed being apart of this class this Fall semester. I feel as though I have discovered so many new things about the internet and technology that I did not already know. I am very excited and passionate about being a teacher one day and this class has provided me with so much useful information and new tools that I plan to incorporate into my classroom. I have also used many different networks that are available on the internet that I have never used before such as twitter and skype. I find them enjoyable and plan to continue to use them even after I am done with EDM310. These different networks are used for many different things, but also can be so useful in teaching education. The most important thing I think I have learned from this class is that technology is growing everyday and as teachers, we have to keep up with the world around us in order to affectively teach. We also should always explore the new ideas and tools available to us so that we can continue to learn and grown along with out students.

Additional Assignment #2

Directly off the bat, my favorite quote of this video is "Children will learn to do what they want to do". I believe that kids can teach themselves. Anything that kids find interesting will motivate them to learn. Not a lot of people want to learn about something they are not interested in, especially kids. This stnads for kids and adults alike. Computers and internet are the source of interest for anybody. There are all kinds of people using the internet everyday to explore their personal interests. We have explored some of the serch engines that are available in EDM310, but there are more. But we always have to remember that when using the internet we will run into problems. It is also easy to get distracted on the computer with all that is available through internet. In order to motivate someone to learn, you must learn how the person learns best which is something that teachers should be best at. As a future teacher I am definately motivated to learn so I can better teach my students. I have to be motivated to learn in order for me to expect my students to be motivated to learn. I have discovered as a student I have to teach myself in order to effectively learn, not just in the classroom but also outside of the classroom. I'm not motivated everyday even if I want to be. In order to learn new things in the future I will have to Teachers are there to help and encourage their students. Teachers are sucha big influence on their students so Ihope to be motivated in order to motivate my students. I also plan to do things that spark their interest.

Blog Assignment #8

"This is How We Dream"-I, persosnally, thought this video was very confusing. I had some trouble understanding what in the world he was talking about. I think it is interesting how Miller talks about how we are at a very important time of change in human history. The change is how we communicate. Instead of the original pencil and paper we use media writing now. We depend on computers noe instead of our desks. Some really important changes are talked about in this video.
In the second video he states, "we begin to realize that ideas do not belong to us individually but as a culture". I think it is true when Miller says "educators must share ideas freely." IT was interesting to see all the different tools people use. I am not ready for this multimedia writing if it is anything like he shows us in the video, but I know I will have to learn how to do this. EDM310 has been quite helpful in this area. Also, I know that I will have to continue learning about technology once I leave EDM310 and start teaching for myself one day. Multimedia writing is something that my students will be doing and I definately need to know how to teach them.
"The Chipper Series" and "EDM310 for Dummies"
The Chipper Series was an awesome video that really caught my attention. The present and future stuff as the beginning was very confusing. This video was an encouragement to not turn in things late which I needed to watch. Edm310 has also helped me with the importance of turning things in on time. It can primarily effect your future. It is just a means of responsibility that anyone can be judged upon. EDM310 for Dummies would have been the first book bought for the semester. It pretty much states how I feel about this class. I am finally getting the hang of everything and how the class works half way through the semester although I could have used it earlier.
"Smartboards"-I think Smartboards are a great for the classroom. I am a big fan of the smartboards because my high school used them and I just thought they were great. I remember being in high school and wanting to always use the smartboard. It could do all sorts of cool things. All students can benefit from this great technological tool that provides great visual learning aids. Its possibilities seem endless.

My PLN

I have learned a great amount of information in this class. I have learned more about the internet than I knew before and can now I feel I can effectively use more technology in my classroom as a teacher. I have learned how to use TimeToast and I have also learned how to use and make podcasts for a better learning experience. I think that blogging has been the biggest part of this class and has been very useful. I think we can all learn through everything we have done in this class, but to also read how others view and think of what we have done can be very interesting. It can also help you discover things you may have missed before. Children of all ages, which I have seen with my own eyes now, can blog and make podcasts. These are great learning tools that I plan to use in my own classroom in the future.

TimeToast Project

Check out my Timeline at this link:



http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/80512

C4T Summary #2

For my C4T Assignment #2 I commented on teachernz's latest post on her blog, What Now? What Next? So What? Her post was a video that discussed Web 3.0 and all the things that will be made possible through it. Web 3.0 is going to basically make our lives a lot easier and a lot more personal. Music sites will apparently be able to already know what type of music we like and suggest music to us based on information about us on other sites. Different sites will all be linked together and using information to perform at better, faster, and more convenient rates. Another feature of web 3.0 that was discussed was that websites are going to be able to offer you products to buy based on other people buying the same product that have your same interests. This is all just unbelievable and extreme. It makes me wonder what is to come after web 3.0. This technology will be incredible for all people and I know that as an educator I will find ways to use web 3.0 in the classroom to better educate my students.

Blog Post #7

"Randy Pausch: The Last Lesture"
At the biginning of the lecture Pausch tells us about the ten tumors he has in his liver. He also tells us that this is not what the lecture will be based on. The basis of the video was accomplishing everything you set out to do as a child. Pausch shows us his list of childhood dreams. This particular list looked difficult to achieve, but I was wrong. One of his first goals was to be in zero gravity. The opportunity actually opened up for this to happen. He said that everything was going great until he hit the first brick wall. A lot of people would have given up or sure, but not Pausch. He said that "brick walls are not to keep us out, but to show us how bad we want something." This really got to me because it can be so useful in life in all kinds of situations. In most cases people do not give up, but try to find a way around it. As he continues down his list, one of them was to be Captain Kirk. Obviously this couldn't happen so he just decided to change it to meeting him instead. Pausch tells us that it is okay for dreams to change because you do realize some of them cannot be achieved or you might just want something different. I also thought it was good to hear that dreams can change, but you should still never give up on achieving those dreams, even if they are alternated a bit. I had no trouble staying in tune to the video. I can honestly say I enjoyed the video and am inspired by his message. He was also very happy throughout the video. We can all use that happiness as a model in our own lives. I can take away with me the belief that no dream is impossible to achieve as long as we set out to make it happen. Do not let brick walls hold you back from anything. After working with Disney Imagineers for a while, Paush realized that was something he was not wanting to do, so he stopped and there is nothing wrong with that. After all this, Pausch mentioned how none of this would have been possible without his parents and it made me smile. Parents play such a huge role in most of our lives. Pausch has probably inspired many people through this lecture in cluding myself. He talks about one student who wanted to work on Star Wars movies, and he was able to work on three of them. I think there should be more people and professors like Randy Pausch and I hope to be like him as well in my classroom one day.

Blog Post #6

The Networked Student- After watching the first video, we can see more clearly how the world around us has changed. He described two types of change, a incremental and fundamental change. One point that he made and that I more than agree with is that as teachers we should always be willing and open to share any and all information. If we really think about it, it is so easy to get any information we want through the internet. Its capabilities are unimaginable. This video was very eye-opening to me.

A 7th grader's Personal Learning Environment- This was, yet again, another video that shows us how accesible the web is to anything and everything we could ask for. She expressed to us how her PLE was set up and how we can benefit from it. I think that as a teacher one day I could definately set up my classwork online like this and it can make things a lot easier for me as a teacher and to my students.

The Machine is Changing Us- I couldn't state the truth better myself. Fifteen years ago, the next generation was labeled materialistic. Very similar to what we say about today's generation! I definately think that we are allmaterialistic whether we want to be or not. He says, society does not give recognition, you have to create your own. Youtube is way we can communicate by creating our own expressions in different ways. Youtube can express a true personality because anyone on youtube does not have to fear being infront of a person, but just in front of a camera.Youtube shows everybody anything and if someone is willing to post something on there then they need to be ready for all that will come as consequences. The "Free Hugs" video shows people coming together. This really touched me. It just goes to show that we can all be connected through youtube. Actually, the now famour, Justin Bieber was discovered on youtube. Just a fun fact for you.

C4K #1 and #2 Summary

I really enjoyed my C4K assignments with Noel Elementary Class 2011. My students name was Colby and he seemed like a very bright young boy. He has some very ambitious goals and seems to enjoy lots of fun outdoor activities. He really enjoyed a drama class that he once took and he now wants to be an actor. His Learning Manifesto also shows that he is serious about his school work and has some great standards that he holds himself to. I'm sure he is a great boy and I can see him doing great things in the future. I left him comments really supporting his ideas in a positive way and I hope that they keep him striving forward.