Final Reflection

Project 13 Collaboration Report

The name of my group is called "Kids R' Us" and it consists of myself, Taylor Davis, Victoria Kaplan, and Alecia Baxter. Our Group have worked very hard to complete project #15 and #16. We used Google Docs to communicate which allowed us to come up with topic for our SMARTboard assignment. I like using Google Docs because we were able to express our ideas of what we were planning to do and when.


It was very fun communicating without face to face. We also used email and text messages for when we were not able to be near a computer and that was very helpful. I like how the members of the group were able to work around their busy schedule set up a time that we could meet when we had to record. Having everything already planned out made it easier for us to record and we got done in no time!

Final Project #16

Progress Report on Final Project

The name of our group is called Kids R' Us and we plan on doing a lesson on how to write a friendly letter for second grader. There are five part in writing a letter and each of us are explaining a part. We have been communicating over Google Docs and we planned to meet us on Tuesday November 27, 2012 to record. Every member is doing their part and a great job.

Project #15

Final Report on PLN

During the course of this semester I have created a wonderful PLN through Symbaloo. My items on PLN from Symbaloo was very few in the beginning but I have to get around to visiting new websites that were useful to me and became a part of my daily life. I love the idea of having a PLN because now I feel more organized.

There were websites I never even knew about and now I visit and use some of those websites on a daily basic. I'm glad that I got the chance to experience new things that's making my life better during this EDM310 course.

My PLN

C4K #10 November

A 4th grade class from Daphne East Elementary School did a video on The State House. They learned a lot about Dr. Robert J. Bentley, the Governor of Alabama. They talked about the trains that travel around Montgomery and that the House of Representatives is where laws are made at. The kids that come to help the Representatives are called Page, which is something I didn't know. They also talked about how Dr. Robert Bentley pool is in the shape of the state Alabama. They were happy that they got to shake his hand and take pictures. They also informed that Lurleen Burns Wallace was the first lady governor of Alabama.

My comment was:
Hi my name is Shannon Watson and I'm a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed watching the video about The State House. Since I'm not from Alabama, I really learned a lot about the state and I can see that ya'll did too and really enjoyed this trip. I would love to visit the State House one day!

Blog post #12

When I was thinking about this assignment I wanted to do it on something that was important to me and could help me in my teaching career. I know I would have to deal with special needs students and I wanted to find a way to help them learn as well as other students. From my assignment I want you to think about how using the TAPit could help you in your classrooms. TAPit is the first ADA compliant interactive learning station designed to recognize the difference between an arm resting upon the screen and a finger or assistive device intentionally tapping an image.

• Watch this video: Language Skills with TAPit and write a paragraph about how using the TAPit can help students learn. Would you use this piece of technology in your classroom?
• At Apollo Ridge Elementary School in Spring Church, Pennslyvania they are using the TAPit to help special needs students. Write a paragraph on your reaction to this video: TAPit helps with physical therapy. Do you think this is a good and efficient way for teaching special needs students?

When I watched the Language Skills with TAPit video I thought that it was a good thing. It reminded me of the smartboard and it allows the student to go up to this device and play around with it. During the video you saw students going up to the board tracing the letters with their finger which helps them get an idea of how to write the letter. They are able to learn and have fun at the same time. Using the TAPit helps expand vocabulary, help them learn their numbers and names to different pictures. They are able to more the images around on the board. It also help the shy students come out of their shells and communicate with the other children and all the children are able to participate.

When I watched the TAPit helps with physical therapy, my heart melted from watching a students who lost interest in doing things because of his disability to reach things and when he used the TAPit, he seem to really enjoying it. You notice that he uses a ball to help him move the words around on the TAPit board and according to the video, he is more interesting in the TAPit because he is able to reach it and with all the colors and images it makes him want to learn. They are still trying to get him ready for doing desk top work but using the TAPit is helping prepare him for it. I do think this is a good and efficient way because it's an easy process and I believe the more fun you have using the TAPit, the more the child will want to learn.

C4K #9 November

I was giving a student name Ibarcoleb and he wrote a blog post giving thanks to the veterans. He paid his respect to a Mr. Wes Strolley who served in World War l l. He was at the Pearl Harbor Bombing on December 7, 1941. Ibarcoleb suggest that we should give thanks to all the veterans because they gave their time and life for our freedom.


My comment:
Hi my name is Shannon and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree with you that everyone should give thanks to our veterans for all their hard work for our freedom. I was supposed to attend the Veterans Day Parade yesterday but we got rained out. I really appreciate your concern for the veterans. I wish to know more about Mr. Wes Strolley. I'm glad I got the opportunity to read your blog. I hope you have a wonderful day!

C4T #4

Post #1
I was assigned a teacher named Amanda Ooten and it's been awhile since she lasted updated her blog due to the amount of work she has to do. She written a blog post called Science Teaching for the Future and she explains how she enjoyed flipping her Honor Biology classes and is teaching her student teachers the reasoning behind flipping the classroom. Mrs. Ooten is a member of her school technology committee and is trying to look for funding for a pilot program of Google Chromebooks in her classroom. She also enjoys getting email from students who read her blogs. She explains how she tries to flip her AP Biology class but the amount of content and the pace made it nearly impossible. Some of her videos she had on YouTube have been removed due to a noticed from Pearson that they were violating copyright laws by posting images of the videos but she's in the process of appealing it.

My comment:

Hi, my named is Shannon and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I also think that it is important to flip the classroom to help your students. I'm glad I got the opportunity to read this post.

P.S. I hope you were able to find funding for the pilot program :)

Post #2
Amanda Ooten has not updated her blog yet so I had to read the one before post #1. Her previous blog post was called My Classroom Flipped, Part 2. She explains that she flipped her Advanced Placement Biology class and they suffered a bit for about 3 weeks and she felt like the worst teacher in the world. The students were not able to keep up the pace for the assignment she assigned and wasn't learning the material. But she found a way to solve the problem by during a few lectures instead of the students going home and doing the assignments. They still were able to watch videos and do class discussions. She tries to challenge the students by asking probing questions, forcing them to make connections with the previous chapters and put them in group during the lectures to discuss ideas with one another. With this change there was more energy in the classrooms. I flipping the classroom is a good idea because even though the students are giving work to do at home, you should still have a lecture to see what the students are actually learning. It also gives the teacher an idea on who needs help.

My comment:

Hi my name is Shannon Watson and I'm a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I have read a lot about flipping the classrooms and the more I read about it, the most I agree that it is a good idea and very helpful. I glad to hear that your Advanced Placement Biology is adjusting well to flipping the classroom!

Blog post #11

After watching Ms. Cassidy's video, Little Kids...Big Potential and her skype video, I understand how important technology really this. Ms. Cassidy used many different technologies in her classroom to teach. She used the computers, Nintendo, blogs, wiki, and Skype. The first thing that came to mind was, how was she able to monitor all these first graders with these technologies?. I was really impress with how the kids reacted to everything.


It's amazing to see first graders write blogs and using wiki to search for information. I thought to myself, I don't even remember using the computer a lot in first grade. Out of all of the technology that Ms. Cassidy use in her classroom, I thought I would mostly like to use blogs in my classroom. By using the blogs the students are learning writing skills and how to communicate with others by receiving comments on their blog posts. One of the students states how you're supposed to say positive things while commenting on someone's post. I feel that blogs will help them become better writers and allow them to put out there own ideas. Also, it will be good for them to get feedback from family members, friends, and other kids their age. From watching the video I can see that they really enjoy writing blogs and being able to post videos of what they are learning in class. One problem I see is making sure that the students are safe while using the internet. All computers should be monitored at all times and certain websites should be blocked.


From watching the skype interview by Dr. Strange, I discovered that Ms. Cassidy has been working with technology for 10 years. It all started when she received 5 computers in her classroom that were not able to download programs. Ms. Cassidy also talks about how she had support from the Technology Coordinator at her school and how the principal didn't mind her using those computer in class. For the safety of the children, Ms. Cassidy sent home forms for the parents every year making sure that they were okay with their child being online and creating blogs. I thought that was a good idea. I admire Ms. Cassidy for wanting to teach her student through technology because it is a fun way for them to learn and it's something that they enjoy.

C4K November #8

I was given an 8th grade student from Iowa name Caleb Z who wrote about his trip to the Grand Harbor with his family. He wrote about how he got to take his friend Alex with him and his sister got to take two of her friends. He explained almost everything movement they made. Like when his friend Alex came out the house and had to go back in to get his skateboard. I felt as if I was reading a book, which is a good thing, which caught my interested. Caleb made it where you could visualize everything that was going on during the trip.

My comment for Caleb:
Hi, my named is Shannon Watson and I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I felt as if I was reading a very interesting book. I like how your decided every single thing you did. It was very interesting and I could also picture every move you move. I also like how descriptive you were. I glad you had a fun. Just watch out with your capitalization and spacing after a period but good job! :)

C4T Teacher #3

Allanah King wrote a blog post and was asked to share some of her thinking around modern learning environments in Auckland. She had made a powerpoint presentation showing how people should use an iPad to teach. She also engaged ideas of different ways for children to learn. For example she said using MLE will help with discovery time. This will help children make choices, connect with learner's passions and build independence. She shows how teaching on an iPad will help motivate students, connect with parents, and teach kids how to spell their first 1000 words and so many more. I really enjoyed watching this presentation because it allowed me to think of creative ways I could use to help teach my students

My comment:
Hi, my name is Shannon Watson and I am an EDM310 student. I really enjoyed watching your presentation. It allowed me to think of creative ideas I could use to help teach children. It seen like using an iPad to help children learn is very helpful. I think by teaching on an iPad is a good idea because it allows the kids to experience things on their own and how to have fun doing it. I'm glad I got the opportunity to read this post!

Allanah King has written another blog post on E-Learning to support Mathematics and Bookmarking. Allanah Kind has a request to support teachers that participated in a Numeracy professional learning contract. She posts a link on her Delicious on line bookmarks so the resource will continue to be useful and stay current.

King had made a powerpoint presentation on "Mathematics E-Learning", where she has links about measurements, geometry, statistics, time, etc... I clicked on the problem solving link and I found it very helpful. It was a way for students to practice problem solving.

My comment was:

Hi, my name is Shannon Watson and I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I'm glad I got the chance to view your blog again. I really enjoyed looking at your powerpoint presentation. I clicked on a couple of the links you posted and I found it very helpful when I clicked on the problem solving list. I even catch myself trying to figure out some of the problems. :)

Project #14

Blog post #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga


John T. Spencer posted a cartoon on his blog called Adventures in Pencil Integration. One of the cartoons is a papermate that cost less and breaks all the time. The other is ticonderoga which is more expensive but it is a high quality product. Even though these cartoons are different, they are somewhat saying the same thing. Everyone tries to save money in any as possible by buying cheap products. Papermate is very cheap so that's what people will buy. But people fail to realize that papermate breaks more often so they end up buying more and spending more money. On the other hand, Ticonderoga is very expensive but it last longer because of the good quality of the product. In other words, it's worth the money. People don't realize that even though something cost a lot, it will do you good in the end instead of products that are no good.

 Why Were Your Kids Playing Games
In Mr. Spencer's blog post he tells a story about how a teacher was called into the principal office because his students were playing games in the classroom. According to the principal, games were not allowed. The teacher tries to explain to the principal about how these games are helping the students learn, but the principal never gives him a change to explain how.

You can see that the principal is more concern about the "role memorization test" that he fails to see that the teacher is actually trying to help prepare them. I feel that if students are not having fun while they are learning then most of the information being taught to them is going in one ear and out of the other. Learning should be exciting with a good experience. I think the more fun you have learning new things, the more eager you are to learn.

Don't Teach Your Kids To Read This Stuff. Please?

When I read "Don't Teach Your Kids To Read This Stuff. Please? by Scott McLeod, who is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky, Founding Director of the UCEA Center of the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership of Education (CASTLE), an Blogger, the author of a book called "What School Leaders Need to Know about Technologies and Social Media", and one of his quotes are “If the leaders don’t get it, it’s not going to happen.”, the first thing I noticed about his blog was the writing style. I wonder why he made his post that way. Dr. McLeod was making a point about how your students and children should not be reading or writing on the internet because it is unsafe. He made a list of negative things about the internet.

When I read this post my reaction was "Wow, did he have a bad experience with the internet?" I agree and disagree with what Dr. McLeod about some of the things he was saying. Some parts of the internet are bad and there are sites that children should not be visiting, but you also have to know the using the internet is a helpful tool. With everything been done with technology you can't help but use the web. I agree with Dr. McLeod about how pens and papers aren't going anywhere because people don't need to always rely on the web to do things.

Project 11 Green Screen

Blog Post #9

Mr. McClung had written a blog post once and with the feedback of his peers he continued to write blog posts. With this being his 4th year, he realized he didn't learn as much as he though he did. There were two themes that stuck out to him and that's how he being his 4th blog post. One of the themes was "You Got to Dance with Who You Brought to the Dance". Mr. McClung was struggling with how he defines himself as a teacher. He knew where his reputation stood with his students but he was more concerned with his peers. His main goal was to teach and make sure his students were having fun learning. He had a problem with worrying about if his peers approved of the way he handle business. When I read that sentence I thought "Is he doing his job as a teacher?"  "Are his students learning?" and "How are his teaching skills?". I wanted to know why Mr. McClung was so concerned about what his peers thought about him. He made a statement saying "Worrying about perception of adults has never done anything positive for me, but making sure that my kids are taken care of and enjoying class has done wonders for me". As long as he sticks to that, he should never go down the wrong road.

 His second theme was "Challenge Yourself". This was his third year teaching at the same school and the same subject which is Social Studies and History. He started feeling he was getting too comfortable in his old lesson plans and not teaching well. Then a change came for him when he started teaching pre-AP Civics and American Government. The lesson that he learned was "If you start getting too comfortable as a teacher, you start to get lazy and ultimately your lesson and your students will not enjoy your class". When he was a kid he didn't enjoy going to class and he didn't want that for his students. He wanted his students to enjoy class and not resent school like he did. I agree with Mr. McClung about wanting his students to enjoy his class because if they are not enjoying class then they are not learning, which defeats the purpose of being a teacher.

 Another one of his blog post was from 2009-2010 about what he learned. It was his first year teaching Jr. High and his first time teaching Social Studies and history. He had to learn three different subjects in one year and was very challenging. He had to adapt to his learning style form teaching 6th and 8th grade level. He realized that in Jr. High, students are more independent and do not see the world through rose colored glasses like middle school students. He had to adapt his style to the needs of independent students.

 His next section was "The Path Least Traveled". Mr. McClung had to be a little more relaxed with his lesson plans. Teaching Social Studies meant a lot of discussing current events and debate topics. He realized that his students haven't been taught to think for themselves which became frustrating. He wanted his students to be independent thinkers and to only lean on his when they were stuck. Mr. McClung wrote a section about finding your school mom. He said it's always good to find that one person you can count on to help you, who knows the ins and outs about the school. I think that is a helpful tip because when becoming first year teachers, we have to know how the school operates and what we are getting into. He knows teaching is not an easy job. He wanted to try something new like instead of passing out papers to every student, they had to come grab it from a stack which saved time in the class. All in all Mr. McClung realized that his flaws accompany his strengths. He is still at a working progress but he is confident in his abilities and that's what he wanted.

Project #10 PLN

For this project I used Symbaloo. Symbaloo allows me to separate different activities I use. In the top left corner I have my social events and what I use to communicate with people. In the top right corner are my education events like what website sites I use for school and what I use to help me educationally. In the bottom left corner are my entertainment events. I really had fun with this because I was able to put different tools in different categories and I feel that this will really help in get organized and stay on top of what's important and what I should do first.

Project #12

C4K #6

I was assigned a little girl named Ashley. For her blog post she did a slideshow on Canadain Shield where she had pictures of the Canada flag, animals, water, and mountains.

My comment for Ashley was: My name is Shannon Watson and I'm a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed seeing your blog and your slideshow. I would love to go to Canada because I love the cold weather. I wish it got that cold here. I don't think I would like seeing all those animal since I'm afraid of a lot of them. But I'm glad I got the chance to visit you blog. Hope you have a good year.

C4T #3

Post #1

I was giving a blog post to read by a teacher named Allanah King. In King's post, Apple Smacdown is one of the highlights of #Ulearn12. Apple Smacdown is where Apple Distinguished Educators and Apple fans can share their favorite Apple apps and learn a fast paced sharing session.
You only get up to two minutes to share things and put a link up for everyone to see. Everyone takes turns sharing their stuff and Allanah King put up a link that shows a table of other people links about the tools, tips, and tricks they wish to share.
My comment for Allanah King:
Hello, my name is Shannon Watson and I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading your post. I think this Apple Smacdown is very interesting. The link you put up about “your own cool tips to add to the resources” was very interesting. I clicked on a couple of people links and was surprised with the stuff that they shared. I’m glad I got a chance to see and read the links!

An EDM310 Student Shannon

Blog Post #8

This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2

Dr. Miller makes a statement saying we're living at the moment of the greatest change in human communicate in human community. We can now communicate globally. Dr. Miller spent his time writing and understanding writing as a solitaire activity. He was raised in a house full with book so I guess all his did was read. Dr. Miller said that a book is a printed based document. He states that where we work now is not so much with pencil, paper, and going to the library. But now we all work on laptops.Dr. Miller makes a point about how the internet allows us to work at a distance. You don't have to be in the same place with another person to communicate with them.

In part 2 video, Dr. Miller explains how our methods of research have changed. It can take a long period of time for new information to be put in our libraries On the other hand, information is being updated every day on the internet. One thing I really got out of these videos is that Dr. Miller does not want teachers to only teach through reading and writing information down. I agree with him because some students learn by interacting with other students and getting involved in activities. The used of the internet is also a way to communicate with students from different schools, states, and countries which is interesting and helpful.

All in all, Dr. Miller describes the fundamental changes that is taking place in technology today. He states how we use word processing, messaging, collaborating without seeing one another and how we get information without opening a book or visiting the library. Dr. Miller made a quote "Limits and restrictions are largely ones we place  on ourselves". We should put ourselves to keep a open mind and look beyond the obvious.

Carly Pugh

Carly wrote a blog about how students should and get interesting in teaching. Finding something engaging will get a lot of students involve. Carly presents writing with multi-media by being creative and using the resource on the web to teach. Her blog describes your goals on teaching and Carly imply Dr. Miller idea of writing multi-media. I think Carly did a great job on this post. I feel that teachers should not stick to one way of teaching and try something new every now and then. I know Dr. Miller would love to read Carly blog post ans be proud!

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies

From watching this videos, I would love to purchase the book EDM 310 for Dummies. I found myself laughing a couple of times. It took a lot of time getting use to EDM 310 class assignments and making sure everything correct and I think if I had this book at the beginning it would of really helped me. What I really learned from this class it to never give up or half do your assignments. Since I'm going to be a teacher in the future, I would want my students to try their best and not give up. The Chipper Series is about a student who dropped out of college because they thought it was too hard and time consuming. The student later became a garbage collector and from watching this video, its shows that things will not come easy. You have to try your best and work for it. I know people who went to college and dropped out there first semester because they felt that college wasn't for them and its sad.

Learn to change, Change to learn

This video is about why it is important to change our school systems.With technology constantly changing, students need to learn how to work up to it. Sticking to the same ways for years ago is not going to help students in the future. Like what Dr. Strange call the "burp back education". Students are use to writing things down and memorizing it and putting back down on paper. Now that we have technology, students need to know how to find facts and put it to good use. With the technology today, we are able to communicate with people across the country and that's what we need to be teaching out student how to.

A lot of people don't want to change the way they do things, including me. I had to change the way I got some of my resources for some of my classes. For this project in one of my classes, I had to only use books to get my information for my project and that was something I didn't like because I was used to looking it up in the internet. I didn't like the change of actually reading the books to get the information because I knew it was faster to just look up the information. My teacher was trying to show us that there were other places than the internet to get information. I had to change my whole thinking process but learned a lot from reading those books. So it is helpful to change things up in order to learn!

Animoto

Animoto is a video tool that allows you to create videos using photos, music, and video clips. Animoto offers free Animoto Plus accounts for teachers and educators to use in their classrooms. This coming be very helpful in my classroom in the future. Using Animoto is a easy process. You just upload your photos, then add you music, They also have a variety of songs to pick from. I think this will be good to use for presentation and to help student with being creative by putting together their ideas with other students. This will also introduce them to a new way for making videos instead of using YouTube.

C4T Comments for Teachers 2

The Digital Shift eConference Tomorrow & More iPad eBook Authoring Apps

My teacher was Wesley Fryer and the first blog post was about attending the Library Journal and School Library Journal's virtual conference and he wants all librarians and people who works with library media specalists to attend. The conference is online and Fryer has put together some slides about the session. He added two links for two different iPad apps which can be used to create multimedia eBook on an iPad. He also put up a video on how to use creative book builder.

My comment for the teacher:

I really enjoyed reading your article and found your slideshow very interesting. I hope a lot of people attend the Library Journal and School Library Journal's virtual conference. Your video on How to use Creative Book Builder was very informative and helpful.

The second post was about how Fryer created a lists of recommended iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch apps and titled it "Audio Recording and Sharing [Oct 2011]". He updated the version and there is a picture called wfryer's picks where there's a listed of apps. He included "Book Creator for iPad" but it isn't an audio creation but it was up to date with students for directly recording audio into a multimedia eBook.

My comment for the teacher:

I would love to learn more about these apps and find out different ways to use them. It seems like everyone has either a iPhone, iPad, or iPod and I know the apps will come in handy. I really enjoyed reading this post.

From a EDM310 student Shannon 

Blog Post #7

The Networked Student

Technology is a powerful tool that can help you with just about anything. But it isn't the same as in reading textbooks or taking notes in a classroom from a teacher. From watching The Networked Student video, I realized that mostly every class has some kind of connection involving the internet. This video reminds me a lot about my EDM 310 class and how we use the internet to communicate with different people around the world and to learn how to uses things differently.

It may be difficult for some people to constantly use the internet to search for different things but it is very easy. With teachers using different techniques to teach can be very frustrating, but some students learn different ways. Some may learn better visually and using the internet or some may learn better with that one on one contact. In the video, the student is being taught through the web and the teacher is giving him tools and resource on how to use the internet to find information. But that student has to realize that he is still on his own. What I also like about watching the video is how they explain the networked student by using cut out drawling. It seems like a good way to get your attention.

Why does the networked student need a teacher? The answer is simple! Even though the student can find their information on the internet, there are still things that students are not going to understand and are going to need help. When a student has a question about an assignment, they will need to be able to ask the teacher. This will also provide a chance to have that one on one time with that teacher. Teachers are there as guides to help students communicate, help put together ideas, and find good information that will help them succeed in life. Without the guidance of a teacher, students would be lost.
A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment
Students who are using a PLE are learning a wonderful lesson about being responsible. The student can come up with their own schedule for keeping up with their assignments. The PLE looks like a fun way to learn and it gives the students the opportunity to have a variety of internet access for resources to get information. I like the way the way that the student could save different information in one space so they could go back to it later and find out where they got that information.

Podcast Project #8 Part 1&2

C4K Summary for September

Dustin wrote about some of the events his school did for their homecoming and how each day they had a different event. They also got to dress up for these events.
This comment was left for Dustin's Blog:-C4K#2
Your blog is very interesting. I remember when we did activities like that back at my high school. Each day would have something for students to do. Just watch out about your wording in your blogs but I really enjoyed it. By the way, love the pictures!
Homecoming Week

Daniel is kids who really enjoys Halloween and his favorite activity is getting a lot of candy.
This comment was left for Daniel-C4K#3
I really enjoyed reading your blog. When I was younger my favorite thing about Halloween was getting a lot of candy too! Just watch your spelling when you're writing, like the word beacause (because) in your second sentence. Also make sure you space after a period at the end of a sentence and not double space between words. If you look at the word "enjoy" and "Halloween" there is an extra space. Overall great job! Hope you get a lot of candy this year!
A student, Shannon
Daniel's Blog

Month of October
OSG's AP Government & Politics
Super Packed C4K#4
This student is
Comment for kid blog:
I thought this was a well written blog post. I like the fact that you're so interesting in federalism and your opinion on politics. I also like how you went into explaining the advantage of funding about the Freakonomics article. You have really put in a lot of thought into this post and it was a great idea to put in a graph to some facts about your blog. I hope you continue to have a great you!
Blog

C4K#5
Hopping for History
Kaitlyn is a 5th grader who recently learned about the Hopi in her Social Studies class and decided to write about the things they did like what they wore, the games they played, and what they ate.
My comment:
Kaitlyn I really enjoyed reading your blog and I think you included some very interesting things about the Hopi like about the things that they wear. It shows how different they are from a lot of other cultures. I thought it was interesting when you said that archery brought rain if they shoot the arrow through the hoop. You did a good job on your blog and I wish to learn more about the Hopi :)
Blog

Blog post #6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving your childhood dreams

In Randy Pausch  Last Lecture, he talks about his childhood dreams and all the things that he had accomplished. Pausch was given 6 months to live due to a tumor in his liver, so this was his last lecture and a very good one. Pausch wanted to let people know about his childhood dreams and that you should always follow your dreams no matter what.

 Pausch made a quote that kind of stuck with me. He stated, "When you screw up and no one says anything to you about it, then they have stopped caring". I admire him for that quote because it lets people know that you will always have interference when you're trying to achieve a goal or dream. But it is up to you to either let it affect you or not.

Pausch had some very interesting childhood dreams. His dreams were being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals at the fair, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, and being a Disney Imagineer. Pausch did end up achieving some of his childhood dream like being able to experience zero gravity. He never got to play in the NFL but he played football and learned some valuable lessons that help him in life. He ended up writing for the World Encyclopedia and he worked on a virtual reality program at Disney.

Pausch gave me some ideas about teaching and what I could do to encourage my student. I would encourage my students to always go after what they want in life and to never give up. I really enjoyed how he used a PowerPoint to explain his childhood dream, how he accomplished them and what he learned. During his lecture he maintained a positive and encouraging attitude and that showed me to never let stressful things get the best of me. Pausch states that, "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things". I agree with that quotes and will implied it in my classrooms. Randy Pausch is the kind of person that people could look up to and I enjoyed his inspiring presentation and know he will always be missed.

Project 9a TimeToast

Blog post #5

The iSchool Initiative

Travis Allen made some positive points in this video iSchool initiative about using iSchool instead of the traditional ways of learning, which is teachers lecturing, writing notes with paper and pencil, in a classroom. He states that using the iSchool would help save money for schools and help our environment to where we would not have to cut down trees to make paper.

My reaction to this video was both positive and negative. I think the iSchool would be good to use in classrooms because everything is being used from technology now. Many students are already using their phones to communicate with their teachers like sending emails. The only thing about the iSchool is how is it going to help the special need students? Will there be a special device make to help the blind students? Are the deaf students able to operate this device? This new technology does take away the one on one time that the students could have with a teacher for things they don't understand. But I think this would be good for using in classrooms to help students learn and be more prepared.
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
From watching this video I was very shocked and amazed at how good these people sounded. It's amazing how all this was done over the internet and everyone was in the right key and they haven't even practiced in person together. I would love to try this one day. I have sung in the choir at my church and I know that it can be difficult to get everyone on one pitch and sing the correct note. This video really surprised me!

Virtual Choir

Teaching 21st Century StudentsRobert thinks that teaching is by thinking, using facts, content, and resource to find out information and how you should think and apply it. Some people rely on what other people say without getting the true facts. A lot of people also rely on the internet for information. My position is that the skills we learn in classrooms are fading away because everyone is relying on the internet and he is right about that. It will affect us as educator because everything is being done using technology and using the internet. One point that he made was about entertainment and engaging. Students would learn more if they would go out into the world and be engaged in activities that will help them learn like go and interact with other people and discover the way that other people think and apply information.
Teaching 21st Century Students

Why I Flipped the Classroom

I think that flipping the classroom is a good idea because it allows teachers to help all students and get them on the same level and caught up. This will help with not leaving a child behind and feeling lost and confused. Flipping the classroom gives the teacher an idea on who needs a certain amount of help. Having the higher level students working with the lower level students can make comparison on what exactly the teacher needs to do to help students achieve and succeed. Like said in the video 90 percent of the class time will be with going around to each group and helping them with assignments and the other 10 percent will be time for them to ask questions on things they don't understand.
Why I flipped the Classroom

Flipped the Classroom

This is my sentence

Blog Post #4

Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

I learned that the benefits of podcasting in the classroom is an effective way of interacting with students outside the traditional classroom. Students born after 1980, have never experienced life in a world without technology. Technology has taken up a great amount of their free time. The videos listed some facts about technology and how children spent sending two hundred and fifty thousand IM's, spent ten thousand hours playing video games, ten thousand hours on the phone, and more then twenty thousand hours watching TV. I also learned that podcasting allows differentiation in the classrooms and allows students to play things back. It allows creativity and innervation According the Kourtney Bostain, podcasting allows students to demonstrate high orders of thinking skills. Teachers are able to upload podcast to a blog. There was one teacher who used podcast to help with reading a play and had different teachers playing different parts to keep getting the students' attention. Parents can also hear and see what is going on in their child's classrooms.
Podcasting in the Classroom

Langwitches- Podcasting with First Grade
 In this article you learn how the students interact with one another and how technology really makes a big difference in learning. Mrs. Tolisano and her 1st grade class made a podcast about a book called "Vacation under the Volcano". Their idea was to pretend that they were interviewing the two main characters form the book about their adventure to Pompeii. The students took turns speaking in the podcast. The boys played Jack and the girls played Annie. They recorded things together as a class like gasping or saying "No children allowed", and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. After each reading Ms. Tolisano typed up questions and answers for the students. The students were very cooperative and attentive to what was going on with the recording. Students ask to record their part a second time if they were not satisfied with their first recording. Doing this assignment brought shy and quiet students out of their shells. I learned that podcasting teaches skills like listening, speaking, presenting, voice acting, oral fluency, media, and technology. The class couldn't wait to hear their recording the next day.


Langwitches Listening- Comprehension- Podcasting
In the video below I learn that language is very important and in order to learn new vocabulary you have to hear the word over and over to understand the context of the word. When you are learning a new language, you have to attach feeling to the word. Also when people are learning a new language they have to practice using the words to help them get comfortable with it and help them with pronouncing them. Also help feeling and hearing the word coming out their mouth. When recording and editing a podcast, its gives the students an opportunity to see their voices, read the sounds and manipulate the sequence of sentences. I think this is a very helpful tool in learning a different language. If it is really helping young children learn how to speak a different language, why not make it something to use in all grade levels? I would really enjoy using a podcast to help me learn words from a different language. It's amazing how each student recorded a sentence and how they all had to put it in order. This was a great way for helping students learn about writing a script, listening, comprehension, collaboration, speaking skills, and fluency in the target language.
Video

Project #5 Presentation

Blog 3

Peer Editing

According to the three videos on peer editing, I learned that peer means someone in your own age group and editing means making suggestions, commenting, complimenting and changes to writing. There are three important steps for peer editing, compliments, suggestions, and corrections. When commenting on someone's writing you have to stay positive, for compliments, tell the writer what you like about their material. For example, I really like your topic or I think you used a lot of good details.
You should always stay positive when making suggestions also. Make suggestions about word choice, sentences, grammar and spelling mistakes.

According to the TOP 10 Mistakes link, if you see incorrect spelling, tell the writer where and what was spelled wrong and the correct way to spell it. In addition, try and stay on topic when peer reviewing someone's paper. The writer should also not take the feedback personally.







Peer Editing
Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial
Editing Tutorial
Writing Peer Reviews TOP 10 Mistakes
Top 10 Mistakes

Technology in Special Education
This video Technology in Special Education shows how important technology is in normal classrooms and special needs classrooms. It shows how computers are an asset to the special needs students. According to this video, special need students are capable with certain technologies to help them.
They should also receive the same amount of education as any other student. In the video the teacher explains how she has changed her classroom and how she changed her teaching due to computers. They students really like using the computers because they believe that they are helping them.

How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism
In this video Academics For Autism it shows a child with autism and how he uses an ipad with his parents to help him with his academic skills. There is a app called "First Words Feelings" that I would use to help my students. This app allows students to understand different feelings and emotions. It also helps them with their alphabets and learning how to spell. I think this app will help because the student can learn about their emotions and feelings, know what they mean, how to spell it and how to apply it to life. It just like playing a game that I know they will really enjoy.

Harness Your Student's Digital Smarts
In this video Digital Smarts talks about a teacher who turns away from what a traditional class is, which mean standing in front of a classroom lecturing, and try something new. She talks about her accomplishments and you will understand that she loves what she is doing. She explains how you must teach students how to be comfortable with any type of technology and she also states that "Students should be thinkers".
She explains how students should interact with other students their own ages from all around the world. It's amazing to me how technology can bring such a diverse group of people together. Technology in this world today is such a powerful tool and it has a major impact on our lives

C4T Comment

Taking Pictures of Strangers (comment 1)
I think that it takes a lot of courage to take pictures of people you have no connection with. I like how you gave a detailed description of the man playing the guitar and how you figure that he is telling a story through his music. The three hour digital photography workshop was worth going to because I really love the picture you took of the guitar player.
What made you want to become a photographer? That picture you took at the wedding was nice. I do hope that you'll get the chance to find that couple and share with them that wonderful picture. I like how you used this as a learning experience about taking chances and advantages of the moments that you get.
Tony Baldasaro story

(Comment 2)
Get to Work

In this article  Get to Work by Tony Baldasaro he is talking about how teachers give their students homework assignments and how they are to spend 60-90 minutes each night doing that assignment. But when he did virtual school, you could work at your own paces and the assignment didn't really have to be done at "home". With it being virtual school the students feel like it's just work but not homework.


What do you want to CREATE today?
Wesley frying is creating a new website and book called "Mapping Media to the Curriculum, where he is renaming and redrawing the products and calling it "No-Editing Podcast". Changing the navigational menu will allow visitors to browser any of the twelve products using a drop down menu instead of going back to the homepage.
Article

Wordle Project

Blog 2 Did You Know?

Did You Know? 
In the video "Did You Know?" by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, they are stating that technique is very important. In the future mostly everything you do will have to be done using your phone, TV, or computer. He states that "India has more honor kids and America has kids".
They also states that, "We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist..." I agree about student learning material that's not going to be helpful in the future. For example, with me becoming a Elementary teacher, they are making us learn formulas and information that you will not use to teach elementary children. Technology changes every year, information change, and new things are being invented, which fall into him saying "In order to solve problems, we don't even know are problems yet". His main point  is everyone is using the internet to do things.
Video
Mr. Winkle Wake
In this video Mr. Winkle is from a time where everyone did not use machines for everything. He is saying that  he is not used to computers doing things like printing out pictures and businesses communicating over the internet. Mr. Winkle is realizing that this is a different time in life and things are changing over time. When he visit the hospital he noticed that some things have changed. People being kept alive on breathing machines was a big surprised to him.
But something does look familiar to him when he walk inside of the school. He saw that teacher were actually standing up in front of the classroom lecturing the class while the students take notes. Today society, everything is being taught on computers.
Mr. Winkle Video
Important of Creativity
According to Ken Robinson, everyone has a interesting education. Children who graduate in 2006 will retire in 2065 but nobody has a clue. Creativity is very important in education. Robinson tells a story about a little girl who was in class drawing a picture and the teacher asked the girl what was she drawing. The girl answered, "A picture of God". The teacher said that nobody knows what God looks like and the little girl said they will in a minute. I believe that creativity goes along way and if you believe that you can do it, then you will succeed. Robinson uses comedy as a way to get his audience attention about education. He uses jokes as a attention grabber to get his point across. Children will take chances and are not afraid to be wrong. Robinson states that, "You don't grow into creativity, you grow out of it".
He also talks about William Shakespeare. He makes a comparison about how math and dancing are important but some people don't treat dancing like it is. Our education is based on academics. Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He also states that there are three kinds of intelligence, diverse, dynamics, and distinct. Robinson tells a story about a girl who couldn't stay still and people thought that she was sick. They discovered that she was not sick but she was a dancer and she had to move around in order to think. The task is to educated their whole being.
Ken Robinson
A Day Made of Glass 2
In this video it's showing how everything is made out of glass and touchscreen. The author is implying that technique is a huge deal. In the beginning of this video they show a girl waking up and using a glass touchscreen device to pick out what she is going to wear. When it is time for them to go to car, they can change the color of the dashboard in the car with just an device.
The device that they use is like a mini glass thin computer, something like a nook or kindle. They use this device in class and instead of the teacher writing on the board, the board is made of this glass touchscreen device. They use this device as a teaching method, helping students mix colors together with just one touch. I think the author is trying to make a point that everything in this whole will be computerize and easy to use with one touch. He wants you to imagine what it would be like if everything was touchscreen and easy to operate. I thought the idea of having everything being touchscreen was cool but it will take some time getting use too. Mr. Winkle would really have a hard time adjusting the this new device on the count that he didn't like the way things were operating by machines.
Glass Device
Glass Google