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