Blog Assignment #15 Final Reflection

My Future Classroom


My major is secondary education English, and when I do become a teacher, I hope to be teaching 11th or 12th grade English/Literature. I have wanted to be an English teacher ever since I was in high school because I had several amazing English teachers all throughout my time in school who really inspired me and prepared me for the English courses I would be taking in college. Therefore, when I visualize myself as being a teacher, I see myself as being as inspirational to my students as my past teachers were to me.

In my future classroom, my main goal is to not be a burp-back educator. I do NOT want my students to only memorize the information that is on the test and forget it the next day. That is not learning, and as a teacher, you are suppose to get your students to learn-not memorize. Teachers who use the burp-back method of teaching are just lazy, and in the future I will strive to never become a lazy teacher. I will do whatever I can to get my students to retain the information that they need to know, and I will make sure that I have done everything I can to get them ready for college.

I also want to give my students an advantage by providing my students with every technological tool that they can learn to use in order to prepare themselves for when they go to college or get a job. The world is changing because of technology, and the only way to become a successful teacher is to change with it. That is the only way that the students will be prepared for the real world. Using these technological tools will also spark the interest of my students.

Some of the the tools that I will use in my future classroom will be blogs, twitter, Google docs, and maybe one day the new technology we learned about through blog post #14 called CourseSmart. Using a blog will be very resourceful for me as an English teacher. I plan to give reading assignments and get the students to give responses and summaries on their blogs for their classmates to comment on. I also want to use blogs in order to create an audience from all over the world for my students. I would use twitter in the classroom by getting the students to create their own educational twitter name, and during class discussion, they could ask questions or make comments from there. This is also a great way for the students to keep track of the discussion and take notes. I would use the CourseSmart technology to make sure that my students are reading the materials they need to.

Compared to my 1st blog post, my outlook on using technology in the classroom has changed drastically. At the beginning of this semester I thought that none of the stuff we were learning in this class was important, and that I would never use it. However, now I understand how important it is to introduce my students to the new uses of technology. Before I took this class, I would have punished my students for using their phones or computers, but now I will encourage it. In my class, I will have all of my students using iPad of laptops almost every day.

Final Reflection

Project # 13 Collaborative Tools Report

Jarrod Roberts, Ciara Deese, Nikki Rae Mooney, and I are in the group 3 Ladies and a Guy. For project #15 we collaborated together by using Google Docs and FaceTime. With these tools we were able to share ideas with each other throughout the week and work on what we wanted to do with our video of EDM 310 MythBusters without even having to meet. Google Docs allowed us to create an outline on what we were going to film and the steps each one of us were going to take during the process of filming. Google Docs was very useful because we could jot down the ideas we had for the video on there, and it shared them with everyone, and it also let everyone give feedback on each idea. FaceTime was also very helpful because it allowed us to talk face to face and practice how we would act out our characters for the video. Both of these tools helped us prepare for our project, and they made it easier for our group to communicate when were not together.

C4K April

Comment #1 Erika
Erika askes if we have ever had a snow day. I told her that I was form south Alabama, and we never get snow days here because it hardly ever gets cold enough. I said that in my life, I have only seen the snow stick to the ground 2 times, and that everyone in Alabama always gets very excited when it does!

Comment #2 Connor
In Connor's blog post, he explained what activities he did over his break. He said that he jumped on his trampoline, roller skated, played with Beyblades, and went to an amusment park. I told him that I also liked to jump on the trampoline and roller skate all the time when I was younger.

Final Report on PLN

During my time in EDM 310 I have found several resourses to add to my PLN. My absolute favorite think I have added is Symbaloo! I use it everyday! I also have found out that using Google Docs is very helpful. For my PLN I have also added several educators who share their knowledge of teaching with technology with me via Twitter and Pinterest and blogs that I follow. To become a successful teacher, I think that it is important to expand your connections to reach other educators throughout the would, so I will continue to keep building my PLN.

Group Final Project #16

EDM 310 Mythbusters

Blog Assignment #14

Teacher Knows if You’ve Done the E-Reading


This post explains about the new technology called CourseSmart that allows teachers to see if and how often that their students are reading their assignments. CourseSmart is already altering the way that teachers present material, how students are responding to it. This software enables the teacher to determine if the student is actually leaning the material or just memorizing it the night before a test by checking how many times, if any, that the students open their books.
As a future teacher, I think that this new technology is a great way to monitor the student's work ethic. This lets teacher know which students need extra help when they are struggling or if they are just being lazy and not reading the assignment. This also helps the teacher know if his/her student is actually learning from their readings, or if they are only memorizing the main points. I think that this will benefit both the teacher and the students in the future.
As a student, I think that knowing that the teacher can see if I am actually reading the assignment will inspire me to do my homework. This holds each student accountable for their reading homework, and I can bet that more students will begin reading if schools used CourseSmart in their classrooms. Also, I would feel like I had to pay more attention to may readings and take better notes if my teachers were monitoring my homework. I may not like it because I would not be able to skim by anymore, but in the long run, using CoursSmart would benefit me as a learner.

If I could talk to the teacher that this post is referring to, I would ask him/her the following questions.
*Could you see a change in the student's work ethic after using CourseSmart?
*Does it increase the work load for you as a teacher by using CourseSmart?
*Do you use the information you receive with CourseSmart when you give the students participation grades?

If I could interview the students in this class, I would ask them the following questions.
*Do you like your class using CourseSmart?
*Do you think that it benefits you as a student?
*Do you consider this new technology an invasion of privacy?

A comment I would leave for this blog post would be...
Thank you for sharing this information on CourseSmart. I think that this new technology is a great idea, and it will benefit the students as well as the teachers. I also believe that using CourseSmart in the classroom will improve the number of students reading their homework each night, and also improve their quality or reading and taking notes because they will know that their teacher is monitoring them.

C4T #4 Summary

Jarrod Robinson blog Mr. Robo-The PE Geek

Comment #1. The 14 Day Twitter Challenge for PE Teachers. This post is about a challenge that Mr. Robinson has to encourage teachers to begin using Twitter. He wants everyone to understand the benefits of creating these powerful connections and to have a platform of professional learning through Twitter. I said that I thought that the 14 day challenge was a great way for introducing teachers to Twitter. I also stated how I really liked the way he breaks it down into simple steps, because I remembered when I first started using twitter that I was lost.


Comment #2. Zite – My Personalised Professional Learning Tool. This post is about an app called Zite. It is almost like an electronic personal newspaper that gives you popular news from all over the world in your favorite subjects. The more you use it, the app leans the type stories that the reader prefers and gathers more like it. Also, if the reader can share a story that he/she likes with their facebook or Twitter. I said that I though this was a great app for everyone to use. It allows the user to find stories that they like, and enables them to share it with the world.

Project # 15 Smart Board Group Project

Progress Report On Final Project # 16

Nikki Rae Mooney, Jarrod Roberts, Ciara Deese, and I are in the group 3 Ladies and a Guy. We met on Wednesday, April 17 where we began filming our video "Mythbusters EDM 310 Edition". We have planned out what each individual is suppose to do in order to complete our project, and we are going to meet again on Tuesday and Wednesday to finish it.

Blog Assignment #13

In Brian Crosby's video Back To the Future, he tells about a class that he teaches that has students who are "at risk." He explains some of the troubles that they go through ,and he does not understand why there is such a disconnect with these students. They are so behind that he worries that their lack of creativity and imagination may cause them to lose their passion. Mr Crosby finds ways to reach these kids by making learning fun for them. He incorporates technology into the classroom by providing all the students with laptops to create blogs, and he also conducts several projects that the students are able to take part in. This type of hands-on learning peeks the students interest and inspires these students to take a more active role in school. He gets the students to explain what they learn on their blogs, and this replaces the standard multiple choice tests. By using blogs, they realize that people from around the world actually read their posts, and this provides motivation to strive to be better. Mr. Crosby does not only stops there. He skypes other teachers and classrooms around the world to help them learn how to do some of the same projects as his class. The students benefit from this type of learning because they are now connected and collaborate with people from all around the world when they were not even connected and with their own neighborhood before.



Mr. Paul Anderson's video,Blended Learning Cycle, explains his new idea of a blended learning cycle. He takes the compelling parts of online, mobile, and classroom learning and blends them together in the classroom, and he then adds in the five "E's" of the learning cycle:explore, explain, expand, engage, and evaluate. He goes on to explain his idea by breaking his blended learning cycle down into six different parts. To start off, he askes a good question that will get the students interested, and then he lets the students investigate and explore. Then, he likes to incorporate a video for the students to watch instead of only giving a lecture, and he also begins elaborating on all of the other important factors that the students need to learn that deal with the question he has asked. Finally, he reviews all of the information with each student, and if he/she can explain what they have learned, he gives them a test.
I think that Mr. Anderson's blended learning cycle idea could be very beneficial to students. It gets the students more interested and involved in what they are learning. I like how he is very hands-on and makes sure that each student actually understands the subject matter before letting them move on to the next thing. This forces the students to actually learn the material instead of memorizing the information just for a test.

Blog Assignment #12

I think a good idea for a blog assignment would be to actually get the studnets to give an example of an assignment that they would give their future studnets using a blog. This will make students have to think ahead and visualize themselves in their future teaching environment using technology, and it would benifite each of the different types of teachers-English,Math,Social Studies,ect. Because I am going to be a high school English teacher, an example of my directions would be:
Blog Post #1
Think about when you one day become a teacher. How will you use technology in your classroom? For this blog post focus on the subject that you will teach, and create your own blog assignment that you could get your students to do in your future classroom. Make it as authentic as possible so it can actually be a lesson that you may one day use. Tell what grade level and subject the assignment will be for. Give spacific and clear directions, and try to make the diffculty match the grade level.


My Future Blog Assignment for 12th Grade English
Finish reading the novel Of Mice and Men.In a paragraph describe the setting of the book. Find a picture that you think best visualy describes the setting and add it to your blog.
Next, you and the others in your group will get together and video yourselves acting out a part of the book. The video must be at least two minutes long. Then you need to upload the video to youtube and embed it into your blog post.
The final requirment is to write two paragraphs about how you wish the book would have ended;however, if you are satisfied with the way it ended, write two paragraphs explaining why you liked it ending that way.

Blog Post 11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class
Ms. Cassidy is a true pioneer when it comes to using technology in the classroom. She began teaching her student by using technology over 10 years ago during a time when nobody else was doing it. She was one of the only teachers at her school to begin using technology, and she did not let everyone's negative opinions stop her. She should be an inspiration to other teachers who are too scared about if their piers will disapprove.
Regardless of the fact that she only teaches 1st graders, Ms. Cassidy still gets them to understand how to use blogs,wikis, and all kinds of new technology. She is a firm believer that teaching by using technology is the only way to keep the students up to speed with our ever-changing world, and give them a head start above students who do not get the privilege of using technology in the classroom.
In the future when I become a teacher, I would like to use several of the technological teaching tools that Ms. Cassidy uses. The main one I will focus on using is blogs. I think a blog is the perfect tool to us in a high-school English class. My students can give their feedback on the books or poems that I assign to them, and I could even give them a creative writing assignment for them to post. The options are limitless! I think that using blogs in the classroom will benefit the students also because they will be more interested in the assignment and also get to show their creativity.
One of the main problems that I think I will face is the students cheating. Technology makes it easier and easier for students to cheat because the information is always just a click away. I liked how Ms. Cassidy explained the issue of cheating. She said that teacher just need to realize that information is everywhere now, and we need to just look at it as a collaboration. The student may base his or her ideas off of things they find on the internet, but the teacher needs to focus on making them build off of that found knowledge and creating it to be their own.

C4T #3

Dylan Blain

First Comment
In his first blog post he says that where he is working, the faculty is starting to use iPads to share videos of the lessons and sharing it with other members of the staff. He is a PE teacher, and he likes how it is easy to share different ideas he has for exercises with others. I told him that I am going to school to be a teacher and to coach volleyball or softball, and that I think that the idea of using iPads to share video footage with others on the staff is a great! It shows how technology can make being an educator so much easier.

Second Comment
In his second post, he says that using research informed ideas within his teaching has always been something he has tried to do, but it is difficult because he is a PE teacher, and his field often gets overlooked. He then gives a free option of finding research informed ideas about PE. I said that I agree with him and think that using research informed ideas while teaching is the best way to keep up with the best techniques, and that I will also do this when I become a teacher and a coach.

C4K March

Harper.
In Harper blog post she talkes about her mom, and how sweet she is to her.She also tells how she does not want to move out of her grandmothers house and move schools. I told her that I liked her post, and that she seemed to be very smart because she spelled all of her words correctly and did not have any run-on sentences.

Blake
The next comment I left was for Blake. He is from a small town and likes to hunt, fish, and play sports. In his post, he explains that he thinks blogging is a good tool to use in the classroom because it allows you to communicate with others from all over the world. I told him that he reminded me a lot of myself because I am also from a small town where hunting, fishing, and sports were the main things to do. I also told him that I just learned how to use a blog in my class EDM 310, and that I also think that a blog is a great way to communicate with people from all over the world and learn from what they have to offer.


Izzy
Izzy's post is a book review on the book Divergent. She says that she is not as brave as the character in the book. I told her that I was already thinking about reading this book because a lot of my friends have said that it was really good, and her comments on the book have made me want to read it even more.

Tyler
Tyler's post is about how Larry and Tracy, two people who have autism, came to his school and answered several of the students questions after they watched the movie based on the story of their life- Wretches and Jabbers. I told him that I thought it was great that Larry and Tracy actually came to his school and answered questions for them, and that it was an amazing experience because they can see what its like when a person has autism.

The group Sour Power
This blog post is about a man named Philip Gans who was captured and tortured in the Holocaust. I told him that it was a very informative post, but they needed to watch out for run-on sentences next time.

Blog Assignment #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga.


This is a cartoon that John Spencer posted on his blog. At first I did not understand it, but once I thought about it for a while, I figured out that it was mocking the "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" commercial. I have a PC, and I like it alright. It was way cheaper than a Mac, and I can do almost everything I need to on it, but I do understand why a Mac would be a better choice. In the future when my PC does eventually mess up, I am going to look into buying a Mac.


Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?
This blog post is also from John Spencer. It tells about a teacher who is getting in trouble by his principal because he was letting his students play a game. The principal would not even let the teacher explain his reasoning because he was convinced that there was no way that the students could "memorize" what they needed to by a game. The crazy thing is that the students were getting excited and actually LEARNING the material through playing, in comparison to only memorizing the material for only a short period of time-like the principal would rather have.

Another post by John Spencer is Remember Pencil Quests?. I liked this one because he tells about a time when a teacher got him excited about learning through trying something a little different than normal. He then creates the comparison between this experience of when he was a student, to his students now that get excited about using technology in the classroom and with their project they create. He says that looking back on this memory of when he was a student, he realizes that was only the start, and he wonders when his students grow up and look back, how much things will have changed for them.

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?
Dr. Scott McLeod is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology. In his blog post Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? he uses satire to show his belief in using technology in the classroom. I agree with Dr. McLeod that technology will benefit students learning, and all teachers should incorporate technology in their teaching because in the future they will be a step ahead.

Project #14 Smartboard Instruction Part 1

Project # 11 Short Green Screen Movie

Project #12 Video Trailer

Where The Wild Things Are

Blog Assignment #9

Mr. Joe McClung
I really like this blog assignment because soon we are going to be starting off our new teaching careers, and by following Mr. McClung, we can see what it was like for him as he went through his fist couple of years of teaching and take his advice. This is just another example of how using a blog is a great way to share ones knowledge and experiences with others. When I become a teacher, I am also going to create a post at the end of each school year to share what I learned. This way other teachers who are just starting off can benefit from the things I learned while I was teaching, and they will be better prepared when they become teachers as well.

May 27, 2009 What I've Learned This Year (2008-09)

After Mr. McClung's first year of teaching, he shared what he learned in this blog post. One of my favorite pieces advice that he gave was to always focus on the students comprehension of what you teach instead of worrying about what your superiors think. The most important thing is to make sure that you do not lose touch with your audience-the students. Another great tip he gives is to be flexible. Things are not always going to go the way you plan, and the best thing to do is not get angry and just work with the situation that you are in. He says that, "NO LESSON IS EVER PERFECT. THE LESSON YOU TEACH AND THE ONE YOU PLAN ARE ALWAYS DIFFERENT". Mr. McClung also says to not be afraid of technology. Because I am in EDM 310, I don't think I will have a problem with this one! However, I think this is good advice for teachers who have already been teaching for several years. For example, my mom has been teaching high school for over 30 years, and she really is an excellent English teacher, but she has never used technology in her classroom because she did not know how. Now that I am in EDM 310 and learning all of these new ways to use technology while teaching, I go home and tell her about what I have learned. Even though she has been teaching the same way all of her life, she gets excited when I tell her these new ways to use technology in the classroom, and she is now getting me to teach her how to make a blog so she can use it in her class next year! That was fun for me to see that even older teachers are now catching on to using technology.

Version 4 Post (2011-2012)
After Mr. McClung's fourth year of teaching, he left this blog post explaining all the things he had learned in the that year. He said that he realized that he did not learn much from his fourth year, so instead of leaving a lengthy post, he would concentrate on two main points. The first point was "You Gotta Dance With Who You Came to the Dance With." This means that as a teacher you should not worry about what your peers think about you as an educator. You did not become a teacher to impress them, but to reach students and touch their lives in the best way that you can. His next point is to "Challenge Yourself." He explains that it is not good to get complacent and use the same lesson plans year after year. This will only make the subject you are teaching boring, and your students lose interest. Instead, you need to challenge yourself as a teacher to improve with each year, because there is always new and better ways to reach students and make learning fun, and you will never find them if you become a lazy teacher.

Blog Assignment #8

This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2

Richard Miller's videos are about how communication and writing are changing. He states that he believes that we are living in the time of the greatest change for communication in human history. I believe that he is 100% correct! Technology is changing everything about the way we write and communicate with each other. It is now possible to not only talk to but visually see a person that is on the other side of the world with just a click of a button. This advance in technology has also been introduced to the way we write.

One of the great improvements that have come from technology is that now instead of just writing a standard essay, one can incorporate visuals and audio. I feel like this would make their information they are trying to present way more exciting. Using audio and a visual aspect could really make the presentation come to life-compared to a standard essay. This really excites me because this is something new that I could use when I become an English teacher. Instead of getting my students to write a standard research paper every time, I could get them to create a multi-media project that includes video and audio that go along with their research. I feel like this would also get the students more interested in what I am trying to teach them, because it is not just writing but visually showing what they learn as well.

Another change that Mr. Miller talks about is how we no longer have to go to the library to do research, but now we can be anywhere and just use our laptops. Also, It is now possible to collaborate with others without ever meeting with each other. This would also be a very good project I could give my future students. I could get them to do a group project and only let them communicate with each other using Skype or Facetime. When I become a teacher, I feel like I will be able to write multi-media papers because of this class, and if I don't know how at first, then this class has also taught me that I am capable to teach myself. I also think that my students will be more than able to write multi-media papers.

All of the new changes that technology has provided for us truly gives our generation an advantage over all the generations of the past combined. Creating multi-media presentations and getting to publish ones work over the internet creates a faster way to get information out. Things that would normally take two years to get out now only takes months or even weeks. The use of Youtube, Google, ect. takes away limits and restrictions that past generations had to deal with, and they provide an opportunity to get ones ideas out into the world very quickly.

Blog Post #12 by Carly Pugh
Carly Pugh did an awesome job on her blog post #12! She really went into great depth with her research. Her post greatly resembles an assignment that Mr. Strange would create himself. I believe one of the reasons I thought it was so interesting is because she added so many video references. This goes back to Mr. Miller's thoughts about using multi-media in ones writing.

The Chipper Series And EDM310 for Dummies

These were two very funny but informative videos. They both show the struggles that students go through when they are in EDM 310, and they both explain ways to help students. In The Chipper Series, it shows a student who has the same attitude that several students who take this class have. Chipper tries to get by with doing the least amount possible, and it never works out for her. All she ends up doing is wasting her time. This is a good lesson for everyone who takes EDM 310 because if you are not going to do your best, then you might as well not do it. In the video EDM 310 for Dummies, it shows how most of the students who start out in EDM 310 feel. Students who are just starting off in this class will most likely feel overwhelmed, but this video gives students a way to help themselves by getting the book EDM 310 for Dummies.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
This video shows how much schools are behind compared to other industries because we have not yet incorporated technology in our classrooms. The men and women in this video are very concerned with getting technology into schools. This is not something that can magically happen overnight, but there are several schools that are slowly making the change.
One of the points that they made in the video is that standardized testing is not going to help students once they get into the real world. They say that teachers should focus on the students creativity and ability to work together in groups. I agree that this would help better prepare students for their jobs that they will have the rest of their lives.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0
1. The tool I found for videos is called PhotoPeach.com. It takes any pictures you want and puts them into a slide show. I created an example and put all of the pictures that I have had in my past blog posts.
BlogPost Pictures on PhotoPeach
2. The tool I found to create a poll is called www.polleverywhere.com. Its very easy and fast. 3. The tool I used to make my comic was www.readwritethink.org. This is my comic I created.

C4T #3 and #4

DAVID WEES Thoughts from a 21st century educator.
Over Coaching
The first blog post that I commented on for Mr. Wees focused on teachers over coaching their students. He felt like teachers "baby" students too much. For example, he thought that telling students what page of the book that certain problems were on and answering students questions were too much help.I commented that I also felt like it was important for teacher not to over coach their students, but that I would probably not use all of he suggestions in my future classroom. I said that not telling students where they could find the problems that they need to work on in the book could be discouraging for most students, and that would give them another reason not do their work. I also felt like not telling them where the correct problems were in the book would be a waste of time for the student because they could use that time to actually be working on the problems. The books are so big, and to have to search to find the one page you need is too much.

Rethinking Our Anti-Bullying Efforts
The second blog post that I commented on for Mr. Weese was on trying to prevent bullying in our schools. He says that if at the end of a day a student still feels lonely or isolated, then we have failed as an institution. I said that I agreed that teachers should get to know their students and strive to make the school more like a community. Also, I agreed that teachers should teach empathy and compassion to students, and I believe that the only way to do this is to lead by example. He also shared a video on bullying that was very interesting.

Project #8 Podcast

Lighting Their Fires By: Rafe Esquith
Pregame Show, 6th Inning, and Postgame Show

Blog Assignment #7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

I thought that Randy Pausch’s lecture was very inspiring, not only for making me want to become a better teacher, but on how I live my life. The lecture was very motivating, and I think that everyone should watch it. One of my favorite parts is when he talks about brick walls. He says that brick walls-or obstacles preventing us from achieving what we want- are their for us to show our dedication and to weed out the ones who are not willing to do what it takes to achieve their goal. This is a great analogy for life, and it is perfect to share with students in order to motivate them to accomplish their dreams.
Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and he began a new class that focused on building virtual worlds. This class quickly became a huge success, and many people would come to see the class give their presentations. I think that this would be an awesome class to take at the college level. The way he designed the class, the students would be placed into randomly chosen teams to create a project, and they would have two weeks to do it. After the two weeks were up, he would shuffle the group, and the students would begin to work on creating a different project with their new group. I think that shuffling the groups like this is a good way to create a classroom community. It also helps with communication between students. I really like how he gave his students peer evaluations. This way each student can see how well they work with others in groups and know if they need to improve, and like he says,"The best gift an education can give is to get someone to become self-reflective."
Another think that Randy Pausch believed in was project-based learning, and he did not like teaching from books. This reminded me a lot about EDM 310. So instead of having tests, all they had were five projects to do. I really liked the part where his students did way better than he ever thought possible on the first project, but even though he was amazed by what they were able to create, he told them that they still could have been better. I thought this was amazing, because as teachers, we do not need to set a goal for our students and then become complacent when they reach it, but instead we need to keep raising the bar higher and push them as far as they can go. It is the teacher’ job to continue to inspire the students and not let them settle.

Randy Pausch also talks about his program Alice that is a novel way to teach computer programming. I think that this would be a lot of fun to use in my classroom. Since I am going to be either an English or a history teacher, I could get the students to recreate the scenery of a novel that I have them read, or they could create how they thought it might look during a different time period of history. The great thing about using Alice is that the students are actually having fun while learning, because they think that they are using computer software to tell a story or build a vision with their minds.

Project #9 - Personal Learning Network

As soon as I watched A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment, I could not wait to try out Symbaloo! I downloaded it immediately and began to work on my PLN. Symbaloo is the perfect tool to get started on ones PLN. It helps keep all of my websites that I use organized, and it is so easy to travel from one website to the next quickly. I can put links on Symbaloo of teachers blogs that let me access them with just one click, and at the same time, I can also pull up Twitter or Google to search for other ways to expand my PLN. I now use Symbaloo everyday! In Steven Anderson's Building Your PLN - A Primer for Anyone, I really liked the way he explains the uses of a PLN and how it is a way to make connections with teachers throughout the would. My favorite part is when he mentions that he doesn't have to know everything, because he has a network of thousands of educators to ask questions with, and they are there to help find the answers.

C4K Summary For February

Trang Nguyen
My first comment I left was for Trang Nguyen. He is a 13 year old boy from Vietnam. He explained how he visited the United States when he was nine years old, and he also tells about what his favorite activities. When I commented on his post I shared some information about myself, and i also told him to watch out for run-on sentences, but that his post was very informative.

Makayla
Makayla was the second student that I left a comment for. She is in the fourth grade, and she told about how her teachers inspired her to become a better reader by having a ”Reading Like a Rock Star” assembly. I told her that I was very impressed that her teachers were willing to go the extra mile to get their students excited about reading, and that she is very lucky to have teachers that care about their students that much. I said that her teachers also have inspired me to go the extra mile and be the best teacher I can be when I begin teaching.

Night

The third comment I left was for Night. He is a fifth grade student from Auckland, NZ. His post was about a recent trip to the beach that he went on. He had a nice picture with his post, and I told him how much I liked it. I also shared with him that I live near a beach and go there often in the summer.

Project #10

Finding the Right Tool
When I become a teacher, I will most likely be teaching high school English or history. When I was searching for new ways that I could use technology in my classroom, I found a website created by Shelley Vernon that explains multiple ways that teachers can use technology. One of these ways that we have not discussed in EDM 310 is the use of a "Wiki". A wikispace is a site that you can sign in and interact with your students, and they can contribute their knowledge to the site as well. A wiki is different from a blog because it is refreshed every time someone edits is, and instead of getting longer, you only keep the current updates in your project. At www.wikispaces.com a K-12 teacher can create a free space at the moment if the space is public. I could use this tool to create class discussions about a novel we read or on a certain time in history, and I could post links that the whole class could see and comment on.

Blog Assignment #6

The Networked Student
Wendy Drexler’s video The Networked Student is about a new way that students can learn in the 21st century. Instead of a regular class where the students use books, and teachers lecture every day, Wendy Drexler is showing us a completely different style learning. The students only meet three days a week and the rest is done online. Ms. Drexler’s main focus for her class is connectivism by using tools of technology to connect with others.

The teacher encourages the students to take control of their learning and to make new connections with others around the world to strengthen their learning process. The teacher teaches the students the correct way to access and validate information for its creditably. The video explains how the student uses blogs, Google scholar, and podcasts to deliver and receive information.

I can see why this would be a great experience for students to broaden their knowledge of learning, and in some classes I think it is a great idea, but I am more of a hands-on person. I would prefer to be in a class with my teacher, and as a teacher, I would rather be in the class with my students. I feel like it is important to create community in the classroom, and I also think that it is more beneficial for the students if they can interact with their teachers face to face. One of the main reasons why I chose to become a teacher is because I created bonds with certain teachers at my high school, and they inspired me because they truly loved their jobs. These are also some of the reasons that I believe it is important to have a teacher in the classroom. A teacher is there to help guide students and inspire them as well (especially in K-12), and in my opinion a student cannot get that over the internet.

A 7th Grader's PLE

After watching the video A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)I decided to go to Symbaloo and create an account for myself! It is really helpful, and it makes everything more organized. Now all of the websites I use for school of for pleasure are just a click away with Symbaloo. This 7th grader's PLE resembles my PLN from EDM 310. Ours are both growing and becoming more detailed.

Blog Assignment #5

Building My Dream School!

Krissy Venosdale's blog on If I Built A School explains what she would do if someone gave her the opportunity to build her own school however she wanted, and she didn't have to pay anything. She went on the explain how she would create her dream school, and she told about all of the special features that her school would have.
Mrs. Venosdale had many great ideas, but if I could build my own school, I would do things a lot different!
I am from a very small town, and the local high school is old and run-down. The town does not have the money to make changes to the school, and they cannot afford to get smart-boards or anything like that. Therefore, if I had the money to build my dream school, I would build it for my home town. The new school would have plenty of classrooms, and there would be enough money to be able to hire more teacher so the classrooms would not be over-crowded. Each classroom would also be equipped with its own smart-board, and all of the students would be provided with their own Mac-books.There would also be a several different types of classes that students could choose to attend based on their interests. I would build a huge library inside the school, and a huge auditorium for programs and for drama classes. Everything in the school would be brand new, and it would also have an amazing lunchroom with good cooks. Because I am going to become a coach, I would also build all new sports venues that were awesome, and build a new weight-room.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
Jennifer Chamber’s post about the virtual choir was awesome. I did not know that was even possible. None of the singers had ever met with the conductor or the other singers, and everything was done online. It’s amazing to me how they were able to combine all of videos together and make such beautiful music. This shows how much technology has developed!

Teaching in the 21st Century
Kevin Robert’s video on teaching in the 21st century was very interesting. He says that teachers are useless if they only provide students with content, facts, dates, and information then they are obsolete. He says that students can get all of that from Google. He thinks that teachers should focus their curriculum on skills instead of learning facts and content. I am not sure if I agree with him 100%. I think that it is important to incorporate learning the skills of using new technology into the students curriculum, but I also think that as teachers we should be careful to find a balance between the old and the new.

Flipping The Classroom

Flipping the classroom could be a great way to change things up. I think that using this method will benefit students on every learning level. Flipping the classroom also promotes hands-on learning for the students. Katie Gimbar explains the concepts of this method of teaching in her video Why I Flipped My Classroom.
I would consider doing this with my class, but the only problem is that I am going to be an Englins and literature teacher, and I think it will be a lot harder to use if I am teaching literature. Letting the students learn at their own pace and the teacher going from group to group is fine in a math class, but in a literature class, I would have to discuss the readings with the class as a whole. I am not sure how I could apply this method while teaching literature, but I would be willing to try different ways.

C4T Project #3

Teacher Blog Post #1

Beth's Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom Organization is Half the Battle…
On January 13, 2013, Ms. Beth Knittle posted on her blog about the importance of teachers learning how to organize their files on computers where they will be able to find them in the future. The shift from using all paper to mostly using computers is a big change for most of the older teachers, and they will not know how to keep all of their files in order on the computer. I agreed with Ms. Knittle because I feel like the future of educational instruction and filing will all be web-based. I also explained to Ms. Knittle that I felt like new teachers will have an advantage over the older ones because we have been around computers more and have grown up learning how to use them.

Teacher Blog Post #2

Know, Understand, Believe
On January 1, 2013, Ms. Knittle made a post about how people misunderstand the way theories work, and how people do not know the difference between a theory and the fact. She makes the point that one uses reasoning when they make a theory, and just because they guess what may happen in the future, does not mean that they have to believe that it will. I believe that she proves her point! One may believe one thing but still be able to understand the reasoning behind a theory that completely contradicts his or her belief. For example, I am a Christian, and I do not believe in evolution, but I still see how some people may choose to make theories about the evolution process.

Blog Assignment #4

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection
This is a very informational link from Judy Scharf. It explains exactly what a podcast is, and for someone who is new to pod-casting, it is very helpful! Ms. Scharf even provides a link to a video that shows how to create a podcast. She also has several tips for teachers who are going to be teaching their students how to podcast, and she has even created a detailed scheduled that teachers may choose to follow while teaching students about pod-casting. This is a perfect guideline for teachers to use if they are interested in teaching their students how to podcast.

Langwitches - Podcasting With 1st Grade
Another informational link about pod-casting is called Langwitches- podcasting with 1st grade. This link explains how helpful pod-casting can be for the students. Podcasting is a great way to spark the interest of your students! It helps them to become more hands-on, and they learn how to use important skills that they will need in their life like listening, speaking, and presenting. It also creates classroom community, and she tells how even the shy students become more confident.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom
This next link is from Mr. Dale, and he explains the benefits of using podcasting in the classroom. One of the most important reasons why I think podcasting benefits the students is that it provides an opportunity for project based learning. This way of learning forces the students to have to really put themselves out there and learn on their own. Podcasting lets the students be more creative, and it also lets the students be able to share their work with others around the world.

Special Blog Post #1

* Compare population of India, China, and the Unite States.
What is the population of India?
*1.21 billion people
What is the population of the United States?
*309 million people
What is the population of China?
*1.35 billion people


* Compare unemployment rates of India, China, and the United States.
What is the unemployment rate of India?
*4.4%
What is the unemployment rate of the United States?
*9.6%
What is the unemployment rate of China?
*4.3%


* Compare the average life expectancy of people in India, China, and the United States.
What is the average life expectancy of people in India?
*69.9 years
What is the average life expectancy of people in the United States?
*78.1 years
What is the average life expectancy of people in China?
*73.5 years

Wolfram Alpha
The website Wolfram Alpha can be a very helpful tool for students to use. It is a knowledge engine that computes answers and provides knowledge. This website allows the student to type in a question, and it will answer it directly instead of giving a long list of documents or web pages that may have the answer. This can really help students who are trying to research a topic.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count
Gary Hayes has created an amazing app that shows how much technology is growing by the second. His Social Media Count lets one be able to literally view the growth of social media and see how fast it is happening. I was shocked to see how technology has taken over the lives of people in the world.

Because I am going to become a teacher in the near future, I will have to be able to keep up with technology and its changes. This will be a hard task, because my job is to help students become prepared for their future, but technology is changing so fast that everything may be different in five years. However, I will have to keep up the best I can and make sure that my students are provided with all the technological skills possible.

Blog Assignment #3

Peer Editing

Before viewing the video What is Peer Editing? and the slide show Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, I thought I would try to avoid using peer editing as much as I could when I became a teacher. I hated peer editing when I was in high school because I always felt like I was hurting someone's feelings, and I was always nervous when someone else would read my work. I also felt like my teachers would always use peer editing as a sort of embarrassing scare tactic to get the students to do the work. For example,"Tomorrow we will be doing peer editing, and if you don't have your work or if you did a bad job, then the whole class will know." However, now I realize that peer editing can really benefit not only the students but also the teacher as well. When done correctly, peer editing helps create classroom community. The students learn how to interact with each other and how to give and take constructive criticism. Peer editing also saves the teacher a lot of time with helping each student on their work.

This is the first time that I have ever had a teacher focus on teaching the class how to properly peer edit others. Teachers in the past have always expected us to already know how to do it. I believe that getting the students to understand the proper way to peer edit is crucial in order to get positive results. The teacher needs to make sure that the students know to stick to the three main rules-complimenting, suggesting, and correcting.


Assistive Technologies

Before watching Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children, I had never thought about the possibility of having to teach students that are blind or deaf. If I have to in the future, I would be sure to do my best and make all the preparations necessary to give them the best learning environment possible. Children with these disabilities are at a major disadvantage when it comes to being in a classroom trying to learn. Thankfully, technology makes it much easier for these students and their teachers.

Technology is supposed to make everyone's life easier, but sometimes the creators of the new machines forget about the people who are blind or deaf, however the creators of the iPad have not. After watching the video iPad Usage For the Blind , one can see that the iPad is one of the few machines that now have special features for the blind. This is a huge step for someone who is blind, because they have never before been able to use things like the iPad. Another machine that is changing the lives of blind people is The Mountbatten, which helps them learn math. With technology advancing as fast as it is, hopefully new machines will continue to be created to make learning for the deaf and blind much easier.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

The video Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts really proved to me how important using technology in the class room is. I am from a very small town and we do not have the funding that most schools do, and I never thought my school would be able to have all of the computer equipment so I could teach my students using technology. Now, I see that the woman in the video,Vicki Davis, is also from a small town too, and she has started this whole new way of teaching.

Ms. Davis reminds me of the way my teacher, Mr. Strange, likes to treat his students. She does not feel like it is necessary to teach the students everything, but instead let them figure it out on their own. From first hand experience I know that this is a very effective way of teaching, because it forces the student to take action and really try to figure out how to solve their own problems, and once they do that, the student is less likely to forget what they have learned. Even though it is harder on the students, I think that more teachers should use this type of teaching.

Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know

After watching the videos "Did You Know? 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod" and "Did You Know? 3.0 A John Strange 2012 Version" I was blown away by some of the statistics.It is amazing to see just how far technology has come, but it is even more amazing for me to see how fast technology is growing. Just the thought of there being a computer with the same ability as a human brain is jaw-dropping! These videos really opened my eyes to how important it is to learn as much as you can about new and upcoming technology, and as a future teacher, how important it is for me to incorporate as much technology as I can in my teaching style. The world is changing, and people have to keep up--whether they like it or not!

Another major thing that caught my eye in these videos is the fact that the United States is not the powerhouse that I thought it was. According to the videos, India has more honor students that the United States has students all together! Also, China will have more English speaking people than the rest of the world by 2025! These statistics are very scary to me, because like most Americans, I thought that the U.S. was at the top of the chart when it came to intelligence. This shows how far behind we really are, and how much work that teachers have to do in order to help catch the U.S. up with the other countries in the world.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

The My. Winkle Wakes video is about a man who has been asleep for 100 years and he wakes up to find that his whole world has changed. He goes to a tall building, and he sees all of the new technology being used in the world. He does not like all of the technology because it is different from what he has always been use to, and he begins to feel sick. He then goes to a hospital only to find that it is not how he remembered it either because it has also been taken over by the new technology. Finally, he goes to a nearby school. He likes the school because it is exactly how he remembered it.

This modern day re-make of Rip Van Winkle is trying to point out the flaws in the school system. It shows how out of date the learning process is for our schools. Everything in the world is using new technology to better our lives except for the schools. This video shows how far behind the school system is in comparison with the rest of the technological world. The schools are the main places where they should be using technology because that is where children go to learn, and they need to be learning about how to use this new technology to help them with their future. I believe that the school system has realized this problem, and now they have begun to use smart boards, blogs, eBooks and etc.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Ken Robinson's video, The Importance of Creativity, is about how student’s creativity gets taken away from them by going to school. At school, students learn that there is only one way to succeed and everything else is considered a failure, and this leaves no room for their creativity. Kids are so afraid of failure that they are scared to stray away from the standard form of learning that their teachers force them to use-even though not all students are capable of learning the same way as others. This is why teachers need to try to let the students express themselves freely more often in the classroom, and teachers need to encourage students creative thinking.

It really opened my eyes when Mr. Robinson talks about the girl with ADHD or ADD, and that she became famous because her teacher actually noticed her creative ability and gave her good advice instead of just saying that she was incapable of learning like the other students. This made me realize how big of an impact that teachers have on their students, and that it is very important for teachers to make sure we are doing our best to point kids in the right direction.

Pinterest

I think that Pinterest can be a very useful tool for teachers. However,I believe that it would be more helpful for elementary or middle school teachers than high school teachers. Pinterest is an easy way to get new ideas for the classroom, and it is a great tool for organization. I think it would be fun to let my students get a Pinterest, and let them keep a web-journal with some pins they post. Also, I would like for my students to create a Pinterest, and for them to pin some ideas they like, and use their pins as goals they would like to achieve one day, and also make them complete some of their goals. This would be a great way to get to know your students better.

Project #2 Wordle

Blog Assignment #1

About Me
My name is Farrah Marie Deese, and I am 21 years old. I am from a very small town called Chatom, Alabama. I love going hunting and fishing and also going to the beach.I am a huge Alabama fan, and I love to go to football and softball games or watch them on tv with my family. My entire life I have always been involved in sports. In high school I played volleyball, softball, basketball, and I was a cheerleader. After high school, I went to Faulkner State Community College and played volleyball for two years, and then I transfered to USA. I decided to come to South because it was close to home.
My dad is in the military, and he is going to be going over seas in March. I have two brothers, and my younger sister, Ciara Deese, is also in this class with me. I am majoring in secondary education, and I hope to be teaching 11th and 12th grade english or history. My mother and my aunt were both english teachers at my high school, and many people think I chose to become a teacher to follow in their footsteps, but that is not the case. I have always wanted to be a teacher because I think it is the perfect job. I will get to provide kids with knowledge and help them get prepared for college, and I will get to coach softball and volleyball, and I will also get plenty of time to spend with my family.
My Teaching Environment
When I become a teacher I will be very nice but though. The students will respect me, but I also hope to earn their trust. I am going to a be very hands on teacher, and I am going to try and do everything I can in order for my students to be prepared for college.
My students are going to be about 16-18 years old because I hope to be teaching 11th and 12th grade english or history. They will listen to my instruction, and they will have to follow orders. They are going to learn by me teaching them and making sure they understand the material.
The county I am from is very rural, and our schools do not have alot of money. Therefore, our resources for my classroom will not be that great, but we may have smartboards to help teach our students with. My students will mostly be using regular books as their tools to learn.
My classroom is going to have about 30 students in it. I will have the wall painted a good color, and it will not look like a prison wall. I am going to create a safe environment for my classroom that will benefit my students.
Time Management
From watching the Randy Pausch video I learned some key steps in better managing my time. The first fact that I learned is to always have a plan. One should have a plan for everything. I also learned that it is ok to change your plan to better fit your needs, but you first have to have a plan in order to be able to change it. Planning things makes it easier for you to know what you are going to have to do in the future, and it also orginazes one's life and can cut down on one's stress.
Another thing I learned from watching the video is that you should always do your hardest task first. If you go ahead and get the worst part out of the way then you don't have to worry about it anymore, and you will be more eager to finish the rest of your work.

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Test 1

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