Smart Board Project #14

Blog Assignment #9

In Mr. McClung’s 4th year self assessment post he said, “I pretty well know how my reputation stands with my students, but this year I have become very concerned with how my peers view me as an educator…” later he explained that he finally realized it didn’t matter how the other teachers viewed him, but it mattered if his students were having fun and learning.

I admire his strong will; not caring what the other educators think of him. As a student I did not care what my teachers thought of other teachers, all that mattered to me was: do I like them, am I learning from them, and are they nice to me and everyone else?

He also talked about how he ended up relying on his old lesson plans and finding himself boring. I could always tell when my teachers were bored with their own subject, and I always wondered if they are bored with it then, why do I need to know this? I want to be sure that I am always interested in what I am teaching my students. I also want to have a fun interactive way to show them how much I enjoy math.

I also chose to read his What I Have Learned this Year (2008-2009) post. I felt that reading his first experiences might help me understand what I should expect, within reason. In the beginning he says, “At the beginning of the school year I felt like I was trying to control things way too much, and I would beat myself up over lessons and activities that did not go well.” He said by the end when things did not go as planned he just went with it with a smile on his face.

He found that communication was a big deal in his first year. He says it is very difficult to communicate and to try to build relationships with fellow teachers. The next thing he pointed out is to be reasonable. Many teachers hold their students to a higher standard than the students do themselves. Do not be too hard on them when they do not meet your expectations. “Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again.”

Another thing he pointed out is to listen to your students. Take interest in the life of your students. One day you might see them all grown up. You may have been the one who changed their life, or you may be the one who put the fire of a certain subject in their heart. Unfortunately I will not see the teacher who did so for me, but I believe he is looking down on me as I come closer to my goal.

Lastly Mr. McClung says Never stop learning. You can always have a different outlook on things that you used to feel so strongly about, or you can change your style of learning or even teaching. There are always more things to learn. Do not stop soaking in the information around you. We expect children to continually do so, why should we stop?

Project #12 - Book Trailer

Project #10 - My PLN

I have created my PLN. It is still a work in progress, but I can already tell this is going to be a very useful tool I learn how to use. I looked at using iGoogle as my PLN tool, but the first thing I saw was that it would no longer be available after November 2013. So, instead I decided to use Symbaloo. It is pretty neat! I like that I can add all of these gadgets, and I can click on them and go right to the site. I don't have to type it in or look for it elsewhere. As of right now, I only have personal items and items I have used for this class. Before too long I will also add people to my PLN.

Blog Assignment #8

This is How We Dream

In Richard E. Miller’s This is How We Dream Part 1 and Part 2 Mr. Miller emphasizes how important it is for technology to be incorporated in the classroom. There are many tools available today to use that can enhance the learning experience. I wish he had gone more into depth about it because I am still having a hard time seeing how it will work. I understand using technology is important, and I understand that students need to learn how to use it the right way. However, I do not think everything should be done by technology.

I still think it is very important for a student to be able go pick out a book and use it as a source. You cannot always guarantee that the information you are getting from the web is creditable.

Carly

Since I know Carly Pugh on a personal level, her indecisiveness did not surprise me! She is a very upbeat person, and she always has an idea. She was given the task of creating her own assignment and she went far beyond what Dr. Strange thought she might do. She wanted them to make a YouTube playlist that covered 10 things. I thought it was neat because YouTube videos can be useful when used effectively. You can also learn from them a lot faster if you are anything like me. When I'm reading, I tend to lose my train of thought and forget what I'm reading.

EDM310 is Different

In the Chipper Series, Chipper thinks it is okay to do her work whenever she wants to and at her own pace. So she opens her own school where people can do their work as fast as they want or how slow. Well, the problem with this is that you can’t learn this way. You need structure, due dates, and a set time to complete things. Some people would get it done in just a few weeks like the girl she brought in the talk to Dr. Strange, but most people would never finish.

In EDM310 for Dummies, I cracked up. This video is so funny but true. At the beginning the girls are so frustrated with what to do. Then it shows the book EDM310 for dummies. It has tutorials for the different things we use in EDM310. If there were actually a book like this, I probably would have bought it.

I would like to create a video that actually describes a lot of what we are doing. There was so much to read and go through when we first came into this class that I felt so overwhelmed. I went through the entire instruction manual after the first day of class. I read everything and went to all of the videos suggested (not the ones for assignments.) It took 4 hours just to do that. Then later Dr. Strange was talking about C4C, C4K, and C4T and I was just like “C4WHAT?” So, I think an Introduction to EDM310 video would be awesome! I would define the acronyms Dr. Strange uses, quick tutorials on blogger, Prezi, Timeline, iMovie for sure, and a few others.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

In this video, there are several people talking about how schools should change. They talk about what, in their opinion, is working and what is not. I agree with the fact that schools need to be more up to date, as far as having books for all of their students, and they should at least have a library with computers. There are schools that cannot even afford books for everyone let alone computers. Do I think computers need to be at every student’s desk? No, I do not. However, that is basically what the people in this video want. They want children to not only learn from school but from the Internet and from other places. I completely agree that students should learn from everywhere possible, but I do not believe pushing technology down their throats is going to be good for anyone. There needs to be some fundamental things children need to learn about the Internet and other resources before they are allowed to explore them.

Scavenger Hunt!

Prezi is a fun and useful tool for presentations and more. They have a special deal for students and teachers! Their normal “Enjoy” package is $4.92 a month. That is about $59 a year. For students and teachers it is free! Their normal priced “Pro” package is $13.25. That is about $159 a year. For students and teachers it is only $4.92! By being a teacher or student you can save $100 a year on the “Pro” package for Prezi. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Make believe comics let you make your own comics!

Edmodo is a social networking site for teachers and students. It provides teachers and students a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications. Students can specify whether they are an auditory, tactile or visual learner, and they can specify their career goal by choosing from a pre-defined list of career areas.

Teachers can create groups that way each class is in a separate group. He or She can post homework, quizzes, grades, and more. They can also add co-teachers, and create “badges” to award students for their great efforts.

Parents can also create accounts. This is a great way to keep parents informed of classroom activities, assignments, grades, and school events. Parents will need their own unique parent code to register in which they can get from their child’s Edmodo account. This is to ensure that parents can view their child’s school activities.

C4T Summary #2

In Mr. Tony Baldasaro's blog post on September 30, 21012 What Can Schools Learn From Digital Photography? he talks about everything he does with his digital camera. He makes several points about what he can do and expands on each of them: 1.I Always Have My Camera, 2. I Need Tools to Help Me, 3. I get Immediate feedback, 4. I Have Multiple Opportunities, 5. I Can Share My Images, 6.The Final Product Is Not Done Until I Say It Is, 7. I Can Shoot in Solitude, and 8. I Get To Create. After explaining each of these points he says, "Photography has evolved to the point where an amateur like me can use tools to create stunning images. Moreover, the process to create those images isn’t judged differently because I used tools help me, or even that I had to. The point is I, and every other amateur photographer can create something beautiful." So, after all of that, What can schools learn from digital photography?

In my comment to him I told him I also love my digital camera. I vaguely remember cameras with film, but what I do remember is my parents rarely had them developed. Now, you can upload it straight to your computer and do whatever you wish with it. My high school had a class for photography, and I believe it should be offered as an art elective in all schools. It is not only fun, but students can learn how to create their own masterpieces. It will also enable them to learn how to use different tools on the computer that they may need in the future.

On October 15th Mr. Baldasaro posted again. This post "Say Yes to Drugs" caught my attention right off the bat. It is about how doctors are diagnosing children with A.D.H.D left and right. He quoted many sections of the New York Times Article from last week about doctors prescribing drugs for low income students to help them concentrate in school.

My comment to him stated that I agreed with him. Everyone has episodes where they do not want to pay attention, or they can not sit still. I do it quite often. However, it was never disruptive in my classes. I believe part of the problem is behavior issues. I have not once met a child who was diagnosed with A.D.H.D. that did not have issues with doing what they are told. That is just my experience though. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.” I feel this is just wrong on so many levels. I know it is a cliche, but what about that child's rights?

Project #9b-Prezi

Why Math? on Prezi

Blog assignment #7

The Networked Student

In the video Wendy Drexler: The Networked Student the author talks about a student who is given an assignment for American Psychology that can be any topic. He attends class three days a week online, the other two online, and does not have a textbook. Also, the teacher almost never lectures.

My first reaction is: how can a student learn without the guidance of a textbook and lecture? I had to listen to this video twice as well as rewind several times. I can see this working in a college class but not middle school or high school. If this was a class assignment given to me in middle or high school I would feel so overwhelmed.

The video described many ways for the student to find information about the topic he chose, and all of them were online. When I was in high school my teachers encouraged us to use sources not on the web. In every paper for English class, we had to have at least one or two book sources. I do not believe all of the information students are receiving should be from the web. Anyone can post anything, and it can all be wrong.

I do believe that starting young with learning the tools to do an assignment like this would be helpful. That way when the student is older and given an assignment like this, they will know what to look for, where to look, and will not be so overwhelmed.

It makes me wonder how much students are actually learning in school now. Our teachers, parents, and grandparents all worried about how much we were online. Now, there is a huge push for everything to be done by technology. I am not sure what to think about this. I am going to need actual physical proof that this works.

Welcome to My PLE!

In the video Welcome to My PLE! a 7th grade girl shows how she does her school work in her science class. She has pulled everything together on a person page that has her music, Facebook account, and many other things. Her science class is paperless, and she uses many different accounts to keep her projects and work organized.

My “PLE” is not so high tech. I use sticky notes on my MacBook Pro dashboard to keep all of my passwords and usernames straight. I also have a datebook that I write all of my assignments in. If I knew how to use something like what this girl has explained I probably would. However, before this class and before this video I have not heard of such a thing.

Project #8 - Podcast Team YELL

Blog Assignment #6

“I’m dying, and I am still having fun,” was my favorite quote from Randy Pausch’s last lecture. In this lecture the theme of his talk was how to live your life by learning from your dreams, helping others achieve theirs, and most importantly have fun doing it.

When children have fun while they are learning something hard, they learn without realizing it. As Randy Pausch called it, it is a “head fake.” One of his major topics in his lecture was about a class he taught that was all project based. He said his students surprised him by doing exceptionally well. He had no clue what to do. After talking to his mentor, he told them, “That was good but you can do better.” By telling them this, they continued to succeed and go passed the limits he had imagined. By hearing this I learned that as a teacher you do not know what limit any child has. So, push them to do better, and hopefully, they will push themselves to do better in the future.

He also talked about “brick walls.” When you go out and try to reach a goal and run into a brick wall do not give up. “Brick walls are there to let us prove how badly we want something.” If you just give up then obviously you did not want it that bad. Find out what is needed to improve on the skills you need to continue. This is something I would like to portray to my students. No matter how many brick walls you run into there will be a way to crawl over them.

“Decide if you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.” For a long time in my life I was an Eeyore. I finally met a very special friend who is a Tigger. She is always smiling and full of energy and I thought, “I want to be like her! I want to be a person others want to be around.” So, I began forcing myself to smile. The longer I smiled the easier it was to do it for no reason. I am no longer a negative person like I used to be, and I like myself better for it now. It is definitely more fun being a Tigger.”

“Don’t lose your child like wonder.” If you are around a group of young children you will notice they ask about everything! If they do not know what it is or how it works they will ask. In this day and age, people are afraid of being wrong or looking “stupid” because they asked. Be like a child and ask questions when you do not know the answers. We should be learning constantly throughout our lives.

Lastly, “Find the best in everybody: no matter how long you have to wait for them to prove it.” More often than not teachers get information about the incoming class from the teachers who have already had them. All too often teachers have already made up their minds about a certain student or two. I want to be sure I give all of my students the chance to show me who they are themselves rather than taking word from other. I want to believe in each and every one of them, and let them prove even to themselves what they are capable of.

At the end of the lecture Randy Pausch revealed that this lecture was for his own children. He knew his life was coming to an end do to the cancerous tumors in his body. He will forever be in my heart, and I will do my best to stick to his advice even though it was not for me but for his own children.

Project 9a - TimeToast: Great Mathematicians

Summary for C4K September

#1 In Room 7 at PES Tells Tales' blog September 4, 2012 Mitchell used lots of descriptive words in a story about an octopus to paint a really interesting picture!

I told him how interesting his story was, and how much I liked it. I also told him to keep up the great work.

#2 In History Class Kaylee was told to bring items that mean a lot to her. Some of the many items she brought were a rosary which was given to her by her great grandma, a stuffed tiger that she got from the hospital after she went through surgery, and some pictures of her and her family. She has posted a picture of these and many other things that are important to her.

I told her that I love that she has so many things near and dear to her heart. Treasure the memories she has, and enjoy being with her family as much as she can.