Blog post #16

After going back and reading my first blogpost, I realized a couple of things that I would add or change now. I still agree with a lot of the things I mentioned and wanted for my school. However, after a semester of EDM 310 I realized how much more technology can be incorporated into my school and what I want to incorporate. I know now how to work a blog, smart board, and a Mac computer. I'd love for my students to at least have a Mac or two into their classrooms so they could make iMovies and enjoy other useful apps likes iPhoto. I want my future school to have smart boards in every classroom. I loved working with it an found it pretty easy to understand. Also, I want to incorporate blogs for my students to use. I feel like it gives them a sense of pride to put into their work and a chance to connect and explore with people around the world. I also want to use DiscoveryEd and iCurio. DiscoveryEd provides you with such good pictures and videos for any topic. I really like iCurio because it can keep students organized, which is an important thing to be able to do. I still agree with most of the things I mentioned in my first blogpost, but I just now know specific technology and tools I want to put in my classroom, or if I was to one day build a school!

Blog post #15

Brittany Allemand 1. ICurio- Anthony Capps explains how iCurio is used and its benefits really well in this video. I thought it was great that it has folders to organize all of the students work and things they have on the website. I think that is a good way to teach them how to be technology organized and even a good way to show them organization in other parts of school and life.Another thing that i really like about iCurio is how Anthony describes that it has a timeline and a directory. The students can just type in something as simple as a woman who went to space in 1970 and it will show up every woman that meets that criteria. It can take you to anything that will be useful with just a little bit of detail provided. I think this is great too because it is safe and can pull up appropriate things for students. I think iCurio would make web searching a little more safe for students, especially younger children. I think iCurio is great for students. Anthony says it is used a lot in high schools, but it can be used with any age group allowed to get on the web. 2.Discovery Ed- Discovery Ed is another program besides iCurio that is offered in Baldwin County where Anthony Capps works. I like how Anthony introduces it by saying “A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth a million words”. Discovery Ed combines both pictures and videos so it’s great. I like how he said he is not a plant expert so discovery ed shows the students videos about all kinds of plants and pictures. I think this is a great tool to use for students. It is useful for the teacher too because they can view videos and get a better understanding for teaching their students about a subject. I would definitely be interested in using this in my future classroom. 3. Additional Thoughts about Lessons- This video is very helpful for our EDM 310 class to view. When projects 13,14, and 15 came up, we were all a little confused. Many of us did not do the first lessons plans correctly. We need to get a lot better on how to set up lesson plans and how to create them. This video gave me a good insight into how to do lesson plans. Anthony says there are 4 layers to a lesson plan. The first thing to think about is the year, meaning how the lesson plans cover the yearly standards and content to be taught.Do all the lesson plans cover the standards expected from the grade for the whole year? It needs to. Next is unit, which refers to the unit of teaching and the length and the time allotted. The unit will be like a 6-8 week thing, but within that will be a daily and weekly plan. The weekly plan will be about setting a goal and achieving it by the end of the week. Then within that is the daily plan, what you want to have accomplished within a days time. Anthony said he believes these make up the four layers of a lesson plan and are completely necessary for a well written one. 



Grace Hofer:
What can you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps? 1. iCurio Anthony Capps teaches over in Baldwin County where iCurio is used. He describes one of the aspects of it in that students can safely search websites that have been filtered for educational purposes. iCurio also lets students create folders inside their iCurio accounts to help organization. These folders, students can add things that they chose to help them stay organized. One thing I liked mentioned in this video was that things are saved in iCurio. When this was said, I thought of Google drive. In Google drive, everything done in it will save automatically. I love this because of past experiences working on assignments for school, something has been closed out unsaved or the internet cuts out loosing my work. It is great that iCurio works the same as Google drive in saving work automatically. Anthony also mentions about a timeline. The timeline is a great tool where students can enter keywords that helps find historical figures. I think this tool would be great for students because it is a search engine but is filtered so students will not accidently pull up something they did not mean to while searching. iCurio also has a read out loud accessibility which is great for students with disabilities to be able to use. I like this because it is user friendly to every student. I think many times, students with disabilities are limited unlike people without disabilities because people do not know the best way to meet their needs. iCurio has made it easier to meet the needs of every student. I liked watching this video because it allowed the viewers an insight of what iCurio contains. I know for EDM 310 we were going to try to get an access code to learn about it but were unable to. After watching the video I now have a better understanding of what iCurio is and how it works. 2. Discovery Education. Discovery Ed is a great research tool for both students and teachers. It contains almost everything social studies and science related. Besides just general information and a picture, Discovery Ed includes videos to help learning. Anthony describes it as “It brings experts into the classroom via video.” I like that Discovery Ed includes videos along with pictures and text because it is offering different ways of learning. Some may learn by just reading a text while others may learn by watching a video with information. I think Discovery Ed is making it easier to meet the needs of students with different learning abilities. 4. Don't Teach Tech - Use It! Anthony Capps says that technology is natural for kids now days. I agree with this simple statement. Capps includes “They’re [students] are really going to enjoy the opportunity to use technology to improve their learning or to learn.” I am a middle child, so when I heard this I was reminded of the time I was finally able to use a calculator in math like my older brother. I agree with what Anthony said that it makes the learning opportunity more enjoyable with technology because I was like that myself. One thing that really stood out was when Anthony said that teachers should not teach technology. But instead, technology should be a tool to teach. Using tools one at a time for assignments will allow the students to use it, but also overtime they will build up knowledge about many different technological tools. I liked that Anthony included that if you, as a teacher, are worried about a technological tool your students are going to learn about, to try it out before. By trying it out before, you could be asked questions by the students about the tool that you may of had but were able to figure it out. 


Chasity Heubach 1. ICurio- In EDM 310, one of our assignments was to research ICurio. I was able to access limited information about ICurio due to not having a sign in. This limited access provided me with a limited understanding of what exactly ICurio is. However, after watching the ICurio video made by Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps I gained a better understanding. ICurio is a curated search engine specifically designed to provide safe research for students. There are so many things on the internet these days that are inappropriate for children so having a site that is screened by professionals is very important. ICurio is also designed to help students begin developing their online organization skills. As Anthony points out this skill is important because people seem to be naturally unorganized. Another interesting thing about ICurio is that it has a read aloud option for accessibility. This allows children with special needs to get the same information as other students. I thought it was cool how Anthony says his students all wanted to try this option the first few times but then realized that they could read the material faster. After viewing this video I now have a better understanding, enough of one that I look forward to having my students use it in the future. 2. Discovery ED- I enjoyed learning about Discovery Ed from Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps. Discovery Ed is a tool that allows students to get a better understanding of a subject by allowing them to view images and videos that are associated with what they are learning. Anthony says this is important because children obtain more information when there is a visual associated with text. Another important aspect of Discovery Ed is that is allows teachers to bring professionals into the classroom through video. Anthony said that this is important because students can see that the information they are being taught is not just the teachers opinion but is fact. Dr. Stange points out in the video that students are now what he calls “listener watchers”, meaning that because of our technology advanced world students watch and listen far more than than read and write. I think Discovery Ed is a good tool to use especially in the elementary classroom because a teacher can describe a subject all day long to their students, but until the student can place a visual to the subject they will never fully understand what they are being taught. 3. The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1 As an education major I find myself wondering if I will know what to do on my first day in the classroom. I am beginning to realize that I will not, nobody does. However thanks the Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps I understand why. In their video The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1, Anthony and Dr. Strange give tips to future educators. They start by saying that the most important thing to remember as a teacher, is that in order to be a good teacher you must also be a good learner. Along with that Anthony adds that being a teacher is hard work but if you make it a part of your life, instead of keeping work and play separate, it is very rewarding. Another tip mentioned is that teachers need to be flexible because the unexpected happens, and it is the teacher’s job to keep the classroom running smoothly. Teachers should also think of ways to keep their students engaged. Anthony says that this is a goal of 100 percent student engagement and good ways to accomplish this are to make the content something they care about, make it a process they want to use, and to make it shareable. He also says to always start an assignment with the end in mind. Lastly, he says to allow for reflection and self evaluation because it is key to improvement. I really look forward to the day when I can apply these tips in my future classroom.

Project #16

Blog Post #14

Blog Post 14 Instructions:

Visit the website NICHCY.org, this is a website for special education. Read the article 10 Basic Steps in Special Education. Explain the 10 basic steps, and how they are useful. Explain also what you learned from this website.



My blog post: This webpage not only has tabs and other clickable links for disabilities, children (3-22) with disabilities,education laws, and etc. but it helps you identify whether a student has a disability. Sometimes disabilities are very easy to recognize by looks or someones dialogue. However, sometimes children may not show they even have a disability for years. It may not become noticeable until the child is in school. For example, the child may have a disability with reading or learning. When a child has a disability this puts them in the category of special education. Special education teachers need to follow the 10 Basic Steps in Special Education for the child. The first three steps are about identifying whether the child needs special education or related services and evaluating them. After the fourth step of the child being found eligible for special education, then an IEP meeting is scheduled. An IEP,individual education program, is a written statement of the child's education program that is designed to meet their needs. Every special needs student is required to have one, and it outlines their expected work and program in the classroom. After the IEP meeting is held and the IEP is written, then step 7 is carried out. This is providing the services to the disabled child, and then step 8 reports the progress and informs the parents of it. Step 9 is the IEP is reviewed. The IEP is revised every year. The child may progress and need something more difficult in the classroom, or it could be the opposite. The last step is to review the child. The disabled child is required to be reevaluated every three years. However, they can be reevaluated sooner if  the child is doing very well. They need to see if the child still has a disability, because sometimes it could just be a simple reading disability that can be treated in a couple years. I think this article is very helpful for special education teachers. It can also be helpful for elementary teacher too because they may have a child with a learning or reading disability. They can see how to set up an evaluation for a student they may have concerns for.

Final Report on PLN Project #9

I am still using Symbaloo for my PLN. I have added three new tiles to my homepage. It is so convenient because It organizes all of the sites I visit onto one page. I ended up searching the internet for some good elementary education websites for the future, when they will be very useful. I came across 21st Century School Teacher, which is an awesome website. It provides you with other cool websites to visit, 2 elementary teachers blogs, presentations, resources, and tips. Its a great place to get a lot of creative ideas for my classroom in the future. I also added the Ted website. After doing a few projects from there and listening to numerous talks, I really began enjoying the website. I think it has a lot of valuable things on there that I can learn about teaching, learning, and students. Lastly, I added the tile Instagram. I really enjoy this site because I love taking pictures and photography, and I added it because I visit it regularly. Overall, I'm glad I chose Symbaloo and I find it very useful.I know I have a great PLN for when I have my own classroom.

C4T #4

Post #1: Lisa Thumann's blog post Forming Communities of Practice was a great idea. I hope that when I get a teaching job that my coworkers are as concerned as hers. I really liked how all the staff took time to re-envision the Common Core. I think it was great that they spent so much time trying to be more creativity and collaborative with incorporating the Common Core. They formed a Common Core Community of Practice. This is a virtual/onsite workplace for teachers to collaborate and come up with new creative ways to incorporate the standards of the Common Core. I think this is a great way for all teachers to communicate, and I think this will bring about a lot of new ideas.


My Comment: Hi, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the course EDM 310. I was assigned to your blog, and I really enjoyed looking and reading around. I enjoyed this post because I think its great to try to create online communities so teachers can collaborate about the Common Core. Im excited
to read more and see how they form!


Post #2: 20 Percent Time was a wonderful post by Lisa Thumann. 20 percent time is actually an idea that is brought about by Google, and is about spending 20 percent of your time doing something not required or in your job description. Google came up with this in 2006 for their engineers, and the idea caught on with other professions. I really liked the example she told us about. A student named Morgan spent her time sharing Apps for Autism. She spread it through twitter,Pinterest, and Tumblr. These apps were helpful for the daily lifes of people with Autism. I found it very helpful that she also provided links to three teachers links that show a project they implemented for there 20 % of time in their classroom with their students. I think this is a good idea to implement in your classroom, because I feel like students are more likely to explore and look around when not required to do so.

My Comment:  really enjoyed this post. I think 20% of your time outside of your specific job description is great because it can allow us to find new exciting ideas or meaningful things we could share with students. I also liked 20% of time being incorporated into the classroom, it gives the students a chance to go deeper into an assignment or project.

Project #15

Project Based Learning Lesson Plan 3

·        Overview:  One week lesson , 2 hours a day

·        Public School, 24 students

·        2nd Grade Language

·        Read the Fox and the Hound

·        Groups of 3 will make a Imovie about the book, and will use smart board for a short summary about what they did and did not like about the book and why

·        ACCRS standard to be met:  Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

a. Infer the main idea and supporting details in narrative texts.

Monday:

1. Break up the students into groups of threes

2. Read the Fox and the Hound to them in class as they follow along in books

3. Make sure every group has a Imac computer to work with

Tuesday:

1. Explain and show the class how to use Imovie and how to set up everything, this might take the whole class meeting because Imovie may take 2nd graders a little while to figure out

Wednesday:

1. Have each group make their Imovie including pictures from the book, discussing the who, what, where, when, and why of the book. Tell the plot, main ideas, and give a good summary

v Meet the standard

Thursday:

1. Each group present their movies to the class.

2. Each group come up with at least one question to ask each group about the book.

3. Every group stand up and present their answer.

Friday:

1. Demonstrate how to open smartboard notepad and keyboard. Show the students how to type and pull it up.

2. Have each group write a short summary about what they did and did not like about the book.

Blog Post #13

Ken Robinson:10 Talks on Education was a good resource to explore. One video that really stood out to me was Kakenya Ntaiya: A Girl Who Demanded School. It was such an inspiration to watch. Kakenya is a woman who was born and raised in Kenya,Africa. She tells a lot about her village, family, and how things are so different in her country. It made me very thankful to live in America after I heard her story. She tells of how her mother farms, owns animals, and takes care of the whole family. Her father is hardly ever around because of work, and is gone for years at a time. When he does come home though, he sells all of their animals and goods and goes to the bar and spends the money. She tells of how women can not go against anything their husband or a man does, and how women are not allowed to own property anyways. Her mother tries to stand up and question as to why he sells their animals and goods, and she is beaten for even questioning her husband. At age 12, she and other girls are to become married and be the perfect house wife. They get up at 5 am and clean, take care of their houses, and train to become a perfect wife. Kakenya never wanted this for herself. She tells of how she always loved school and wanted to become a teacher. However, the girls and women in Kenya are not expected to go back to school after getting married at 12. She is very brave and tells her dad the only way she will go through with the celebrations and marriage is if she gets to return to high school afterwards. He rewards her with his because if not the village will look down on their family if she does not go through with the marriage. One shocking and sad thing that I learned was about the mutilation of the young girls before marriage. She tells of how they cut their private parts before the marriage. This was horrible to hear and to imagine so many young girls going through. Many girls even died from this. After going through high school, she still wants to further her education. She meets a young man who has left and went to a university in America. She sees his nice clothes and shoes and how educated and happy he is. She asks the man to help her apply to a university, and she gets into a ladies university in Virginia. No woman from her village or country had ever left to go to a university or even further their education through high school like her.She is so strong willed and determined to receive an education, and it's inspiring. She talks to the head male of the village, and to other high up men, and tells them of how if they support her trip to America and the university that she will return to Kenya and give back to everyone. She holds true to her promise. While in America, she learns of how it is illegal the way her mother and other women there are being treated. She returns to Kenya and builds a school for the girls in her village, 125 young girls. They are no longer being mutilated or injured or having to become married at age 12. She makes such a difference in her village and in Africa just by going and getting an education. It was so great to hear about how one woman fought for her education and made such a difference in her country. If it was not for her going to get an education and then returning to Kenya, who would have know how long it would have been before those young girls got a school and ended the mutilation and young marriage.

Grace Hofer:
While looking through Ken Robinson: 10 talks on education, I can across a talk that really stood out to me. The second talk, Arvind Gupta: Turning trash into toys for learning. The thing that grabbed my attention was the "turning trash into toys" words. I grew up with a father who always had creative ideas. From these ideas, my siblings and I learned how to make things out of almost anything. While watching the video, I was surprised of all the creations Gupta had made. I think that creating is a great way of teaching and learning. I remember in school, when we were able to create something, it became more interesting and therefore I learned easier. Creativity is something everyone has. Although they may express it in different ways, it is there. Arvind Gupta expressed his creativity by making things out of simple supplies like newspapers and straws. One creation I thought that was really cool was a drawing slate for blind students. This slate was made out of Velcro with a pen that poured out yarn instead of ink. While drawing, the yarn would stick to the Velcro that would make it a 3D feel for the students. That us something I would have never thought of. Gupta mentions of a slogan, in this slogan was the phrase "build from what they have", I like this phrase because it can be a foundation for teaching. I think teachers are to teach from something students already know, to build on. While many of the toys Gupta showed in the video, I was curious on how he could use them in a teaching atmosphere. But from what I gathered, that wasn't the main point of the lecture. I think he was showing the audience and viewers not that every creation can be used for learning in the school. But rather, the limits of creations can be close to non-existent. Creativity more than likely makes things more interesting. Isn't that what teachers want in their classroom? For students to be interested in what is going on.

Chasity Heubach:
I found myself captivated by Shane Koyczan's TED talk entitled, "To This Day"... for the bullied and beautiful. His lecture started with him describing his life as a child who was bullied. My heart hurt for him as he listed the names he was called and how he was used by people who called themselves friends. When he told others what he wanted to be, he was told to be something different. He wanted to be a writer but that wasn't good enough. He gave me the feeling that to him nothing he ever did was good enough. He was a child forced to endure things that no child should ever have to face. He lists stages of his life, where he went from hating himself, to wanting to kill himself and others. Then he admits to becoming something worse than himself, he became a bully. He talks of how words hurt as much as broken bones. He ends with poetry of how people have been hurt but they persevered. He says "If you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror, look a little closer, stare a little longer, because there is something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quite... you have to believe they were wrong, they had to be wrong...our lives will only ever continue to be a balancing act that has less to do with pain and more to do with beauty." Shane Koyczan should be and inspiration to everyone, to speak out and to speak up. Bullying continues in schools today and needs to be stopped. The most important thing I learned from his lecture is to never trample on the dreams of anyone, especially children. They will believe in themselves as long as we continue to believe in them. They can be whatever they choose to be as long as they set their minds to it. The life lesson I learned is to love others regardless of our differences and to stick up for the weak, because everyone matters. 

Blog Post #12

Ken Robinson's video Schools Kill Creativity was a pleasure to watch. He had such a humorous and charming personality. It was never a bore to watch. It really supported the fact that schools do kill creativity. I never realized how much that this statement was true, until I warched this video. I really liked a lot of quotes that he brought about in his speech. They were short, powerful, meaningful, and to the point. The first quote I liked was “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” A lot of teachers just want the student to get the work done,pass a test, or do a project;This shouldn't be the main objective. Creativity should be encouraged in everything you do in the classroom. For example, Ken mentioned the girl whose parents were called in for a meeting in the classroom because she could not sit still. They thought she had a learning problem. However, they figured out she was a dancer, and she just needed to move to learn. Every student learns different, so why not put on music to learn to. Why not dance around or work hands on? I think the big picture is that as a teacher you can be creative with your assignments and you should promote creativity from your students. What better way then to show creativity yourself.I liked how he quoted from Picasso that every person is born an artist. Every kid has creativity in them. As  teachers, we should promote activities that encourage an bring out the creative side. 




Chasity Heubach:
I really enjoyed watching Ken Robinson's TED talk entitled, How to Escape Education's Death Valley. In his lecture Mr. Robinson discusses the problems America is facing with its "No Child Left Behind" program. He starts by saying that he moved to America 12 years ago. He says that when he arrived he was informed that Americans don't get irony. He said that when he came across "No Child Left Behind", he knew that what he was told wasn't true. The irony of "No Child Left Behind" is that it, in fact, leaves millions of children behind. He says that in some parts of the country 60 percent of students drop out of high school. He claims that if America were to half that number it would create a net gain of nearly a trillion dollars, however, it would cost a large amount to mop up the drop out crisis. He says that it is true that America spends more on education than any other country, the problem is that it is all going in the wrong direction. Mr. Robinson says that there are three principals in which human life flourishes and it is being contradicted by the culture of education. 

1. Human beings are naturally different and diverse. He asks his audience how many of them have children. He then makes a bet, one in which he claims he knows he will win. He bets that those who have two or more children will agree that their children are all completely different. He says that education, under "No Child Left Behind", is based on conformity, not diversity. American education focuses on the S.T.E.M disciplines, which he states is very important but it is not sufficient. He states that good education needs to equal focus on the arts, humanities, and physical education. He then points out that ten percent of kids are now being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. He says that he believes the condition exists but that he doesn't think it is an epidemic. "If you sit kids down hour after hour doing low grade clerical work," says Mr. Robinson, "don't be surprised if they fidget." He says that children aren't suffering from a psychological disorder but instead they are suffering merely from childhood. 2. He says the next principal is curiosity. "If you light the spark of curiosity in a child they will learn without any further assistance," says Robinson. Children are natural learners and curiosity is the engine of achievement. He goes on to say that teachers are the lifeboat of success in schools and great teachers mentor, stimulate, provoke and engage their students. He says most importantly a teachers job is to facilitate learning and if their is no learning their is no education. The problem, he says, with Americas education system is that its focuses not on teaching and learning, but on testing. He feels that standardized testing has it place, but should not be the dominant culture of education. 3. He says that it is human nature to be creative. "We create our own lives and we can recreate our lives as we go through them,"he says. He also says that we create our lives by imagining different possibilities and the role of education is to awaken that imagination. He refers to the education system in Finland, and says its schools system is very successful in math and science mainly because it also focuses on arts and humanities. He says there is also no standardized testing and they help students before its to late, resulting in a no drop out rate. He goes on to say that education takes place in the classrooms, not government offices, so the responsibilities should be handled at the school level to get the job done. He says there is wonderful work happening in America but it is dspite educational culture , not because of it. He then says, that not far from his house there is a place known as "Death Valley". In winter of 2004 it rained there, in Spring of 2005 the whole floor of "Death Valley" flowers grew. This proved that "Death Valley" was not dead, but dormant. He says the same is true for our schools system. I learned a lot from listening to Ken Robinson's TED talk. I would have to say of all the tools I have learned would be helpful in the classroom, I would have to say Mr. Robinson discussed the most important tool for every classroom. That tool, is to inspire imagination and creativity. I learned to focus less on testing and more on learning. By that I mean standardized testing has its place, but if we don't teach children how to learn they are pointless. 

Grace Hofer:

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson? 
By watching the TED video,Changing Education Paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson, I came across several things I learned while watching the 11 minute video. Robinson starts the video by mentioning two reasons that every country is reforming public education. One being economically, wondering how will we be able to educate students for the economic world if we don't know what the economic future will hold. The second reason being cultural, wondering how will they have an identity in culture. Robinson continues by saying that people are trying to meet the future by the ways they have in the past. In a time when everyone went to college to have a good career, now days an education is not needed. It can help, but it does not guarantee a good career. This is very true. I know people who did not attend college after high school graduation who are maintaining steady jobs. Robinson says that "The current system was designed and conceived for a different age..." I agree with this as well. This EDM 310 class has taught me this in just the past several months I've been in it. Technology is becoming rapidly involved in our school system. Students are learning by these tools, not the tools my generation and the ones before me learned by. To be teachers to these students, we need to be not only aware of these tools, but how to properly use them. Mentioned in the video is the subject of ADHD in schools. I had not put much thought into this issue in my classroom before watching the video. But now, I think it is great that schools are involving technology in the classroom. Robinson says that students who have ADHD are being distracted by computers, phones, gaming devices, and such and are being penalized for not paying attention to things the teacher is teaching on. This is where technology comes in great in the classroom. Students who have ADHD and students who do not, have grown up with technology. Growing up this way, lets them learn better by using devices. In return, the student does not spend the whole time in class being lectured, but being involved in their learning experience. The video also mentions of people who have either aesthetic or anesthetic experiences. Aesthetic is when you are when senses are at their peak. Anesthetic is when your senses are shut off and are deadened with what is going on. Too many times in classrooms I feel that many are having anesthetic experiences because they are being lectured at to learn instead of being involved. Near the end of Changing Education Paradigms, Robinson says that most great learning comes from groups. I wonder if that is why we are put in groups in EDM 310. I feel as if it is true though. Working in a group seems to benefit everyone involved, not just a single person. 

Project #14

I chose smart board to use because I think it would be fun and easy to follow for the children. They could simply pull up notepad and draw out problems and models. They could also download math games on smart board and play. I chose Ipad because it is full of good apps for learning math. I’d find some good apps with shapes, models, and math problems for the kids to play. I think this lesson plan would keep their attention long enough to learn the material. They would be having fun and not even realizing how much they are learning from a fun game or app.

Project #13

Brittany Allemand, Grace Hofer, Chasity Heubach 

Some of the ACCRS reading standards for second grade are

- "Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges"

- "Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action"

Technologic tools used for this project include

- Word Processor

- Blogger 

- iMovie if using a Mac 

Below is a picture of a weekly lesson plan for meeting these standards. It could be spread out to multiple weeks by letting the student read the book individually. However, we used an example of this standard in a weekly lesson plan. 

We chose Blogger for the students to upload their book report to because it is public. Using Blogger could let people from around the world, other students in the classroom, and teachers to be able to read it and comment their thoughts. The lesson plan we chose included different ways of learning. Reading the book was a way that did not involve any technology. Writing the book report on Word Processor would let the students use the computer to make their project. Uploading it to Blogger would allow the students  learn how blogging works, as well as how to present their writing.

In the reading standard, the students would learn how to describe characters and how they respond to events through writing. Another option that the students could do, is make their report into a podcast by using iMovie if working on a Mac. Doing this they would then upload their podcast to Blogger.

                                       

Blog Post #11

Kathy Cassidy's Little Kids..Big Potential video was so neat to watch. I really liked how the children had so much technology in their classrooms. Not only was there so much technology, but they knew how to use it so well. They had nintendo ds, Wiki, Skype, blogs, laptops, and more. I really liked how they put their questions on Wiki, and people from all over the world could give them so many answers and different stories. I was excited to know that while I'm sitting here typing this blog post, so is a first grader somewhere. It kind of amazed me to see how well a first grader could use all of this technology so fluently. I really admired Mrs.Cassidy for providing all these tools and broad learning environments to her students. I think it's a great way for them to learn and collaborate with students all over the world. I thought it was neat that they mentioned the videos and comments from the students in Alabama, and how their videos helped them learn the ABCs.
I thought the skype interview with Mrs.Cassidy was helpful. I really admire her approach to technology in her classroom. She fully supports that every teacher needs to be technologically advanced, and says the quote "technology is not going away" quite a few times in the conversation. I agree because technology continues to change so rapidly and progress so much. A technique that I would like to use in my classroom would be the blogs. I enjoyed all of the technology she provides to her students, but the blogs seemed to stand out most to me. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so familiar with it since we write blogs every week. I just feel like it's such a great tool for small children. As a young child, I feel that praise and acknowledgement of their work is very important. Teachers need to start this soon and build their confidence and motivation. Mrs.Cassidy supported this by pointing out in the conversation that the kids are so excited to see how many page views they get and all the comments. I really liked how she pointed out the fact that kids aren't overly excited to write on pen and paper just for the teacher to see. That approach just does not make as much of an impact as writing in a blog for the world to see. Students will put forth more effort this way, knowing that they have a worldwide audience. An impediment that I might face in the future with incorporating technology into my classroom would be the school principals and administrators. The school has to support you and be a strong backbone for your ideas and contribute to the technology you need. Mrs.Cassidy brought about how she has a wonderful technology coordinator, but some of the principals did not care at all about technology. I would have to have support from somewhere or a strong will to do it on my own.

C4T #3

Langwitches Blog written by Silvia Tolisano

Post #1: In the post More Ipad Workflow Scenarios in the Langwitch Blog it tells us about a very useful app. I found the post very educational for me since I will be a future teacher. The app is called the Basic App Toolkit and creates a workflow for students and teachers. I like how she said it supports the learnflow of LEARN>CREATE>SHARE.I think its a good app to keep teachers and students organized.

My Comment: Hi, my name is Brittany Allemand. I am a student at the University of South Alabama, in the EDM 310 class. I really enjoyed your blog and this post. I found the diagrams to be very helpful. I like how everything was organized, and I feel like it be a good app to use.

Post#2: No You Can't Just Take It was a great post! I loved how blunt and honest she was. She even showed a picture of how her post and comments might have offended some people by providing a picture of comments on her facebook back and forth with a woman.Not everyone took it as serious as Silvia, but I understand completely where she is coming from. No one wants to work hard on something and then get it taken by another teacher and them get the credit. I liked how she put the picture of no you cant just take it: because you found it on Google, because you can right click and pretend you created it, in the name of education, because your a teacher, or to make money off of something she shares freely. She does support building upon and sharing her work, just as long as you give her credit. She mentions three things she requires for sharing or building onto her work. Attribution,giving her the credit of original creator, non-commercial, meaning do not use her work to make money, and Share-alike, which deals with sharing and using her work and using the creative commons license terms.

My Comment: I thought this post was a great way to open some people's eyes to the fact that you can not just take someone else's information without giving them credit. I like how you spoke your mind and just pointed out the blunt truth. Great post, I totally agree.

Blog Post #10

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was in the department of computer science and taught a class that made up virtual realities. It seemed very fascinating. His class consisted of small groups that were required to have five projects a semester, no books but just technology. His last lecture video, which is also a published, best seller book, is so inspirational. As a future teacher, I feel as though I learned a lot from him. I did not just feel as though I just learned how to teach or teaching methods from him, like a lot of other teachers I've watched. I learned more of how to really make a difference in a child's life and how to be a great teacher. I liked how he first told the audience and viewers about how he achieved his childhood dreams. He achieved something as small as winning large stuffed animals to being in zero gravity with NASA. I thought that really made a big impact. It shows that he was so set on making all of his childhood dreams come true, and that he had so much motivation to make it happen for him. Then, to make it happen for his students. He instilled motivation into his students to achieve their dreams, which is something important for teachers or professors. He had such a great outlook on life and was so upbeat in his last lecture. He only had a few months to live, but he portrayed to his students and others to enjoy life and not to fret about things you can not change. I liked how he paired his students together to work. He says in the video" Using video gamish technology to teach people useful things", he referred to this as edutainment. I thought it was great he could take something as simple as video games and combine with the fire department and other places and things to help and teach. I learned a lot about teaching from Randy. It ranged from how to have a great attitude towards life, your goals, and how to motivate students.

Project #12

Project #9

Blog Post #9

Project #10

Blog Post #8

Mark Church's Making Thinking Visible video to explain his book is very helpful. After watching the video, it made me interested in reading the book. I felt like I learned a good bit about learning and teaching from his video. I really like his approach; it helped create independent learning from the teacher but also incorporated group discussion with your classmates and learning from them. I felt like he really brought his title "Making Learning Visible" to life. I enjoyed how he formed the children into small groups. He asked them to sum up a headline for what they had been learning about. They made up a headline and then he hung them up on a board. Later on, he then would get them to form another headline after thinking and learning more about the topic to see how the headlines would change. I thought it was a great idea how they all formed a group and had to think about a headline, and their thinking was out loud; it really supported the phrase of making thinking visible. His video taught me about how children can learn together from saying there thoughts out loud in a group. I appreciated his approach to teaching and learning.

Grace Hofer: Watching Back To the Future, I was impressed by how Brian Crosby taught his class. One of the things I noticed was how much participation was being done by the class. The students were the ones doing activities and projects and not just being shown an activity, but playing a part in doing it. I think by letting the students participate, let them become more interested in what was being taught. Students in this class also had a blog that they would write anything and everything they have learned. Blogging offered students to be connected to people from multiple countries and let them learn a little about these countries as well. These blog post by students contained pictures and videos that the students took themselves. The class also had a flickr page that contained pictures taken by the students of the whole class. 
I think the way Brian Crosby is teaching his class in an excellent way. The involvement he is offering his students in activities is letting the students be excited about the learning experience. Having students excited about learning I think is what most, if not all, teachers would be thrilled about. Some of the things these students learned was how to maintain blogs, put videos up on their blogs, video chat with a fellow student as well as people from around the world all while learning academically by projects and activities. Using a blog improved their writing and reading skills as well. It is great that his class is excited to learn. I think a way for my future students to be excited about learning, would be to take on the tools Brian Crosby is using in his classroom.

Chasity Heubach: I had no idea how much technology had taken over the classroom. However, not only do I now realize that it plays a key role in the classroom, I understand that it is important in the learning process. I viewed theBozemanscience website which is run by Mr. Paul Anderson. Mr Anderson has been a science teacher for about 19 years. Currently, he is a science teacher and technology specialist at Bozeman High School. For approximately three of the 19 years, he has been teaching science on youtube, where he has created hundreds of science videos. These videos have reached millions of teachers and students worldwide. One video I watched was entitled, Blended Learning Cycle. In this video Mr. Anderson gives instruction on how to incorporate the Blended Learning Cycle into the classroom. He starts by introducing the cycle. He states that first, as a teacher, one must combine online, mobile, and classroom learning into the classroom. He explains that next the teacher would introduce the learning cycle, which consists of engaging, exploring, explaining, expanding, and evaluating a subject. He then discusses an acronym he uses called quivers when teaching his students. He starts with a good QUestion. He then allows his students to Investigate/inquiry about the question. He offers Videos to his students , and then allows for Elaboration. Following that he requires a Review. He sits down with each student and through questioning, he evaluates their understanding before allowing them to move forward. Finally, they are given a Summary quiz, which allows the students to check their understanding for themselves. This method of teaching introduced by Mr. Anderson is very effective. It shows the power of technology, because otherwise he would not be capable of educating the world. I have learned a lot from this site. I learned that teaching any subject can be more effective with the use of technology. 

C4T #2

Post #1 Steven Anderson's blog post Going Global-Tips and Resources for Global Collaboration is a very useful post to check out! I thought it was great that the students were connected with the content by getting to talk to someone about the uprising in Northern Africa first hand. I never realized there were so many resources out there that could help you go global and chat with people all around the world so easily. I found it cool that you can simply include a hashtag on twitter and maybe find someone half way around the world in five seconds. I really like the fact that he gave you ideas and the tools you would need to go global like twitter, skype, google hangout, and etc. He also gave us four useful links to check out to go global: Teacher's Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet, QuadBlogging, Skype Classroom, and Guide to Management. His blog post was very detailed and easy to follow.


My comment: Hi, my name is Brittany Allemand. I am a student at the University of South Alabama, and I was assigned to your blog. I really enjoyed reading it and found it to be very helpful. I will be a teacher in a couple years and the links and ideas you posted in this blog post will help me a lot in the future. I thought it was a great idea to connect the students to the content by going global.
Post #2  Steve Anderson's most recent blog post 5 Leadership Questions to Finish (and Start) the School Year With  was very helpful. As a future teacher, I felt like he really helps you learn how to be up to date with the technology. His blog is very useful for learning how to integrate the technology into your classroom also. This blog discussed 5 questions to ask so you could see how technology integration was taking over in schools and districts. 

My comment: Your blog post is very helpful with letting teachers and future teachers know how to integrate technology into the classroom. My EDM 310 class is preparing me for technology in my classroom, and I feel like your blog helps out a lot. Thanks for the useful information. 

PLN Progress Report 1

I used Symbaloo to create my PLN. I like how you can personalize it with different wallpapers,colors, and text. I like how it has all the important sites I use and need, like youtube and twitter.

Blog Post #7

      Denise Robinson's Video Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Students are Learning on the Ipad was a pleasure to watch. I feel as though these technologies help the students who are impaired to be at the same pace as the other students, which is how they should be. I remember being in school and having a couple students who were handicapped and visually impaired in my classes. Technology was nowhere near as advanced as today, and they did not get to participate fully or as much in some of the things we did because they did not have the tools too. I was impressed after watching the video by Denise with the Ipad. I never knew that the IPad could be a tool to accompany the deaf or blind. It was easy to use and follow. The voice was at a great speed and easy to understand. Also, the directions were so clear.I loved how all you had to do was slide your finger across the screen and it read out all the apps and how to open them. This would be a great tool to use in my future classroom.
      After watching this video, I went to the internet to try to find some tools I could use in my classroom for the future that weren't listed in our manual.I came across a page written by Jeanette Dodds, Assistive Technology for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing, it listed some devices and assistants that can be used to help the deaf in the classroom or in life with just communicating with others. She tells about ways to make clocks and phones easier to use for the deaf or hard of hearing. You can use a strobe light, blinker, vibrator, or flash. I thought this could be useful in the classroom when trying to teach or show something is right or wrong, you could use a light or flash to indicate whether correct or not. Green lights could be used for correct and red for wrong. Also, she mentions FM stations which is an assisted listening device. This works well in the classroom. The way it works is the teacher wears a transmitter, that is connected to a microphone, and the student wears the receiver. FM stations send radio waves from a transmitter to a receiver. The student receives the message from the teacher with the microphone by plugging the receiver into headphones, hearing aids, or other devices. I really liked this because this way everything the teacher says is sent directly to the student and it is way easier to hear.

Grace Hofer:
After watching Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children, I was very impressed with the video. I have known people who are vision impaired but I never thought of how much a struggle it could be in a classroom without assistive technologies. This video shows a few different tools that could help these students. Screen magnifiers, flip cameras, and text to speech devices to name a few. I also found a tool that could be useful called WordQ + SpeakQ. This tool offers an audio proofreading so someone who is vision impaired would be able to hear what the text contains. It also offers a speakQ which lets one speak through a microphone and will be picked up and typed out. The tool also offers the user to change words to similar words like a built in thesaurus. This tool could be very helpful for students to learn how to better speak, write, and strengthen their vocabulary. Another tool that is great for vision impaired people is The Mountbatten. The Mountbatten is a braille write, it can offer audio feedback so the person knows that is being typed. This tool is able to save, transfer, as well as receive files from another computer. With this tool being able to have print and braille results, it allows the teacher as well as fellow students to understand. With everyone understanding, it lets everyone to be included in a project. I do not know if I will for a fact be using these tools in my classroom. But if used, the ones mentioned above could be very helpful. Teachers should be well prepared for all types of students, rather impaired or not, and be able to teach them the way that is best fit for them. It will be exciting to see what the future will hold in my future classroom.

Chasity Heubach:
I am officially excited that EDM 310 is a required course. I say this because I had no idea there were so many resources for disabled students. I would have to say the videos I watched are two of the most informative sources I have encountered so far. The first video I watched was Teaching Math to the Blind. In the video a professor at the University of San Francisco, Art Karshmer, introduces a system he created, using blocks and a grid, to aid blind students in solving math problems. He explains that braille is not read in two dimensions, so where a seeing person would line an addition problem one number on top of the other and add from right to left to solve the problem, a blind person reading braille will line the numbers straight across from left to right. This makes simple math problems, such as addition, difficult for the visually impaired. Professor Karshmer explains in the video how the systems works. The students scans the blocks, with braille and a visual number on the front, with a barcode scanner. Then a computer will read the number aloud. The student then places the block in the grid to properly set up the math problem. After watching this video I researched more tools to aid blind students with solving math problems. I came across a site, Science Daily, that introduces a new system being developed specifically with elementary aged students in mind. The site states that "nearly one in 20 pre-school aged children and about 12.1 million children ages 6-17 have visual impairments, according to the Braille Institute." Sheila Schneider a senior at the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois, under the supervision of Professor Deana McDonagh, is creating small sculptures with mathematical equations imprinted with braille. The equations will be written in a form of Braille known as Nemeth Code, which is used for mathematical and scientific symbols. They were designed from the view point of a child and are intended for children ages 7-10. The second video I watched was entitled iPad Usage For the Blind. In this video Wesley Majerus, Access Specialist for the National Federation for the Blind, gives a presentation on how the iPad is set up to help the blind navigate through its system. As he is demonstrating you can hear the iPad voice-over telling him the programs and how to access them. The iPad even enables the blind to read books. Wesley explains that being able to but and read books is very liberating. These tools designed to aid the visually impaired student, are excellent tools to remember as a future teacher. Especially since the "No Student Left Behind" system has physically and mentally disabled students in the same classrooms as non-disabled students. I imagine that the tools are also empowering for and person with visual impairments. I found this encouraging as both a student and a future teacher. 

Project #8

Blog Post #6

Asking Questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

Ben Johnson's blog post The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom points out some good facts. It addresses the how do we ask part of asking questions as a teacher. After reading this post it dawned on me that what he says is probably true of most teachers. I remember this being true with most of my teachers in elementary and high school. We all know the famous question teachers ask "Does everybody understand?". Ben stated a point that I agree with, because I remember being this way in school, that question is useless. The truth is some students are not even listening when the teacher ask this question, some just nod yes to move on to something else, and some are not even aware that they do not understand fully. The question is a yes or no question,and students will just say what the teacher wants to hear. I can remember sitting in my desk in high school and the teacher asking that questions and 1/3 of the class not even answering. However, the teacher would hear a few yeses and that was conformation to move on. The question is useless. Ben mentions how to use a simple effective approach to asking questions by Mary Budd Rowe. The approach is to ask a specific question. For example, instead of "Does everyone understand?" ask "How do the planets rotate?". Also, after asking a specific question pause three seconds for a response then call on someone. This way is effective because everyone will be thinking of an answer, and only when someone is called on will they be relieved. Everyone will be randomly called on so the students will be prompted to pay more attention and think of an answer to the questions.

Asking Questions to Improve Learning really helped me with the question of "What questions do we ask?" I learned about a few different types of questions and how to properly ask them. Leading questions are questions that suggest the answer and cause students to not think of one on their own, we should avoid these. It is easy to guess correctly to a yes or no question, so it is best to ask an additional question after that. For example, after answering yes or no ask them why is it yes or why is it no. Make sure your questions are clear, specific, and asked one at a time. I learned about three types of questions: open questions, closed questions, and managerial questions. Open questions are questions that are good for discussion and active learning because they bring about multiple or conflicting answers. Closed questions are good at testing comprehension and showing if a student has retained the information well because they have only a limited amount of correct answers. Managerial questions are used to make sure the students have the needed materials and are understanding. This website also helped with how to ask them students questions too. We need to make sure we ask students and give them a reasonable amount of time to respond to our question. Ask and then wait for their response for 5-10 seconds.Make sure not to interrupt the student will they are answering. Show the students that you are listening and are interested in their answers, whether right or wrong. Help the students see what was incorrect about their answer if it is wrong.

The videoQuestioning Style and Strategies is very useful for learning how and what questions to ask also. The teacher provides four questions with one in each learning style. This is useful because it covers comprehension for all types of learners. He uses techniques with each question. He uses the techniques of: provisional writing and cueing, think pair share, random calling, surveying, student calling, value feedback,extending, wait time, and many more. I really liked the techniques because it made the students very alert. They were all waiting to be called on or listening to their classmates answering. He had the whole classroom involved in the discussion and questioning. He not only was calling on students but was getting other students to call out one of their classmates for their answers or discussions.

In conclusion, I learned that as teachers it is extremely important as to how and what questions we ask. Questions are the core of teaching and learning. Teachers should always remember to ask specific and clear questions and one at a time. It is important how you ask students. They need positive feedback whether their answer is right or wrong. Be sure to mix up the types of questions and to randomly call on each student to make sure everyone gets a turn to be asked.