Blog Post #6

What Did We Learn from Anthony Capps

    For this blog assignment we were told to watch seven different videos of conversations between Anthony Capps, and Dr. Strange. Mr. Capps was a former EDM310 student of Dr. Strange's and is now a current third grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary School. Throughout these conversation videos, I learned quite a few things but most noticeably, the fact that elementary students are clearly ahead of me when it comes to technology. 

     For instance, Mr. Capps's 8 and 9 year old third graders know how to use iMovie on their macbooks at school, while I am a 21 year old Junior in college, learning how to use it for the first time. iMovie is a very interesting application tool that allows for students to make and edit videos and trailers straight from their computers, phones or ipads. One interesting thing I found in the video Don't Teach Tech- Use it was that teachers are not showing their students how to use these apps, they are learning how to further their use in education. Mr. Capps and Dr. Strange discuss the difference in using technology and teaching it by saying that "it is not our goal to teach them technologies, it is to use it like a scaffolding tool". 

    I made note of the list that was being referred to throughout the videos in ways to be an effective teacher. From what I gathered it went something like this: 

1) BE A LEARNER.

• Being a teacher is also about learning throughout. We want to be teaching our students how to be lifelong learners and there is no better way than correcting ourselves as we find new information. Students are learning so rapidly now that they may find something we thought we were correct about but they have proof on how to change our minds.

2) BE FLEXIBLE

• "Not everything is going to go the way you plan". Being teachers that are focusing on how to use project based learning not everything will go to plan, as many of us know. The fact that the servers were down one day but Mr. Capps was able to still effectively teach his students through PBL and have them understand, was a great idea.

3) ITS HARDWORK BUT ITS EXCITING

•  Working as a teacher is hard work, and almost every single person knows that. But, what they don't know is how rewarding it can be. Becoming a teacher means long hours even when you leave the school and a lot of extra teaching, be it to yourself or your students. One of the things I took away from this is that its okay to be excited about things outside of work, that have to do with work. You allow yourself to research things more and more outside of the classroom to bring into your lesson plans. It's hard work and dedication but it's exciting when everything is falling into place.

4) REFLECTION

• Reflection is very important in becoming a teacher, because you have to be able to look at what you are doing and understand where to go from there. Revise things and make them better. If a lesson plan does not work very well the first time, move forward with a better idea. 

There were so many important things I learned from watching the videos posted but I think the most memorable thing to me was the fact that a lesson plan needs to be used like a scaffolding tool.
Starting with the year and working through that all the way down to the daily plan was such a great idea. Looking at lesson planning as more of a ladder it shows that you are looking ahead with consideration to the daily things as well.

Overall, I think the videos were very insightful and I know I will be looking into using iCurio in my classroom. I believe my favorite videos were the ones:  Don't Teach Tech- Use it! and Additional Thoughts About Lessons.

Project #8 Book Trailer

C4K's for September

 Comments for Kids

September

 

 9/14- Isara..
Isara's blog post was on "Heal the world". Isara and friends made a video and posted it to vimeo to prove self management, and how they would "heal the world"..."
I told him that the video looked great and I really did enjoy it. The acting in it made me laugh because it was a bunch of boys being boys. His project was really good, and it took a lot of effort. I told him that I thought it was really neat that we were so far away and that we could still talk like we were in the same room! Isara is all the way in New Zealand!

Isara's blog


9/21- Ariana
My student assigned is Ariana. She is in High School(?) at JHFI class of 2015. Meaning she is a senior this year? I could not find much out about the school itself, so I am not quite sure if she is a senior or not. Her blog assignment was "Making my mark on the world". She had a good post, but lots of missing capitalization. I told her how well her blog looked and that it was a good post, but that she may want to revisit those words but that other than that it was really good.
I told her who I was and how I was going to school to be a teacher, and the program we are in allows us to check in at other blogs.
Ariana's blog


9/28- Madeline E
 Madeline's blog this week was about hard work vs. talent and what she thought was more important. She was very thorough in explaining why hard work is more important and used great quotes from Magic Johnson and Roger Staubach! I agreed with her that hard work and dedication were definitely more important than talent, and that talent can only bring you so far. I also explained where I was from and what I was studying and how she could contact me back. 
Madeline's blog 

My Sentence Videos

Due to the ios8 update on my ipad, and it taking FOREVER to update, I had to make these on imovie on my iphone. The editing was very confusing even with the tutorial... iMovie was not a very fun project for me this time. Total time spent on this project: 4 HOURS.

 

MY SENTENCE:

MY PASSIONS:

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post #5

PLN's What are they?

Photo Source: olecommunity.com

What is a PLN? : A PLN is a personal learning network. It is made up of "PEOPLE and TOOLS that you can call upon for help, consultation." (Dr. Strange's blog instructions).

At first I had no idea what a PLN was. After looking into it some more I have realized that I am still VERY confused about PLN's. From my understanding, they are to be used a central "hubstation" of information to use throughout your career.  The people and connections you make throughout your life become part of your Personal Learning Network and can become very useful tools in research.

I really enjoyed the video A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment  because it showed just how well capable these younger students are, in using technology daily. It makes it easier for student;s that are starting out with this technology because they have had it their whole life. Think about it, if someone was born tomorrow, they may never know what a cell phone looked like because by the time they are old enough to use them, the world's technology will have been so far forward. I love that young students know how to use a PLN and create lasting friendships/relationships that are studious and knowledgeable. When I was about 16 "Twitter" was just a fun little status updating tool. Fast forward 5+ years and it is now one of the world's largest growing social media base, and used by MILLIONS every day. I wonder how many of those users are younger than 18, and a step even further, I wonder how many are older than 21 and are educators. These things are great tools we need to keep being taught how to use effectively! 

As far as my progress goes for my own PLN, I am still working. First I have to sit down and think about what I am researching and then whom I will contact  I have been using Twitter for a pretty long while. I never thought it could be used in my own Personal Learning Network, but now that I do, I will probably begin following more teachers and students to see how they use technology and I can learn from them.

Using technology and these PLNs like this is so important right now because it allows us to set up our future classrooms and our future relationships to use for studies. I will be looking more into using other social medias aside from Facebook and Twitter to use in my PLN.

C4T #1 Summary

Comments on Teachers' Blogs

Photo source: BestClipArtBlog.com

      My teacher assigned to me for C4T these past two weeks has been Diane Krause. Her blog is known as Diane's Digital Discoveries. She is a teacher that posts every now and then, about links that she finds that can help teachers (and students) make their way throughout the technology race. The last two posts she has are pretty dated, but are still great blog posts.

      Her first post that I commented on was about using Comics in the classroom. She used the site HistoryComics to show how using comics in the class can be entertaining. Her post was from June 25th. When I left a comment I told her how I really enjoyed reading her blog and how it was very organized. I would really love to see my blog turn out like hers is. Everything flows together very well. I left her my name and explained what class I was in and the assignment to comment on her post. I then left her a comment with my name and blog address in case she wanted to reach me.

      When I commented on her second post, this one was a little more fitting to this class. The second post was all about a group called EveryoneOn that focuses on trying to get everyone a computer with low cost Internet connection at highspeed rates. She believes this can separate some of the gap the technology race has given us. I agree 100%! I think this site is a great one and it definitely gave me an insight into the numbers of people that use a computer vs the numbers that have access to one. Had I not been assigned her blog, I would not have ever known about EveryoneOn and I think its a really good tool/site to keep in mind for future use. This time I added my twitter, my blog and my name with my comment. This post was from May 24th.

      I don't think Ms. Diane gets on her blog regularly but I am looking forward to hearing back from her! :)

Project #15 Post

Using Different Search Engines

Photo Source: www.cornerstonesoftware.ca

WolframAlpha: First, I love the background. I love that you can click on anything on their page and it gives you a question or something you can learn about. I never knew this search engine existed (sorry, I'm a google user). So far it seems very easy to use though. I love how it brings you straight to your search with a quick answer. I searched "oldest living person" and it took me to what looks like a wiki page. I like this one..... By the way, her name is Misawo Okawa and she is 116 years old.

DOGPILE: Dogpile is more of a search engine finder/link. This search engine searches things with your search in title and takes you to similar searches. It takes its searches from Google and Yahoo. Honestly, wouldn't recommend this one unless you need help looking for other links.

ASK: Originally Ask.com was known as AskJeeves.com. It had a little butler named Jeeves that "searched" for you. When you first log on to Ask, it offers you a "question of the day". I think that this ties in greatly with our latest blog post (haha). I really like using Ask, because you can choose different themes, and that reminds me of my childhood using Jeeves. As far as the searching itself is concerned, its okay. I would rate is a 3 out of 5 for use. It gives you good links but the feel of it now is very cluttered.

Yahoo!: Typically I use Yahoo for my searches about music or news. Yahoo has a constant flow of hot topics and trending articles at the top of the page that I always seem to click on no matter of their relevance to my search. I love using yahoo because it is fast and can be comparable to Google.

BING: Bing should be on everyone's list of search engines by now. Bing is great. Its really not advertised as much as it used to be but it really is a great search engine. Even from the homepage it has a ton of life to it. The background images are overwhelmingly beautiful and you can share the web page itself from the click of a button. Bing is super easy to use and I would definitely continue to use it throughout the course.

CrunchBase: Crunchbase is a great site for searching about people. If you type in Steve Jobs,  it will immediately show you one of his most iconic photos, tell you where he went to school, what all companies he helped found, and many personal notes, on top of news articles involving him and or his companies. Crunchbase is set up to look similar to a resume.

AOL: AOL has been around for a very long time. It used to be its own company but is now owned by Google search. It is a google based search engine and serves as just that. It does fine when it comes to the actual search itself, but is lacking in presentation and is very boring. This search engine does not really give you all that you are looking for.

Cha Cha: Cha Cha is considered a "social search" engine because it has people that answer all of the questions for you. One of the main lines is "Stay Curious. Question Everything." How relevant to this weeks post. Cha Cha answers your questions as if you are asking someone in person. It's a great site for fast answers to questions. They also have a great app that's really easy to use also. I would definitely recommend this engine.

Blog Post #4

ASKING QUESTIONS: 

Just As Important As Finding The Answers

Photo Source: Clipartbest.com

     Our blog assignment this week is to answer a question, fittingly enough, about answering and asking questions. Asking questions is certainly a very large aspect in the learning process. The more questions you ask, the more you can learn. What good is a brilliant child, if he doesn't realize he's brilliant, because he never gets to answer or ask any questions?

     I really enjoyed one of the first sources  The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom. I liked it because the author, Ben Johnson, makes several valid points and also made me reflect on myself as a child. He mentions that children are often eager to answer a question whether they are correct or not. But, once they get used to the pattern of not answering correctly or not being called on, they get into the habit of not answering at all. In fact, "after fourth grade, students know how they are perceived and play their roles accordingly." This is so sad because many students do not realize their potential because they are so used to not doing anything, and relaxing back to doodling or whatever else is occupying their mind.

      I believe that to be an effective teacher, we must use questions every day as much as possible. Children need to understand that just because their question may not be worded correctly at first, it is still better than being silent! Children's minds are a beautiful, wonderful thing waiting to be molded and sculpted but only with the right lessons and questions!

     A good idea for making questions a good tool in the classroom is playing a game where all the students can do is ask questions stemming off of each one.

      I think one of the best sources we are given on the blog post Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom. It is absolutely great. I think that way she explains that asking open ended questions rather than leading ones is very important. To be an effective teacher you want to guide them to answering their own questions, not to answer it for them. I also like the questions and ways she uses the children's questions to keep striving for a more in depth answer that requires more critical thinking.

     I think the bottom line about "what we need to know about asking questions to be better teachers" is that we need to be asking more critical questions. We need to be asking as many thought provoking questions as possible throughout the day, and not waiting until the last five minutes of class. We need to be using open ended questions, and not leading ones. Questions that will provoke critical thinking skills and engage every student to want to participate, not just the ones that always do.

Blog Post #3

WHY PEER EDITING IS IMPORTANT

     Ive heard of peer editing before, but did not know there were specific rules that needed to be followed. The rules make sense though. If we do not use peer editing effectively then many people's works would go unedited until it gets to the teacher's desk. 

     So what is  peer editing? Peer editing is the review of one another's work. There are only a few rules to keep up with while doing peer reviews. Keeping positive is one of the most important. Think about if you were doing a blog post, and someone is rude about how their comment is. If someone is rude and completely negative about the post, its going to make you feel as though your posts aren't as good, and then they will not be as thorough. By keeping positive, you allow the author to still feel as though they had good ideas, and that with the help of your reviews, their post will be a great one!

     I loved the last video "Writing Peer Reviews: Top 10 Mistakes"!!( Link Here). It was so cute, and funny! I knew about the Negative Nancy, and Mean Margret. but I didn't know about some of the others. What a great way to show students, all the different ways that they could be effective but not overly assertive or upsetting. I think that I saw a few examples I could relate to.... looks like I'll be fixing those!