Blog Post 16 (Final Reflection)

I am going to be teaching secondary math. I am not sure yet if I will be teaching middle or high school. I am leaning more toward middle school.

The main method I am going to use in my classroom will be flipping the classroom. I learned this method in one of the assignments Dr. Strange assigned in EDM310. I think this is the perfect setup for a math classroom. Students can work at their own pace and help each other out.

My student's will definitely be using iCurio and DiscoveryEd. In one of our assignments we were to choose one of the topics, iCurio or DiscoveryED, and give a little information about it. I chose to do DiscoveryED. However, after watching the youtube discussion about iCurio and the discussion about DiscoveryED on youtube, I think I will favor iCurio. Another tool my students will use in the classroom is iPads. The iPad allows so much information at the touch of a button. A tool that I will use the most will be the Smartboard. The Smartboard allows interaction with the students and learning. We had an assignment this semester to create a lesson on the smartboard. My oldest child was involved in the lesson and he enjoyed it so much. Students enjoy interacting with the lesson. It allows them to be involved and not just sitting idly by listening and being bored.

I will definitely use project based learning in my classroom. This will allow for fun learning! EDM310 is project based learning. It requires you to be an independent learner. Throughout this class we were given several projects and we were not babied through them. We had to do them ourselves. I learned more by actually doing the project than I would have learned if Dr. Strange would have gotten in front of the class and talked about how to do the different projects. I think I will be helping my students to learn and gain some responsibility by incorporating project based learning into my class and not just burp back education.

I wouldn't change much about my first blog. I definitely think it should have been longer, but my content I still agree with. I said in my first post that I would want my students to be taught by hands on. Earlier in this post I stated that I will be incorporating project based learning into my classroom, which will be hands on. The information in my first post basically matches what I stated earlier in this post.


Part 2

Project #16

Blog Post #15

The first video I watched was iCurio. This video was a conversation between Dr. Strange and a previous EDM310 student, Anthony Capps. Anthony is a 3rd grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary in Baldwin County. Anthony talked about the important tools that iCurio have to offer. iCurio enables students to begin learning the basics of storing things in folders. This allows students to begin organizing things early in life. Another point he brought up about iCurio is if for some reason the students had to leave what they were doing in a hurry, when they came back, they could just pick up where they left off. I think the best thing about iCurio that was mentioned in the video is the fact that all the information is filtered to the appropriate grade level.

The next video I watched was about DiscoveryED. In this video Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps were discussing the facts about this useful tool that is used in the classroom today. One of the main facts that were brought up is, with DiscoveryED, the students are able to get a video with the topics that they are searching for.

The last video I watched was, It’s Hard Work: A Day in the Life of a 3rd Grade Teacher. In this video conversation between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, they discussed the downside of being a teacher. Anthony tells us that in the beginning, until October, he was spending 16 hours a day Monday through Friday working. On weekends he would spend about 8 hours a day. In October, he began to get exhausted and cut his days down to 10 hour days and began to hate his job, because he wasn’t able to find time to finish his work. He said that during this time he would go home and mark “yes” or “no” on the calendar. He did this because at the end of the year, he would add them up and that would be the deciding factor as to whether or not he would work the next year. In November, after talking to some of the other teachers, he was about to balance out his work schedule and began liking his job again. He also told us that teaching needs to be a hobby and is not for everyone. He explained that his work does not stop at the end of the school year. In order to be a good teacher, you must take the summer to begin planning for the next year. My favorite part of this conversation was when Anthony made the comment that teaching is a practice, you never master it.




Sherri Hudson's Blog #15

Interview with Anthony Capps

Dr. John Strange directed a podcast with third grade teacher of Gulf Shore Elementary Anthony Capps. Not only is Anthony Capps a third grade teacher, but he is a good friend of EDM310. They talked about two educational search engines throughout two videos, iCurio Anthony 070113 and Discovery Ed Anthony 070113. One search engine is called iCurio, and it allowed Mr. Capp's students to safely search the Common Core Standards. The other is called Discovery Ed.

The search engine iCurio allows students to access the account. There is a feature that allows the students to pick up where they left off. They can search by criteria, and if there is an abrupt disruption iCurio lets the students pick up where they left off. Students with disability can have the text read to them.

After listening to Anthony Capps I understood that Discovery Ed is much like iCurio. It does have a feature where a student can watch a video that matches the criteria that they have research. Dr. Strange said that our generation is "listen-watchers" which means we learn through visuals. Because it's more like a hands-on project, I think iCurio and Discovery Ed is a good addition to the classroom.

According to Use Tech--Don't Teach ItMr. Capps, "technology shouldn't be a list of things to do." He stressed that technology made executing the curriculum or lesson plan easier. His lesson plan didn't consist of teaching the technology either. He suggest that we allow students to figure it out independently. For example, his students rapidly learned iMovie. While they learned the technology, they made mistakes. He recommended giving them time for the reflecting over their mistakes since nobody is perfect. When the students ask questions about using the technology that is incorporated into the assignment they learn two 21 century skills. PROBLEM SOLVING and QUESTIONING.


Christopher Perry's Blog #15

ICurio
After watching the interview session with Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I learned quite a few things that I did not know about iCurio. ICurio has several different features to the program. The first is that it is a curated search engine, to allow students to safely search the web and find videos, music, and texts for their projects that they might be working on. The next feature is that iCurio allows you to store your information that you may have found that would be useful for your project. So you can create folders and then drop your items into those folders. The last feature that Anthony talked about was the timeline. You can go into iCurio and search for specific people from a specific place and a specific time period. It is almost kind of like a directory. But, I thought this program will be a great tool for students to use in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom.

Discovery Ed.
After watching the interview between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I feel like I have learned a lot about Discovery Ed. One great thing about Discovery Ed. is that you can use this program to add to your lesson and/or text. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, well then I guess a video is worth a million. Anyway you can keep your students engaged in the lesson and have them retain the information, then I don't think we should be opposed to using that method. I think that Discovery Ed. is a great tool and I want to do some more research to discover more for myself.

The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1
In the video, Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps discussed a few ideas to be a great teacher and the steps you need to take. These steps are:
Be a great learner to be a great teacher.

Be flexible, The Unexpected will happen.

Teaching Never ends it is hard work and it is very rewarding.

Engage 100% of your students 100% of the time in 100% of their projects.

Reflect, Revise, Share work with an audience.

I think that these are all great things that everyone who is aspiring to be a teacher should set as their goals every time they step into a classroom. I know I cannot wait until I watch the second part of the video series so that we can finish the list and that way I always have something to work towards and remind me of what it means to be a great teacher.

Blog Post #14

Technology is used in all specialties. I stumbled across this website by mistake and shared it with Dr. Strange. I think this website would be good to use in a blog post. Using the website, 21st Century Educational Technology and Learning, find a tool that interest you, summarize what it is used for and tell why it interests you. I visited this site and the tool that most interests me is the quick screen share. There is a short video that explains what this tool does. This tool is used when you are screen sharing with someone. If you are having a problem or want someone to look at something. You share a one time URL with your "buddy." Then they are linked to your computer. They can see your computer screen or you can see their computer screen. Also, there is a link you can enable to allow someone access to your computer as long as you don't move your mouse. I find this particular tool to be helpful because so many times I have problems know what to do. With this tool, someone can help you fix something in no time at all.

C4T #4

Post #1

I was assigned my original C4T blog page, Reflections of a High School Math Teacher. I read the blog he posted on April 26, 2012, Reverse Your Questions: Energizing Teaching Tools. In this blog post, Mr. Stokley writes that when you reverse the question, the question becomes more engaging than asking the same question over and over. He also writes that when you reverse the question, it becomes more of an open ended question. One of the examples he uses is, "Geometry: Original Question: What is the area of this parallelogram given the height is 4 cm and the base is 10 cm? Reversed Question: Find the base and height of a parallelogram given the area is 40 square cm." I commented on his post saying: 
What a great idea!  Reverse the question.  Using the examples you listed in your post, it seems easier to come up with the question when given the solution.

C4T Post #2

I was given the blog page What Now? What Next? So What? The post I read was titled Tears. The author of this blog is teachernz. In his post he tells us that one of his students planted trees on Arbor Day. He posted that when he came in he wasn't able to speak to him about it much and later the child tweeted him. She then asked him about the trees and he told her he would "make a doc." She posted that the child is 9 and follows him on twitter with parental consent. This was my comment to him: My name is Tonya and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. It is nice to hear of a child taking interest and going out to plant trees. It brings joy to my heart to know that our children care about this Earth and the beauty in it. Also, it truly amazes me that children are so high tech today. I am amazed that your student knew what twitter was and actually knew how to use it. I am just now trying to learn the basics of twitter.

Final Report on PLN Project #2

I continued using Symbaloo throughout EDM310. I enjoyed having everything just a click a way. Some of the new tiles I included are Icurio, Discovery Ed and the class blog. After this class is over, I will most likely continue using Symbaloo to keep everything organized and only a click away.

Smartboard Project Part B

Blog Post #13

I watched the video, Shane Koyczan: “To This Day”...for the bullied and beautiful. WOW! What a powerful video. This video brings to life the reality of bullying in the classrooms and in the hallways. This video brought me to tears. The age that bullying starts amazes me. How can children be so mean! As teachers of these young children, we need to tell our students every day, “you are beautiful.” We need to uplift our students to compensate for the tearing down that the other students may be doing. We need to find a way to constantly be trying to build the confidence of our students.
 
Being a teacher shouldn’t only be about teaching. We have to love on our students as well. I know there are boundaries in school, but we have to find a way to let the students know that they are loved and cared for. We as teachers need to let our students know that we chose to be teachers because we love children and we love them. We didn’t become teachers just because we love to teach reading and writing.

In his poem he said to look in the mirror and see something beautiful and if you don’t see it look a little longer. We need to help children find beauty in themselves. Children are so delicate. If they are constantly hearing "you are nothing" and "you are worthless" they begin to believe it. As I said earlier, we need to counteract this and help these children discover their beauty and talents. Show them that they are worth something.

I did a little research and according to bullyingstatistics.org, 42 percent of kids have been bullied online. 77 percent of children have said that they were bullied. “The American Justice Department bullying statistics show that one out of every 4 kids will be bullied sometime throughout their adolescence.” As a parent this is appalling. What is wrong with children today? Something has to be changed. Koyczan mentioned that he tried to take his own life. This breaks my heart. According to bullyingstatistics.org, “10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide, according to the study above.” These are babies!

What I got from this video is bullying is real. We as adults and as teachers have a responsibility to educate these children on the effects of bullying. I remember bullying was around when I was in school. I am sure it has been around forever. I don’t ever remember a teacher educating us on bullying or trying to talk to us about it. We need to do that.


Sherri Hudson's #13 Blog Post

Education in the Slums

 From Ken Robinson's ten favorite Ted Talks, I watched the video Education Innovation in the Slums that was conducted by Charles Leadbeater. I learned that any child can learn through technology. During his lecture he empathized the drive that children living in the Rio and Kibera slums possess to better themselves with education. The children in those slums went to research centers and locations where computers were in the wall and willingly taught themselves information. Two thousand games were designed to teach the children, and they were gathered to sit in a circle to answer a question. Most of the children didn't have living parents, and the ones that did have parents had dying parents. Those living in those conditions believed "education plus technology equals hope" Mr. Leadbeater says that "motivation is the key," and I believe that motivation kept the children from giving up.

 The conclusion: Let children be attracted to their education.

If we make radical teaching more possible then more ideas are developed to improve the future! Think about what Mr. Leadbeater discovered about education from the slums.

 I believe American children have a lot to learn from children in the slums. They can learn drive, dedication, and gratefulness for the new aged tools and assistance they have. I learned to attract my students to my lesson. I can ask quality, open- ended questions such as "how" or "why." From there I want them to control what they learn next.


Christopher Perry's Blog Post #13

Let’s Use Video to Reinvent Education

I watched the video, Let's use video to reinvent education by Salman Khan, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He starts off by telling us how he came about making these youtube videos that he has done. He started it by doing these videos to help his nephews learn math. He did not make these videos private and very soon he started getting comments from other people telling him how these videos helped them. So soon after that he decided to quit his job and focus only on these youtube videos. His organization is a non-profit organization.

In his video, he talks about humanizing the classroom. What he means by this is getting the students that are watching these videos and working on these problems in the program are now learning at their own pace and then going and tutoring their peers. Now instead of the students going to class listening to a one size fits all lecture, they can watch these videos at their own pace and as many times as they need to until they understand the lesson they are trying to learn. In the program you can work many different types of problems, any where from basic mathematical problems to vector calculus. This program is designed to help you master each step along the way so you do not miss any important details as you go along in math.

In his video, he talks about humanizing the classroom. What he means by this is getting the students that are watching these videos and working on these problems in the program are now learning at their own pace and then going and tutoring their peers. Now instead of the students going to class listening to a one size fits all lecture, they can watch these videos at their own pace and as many times as they need to until they understand the lesson they are trying to learn. In the program you can work many different types of problems, any where from basic mathematical problems to vector calculus. This program is designed to help you master each step along the way so you do not miss any important details as you go along in math.

Project #15

Blog Post #12

Changing Education Paradigms


I watched the video, Changing education paradigms. This was a presentation given by Sir Ken Robinson. The presentation was animated with drawings of the things he was talking about throughout his video.

He started the video out by stating that all countries are reforming public educations for two reasons. The first reason is the economy. He asked the question, "How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century?” The second reason in culture. He asked the question, “ How do we educate our children so that they have a sense of cultural identity, so that we can pass on the cultural genes of our communities?"  Robinson said the way they are trying to achieve these things are by doing what they have done in the past. By doing this, they are alienating millions of children who do not see the point in going to school. One reason students do not see the necessity of an education is because graduating college no longer guarantees a job.

Sir Ken Robinson also talked about ADHD and stated that it is NOT an epidemic. He said that the farther East you travel in the U.S. the worse the diagnosis gets. He stated that children are being medicated to sit still and listen to boring stuff and I agree with this. I believe that ADHD exists, but if education was a little more interesting, maybe children would not have to be medicated. Many students only receive their medication while in school and during the summer their parents take them off. The reason we have to medicate our students in school is because there is no stimulation in the classroom. My son can play educational games and watch educational movies and give it is undivided attention, but he gets in trouble in class because he can’t sit and focus on the teacher. He also made a point that we are anesthetizing out kids instead of awakening them to what is inside themselves. I agree, we wouldn’t have to medicate as often if at all, if the classroom was an enjoyable place to be.I think the classroom should use technology to teach. Our children are growing up in the times of advancing technology. They are bored unless they have some form of technology or something hands on in front of them. Why not take advantage of that?

Robinson also asked the question, Why are students classified by age? I agree! Why can’t students advance in their own time? Why can’t education be individualized? Why can’t students advance at their own pace?


Sherri Hudson's Blog Post #12

I FAVOR CREATIVITY, NOT CONFORMITY

Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity and is he lying? No, he is not lying. Last semester, I learned that school is designed to convert students into conformed, manageable citizens and not engaged, creative learners. I've read articles from various authors that make the same argument. Children who grow up in front of the television or with their noses in books are used to having an imagination something compelling--something they can't resist enjoying. Creativity.

"Creativity is as important as literacy," says Mr. Robinson. In his video, he passionately lectured in favor of creativity in the classroom because the children are our future, destined to live in an unpredictable future. How can our children survive the future without creative alternatives? They can if our schools keep striping them away. History is ordained to repeat.

As teachers we have to promote creativity. I learned from Ken that I should let my English students express their imagination because those with great, creative minds are the ones that drive the future. I want my classroom to be the place where it happens.

Christopher Perry's Blog Post

I watched the video, How to Escape Education's Death Valley, and Sir Ken Robinson talked about how the education system is very different here in America. He started with the no child left behind act. He stated that in reality that we are leaving children behind by following this act. He gave three principles to bettering our education system. The first principle is human beings are naturally diverse and different. There are no two children alike. So he asks why do we set up our education system to treat them as such. Sir Ken Robison said that children prosper best when they are introduced to a broad curriculum. The second principle is that children are curious. Children are natural learners. They thrive on wanting to know more information then what they already know. He states that curiosity is the engine for learning. So we have to ask ourselves whether or not we are teaching our children to be more curious when learning something new. Are we provoking them to want to learn more? Teaching is the lifeboat of the school. Teachers are also there to mentor, provoke, stimulate and engage students into learning. Sir Ken Robinson states, "If there is no learning then there is no education." I found this to be a rather curious statement. I said to my self, How can there be no education without learning? Then it hit me, if we as teachers are not engaging our students to want to learn for themselves; then they will not and cannot learn. If they do not learn then we cannot say that we are educating them. Therefore I do not think that we can call ourselves educators. The role of the teacher is to facilitate that learning. Sir Ken Robinson also stated that standardize test should support learning not obstruct it. I could not agree more. Students do not need to wake up dreading going to school in fear of a standardize test. They should be waking up saying that I am ready to learn something new today. The third principle is that human life is creative. We are creatures that want to develop new things everyday. Our minds should not have limits placed on them. If we give our students the reigns and sit back and let them create something, I think they will arise to the challenge and surprise us all. I think that we can learn a lot from Sir Ken Robinson. He is a great and knowledgeable man that knows a lot about education and how children learn. I think if we stop putting pressure on our students to prepare for these so called standardize tests and start putting more emphasis on the learning of the material, I think that we will start seeing our dropout rate decline. The students that are dropping out are costing us more in money then keeping them in school. If we work harder to keep our students in school and give those students who are struggling the help that they need we will see a rise in our economy.

Project #14

C4T # 3

The teacher's blog page I am assigned is Diane's Digital Discoveries. I absolutely love this blog page! Her page is so full and has so much to offer. The blog entry I read for this assignment was posted on June 25. She gave links to many tutorials to help with online learning. She posted a link to a page on addressing negative behavior in the classroom. This page pointed out the negative problems that are found in the classroom such as: "technology becoming a distraction," "distracting other students," "difficulty evaluating information," "less interest in the class," "loss of sleep" and "increased incidence in bullying." The author didn't list these to say technology is bad, but to open eyes of teachers as to what it is to come. The author best described what he was trying to say by saying, "A hurdler does not run down the track blindfolded – he has to see the hurdles in front of him if he is going to clear them and win the race."

The comment I posted on her blog was as follows: "Hi! My name is Tonya and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. Let me begin by saying, I love your blog! My professor has assigned me to your blog for this unit and I must say, your blog is so much fun! As a student who is a little behind in today’s technology, I am always in search of tutorials. This blog post is a huge help. Also, I checked out your page on negative student behavior. I am sometimes the guilty one of playing games in class. I also am easily distracted by the person sitting next to me playing games in class. I have gotten better trying to keep focused on the professor, but sometimes Candy Crush wins in getting my attention. I think this is going to be a tough thing to get a handle on, unless somehow these things can be blocked by the school’s network."

For the second assignment on C4T #3, I was assigned Manaiakalani Schools. These teachers are implementing Google Chromebooks into their classrooms. They are also letting the older junior classes buddy with the younger classes to help with teaching the technology. I think this is an excellent idea. My comment on this blog page: My name is Tonya Murphy and I am a student in EDM310, at the University of South Alabama. I think it is exciting that you are reaching out to the younger children and getting them comfortable with technology. I believe that the younger we teach children, the easier they absorb the information. I also like the fact that you are letting the older classes help out with the younger classes. I think buddy classes are a great idea.

Blog Post #11

After watching Little Kids.. Big Potential, I am amazed that these young student's are so technologically inclined. Ms. Cassidy has set up blogs for all of her students. In the video the students talk about their blogs. One student comments on the fact that they aren't allowed to put mean things on their blogs, because it can hurt someone's feelings. I am glad this topic has been addressed. The students were using wikis. This amazes me because, I didn't even know what wikis were before this class. Truthfully, I didn't really understand what they looked like until I saw them in the video. I also like how the classrooms are able to interact with other classrooms using Skype. DS's in classrooms! Never would have thought about teaching with this technology. I let my children play educational games with their DS's sometimes but it never occurred to me that it could be used in the classroom.

One of the main points I want to talk about in Ms. Cassidy's Skype interview, is the comment about pen and paper not being appealing to the children. I agree with this. I agree that blogs make children want to do better. When we were in class on Tuesday we talked about work being displayed in the classroom in elementary school's for parents and other people to see when they walk in the classroom. In the case of blogs, the whole world can see what they are writing and doing. This makes the students want to do better work as they progress. They are also able to see how many views they get, so this can entice them to want to work harder to attract attention to their blog as well.

Project #13