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

Blog Post #10

What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?

Let me begin by saying, I was not looking forward to watching this video. I have let this video be the last thing on my to do list. This was a mistake. I am so glad we were assigned the video for Randy Pausch's Last Lecture.. I was truly touched by this video. One thing we can learn from Randy Pausch is how to live life. He didn't feel sorry for himself even though he was in the end times of his life. If I ever am faced with the situation of knowing my life is coming to an end, I hope I we be able to touch people as he did and not get depressed.

Another thing we can learn from his video is to never give up on our dreams. He, in some form or fashion, accomplished almost all of his childhood dreams. The one dream he did not accomplish, he was glad he didn't accomplish it. He brought up the brick wall a couple of times in his lecture. He said, "the brick walls are there to show how bad we want something." This is so true! How many times have I given up on something because I hit the brick wall and turned around and went the other way. The brick wall is to weed out the people who aren't meant to get on the other side.

I didn't get as much educational knowledge from this video as I did life knowledge. There is one educational aspect I grasped from this video and that was, "the best way to teach someone something is have them think they are doing something else." I like this idea. This is what project based learning is all about.

Smartboard Lesson Project #12 Part A

Project #9 Podcast

Blog Post #9

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Project #10 Green Screen

Blog Post #8

Making Thinking Possible

I watched the video Making Thinking Visible. This is a video made by Mark Church. Church wants his students to engage in small groups to perform a certain task. His students watched a video and Mark Church wants the students to come up with a headline capturing what the search for human origin is about. The students get in their small groups discuss the project and write down their headline. Church explains that he is going to display the headlines in the classroom. After two weeks he wants to show the students how much their thinking has changed and progressed.

I think this is an awesome assignment for a couple of reasons. It challenges the students to work in a group and come to an agreement on the headline. The headline has to be one sentence, so it challenges them to think and be creative. Also, I think the idea of showing the children their progressive way of thinking is the best part. I think as teachers we should allow the student’s to see their progress. That would also be a way to know, as a teacher, if we are teaching students what they need to know. I believe that at the beginning of the semester the students should be given an assignment to show their starting point in the class. Then at the end of the semester give a similar assignment and show the students their progression.


Sherri Hudson's Blog

I watched Mr. Paul Andersen's Youtube video about the Blended Learning Cycle. Blended learning is a combination of learning with mobile phones, the internet, and being in a classroom. The learning cycle is consisted with engaging, exploring, expanding, explaining with a posed question. All of this inspires the "blended learning cycle."Mr. Andersen claimed that he strayed from what he knew--the power of the question. One thing I can learn from him is letting the students be more in control of their learning. Mr. Andersen began his class with an interesting phenomenon. For example he presented a metallic disk continuously and mysteriously spinning a mirror. When teaching with a posed question we have to be ready to do the following: Investigate/inquire Video Elaborate Review Give a Summary quiz We can learn that teaching is difficult because you have to entice the students. The best way to do that is to put effort in showing the students something new. We have to teach them in a fashion we'd like to learn in. Lecturing is boring and that's what I learned from Mr. Andersen's video. What can I learn about teaching and learning from Brian Crosby In the video, Back to the Future, Mr. Brian Crosby tells us about how he gets his class of multicultural and at risk students to learn using project based learning. He starts off by telling us about his class and how more than half of his students could not tell you what city they lived in, or what country they lived in. Then he goes on to tell us about how he uses technology to gain the interest of his class. In his class they have a ratio of 1:1 with laptops in the classroom. He uses these laptops to allow his students to connect all over the world with other students. All of his students have a blog and allows them to think out of the box a little bit. He then goes on to talk about a balloon project that they did. The students did several activities to prepare for the balloon launch. He requires them to blog about what they had to do and they also post videos from the activities that they did. They also had to create a wiki page, and stories about if they were the balloon. They have a class flickr account. The students also made stratocards with their high hopes that they wanted for their life. Finally, they sent up their balloon. They built their own payload to send up all their stuff.


Christopher Perry's Blog #8
I think that Mr. Crosby is a great teacher and is a great example of how PBL can motivate students to want to grasp a deeper knowledge of the material that they need to learn. What can I learn from this is that teaching is not about giving students "busy work" and hoping that they grasp all the concepts from that work. I think that teaching is about making the students learn for themselves and from their peers around them. I think by doing projects that allow students to be interactive with each other and other students around the world, gives the students more motivation to learn and want to know more about a subject. Sometimes learning can be boring and tough to do by yourself. But, if you incorporate others into that learning process then each person may gain a deeper knowledge into the material. Learning is not about tests and grades. Learning is about understanding the material and then being able to use that knowledge to perform in real world tasks. As educators we have to understand that not everybody learns at the same pace or at the same level, so we have to create a curriculum that adapts to every student so that the students can thrive and succeed later in life.

PLN Project #9

I used symbaloo for my PLN. Most of the tiles consist of my daily visited site. This is a very neat site because most everything you need throughout the day can be found in one place.

Blog Post #7

Assistive Technology in the Classroom

The two most amazing forms of assistive technology I found were the FaceMouse and the Sip-and-Puff Systems.  Both of these programs are for students that struggle with mobility.   FaceMouse uses the webcams as a computer mouse.  Different movements of the head and different facial expressions will operate different commands on the computer.  The Sip-and Puff Systems uses a student’s breath to operate a mouthstick which according to this site is similar to a joystick. I located this information on the website 8 Helpful Assistive Technology Tools for Your Classroom.  If available, I would definitely use these programs in my classroom.  This would give the students that feeling of independence of not having to rely on help all of the time.

I also watched the video on the ipad using voice over designed for the blind.  This would be a very useful tool in the classroom.  It would give the student a little bit of independence by being able to find things he/she may be looking for without having to get constant help.  The ipad  seemed hard to use.  It would not do some of the things he was trying to show to the audience.  This could have been because he was going too fast trying to get all the information covered in a short amount of time, but what he did cover seemed helpful.  Audio books were available on the ipad which is a great tool because you can get the textbooks on an audio book for the blind as well.

Assistive Technologies by Christopher Perry

Doing this assignment I had no idea what kind of technologies were out there to help with students and their disabilities. I found this assignment to be challenging, and difficult. So the only thing I could think of was to make a phone call to my mom, who is a math teacher at my old high school. I asked about some of the things that they might be using to help with these students. She told me about a few that they had in place and so that gave me an idea of where to start looking.

So I started my research and found that there are numerous technological devices, and apps to help with all kinds of disabilities. One that I found most interesting was a software called Mathtalk. In this software you can write out a problem using your voice and it will input it into the computer. Also this software makes the need for parents to write out these math problems null, if your child/student is blind. Also within this software, it allows the student to print their work in braille, so they can read it and check it to make sure there are no errors within their work. I just thought that this software was the neatest and interesting "new to me" tool to help those students that are blind. Within the website I found several demo videos explaining and showing how to do each different type of math problem that you may encounter. I would definitely like to use this tool if I was lucky enough to have a blind student in my class. I was fortunate to have a blind classmate when I was going to high school, and I was amazed at how her other developed senses allowed her to learn differently than the rest of the class. it might be difficult or more work to have a blind student, but I think that it would be very interesting to learn through his/her method. I want to teach high school math and with this software you can do several types of mathematical problems from, algebra to calculus and more. Click here to view examples of different problems, and commands using mathtalk.


Assistive Technologies for Classrooms by Sherri Hudson In the video, Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children the instructors gave their students the opportunity to identify, explore, investigate, question, and interact with their environment using customized learning. Text to speech Text telephones Cameras Screen magnifiers Interacting calculator Another assistive tool is the Mountbatten, a technology for the blind that is designed for audio and tactile feedback. It can receive files from computers as well as save them to computers. The assistive technology for the blind and hearing impaired reminded me that I have to teach English, a form of a communication class. When they write papers I can tell them to use Purdue Owl or Son of Citation Machine to check their works cited page. In Microsoft office there is spell/grammar check, and it will definitely help my students. Dictionaries and thesauruses come in handy too, but there is nothing better than a reference website to help my students know the literary jargon. Glossary of Literary Terms My eleventh grade English teacher read our papers, found common mistakes, and posted them in a Powerpoint for the whole class to see each others' epic fails. When I passed his class I found out he did that to be slightly funny, but mostly to let us learn from each other mistakes. It actually worked. When I'm an English teacher I'll do the same and I'll need a laser pointer to present my students' out of place commas.

Blog Post#6

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?


I watched questioning styles and strategies. The speaker starts off the class by asking the students to describe a place children perceived the place as they read about it. The student's write down their answer and discuss it. He then calls on children and asks them to tell what they wrote. This is an effective way of asking questions because if you didn't call on someone directly you may not get any participation. He then asks the student to call on another student. By having a student call on andother student it gets the students more involved. With each question he asks he gets a little deeper and it requires a little more thinking. Most students will participate in the thinking process, because they do not want to be caught blindsided if called on with no answer.

I also watched, Asking better questions in the classroom by Joanne Chesley. She informs us that there are two types of questions. There is the open-ended question and the closed-ended question. We as teachers, in order to get our students to think, need to ask open-ended questions. Open-ended questions require thinking and not just a one word answer, yes or no, for example, which is required to answer a closed-ended question.

C4T#2

In Mr. Sladkey's next blog he focuses on the second portion of the student engagement wheel, which is small group interaction. His blog states that small groups help the time pass and also helps students to speak out and ask questions, who otherwise would not speak in regular class settings.

Mr. Sladkey has not posted my comment yet. I left him a comment with a link for flipping the classroom on youtube.  Flipping the classroom also uses small group teaching.

C4T  Post #2

In Mr. Sladkey's April 24th blog, he shares a math tool called the Desmos Online Calculator. It seems to be a very useful tool in teaching graphing to students.

In my comment I thanked him for sharing this tool.

He posted my comment, but did not respond.

Project# 8: Book Trailer

Project #7

My Sentence is...




My Passion is...

Blog Post #5

Let me begin my saying, before this Blog, I was not 100% sure what a podcast was. I had no idea how to begin making a podcast, or how it would be useful.

I begin this assignment my reading Landwitches blog about first grades creating their own read-along book. What a great way to get the students involved. Not only are the students having fun, but they are also practicing their reading skills in the process. In her blog, she informs us how she made the podcast. I like the fact that she made a booklet to go along with the podcast for the children to read along with. Also, this is a great way for parents to listen to their children whenever they want to. It allows parents to see how far their students have progressed with their reading skills. A great idea would be to let the children do a book at the beginning of the school year and to do a second reading of the same book at the end of the year. What a great keepsake this would be for parents. Also, the children could hear how much they progressed throughout the year and it would boost their confidence level. She also posts in her blog that she converts the read-along book into an .epub file and is able to upload it to her itunes. I know this will probably be hard to do, but wouldn't it be great to start in kindergarten and let the children begin their own virtual library. Something that they will continue to add to throughout their progression in school. I would love to go back and look at all the books I read in school. Langwitches also goes on in her blog to mention her thoughts on this project, her next steps she will take with the project, and her reflection on the project.

I also listened to Harry Dell's youtube video on The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom. He is a social studies teacher who uses podcasting to make the lives of his students a little easier. When his children are sick and they have an important test coming up, they are able to access his podcast and get the study guide podcast from the comfort of their own home. He wanted the children to read a book. He started off by thinking he would read the book to them. Later, he decided he would record a podcast of him reading the book. Dell then decided to hand pick other teachers in the school to help him record the book for podcasting. The teachers were in character as they read the books to make it more interesting for the students. He then lets the students reflect a little about the enjoyment of podcasts. At the end, he recorded some of his students making a podcast.

I also visited Jody Scharf's Podcast Collection. In her blog she explains what a podcast is. I have to be honest, it never crossed my mined that podcast was a cross between broadcast and ipod. Also, by her stating, "podcast is a "radio-style" talk show", she really explained to me what you can actually do with a podacst. That sentence was amazingly helpful because she made me realize that it is not just a recording for books or lessons. Earlier in this assignment, I thought podcasts were a great idea, but I thought they were only for recording lessons and books. I now realize that podcasts can be used for anything. You can use a podcast for an idea or anything that you want the world to hear. Scharf also gives a few tips to succeed with podcasting in classrooms. She also gives the time schedule to create a podcast and suggests some podcasts topics for assignments. She gives suggestions on how to research topics and then gives step by step instructions on how to create a podcast. She concludes with the rubric for podcasts and some examples of great podcasts.

Tonya Murphy"s Project #3 Presentation

C4T assignment #1

The blog page I have been assigned for this semester is Reflections of a High School Math Teacher . Mr. Sladkey believes his students should be engaged in the class. If they are engaged in the teaching, the students will learn more. He also has the engagement wheel on his blog, to measure the engagement of the students in a classroom.When leaving a comment, I informed him that I agree with engaging children in  the learning process and gave him an example of something like this that happened in my life.  I also explained to him how I will be applying this technique when I begin my teaching journey.

In Mr. Sladkey's next blog he focuses on the second portion of the student engagement wheel, which is small group interaction. His blog states that small groups help the time pass and also helps students to speak out and ask questions, who otherwise would not speak in regular class settings.

Blog Post # 4

The tool I decided to focus on in 21st century learning is "flipping the classroom."

 What is "Flipping the Classroom?"

Flipping the classroom is a way of enhancing learning. As a math teacher I find this tool very interesting. In Katie Gimbar's video, Why I flipped my classroom, she points out a very important  fact concerning classroom learning. She points out that there are three learning types in the classroom: the "middle" group, the "high level" group and the "strugglers." The Middle group in her video is the students who are the average students who are keeping at the normal pace of the class. The "High Level" group are displayed in her video as the sleeping students because they are advanced and bored. The "strugglers" are the students who have no idea what is going on in class and cannot keep up. Flipping the classroom takes learning outside of the classroom and makes learning more of a self paced form of learning. The students who are struggling are able to watch the videos over and over again to try and understand what is going on. This also allows for the advanced students to be able to get ahead in class and push themselves and work at a higher pace. Also, I like how Gimbar set her classroom up in her diagram. She put the teacher in the center and the students, grouped according to learning classification, around her. This allows her to be able to get around to all the students and answer questions.   


Christopher Perry's #4 Blog Post

Google Chromebook What's one machine that can keep all your documents, files, and friends all together and allows you to share them instantly and easily? It is built and designed like a MacBook, but is an eighth of the price. That would be the Samsung Google Chromebook. This computer comes automatically with built in apps that allow you to collaborate freely with your friends. It comes with Google drive for sharing documents, as well as Google Play for listening or downloading music, and has a built in photo editor and media player to watch your friend's movies or your own. The Chromebook allows you to keep all these apps in one place and will keep everything organized for you. Do you remember the days when you were looking for that document or file and you couldn't find it. Well no Chromebook easily will find it for you, and keep it stored right where you left it. Do you have multiple children, or adults needing the same computer? Well no problem with the Chromebook. You can have multiple users on this computer and have no problem with someone downloading unwanted apps onto your account. Viruses and other "nasties" are all taken care of with the state of the art virus protection plans. This state of the art computer is light only weighing 2.4 pounds, so you can take it anywhere and not be bogged down by weight of carrying a heavier laptop. You don't even have to carry your charger with you because the battery life on this computer is 6.5 hours. Do you have trouble remembering that website you always visit, not a problem for the Chromebook. Now this computer will start downloading that webpage you visit often as soon as you start typing in the url address. Tired of waiting on that slow boot-up time of your old computer. Well now with the new Chromebook, it boots up in less than ten seconds. Now I know you are asking yourself, "Where can I get one of these awesome machines?", and "How much is this new device going to set me back?" Actually they are very easy to find and do not cost that much at all compared to other computers and devices. You can find these computers by simply searching in google or you can go here. The costs of this machine is only $249. I think that this new innovative machine can be a really great investment in all classrooms and schools across the nation and the world. I think it is less expensive then buying bulky computers that take a lot of IT support. These computers allow you to minimize this support and the chrome operating system seamlessly updates and improves itself automatically, and with the available web-based management system allows the administrators to control the access to the different apps from the Chrome app store. There are thousands of apps to choose from and most of them are FREE! What better way to promote collaborative learning then giving students the power and the means to do it with. This machine allows you to talk and video chat with up to nine people at a time. Talk about making group projects easy. I would definitely want to use this device in my future classroom.

Sherri Hudson's #4 Blog Post

21st Century Tools Improving Learning and Technology I have to start off by admitting that this assignment was slightly difficult for me. I'm pretty sure that I was making it harder than it is. Let me remind all of you that I want to be a high school English teacher. I am accustomed to English class being a critical thinking environment. Critical thinking has always been enough of a tool for me. This assignment made me realize that I need to expand my methods in using technology with my students. I tools like Microsoft Office's PowerPoint and Smartboard are my lovely assistants when I teach English. They can be used when I interact with students simply because they are visuals. I had to think harder. Hmm...what else could I use? I have to teach grammar and literature in an interesting manner. After all, it's the best two subjects in the world! Between you and me, I honestly favor writing. I want my students to get comfortable with writing and reading because it's the two activities students dread. Even I dread it if the material is a snooze fest. The easiest way to get comfortable with writing/reading, in my opinion, is getting involved with your favorite genre. Since iPads are becoming more popular in schools around the nation, I think the iPad can become a vital learning mechanism in my classroom if I use it in this way. 1) Initiate occasional group assignment in my lesson plan. 2) Compose a survey that tells me which genre each student likes and place them in groups according to the survey. (This assures that the students can somewhat get along with one another) 3) Make each group compose a short story or analyze a piece of literature using their iPad for note taking using one of my favorite apps: Evernote. I've been using Evernote since 2011 after my husband introduced it to me. It's constantly updating with ways to be a more efficient app. I use it when I am away from my laptop by using my android app. Whether I'm thinking about a project, a paper, or my book I can always log in to my Evernote account and take notes instantly. The notes can be as short or as long the students want them to be. They can also create several journals to keep their thoughts, class notes, and personal notes organized. Since I believe critical thinking is the primary tool in an English class I believe getting my students to install the Evernote app provokes the critical thinking since it forces them to translate their thoughts into words. Since it works though email they can email their group thoughts to me and I can evaluate their learning. In addition, they can use it outside of class if they like sitting on a hammock to meditate on their thoughts. If you have a messy notebook and sticky notes lining the bottom of your purse/bookbag GET EVERNOTE! Here is a link on how to use it on the How to use Evernote on the iPad .

Blog Post #3

In Paige Ellis' Class Blog, she discusses peer editing. She is unsure as to whether or not she should post her editing suggestions publicly or privately. She displays her emails to and from Dr. Strange in this blog with the question of whether or not to edit on the blog publicly or privately. Dr. Strange wants her to help the student and wants Paige to decide which way she wants to comment. Paige decides to go both directions, she comments on his/her blog and sends a more detailed e-mail.

In video, What is Peer Editing, as to who the author of this video is, I am not sure. The author explains that there are three major steps in peer editing, these points are compliment, suggestions and correction. She brings up the point throughout the entire video of staying positive. When correcting, the editor needs to be polite. Most people do not enjoy being corrected and sometimes it is even a little embarrassing to be corrected. The editor must keep embarrassment and the feelings of the writer in mind and not just getting the job done.

In the slideshow, Peer Edit with Perfection! Tutorial , Adriana Zardini reiterates the same three steps used in, What is Peer Editing, which again are: Compliment, Suggestions and Correction. Zardini gives examples of paragraphs in need of editing and offers the reader the chance to edit using the three main steps of editing.

I personally enjoyed this last video the best. Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, is a video of a group of children explaining the top 10 mistakes of peer editing. The first is "picky patty", who over analyzes and picks out every pick little thing. "Whatever William" did not care about his edits. It was very clear that he didn't want his paper edited because he didn't care. "Social Sammy" was not being of much help to the student's paper he was editing. He was more worried about talking to everyone else about the editing. "Jean the Generalizer" was very generic. I think most of the time peer editors may be generic because it seems a little nicer. If I am generic when editing, I don't feel as though I am pointing out all of the writer's writing flaws. As I am writing this out in my blog I realize, being nice and general is not helping anyone learn anything. At the same time, I am not a confrontational person and I feel it is hard to point out someone else's mistakes. "Mean Margaret" was just mean. She definitely did not watch the previous videos mentioned in this blog regarding staying positive and complimenting. "Loud Larry" on the other hand was very expressive with his compliments. The only problem with his editing, it was done loud enough for the world to hear it. This, I believe, could also go back to Paige Ellis' Class Blog , regarding whether editing should be done publicly or privately. Even though, the editing that was done by "Loud Larry" was positive, editing should still be a private matter. "Pushy Paula" was a student who believed that her editing suggestion was right (it was not) and it should be edited that way. "Off Task Oliver" was similar to "Whatever William" in the fact that he did not care much about his paper. This hyper child had too many other things on his mind. "Speedy Sandy" was in too much of a hurry to get through the editing process. She did not help the writer and would not answer her questions. "Defensive Dave" was more worried about why he was being edited and not about get help with his paper. This video was definitely the best video watched so far in this class. I love the fact that the kids were the actors and actresses. It would not have been as entertaining if adults were doing these examples of mistakes in peer editing.

While editing my group's last blogs, I struggled with the same question as Paige in her blog, Paige Ellis' Class Blog . When I am a teacher, I will not display the writing mistakes of my students. I would find this to be humiliating if it were done to me. I will pull the student aside and discuss how the mistake should be corrected. If other students are suffering with the same problem, I will bring the mistake to everyone's attention, by putting it on the board or something of that nature. By doing this, no other student will know who made the mistake and who did not. I learned in the videos listed above that editing is needed in order to learn and grow in writing. Therefore, I need to edit thoroughly and stay positive. Most importantly I learned, always compliment first!