Blog 16

I remember the first day patiently waiting in a chair at a desk, by myself, waiting on EDM 310 to begin. I did not know what to expect. I left so overwhelmed, not sure if I could do it because I would be so stressed! I had no idea what Google Drive was, I had no idea what blogger was. All I knew was I had a blog, and I needed to learn fast what Google Drive was and how to use it. EDM 310 has been a journey! I counted down the weeks at the beginning and could not wait to get done with this class! But now at the end of the semester, I am thinking back to everything I have accomplished in this class and how much I have truly learned.

After reading my first blog, so much has changed! The first is my writing. I learned more about writing in my blogs, than I did in my composition classes. Blogging motivates me to be a better writer because I know that anybody can see it. The second thing that changed was how I thought. When I first wrote my blog, I was not researching to find more, I was honestly just writing to get it done. But now, I look to find more information and think critically to make my work better.

There are also many tools that I did not know about before this class that I could incorporate into my classroom. The first one is a blog. When I found out we had to write a blog every week, I had mixed feelings about it. But after using it for 16 weeks, I realized all kinds of different ways to use it. I really like how you can have a class blog and put important reminders on there so the parents can see it imminently. I also like how it allows the parents to see what the student is learning in the classroom. I also feel like blogging in the classroom would make students want to try harder, especially with people from the outside commenting on them. I hope to someday use this in my future classroom and help push technology in the class.

The second tool I would like to use is Google Drive. This is much more effective than passing out papers when students lose them. With Google Drive you can send a file to all the students in a matter of a click. You do not have to worry about the student losing that item, for they can always go back and have access to it every day in Drive. I feel like this would be very successful to also use during group projects so the teacher could see who all did the work.


The other tool I would use in my classroom is the iPad. Which I found to be the most important in my opinion. I did not know how to incorporate it in the classroom before this class. Now, I have so many ideas to help the students improve their learning through the iPad. I never realized how much you can do with one, but I have completely changed my mind about them, and I actually asked for one for Christmas this year! There are so many apps you can get on the iPad from education to personal. I am really excited to learn even more about the iPad! These are just a few of the many tools I hope to use in my future classroom. I have learned even more than I explained in these short paragraphs. I hope to encourage others about technology in the classroom and push people to end burp-back education.

Blog post #15

What Assistive Technologies are available to teachers?

Author: Autumn Sprouse

"Having a Great Time Teaching Mom what her child is learning"

To get started on learning about what technologies are available to teachers, I watched the video Having a Great Time Teaching Mom what her child is learning. In this video, a mother learns how blind students learn on the iPad. One tool that the iPad has is called voice over. When voice over is activated, whatever your finger touches, it tells you, and if you want to select that app, you just double tap. This is such a great tool that can help so many students get the opportunity to learn on the iPad. You can also change the iPad from voice over to standard mode. With standard mode, instead of double tapping the screen, to select an app you just hold your finger on it and lift up. Before watching this video, I had no idea that this was available to students who are blind, or that the iPad could even do that! After watching this, I believe that any student can learn on the iPad and it is amazing to see how much technology is available to us now for learning.

After watching this video, I then researched more videos about iPads for the blind. I watched Unlocking the Power of the iPad for the Blind. This video showed how teachers to learned about the iPad and how to teach the students. The teachers go through a workshop which is led by Jon Erlichman who is blind. He teaches the teachers how to use voiceover and the several apps you can get to help the students further their learning. Many of the apps are free or cost $0.99.

It is amazing to see how far we have came in the last few years with technology from students using Braille, to them now using iPads and being able to use them on a daily basis. Learning about this has opened my eyes to the use of the iPad ever more than I thought it could.

Technology to Help Students with Visual and Hearing Impairments

By: Douglas R. Jarvis Jr.

   
 Many of us can not imagine what it would be like to have a visual or hearing impairment. As educators, we are responsible for helping all our students learn. I researched two devices that help students in this situation. Unfortunately, many products are costly and not always available to people without insurance. The National Association for the Blind has links to several devices to help the visually impaired. I chose to look into the Braille Translation  Software.These devices allow a teacher to post a documents and have them translated to braille so that they can be read by blind students. This would make teaching much easier. By having the ability to create lesson plans that the children can read without investing lots of money into specialty documents.

   
 Hearing impairment is also very expensive to correct and many can not afford cochlear implants. However , there are several devices that can help stream sound directly to a hearing aide to allow a teacher more mobility while reducing background noise for the student. One such device is an infrared amplification device. This technology uses a transmitter to send the sound invisibly to the student. This is considered to be the most effective amplification device to use in public places because it is cordless and needs no equipment to be worn. I found this information by reading Sarah Irvine Belson’s special ed wiki. She can be found at Sara@American.edu.

iPad Usage For the Blind
Author: Kristie Bell

In the video iPad Usage For the Blind, Wesley Majerus is a technology specialists who demonstrates how the blind can use iPads.

Technology is absolutely amazing and has opened up so many opportunities to the blind. For example, the iPad has several apps that provide great assistant to the blind. These apps can not only be downloaded on the iPad, but the iPhone as well. Technology is really changing the world by helping those with impairments. For example, the app called Ariadne GPS allows the visually impaired to take solo walks by themselves. The interactive maps make it easier to explore the world around you. Whenever you cross a street a signal vibration will automatically come on. This tool can even announce stops on a bus or train.

The best part about the iPad is that it can read any form of text aloud to the visually impaired which makes learning less difficult for them. Without technology none of this would even be possible! It is simply amazing what obstacles technology can help people overcome.

After learning about the app called Braille Pro I found this tool to be very interesting. This app allows you to learn Braille and translate english to braille. This tool would be great for parents learning braille with their kids. It would also be great for parents who need help creating their child's books in Braille. This is an excellent tool and I would definitely use it.

I believe that iPad usage for the blind is wonderful. I hope that one day it could allow every visually impaired student to enroll in public education systems instead of having to go to a school for the impaired. In my future classroom, I would certainly use these apps if I had a visually impaired student. The iPad truly is a remarkable learning device!

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

Teaching Math to the Blind
Author: Kynyetta Barren

In the video Teaching Math to the Blind, it was very interesting. It has never cross my mind about how blind people learn. Professor Art Karshmer introduces a system he created using blocks and grids to aid blind students in solving math problems. He stated that braille is not read in two dimensions, so were a seeing person can line an addition problem one number on top of the other, and add from right to left to solve problems. This is how the system works. the students scans the blocks with braille and a visual number on the front with a barcode scanner. Then the computer reads the number aloud. I found this system to be very educational. I like the thought that students with a learning disability can learn in the same way as we learn. It's just amazing to learn new things!! After watching that video, I decided to do some more research on assistive technology devices that's useful in the classroom. In my search I found a software program called FaceMouse . It's a software designed to assist people with limited movement. Students will use only their face and head movement. FaceMouse uses standard webcam to allow your face to control and move the computer's mouse point. It will control the mouse pointer by following your head movements, facial gestures, and any actions such as mouth opening, closing, and eyebrow movement. I have provided a video link to FaceMouse Overview so you can better understand the concept.I think that both of these tools are beneficial to the students and future educators. I have never giving thoughts about how I would student. These resources were great and helpful!

Blog Post #14

We all have learned so far that students in a regular classroom get to blog on iPads and computers in the classroom, but that leads to another question. Do students in a special education classroom get the same chance as those in a regular classroom. Do students in special education get to use iPads and computers to improve their learning? To learn more about this, you are to do your own research and inform us on what you learned.

I decided to look more into special education on this blog post because it is part of my major. I can one day be teaching in a special education classroom and I wanted to see if teachers use iPads in there to teach or what tools/technology they use. This semester we have not studied a lot on this subject because students in this class are majoring in all different fields of education. I am really excited to see what information I find on this.

The first article I came across was from a teacher named Neil Virani who taught special ed in Los Angeles. There was one piece of technology that Virani decided to buy for his classroom that changed his perspective completely. And this would be the iPad. Virani opened and unwrapped the iPad, and 30 short minutes after it had been out of the box, something inspirational happened. One of his students who has Cerebral Palsy and only has access to one finger, had written his name for the first time on the iPad. Not only did he write his name for the first time, it was also the first time he has even written a word. Being in a special education classroom, there are many students who have different disabilities. Some students may not have any use of their limbs, while others may not be able to communicate. They all have different ways of learning also, and the iPad lets students have the one-on-one and learn. One quote that Virani says that I really like was "The philosophy is my classroom is to have the highest expectations for students, in an area where expectations are traditionally low". This article was so inspiring to read to me! Read it here!

I also found another source about iPads being used in the classroom. This post was a blog from a teacher named Glenda Anderson. Anderson is watching the progress in her classroom just from her students using this tool. So far, she has figured out that the iPad is not usually used as a tool for collaboration, that it works better as an individual tool in isolation. In reality, there will not be enough iPads in the room for every student to have one, so Ms. Anderson gave some tips on how every student gets a chance at using the iPad. Some include, creating a center with it after doing a lesson so the student can have the independent time and learn. Also, during the lesson, you can pass the iPad around and let each student in a team or individually look at the iPad. Ms. Anderson also can tell in her students a dramatic difference of her students wanting to do better work. She has overheard her students say to each other such things as "Oh, look what I did!" And the other student say "How did you do that?" This motivates the students to want to do their best work and show off everything they do.

Ms. Anderson can also tell in her students that they want to work together and help each other. They want to solve problems together, and they are helping each other more and more.

After researching on this subject that I knew very little about, I have really realized just how important the use of technology in the classroom. I love this quote that I found on Ms. Anderson's blog that made me want to help the students learn more everyday. It said "For people without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For people with disabilities, technology makes things possible."

Smart Board Presentation part B

Smart Board Lesson Plan for the Sisley Group 

      The Sisley Group presents a lesson plan using smart board tools and incorporating project based learning to allow our students to create a presentation to be presented in class and shared with our class blog. In this way, we hope that our students will strive to learn about not only the history; but the dynamics of how a nation evolves. They will answer the driving question: How did this event cause the United States to evolve as a nation? They will not only present to the class but, their presentation will be recorded and shared on our class blog providing a worldwide audience. We created a web page to allow the students to have all instructions, resources, and tools to guide them in their project creation. History PBL Presentation. 

Please visit our site and see what our students are up to.

https://sites.google.com/site/historypblpresentation/home

Final C4T Summary

For my last C4T, I had the pleasure of getting to read and comment on Dr. Will Deyamport. Dr. Deyamport first started this blog in 2009 to try and help adults improve their personal and professional life. The blog has now transformed to focus on the educational applications of digital media.

The first week, I commented on Dr. Deyamport's video called "If you Build It, They will Come." This video is of him giving a speech he gave earlier that morning about teachers personal development. He talked about how technology is improving every day, and some teachers are scared to use new technology. We should not be afraid of it though, we should use it and learn with it so we can become comfortable with it. Teachers also have have different personal development plans, some may use more technology than others, and that is fine. He wants teachers to get out of their comfort area and change up their personal development plan to make it more interesting!

In my comment, I told him how great it was to watch his video and how much I learned. I learned to not be scared to touch that button, it is just a button that you would be able to learn from. I also told him that I would be saving his blog for future references.

In my second post I watched an interview with Dr.Will and author Michael Graham. Michael Graham wrote Google Apps meets Common Core. In this interview, they discuss Google Apps, Gmail, and how to use Google Apps in the classroom. Graham states that all students have a gmail account under Google Apps and they can control what emails they receive and send. He says this is an efficient way of making sure the students stay on task in the classroom. Graham also explained how this came about at the school he was teaching at and said once they started learning more about Google that it spread like wildfire, so he then decided to write a book and help other educators out.

My Comment

Dr. Will, I loved watching your interview with Michael Graham. It is very important that everyone knows how you can use technology in the classroom. In Mobile, Al they are trying to give all students in middle through high school Mac's and that is where all there work will be done. I am in EDM 310 right now at the University of South Alabama, and in this class we are learning everything we can about technology in the classroom. It is truly amazing how much it can change in a couple years. Google Apps Meets Common Core sounds like a very helpful book for every teacher or educator to have!

PLN Final Summary

Reflecting over this past semester, I would have never expected to use my PLN as much as I did. I saved multiple websites and even blogs that I loved reading from my C4T. As you can see, I added over ten educational tiles from the first time I started using this. I also added a couple tiles to my personal section. Some educational resources I decided to save was Edutopia, Smartboard, and BIE's website so I can easily access sources to make planning a little easier. After using my PLN this semester, I can easily see myself using this to help prepare and organize in my future classroom.

I have organized my learning plan by colors, and also top half and bottom half. The top white icons are for my personal use. The bottom teal icons are for educational purposes. Organizing my PLN has helped in many ways, and I also know exactly where it is so I don't have to search for it. Here is a picture of my PLN.

Blog Post #13

Blog Post 13: What Can We Learn from Sir Robinson’s Favorite TED Talks?

Turning Trash into Toys for Learning: By Arvind Gupta

Author: Douglas R. Jarvis Jr.

    Arvind Gupta takes us on a marvelous journey in his talk about using things we normally would simply toss away in order to provide interactive teaching tools for children. He provides examples of using rubber tubing and match sticks to create countless mathematical shapes that could be used to teach angles, geometry, engineering and so many other lessons. He shows us how to create pumps from bicycle tubes and straws and generators from batteries, magnets, and paperclips. His ingenuity is a prime example that even the poorest school system can find ways to provide children with hands on learning tools. We get so bogged down in worrying about how to afford fancy classroom supplies. However, what  really matters is teaching your students in a way that captivates them. By using these inexpensive methods, you can allow students to have hands on interaction and really see why the science or math involved creates the desired effect. We can all learn from this method of education. Face it, many school systems are going to be reluctant or unwilling to provide us money for projects. As teachers, we can use Mr. Gupta’s ideas to turn our trash into toys built by our students.

    It has been proven time after time that people learn best from practical experience. Yet, so many teachers continue to take the learning out of the students hands and force them to endure tedious and non-motivating lectures. Imagine listening to a lecture on shapes in your geometry class; now instead use, the rubber tubing and match sticks and let your students build the shapes and explore the strengths and weaknesses of each shape while you discuss the lesson. The student is intrigued because he wants to learn how to make the more interesting ones and captivated when he gets to play with his creation. Learning can be fun, it does not have to be a chore. We all know what it is like to be watching the clock praying for the bell. So lets all fight against that and create classrooms that our students don’t want to leave. We don't have to have a lot of money, just the desire and drive to learn how to maximize the resources we have.

Author:Kristie Bell

In Kakenya Ntaiya’s video, “A Girl Who Demanded School” she tells the inspirational story about her educational journey. Kakenya made a deal with her father about undergoing the traditional Maasai rite of passage if he would let her go to high school. In the Maasai culture the boys grow up to be warriors and the girls will be mothers. At five years old, Kakenya found out her parents had already arranged her marriage for her. She was expected to a perfect woman so that she could become a perfect wife one day. However, Kakenya’s mother was denied an education and she always wanted better for her children, so she pushed Kakenya and her siblings to get an education. Kakenya’s mother wanted a better life for her children than the one she was living. The case was very different with her father who would abuse her mother and Kakenya’s mom could not question him because she was merely a woman. Kakenya’s dream was to become a teacher when she went to school and so she worked hard. As she was approaching high school, she told her father she would only go through the Maasai ceremony if he let her continue school. He accepted because he did not want dishonor brought to his family. Kakenya went as far to apply for college and was accepted to a women’s college in Leesburg, Virginia. She needed the support of the village because even though she had a scholarship she had to raise money for her plane ticket. The village felt it was a wasted opportunity on a girl and should have been given to a boy instead. However, she was able to work with her village elders and she arrived in America. Kakenya said she was overwhelmed with enjoyment, but she also learned that what they did to her body during the ceremony in Kenya  was against the law. It is called female mutilation and many more girls in Kenya are at risk of undergoing this. She learned that she had a right to her body and a right to an education. She also learned that her mom had a right to own property and did not deserve to be abused because she was a woman. Kakenya’s journey to America was a culture shock and a new eye opener for this young woman. It made her so angry when she discovered the news that she wanted to do something about this. She returned to Kenya and said she wanted to give back to the community. The people of the community and Kakenya came up with a school for girls. The Kakenya Center for Excellence was established in 2009 with 32 students. The school is just for girls and it focuses on academics, leadership and female empowerment, as well as life skills. Kakenya also works with donors to provide scholarships for those who cannot afford tuition.

What can we learn from these TED talks?

    We can learn so much from Kakenya’s inspirational story. First of all, her story should remind us of how blessed we truly are to live in the land of opportunity and to be able to have the option of earning a degree. We also have a public education school system where children can get an education at no cost to their parents. So many of us take education for granted and many people drop out from high school before they even receive their diploma. This young woman wanted nothing more than to have a chance at receiving an education. She was able to fulfill her goals and dreams of becoming a teacher. Not only did she become a teacher, but she also became a wonderful role model to her home community. Kakenya is an absolute blessing to the young ladies that attend her school in Africa. She teaches us to follow our dreams and never give up even if it is not an easy journey. She is an outstanding example of what a teacher should be. We need to reach out and help our students to be successful in all that they do. Kakenya’s story was remarkable and it will always serve as a reminder to me.  

Author: Autumn Sprouse

    For this blog, I chose to watch Charles Leadbeater's video, “Education Innovation in the Slums”. Charles Leadbeater is a British author who writes on topics such as innovation and creativity. Leadbeater has advised many companies, cities, and even governments around the world on innovation strategy. He has written many popular books and continues to express his knowledge on education. Leadbeater decided to start off in Monkey Hill, Rio in one of the biggest slums in the country. There he met a boy who dropped out of school at the age of fourteen. That boy started working in a business to make money, and at the age of sixteen was  running the business and  had hired over 1,000 people to work for him. This young man would be expected to be dead by the age of 24. Living in the slums means a high death rate of AIDS and the life expectancy is low. Out of a room full of kids, over half of them do not have parents, and the other half only have one parent because of the AIDS epidemic. Luckily, this same boy met a guy in Rio who had installed the first computers in classrooms for the children of Rio. Leadbeater says with education and technology, there is a chance for hope. This video also showed the computers that Sugata Mitra used in his homeland. Leadbeater showed a room full of students learning on computers and explained how they are reinventing the slums. Leadbeater says that we need more reinventions to improve our schools. Our schools may look the same from the outside, but from the inside we need to push forward to new technology. He also says we need to encourage our students more. Students are not going to want to further their education if we are not their backbone. This video taught me so much about the slums and the education there. I'm so glad that people like Charles Leadbeater had the chance to go over there and make a difference to people to who are less fortunate. Leadbeater had many great ideas to bring to Rio, and to classrooms today around the world.

What can we learn from these TED talks?

Author: Kynyetta Barren

    In the video, ”, Teaching One Child at a Time Shukla Bose talks about how she started the Parkrma Humanity Foundation. The foundation helps the children in India who live in the slums get an education. She went to the slums to identify houses where children lived who would never get to go to school. Bose then began talking to parents about getting their children into school. Shukla didn’t want to play the number game anymore, she made an effort to make a change. She wanted to provide the children of India with a better education. The foundation started a school with about 165 children. The foundation built more schools and even a junior college. Bose speaks about three myths that are believed in India. The first myth is that no one in the slums can speak English. that myth is not true, Bose showed a video to the audience of two children speaking English. the second myth was that parents do not like their children going to school. That’s totally wrong. Shukla stated that parents are very supportive and want their children going to school. The last myth was that children who lived in the slums did not integrate with other children who do not live in the slums. Once again, Bose presented a video of a girl that was given an opportunity to go to a camp with other students that didn’t live in the slums. The children were excited to make friends with the other children who didn’t live in the slums. The reason the schools became successful is that the schools and teachers operated under the idea, “one child at a time”, which means they would educate students focusing on treating each child as an individual. The idea of the Parikrma Humanity Foundation is to educate children and prepare them for the real world. Shukla stated at the end of her presentation, “what is in the building is not important, all that matters is what the children are learning.” This statement is so true! We learn that we can make a difference in any child’s life with education. Just by taking one step at a time to accomplish something so big for children of the future.We want our children with the best education possible. It’s very heartwarming to listen to what she did for the children of India.

C4K Summary for November

For my first week in November, I had a student named Kevine who was from New Zealand who was in the sixth grade. On his blog, he wrote a narrative about a family who had been wanting to travel to the USA, but did not have enough money for their trip. One day, the girl in the family came across money laying on the ground, and that is all they needed for a trip to the United States. He had a twist to his story though, which was their neighbor had gone behind their back. Their plane crashed on the way over here and they ended up surviving on an island happily ever after. To read more, check out Kevine's blog here! Kevine's Blog!

In my comment, I told Kevine that I was actually from the USA and love it here! I also told him he had a great story and kept me interested the whole time and I was ready to see what happened next! I told him great job blogging and to keep up the great work!

The last C4K I have for this semester, is from Ms. George's class. I commented on Ms. George's class post called Big Shells and Little Shells. This post was about a student finding beautiful shells that she was very proud of. Take a look at their blog here!

In my comment, I told her class that I am from Mobile, Al and attend the University of South Alabama. I also told the class that I live near the beach and I love going to find sea shells. Each one is so different and thats what makes them so unique. I also thanked them for blogging!

Project Plan #3

Lesson Plan 3

Blog Post #12

Changing Education Paradigms

By: Sir Ken Robinson

Author: Autumn Sprouse Ken Robinson made many good, strong points in his video. The first one that caught my attention is how kids don't see a point in going to school. Even when I was in school, my teachers always told me growing up that if you did not have a college diploma then you will not have a good job when you get out of school. This simple statement pushed students to do better in school work and made them want to succeed. But now times have changed. In todays society, people do not have to have a college diploma to succeed to support their family. Students today are classified as "smart" or "not smart" and this causes students to think down on their self. When children in kindergarten were tested on their iQ level, 98% of them tested as genius. That sounds amazing right? But what is the number in fifth grade. Mr. Robinson states that every year their numbers keep declining. One possible reason for that may be all the testing that goes on in the classroom. Mr. Robinson believes that students are taught to do questions from the book for homework with the answers in the back of the book. He then explains how the teacher says not to look, but we all know everyone does. Mr. Robinson firmly believes that all great learning happens in groups, and I have to agree with him!

How to Escape Educations Death Valley

By:Sir Ken Robinson


Author: Autumn Sprouse


Over 80% of kids drop out of school in the United States each year. That number remarkably sticks out. Why do students drop out? Maybe education is moving in the wrong direction. In Ken Robinson's video, he states what he thinks could be wrong in the school system in today's society. ADHD is very popular today for students who seem to be hyper in the classroom and also outside of the classroom. But, if students sit in the classroom for every day for eight hours, how could you not get antsy. When children are actually paying outside the classroom games such as video games, watching television, or playing on the computer (things they are actually interest in) it is hard to keep them interested in the classroom on material they are not excited about. In today's society, you will find testing very popular in the classroom and find students not making the grades they should be making. Testing has become dominant when it should be diagnostic. I know personally, and I am sure everyone has made a grade that they were not satisfied with and beat themselves up over it when you knew the material. When students keep making these grades continuously, it is easy to think why am I even interested in this when I am just going to fail the test. We are so worried about meeting standards and to get the highest grades over your grade level when that is not how it should be. Ken Robinson did a great job on explaining what is wrong in the school system. I have definitely learned so much from this video and agree with everything he says in it!

How Schools Kill Creativity

by: Sir Ken Robinson

Author: Autumn Sprouse In this video by Sir Ken Robinson he explains that creativity is not pushed in the classrooms anymore. You could tell how he stood on this topic, as he was very firm that all children are born with something that makes them creative. So every student should be showing that in the classroom. He also made a very valid point saying that who knows what education will be like in five years. This is again true. I was looking back at pictures the other day of one of my family's favorite places to vacation and we go every year, and looking at these pictures so much has changed. Around five years ago we had the first iPhone, and now we have advanced so much further from that. In today's society, schools are pushing students on how to just do things correctly instead of pushing them to be more creative about something. Another thing that caught my attention was how he said that you have to prepare to be wrong so you can be creative. That is very true. Everyone knows how scary it used to be in school to raise your hand when you thought you knew the answer, but you were just too afraid to because you did not want to be wrong in front of the class. It is our job to push our students to want to take that dare. It is also not just children who are scared to be wrong, it is a problem with adults too, and sometimes I can admit that I am scared to be adventurous and be wrong. As a society, we need to teach and also learn to take the chance!

Interview with teacher

C4K October

For the month of October, I had four C4K's to complete. They consisted of students all over the United States and I got to learn so much about them just throughout their blogs.

C4K Week 1

My first blog I got to read was from a boy named Ben who went to school in British Columbia, Canada. He wrote about how important and neat it was to learn about service dogs and what all they do for people in need. His class is also reading a book right now and they connected it to the service dogs. Look at Ben's blog here!
In my comment, I told Ben that I was a student at the University of South Alabama and that I loved reading his blog. I then told him that he was exactly right about service dogs being important to people and how awesome it is that they can help people who need help! I told him he did a great job on his post and to keep the good work up!

C4K Week 2

For my second week, I had a girl named Morgan who was in the fourth grade from Iowa. In her blog she wrote about what they had done in school that week and what all they learned. She said that one day the firefighters came to her school and they got to tour the fire truck for an hour and that she got to learn so much from them. The next day she said that they learned about eating healthy, and they got stress balls to squeeze for when they feel like they are stressed. She seemed very excited to be learning about eating healthy and about what firefighters do around the community!Here's their blog!

In my comment I told her that I was from Mobile, Alabama and I loved reading her blog! I also told her that eating healthy is important and is really good to know and start early! I also told her how I never got to tour a fire truck, so I know that had to be a great day! It also sounds like she has so much learning! She was very excited I commented on her blog, I got a reply from her saying how excited she was to get a comment from someone so far away from her reading her blog!

My third week, I had a student who was reading a book and was participating in a virtual book where all over the world they read the same book and they review it on skype together. He wrote about a girl who happened to be blind and deaf and how he realized how grateful he was. He also liked Skyping with other students across the world.

In my comment, I told him how awesome it was that they got to participate in this global reading and Skype with other classes to learn from each other. I then told him that I was a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Al. I also told him to keep up the great work and to keep blogging!

My fourth week in October, I had a girl named Maimazan who was a senior. She was enrolled in high school, but took an online history class through an all girls school. Her post was about her deciding to take that online class and what all she has learned from it. Her credits said she did not need another history, but she wanted to take one, and she decided to stand up for what she believed in and take it. She has learned how to blog, and also how to communicate with girls all throughout the country, and she said she has learned more in that class than she has in any other and it is online. You can view her blog here!

In my comment, I told her that she needs to stay motivated in school, that it sounds like she is doing great in her AP courses. I also told her that that was awesome how she wanted to take that class even though it was discouraged for her too. I also told her to keep up the great work and I had also learned so much stuff from my class which required a blog and I never thought I would enjoy it!

Blog post 11

After watching the Skype interview with Ms. Cassidy, I have learned so much about technology and how to incorporate it in the classroom. She remembers getting her first computers in her classroom, and she knew she would do something with them, so she made a center with them for the students. After realizing how much the students loved learning on them, she then got federal funding from the government and started buying more computers and other items for her classroom. Her administration did not discourage her from using the technology, but they also were not encouraged about it. But, that did not seem to phase as her as she said that technology is constantly moving forward and that is what needs to happen in the classroom. After starting her blog, she learned very fast that her parents loved keeping up with them in the classroom and seeing their child's progress through the year. It also taught the students a lot about audience, that everything they posted on the web could be seen by anybody. This taught them to always be dedicated to their work. Also, they would pair up with classrooms all over the world, and Skype about their blogs. Classes would also comment on their post and that helps the students really see that anybody can read their work. They had audio, video, and writing lessons all just through their blog.

I thought I knew how important technology was in the classroom, but I realize I did not exactly know how critical it is in the classroom. The world is changing everyday and technology really is growing so fast and it is really important that we keep the students moving forward in learning with the technology. Computers, laptops, Iphones, and Ipads are apart of almost everyones lives everyday. I know everyday on my phone and computer I learn something new about them everyday, and students need to learn through this also. They will learn more with the technology and the hands on. This was a great video to watch and learn a lot from.

Smart board presentation Part A

Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

For this C4t, I had a teacher named Krissy Venosdale who was the author of the website venspired.com. She is a teacher and feels strongly about wanting her students to succeed and also what they learn in the class. She wants her classroom to be the funnest place the child has ever been to and wants them to remember their experience forever. Although school isn't necessarily the "funnest place ever", she tries her hardest to make it that, and after reading her blog post, I truly believes she does just that.

My first post I read was about her child finding that place where she can be herself and feel comfortable. Everyone has that place whether it is at home, school, or at the library. She could tell her child was lost and she was waiting for her to find that place where she could just breathe. After school started and it had been a few months into school, her child finally found that place, which was at school. She could tell her child was in a happy place and right where she needed to be.

My Comment

I agreed with her that it is important for everybody to find their place where they feel most comfortable and can be themselves. It's nice to be yourself where you can act goofy and nobody judge you for what you do. It is also important for younger kids to have a place where they feel they are wanted and needed. I also told her that her post was very moving and inspirational.

My second post I commented on was called Through the Lenses. In this post, she stated how everyone needs to be different, and that different is good. She also wants schools to start being different when they are teaching their students instead of just test options A,B, and C; what about K and P. She used this stating that schools need to let the students dig deeper and let them remember what they are learning instead of just handing it to them. She also made a really good point by saying we need to stop being black and white, and instead be all the different greys there are!

In my comment to her, I told her how much I enjoyed this post she had written. I loved how she mentioned that there are hundreds of colors of gray, and we need to stop being black and white and be a gray. I also liked how she said instead of the answers being a A,B, or C, the students should be critically thinking to find out more.

Project 14

Project Based Learning Project 14

In this project, the students will work on this project in groups of three and each group will have students of all levels such as high, medium, and low. This project is for second graders introducing them to a number line and improving their addition and subtracting skills. They are going to create a "town" on the number line. For example, on the number 6, they can place the school there, and on number 4, the town hall can be placed there. I am going to handout a number line with numbers 0-12. Once they have the number line, I am going to place 6 QR codes around the classroom with addition problems where the sum equals a number on the number line. They are going to scan there QR codes with an iPad or tablet, for every group there will be an Ipad or tablet supplied by the school. I am then going to assign videos for them to watch on Icurio about number lines and how they work. Once they are done with this project, they are going to present it to another second grade class in the school via Bridgit.

Project Calendar



Project Overview

Stuents Guide

Blog Post #10

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Melon University who was diagnosed with cancer and was given 4-6 months left. He then decided he was going to give one last lecture of everything he has learned through life and who/what inspired him all the way up until now. Before he gave this speech, he made a $50 bet that he wouldn't fill the room up with people attending, and to his surprise, he lost the bet and every seat was filled. After I watched this video I became inspired and I am sure everyone who watched this does too.

Childhood Dreams

Pausch started off his lecture by telling us some of his childhood dreams he had while he was growing up. Some of them included being a football player in the NFL, seeing what it would feel like in 0 gravity, and authorizing an article in the encyclopedia. Pausch never made it to the NFL, but had great memories and learned much more from football than he imagined. He got his chance feeling what it would be like in 0 gravity, so one of his childhood dreams had been reached. His third goal was to authorize an article in the encyclopedia, and he also got his chance to do that also. Although achieving some of his childhood dreams were important to him, it was just important to him that everybody has childhood dreams. As educators, it is our responsibility to push our students to strive for their dreams everyday. No matter how crazy they could be, we are responsible for pushing them to achieve their dreams.

Pausch also talked about a head-fake he learned in football. Teachers give students head-fakes in the classroom often and the student then realizes after what they learned and what is important.I never knew what this called until I watched this and realized it was called a head-fake. Pausch used a head-fake on us in his speech and we didn't even know it until the end when he announced this speech was not for us, it was for his kids. I was so shocked when he said that, but then realized I could see why he would want his kids to see that.

This video was so inspirational and I wanted to learn more about him. I read the manuscript and I also read other stories about him. I learned so much from this video and I am so glad we were assigned to watch this. I did not know what to expect when I saw it was an hour long and had no idea what it was about, but after watching it I did not want it to be over!

Blog Post #9

Back to the Future
The video Back to the Future focuses on Mr. Crosby's 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes and how they use PBL. The majority of Mr. Crosby students are second language learners and are students of poverty. I was shocked that majority of his class was not aware of where they lived, what state or country they lived in, or what their address was. His classroom is equipped with laptops, interactive whiteboards, cameras, and their own blogs. This provides students the opportunities to think outside the box. "Creativity builds Passion." One thing we can learn from Mr. Crosby is that no matter where your students come from or what the situation may be, your students can achieve anything in the world. I also took from the video that when working with students you must be patient. Teaching and working with kids will be a difficult, so one must always do more then enough to help impact the students lives in a positive way.

Blended Learning Cycle

Paul Anderson is a high school AP biology teacher in Bozeman, Montana. Recently in his classroom, he has started a blended learning cycle which consists of work online, mobile, and classroom work. Anderson uses the acronym QUIVERS for the cycle he uses in his classroom. The first step is Questions; you have to engage your students by asking them a hook question. The second is investigate, inquiry, or experiment. After the question, you should discover more about the question. After investigation would be video, then elaboration, review, and finally summary quiz. Students must be able to review what they discovered and learned from the question. If you can’t review it, then you have not learned it. Mr. Anderson had many very good points in his video. Since he has started his blended learning cycle, he has had more success with his students and sees an improvement with them retaining and learning more information.

Making Thinking Visible

Mark Church is a sixth grade teacher at International School. In this short video, he shows how he used project based learning and critical thinking. The day before he assigned his project, he showed his class a video on early human beginnings. He then asked the students to get in small groups and discuss the video and come up with a headline that captures what could have started early human beginnings. After this assignment, they are then beginning their two week lesson on early human beginnings. This assignment made the students want to learn what exactly started human beginnings.

Authors: Autumn Sprouse and Jessica Mose

C4T #2

For my second series of C4T's, I had the privilege of reading Liz Davis' "The Power of Educational Technology." Liz Davis is a teacher for an all boys school grade 7-12 in Boston, MA. Her blog had many useful and helpful blogs.

Summary of first blog

The first blog I read was about change. Change is a very hard task for some people and they do not like anything about having to change their schedules for something different. She gave a few helpful hints that she gave to the faculty and staff at her school of what they could do to prevent them being afraid of change. She says to celebrate small victories and take small steps to prevent being to overwhelmed and to accept the change. She believes that change can be a good thing and be positive about it!

My Comment

Liz, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post about change and how to deal with it. Change does not bother me too much, I try to stay positive and open about change, but I can see why change does effect people, whether change is for the good or the bad. You gave positive advice that everyone can use. One thing that I do and remind myself everyday is to take one day at a time!



Summary of second blog

In this blog, she describes the 21st century in one word. That one word is TODAY. She also added what 5 things students should be doing/learning TODAY. Those 5 things include: inquiring, investigating, collaborating, creating, and communicating. These 5 things should be done globally and locally! The time is now!

My Comment

Mrs. Davis, I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I agree with you that students should be learning this today in the classroom. In my EDM class, we are learning how to incorporate all of these things in our future classroom, and these 5 points also prevent burp-back learning. I really enjoyed reading your blog and how you pointed these out while we are learning about executing them correctly! Thank you!

Blog Post #8

Blog Post #8

CQ Code's in the Classroom

By: Autumn Sprouse

The tool I have decided to use in my 21st centrury classroom is QR Codes. QR Codes are very user friendly and would be great for students at all ages to use. It would also make the classroom more interesting and learning more fun. An example of a QR Code is the barcode that is a square with little squares in it. It is very simple to make your own personal codes for the classroom. In Shannon Holden's video he explains how exactly to make a qr code. An example of using these codes in the classroom would be having a scavanger hunt around the room. They must find the first code to get the first question they are to answer. They then must go around the room and find the remaining codes and remaining questions. You could also put a math problem with the QR code and have them solve the problem when they scan the code. The students would scan the qr codes with a tablet provided to them by the teacher. There is an app for CQ codes that is free that every student would have to download. Also, every student in the classroom should have access to a tablet provided by the teacher or school board for them. This is a very fun way to have your students involved in the classroom and make them excited to learn!

Socrative

By: Jessica Mose

Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers by engaging their classrooms with a series of educational exercises and games. Socrative runs on tablets, smartphones, and laptops. Teachers login through their device and select an activity which controls the flow of questions and games. Students simply login with their device and interact real time with the content. Student responses are visually represented for multiple choice, true/false and Short Answer questions. For pre-planned activities teachers can view reports online as a google spreadsheet or as an emailed Excel file. Socrative allows teachers to create their own questions within minutes. Teachers can design their own evaluation exercises in minutes by importing questions or inputting them on the website. The questions are automatically saved to your account, making it easy to access at any time. Once the exercises are completed, teachers will receive a report. The multiple choice will be graded for you. Questions can be multiple choice, short answer, or a combination of the two. It's your choice!

REAL-TIME FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Teachers can take a snapshot of the students thinking through real time formative assessment. It's super easy to gather responses and get whole class participation. All you have to do is choose a question type, ask a question, and wait for responses. When the students are asked a T/F question, see the results, and discuss the choices as they come to life on the screen. If teachers present students with a MC (multiple choice) question and see the results populate the bar chart as students select their answer. Short Answer gather open ended responses to any question you ask. Instantly project the student responses and then let students vote on the content. Exit Tickets, check in on your students' understanding as they head out the door. Gather responses on their comfort with the material as well as answers to questions you create in real time or prepare before class.

Project #9

Blog Post #7

After watching PBL Part 1and PBL Part 2Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps talking about project based learning has given me an even better understanding of what project based learning is. Project based learning isn’t just giving a student a project after learning a lesson in the book to make sure they grasped the information. There have been many teachers in my past who have given out a project after learning about something, and expect us to take what we learned and use it in our project. When doing the project it is hard to remember what we covered and everything about the information because all we were taught was reading out of the book. This is an example of burp back education. There are a few ideas that make up a good project in project based learning. The first one is audience. If the student is given an audience to present their work, for example blogs, then that makes the student more determined to give it their best. Another one is student interest. You have to make the students interested in what they are learning and make them excited about wanting to learn about that subject. Project based learning would make the student excited about wanting to learn more and dig deeper to get more information on that subject. Another idea is community involvement. This is similar to audience because they are wanting to impress the person who is reading their information. Getting the community involved in their work can be so simple. One example Anthony Capps gave is writing a letter to congressmen Jo Bonner. This gave the student the excitement to make their writing better and make sure they used correct grammar and spelling of the word. When they received a letter back, he said his students were so excited to see that someone really did read their work and they will most likely remember that experience forever. The last one to remember about a good project is that it has to be driven by content. When giving a student the assignment, you can also make sure to incorporate the standards so the students are also meeting the expectation they are expected to exceed.

Icurio

n this video Anthony Capps does an excellent job describing iCurio. The purpose of iCurio is for students to search websites, images, videos, and media that have been filtered for educational use. . Mr. Capps discusses how the information pulled using this tool will accurate and appropriate. Not like Wikipedia where any and everybody can change the text of an article. Mr. Capps also discusses storage on iCurio, students are able to store different types of information they find. This is helpful, because I have been in that position where I have had to write down a website I wanted to use for an assignment, only to not be able to find that exact article I needed. This also helps with student virtual organization skills. Mr. Capps also discusses the historical figures feature. This feature allows students to search by criteria, for example, Indian women 1920. Overall, iCurio is a great tool that should be used in all classrooms.

Discovery Education

Also Discovery Education is an excellent tool that can be used in the classroom by teachers and students. This could be the connecting puzzle piece that your students have been waiting for. With Discovery Ed, there are narrow searches so that it can help you find exactly what you are looking for. When providing a visual to students to in the classroom, they retain more about it because they can think back when they saw that video that day. For an example of Discovery Ed, if you are teaching about rocks in the classroom, the teacher or the student can get on and look up the different rocks they talked about that day, so it gives them a better example and they can see a real life visual of the rocks.

The Anthony - Strange List of Tips for Teachers Part 1

By: Autumn Sprouse

In this video, I learned 5 important things all teachers should think about. The first thing is you have to be interested in learning yourself if you want to succeed in education. The second thing I learned was that it is hard work, but you can make it be fun. Like they say, you never work a day of your life if you love what you do, and you truly have to love what you do to make anything fun. The third thing I learned was to be flexible and unexpected things will happen. The fourth things is to get kids motivated and engaged. If they are not engaged in wanting to learn, they are not going to be motivated. They must be motivated to be fully engaged. The final thing is to reflect, revise, and share work with your audience. At the end of an assignment, revision can be done. The project might of not turned out how you planned, but you learn everyday in the classroom and you can make the changes in what needs to be done to make it more effective. Everyone can also use revision, you can only make it better! With the audience, why not share your students work with an audience? Showing your hard work with others is always important!

Don't Teach It - Use it!

By: Jessica Mose

In this video Mr. Capps discusses how to introduce technology to students. He basically says to start off small, as you would when introducing anything new to students. Gradually adding steps on how to better use the technology. He also says that teachers should allow the student to be excited about the technology and for them to talk about what they learned and share ideas. Mr. Capps makes the statement, "Don't TEACH technology INTRODUCE technology!" This saying makes perfect sense and self explanatory. I honestly never thought about how a teacher could make the mistake of teaching kids technology instead of introducing technology. But I feel a teacher could easily fall into the trap of teaching technology. For example, telling/showing kids how to exactly find the answer or complete a task. Doing this does not give that student a chance to explore the technology, and really learn from experience. So as a future educator I will not teach technology, but instead introduce technology.

Additional Thought About Lesson

By: Chelsea Powers

In this last video I watched, Anthony Capps said that each lesson should be 4 layers deep. The first layer is everything being tied together. The second layer is dividing the unit into 2 different sections. This will take 6-8 weeks so that everything works up to that final step. The third layer is the week. The fourth layer is the lesson. All of these are important and vital to the learning process. The fourth layer should contain something that will keep the students attention through this weeks process and to ensure the engagement of the students attention. During the course of the school year all the standards should be met.

Project #13 Plan #1

PLN Progress Report Project #3

For my Project Based Learning Plan, I decided to use Symbaloo. I found this to be the most helpful website when setting up my PLN. When I first started doing this project I did not realize how helpful this really would be. When setting your personal Symbaloo up, you can add or delete a tile and make it just for you. I decided to color code mine and put my social networks on top in white, and educational "tiles" on bottom and in teal. This makes for an easy find when I need something right then. I can definitely see this helping so much in the future and even right now.

Here is a picture of what my Symbaloo looks like right now and you can see how I set them up.



As you can see, I personalized my background to the beach; I always want to be at the beach! I also added YouTube, Gmail, The Weather Channel, and Etsy to my Personal Symbaloo.

For my educational "tiles" I added our EDM class blog, Discovery Education, and ICurio for easy future access. Symbaloo is very user friendly and easy for anyone to use!

C4K Summary for September

For the month of September, I was assigned four students all from different schools around the country and also in different grades. I really liked this assignment because it really showed me that teachers really do use blogging as a tool in the classroom, and by us commenting on their post, it also helps the students to really see that people from around the world can see what they are posting and it inspires them to do better in the classroom.

The first student I had was in 10th grade at Baldwin County High School in Bay Minette, Alabama. They were assigned to blog about what they believed. Emmy wrote how she believed that men should treat woman with respect instead of men that do not know how to treat woman at all. She gives the perfect example of telling her story of how she has seen it first hand with her mother being treated like that and how hurtful it was to see someone she loved go through that. She also mentioned how her dad does not have enough time for her and cancels plans on her and she feels that that is wrong. In my comment I told her that it was so great to hear that she is holding her head up high and realizing that nodoby deserves to be treated like that. I also told her thank you for sharing her story and blogging!

The second week in September I had a boy who wrote about how he used Skype for the first time and how much he really enjoyed it. He also talked about how much fun he had making his dot and that that was his favorite thing. I wrote in my comment that I was from the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I also told him that I use Skype multiple times a week and I really enjoy it! I also told him that I was not sure what making a dot was, but I was definitely looking into it after he had so much fun making one!

The third student I had wrote about how he enjoyed playing lacrosse and that it was his favorite sport. He also wrote about how much he enjoyed watching football also. I told him that I love watching football on Saturdays and I did not know much about lacrosse but from what I heard and saw it looked like such a fun sport to play!

My fourth week of commenting of kids blogs was a student from Wisconsin names Isabel. She wrote in her blog how her class is reading a book and the main character from the book was blind and deaf. Her teacher gave them a brain twister where they could not talk and they had to figure out what the other was saying. She said she did not realize it would be that hard and she could't imagine what the main character had to go through and everyone else who has disabilities like that. I wrote in my comment that that was great her teacher had them do that assignment to really understand how people struggle everyday and that it makes you thankful for everything you have. I also told her thank you for blogging and that I really enjoyed reading this blog.

Blog Post #6

Asking Better Questions in the Classroom

When asking a question, you never think of what kind of question you are asking, whether it's open-ended questions, or close-ended questions. These are things we should think more about when asking questions in the classroom. After watching Joanne Chesley's she explains more about the open and closed ended questions. Open-ended questions are more than a yes/no answer, it requires the student to dig deeper and give an explanation. A close-ended question is a question where the answer is as simple as yes, no, maybe, true, or false. In the video, Chesley stated a question, and the way she states it, made it a close-ended question. She then reworded it, and it became an open-ended question and made the students really think about what they were being asked and made them dig deeper than a simple answer. I also read Maryellen Weimer's article which explains ways we can improve the ways we write out questions. Her first idea was to prepare questions. When making your lesson plans, plan out some quality questions throughout the lesson so your students can really think and keep their attention. Her second idea was to play with the questions. What she means by playing with the questions is asking your students question before you begin, so they can fully engage themselves. Her final idea is preserve the good questions. When a student comes up with a good question, write the question down so you can keep it for future reference. Both of these taught me so much about questions that I have never thought about before.
What Questions Will I Use In My Classroom

In my future classroom I hope to use more open-ended questions to keep the students intrigued in what I am teaching. I think that this is a very important way for the student to learn more and remember it. I have had many teachers throughout school give us true/false questions that I never remember what they are after the test because as many students do, I memorize them by a word in the sentence and that is burp-back education, what we are trying to end. It is also good to get your brain really thinking and using critical thinking. I would have never thought that the wording of the question would change the answer. After this assignment, I feel confident that I could incorporate this in my classroom.