Project #12 Skype Interview

Blog Post #9

What I've Learned This Year

In this article, Mr. McClung talks about his first year as a teacher.  From his first year experience, he is basically summing up the "Do's" and "Don'ts" as a beginner teacher, in his article. He starts out explaining how one should be able to read his or her crowd.  He mention how he was so worried about  being assessed by his superiors, that he lost touch with his audience and the delivery of his lessons. I believe this to be a hard step to over come as a first year teacher. One may always worry about getting their lesson done on time, and meeting all the standard requirements. To solve this problem Mr. McClung feels that in order to be effective one must be able to let their audience drive their instructions. This way the students will feel more involved and  interested in learning. He also talks about how being flexible, reasonable and communicating will play a great part in ones teaching experience.

Mr. McClung goes on to discuss the things one should not do. He feels that a teacher should "Not be afraid of technology" and "Never Stop Learning." I absolutely agree with them both. Society is constantly changing and as a teacher we should stay caught up with it. In my opinion the world will be technology based one day and students should be taught the basics now. The use of technology will also give teachers more resources to explore so they will be more effective with their teaching methods and materials. Also, a teacher should always be willing to learn. As I stated before, society is constantly changing; therefore, there is much more to learn, constantly. Learning never stops.

Project # 7 Form Summary

Are You A BOOKworm?

I did my form on Books. I wanted to determine how often do students read books for entertainment. I was amazed to see that 5 out of the 7 people that responded, actually enjoy reading books for entertainment. This is amazing!!!! I myself enjoy reading books for entertainment. I personally prefer novel about drama or romance. According to my form, only 29% of my surveys enjoy romance novels. The majority, prefer drama and adventure novels. Also, I posted a statement that read, " In your opinion, explain how reading is related to a person;s intelligence. All seven responces, were worded differently, but stated the same thing. The responses stated, reading expands a person's vocabulary, and influences ones learning by gaining knowledge, and help with comprehension. I really enjoyed doing this assignment.

Blog Post #8

This is How We Dream Part 1 and 2


 In the videos This is How We Dream Part 1 and Part 2, Richard E. Miller talks about how writing in the academy and in the culture has changed. He started off explaining how he was a person who basically lived by books. He grew up in a house filled with book, and he dreamed of a career that involved working with books. He states how the end results are still books, only difference is they are now virtual. He makes it clear that the way we work now is through our computers and not much with pencil and papers. To me this is great. It good now because, back with only pencil and paper we were limited to creativity. One could write words, draw a few pictures, color them and basically be done. Now with the use of technology, we can use the creativity god instilled in us. with this more modern term called technology, we can teach better, use more animation, gather more information and instant feedback from others with in a few minutes and even send out information we learn to others all around the world. In these video, Mr. Miller constantly compare the use of technology(computer) to the use of the library. With some similarities, there are many more beneficial differences. In my opinion, the library's only real use is to get access to a computer, realistically.


Blog Post # 12

Carly Pugh's blog post # 12 along with her playlist and many links were very creative and amazing. The links I followed on her page had some really great videos that I think will be something I use in my classroom in the future. This will give the students time to work with technology and learn something new while using their own imagination. The video that stood out the most to me was Think Different. Think different was about some familiar people who have had a great impact on the world today. Some of these people were, Martin Luther King Jr. Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, and some others that I could not think of their names.  Many of these people stepped outside of the box, payed no attention to the rules, were trouble makers and did what they thought or knew was right. They did not care about criticism and what people thought of them, they wanted to make a difference. The video describe these people as having no respect for the status quo, and the round pegs in the square holds. They though differently from the average person and look where they are now. Famous,well know, and MADE A DIFFERENCE IN SOCIETY.


The Clipper Series/EDM 310 for Dummies


This video, The Clipper Series, was very funny, yet very eye opening. There are many students in school like Chipper, and I can honestly say I have found myself to be a "Chipper" on some occasions. "Procrastination"!!  Waitng to the last minute to do assignments is not a good idea. There are always issues to face such as: technological issues, emergencies and forgetting to do parts of the assignments. I pray to God, I never end up totally like Chipper. She has really missed the entire point of being in school, to learn and abide by certain rules. As a future teacher, I do not wish to have any students such as Chipper. Now lets discuss EDM 310 for Dummies. This video was amazing!!! I think I can put myself in the shoes of the actors in this video. I have realized, that with discipline, determination, and a little guidance, anyone can make it in EDM 310, and any other class also. The first step is, you have to discipline yourself, and MANAGE YOUR TIME wisely. If I had to come up with ideas for my own video, I would find a homeless person on the streets, who desire education but lacks resources. I will pay their tuition for EDM310 and give them a copy of EDM310 for dummies, for an entire semester. At the end of the semester, I would write a summary on how well the homeless person did in EDM 310, using the book and its resources for help. This idea will compare an average student with an homeless person, and determine how well anyone can actually learn.
JUST AN IDEA!!!!



Learn to Change, Change to Learn

Learn to Change, Change to Learn  was a very interesting video. One of the first statements that was made in the video was, "Education is ranked # 55, and thats below coal mining." REALLY??? This is horrible. The group of teachers who made their statements and short speeches, all had some interesting views. I personally find it true, realizing that kids do have a richer environment outside of school. The things they are familiar with such as texting and social networking are prohibited in many schools. To me this his not allowing their creative minds to exploring their own way of learning, nor give them a more realistic learning environment. Technology and Children are like peanut butter and jelly, these days. So why not incorporate more technology into schools and give the kids a more modern learning environment?

Podcast Group 9

Blog Post # 7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture


I really enjoyed watching and listening to Randy Pausch's lecture. Its was very interesting to see him so happy and very out spoken the entire hour of his lecture. I say this because I was shock to be informed that he has cancer. He do not look sick, and he carry himself to be a normal healthy person. He seemed to be very energetic and demonstrated push ups on stage to prove to his audience, that living with cancer, he is in better shape than most of them. Mr. Pausch had my full undivided attention within these few minutes of his lecture. 


During his lecture, Mr. Pausch spoke of hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Project # 11 Short Movie

My Favorite Teacher

C4T Summary #2

I was assigned to See Mary teach.

My first assignment was on her blog post entitled I've Stared Grad School. She discussed how she recently stared grad school. She wanted to get her degree in something that she was really interested in instead of something that made sense to the degree she already have. So she decided to get her Master of Arts in Educational Technology. i though her post was so exciting!!!!

My response to her post was:

I am an EDM 310 student at the University of South Alabama, majoring in Elementary Education. I really enjoyed reading your post. I absolutely agree with your decision on getting a masters degree in an area of interest verses following the status quo. As you stated in your post, why not spend your money on a degree that you will actually enjoy. I do not plan on being an administrator, so I would like to look more into earning a Master of Arts in Educational Technology also. I have really grown to love technology and all that it has to offer. Good luck with your studies, I think you will do well.

In a second blog post Mary talked about how different places require a certain attire for teachers Many places expect teachers to dress "Professional" every single day. this definition of professional: is Paint Suits, Shirt and tie, Skirts and Heels Daily!!!! Some places on the other hand, are allowed to dress comfortable. This is my kind of style!!!

My response to her post was:

I really enjoyed reading your blog post, and I agree with your points made. I personally do not think attire plays a role of determining the level of respect a teacher receive. I think a teacher who demands respect will gain it regardless to their attire. A teacher will actually perform their job better if they are satisfied and comfortable while doing it, not walking around in painful shoes or a hot tie around their neck. I honestly see the purpose of administrators stressing the dress codes of teachers. the main focus should be on the students. Yea, of course their should be a limit to what a teacher wear, but it should not be limited to only “Professional attire”!!

Great Post!!!!!

Progress Report on PLN Project #10

I have been using my PLN for quite some time now. I had so much fun creating my PLN, using symbaloo!!!!My PLN is a great organized way that I arrange all websites that will be of benefit to me and also a great place to arrange all of my social networks. I organized my PLN by colors. I have all of my Social networks in Blue. My class websites are in Red, and sites I shop on are in Green. I also have other random websites in White. This is a great tool that anyone can use!!!!

Project 9b Time Toast Timeline

The 44th President of The United States of America

Special Assignment # 1

1. Did you know about WolframAlpha?
Before being assigned this special assignment, I never heard of WolframAlpha. The only search engines I have ever really used were google, ask Jeeves, and yahoo. Form using WolframAlpha, I have concluded it be a fascinating way to retrieve knowledge and answers to questions. WolframAlpha does not retrieve this information by searching the web, but by computations according to a collection of information, stored in its memory. I think I will start using this engine regularly.

2. Did you know about Google Squared?
 While reading the assignment instructions, I did not recall being familiar with Google Squared. Once I opened its page, I remember randomly using it once before. I wasn't really familiar with this Lab at the time, but I played around on it for awhile and retrieved a little information.

3. What percentage of China's population is the population of the United States?
China has a population of 1.35 billion people, whereas the United States has a population of  309 million people. 23%

4. What percentage of India's population is the population of the United States?
India has a population of 1.21 billion people, whereas the Unites States has a population of 309 million people.
25%

5. Now what do you think of the facts reported in Do You Know?
Its obvious that the countries are growing faster as the years pass by.

6. Do you think WolframAlpha and Google Squared will be useful for you? for your students? Why or why not? Yes, both WolframAlpha and Google Squared will be very useful to me and my students in the future. We will be able to compute math prblems, compare numerical data, and also any other usful information.

Project # 9a

Timeline
From Beginning to Now!!!!

Blog Post #5

Eagle Nest Radio and Class Blog

I was very impressed with Eagles Nest Radio & Class Blog. The podcast are conducted by a group of third graders in Mrs. Edmison's class. The specific podcast that caught my attention was Episode #2, Totally Terrific Time Travel with Explorers. I really enjoyed their theme, of time traveling, and the way they were allowed to use their creativity. Projects such as these gives students the ability to be themselves, and a boost in self confidence. Boosting their sself confidence at a younger age, pushes them to want to be more involved in learning as they get older. The students also seemed to be very knowledgeable of their topics and the information presented. They presented the information as if they have been creating podcast for many years, and the students had very little hesitation throughout the entire podcast. This was a wonderful podcast, and the students seem to have had a lot of fun.



The Benefits of Pod casting in the Classroom by: Joe Dale

In a video entitled The Benefits of Pod casting in the Classroom, Joe Dale talks about the benefits of pod casting in the classroom. These benefits are as listed:

• an effective way of interacting with students outside of the classroom
• a form of learning students of today are familiar with and therefore makes it relevant to them
• it allows for differentiation and project based learning
• students can access the higher order thinking skills in Bloom's taxonomy
• it promotes creativity and innovation
• it can offer distance learning opportunities for absent students
• the process of creating and uploading audio files is easy
• students can record role plays in character making their learning more memorable
• parents can see and hear what their children are doing at school

I believe pod casting can be very useful in classrooms. From personal experience, I was introduced to podcast by communicating with a teacher on a day to day basis, listening to lectures outside of class  and students explaining information, they have learned, with your fellow. To me, pod casting is way better than typing long emails, with a disadvantage of getting your entire point across. For example, at a previous college, any questions the students had from the lectures, we were required to ask them in a podcast and post them in a discussion board. From here the entire class could hear them. Anyone who was able to answer the question was allowed to explain it in a responding podcast. This way we were able to get a clearer understanding of our questions and responses, and we were able to incorporate fun into learning. I think methods such as this should be used in all classes. If so students will learn another great way to incorporate technology in learning.

Langwitches

This post was about first grade students who learned how to use podcasting in their classroom. They created their podcasts from scripts their teacher wrote for them. The scripts were based off books that were read to them in class, and their teacher designed the books so that the students could read along as the podcast was being played. Once their teacher finished writing the scripts, she allowed the students to record them in their own voice. The blog mentioned how the students enjoyed rerecording the podcast, if they did not like the way their voice sounded. It seems to me the students really enjoyed this activity, and will benefit from it in the future. Teachers such as this one really encourage me to incorporate tools such as podcasting in my future classroom. this will introduce my students to using technology at an early age, and give then the courage to wanting to be involved in classroom activities. 

My Sentence Video

Check This out!!!!

Google homepage has this cool little doodle guitar, celebrating Les Paul's 96th Birthday!!!! He was a guitar legend!!!!! The " Google doodle" can actually record the notes you play and then be played back to you!!!!!

Click Below and Check out the cool, annoying song I created!!!!!
My Google Doodle Song!!!! Hope you enjoy, Lol!!!!


Read the entire article....
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/les-paul-rocks-google-with-guitar-doodle-20110609-1fu4o.html#ixzz1OpiN1cVB

Comments 4 Teachers Summary #1

During my first post of C4T, I was asigned to Mr. Langhorst's blog.
His post was about a Royals game he attended as a social media member. I commented on his blog post:
Hello Mr. Langhorst,

I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama, where Dr. Strange is my teacher, and I was assigned to your blog. I really enjoyed reading your blog and I have to say, you seemed to have had a wonderful experience. I personally have never been a huge fan of sports, but I do follow a little, and I am a huge fan of social networking. You seem to be a very lucky man to be granted these many opportunities.

I never received a comment back, but I actually thought it was quite interesting to know the social media get opportunities as these. I hope the next reader who reads his blog find it interesting as well.


I was assigned Mr. Langhorst blog post entitled MSTA Change Agent Conference- Standards Based Grading,for week two. I was really unable to follow the actual point of this post and would really like to be enlighten. Anyone who read this post, please give me a short summary of your thoughts.

Blog Post # 3

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today




In Michael Wesche's Video, A Vision of Students Today, I was very lost in the way it started off. However, after watching the video through, I realized that many of the statements written, relate to me. For instance,the ratio of students to teachers in ma past classes, were outrageous. Last semester, I took a economics class that had more than 100 students present. I was so aggravated when I realized, I was not going to receive much help from my professor. I went to the professor's office during office hours, to get help with an assignment, only to find a line of students waiting for help also. After about 45 minutes, I gave up and returned home to get prepared for my next class. Situations such as these are very discouraging and eventually becomes a problem. Its also scary to actually raise your hand to ask questions with more than 100 students directing their attention on me.

From viewing this video once before, I agreed with the statements about the price we spend on books and computers. I find it to become very stressful, having to spend over 600 dollars on books that I hardly ever open. When its time to sell the books back I never get over 150 dollars back; thats if they decide to buy of the books back. When it comes to buying computers there are advantages and more disadvantages. In my opinion, technology, helps students in great ways of research, note taking and many ways of preparing for the future ahead of us. We as students spend more time socializing online than anything. I feel that if teachers made some classes a little more interesting using more exciting ways to incorporate technology into our lessons, we as students will probably actually pay more attention and be interested in learning by choice rather than by requirement.

"It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines


Mrs. Kelly Hines wrote an article entitled "It's Mot About the Technology" that was very interesting. She made four points in her article which were: Teachers Must be Learners, Learning and Teaching are Not the Same, Technology is Useless Without Good Teaching, and Be a 21st Century Teacher Without the Technology. the section that I liked the most was,Teachers must be learners, Mrs. Hines stated, "As teachers, most of us have completed a specialised teacher preparation program. We have passed a test of proficiency in basic educational theory and child psychology......If you put them all in one room, you will probably find that their experiences in these areas were very different. Yet, they are all teaching children today. Teachers today must be perpetual learners who are invested in their professions".....This is true in todays society. Teachers must be prepared to always learn new things to keep up with whats going on in the classroom. How can one maintain the label "Teacher" if they are not learning the new information to actually teach anyone anything.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Techologically Illierate Teacher?

Check out Karl Fisch's article at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html. It is filled with interesting statements. Mr Fisch talked about teachers being able to get in front of a class and teach technology, when we they are technological illiterate themselves. This segment of his post was very interesting to me because I feel that no one is able to give very accurate and legit information if they are not knowledgeable of the information them self. There is no way you can learn something as you teach it, its not going to work out successfully.


Gary Hayes Social Media Count







To see the rate these counts increase is so mind blowing. It is a must do process of keeping up with technology in todays world because technology will increase more in the future at a much faster rate than it is doing so now. The only Media Count that I really questioned is the comments made on Facebook within the first few seconds. I personally thought the numbers would actually be higher. Facebook is a huge social network and there are not to many people who are not Facebook users. I remember when Dr. Strange reported from the questionares, that only two people out of our entire Tuesday/Thursday class, did not have a Facebook account. So this is another reason why i personally would assume a count such as this one would actually be much higher within the first minute.

Blog Post # 2

Did You Know? 3.0 By: Karl Fisch

I really learned some interesting facts from this video by Karl Fisch. The most interesting fact to me was to know that students are currently being prepared for jobs that do not yet exist. This actually mean new technology is constantly being born and soon everything we do will be generated by a computer in some sort of way. I personally am fascinated with the many different technologies that come out every year.  It always seems as if there is nothing that can replace the current invention until something better comes out, for instant; the X-Box Kinect. Who would have thought your actual body would become the controller to a video game. This video should be shared to every school teacher, AMAZING !!!! 

It was also interesting to learn how fast social networks are expanding. More and more people are actually participating in online dating and to know that 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. actually met online. Okay, now this was fascinating......I just learned  that China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world. CHINA???? What ever happen to Chinese people speaking CHINESE!!!!

Mr. Winkle Wakes

As I stated before, this video is a prim example of how the world changes within the blink of an eye. Poor Mr. Winkle wakes after a hundred years and finds that technology has taken over.  He discovers that people can now talk to and see one another over the computer. Visiting the hospital he discover a machine that takes x-rays. The point is the world in constantly changing and not many things will stay the same.  But as Mr. Winkle discover, some things do not always change. Education is one aspect of the world that still consist of  many similarities as one hundred years ago. Most classrooms today still rely on the teacher-student learning setting. These classrooms require long lectures with notes being taken on paper and boredom from listening to a teacher talk on an on. Not all classrooms' settings are still taught this way and I do not think any classrooms will continue to teach this way for long. I feel that the the way education is being taught in classrooms have come up a little in technology but it is not yet on the same page as the world outside of the classrooms. 

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

After watching this video, by Sir Ken Robinson, for a second time I think I will still keep the same mind frame as before while commenting on what Sir Ken Robinson says. He states that "school kills creativity", and I think in some ways this can be true.  A statement that stood out to me the most was, kids will take a chance and if they don't know the, they will have goal. Children are not afraid of being wrong. If you are not prepared to be wrong, then you will never come up with anything orgininal. This takes away the creativity in individuals. I do not think anyone should want to be like another person. I feel that everyone should stand out in their own different ways and have their own distinc characteristics, my example of diversity.

Sir Ken also gave the example of the little girl, who does not pay attention in class. The little girl draws a picture of God in her own image. The teacher makes the statment that "Noone knows what God looks like" and the girl comments and say, "They will in a minute." This was very fasinating to me. Who is to say what God looks like, but who is to say that the imiage the little girl painted was not actually God? This is a great example of individual creativity. 

I have learned a lot from this video that I plan to  teaach my students one day!

Cecelia Gault (Young Student in Findland) Interviews Sir Ken Robinson

This video was an interview by a student name Cecelia. Cecelia is a very smart girl. She intervied Ken Robinson with such confedence and maturity. She also stood with great posture and focused most her attention on her person being intervied. It is very clear that she was taught by and excelent teacher who taught their students great grammar skills, interviewing skills and also how to be confident in the things they do. I will be sure to incoorperate activities such as intervieing in my classroom and bring out the inner confidence in my students.

Viki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Wow!!! This video was a learning experience for me. This is an absolutely amazing teacher! These are the skills I want to be able to teach my kids. These are the skills they will need for the real world both now and in the future. I think Viki Davis is doing a very good thing with her students and they will greatly appreciate it ater they go further in life!!! I feel that every student will need to be able to function computer programs, and every student should have a class that is dedicated to just technology, because the real world is full of it. Just as I always say everything we do will be operated by computers.