Special Assignment #1

Did Not Get the Metaphor...

As defined at dictionary.com, a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term of phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. To me a metaphor is basically a figure of speech. A few metaphors that I have noticed lately are: "Spill the beans mister", "You are the apple of my eye, sweet pea", " Lets jump for joy and get this thing over with", "I'll believe you when the cows come". Metaphors are often used in everyday conversation and many times they are not noticed. As a future educator, I think it is important to teach students at an early age how to catch the metaphors. We must first teach them that a metaphor does not mean or portray its exact words. Once the students understand a metaphor's true meaning they will be able to view things from many different points of view. I often use metaphors just for a sense of humor or so others will easily understand my point of view.

Blog Post # 13

E-Media Fast

As soon as I finish writing this post I will try for a second time to attempt this E-Media Fast. The first time almost worked but face book hit the spot. I started by turning my phone off last night before bed. That was not the hard part. It seems that my computer has been calling my name all day. My mom came home and asked me about a status online and I ran to the computer. So now I have to start all over. It is now 9:40 and my E-Media Fast starts once more. I will post again tomorrow.


Okay so I must honestly say, I did not past the test!!!! My fast lasted almost 24 hours. I slipped up around 8pm during a boring ride home. I decided to turn my cell phone on and check out Facebook. The e-media fast, at this point had totally slipped my mind. I must say this was a excellent learning experience for me. If it is this impossible for me to go 1 entire day without E-Media, how would I be able to teach a class of students without the use of technology in some way. I do not think that would work well in today's society. When one is use to the use of technology, simple things such as holding long conversations and  reading books does not hold ones attention for a long period of time, without the student's attention span decreasing.

This was an excellent project and I will try it once more!!!!

Project 15 Smart Board Instrustion Part 2

Project #11

Project #14 Skype Interview

Skype Interview with Portia Rivers.

C4K#10 Mrs. Yollis

Mrs. Yollis seems to be an amazing teacher. Teaching is a passion for her and she is really dedicated to it. I like the fact that Mrs. Yollis is a life long learner and wants to continue learning so that she can teach her students more  modern information and skills.While visiting Mrs. Yollis blog, I found some great html "happy coding" that will be fun to incorporate into your posts. They are: ♥ ♔ ★ ☀ ♦ . HTML codes can be used for many other things such as page breaks, links, bold and also italics. Mrs. Yollis also has a link that shows the different time zones of people her class communicates with. I really enjoyed exploring Mrs. Yollis blog.

Blog Post #12

Watch the video, Problems with Education. (3:56) The video is very funny!!! Despite the humor, write a brief summary of your insight of the video. Do you agree or disagree with the point being made? If you agree with the video, briefly explain a way you can fix a few of these problems with education.


In the video, Problems with Education, the comedian make some really funny but true points about problems related to education. He talks about how he should open up a 5 Minute School, which will teach students in 5 minutes the information an average college graduate will "Actually Remember" after 5 years of courses. Not a bad idea for a school; the largest problem is teachers feeding students enough information to remember for the test and not  teaching them skills. I actually agree with the point being made in this video. As a future educator, I will take the time to make sure my students actually learn the concepts and reasons for learning the information I teach. Not just feed them information and allow them to remember it for a test at the end of the week and never look back on that subject. I will continue to introduce them with the information and skills so that they will be familiar with it always and actually learn it.

Progress Report on Final Project

Our  final project group members are Erwin Coleman, Ramsey Willis, LeeAnn Bone, and myself. Our final project will consist of an activity that we will create using the green screen to travel to different parts of the world. We are very excited to see the outcome of this project.

October C4K Summary

My fourth student was Karla from Mr. C's classroom. Karla is in the 8th grade and decided to write a scary story for her blog post this particular week. the story was very interesting and depicts Karla great imagination. The story goes a little like this"One day there was two friends named Yengshi and Alex. They decided to go to a spook house but they didn't know that the spook house was located on a cemetery. When they were going through they felt something behind them so when they turned around and someone hit them in the face with a stick. The next morning they woke up and they were in a room that was dark. They got scared because they were tied up against poles after that day they were never found!!"


My next student was from Pt. England school in Aukland, New Zealand. I do not remember the students name, but the students in the class was learning about narrative writing. My student rewrote the story of little Red Ridding hood and put a little scary twist to it. 


My final post was to Mr. McClung's Blog. I commented on his post entitled The Middle Ages. Mr. McClung and his students were beginning their lesson on the Middle ages and wanted to began the lesson with a little brainstorming. He asked the students to contrast what life was like during the middle ages and renaissance. The answer his students came up with was, "Life in the middle ages sucked". This was so hilarious, but what can you expect during the brainstorming process from students?

Blog Post #11

In the video, Little Kids Big Potential the kids were very engaged in their classroom technologies. The kids are so tiny but seem to be experts with their use of the computers and smart boards. The Skype interview between Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy was very informative. Mrs. Cassidy seems to be a very dedicated and passionate teacher. She teaches first grade and they really enjoy the time they get to spend writing on their blogs and engaging in technology in her class. She is doing an amazing job by introducing her students to the many different sources associated with technology.The students are able to practice their writing skills through writing. This gives each student the opportunity to express their opinions, talk about what they learn and give their classmates feedback as well. The blogs in Mrs. Cassidy's class not only benefits the students, but the parents and guardians  as well. They are able the monitor what their child is learning and they also can learn new things from other educators who leave comments on the blogs as well. Having access to the blog will keep the parents engaged  and connected in the classroom and also keep them in the ever changing trend of technology/learning. As a future educator I will keep a class blog along with a weekly class newsletter.

Blog Post # 2

Did You Know? 3.0

In the video, Did You Know? 3.0 by Karl Fisch, some very interesting points were brought to my attention. The video states how students today are being prepared for jobs that do not exist yet. This shows how the technology of the world is constantly being upgraded; the things we are learning today, we will have to regurgitate those same skills eventually. I can remember as far back to the Ipod and mp3 players becoming popular. During that time, CD players and cassette players became a rare necessity. It always seems as if there is nothing that can replace the current invention until something better comes out.Another great example of how technology is constantly changing is the X-Box Kinect. Who would have thought your actual body would become the controller to a video game. It is also fascinating 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 is quite interesting. Another interesting fact was, China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world. "CHINA"

Mr. Winkles Wakes


Mr. Winkles Wakes, is another video that demonstrates how the world is changing within the blink of an eye. Dear Mr. Winkles finally awakes after a hundred years of sleep. Only to find that technology has upgraded and expanded throughout the world. Mr. Winkles learns of the discovery of video chatting and x-rays. Mr. Winkles realizes, though the world is constantly changing and new discoveries are being made, some things remains the same. Education is one aspect of the world that still consist of many similarities as one hundred years ago. Many classrooms today still consist of teacher-student learning setting. Many of these classrooms require long lectures with notes being taken on paper. Well, not all classroom settings are still taught this way and personally I do not believe classrooms will be taught this way at all soon. Online education will soon take over teacher lectures.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson states that "school kills creativity", and I think in some ways this can be true. In school students are taught to do thing specific ways and taught to follow orders. This can be good because everyone needs a little guidance in everything, but it can also be a con to creativity. If one is taught to do things a specific way and always follow orders then, the student will never be able to use their imagination and think outside the box of ideas and creative ways to complete tasks. "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 way and have their own distinct 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 statement that "No one knows what God looks like" and the girl comments and say, "They will in a minute." This was very fascinating to me. Who is to say what God looks like, but who is to say that the image the little girl painted was not actually God? This is a great example of individual creativity.

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

This video was an interview by Cecelia Gualt, with Sir. Ken Robinson. The interview shows Cecelia as a very smart girl. She interviewed Ken Robinson with such confidence and maturity. She also stood with great posture and focused most her attention on her person being interviewed. It is very clear that she was taught by and excellent 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 incorporate activities such as interviewing in my classroom and bring out the inner confidence in my students.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis portrays to be such an amazing teacher.  I think it is great that she allows her students to work this much with computers and programs. I will teach my students these skills in my future classroom. Many of these skills are what they need for the futre and it will be great if they are introduced to them at an early age. 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.  Ms. Viki Davis is doing a very good thing with her students. Just as I always say, everything we do will be operated by computers one day.