Final Video Reflection

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture


Mr. Randy Pausch gave his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University on September 7, 2011.  At the time Mr. Pausch had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was only given three to six months of good health. Mr. Pausch has a very humorous and lively spirit and he is not in denial of his illness. 


In Mr. Pausch's last video entitled, Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, Mr. Pausch talked about the lessons he learned while achieving his childhood dreams. A couple of the dreams he talked about were: playing in the NFL and being a Disney Imaginer. Of these lessons, Mr. Pausch got more form his dream of playing in the NFL than any of the others.  Although Mr. Pausch never made it to the NFL, he was able to play football as a child. He talked about how he had a very  old-school coach that taught the players fundamentals. A statement that his assistant football coach told him that Mr. Pausch carried through life was, " When you are doing wrong and nobody is saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up on you." This is a very inspiring statement that want to instill in m students.  Mr. Pausch explains the importance of experience. He states, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you want".  This to me is important because we may not always get the results we want from situations, but as long as we gained experience and knowledge from trying and putting forth effort, we have gained a lot. We will know how to make the situation better the next time.

Next, Mr. Pausch talked bout how becoming an imagineer was the hardest thing for him to do. He was faced with many brick walls, while trying to achieve this dream. Mr. Pausch states that,"Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out but to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." This is true; if we want something bad enough we will not let the brick walls stop us from getting it. We will do everything in our power to knock the walls down or climb over it to reach our goal. Mr. Pausch went on to work with imagineering, but he decided to turned down an offer of being an actual imagineer.  Instead he became an consultant of an imagineer. So in the end he reached all of his dreams.

Mr. Pausch eventually became a professor to help other enable their childhood dreams. He created a course called Building Virtual Worlds at Carnegie Mellon University. The course allowed students to work on 5 projects throughout the semester with different students. Mr. Pausch really enjoyed being a teacher and teaching the students in a field he really enjoyed.

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

In my opinion the video, Do You Teach or Do You Educate?, is eye opening and inspiring. I personally do not lean all the way toward being only and educator and not a teacher. In my opinion, one must teach in order to educate effectively.  The materials and skills one teaches and how they teach them, plays the role in whether or not a student is actually being educated. So I think the comparison should be between good and bad teachers instead of teaching verses educating. My definition of a bad teacher is one who feeds facts and no skills and does not deliver a  purpose for the information being feed. He or She only requires memorization and "burp back" of information and doesn't instill knowledge. A good teacher on the other hand, teaches information and gives purpose for the information being taught. Also, he or she teaches students how to be resourceful, challenge their thinking and creativity, and create morals within them.

As a future educator, I plan to teach my students many skills and instill in them the importance of setting goals and how to reach them. Also, I plan to instill in my students that with success comes failure. The only way one will learn how to be great at something is to know what it feels like to fail first.  You can't learn how to walk without falling down and getting back up.

"With discipline, hard work, and determination, all things are possible!!!!!"-KaShondra-

Project 9b

How did February Become Black History Month?

Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff Please!

Mr. McLeod's post made a very great point in a sarcastic way. I have realized that there is both good and bad in everything we do and use in the world today. Technology especially, can have its pros and cons, but it is up to us as educators to help make the best of technology for our students. No a days, technology is one of those things that students must be introduced to. The future jobs of students today will all be technology based.


The iSchool Initiative

Travis Allen's video, The iSchool Initiative, was very informative on the reasons his idea of the iSchool will be beneficial.  The idea of using only your iPod or iPad sounds very great. Not having to carrying around a load of books, keeping up with calculators and papers, and having every resource you need all on one devise sounds very useful and again beneficial. Now, with all the beneficial aspects of the iSchool, let's mention the downfalls. I personally would see the iSchool as a big distraction to students. Teachers will soon find many of there students abusing the privilege of this technology in the classroom. There are too many distractions that will take away from a lesson. There are distractions such as Facebook and YouTube that students will focus more on instead of their actual assignment, and with everything being online, what reason is there for students to really come to class for one-on-one learning?  So the idea of the iSchool can be both good and bad.

Eric Whitacr's Virtual Choir
Okay, I must start off by asking the question, "How was this possible?" It sounds so amazing to hear an entire choir singing in tune and on key together, and have never met a day in their life. This just goes to show how the use of technology can make the impossible become possible. Not only did technology make this look so amazing, but Mr. Whitacr's is a very talented person to make a vision as this one come to life. This was a very amazing video.

Blog Post #14

Mr. Picardo's educational blog is kind of complicated to view at first. Once you get the feel of it, it can be very resourceful. His blog contain a tool called Triptico, which is an essential resource for interative whiteboards. I have never heard of this but it seems to be a great tool. 
In the video entitled Top 10 Tips for using Technology, Mr. Jose  Picardo explain his ten tips:
"1. Use Streaming Video
2.Use Music more often
3.Use teleconferencing tools- great for meetings with colleagues in other countries or states.
4.Create your own interactive exercises- this gives you the opportunity to share your interests.
5.Use your interactive whiteboard more efficiently.
6.Create your own podcast.-this is a great communication sharing tool
7.Start a blog or a wiki.
8.Use social networks- we can connect with people around the world with similar interest
9.Use Internet tools.
10.Make the most of your pupil's gadgets."


Many of the tips Mr. Picardo mentioned, we use in EDM 310. As a future educator there are a few of the ten tips that I would use more often in my classroom. I would strongly encourage my students to incorporate music into their learning. Students tend to pick up on all of the latest music on the radio. So an example would be multiplication. If we take one of the kids favorite songs and but the rhythm with their multiplication facts, I think the student would learn them well. I would also strongly encourage  pod casting. Pod casting is my favorite way of learning.  I would allow my students to use pod casting as a ways to enhance their reading skills. If I was to record the students reading and allow them to listen to it, they will see their areas of needed improvement. I would also use pod casting to record myself and allow the students to follow along with me to help their reading as well. Finally, I would allow my students to use blogs. This will help them tremendously with their grammar skills. If students are able to see what they write and get constructive feed back on it, they will be encouraged to improve. Also blogging will allow the students access to give feed back to their classmates and visit the pages of other students around the world.

Final Report on PLN

Throughout the semester I have used my PLN along with my tweet deck to expand my personal learning network. My symbaloo account is my favorite way to organize all of the websites I use. I have added Mrs. Yollis and Mrs. Nancy to my symbaloo profile. I have introduce symbaloo and tweet deck to many of my friends and family, and they have found it to be very helpful as well. One day my mother asked me, what was the html symbol for hearts. I was able to go straight to my symbaloo profile, pull up Mrs. Yollis page and get the codes. I will continue to use my PLN throughout college and when I become a teacher.

Final Project #16

Group, JAM (KaShondra Rudolph, Ramsey Willis, Erwin Coleman), Final Project on time Management!!!! Hope You Enjoy!!!!

C4K Summary

My first 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?

My next post was to a kid name Shane from Mrs. Yollis class blog. I was assigned to his blog post titled  A Fun Halloween. Shane had a really amazing story and he also has a wild imagination. After reading his story, I commented on his post saying:

Hello Shane!!!

My name is KaShondra Rudolph. I am an EDM310 student from the University of South Alabama and I must say, I really enjoyed your story, A Fun Halloween. My favorite part of the story was the idea of putting blood on your face. Now that was an amazing idea. I also had a very fun Halloween. Even though I did not dress up, I was able to chaperoned a few kids that really enjoyed themselves. When I see kids smile, it make me so happy.

Keep up the great writing.

My final post was to a kid by the name of Mele. Mele is in Mr. Somerville's Room 16 at Pt. England School. Her post was titled Ab sailing. She was able to attend Camp Benzon and go Ab sailing. She had a lot of fun and i wish I was not afraid to do things such as this. My comment to her was:

Hello Mele,

My name is Kashondra Rudolph. I am an EDM310 student from the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your post. It seems like you really had a great time at Camp Benzon. I have never been Ab sailing, but I have tried rock climbing once. Well, I can say I never made it off the ground. The instructor told me I needed to work on my upper body strength. Hopefully one day I will succeed. I am glad you enjoyed yourself!!!

C4T Summary # 4

I was assigned to the blog of Nancy Teaches. She seems to be a very passionate teacher and is always up for learning new things and becoming a better teacher. The first week, I was assigned to her blog post entitled:
 Am I So Busy Teaching I Forget to Listen.


This post was a great eye opener for many teachers. In the post, Nancy spoke of how she is so busy teacher and trying to be a great teacher that she sometimes forget to listen to the ideas of the students and do not notice the students who need help but are afraid to ask. I was able to relate to her blog post and my response to her blog post was:

"I am an EDM310 student from the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed your post. From a students point of view, I can relate to your post. In the classroom, we as students are sometimes afraid to come forth about confusion or problems within the lesson being taught. I am realizing that this is a fear that I must conquer in order to become more educated an not get to far behind. As a future educator, I realize that it will be my duty to make sure my students are actually getting a clear understanding of what i teach, so they will not have to be the kid in class, lost and afraid to ask questions."

The next week I was assigned to her blog post entitled:I Had An Idea. She assigned essays for her students to write and thought the students did an amazing job with writing them. So after the essays, she came up with an idea of turning the students essays into speeches. They students were really passionate in the idea of helping animals, the earth, and recycling, but Mrs. Nancy was afraid that they did not really know what it meant to give back. From there she came up with the idea of getting the students to do research on humanitarian organizations. This was a really great post. I left here a comment saying:


"My name is KaShondra Rudolph. I am an EDM310 student from the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your post. I think students have many wonderful ideas and an a wild imagination. They really want to do their part to help and make a different. As long as we guide them the right way and give them that extra push and motivation, they will succeed at doing just what they want to do."