Summary Post C4K November- December 6

Wellington 4.0-Game of the Week

Every week this class has a game they play to help students with concepts. I think this is a really neat idea because it goes along with their subject material and it gives students  another aspect and method of learning. Although I scored very poorly, I thought this was an extremely creative idea! What a neat way to make learning fun. 

Mrs. Byrne's Class, Kayla- Lest We Forgot

I really liked this post because it was right around Veteran's Day and it was about remembering our troops. I really liked this because you don't see many young children today that appreciate and write about our troops defending our country. It just really spoke to me that someone so young was so sensitive to such an important matter. I was particularly impressed with this post.

Wdona's Nice Mnemonics

This was a really neat picture and I really liked it and I commented on how cute it was and how I thought the student was a good artist.It said,  "Mom never ever makes oozing nachos in a crunchy stadium".  But, for some reason, my comment was deleted.

Logan's Learning Post for 2nd Skype

I was impressed with this post too! It was about Thanksgiving. It was fairly short, but it pointed out things that most people don't know about Thanksgiving. I really liked this because it means that this student dug for knowledge, deeper than the surface and learned things that most books don't discuss. I thought it was really cool to see that in someone so young. I really enjoyed reading this post.

Project 15

Additional Assignment 5

Just Teach Them to Solve for X

In this post he is talking about how there are 2 components to teaching. We need to teach students the answers, but also how to get that answer or why that answer is true. A student may know the answer, but if they have no clue how the process works, is that really knowledge? We as teachers not only need to teach answers, but also concepts and understanding.


Sketchy Portraits: 8th Grade Identity and Pencils

In this post, he is comparing students to pencils, believing that students are "under construction". By this he means that they want to be independent and learn for themselves, but also stay grounded and cling to the things their parents taught them. Why should students have to pick one or the other? Life is full of adventure, and learning is an adventure. You make mistakes, but learning takes faith and some things we have to figure out for ourselves.

He Just Likes the Class for the Pencils

In this post, Tom explains the structure of his classroom a little more and what he does to make students enjoy his class. He sets up a hypothetical critism situation and says that "some students just like his class for the pencils. In this case, pencils could be any component to his classroom. He then points out that it is a number of things put together that he thinks makes the difference. Examples would be using humor and givees them meaningful work, rather than busy-work activities.

The Medium Shapes the Learning

In this post he talks about film-making and how all the different films have a lot of similiarities by piecing together parts differently. He also explains the benefit of using technology, but only when you yourself truly understand it. It is good to use it, but really do your research and have a plan: BE PREPARED.

Blog Post 13

ABOUT ALEX

ALEX is basically a new teacher's best friend. ALEX is designed to provide teachers with the most up-to-date, best resources for teachers to use in their classroom. This ranges anywhere from sample lesson plans, to interactive activities. I have actually used a template lesson plan from ALEX for an assignment in EDF 315. It is extremely useful because it shows you what other teacher's lesson plans look like and allows you to build off of it rather than starting from the ground up. Not only is it a great resource, but the information comes from the National Board of Cerified Teachers so you can use these resources with confidence because they have reliable sources. ALEX has received the 2007 Honorable Mention as well as the 2008 and 2009 Digital Education Achievement Award.

You can choose from any subject you can think of. You can even create your own personal page of workspace. The possibilites are endless. If you can think it, ALEX has it.

I think that ALEX is extremely beneficial for new teachers because it gives them a template to work from. New teachers don't know the ropes when they first start out and ALEX allows to have a good start and an example to refer to, rather than trying to figure everything out on your own. I think as a teacher I would definitely use the resources as templates or examples and create my own. I love that I have a reference to look at while trying to plan things. But, I don't think teachers should make the mistake of using every lesson plan AS IS. We don't need anymore cookie-cutter teachers. How can we expect students to think for themselves if we as teachers can't even think for ourselves? We can't hold others to expectations or show students how to be creative if we are unable to be creative ourselves.

Project 6 Google Docs Form Analysis

My survey asked ten simple questions related to the life of college students. I learned a lot from surveying my classmates. Listed below are some of my findings.

41% of subset group EDM 310 are between the ages of 18-20, while 77% are between the ages of 20-25.95% of the students surveyed DO NOT live on campus. Only 14% of the subset work full-time, while 59% work part-time and 5% are married with children. My subset is 91% female, 18% have children and it is also 18% that are returning college students.

When asked if they would recommend USA to a friend, 77% said yes while 23% said maybe. 86/5 of the subset live in Mobile County while 9% live in Baldwin County and 5% live in Mississippi.

As a disappointment to me, when asked what coffee shop USA students support, 68% said Starbucks only 9% said Satori... and we wonder why their is such a corporate takeover!! Support your local businesses folks!

This survey taught me a lot. I think this tool is EXTREMELY useful. It allows you to observe what others are doing and presents data to you in multiple different forms: graphs for the visual learner, statistics for the mathematician. No longer do we have to pass out surveys, calculate the results and then make charts and graphs.. it is all done for us electronically. I think it would be cool to do this at the start of a school year with my class as an icebreaker for them to get to know one another. I am glad I learned about this tool and I am sure being in education, I will use it quite a bit. I learned about my classmates and a fast, easy way to distribute surveys!

Progress Report on Final Project #15

I am doing a multimedia project about the importance of reading to children at an early age and how to read effectively. I am working alone, my schedule makes it difficult to collaborate with others. I have started writing a paper, and I am adding pictures and some sounds to certain parts. At the end, I intend to record me reading over the paper. So far it is going really welll. I am glad we got to pick the topic because doing something that you are interested in makes doing the research and work a lot easier. I have a 14 month old daughter so this topic has personal importance to me. The paper has a lot of research and statistics about the benefits of reading. My goal is to motivate all parents to read to their children regularly. I will also be talking about how to read effectively by changing your tone amongst other things. I'm excited!!

Blog Post 12

Do you agree the system for education needs to change?

Read Obama and Biden's plan for changing education. Do you think it is effective? What are it's strengths? What are it's weaknesses? Does their plan leave anything out? Discuss what you would do different. Do you have any other ideas? What does it mean for you as an educator? http://change.gov/agenda/education_agenda/.

I think that the Obama-Biden plan looks "good" on paper. I feel like they recognize the PROBLEMS in education. BUT, I feel like these are changes to improve the CURRENT system, rather than create a new one. So, depending on which side you are on, determines whether you think the plan will be effective.

For example, they talked about improving the drop-out rate. Their answer to this crisis is "intervention strategies in middle school -- strategies such as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction, and extended learning time." But what that doesn't andress is if the CURRICULUM is in fact the problem. Will any changes be made to include all people in the curriculum? Will it benefit all students or will it remain to serve and maintain White privelege? What about technology? Where will it's role be in education?

Obama-Biden also plan on expanding the Head Start program. I think this is a good idea. Not only is it giving students a little extra preparation and foundation to succeed in school, but it also can benefit working parents. This is where I agree with Dr. Strange that the current system does also serve as a "babysitting facility". Sure, students are getting an education (or schooling depending on your point of view) but if kids weren't at school they'd be somewhere else for someone else to watch them while their parents work. This is also evident as Obama-Biden also plan to increase extended care programs.

They are also making strides to give teachers more incentives to teach. They plan on doing a few things, all which seem very broad and open to the interpretation of each particular district:
"Obama and Biden will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that reward with a salary increase accomplished educators who serve as a mentors to new teachers. Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities. And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well. " Sounds pretty wordy to me. How about a simple pay raise and bonuses for effective teaching?

Overall, I feel that Obama-Biden do recognize the problems. They are attempting to put out a solution to each of the problems too. But again, it raises the question, is our current system fixable? Or should we reform it all together? There are many other things Obama-Biden plan to do. There are a lot of things that I think are extremely positive changes. But againm the underlying issue is 1) Where does technology play a role in education? 2) Is it the current system that needs updating or changed all together? 3) How are we going to address the needs of all students? It could almost be said that the symptoms are being treated rather than addressing the problem But again, this depends on the way you see education.

There are a lot of things that were addressed. But what about the curriculum, technology and implementation of a new, modern way to educate our students?

Teach someone Something: Understand

Summary Post C4K comments 3-7

Comment 7= Lauren in Mrs. Reuter's class

In this post Lauren talked about the differences between fourth grade and now. She talks about how she likes her teachers and how they get to use netbooks. Reading her blog post made me realize what a difference a good teacher can make and it made me reminisce about my elementary years.

Comment 6= Conor S in Mrs. Quam's and Mrs. Goerend's class

In this comment Conor talked about how he learned that we can still read words as long as the first word and the last word are in the right place. Here is an example:

It truns out yuo can mxi up ltetres all you wnat in a wrod as lnog as the frist and the lsat ltters aer the smae.

I think it is an interesting fact that I would have never known!

Comment 5= Adriana, 7th grade, Australia

In this post Adriana talks about theories of how the world came into being. She States that believing the "Big Bang Theory" is an insult to one's intelligence. I actually agree with her. It is a pretty far-fetched, invalid viewpoint.

Comment 4= Emily, Grade 5

Emily made a post where she "Glitterfied" her favorite pictures. It was really neat and artistic and I complimented her art in them. They were so cute!

Comment 3= Maurice, 1st grade

This post was entitled, "Fish for Dinner" and it was a picture that he drew on the computer of a boat and someone fishing on it. This picture was so cute and it is amazing to me that a first grader did this on a computer!! Great job Maurice!

Summary Post C4T #3

I am going to include a link to the original blog post I commented on, because it was AMAZING and I think everyone should read it. It is so true and so raw.

Mr. Couros,

I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I am an aspiring teacher. If you need to reach me for any reason, my blog is http://blackjennyedm310.blogspot.com/.

First of all, I'd like to thank my professor for assigning me to comment on your blog. I feel like anything I say, is going to do this post serious injustice because it's just THAT good. Also, I'd like to thank you. You've done something a lot of teachers are too prideful to do and you noticed something that some teachers don't ever realize. I can relate to Ashley in the aspect of sports. I also love sports and played every sport I could in high school. The difference with me is that I loved school, so dropping out wasn't as issue. But my love for school coincides with my love for social interaction. I went to school where almost everyone was White and everything we read about, learned about or did was tailored to my needs as a White, middle class child. You see, school worked for me. But school was also built around MY needs. What about all the other students? I think this issue clearly ties in with the color line. If school wasn't built around your needs, then are you really going to fit in? Is the system really going to work for you? Students need and want to go to a place where their culture is acknowledged, appreciated, and incorporated into the classroom. If I, as a White middle-class student, went to school every day with ALL Black students, ALL Black teachers and learned only about Blacks and Black history, and no one understood my culture, would the system be working for me? Would I feel like I had a place and I belonged there? Probably not. We need to educate all students. Different people have different needs, learning styles, languages, history, and culture. So why do we educate children all the same way?

Out of that rabbit hole and back to your post- I sincerely appreciate reading something like this. The first step to fixing a problem is admitting there is one. You called some very important things to light. These are things that educators need to be thinking about. We need to realize what a big impact we can have on student's lives and what an important job we have been given. If schools don't educate and teach people how to be successful, who will? We, as teachers, hold the next generation in our hands every day. We get them from 8-3. Let's make the most of the time we are given and do what we are supposed to do, whether it's for the sake of having a job or because we really do care.

Thanks for the VERY inspiring post. I will be a frequent visitor to your blog from now on.

Jenny Black


Here is my comment on Perfect Practice by Kevin Creutz

This post was about how there is never really anything called perfect practice makes perfect. It's really about imperfect practice makes perfect. Without risks, we won't grow. Attached below is my comment.


Hello!

My name is Jenny Black and I am a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed your post. What is life without risk? Can you ever really learn without making mistakes? If something is perfect every time does that imply its stagnant and ineffective? Risks are good and we learn from mistakes. I think your students are very lucky to have someone that is willing to step outside the box. Great post!

Blog Post 11

Video: First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class

The kids are discussing the benefits of using blogs. They talk about how it helps them write better and teaches them about others feelings. They also talk about using Wikis. What surprised me about this video is how young these students are.. they are so little! They are using things that we are being taught to use in this class... this makes me feel slightly stupid.

Mrs. Cassidy uses alot of technology in her classroom. She first started with computers that you couldn't put any programs are. So, she set out to find a way to get some professional development on her computers. She ended up getting some funding from the government to get her started. She started using these technologies 10 years ago. She has slowly added in new technologies. She has done most of it on her own, but she has support. Some problems that we as teachers might run into is funding, parents, and the school system trying to regulate what you do. We have to be prepared to answer questions and concerns. We need to be available to parents outside of school hours to show them what is going on whenever they are interested. She talks about how the students love the technology and believes they really appreciate on not having to "shut down" when they get to school. It's a part of their world and it's not weird or foreign to them. We can't teach children things that we taught 100 years ago. We need to keep up and if we don't, we are not only handicapping ourselves, but the STUDENTS as well. It as our duty to prepare students to be successful in todays society and like it or not, technology is a big part of that. Some benefits would be preparing students to be successful in society and helping them to utilize technology as a part of their everyday life. They are getting audio and writing experience that will later be vital to their success in our society.