C4T # 3

  I was assigned Live the Conversation which is a blog by Becky Goerend. She is a 6th grade teacher in Iowa. The first post I read was about her being a little frustrated and in a slump. She was informing us on a few things that is helping her deal with it. One was making a playlist with the students favorite school appropriate music to help calm them during study hall. This gives her a little quiet time. The other idea was instead of writing what their independent reading was about they were giving options on how they could do it. She gave them the option of video, letter, or a post on the classroom blog. I left her a comment agreeing with her that options and choices have everything to do with how the students function. I said that there has to be some variations in the classroom to keep the students attention.


My second visit to her blog she had posted that if you give students a meaningful project, they will take off and amaze you. Her students had been given four student AVerPens, one teacher AVerPens, and a document camera. The only instructions that was included was to the document camera. The students divided up into groups that were grouped by their strengths and weaknesses not by groups of friends. They have already made a lot of progress. They have learned how to charge the pens and how to hook the document camera up. Children are amazing and are very smart. Teachers need to know that and guide them more than anything . Students will not learn if everything is done for them.

Smartboard Project #13

Leslie Ketchum, Hailey Rascoe, Leigh Setser

C4K Summary #'s 3-7

C4K #3 I was assigned to read/watch the ninth post on the archive list. It was movie called Terrible Pirates and was based on a lesson they were doing in school, Mighty Mariners. It was made a old time silent movie. The children did a great job acting. There were different scenes, but I must say that the damsel in distress was my favorite. Technology is awesome and I think it is great for the kids, because they can have fun.
C4K #4 My assigned students has not kept up with his blog, so I viewed a daughter of an EDM310 Alumni's blog. Her name is Kyla Carpenter. She is a extremely intelligent second grader.  Kyla has already completed several videos, voice threads, as well as a Google presentation. Her most recent post is a video called the Secret Act. It was a video in a short story form of a trick that her dog can do. She put all the toys in the dog kennel and locked the door. Then, she walked out of the scene and her dog came in opened the door and pulled her toys out. It was so cute.
C4K #5 I was asked to view two students blogs for this assignment. One being a high school student and the other being a 7th grader from Australia. First, I read the high school students blog. I wish that I had thought the way she did when I was in high school. She views education the way it should be viewed, a opportunity that should be taken advantage. She gives a perfect example of the women in Saudi Arabia. They are not allowed to do anything without a mans permission. How will they ever know that that is not the way it should be if they do not have the opportunities to learn. Here I am a women and I am in college and I take it for granted. She has greatly changed my views of school.
 She also says that if students do not learn for themselves then they will believe everything that they are told and not have their own opinion about things. That is very important. I am a prime example. I have always been told who I should vote for, what political party, etc., but how can I argue why I do those things if I cannot support my views. Having your own opinion is vital in society. She is a very bright girl and I look forward to hearing more from her.
  The second blog I was assigned was Lauren. Her most recent post was dealing with anger. They were studying anger issues in Skills For Life. I gave her some pointers on helping her deal with her anger issues.
C4K #6 This C4K, I was assigned a student named Quinn. She has not had anything in particular posted on her blog. She does, however, have one poem on there that I commented on. It was about her playing volleyball. I left her a comment telling her that I liked her poem and that I knew what she was talking about because I played volleyball and basketball in high school.
C4K #7 I was assigned the October 7th post on Mr. McClung's Blog to look at. It was titled Global Pool of Money. This post was about the past weeks topic in class which was the recent recession that America was in and how it came about. He went through the chain of events in laymen terms for the 8th graders so they would understand. Mr. McClung  started at people going to the bank for loans, which they they knew they were not good for, to that loan being sold over and over again and finally landing in the hands of big time investors. The problem they ran in to is the people who asked for the loan never paid up.
 This happens all the time. People get way in over there head in debt that cannot be paid and others end up having to pay for it. The best thing people can do is buy under there means so that when hard times come you can still pay for what you owe.

Skype Interview Project # 12

Leslie and Hailey's Skype Conversation
How is this semester going? Featuring Brianna :)

Short Movie Project #11

Love Your Neighbor By: Melody Carlson

Blog Post 9

"What I've Learned This Year" By Mr. McClung
I very much liked this post. I love that teachers care that much of their students and show it by trying to find ways to improve different areas. He gives seven different thoughts of what he learned his first year of teaching. These different things are advice about student teacher relationships, co-worker relationships, just some tips to follow. I'm just going to touch base of a few from the group.
Be flexible with your students. No matter how much you practice a lesson it cannot be perfect because it all depends on the students. Listening to your students is one of the most important ones. You must be able to listen to your students concerns in order for them to learn. Your students will respect you for it in the end and know that you care about them. That means a lot to students. Don't be afraid of technology because it is not going to go away. Technology will continue to grow and it is best to accept that fact and use what is given. Be reasonable is also a big one. Do not set your goals too high for your students and you won't be disappointed in the long run when they do not reach them. You are just setting yourself up for failure and heartache because you believe that you did not do your best, when you did.
These are just a few that I thought were important. The most important I believe to never stop learning yourself. As a teacher, your job is to teach and be there for these children. If you stop learning about knew things it will be the students teaching you more than you teaching them. Mr. McClung gives you some hints to being a great teacher and educator and I recommend you keep them handy and remind yourself of them. Thats what I'm going to do.

Blog Post 8

1. Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 & 2
  Mr. Miller was talking about change in how literature has changed and how it is continuing to change. He introduces knew ways that he is learning to write articles and books using the internet and only that. There is so much information there that is accessible and he believes that is should be taken advantage of and I completely agree. He also makes the point that books are going slowly drifting out of the circle. Multimedia writing also gives the options of video, photos, etc. Having those options give more room for explanation of the topic.
  I wish that I could say that I am ready for multimedia writing, but unfortunately I am not yet. There are a lot of things I have to learn before I can put together something like he was showing. I have no doubt that multimedia writing is in our future. I also have no doubt that my students will be capable of multimedia writing.
2. The Chipper Series, EDM 310 For Dummies
  The first one I watched was The Chipper Series. It was a great video and very creative. I liked everything except for its repetitive script. It shows that you should always take your work seriously, because if you do not you could end up with a job that you don't like. You should work as hard as you can and do the best you can the first around, so you do not have to start at square one again. The second video assigned was Edm for dummies which was very entertaining. We are encouraged to think outside the box and use our imaginations and this video is the prime example of how you do that.
  People can take several ideas from these videos to help them with their movies and podcasts. I personally would not have thought of either of these. It shows students examples of creativity along with showing them that you don't have to go by the book.
3. Compare and Contrasts of Critiques of Smartboards 
  These two Critiques of Smartboards blogpost are completely against smartboards in classrooms. The first one was Why Smartboards are a Dumb Initiative. He argues that smartboards are not replacing something that is broken, it is just making it more expensive. Also, he argues that Administrators need to be able to show in numbers objects that they have bought. Although he makes a good argument that you should not replace something that is not broken, Smartboards are an efficient way to do lectures. You can go ahead and have you lectures notes already completed before class and saved which makes class go by more smooth and quicker than having to write and erase the entire class period. It is more efficient, I think.
  The second one is Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards. This post was more along the lines of a tangent. He clearly states his opposition to Interactive Whiteboards. He believes that they serve absolutely no purpose in the classroom other than being an expensive object that can be shown off by Administrators at meetings. He argues that the Administrators put them in their classes and does not even evaluate the progress of them and how that are helping classes.Here is a blog I found that is Pro- Interactive Whiteboards, Teachers Love Smartboards. The title tells it all.

Timetoast Project 9b

Additional Assignment #2

How Kids Teach Themselves By: Sugata Mitra

  Children are amazing and are sometimes not given credit for how smart they truly are. What Sugata does is prove just that. He sets children up with computers with high-speed internet to show how they can learn without instructions and teach others how to do something. Without ever seeing or using a computer before and not knowing what the internet was, they figured out how to browse, record themselves and play it back, play instructional games. He gives perfect examples on how motivated learners can teach themselves regardless if they are adults or children. I believe that children are more apt to learning and teaching themselves than most adults. Adults are most of the time already set in there ways and hard to change their ideas. Children are creative   and are into everything. In order for students to teach themselves, there has to be nobody there to instruct them on how to do something. They have to be in an environment where it is either they learn for themselves or not at all and most people will learn and teach themselves. Internet plays a big part in learning. It is how you connect with people and things all over the world. Without it there would be no contact.

  I believe that anyone who is motivated to learn will learn. They will go to all ends trying to figure it all out and will not stop until they do. I would motivate someone to learn by giving them something that interest them. If it is interesting they will want to learn more about it, but if it is not then they more than likely will not care. I am motivated to learn because I love children and want them to have the best opportunities in life that they can get and it start with grade school. I have to be a great teacher in order for them to have a good education. I have to have a good education in order to be a great teacher and that starts with being a motivated learner. 

  Teachers play a major role in their students life. They are with them all day long. It is important to have a good teacher/student relationship because if you do not it affects the students by not wanting to listen or not going to the teacher when they need help. 

The most important point that I took out of this video is not limiting a student. Expect more from them because they are smart and their brains are like sponges. 

PLN 1st Progress Report

I am developing my PLN through Symbaloo. It is very neat and has an appealing look about it. People should have a PLN because it is a way to keep everything you like organized and in one place.

As you can see it is a working progress. I have a little bit of everything on it right now and I am working on narrowing my focus. I have included things such as blogs that I am following, news websites, educational websites such as Active Maths and the Discovery Channel. I also keep most of the downloads we had to do from the beginning of the semester on there too. My PLN will continue to grow more and more as the semester continues.

Timetoast Project 9a