Final Project 16

Summary C4K November-Dec

Little Voices, Little Scholars
I commented on the post from 10/26/10.  It was a post from a child named Lorenzo, who made a picture of a pirate ship.  Then he added color and animation.  It is very good for a second grade level, especially since I just learned how to make a movie this semester.  Their class blog was also really cool.  


4 Shooting Stars
For this post I read a fourth grader's post about a picture that the teacher posted of a person holding a handful of slugs.  (UGH, I don't like bugs) The student was to OBSERVE-tell what they see, INFER-tell what they think happened right before it, and PREDICT-tell what they thought happened after the picture was taken.  Here were this student's answers: "I see a handful of garden slugs", "They were walking by a garden and saw slugs", "The teacher will tell them to let them go". 

Flat Stanley
Here these children read about a flat man who traveled the world.  They made their own "flat Stanley's" and named them after themselves and then sent them around the world.  The child I commented, his"flat Arjun" was really good and traveling to India.  I hope it all goes well!! I think this is a great and creative way to get the students involved.  They even get famous people to take pictures with these flat paper dolls and I am sure that it excites them.  I think it was a wonderful idea. Kudos to the teacher that thought of it!

Mrs. Haugen's 6th Grade
I read Carla's post about a book she was reading.  She is reading "The Runaway Twin" and I blogged to her that she is making this book sound so interesting that I want to go out and get it. I told her to keep up the great work and to have a great year.  I also wished her happy holidays!

Yasmine's Blog (special C4K)
She was writing about people not commenting on her blog.  I commented on her blog about her favorite types of bubblegum.  Here is what I responded to her:
Yasmine,
I am in Dr. Strange’s EDM310 class and Shellie Miller gave us your page for us to blog on. I am glad she did. I love gum too!! Depending on my mood and how I feel that day I chew all different kinds of gum. At this point, I chew a lot of Cinnamon mint by that brand 5 and I love Cotton Candy by Bubbalicious!! Keep up the great work on your blog and don’t worry too much about people not commenting, it will happen.

Final PLN Report

I have enjoyed the Personal Learning Network.  I have added a lot of people.  I added Randy Pausch, his speech was amazing and one that every future educator should watch.  I also added "Adventures in Pencil Integration",  his writings and metaphors are great.  Another website I added is the YMCA because this is a great place for children to go after school until their parents can get there to them.  This place truly cares about the youth and how they can help people.  They do not turn down anyone because of their inability to pay, they just do what it takes to help them.  This is a life lesson that we, as future educators, should use and remember that all of these kids do not have parents that care.  We have to help them if we want them to succeed!!

Summary of C4T #4

Time and Technology

I posted on his blog about time telling.  He stated that we tell someone the time by saying 6:30 and not a half hour after six, yet we still teach children that it is a quarter after six. Why?  I replied back that I still think it is very  important that our children know how to use a circular clock rather than to always rely on digital clocks. You never know when you may need to know time on a circular clock.  I think circular clocks are also more useful in understanding and teaching how time works, functions and how to add and subtract time.  Check out his blog on this.

The Bad Guys Part One-Dr. Paul Peterson
This post from Ira Socol was about the people who are rooting for public schools to fail.  I commented on his blog and stated that I find it appalling that people are actually not wanting public school to succeed. He makes some great points and this blog is completely worth the read.

Blog Assignment 13

ALEX Stands for Alabama Learning Exchange program.   This is a project produced by the Alabama Department of Education, that is designed to share information such as lesson plans, professional learnings, and web resources, just to name a few and is available to educators, parents, and students.  ALEX is a great website, I checked out some of the lesson plans and they are really good.  Most of them contain life lessons and morals along with a learning experience in Math, Science, Reading, Language Arts, and/or Social Studies (there are many more than this).

The lesson plans available are definitely something I will be using in the future.  I think it is a great thing.  I also read that it is a work in progress and they are always looking for more information and advice for the website.
ACCESS is Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide.  This is a program that is available to all Alabama public high school students to "create equity through additional educational offerings for them".  This website gives very detailed information for parents and students about course offerings, advanced placement testing, and the graduation exams; to name a few.  You can go the students tab and it gives a place for the parents to look and has testimonials from other students that shared their experience.  I really enjoyed this site.

Project #15

Who Needs EDM310

Additional Assignment #5

After reading his post Sketchy Portraits: 8th Grade Identity and Pencils, I would have to agree with him that teenagers, especially in middle school, they are just trying to figure out who they are and where they belong in life.  I think this is a great age to get them actively involved in school so that they will want to finish and continue their education.  The child's responses back to the teacher were definitely creative.

His next post He just likes the class for the Pencils, was touching.  I really hope and aspire to be a teacher like him.  One who can control his students, make learning fun and interesting, and be the nice teacher. Obviously computers and internet access, which is limited in school, adds to a class and makes it more interesting, however, it takes a great teacher to keep their interest alive.  It is also important to not constantly blame the child, but to see if there is something we, as the teacher, can change to help the child.  

Reading his last post, The Medium Shapes the Learning, I think his last paragraph says it all: "If I begin with a lesson plan and simply pick a tool based upon "fun" or "productivity" or "student engagement," I am running the risk of teaching something entirely unintended.  If I introduce a telegraph as a source of knowledge, we send an implied message that knowledge should be portable, consumable and in small increments. I am not opposed to adding new tools to learning.  I simply want us to recognize that whatever tools we choose will reshape learning in ways that we often fail to recognize."

Blog Assignment 12

As one of our blog assignments, I think you should ask us to tell you what we think is important in our teaching careers besides what we are teaching them in curriculum.  Such as should we mentor to them or not? Should we teach safe sex or even have a sexual education class? Also we should name a couple of things that we disagree with in the type of school system we will be working in.

I plan to work in the public education system.  At this point, I am a little upset about the new "thing" that has just been placed into action, which is that any student who makes a grade less than a 70/C can retake the test.  I think that this is an outrage. Not only is this crazy, but it is absurd and makes no sense.  This puts more work on teachers, as if they do not have enough already.  It also is just going to make teachers so called "dumb" down the test, so that everyone can pass it, so that they do not have to stay after school to give the test.  What is should make teachers do, is teach more efficiently so that they do not have to worry about the students failing their test, but what does the teacher do for a student who just does not care.  Because, like it or not, we will all be faced with those students who we know are very bright and intelligent, but they just don't care about school.
Which moves me right along to my next point of mentoring to high school and middle school aged children.  One of the main reasons I choose secondary education, besides the fact that I just do not know how to talk to small children, is because I want to mentor to them.  I know that there are those boundaries that teachers can not cross, however, I also think it is our job as educators to talk to them about real life and that it is not easy.  While they just can not wait to graduate and get out of their parents house, they don't have a clue what the world is about.  Which will carry me right into my third and final point, sex education.  I think we should have this as a class and yes abstinence should be taught, but what teenagers really stay abstinent?? Therefore, I think safe sex is also a choice that should be taught. Young girls need to know that their young boyfriends are not always going to be there, while there may be a few slight occasions in which they stick around.  The young boys should know that these young girls are not always truthful or even knowledgeable about sex and their partners.
Our children need us, teachers, to care about them, talk to them and listen to them, when no one else will. That is one reason, I think that teachers are so important and a computer could never replace them.  Can anyone actually and honestly not think of a teacher that changed their life for the better???

Mrs. Brandi Ellard, one of the most inspiring people I know!

Progress Report For Final Project

As of Shellie Miller and I will going to Theodore High School to observe Mrs. Ellard.  We are going to try to get her a blog page up and running for her class and show them how to use it. We will monitor it and show the progress and what the students like about it and their dislikes about it also.  In doing this, we are showing Mrs. Ellard something new and her students as well.  We are going to observe her giving a SmartBoard presentation and her thoughts on it as well.  We will see how it goes.

Project #6

Project 14, Teach Someone

This is me teaching my sister, April, how to use the Google Docs presentations.