Saturday, October 29, 2011

Blog Assignment # 10

teach


Do you teach or Do you Educate http://youtu.be/W0fJKvdjQgs

Do you Teach or Do you Educate was an awesome video. It’s one of my favorites I’ve seen thus far. I added this video to my PLN. This video inspires you and really makes you stop and think on. The Peter Brougham and Socrates quotes at the end of the video were very meaningful and a great point to the video. I absolutely loved them. I intend on being a teacher that educates instead of just teaching a lesson then being done. I want to brighten their futures, learning, and abilities. I want to help inspire their learning and enjoyment of every subject. As a future educator I want to teach them material they can use and take with them throughout life.
I would want to encourage dreams, passions, and social matters. To help make them think on their own, and to explain no answer is the wrong answer. It is very important to have a student communication and interaction while learning. That being said I will try to have that with my students. In teaching my goal is to educate in all areas, curriculum, social networking, and technology keeping up with the latest. To make sure they gain the fullest capacity of knowledge.  Learning is not just text books, notes, and drilling it’s so much more than that. So my point is this there are many teachers but which ones teach and which ones educate? Teaching can be associated with lecturing, listening, paper, pen, notes. Educating is involving, learning, inspiring, and thinking to educate is why I want to become a teacher.
pencils

Don’t let them take home Pencils

This post presented a wonderful message to administrators, teachers, future educators, and parents. I liked how this talked about the standardized testing and scores. In my personal opinion testing is important, but it doesn’t determine learning skills or intelligence it’s to test that the given material was taught appropriately. All the specialist was concerned about was the test scores whether they were low or high and keeping them maintained in a certain percentage.  The teacher was concerned about the real problems which was not being familiar with the pencil. So noticing the problem of taking pencils home he confronted the problem and gave a solution. In my opinion as an Educator that is our purpose to find the problem and create solutions. By giving his students activities, and projects he was able to develop ideas and learning tools to interest them. The point was made about playing games with the pencils he addressed that even playing a game they could be learning in areas we can’t see. Games can be incorporated into learning skills with the use of strategies, and thinking. Using pencil helps with their writing and use of writing tool. I thought this was a great post.

C4T# 3

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                                                                        Dr. McLeod's blog
The teacher’s blog I commented on was Dr. McLeod. His blog is a great resource and ideas to refer to. You can learn many different ideas daily. His first post I commented on was “5 trends for the future of education” in this post is he gave 5 highlighted points made in Mobility Shifts Conference. The five things listed were: Openness, Greater Insight in knowledge, Mobile learning, Alternative terms of assessment, and Rethinking the classroom environment. Each one gave great detail and was used by speakers from the conference. I responded by explaining who I was and how I enjoyed reading his post. I also explained how I could see how each one can be or are used in education today. The conference he attended sounded really interesting and educational. The nest post I commented on was called “Districts are still fearful of teacher’s communication with students on Facebook.” In this post Dr. McLeod talked about how he just learned of a school district dealing with the issue of teachers using facebook with their students. He makes a reply to the superintendent that told him with explaining how Facebook is like any other use of social media. He gives the statement that Facebook is public unlike via emails which are not public. His reasoning for thinking it was better that as long as it was appropriate why is so concerned. My reply to this post was explaining how I agree with some of his points made but also disagreed and understood the schools issues and concerns. I believe when used appropriate it could be good when using a student school page not regular page to page. I believe in it has advantages but also disadvantages as any technology. Both posts were excellent to read as are all of his posts. He comments and post daily which I liked.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Blog Post # 9

#1 teacher


May 27, 2009 “What I’ve learned this year”http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-i-learned-this-year.html

I really liked reading this post. I feel like Mr. McClung offered advice to new educators, students majoring in education, and starting in the profession. The advice that was given gave ways to help you through teaching and important things to keep in mind. One of the main points he made was to “always have your students in mind.” You have to remember their learning skills and make it student involved. The comment I liked most was “no lesson is ever perfect, the lesson you teach and the one you plan are always different.”(http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-i-learned-this-year.html) This really stood out to me. When your lesson you created isn’t step by step, or not as informative as you’d like its ok. You can’t worry on it you have to work harder to correct it next time. “Be reasonable” was another comment Mr. McClung really emphasized on. My reaction to this was he was exactly right about being a teacher being reasonable is a major key. All your students will not be on the same levels in learning they all learn differently. When a certain goal is not met, we the teachers are there to not scold about not meeting the goal, but to give encouragement to help them work harder next time. Mr. McClung made an excellent point on listening to the students. In order to let the students know we care about them and their learning is to simply listen. As Mr. McClung says “Take an interest in their lives”(http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-i-learned-this-year.html), the student will take notice that you care deeply. The last important things I saw talked about was never stop learning. The changing in technology, learning, and tools it’s important we grow as well. Being an educator it is very important we take in as much of the new learning and ideas we can. We are not only growing stronger in the profession, but helping to better our student’s education and knowledge.

Thursday June 23, 2011 “What I learned this year”http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-i-learned-this-year.html

Reviewing Mr. McClung’s end of the year reflection was very interesting to read. In reading the blog I was able to get a sense of guidance almost like I was being mentored just by reading. I thought this feeling was great to receive just from reading a blog. All his comments made were so wonderful and helpful. Mr. McClung made the statement  “Our decision making process should always be student centered and not centered on pleasing adults.” (http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-i-learned-this-year.html). This quote really made me understand how important it is to have your students come first, not being left out. I sometimes try to be a people pleaser by reading this comment I was able to grasp pleasing everyone should not be important, but why we choose this career. Mr. McClung pointed out to “always keep your excitement”, whether others agree or disagree. You have to remain happy about your teaching and the new changes. You can’t let others non excitement or unhappiness ruin yours or discourage you. Be happy with the teacher you become, it’s okay to be the odd ball out and the black sheep. An s long as you stay true to yourself and methods you’ll do just fine. I feel the most important point Mr. McClung stressed was “Don’t touch the keyboard”(http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-i-learned-this-year.html), in other words let the students learn to think on their own. I believe this is crucial in education. In teaching giving a student a task and the task becomes difficult for them, we can’t jump in to complete it for them. If we do the work and complete the given task then what was the point of giving it to the student if he or she didn’t complete the work. What did they learn? Were they able to think for themselves? The answers are no the students didn’t gain anything from the work. The teacher taking control doesn’t help teach. The student doesn’t experience learning and thinking for themselves or on their own. If we allow that the student will not learn or master the skills taught to them. They will always expect the teacher to do it for them and not gain any knowledge. We as educators need to encourage and teach the student to think and process on their own.

Both post were very enjoyable to read. These by far were the best I’ve read, and my favorite I wanted to keep reading. I felt guided on what the first, second, and third year will be like and all the different things you will experience and learn. I liked how he expressed how there will be bumps along the way, but learning from each can help improve the next year. Also take each mistake and error and learn from it. Always try in every area to better yourself as an educator. Set out to keep learning the more you learn the more you grow in teaching and helping prepare for the future. I will keep up on this blog often to learn more! He provide great tipsto take with me on my journey and help me become a great teacher!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

blog post #8



Dr. Miller “This is how we dream”
The video “This is how we dream” part 1 and part 2 both present valid points. In the first video Dr. Miller elaborated on how the writing literacy and culture have taken a change. Many people no longer write using pen or paper, but by carrying laptops using word processor. Dr. Miller explains while writing an article he used the web to collect all the information needed without going to a library. He talks in detail how important global communication is in today’s society. I personally do not enjoy reading that much, especially attending a library to search many different books. Being able to use goggle search for information with just one click away is wonderful.
In part 2 Dr. Miller talks about how sharing the educational media freely is important in providing resources around the world to different educators. Dr. Miller stressed the importance of finding important global news for example finding the polls, weather, and other important issues. The digital composing is more of the writing culture today. Being able to make work visual is helpful way in showing what Universities are about. Using you tube and iTunes U to publish work provides new ideas to be pushed into the culture.
Dr. Miller leaves with this “This is an incremental change, not a fundamental change.” (http://techliterateteacher.blogspot.com/2009/07/dr-richard-e-miller-discusses-writing.html) He wants teachers to be familiar and education in the composing of writing in today’s 21st century. The goal is to articulate dreams. Digital media is the new culture and word processor will no longer be of use.



Carly’s Blog #12
I loved reading Carly Pugh’s post it was very motivating. It gave me a clear understanding of Dr. Miller’s definition on writing with digital media. Carly presented material that used exactly what Dr. Miller was trying to encourage in the new writing culture and to be educated in the area of new changes. I’m not much of a reader, and English is my least favorite subject. Reading the assignment she created is something I would enjoy doing. It was such a wonderful idea that can also provide helpful tips in teaching and learning new ideas. Carly really demonstrated the use of multi-media and examples of how it can be used.

Chipper
This video was very true and humorous. So many people assume its ok to submit assignments, homework, and papers in late and it still are ok because they “did it”. In my opinion being late and not on time with assignments only hurts you in the long run. It does not help in becoming adult and meeting deadlines they will have along the way. This video in my opinion represents that meeting deadlines is crucial not only in school but life in general. The statement chipper made that “she wants to be taught so she doesn’t have to learn”. I believe in this class we are being taught but in a way we can learn and use the resources in our future careers. Being in Edm 31o I have learned that you do have to be fully dedicated to wanting to succeed in this class. Nothing is given you having to earn it all. When Dr. Strange explains that this class needs 9 hours allocated he is very correct!



Edm 310 For dummies
This video is also funny with real time questions and frustrations. A lot of the questions asked I had to say yes to. I could definitely see me sometimes acting like they were in the video about the class. The tutorials were all very helpful to watch to get an understanding of how to do it and what exactly all you need. By watching them I was able to learn about the different tools. Being given an instruction manual has helped me figure it out mostly on my own, before having to ask. As the class furthers I learn more and more each week. This video was great! That book should be published I probably would’ve purchased it prior to class. That could be a helpful resource offered.

Learn to Change, Change to learn
What a great educational video. “Learn to change, change to learn” (http://youtu.be/BHiby3m_RyM) is such an inspiring statement. Using that statement helps set a motto for education everywhere. It‘s sad that coal mining is above education. Education should not be that low. How can we fix education today? What do we start changing? I believe it starts within the classroom. Start providing teachers with tools of new learning and incorporating the web, social networking and grouping. We need to start making the classroom a community. Teaching the 21st century tools we are helping to create opportunities in schools, colleges, future careers and life itself. I liked how one of the speakers stated “There are new 21st century literacy not involving memorizing, but asking Do you know how to research, validate, solve, and interpret.”(http://youtu.be/BHiby3m_RyM) I strongly believe with the arguments made. In learning and adapting the new skills for the 21st century would help provide essential knowledge in using it and being able to teach it. Society does not like change, but in order to renew our educational teaching change is necessary. Take advantage of all the new useful tools and technology made available and help improve life learning.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Project #9b

Project # 10 PLN

I started slowly on my Personal Learning Network. With just starting out you may see my PLN doesn't consist of  very many icons. The further we go along in this course I will be adding to it. I have organized all my icons with different colors and grouping. All my social networking are together in pink, utilities in blue, shopping in green, white school sites, red are search tools,brown news and orange my music. I am able to find the icon of choice easier by the organized colors and grouping.

C4T #2

In Steve Wheelers post “Business Games” http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2011/09/business-games.html#links he spoke on teachers and businesses sharing their information freely. Mr. Wheeler asked many questions referring to believing whether or not it was a good idea to share information freely? Would it cost businesses lost revenue? He stated a lot of teachers share their content freely makes sense to other educators by gaining larger audiences for ideas. I Responded to Mr. Wheeler’s post in stating that I believed teachers should share their information freely to help produce better learning. Teachers gain more ideas and resources. I shared with him that I liked what the company Unity did. They helped provide software for a cheaper affordable price and if the product was liked you were able to buy the higher priced version.

 I enjoyed reading the second Post “In the Same Boat” http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-same-boat.html  . Mr. Wheeler spoke about teachers of different fields and different countries all being in the same boat with problems within the education system. He believes because of these problems educators should remain in contact.  Mr. Wheeler believes with the teachers experiencing all the same problems remaining in contact and helping with the pressures the Government will finally stand and done something. In this post he describes how the web was one of the important discusses made. They talked about how crucial it was to use and know the criteria of using social and web media within classrooms. He then explains how important it is to involve the kid’s excitement in learning. He posted different teachers suggestions which was very encouraging and provided helpful tips. In my respond to this post I explained how much it relieved me to see all different teachers from different areas in the same boat with the system being broken. I pointed out statements that really stood out. One was stated by Ferran Ruiz Tarrago “being an educator you are to Strive to be excellent in an imperfect system.” The next one was by Julia Minguillon which was “As an educator you are encouraged to help make changes to better and reform the education system”.

I liked both posts on Mr. Wheeler. I enjoyed seeing him have a new post every day. He kept you motivated to want to read more and learn more. His post includes teachers and discussing ways of helping each other to better the students learning ability. The second post was above all my favorite post. I loved how he was giving encouraging advice and extending ways of bettering your Teaching techniques. He offered other educators advice and helpful tips in bettering the system. Overall he is very interesting and has many great posts to read.

Blog Assignment #7

                                 Randy Pausch The Last Lecture http://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo

Randy Pausch’s Video the Lat Lecture: Achieving your childhood dreams was incredible. Even with Pausch being diagnosed with cancer he still has an enlightening attitude. Randy remained happy and finished what he loved to do in helping to teach through lectures. I was very interested in the video and what he wanted to say. I loved how he was not wanting pity, or to discuss his condition and dying. He wanted to really talk on dreams, and lessons learned about education.
Pausch talks on childhood dreams. He explained about how his dream was to become a football player. What really caught my attention is when he quoted his football coach’s valuable words. Randy stated “If your screwing up enough times and no one tells you it means they have given up, If someone tells you when you screwed up they haven’t  and they care.”  This was really meaningful in all aspects of life, especially in education. In receiving criticism sometimes it’s hard to really grasp, or taken the wrong way. Hearing that statement just means receiving criticism is that much more important in correcting your screw ups and having someone care enough to help you.
    Another teaching method he used was the data table which was a wonderful idea.  They made a data table which indicated how easy you were to work with in a group and how hard you were. It was used in evaluating and giving positive tips and criticism to fix some of the things that weren’t effective. It’s always important to know how well you are to work with and if you are easy to work with. In providing the table it’s great to receive the stats of how your peers rate your working ability. You are able to see what you can correct and work harder. Randy spoke on using it as self reflecting on you. Also I liked how he mentioned, “We learn from our students”, I believe this is very true. You can learn new ways about doing things and using them with students. You are able to receive new generation outlooks, and creative ideas.
    Randy Pausch has provided “4 ways of having people help you.” He stated: Tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you’re wrong, and focus on others not yourself (Randy Pausch). These are the most important tips that can be given. Being honest creates a trust. It shows people they can put trust in you and extend a helping hand. Being able to apologize when you’ve made a mistake or at fault is respectful to people it encourages them to help you correct it. The last is one everyone should take into account which is being able to focus on others instead of you.  I believe they are great classroom values that can be used to help teach kids.  Knowing and learning each can help them with a mentality of helping others and in return you will receive help. Lastly I loved the “brick walls” Randy used in the lecture. Brick walls are everywhere in life in careers, school, marriages, and finances. Randy’s advice was to not let them stop you or hold you back, but work much harder! To me Randy has faced a few brick walls in education, and health determining his life, but yet he still remains the happy person he is. He has pushed the brick wall down just by not giving up and remaining himself. I think this is a great method in teaching children and adults. It helps show them nothing in life is easy but as long as you work hard, and not give up you are able to accomplish anything and everything you set your mind to.
In my opinion this video was very inspiring to watch. It made me realize all the important things I need to be learning and teaching to other people one day.  He made the lecture for children as an encouraging message to children all over. The last lecture should be viewed by all students, leaders and teachers. Randy  Paucsh was a great leader and educator. His main goal was to help teach people, to make them learn. He wants to inspire people to achieve and pursue their dreams. No dream is to big, or to crazy set out to achieve it!



Sunday, October 2, 2011

Project # 7C4K Summary



The first comment was to a little boy named Crawford in Mrs. Krebs 8th grade class in lowa. His blog is at www.pencil.trailsoptional.com . Crawford wrote his blog on geocaching and a GPS. I replied to Crawford telling him where I am from and what school I went to and my major. I also explained to him have I haven’t heard of geocaching, but it sounded fun and exciting. He was a new blogger I told him I was also a new blogger.

The second comment was Aiden a boy in Mr. Mike Harris’s Room 19 in Point England School, Auckland, New Zealand. Aiden (pesaidant.blogspot.com) was a young boy In New Zealand explaining about Clevedon, England.  He talked on what special things you could find there a Farm Village and a champion winning Rugby Team. He provided beautiful pictures, and resourceful websites. I responded to Aiden explain I live in the U.S. studying Elementary Education at South Alabama. I told him how interested I was in the Farm Village and one day visiting one.

The third comment was for a classroom at St. Elmo’s on the Costal iPad Program. They presented a wonderful video of the class receiving their first iPads thanks to Lucy Buffet of Lulu’s. The video expressed interacting with classmates and teachers. You could see how feeling of happiness and excitement came out of the children. I responded to this video by explaining the joy I received while watching how excited the children were. I could also see how much more they were going to enjoy learning from this point on.

The fourth comment was Odi in Diane Dall’s 2nd grade class new blogs for students. Odi talks about how he is in the process of reading Judy Blume’s book Super fudge. He explains a little on the book and how some parts of the story relate to his life with siblings. He mentions how funny the book is to him. I reply to Odi by telling him how excited I am to see him reading Judy Blume. I begin to explain to him that when I was younger Judy Blume books were all I wanted to read. I love her as an author and her books. I had collected almost all I could of her books. Her books are great and fun books to read.

I really enjoyed reading and commenting on each of the kid’s blog.  It’s a way of communicating and getting involved with their class and blogs.  They all gave a different experience and read. I loved how they weren’t all the same. Seeing the children being able to interact with the blog site shows me how it could be incorporated into my future classroom. 

Blog assignment #6





The video was a great presentation of networking in the 21st century. The video explains a student researching a topic of his choice. He searches all his information through Goggle Scholar to find all the answers to his questions. In using Google Scholar he was able to contact many famous scholars through the web instead of person.
I did not have a surprised reaction to this video. Edm 310 is the exact same thing it provides me with the same information, and delivers same websites and processes. The question “Why does the networked student even need a teacher?” I believe the teacher is still needed by students no matter what area the student is in. You still need a teacher to help provide the correct steps, information, and give helpful resources to use. The teacher is there to help assist you through the process. If the students have questions, and concerns the teacher is there to help answer the questions. Teachers are still needed to the student.
“Am I prepared to be a teacher to a networked student?” Yes, I believe I am prepared and will have gained all the correct ways of teaching a networked student. Edm 310 helps provide the steps in fully understanding all the advances on the internet, technology, and social networking. Although networking is great I do not prefer to teacher all too networked students or only about networking. I believe in teaching one on one it is important in involving teachers and students together in a classroom setting.




I really liked her PLE and the way she had she had all her icons organized with one another. Her PLE was very full and colorful. The icons she chose were all different colors which categorized each one so she would know which belong together. My PLN is not fully completed but is similar to hers. The difference between her PLE and my PLN is mine is not as full. My icons and selected learning tools are somewhat different. Some similarities in her and mine is we have some of the same icons. We both organized them according to the icon. Each was color coordinated.  As I continue to work on my PLN I will use her helpful tips and ways of organizing and apply it to my own PLN.