Tuesday, October 29, 2013

C4K Summary for October

C4K Summary for October

child with a computer


C4K #1- Lauren

I was assigned Lauren's blog for my first C4K. Lauren wrote about the "American Dream". She explains that the reason she enjoys history class is because the government and its purpose always remains the same. She says she believes that a person does not have to be a devout historian to understand this. She describes that maybe the American dream is being a leader and a protector of natural rights. However, in other countries it can mean different things.
In my comment to Lauren, I told her who I was and gave her links to the class blog and my blog. I told her that she did a great job explaining her thoughts. They were clearly stated and easy to follow. I told her that my favorite part of her post was saying that you don't have to be a devout historian to understand the concept of the American Dream because I am definitely not one. I told Lauren that she did an excellent job and keep up the good work!

C4K #2- Briana

The second C4K I was assigned for October was Briana. Her blog post was entitled "About Melody and Penny". In this post, Briana was answering some questions about a story she had read. The questions were as follows: "What are some things you can do to help when you see a service dog?", "How do you think Melody will react with a new dog in the house?", and "What themes or ideas do you think the author is trying to get us to think about when we read these chapters?"
In my comment to Briana, I introduced myself and told her that I was a student at USA. I gave her links to both the class blog and my blog. I then told her that I had never read the story, but I thought she did a great job of answering the questions. In particular, I told her that I liked her first answer about service dogs helping blind people and people with disabilities.

C4K #3- Patrick

The third student that I was assigned for my C4K in October was Patrick. His blog post was titled "The Bearrific Levels of a Forest". Patrick talks about the four different levels of the forest. The first level is the canopy where all of the birds live. The second level is the understory. Squirrels and wasps live there. The third level is the floor where animals like deer and cougars live. The fourth level is the subfloor. This is where insects like beetles and worms live.
I introduced myself to Patrick and left links to both the class blog and my blog. Then, I told Patrick that I thought he did a great job of describing each level, and I enjoyed learning about the different animals that live at each level. I told him that I would probably like to live in the canopy level because I love birds.

C4K #4- Alex

The fourth kid I was assigned for my C4K was Alex. His blog post was called "What Makes Us Kiwi (speech)". He describes that what makes them kiwi is four different things. It is food, sport, nature, and history. Alex then goes through each of the four areas and describes them. For food, he describes things like BBQ, sausage, and fruit. For sports, he describes things like rugby, basketball, and the Olympics. For nature, he describes ferns. Last, for history he describes how the Maoris made their history.
In my comment to Alex, I introduced myself and left links to the class blog and my blog. I told him that he did an excellent job of organizing his post, and it was very easy to read. I also told him that he did a great job of describing each of the four areas.

C4K #5- Jack

The final student I was assigned in October was Jack. His blog post was called "Milking the Cows". In this post, Jack describes the process of milking the cows on the farm. They have a semi-automated milking system that helps them milk the cows. Jack says that the cows come to the parlor when they need to be milked. Then, they wait their turn to be milked. Last, they go back to their pen. Each cow milks about forty liters.
In my comment to Jack, I introduced myself and gave him links to the class blog and my blog. I told him that he did a great job of describing the process of milking cows. I told him that I bet he is happy they have the semi-automated milking system, or it could take them a while to do this. I enjoyed reading his post!

C4T- #3

My teacher I was assigned to for my C4T-#3 was Karl Fisch. According to his twitter, Karl Fisch has taught middle school and high school math for 23 years. He is currently Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School. His blog that I have been visiting is called "The Fisch Bowl".

Karl Fisch


Post #1

Mr. Fisch's first post that I commented on was in regards to the Douglas County School Board elections. He began by saying that the elections are not about unions, although that seems to be what people are making the election about. He says that the election should not be about the adults' agendas. Instead, it should be about the students' learning. Mr. Fisch also gives some advice for the voters to do before they decide to cast their vote.

Comment #1

First, I introduced myself and told Mr. Fisch that I am in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I told him that I would be making a couple of visits to his blog over the next couple of weeks as a part of the class. I gave him a link to the class blog and to my blog. I gave him the date that I would be posting a summary of my visits to his blog. Next, I told him that I found his post to be very interesting even though I am not familiar with the Douglas County School Board elections. I told him that I agreed with him that the election should be about the students' well-being. Students often get forgotten in elections. Lastly, I told him that I loved his advice for voters to do before casting their vote. I really enjoyed this blog post!

Post #2

The second post that I commented on was entitled, "We've Got it Backwards". He talks about a phrase "Are you college ready?" being changed to "Is college ready for you?". He states that 'high school' could be substituted in for the word 'college' as well. He says that the purpose of education should not be able preparing students to do well in school.

Comment #2

In my comment on this post, I told Mr. Fisch that I really enjoyed his post. I felt like I could relate to it since I am a college student. I agreed with him that the phrase, "Is college ready for you?" is more applicable. Students should enter college with an open mind, but also a mindset to bring something to contribute, whether it be to the class discussion, other peers, or even society. I told Mr. Fisch that I enjoyed my two visits to his blog, and he should look for my summary here posted this week.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Project #14- Project Based Learning Plan #2

Blog Post #10

What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?

There is so much that we can learn from Randy Pausch! In his video, "Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", I learned so many things. Not only did I learn so much, but it was so intriguing. His story and wisdom kept my attention. One of the things I learned about teaching and learning is to take the good out of everything: lesson plans, colleagues, project, etc. Will things always go as planned? No. But just like Randy Pausch said in the video, he may not have become an NFL player, but he learned and received something good from that childhood dream.
dream
Another thing I learned from Randy Pausch is the importance of dreaming. It is important for our students to dream, but it is also important for us as teachers to dream. Dream about what we want our children to learn, what we want our classrooms to be like, or what resources we hope to have one day. It is also important for our students to dream big! Help them to cultivate dreams for themselves and push them to go further.
The last thing that I learned about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch was the importance of learning from students and listening to the advice of others. Often, teachers seem to think they are are the only possessors of knowledge in the classroom. However, that is untrue. Students bring so much to the classroom to learn from, and it is important to acknowledge that. Also, listen to feedback and advice from others. Don't be so critical when others give you feedback. You need to know it.
I really enjoyed watching this video. I learned so much about teaching and learning!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Blog Post #9

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?

teach/learn


In the first video we watched, Back to the Future, Brian Crosby is talking at a TED conference about his class structure, the students within his class, and the different projects he uses to teach them. Each project he does is one that sparks the interest of all his students and helps them to become more excited about learning. One thing he emphasizes is that no tests are given, but the student use different things like videos and blog post to gage their learning. The project he emphasizes the most is a weather balloon project his students did. He tells us how the students were involved in the project and how much they enjoyed it. He also tells us how after they did the project the students were asked to make a blog post that talked about their “high hopes” which became a world-wide sensation. It really shows us how PBL can be used to empower our kids to learn on their own and make them love to learn. We think that this video is a great representation of what PBL is and how when it is used correctly in the classroom how the kids can learn to collaborate, become motivated, connect with others and become empowered through using technology. Crosby makes a great point when he says that we can’t race kids through school but we must give them the opportunity to build skills from the world. We feel that if we can incorporate different projects like Mr. Crosby and allow the students, no matter what social status they hold, to have a chance to learn through PBL we will have a group of students who will be prepared for what their futures hold.

In Mr. Paul Anderson’s video, Blended Learning Cycle, we learn a lot about the Blended Learning Cycle. We think it is a great concept! There are six parts to the Blended Learning Cycle. You start with a good question and/or hook. You have to have something that will get the students attention right off the bat. Next, you want the students to investigate, experiment and use inquiry learning. You then have a video. For example you could use a video podcast to do a lot of the ‘direct instruction’. The fourth thing is elaboration. During this part, Anderson does diagrams and explains the physics of the example he is showing the students. Next he talks about the review portion. Anderson explains that he meets with the students individually or in small groups and asks them questions to check their understanding. They can’t go onto the next part, which is summary quiz, until he knows that they understand everything. So when they are done with the review, they go onto the summary quiz which will test them on their knowledge. If they don’t understand it they will have to go back to the beginning. We think the Blended Learning Cycle is a great tool that will be very helpful in the classroom. It’s a great approach for students to learn something, and to help the students who aren’t so engaged in learning become more engaged. We agreed that we could use it in the classroom when we are introducing a new topic to the students. It’s a great way to make sure the students actually understand what they are learning, and are not just going through the motions.

The third video that our group watched was called Making Thinking Visible. Mark Church, a sixth grade teacher, asked his students to make a headline regarding a video that they watched the day before. They were placed in small groups and were asked to sum up their thoughts about it into one headline on a strip of paper given to them by Mr. Church. Then, after a few weeks into the lesson, the students were asked to reevaluate their headline and see how it may have changed after learning more. We definitely saw where we could learn so much from Mr. Church. We learned how important it is to make learning visible to the children by ways like making a headline visible on paper. In addition, we learned how working in small groups really helps to develop ideas and learn from one another. Lastly, revisiting previous work after learning more about a topic can be very beneficial. It causes students to engage in critical thinking about how their ideas may have changed.
So our group learned so much from all three of these teachers. We learned many things that we could definitely use in a future classroom one day.

By: Rachel Hinton, Elizabeth Johnson, and Calah Reynolds

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Blog Post #8

There are so many 21st Century Learning and Communicating Tool available to future educators. This blog post allowed my group to research some of them and found out how they can be useful to us in the future.

Teaching Channel
By: Elizabeth Johnson

Teaching


The Teaching Channel is an online website that offers videos, common core resources, and lesson plans for teachers. The possibilities are endless of the resources available to teachers on Teaching Channel. Teachers are able to browse through videos organized into different categories based on subject, grade level, or topic. Like I said, the resources are unlimited. One video that I watched was called ”Super Digital Citizen”. In this video, Sam Pane who is a fifth grade teacher at Focus Learning School is Omaha, Nebraska, describes his lesson on teaching students how to use the internet in the correct way. The students create superheroes on their personal laptops in order to describe scenarios of how to use the internet safely, respectfully, and responsibly. This is just one video of many on Teaching Channel that teachers can view and use in their classroom.

iCurio
By: Calah Reynolds

I am interested in teaching Kindergarten and the tool for communicating and learning in the 21st century that I picked is iCurio. We have learned quite a bit about iCurio this semester in EDM 310 and I have come to find that it is very useful. For Kindergarteners I think that it would be an easy tool for them to start off with.

iCurio


iCurio is a place where students are free to explore the internet while still being limited on what they can see. You can use iCurio as a search engine and if you find content that is valuable to you, you can then save it in your storage. iCurio is a place that can teach students how to be organized on the internet at a young age. Students can save websites and online materials to their storage, then go through and organize and delete them as they please. On iCurio you can also form study groups online with students who are the same age as you and in the same class. I like it because it limits students to what they can see, so they don’t run into anything inappropriate.

iCurio


There are games for students to play on iCurio that can help them learn in a fun and simple way. You just simply type the subject you are learning about in the search bar. It then pulls up links to a bunch of different websites that they can choose from. There are a variety of different websites the student can pick from, it ranges from worksheets to games to everything in between! iCurio is a very useful learning tool that I think will come in handy in the future for my classroom.

TED Talks Education
By: Rachel Hinton

TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference and TEDGlobal -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. On TED.com talks from TED confereces are available to all for free. These videos allow people all over the world to view the great ideas presented at these conferences and use them in anyway they can. You can narrow the videos down by searching the site to find what you are looking for. After typing in “education” I found many different playlist pertaining to education that has ideas to use for teachers in many different areas ranging from teaching in the liberal arts to what has went wrong and needs to be changed in our education systems today. TED.com is a great resource for teachers to use to broaden their horizens and gain knowlege through others around the world.

Project #9 Podcast

C4T #2

Pernille Ripp



"Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension"
According to her twitter account, Pernille Ripp is a fifth grade teacher from Madison, Wisconsin. She is a wife and mother to three children. In addition, she is the Creator of the Global Read Aloud.

Post #1:
Passionate Learners at #RSCON4"
September 28, 2013

Mrs. Ripp begins this post by describing her main mission in teaching, which is giving the classroom back to the students. She means changing the way teachers teach and bringing passion back into the classroom. Her book has not come out yet, however, she is presenting her ideas at the 2013 Reform Symposium on October 12, 2013, at 5 pm CST. She then describes the Reform Symposium. It is a free, three day virtual conference that will join educators all around the world from the comfort of their homes or wherever they chose. It allows educators to connect using the Blackboard Collaborative webinar platform to share ideas or resources.

Comment #1

In my comment on this post, I told who I was and left links to both the class blog and my blog. In addition, I told Mrs. Ripp when I would be posting the summary of my visits to her blog. Then, I told her my thoughts about her blog post. I loved it! I told her that I loved the idea of giving the classroom back to the students, and I would love to hear more about what she means by this. I also told Mrs. Ripp how I loved the idea of the Reform Symposium. It is awesome that teachers all over the world are able to attend a virtual conference from the comfort of their home or place of choice. I enjoyed Pernille Ripp's blog, and I look forward to visiting it more in the upcoming weeks.

Post #2:
Some Small Confessions from an Almost Veteran Teacher"
October 13, 2013

Pernille Ripp describes some confessions of her struggles as a teacher. She describes how her first year was a struggle for her. She was ready to get it over with and be one year closer to being a veteran and having it all together. Now, even though she is in her 6th year of teaching and considers herself close to being a veteran teacher, she still does not know it all. She describes confessions like lesson plans not going as planned, or raising her voice instead of explaining calmly. This post was simply a confession that she still doesn't have it all together.

Comment #2

In my comment to Mrs. Ripp, I told her how comforting her post was to me as a future educator. I explained that observing in a classroom and seeing teachers that seem to be professionals at everything and not struggling at all, can be intimidating to an upcoming teacher. I wonder how I will ever get to be like that. I told Mrs. Ripp that her post gave me comfort that even these veteran teachers still do not have it all together and succeed at every little thing they do.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visits to Pernille Ripp's blog. Her work is very interesting, encouraging, and educational. I will definitely be visiting her blog more.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Blog Post # 7

A Collaborative Assignment

PBL logo


Project Based Learning: Parts 1 and 2
by: Rachel Hinton, Elizabeth Johnson, and Calah Reynolds

Anthony Capps is a 3rd grade teacher in Baldwin County. We really enjoyed his videos, Project Based Learning Part 1 and Project Based Learning Part 2. He really brought to light just how effective PBL can be in the classroom. It is really great to actually have someone give their different experiences with PBL and how they used it. He gave great examples of how he used it in his classroom. Through PBL, Anthony gave his students the chance to become involved in their state, community, and even half way around the world. Another things Anthony really stressed about PBL is the importance of self evaluations. A major thing we learned from these conversations is that if Project Based Learning can become the basis of learning in every classroom, then we will have a group of students that care about what is going on around them and are passionate about learning new things.

iCurio logo


iCurio and Discovery Ed
By: Rachel Hinton, Elizabeth Johnson, and Calah Reynolds

Anthony uses iCurio frequently in his classroom and let’s his students use it on their own so they can have the freedom to use the computer and search the web while still being limited to what they can see. He lets his students use iCurio like a search engine so they can save content that they find valuable in their storage. iCurio teaches virtual organization and allows students to start getting organized online at a young age. They can store websites and online materials in their storage and go through to organize and delete as they please. In addition, Anthony talks about the importance of another tool called Discovery Ed. He talks about how it is great to have visualization to couple with learning to support whatever text you’re learning about. It can be used to research further into what they are studying. It gives videos to gather more information about a topic. Students can use it for research, but Anthony also uses it to teach with as a teacher. Students tend to learn more when they can see and hear the information. So, Discovery Ed is an awesome tool for both students and teachers to use.

Discovery Ed logo


The Anthony-Strange List for Teachers Part 1

By: Elizabeth Johnson

teaching tips sign
I really enjoyed this video, ”The Anthony-Strange List for Teachers Part 1” ! I learned so many helpful tips that I will be able to use not only now, but also as a future teacher. There were six tips that were discussed in this video.
1) Be a constant learner yourself. It is so important to be interested in learning yourself as a teacher. If you are not a learner, then you won’t be a successful teacher. You have to model learning for your students, and if you cannot do that, then how will your students ever be able to learn from you?
2) Teaching never ends. It is hard work, but it is rewarding. As a teacher, it is important to know that work is not separate from play. You can learn the craft of teaching in your free time. Yes, read books for entertainment. However, substitute them for research books to help you become a better teacher. Allow your work and love for teaching to come up in conversations. You cannot limit your work hours to an eight hour day. You will never be as effective as you can be. Allow work to be fun. The effort is rewarding.
3) Be flexible. The unexpected will happen. You never know when surprises will happen when you are a teacher. It is important to be creative and flexible. I loved the example in the video where the servers were down, so the students were painting on the floor. This is a prime example to always have a back-up plan. You cannot always plan for these things, but you can have a good attitude about it and be flexible.
4) Start with a goal. If you do not have a goal or expectation to reach, it is a sure thing that you probably won’t make it there. Start with the end in mind. Think of the expectations and results you want to accomplish. What do you want your children to learn or get from the lesson? You may not get there the way you planned, but you can still get there another way.
5) Engage 100% of your students, 100% of the time, in 100% of projects. It is important to make sure that what you are teaching is shareable. Is what I am teaching or how I am teaching motivating my students to learn? One question you can ask yourself is, “How can I get all of my students on board today?” This will change your entire outlook on teaching.
6) Reflect, revise, and share your work with an audience. Even as a teacher, we must constantly be reflecting on and revising our work and teaching strategies. Take critiques you get from your audience or students to revise your work and make it better. Students change, technology changes, curriculum changes, so it is important to constantly be reflecting and revising our work in order to be the most effective teacher we can be.

Use Technology- Don’t Teach It!
By: Rachel Hinton

Technology and Learning


In Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange’s conversation on technology in the classroom, Anthony gives some really great advice on how teachers should allow the students to actually use technology in order for them to learn it, not teach it to them. Anthony tells how if you allow students to experience the technology for themselves, without teaching it to them, they are more likely to take away from their mistakes and know what to do next time. He allows the students to experience different types of technology everyday so they can become familiar with different things that will help them in future projects. He also makes a really great point that many times the student may actually know how to use the technology better than you. With this being said, there may come a time when the student has a question that you cannot answer, this is okay, together you can find out. We can use our students to help us learn every day and technology is a great way to allow them to do that.

Additional Thought About Lesson
By: Calah Reynolds
lesson plan


According to Anthony Capps in Additional Thought About Lessons, lessons are at least four layers thick. The first layer is how the lesson fits in with your year. You should make sure your curriculum fits in with all the standards. The next layer would be the unit. You have to make sure your unit flows together and that everything is connected somehow. You can’t just give the students the work all at once, you have to give it to them in units and at the end of each unit they should be able to master what you have gone over. Next is the week and during the weekly schedule you need to make sure you can get everything done that you have planned. Last is the daily lesson. This is how you deliver it to your students. You should have something to keep their attention, something to keep them engaged, and something after the lesson to cover what you taught and make sure they understand it so you know where to pick up the next day. I think that those four components are really important to remember when making lesson plans. I also think it’s important to remember not to fall behind with your lessons because if you do it might mess up your whole unit and maybe even year.

Project #2 PLN Progress Report 1

PLN Progress Report #1

symbaloo icon

I used Symbaloo for my Personal Learning Network It was very easy to organize and understand. It came with a lot of resources already on there, so I really liked that. I would have never thought to add some that were on there, so I am glad they were there. I changed some of the colors, moved some around, and added more "gadgets". Some of the ones I added were iCurio, BIE, Scholastics, and Teachers Pay Teachers. These are all websites that I have found to be very useful in my journey of learning thus far. I organized them by colors. You can see how I have it organized by clicking here.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

C4K Summary for September

computer


C4K #1-
BooBoo

I was assigned "Boo Boo's" Blog to post on for my first C4K assignment. The student was asked to write about something they believed in. Boo Boo wrote about how she believed it was important to live each day to the fullest because tomorrow is not promised. She used an example of how her MawMaw and dad were in a very bad car accident when her dad was a child. This incident helped her to form this belief of living for today. In my comment to Boo Boo, I told her that she did an excellent job on her post because she did! Her belief was explained very clearly. I also told her how I loved the personal touch that she used in her post. It added to it a lot! I explained to her that I also agreed that we should live for today and be sure to accomplish what we want to accomplish when we can. I also left her a link to my blog and the class blog. I told her to keep up the good work!

C4K #2- Andres

Andres' blog post was titled "Getting My Dog Canela". Andres talks about his pet dog, Canela, and the day that he got her. It was four years ago, and he remembers it very well. There was a lot of excitement, but his mom was wondering if they should gether or not. They ended up buying her from the pet store that day. In my response to Andres, I told him about how I have two dogs and told him all about them. I also told him that he did a very good job writing his blog, and he used excellent vocabulary, and it was easy to read. He did an awesome job!

C4K #3- Tiulipe

Tiulipe did a weekly reflection on her blog post. She said that this week she learned to obey her teachers and others. She said that next term she wants to learn how to get better at extra math and other math stuff. In my response to Tuilipe, I told her that I thought it was really great that she was learning how important it is to obey teachers and others. It is an important concept that will be used throughout her life. I also told Tiulipe that math was my favorite subject. I told her that I hope she is able to get extra math practice and learn more.