Project 12 Part A

The purpose of Project 12, Part A was to demonstrate that I could use the basic tools on a Smart Board. I found that working in a group made the project much more simple. I am in the Athens group and three of us worked together to produce this video. While one person was demonstrating what they could do on the Smart Board, another group member was videoing, and another was in the back holding an iPad with cue cards on it. Each cue card had the next thing they were supposed to demonstrate on it. We all found this esspecially helpful with staying on track. After all three of us had finished, we edited the video and added text to introduce us and to show each step we were demonstrating. After everything was done one of our group members uploaded the video to her YouTube account and shared the link with us. I have added this link below: Project 12-Part A

C4K #8

In this week's C4K I was assigned the category "Capzle" in the "Little Voices, Little Scholars" blog. The post I chose was "Yes! This is Room 6's First Capzle of the Year and it is about Ambury Farm!" What Capzle is is a type of presentation where you can display several pictures at once from left to right, almost like a story board. In this Capzle presentation the first two pictures were of a class at a farm, and the pictures that followed were all drawings that the class made of the various animals that they saw there. The whole presentation was set to the piano instrumental version of Hallelujah, giving it a fun a relaxing feel.

For this week's C4K I was assigned to Jasmyne from Miss. Lavakula's class. Her last post "Pirate Map, " was an activity she made to teach directions. Using Google Slides she made a three page slideshow. She made a pirate map on a grid with obstacles you had to avoid to reach the treasure. By following her instructions a person participating would successfully reach the pirate treasure without hitting any of the obstacles.

For this week's C4K my student's blog that I was assigned to came from PT England School's Class Blog, and I was assigned to the student Faaiua. Her most recent post was Maths Consolidation. When they say that they are in the year of class 7/8 learners I am assuming that it is similar to 7th or 8th grade for us. I am very impressed by the level of detail in Faaiua's blog, it is clear that she has been doing this for quite some time. In her most recent post she is completing a very long series of math problems. I have never been quite that good at math, so for me some of these are simple while others such as the word problems are very complicated. I am impressed by how well organized these math problems are layed out. When I have tried to do similar things everything seems to get jumbled together.

Project #15

For project #15 I made a one week lesson plan on supply and demand for a Senior level Economics class. For this week what I decided to do to teach the students about supply and demand by having a Supply and Demand Day. The students are asked to bring five items, or "supplies," on the third day of the week. The students may bring any five things they want as long as it is not of an offensive or illegal nature. By having varrying supplies with no rules or regulations on how they trade, the students will learn how the American economy works. This will create the purest form of supply and demand amongst the students. After they are finished trading with one another they are asked to do a simple five page Google slide show on what supply and demand is, what they traded, what they traded for, and their overall impression of the Supply and Demand Project. On Friday night their will be a Parent Teacher Night where all of my students will be required to present their projects. All will be graded using a pre-developed rubric, which along with the other required forms of this project, if uploaded to the forms and documents section of my google site. I have added the link to my Google Site below: Morgan's Project #15

Blog Post #10

I very much liked the video, "Bring on the Learning Revolution," by Sir Ken Robinson. Before I get into the more serious parts of this lecture I would like to say that I found his joke about the British trying to supress American history very funny. I know, some of you thought it was corny, but I'm a Secondary History Education major so I found it amusing.

The first thing that I think we can really learn from him is that education does not need to be evolved, it needs to be revolutionized. People keep trying to make the same educational system work, but clearly it does not. A change needs to be made that will foster students' dreams and keep them interested in what is happening.

The second thing that I feel we can really learn from him is that you have to do something you love. When talking about his wife, he said she would be gone for hours writing something, but to her it only felt like a few minutes. I know this is true. My senior year of high school I absolutely loved three of my classes: Art Studio, British Literature, and Government. The class that brought me down completely was Pre-Calculus. I hated math, and I knew what my major was going to be, and I knew I would not need it. That class dragged my GPA down and made me hate coming to school. What was the point in this class? Why would I ever need this? Education should not work this way. I feel like this idea also ties into his idea about a needed revolution in the educational system.

The third thing that he said that I found interesting is that every person needs to know what their talents are. He said that he knows many people who simply go from day to day not using, or not even realizing their talent. Knowing what your talent is will help you discover what kind of person you want to be and what kind of career you should have.

Although everything he said was useful in this video, I found that the last thing he said to be one of the most important. He said that students hold adults responsible for helping foster and nurture their dreams. This is especially important for educators because every student is different, and they have different dreams. It was like when he said that someone he knew always wanted to be a fire fighter. When this man was in high school he had a teacher publically humiliate him in front of his class mates saying that if he became a fire fighter he would be wasting his talent and his life. A few years later this student saved his teacher and his teacher's wife from an overturned car. It kind of puts it in perspective, right? We do not know what the future holds for every person, so to say that one person's dream is a waste would be wrong on our part.

Blog Post #9

After I watched the "First Graders in Mrs. Cassidy's Class" video, I got an idea for what technology use in elemetary classrooms looks like. They use a lot of the same tools that we, as college, students use. They skype, blog, and even get to use Nintendo DSs.

When I watched the "Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1" video, she stressed the importance of technology to young minds. For her it began when she recieved five PCs for her classroom, but the type of computers that they were prevented any software from being downloaded onto them. Not wanting to waste the computers, Mrs. Cassidy began to explore different ways to use the internet in the classroom. After a while this introduced her to Skype, blogging, Youtube, and much more. She used these in a way that would be fun and interesting for the students. She also says that if you ignore technology then you are hurting your students. I can vouch for this. I went to a math and science middle school yet they rarely had us use computers. Well I had never used one, and none of the teachers took the time to explain them to me. Because of this I did not become proficient with Microsoft Word, the most basic of computer programs, until my Freshman year of high school. When I am eventually teaching, I am sure one problem I will face is students who are not proficient with technology. Since I have been in their shoes I will be sure to take time with them so they will not feel overwhelmed and uninterested.

In "Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2", I like that she believes that how you interest technology should be through something you are interesting in. For instance, if you like writing, blogging may be the thing for you. If you like video, then Youtube and iMovie may be for you. This idea can go on and on. My Freshman year of high school I enrolled in a muli-media design course and learned everything from Microsoft Word to Photoshop. I like writing and I like pictures, so this was an easy class for me and the perfect way to introduce me to technology. I want to use this skill when I am teaching. I will find something that interests a student, then introduce them to technology using that thing that they like.

From "Interview with Kelly Cassidy Part 3" video, what I learned most about technology is that information is becoming much more collaborative. I have began to notice that most assignments and questions that are posed to students are much more open ended and therefore harder to copy. When a students looks at another student's blog, it does to necessarily mean they are trying to cheat, it may just be that they are lloking for guidance. It would be the same as one student asking another what he was wanting to do with his blog this week. This is what I am wanting to do in my classroom. If I can give assignments that are very open ended and could be somewhat left to the interpretation of the students. This gives the students a chance to collaborate so they are all on the same page, but at the same time each of their answers is different.

Project #14

I included everything required for the blog this week in a google site I made for my ficticious class. I have included the link below this paragraph. The grade level I chose was 10th, and the class I chose was Advanced Placement European History from 1400 and up. The lesson is a week long, and it is specializing of the reign of King Henry VIII of England, and how he and his sucessors affected Europe and eventually the rest of the world. The project I chose was a research based project where the students will be divided into groups of four, and assigned a woman that was some way related to King Henry VIII. They are to either make an iMovie or a Google Slide presentation on the woman they are assigned. On my google site I have included two rubrics: the students will complete the first one, and the secnond will be completed by me (the teacher).

Morgan's Project #14.

Project #9

Our group's topic that we had to comment on from Prensky's Teaching Digital Natives was: "One of the great opportunities that technology has to bring us is the ability for those who have more, and who know more, to help those who don't. " Our group recorded our audio conversation, I have provided the link below.

Athen's Project #9

Blog Post #8

I have noticed that when many teachers use technology in the hopes of enriching their students education, they do it in a strict boring format that leaves very little room for personal expression or imagination on the student's part. The dilemma for a good use of technology in the classroom is that while the students need to have personal expression, the teacher also needs to be able to control what information they are recieving. I know in my past blogs I have discussed how Pinterest could be an effective learning tool in the classroom, and I believe that it is still true in a situation like this. I am planning on teaching history, and I am planning on using Pinterst in a way that will work perfectly with any history course. First of all I would create a new Pinterest account strictly for school use. I would then create a new board for each chapter. Using the steps: think, imagine, seach, consult, choose, and communicate, I would "pin" interesting articles, videos, pictures, and stories that I found which had to do with what my students are studying to specific corresponding boards. My students would use their own Pinterest accounts to follow these boards as a type of supplimentary activity that will enrich their education. If students find something particulary interesting they may re-pin it, and comment on it allowing other students the opportunity to think about that was said, and perhaps bring it up in class the next day.

I understand that some courses, such as anything in the math department, may not be able to use Pinterest effectively because most of math involves application in particular situations. For history though it will work perfectly. Since my plan may be hard to visualize I am adding a link to my history board on Pinterest. Also the picture to the right of this shows how these things may appear on a specific "board." The board is called For When I am a History Teacher. What is great about my plan of using Pinterest is that Pinterest includes a little bit of everything. It is blogs, youtube videos, slideshows, pictures, articles, and stories all rolled into one great site for everyone. This plan will allow me to control what the students are recieving while still allowing them a degree of freedom. Pinterest has not yet been widely used in school, but most students have Pinterest accounts. Because the students are familiar with the format of Pinterest it will be a fun and non-intimidating suplimental activity.

To make an account with Pinterst please follow this link: Pinterest Registration.

Another site that would work very well for history is a site I came across a couple of months ago. Shepard Software.com is a site that uses games to teach students the locations of states, capitals, countries, and major landmarks. This is very useful for anything in the social sciences. I took geography a few months ago and used this site to prepare for all of my quizzes, therefore I can vouch for its usefulness.

Another excellent educational tool that I found was Playing History.org has games from the different time periods of history that are meant to help students learn history in a more fun way than they are used to. Students can make accounts on this site so students can record their score in the various categoies

Project #13

The first project our 9th grade World History students will do is the group project. The students will be put into groups of four and to be assigned a Renaissance artist. Using google slides, these groups will have three days to make a ten slide minimum slide show on the life of the Renaissance artist that they are assigned. The second project is called the Michelangelo Project. Paper will be taped to the bottom of desks or tables, then students will attempt to recreate a masterpiece painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. The idea behind this project is that after it is completed the students should have a better idea of challenges faced by Renaissance artists.

The Renaissance Projects