C4K

In the C4K I was assigned to a student named Ariettah from the PT England School Blog. Ariettah's most recent post was called "Butterfly Life Cycle." In this post she described the various stages of a butterfly's life. She describes everything from the day a catterpillar hatches from an egg to the day it emerges as a butterfly from the cacoon. She sounded very interested in butterflies so I thought I would mention in my comment that monarch butterflies can be bought for classrooms so students can actually watch the life cycle of a butterfly take place before their very eyes.

For this week's C4k I commented on Kosini's blog. Although Kosini has many posts, the one that I commented on was from February, and it was a Google presentation on his goals. In Kosini's, "My Goals" blogpost, he presented several different goals that he set for himself. Many of these were academic goals. He wanted to be a certain level in reading and a certain level in math. His last goals that he stated was that he wanted to become better in rugby. I thought this was interesting because it reminded me of how my cousins are always saying that they want to be better at baseball or football. I guess kids are similar no matter where you go.

Project #12 Part B

For project 12 part B my group and I completed a Smartboard lesson plan deomnstrating some of the basic tools used on a Smartboard. We included all necessary components of the presentation of the lesson plan including the Alabama Course Standard to be met for that particular lesson. Our slideshow, "The Reign of King Henry VIII and the English Reformation" includes the various stages of King Henry VIII's life, along with his wives, children, and what pushed him to break away from the Catholic church. Along with this slideshow we made two sample games just to demonstrate what a teacher can do with the Smartboard. We all took an active role in filming and speaking so everyone got a turn on the camera. When it came time to demonstrate the games, a few of us acted out the role of students showing how they may answer the questions. I have included the link to the video of our presentation below. I also inserted the link to the original slideshow below the video link for anyone who is interested in seeing the original copy. Enjoy our presentation!

Blog Post #12

For this week's blog post we were asked to select a few assistive teaching technologies that would be useful in the classroom. After surfing the web, I found several examples of assistive teaching technology that would work nicely in a secondary history classroom. I found four and I presented them in a Google slideshow that is below.

Blog Post #11

For this blog post my group decided to complete a Google Slide show on the videos provided for us. We found that all of the videos provided for us were very interesting, and by dividing the work between the four of us it became a much easier job. While we all helped each other, each of us individually completed slides. The author of each page is provided. I have provided the slideshow below.

Blog Post #13

For blog post 13, I have been asked to create an assigned first blog in my area of specialty that I wished Dr. Strange would have included. I realize that this is very specific, but I would have very musch liked to do this. Below I have included instructions for this first blog post and a sample post that I created. Not only does ths culture student's historical knowledge, it also gives them a chance to try out their basic HTML skills. The way I have written this assignment is meant for it to be their first blog post. I think it is a more interesting first post than just talking about ourselves. Your first assignment in this class is to create a blog post. In this blog post I want to know what your favorite time period is, or what your favorite event in history is. For this post, I expect it to be at least two paragraphs, and include at least two pictures. Please give your sources for these pictures. I know that many of you in this class are new to the blogging scene, therefore I am not going to be picky for this first post. We will review your skills and learn from your mistakes. The only thing I ask is that you make sure your grammer and punctuation are correct. I have provided a sample blog post #1 for all of you so you can have a better idea of what I am expecting from you:

My favorite event in world history is the reign of King Henry VIII. For those of you who do not know who King Henry was, he was the King of England from 1491-1597. He was married six times, and every one of his marriages ended badly. His first wife was Catherine of Aragon, she was a Catholic woman from Spain, which was not a problem at the time because he was Catholic too. He had one child with Catherine, a daughter named Mary who eventually became queen. King Henry desperately wanted a son and blamed his wife for the fact that they could not have one. A few years into his marriage to Catherine, he met a woman named Anne Bolyne. Henry became enfatuated with Anne and wanted to be with her. Anne did not want to be his mistress though, she wanted to be his wife. It was then that Henry began to try and divorice his wife Catherine so he could marry Anne. Henry was Catholic, and since divorice is considered a sin, the Pope denied his request. Henry would not give up though. He broke away from the Catholic church creating the Church of England, with himself at the head. This way he could grant himself a divorce. After his divorce was finalized, he quickly married Anne because she promised she could give him the son he so desired. A few months into their marriage, Anne became pregnant. Henry was convinced it would be a boy, so he was utterly dissapointed when Anne gave birth to a girl, Princess Elizabeth who would later be queen. Henry began to resent Anne like he resented Catherine. After several years of Anne being unable to produce a male heir, Henry had her beheaded saying that she had cheated on him.

Before Anne's death, Henry fell in love with another woman, Jane Seymour. She was a kind a gentle queen, and re-united him with his daughters. A few months into marriage she became pregant. She had a very difficult labor and delivery, and died shortly after giving birth, but Henry finally had the legitimate prince he had always wanted. Jane's death devistated him because he truly loved her, and she was his only wife able to produce a living son. He was soon pushed into a loveless marriage with a German woman named Anne of Cleves. He quickly annuled their marriage, and he married a 17 year old named Catherine Howard. After being accused of cheating on the king, she was also beheaded along with the men she was suspected of cheating with. His last marriage was to a woman named Catherine Parr. He died during their marriage, and she went on to marry someone else.

Project #10

For this particular project we were asked to interview a teacher on a suggested topic of our choosing. I chose to interview Mrs. Michelle Fuller who teaches 3rd grade at Saraland Elementry School. For this interview I chose to ask her about what she thought about project based learning and how she implements it into her classroom. This was a great interview, and I loved hearing how this revolutionary idea is implemented in the classroom. I have included the link to my video below:

C4T #3

For this first post I was assigned to Pernille Ripp's blog Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension. This week I will summarize her blog "For the Love of Book Clubs- Creating Meaningful Conversations." In this she is breaking away from conventional classroom reading and creating a new style that puts the reading and interpretation in the students' hands. Through a series of steps she says that you should begin your class by reading a book, and instead of asking questions you should ask the students what they thought of the book, and let them go with it with you as their coach to keep them on track. As they read, she says that the discussions should become deeper and deeper depending on their grade level. One point she makes that I absolutly agree with is that if a group does not like the book that they are reading, they should be able to abandon it and pick a new one. Forcing students to read a book they hate is going to make them hate reading, and eventually hate learning. Education should not work thta way.

In Pernille Ripp's most recent blog post, "Passionate Learners-Giving our Classroom Back to Our Students," she introduced us to her book which she had just written and was published. The title of this book is, "Passionate Learners- Giving the Classroom back to our Students." In this book Mrs. Ripp talks about what she has done to change her classroom and her student's education, and what they have done to change her. The essential idea behind her book is that as teachers, we have to trust ourseleves when we know change is needed. She found that "the smallest change can have monumental differences." Overall it is about trusting your insticts for change, and not conforming to cookie-cutter plans for how education should work placed on you by the state and your fellow teachers. She even includes a coupon for her book so we may buy it online.