iBook Final Project Summary

For our final project in EDM 310 we were asked to either make a Prezi, or an iBook that summarized our group's work in this class. My group, the Athens group, decided to do an iBook. Getting everything together was no a problem, we actually had the most problem picking a theme. I know, it sounds silly, but so much of an iBook revolves around what theme is picked. The moment we decided what our theme would be was when we were writing our group essay on the future of printed books in classroom. We decided on fairytales and classic children's stroies based off of books. I have included a screenshot of that page of the book to the right. We called out final iBook "Once Upon a Time in EDM 310.

We did many subtle things in our book to keep with the theme, for example in the screenshot above we have our essay on the future of printed books in the classroom. In our essay we advocated the need for printed books in classrooms, and we mirrored our words with a scene from Beauty and the Beast. It's the scene where Belle is singing about how great books are, we thought it was only fitting. I could go on and on about the little things here and there that we did to make our iBook, but I would rather show you. I have included several pages of our iBook below, so enjoy!

Blog Post #16-Final Reflection

This has definitly been an interesting semester for me. Going into this class I thought that I was technologically literate, and if I was not then I feel I am now. I learned lots of new things in this class that I plan to use in my future classroom, and I am thankful for learning them. In my final reflection I go into a little more detail about my personal experiences in EDM 310, and what I will take from it. Please follow the link below to view my final reflection.

C4T

For this week's C4T I was assigned to Heidi Siwak's blog, 21 Century Classroom: The Amaryllis. Her most recent post was a video she made of a class discussion called, My 7s Explain How they Learn from Each Other. In this video she is asking her class what a disagreement is, and what they can learn about it. Her students were eager to say that not all disagreement is negative, it sometimes just means that they appreciate your point of view but they want it to change it a little for the bwtter. One thing one student said that I really agree with is that if no one ever disagrees with you, or corrects you, then you will never get better at what you are doing. They also said that when you are looking for constructive feedback, you should ask several different people to get differing opinions. Their teacher was eager to agree with all of these points.

In Heidi Siwak's blog post, "The Inner Sanctum: My Visit to the LNS," she discussed how she had recently been invited to take part in a think tank with several other professionals. In this think tank several types of problems were discssed like "What is the role of the teacher in inquiry?" Teachers everywhere seem to have questions like this one. This think tank was created to help discuss and hopefully solve a few of these problems. Heidi Siwak was very thankful for being invited to this and to have a chance to speak for herself and teacher's everywhere.

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.

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

C4K

Unfortunately I missed the summary for the first part of this C4K, therefore I will move on to the other students.

The student's blog that I will summarize is named Sterling. In his post What Would You do if You Were Locked Inside Your Favorite Department Store Overnight?, Sterling described how his night would go if was locked inside Target. He said that at first he woud be scared, but he would eventually get over it. AFter that he said that he would find an Xbox and hook it up the the security room. He said that he would have his pick of chairs, and stock up his security room with all the food he wanted from the grocery area. I agreed with him saying that Target was a great store, and that his love of Xbox reminded me of my brothers.

In C4K #3 I was assigned to Ryan. His most recent post was a very random story. The Randomness Story was a conglomeration of random sentences such as, "Turkeys are supior beings..." I am assuming this was an assignment because he gave ample warning that the story would make absolutly no sense. He also asked if we wanted to see more of this randomness, to tell him so in our comments.

In C4K #4, I was assigned to Michelle 0910's blog. In her essay, This I Believe, she described regret. SHe said that people with regrets fall into two categories: risk takers and over thinkers. She believes that both of these groups of people should not feel regret for what they have or have not done, rather they should learn from their experiences and move on. She wrote that she herself has made mistakes throughout her life, but she feels no regret and chooses to leave the past in the past. She says that mistakes are unavoidable, but the regret that we feel about them is not. We just have to choose to let them go. I especially agree with her because I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and regret and obsession go hand in hand. In my comment to her blog, I told her that we have to choose to let our regret go.

Blog Post #7

Before I begin to describe what we can learn about learning and teaching from Randy Pausch, I just want to say how inspiring his story is. This lecture was about much more than learning and teaching. It was about pursuing your dreams, and not giving up when things get hard. It was about taking responsibility for yourself and your education. He did not wait around for things to happen, he made them happen.

In the video, The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch taught me plenty of things about learning. Even after he left school he spent his entire life learning new things. Something that he learned was that hitting a "brick wall" was not always the end. He said that what he learned is that brick walls let us prove how badly we want things. This stuck with me more than anything else because all of us at one point or another have hit one of these metaphorical brick walls. When this happens it is so easy to give up. What Randy Pausch taught us is that we have to learn that that brick wall is meant to stop people who do not truly want it. If you are a person who truly wants something and you hit a brick wall on your way to it, do not give up! Keep working harder until you find a way over that brick wall.

What he also taught about learning is that we all should be lifelong learners. After he finished school he continued to work with new people: students, professors, and even the "Imagineers" working at Disney; and he learned something new from each one. This taught us that we can learn something new from anyone.
Randy Pausch taught us about teaching in his video in many ways. The first way that I noticed when he was describing his childhood dream of playing in the NFL. He said that knowing how to play football was great, but the skills you earn from playing football are even more important. The skills include: trust, teamwork, loyalty, friendship, and even more. This he described as Head Faking. Head Faking is when you make someone think they are learning one thing when really they are learning something else. This is especially applicable to the classroom setting. Students are often so focused on the academic components of school that they do not gain some of the important basic skills everyone needs to function in today's world. These skills would be things like: how to work in a group, how to ask for help when you need it, and how to make suggestions and corrections on other's work. This Head Fake style of teaching should be used by every teacher.

Another important component of teaching I learned is that a teacher has to learn where to place the bar for their students. When discussing the class he taught on virtual reality, he said that he gave his students two weeks for their first assignment. When the time came to present, he said that he was blown away by his students work. He consulted another professor asking what he should do. The other professor told him that he should go in and say that he knows that they can do better. This would raise the bar for his students. He did just that, and with every project the students excelled higher and higher until the presentation of the student's virtual worlds became such an important event that hundreds of people would attend just to see the progress of his class. This shows me that as teachers we should always raise the bar higher for our students. Like he said, if we do not we are doing our students an injustice.

Book Trailer

Blog Post #6

At first I had absolutely no idea what a Personal Learning Network (or PLN) was, but after watching the second video, Building Your PNL- A Primer for Anyone, Anderson said something that made me feel differenly. He said that every student already has some form of a PNL. I though about this and it all hit me, the sites that I use for what I consider to be social networking could also serve as my Personal Learning Network. Of course Facebook would be an option, along with Twitter, blog posts, and various others. Of all of the networking sites, I prefer Pinterest. Pinterest for a long time had been though of as an arts and crafts website, but in reality it is much more. It is a site where you can get together with people from all over the world and share ideas and opinions on various topics and ideas.
Pinterest is a safe site where a person is free to join with just an email. After signing up, a person is able to make as many "boards" as they feel they need depending on what they are looking for. For example some of my boards are titled: "For When I am a History Teacher," and "Art." If I want to add an idea or teaching technique that I find useful on the site, then I simply repin it to one of my boards for later use. You may also follow various people whom you find interesting and have good ideas. People also discuss ideas by commenting on them and emailing each other. I know that this may not be a Personal Learning Network in the traditional sense, but I know plenty of people on Pinterest. In fact I do not know many people who are not on it. What is so great about Pinterest is that if you find something on the internet that you want to remeber, you can also repin it onto one of your boards. On my various boards I have collected tons of information from humdreds of different websites. I would have never found this information if someone out there had not though to bring it to Pinterest for everyone to see. This shows how Pinterest works, millions of people sharing information with eachother.
I am giving the sites Netvibes, and Symbaloo a shot though. It is difficult to learn how to work these sites, and they actually remind me a lot of Pinterest. I have created accounts on both of these sites and am steadily working through my confusion in the possibility that I may create a better PNL than the one I have already established on Pinterest.

C4T #2

For C4T assignment #2, Eric Langhorst is the teacher I will be commenting on. He most recent post was Janurary 15 of this year, and is titled The Hudson River Miracle Five Years Later . In this post he described his afternoon when he learned that a plane crashed into the Hudson River. He was watching the news and checking Twitter at the same time. His Twitter feed began to blow up with reports about the plane crash. It wasnot until way later that the news reported it. His main theme he was trying to get across was that Twitter is a key player in getting infomation out to the people, and in some cases, the most efective way. The first picture below shows a famous picture from the Hudson River Miracle.

Another post that Eric Langhorst posted that intrigued me was titled "Does McDonalds Have a Better Learning Psace Than Your Classroom?" . In this post, the Mr. Langhorst was describing his search for a good place to study and do school work. He said he had tried several different places including the school he teachers at, coffee houses, and libraries. Strangely enough, he found that the most accomidating place was a McDonalds which he lived close to. It had averything he needed: space, free wifi, quiet, and a plug for his laptop. After someone posted on Twitter that McDonalds had a better learning space than most schools, Langhorst agreed. He believes that classrooms and schools in general should be more open and accomidating. According to him, the closed form structure of classrooms need to change. He gave many suggestions and links as to how to make your classroom an open one. The bottom picture is an example of the new and revamped McDonalds that is no longer meant for just children. The new McDonalds is an atmospheric environment where one could easily do school work.

Blog Post #5

All of the videos provided to the students for EDM 310 this week all seemed to have something different to teach. The information in the iCurio video was new to me because had never heard of iCurio before. What I learned from it, and I am summarizing quite a bit, is that iCurio is almost like a search engine that is strictly for eductional purposes. It has different categories and ways to find information about very specific school topics. It almost reminds me of Alabama Virtual Library, which is what I was taught to use when I was in grade school. I plan on going online and checking out iCurio for myself sometime soon.
The Discovery Ed. video was a little more confusing. What I gained from it is that Discovery Ed. is a web based program available to teachers which seeks to combine class lectures with visual aids to further engage the students.
In the The Anthony-Strange List of Tips for Teachers Part 1 video, it gave a lot of tips to us. At the end it had many tips listed, I will not bore you by copying them down here because we have seen them all, but the one that I do want to focus on is the one about being flexible. Since I am just a Spohomore I have never taught in a classroom, but I have observed plently of them and informally assisted the teachers. It seems that in every one of those rooms something would go wrong mid-lesson. The internet would go out, the power would shut down, and most of all an administrator would come in fro a surprise evaluation. Each time without missing a beat, the teacher would quickly adjust their teaching style to accomdate for the disturbance. Dr. Strange and Mr. Capps are absolutly right, to be a teacher you have to be flexible.
The Use Tech Don't Teach it video was what I was expecting it to be. What they were saying is that students use technology is schools now, and the only way for to learn to use it is for them to spend time using it. A teacher cannot expect their students to successfully work with technology if they just tell them about it, it has to be a hands on learning experience.
Finally, from the Additional Thoughts about Lessons video, the main point that I learned was that when making lesson plans you have to think about everything. This includes everything from how you are going to grab your students attention to what you will be studying three months from then. It is a very involved area of teaching that demands much of the teacher's attention.
Education is a very involved field, and having a few tips from these videos will help me and I am sure the rest of the students in EDM 310.

Project #7: This is My Sentence/Passion

Project #3 Presentation

C4T Blog Summary of J.F. Hadley's Blog Posts

In the blogpost, Just Laugh ,the author describes a day in her classroom that took place shortly after returing from Christmas break. It was the last class of the day, and the author had students paired in groups to read together. What they were studying had to do with towns and cities in Africa, and as you may expect some of the names were very difficult to pronouce correctly.

As these students were trying to read to one another, they began to laugh at each other's pronounciation. The author was originally upset that the students were not taking the assignment seriously, and immediatly wanted to stop their laughing and bring them back on topic. After a moment this passed for the auhtor, and he saw this as a learning opportunity for his class. As the students read, he corrected their pronounciation and laughed along with them. This student-teacher interaction helped them remember what they were learning about, and they were also able to have fun along the way.
In the blog post, "What a Good Idea!" the author was describing a moment in one of her 7th grade classes that took place just before schools got out for Christmas break. It was right before her school was going to get out for Christmas, and her children were understandably roudy. She wanted to engage them in their geography lessons, but she did not want to be too strict since it was soon the be Christmas. She settled on a geography art project that she got from Nation Geographic. Her assignment was for the students to create different maps of Africa in what they believed to be its most perfect way. The class would vote at the end on which was the best. The students chose different themes: agriculture, population, states, government, one even chose rainfall. Her students were excited and began the assignment immediatly, she even allowed them to listen to music quietly. One student whom tended to question the need for work asked her why they were doing this. The teacher responded by saying that she wnated learning to be fun and working on maps seemed to be a good way to do that. The student surprised her by saying “Wow! I never realized you think about things like that! What a good idea!” The fact this this questioning student loved the activity made the teacher's day.

Post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teachers? When I first read this question, I began to think of if from the standpoint of a student asking questions. I suppose this helps in some way, in my opinion teachers sometimes lose touch with what it is like to be a student. Still the question from a teacher's standpoint remained un-answered for me. Upon reviewing the links provided for me, I discovered my answer.
From the first link, The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom , I found it interesting that the author said that teachers need to realize that they do not know everything. The author also said that when you, as a teacher, ask if there are any questions and no one responds, it does not necessarly mean that no one has questions. Many students are afraid to speak up or simply do not realize that they are confused on a topic. I found both of these statements about questions necessary in answering the question from above. In order for someone to become and effective teacher, they must first understand that they do not know everything. Second of all, they must grasp that even when a student does not ask a question, it may not mean that he or she understands the material.
From the article, Asking Questions to Improve Learning , what I learned first is that asking questions is a form of active learning that can help students learn material. This article stated several different do's and don't of asking questions to students. Some of my personal favorites were: Avoid asking a leading question., and Follow a yes or no question with an additional question. A leading question is a question that already suggests its answer. Using these tips is forcing students to think more. This site shows teachers that questions are not merely something to be answered. Questions are something that can evoke thought, as well as challened thinking in students. As a result the student will absorb more of the material.
The main idea that I got from the video, Asking Better Questions in the Classroom , is that as a teacher, I should stear away from closed ended questions. A closed ended question is one that can be answered by a simple yes or no answer. This type of question is not very thought provoking and does not challenge students in any way. Instead I, as a teacher, should ask open ended questions that give the students a chance to think in a more challenging way.
There are many things that a teacher should know about questions in order to be an effective teacher. I believe that many of these cannot be learned over the internet and must be learned for one's self in a classroom setting, but some of these things I have learned today over the internet. In short, to be an effective teacher, a teacher needs to realize that they do not know everything. They also need to know that students will not always voice their questions. An effective teacher must also avoid asking leading questions, and ask more than yes or no questions. An effective teacher should ask questions to their students that will engage them in thought and force them to think critically.

Blog Post #3

There were many things that I learned from the videos and slide shows provided for us. First of all I know that the correct way to peer review someone is through going through a three step process: 1. Give compliments, 2. give suggestion, and 3. give corrections. Following these steps help to correct someone without hurting their feelings about their work. I mainly learned this from the What is Peer Editing video. These steps were reenforced by the Peer Editing With Perfection Tutorial. This slide show went into more detail, but overall held the same ideals.
The YouTube video, Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, took a more humorous approach to these steps. It basically told me what I should and should not do as a peer editor. To avoid mistakes it said I should follow the three steps, these were the same steps that were presented to me as before: Compliment, suggest, and finally give corrections the the person who's work you are editing.