C4K

In Saysha's blog, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, she gave a summary of a popular book, called The Fault in Our Stars. This book is about teenagers who fall in love, but also have to battle cancer. Having read the book and seen the movie, I thought her summary was very good. She did not disclose the ending, with an intention not to ruin the surprise for those who hadn't read the book.

In my comment, I wrote about how cancer has affected my family. It can be so hard to lose someone so close to you because of an illness, but it is a part of life. I told her that she had written a great post and that I hoped she would continue reading and writing about her favorite books.

In Summer's post, The Bridge From Me Too You, she summarized a book that she had read about two kids who were getting ready to go to college. They were both facing problems about what they wanted to do for their future. They were being pressured by their parents to go down paths they didn't want to go down. She didn't disclose the ending, in hopes that the reader of the blog would read the book.

In my comment, I introduced myself as a student here at South. I told her that the book sounded really interesting. It can be difficult to choose what to do after high school, but usually everything will work itself out. As a college student, I told her I could relate to the characters in the book.

Eden wrote about the current Chronicles of Narnia book that he is reading, The Silver Chair. He discussed the book and what was going on at his current page. After updating, he wrote that he would tell more on his following post about what happens next.

In my comment, I told him that I enjoyed those books when I was younger and that I hope he would like them as much as I did. They are awesome books for children and teenagers to read.

Ken from Mrs. Maslowski's class wrote about Charles Hamilton Houston and his impact on the civil rights movement. He was a lawyer and dean at Howard University. He worked to put an end to Jim Crow laws and attacked the separate but equal theory. He also worked in the NAACP and took part in almost every civil rights court case from 1930 to 1954.

In my comment,  I told him how awesome it was that we have a month where we can celebrate those who have worked so hard for equal rights for everyone. Charles Hamilton Houston was an awesome person with tremendous character. I am thankful for what he accomplished!

Blog Post 7

"Teachers won't be replaced by technology, but will be replaced by teachers who use it". Those fifteen words sum up exactly what is going on in schools today- teachers and students having to adapt to the new world that we live in. Technology has become one of the central sources for information and instruction, and must be treated as such. According to Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library, kindergarten students are using iMovie, making book trailers, editing their own work, and researching assigned topics on their own. These are projects that I, as a college student, occasionally struggle with, and these children excel in! It amazes me to see their ability to learn and adapt at such a young age.

We All Become Learners says that many times, students show teachers how to use a piece of technology! (Pause for a sigh of relief!) As an educator,  I will do my best to stay up to date on the latest technology and try to implement it into my classroom. At Gulf Shores Elementary school, they exceed the expectations for using technology in the classroom. Librarians and media instructors spend time with students to teach mechanics of different programs and applications before the students use it in their classroom. This guarantees that instructional time is not wasted.
Gulf Shores Elementary School also welcomes visitors at all times, as this validates what they are doing in the classroom.

iPads are a common technological tool in the classroom. iPads promote student engagement and proficiency. There are many apps for learning, such as some for spelling, demonstrating content knowledge, and even some that can be used in a special education classroom, says iPads in the Classroom.

Top 10 Reasons to Use Technology in Education includes a multitude of reasons why it is imperative to use technology in the classroom. These range from the pure fact that students love technology to professional development. Technology has been proven to improve test scores by its ability to reach different students through different learning methods. It can remove obstacles by amplifying the teacher voice and allowing the students to see the material better. Some people refer to these mini computers as a "functional teacher" (but to me, that seems a bit drastic).

As I continue my journey to become an educator, I am well aware of what is expected of me. I must be able to address students and their learning needs with the most up to date technology and information. This seems challenging, but it is also exciting. I will be giving my students skills that they will need in our new, computerized world. I do not think it will be a problem to get students excited about learning and using technology- many times, they teach the adult how to use it first!

Blog Post 6

I found Anthony Capp's videos very resourceful. As a former student of EDM 310, he is full of many new, exciting ideas that I can use in my classroom. In Use Tech Don't Teach It, Anthony states that he is a big advocate of using technology in the classroom- and actually using it, not just teaching it to the students. Visual aids help students learn in the classroom, and with programs like DiscoveryEd, experts can be "brought" into the classroom to enhance the learning experience. He believes that students should be made into producers, and not consumers. Although his days as a third grade teacher are long, he puts in a lot of effort and is greatly rewarded for it. Being a teacher is not just a job that takes a break in the summer. Summer is the time where most of your preparation is put in to ensure that the following school year will be a success. To me, he seems like a great teacher. He works very hard to make sure that his students are successful. 

Project Movies Part 1

My sentence is...

My passion is...

Blog Post #5

Personal Learning Networks

A personal learning network is a set of people or tools that you can call upon for help, professional advice, new ideas, or for any other instances where you may need assistance. 

According to Welcome to My PLE!, personal learning networks are very useful for organization. Many thoughts, ideas, facts, and opinions can be placed in one's personal learning network. These are constantly being updated and used for research, especially by students. For educators, they can be used to connect with other teachers and professionals for different techniques to use in the classroom. For me, this part is really exciting and will be extremely useful! 

Personal learning networks are formed by creating an account with a website that provides these. (For my PLN, I used Symbaloo.) Once you hold an account, you can add many different sites to your network. These can be blogs, news sites, or research news. It is whatever YOU make it! If you are into criminal justice, you can make a criminal justice PLN. If you are into spending time outdoors, you can make a PLN for that, too! The opportunities are endless. 

I am using Symbaloo to create my PLN. I am going to add sites that stay up to date with teaching and technology. I have already created my account, and have researched many different sources I can add to it. These will mostly be teacher blogs, but there will be other sources as well. 

Search Engines

There are so many search engines available, but more often that not, Google is the most popular one. I have searched for different ones, and compiled a list of the ones I found most useful. 

1. Ask has a cleaner and easier to read presentation than other search engines. It tends to produce more relevant results to the subject being searched.

2. DuckDuckGo is a search engine with less spam. It is a clean and simple search engine.

3. Dogpile search engine produces helpful, cross linked results. It is easy to read, and has a quickly growing index.

4. Bing is a search engine by Microsoft. It offers suggestions, results, and other search options. 

5. Yippy is a search engine that searches other search engines for results. It is very good at finding obscure information.

6. Yahoo is a search engine and more. It can provide information on the news, horoscopes, and is a great website for Internet beginners.

7. Webopedia is an encyclopedic search engine. It searches technological and computer terminology. 

8. WolframAlpha is a search engine that not only gives results, but can solve problems. Math problems can be entered in and an answer will be given. 

Rubrics

As a group project, a few of my EDM 310 classmates and I designed these rubrics to use when grading material in the class. 

C4T #1

Following the Intrepid Teacher's blog for two weeks was quite enjoyable. During the first week, her most recent blog post was in September, and she hadn't posted since! During the second week, she actually made a new post, her first in almost six months! She is an avid user of technology in the classroom, and enjoys blogging and having her students maintain blogs.

In the Intrepid Teacher's blog post in September, she wrote about how she felt that technology had been wearing her down. For her, technology had been feeling stale and unimaginative. She used it for so long, and now she wants someone else to learn the different types of technology. She switched to using paper and pencil and she writes more often now as well. She said that it was fun to always be on the cutting edge, but only for so long.

In my comment, I agreed with her! Technology has it's place, but it shouldn't be the most important aspect of our lives. It takes away from open, direct communication. I will use technology in my classroom, but not as the only teaching tool.

When she posted again in February, she had just returned from a two day workshop in Japan, feeling refreshed and eager to use technology! The workshop she facilitated was called "Beyond Blogging". It was so neat to see how she took that break from technology, yet was able to come back stronger than ever, with many new ideas for the classroom. A few of her ideas were fairly simple, but contain a lot of importance. First off, choice matters! Let students enjoy writing and blogging about their favorite things. Secondly, an audience matters! Students should be aware of the community they are writing to. Third, diverse tools should be used! There is a wide array of tools online that students can use to add creativity to their posts. Fourth, students have to be open and willing to discuss their thoughts, feelings, and opinions- in front of the teacher! Last, students need time to complete their blogging, even if this time is extra from time allotted in school.

The Intrepid Teacher is a huge fan of blogging. She sees it as a way to assess student growth and progress. She loves looking for new tools outside of the regular learning curriculum. She recognizes that it is important to make learning fun for everyone, but also to add an individualized spin on it.

In my comment, I agreed with her and her five points. My favorite point was allowing students to choose their own content. It is so important for students to have the chance to freely express themselves and be creative. When students give us an insight into their lives, I believe that we, as educators, can be more successful.

I have enjoyed her blog posts, her opinions, and her thoughts.

Blog Post 4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

Effective teachers know how to and will stimulate the minds of their students. Students will attend class and leave knowing more material than they knew when they went in. However, more often than not, new material can be challenging and students may have many questions about it. Sometimes, students will ask these questions, but occasionally, they will avoid asking questions for a few reasons.  In these cases, it is up to the teacher to provoke the question process. When teachers ask their students questions, they promote and improve learning in their classroom!


Questioning Techniques: Research Based Strategies for Teachers is a website I found that talks about the importance of asking questions. This website says that questioning is a widely used teaching strategy, second only to lecturing. Teachers ask many different types of questions (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) for a number of different reasons. Some of these reasons are to involve students in the lesson, increase motivation, develop critical thinking skills, nurture insights, asses achievement, and many more.
According to Asking Questions to Improve Learning, there are quite a few guidelines teachers should follow when asking questions. Teachers should plan their questions to correlate with lesson plans and course goals. Teachers should never ask more than one question at a time; this tends to confuse students. Teachers should have in their notes when they will pause during the lecture to ask questions, and what questions they will ask at these times. When the teacher knows what questions he or she will ask and when, they can make the classroom more interactive and can better measure student learning.
All in all, there are many ways for teachers to be effective. However, a sure way for them to measure student success and create student interactivity in the classroom is to ask questions! When students are engaged, they are more eager to learn. When they are more eager to learn, they perform better in class: thus making the teacher more effective. So never be afraid to ask questions. Usually, the question is more important than the answer.