Summary C4T #3

I commented on Scott McLeod's blog Dangerously Irrelevant. The first post I commented on was a reaction to Russ' comment on this blog. The comment talked about how teachers have become so wrapped up in using technology that they have forgotten about teaching the kids. Scott McLeod posted the comment as a new blog post. It definitely received many comments. I commented that in some ways I could agree with what Russ said. I also agree that teachers should be technologically advanced. Technology is constantly changing and in order to be an affective teacher, I will have to keep up with the technology change.
The second post I commented on gave ten tips on how to be serious about educational technology. I must these tips were great and I know that I will use them in my classroom one day. The tips range from how to keep children safe to how to figure out what families have access to computers outside of the classroom. Everyone should check out this post at Dangerously Irrelevant.

Blog Post 13

"Alabama Learning Exchange"
When first pulling up the Alabama Learning Exchange, or ALEX, there are different links that you can visit. You can go to courses of study, web links, lesson plans, personal workspace, and professional learning. There is also a search if you can find what you are looking for. There is also a section that has podcasts.
ALEX is a great site for Alabama teachers. There are so many different great things on this site that can be used in the classrooms. There are lesson plans available for Kindergarten through 12th grade. You can find lesson plans for any subject too. Podcasts are uploaded from other schools. Podcasts can be found for any subject also. This site will be very useful to me as a future teacher. Every teacher should take a look at this site and take advantage of it.

Additional Assignment 5

The post that really stuck out for me, was the one about teachers shaming students. Teachers do tend to shame students because they do not understand. Spencer talked about that the student really enjoyed his class. The teachers then put the blame on Spencer. The teachers were saying that the reason the child did good in his class is because of the "pencils". I feel that children only succeed when they are enjoying what they are doing. Teachers should make their class as interesting as possible. In the posts "The Medium Shapes the Learning" Spencer is talking about how whatever tools you have, you need to produce. No matter what tools that are used, find a way to make it fun and allow your students to produce. In the first blog, it is talking about students should have a different way to find x. Instead of writing the formula out on the bored, allow the students to draw a picture oh how to find x. Teachers should always get to know their students. This helps tremendously. If a teacher knows their student, they will know how to communicate with them and help them understand things better in the classroom.

Project 15

"The Little White Owl"


"Give That Back Jack"

Blog Post 12

This video was created by Tom Woodward. He is apart of Henrico County schools in Virginia. This video covers many things we have already learned so far in this class. Some of the first videos we watched talked about how China will become the number one English speaking country in the world. I did not fully understand this at first, but now I do. If the U.S. continue have lecture style classrooms, we are not fully preparing our students for many of the jobs out there today. Teachers must begin using technology in the classroom so the students can excel in jobs that do not even exist today.

Choosing South Alabama

I wanted to take this opportunity to find out why students choose the University of South Alabama. Many students choose to come here because of their majors, many come because it is close to home, and then some because of scholarships. Most of the students that took this survey choose South because of its location. Also, many students are enjoying the football program. Every now and then I hear students making comments about South and how they do not like going here. I am not saying that these students are the ones who took this survey, but the students that did take this survey do not go to any on-campus events. I feel that if students became more involved that they might better appreciate the school. After reading the responses one of the things people would change is the parking issue. Since the number of students has increased, parking has become and issue. Students rated their overall experience at South to be a good experience.

Progress Report for Final Project

For the final project, my partner Kayla Salas and I will be doing a Smartboard Lesson. We plan to show how the Smartboard is being used for curriculum. We plan to go to Allentown Elementary School to do the lesson. We also plan to interview special education teachers. We will get information on how the Smartboard helps the students. Also, we plan to go to Westlawn Elementary School, where we observed to video two inclusion classes. We also plan to show how the Smartboard helps first and fourth grade. Before doing any type of recording, we plan to find out from the teachers which students can and cannot be recorded. We plan to make accommodations for the students who cannot be recorded. We plan to show the many different uses of the Smartboard in two different types of classes.

Project #14

How to Make Chex Mix

Blog Post 11

"First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class"
I think Ms. Cassidy's approach to technology is great. I think it is so neat that the first graders are blogging. With the students blogging, I can see where it would help them with their spelling. I also really liked the webpage. I think this is a great for the students to use. All the different games and activities will help the students learn. In the future, I can see myself using the blogs and webpage. These would be great centers for my class. All the blogs would be useful for parents. Parents can see their child's work at any point. I would think by blogging, the way the student writes, spells, and reads would be higher than another student who does not blog.

C4K Summary #2

Video
For the C4K #3, I commented on a video the students made of Leif Erickson. The students are in the 5th grade. For this video, the students dressed up and played different roles. It seems as though they had a great time making this video. I also commented that they learned a lot by acting out the story of Leif Erickson.
Barak Obama
For the C4K #4, I commented on Malik's blog. Malik is 11 years old. The post I commented on was one about Barak Obama. The student said that he liked what Obama had to say and that is all the blog post said. At the time, there were no other blog posts to comment on.
Chile Mine Collapse
For the C4K #5, I commented on Henri's blog. Henri is in the 7th grade. Henri wrote a post about the Chile miners being rescued. He gave a lot of information about the accident and posted pictures to his blog. I think it is great that the students were blogging about this and learning what was going on in this situation.
Christopher Columbus
I think this has to be one of my favorite blogs that I have commented on. This student wrote a post about Christopher Columbus. I think the reason I found it so interesting is because I learned from it. Marti, my student, wrote about many different things that I didn't know about Columbus. I commented that I did not know some of the facts he talked about. I am very glad that I read this post.
OREO Project
This is also one of my favorites blogs to comment on. This post was about Oreo's! I commented on Olan's blog. For one of their math lessons the teacher incorporated Oreo's to help the students learn different things such as estimation. Olan posted that first they had to estimated how many Oreo's were in the bag. Then they did other things like seeing how fast they Oreo would dissolve in their mouth, and licking the cream out of the Oreo. To finish the students took the cookies an made something out of them. I think this is a great way to keep students interested in their work.

Summary Post C4T #3

The first post I commented on was about how no student is alike. David Meister gave an example of shoes. There is not a shoe store that all the shoes are the exact same. We cannot expect students to be the same. He comments that "an effective school must build relationships with its students, parents, and the entire community." I think this is a very true statement. All students cannot be approached the same way because each student is different and they do not learn the same.
The second teacher I commented on talked about "going to the hard places". This post basically said that some educators can be afraid to give critical feedback. They think that this type of feedback has to be negative when actually it doesn't. He went on to say that "honest feedback helps us grow". Giving feedback helps make us be good leaders. These were both great posts and I cannot wait to read more on this website.