Blog Post #14

These are some of my favorite tools that Jose Picardo listed in his resources part of his blog Box of Tricks: Kerpoof, Quizlet, PBWorks, Hot Potatoes. Kerpoof is neat because it allows students to tell their own story by drawing pictures. This  would work well in the classroom because it would not only help students with their writing skills, but would also let the students creativity be able to run wild. Another program I liked was Quizlet. The reason I like this program was because it allows you to create and share flashcards. Even know I make flashcards for my exams and I know most people do not make flashcards because it takes a long time to do. With this program there will be no excuse not to study effectively with flashcards.
Another way to share the achievements of your students besides using Blogger is to use PBWorks. This program  is an educational version of wiki and allows you to to put up news and classroom activities on the site. Another tool is Hot Potatoes; it is a free site where you can create quizzes and crossword puzzles for your students. This could be useful in the classroom because it is an interactive way for students to learn and study information. This website of resources is something that is updated throughout the year and is something all teachers should look at if they are not sure how to integrate technology into the classroom.

Final Report on PLN

When I posted about my progress of my PLN I did an symbaloo. I found some really interesting things for teachers when I did that such as schooltube, teachertube, and moodle. I found out those three things are great, but my favorite thing about my PLN is twitter. I have found more and more interesting teachers to follow that share ideas and their failures to those ideas. They also share the hardships of becoming a new teacher. By following new teachers I read about their mistakes and take a mental note about them and insure myself that I won't do the same thing. Twitter has given me the knowledge of teachers, new ideas, and the opportunity to look and see what other students are doing with technology. Also during the second half of the semester I found someone to add to my PLN that I thought would never be possible, Babs Bell Hajdusiewicz. She is a bestselling children's author and also travels around the country and does seminars speaking to children, parents, and teachers. I came across her on the internet when I was looking for an author to do my Skype interview with and she was the nicest lady. I was intimidated by her at first because I did not know what to expect, but she is someone now that I talk to every couple of weeks. She is my friend on Facebook and we communicate that way or via email.  She talks to me about being a teacher because she was a professor at one time to and also the importance of literacy in schools today. The further along EDM310 goes the more people and websites I add to my PLN. I have discovered that it is something that will continue to grow through out my career as a teacher.

C4T#4 Summarizing Teacher's Post and My Comments

1. This week I commented on the Creating Longlife Learners blog. The blogs most resent post was called Creating Your First iPhone App with HTML Flowchart. The subject is this because Mr. Needleman held a workshop that taught this very subject. I commented on his post and stated that I thought it was very interesting and I have always downloaded apps, but I have never thought of how to create them. Once I saw his flowchart of how to make an app it does not seem hard at all, and I realize now why some apps are not so good because anyone can do it.

2. This week I commented on Creating Longlife Learners blog again. The post I read this time was The iPad as RTI Invention Toolkit. In this post Matthew Needleman talked about his favorite apps for the iPad. He listed apps such as Dragon Dictation, iMovie, Pages, Storykit, and Dropbox. My favorite app that he talked about was Storykit because you can create books with images of the students or images the students drew. I commented on this post and stated that in EDM310 we learn about technology in the classroom, but we haven't really talked about apps and how they can be effective in the classroom so his list of apps was very useful to me.

Blog Post #13

 In high school I actually read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business when I was a Junior for my English class. I am not going to lie that was a difficult book to read and I needed my teacher to explain to me most things, but that was three years ago and I am sure I would understand it more now. The reason of me telling you this is because after we read that book we also had to do a e-media fast which included the same guidelines as Dr. Strange has given us. I remember when I did it back then it was hard, but let me tell you this time around when I did it it was much harder. I believe this time around it was harder because I have been on the "drug of technology" for a longer period of time.
The night before I did the E-media fast I had to call my mom and boyfriend to let them know I could not talk to them for the whole day no matter what because I had to do this assignment for class. My mom and boyfriend both live in Birmingham, Alabama, so the only way I can communicate with them is on the phone or Skype and I could do neither during the e-media fast. Both of them were not fond of the idea because they were used to the fact that I was available to them through a text or a phone call. On the day of the fast I found it difficult, or for a better word excruciating, to leave my cell phone behind when I went to class. Also during the day I found out that without a computer I could no longer do most of my homework. That is when the light bulb in my head went off that really convinced me without a shadow of a doubt I need to learn more about technology if I am going to be a teacher because if already in a short day I need this much technology the students, that I will eventually have, will definitely need it. Also my mom just would not accept that she couldn't talk to me through out the day and know that I was okay so she would text my friends and ask how I was.
I cannot imagine how students will be when they enter my classroom after living a life full of media. It is true that times are changing and technology is taking over schools and if we choice to ignore that fact then we let down our students. If we teach with just a whiteboard, markers, and books then we will loose the attention of our students. Teachers cannot compete with technology so why not join it. We as teachers cannot expect our students to come into our classroom and be eager to learn if we are using old ways to teach. Students use technology all through out the day and they are comfortable with it so why make them leave it at the door when they enter the classroom.

C4K Summary #3

1. This week I commented on Mrs. Yollis' class blog number 289 about the Grand Canyon. At the end of her post she stated "What interesting facts can you tell us about the Grand Canyon?" I answered this by telling her about my visit the the Grand Canyon about three years ago. I told her that I was surprised how close you could get to the Grand Canyon's edge and how only a little bar was holding you back from falling. Also I stated how I saw lots of vultures at the Grand Canyon and I was not expecting that at all.
2. This week I commented on Elizabeth's Blog. Her blog post that I read was called Term 4 Assembly. She talked about how in her class they went over Outta This World and talked about space. She also said that they did performances about space and some where funny. I left her a comment that said I wish that she would have told me more about what Outta This World was about because if she did maybe I would have understood the post a little more. Also I told her that I loved her picture that she did of Earth.

Project 16

Progress Report on Final Project

Ashleigh Strasser and I are doing Project 16 together. We met and discussed our ideas about what we could do for our Project 16. We decided on doing the Do's and Don'ts on EDM310. We know what are does and don'ts are going to be and we are going to create a slideshow with them. For every do's and don'ts we will take a picture describing the do or don't and put those pictures in our slideshow. We will meet next Tuesday to actually take the pictures and start our slideshow.

Blog Post #12

In this blog post we are suppose to create an assignment for a Blog Post that we believe Dr. Strange would have assigned and then complete the assignment ourselves. When thinking about what I was going to do for this blog post I decided that we talk an awful lot about technology in EDM310, but we never talk about the technology that students love the most, video games. I looked on YouTube and found a video, Video Games Are New Teaching Tool, that talks about a school that does use video games to help the students learn. In my blog post I would assign students to watch this video, and then they would have to write a brief essay  explaining why or why not they think video games should be used in the classroom and whether or not they think it is benefiting the students or hindering them? Also they would write why they believe schools are so hesitant to accept video games as part of the learning experience.



This is my brief essay writing about the topic above:

Before watching this video I did not believe video games had a place in the classroom because that would teach students that all learning is that easy.  I also believed that it would  hurt the teachers because they would have to compete to hold a students attention against a video game. This video made me understand that it does not have to hurt the teachers because the teachers can use it to keep the students interested. Video games belong in the classroom because with the traditional way of teaching no longer holds the attention of students. The schools can choose to adapt to how future students learn or can continue to watch students lose focus because they are simply not interested in the old teaching methods.
I believe that video games are not hindering students but benefiting them because it is giving them skills of the computer and is keeping the students interested in school. With the teaching style of writing on a white board and reading notes out of a text book the students will fall asleep; I am telling you this out of experience. I have been in boring classes and I have been in exciting classes and the ones that I remember the most material out of is the exciting ones.
Why I believe that schools are so hesitant to use the technology of video games is the same reason schools are scared to use technology in schools period; they either do not know about technology, do not know how to incorporate it in their classes, or do not have the proper funding to get the technology needed. All three of these reasons are not good ones and all have answers to them. If you do not know about technology then there are conferences you can go or you can look on the internet. If you do not know how to incorporate technology into your classroom then look up ideas on the internet or just look at my blog. Finally if you do not have the proper funding then you could  do many things to raise money for your school to get the proper things you need to incorporate technology. 

Mrs. Yollis' Blog Review (Part 1 of C4K)

As I was clicking on all the links to Mrs. Yollis' blog I began to get more and more interested. She has a link on her blog to her website where parent can check out and play games with their children. I believe this is an important process of bringing technology into the classroom because parents can sometimes only see the bad in the internet and showing them what their child is doing puts them at ease. When looking at the post in Mrs. Yollis' blog I noticed that all of them have pictures. Adding pictures to the post draws people into reading the post and adds a sense of wanting to learn more. Also at the end of most of the post there was a question to spark conversation about the post, which I thought was a very good idea because it get not only the students but visitors of the site involved. I checked the number of visitors that Mrs. Yollis' site had compared to our own EDM310 site and she had more then us. Also I noticed that she has won first runner-up in best blog in 2009 and 2010.

Metaphor Special Assignment #1

Why we use metaphors could be for different reasons because you want to make your point easier to understand to your audience or because you want to prove a point without facing the consequences. An example in history could be a person did not agree with what was going on in the government, but because they fear the consequences of going against status quo they could write a pamphlet or book with metaphors. By doing this they are proving their point but at the same time can hide behind the metaphors if the government read the pamphlet or book. An example in literature is the novel Animal Farm. I read this book in high school and the whole book is a metaphor for Bolshevik Revolution. It is actually a perfect example of metaphors because the author uses the metaphors to hide behind what he really wants to express and also at the same time by adding metaphors in he makes it easier to understand. The definition of a metaphor is the comparison of two unlike things. An example of that in EDM310 is we are trying to compare education and technology which people believe are totally two unlike things. In reality though just like a simple metaphor of "love is a rose," when you see the two words love and rose separately you think they do not go together, but when you pair them you suddenly make sense. That is the same with technology and education when you hear them as two seperate words they do not seem to go together, but when you see it in action and how students react to it it suddenly makes sense. 

Skype Interview with Babs Bell Hajdusiewicz

Smartboard Lesson Plan on Coins

Blog Post #11

In the video with Mrs. Cassidy she talks about how she integrates technology in her first grade class. The technique Mrs. Cassidy talks about the most in the Skype interview is blogging. She talks about how her students love to blog instead of just writing with a pencil and paper because they have an audience. They have a thing on their blog that counts how many people read their post, which in return makes them feel important and what they are writing about is relevant. I would use this technique the most in my classroom when I become a teacher because it keeps the students interested in a subject and you can change what they blog about so it is always changing.

Some of the impediments you might have with blogging is cheating. That was one of the questions a student asked in the Skype video was if cheating was a problem. Mrs. Cassidy stated it could be a problem if the teacher does not keep the subject the students are blogging about relevant. When you give a subject students are interested in they will become excited about the subject and it will no longer become something they have to but something they want to do.

One of the benefits of using Mrs. Cassidy approaches about twitter was about followers. She said that if you follow people that sparks your interest or something that you are involved in them you will prosper in that area. For Twitter she gave the example that for students in EDM310, like I am, then maybe you will want to follow people on Twitter that are also in the process of trying to become a teacher or teachers that are just starting off. From that you will gain experience from their mistakes or interesting techniques to use.

C4K Summary #2

1. Today I commented on Class 3's blog post about how the BrainPOPpers signed their guestbook and said they really enjoyed their blog. I commented on their post by saying I have never heard of the BrainPOPpers but I will look them up on Youtube, because apparently the BrainPOPpers do videos. I also told them I would try to find their guest book and sign in myself.

2. The student I was assigned to this week was Michael. He wrote about football and how he loved it and who invented it. I commented back to him saying that soccer was my favorite sport to play, but football is my favorite to watch. I told him my favorite college team was the University of Alabama. I wished him good luck playing football and told him he would succeed.

The student that I got at random was named Tabbey. Her post was about why don't they call Columbus Day "Natives' Day" because the Native Americans were at America first. I told her this was an interesting post and I would have just accepted the norm if she had not mentioned that about Columbus Day. I told her it was a good point and she should keep up the good work!

3. The student I commented on this week was Menrinna. She wrote a poem on about being in the woods and hearing scary noises. I commented on her poem and said that her poem got me in the spirit of Halloween. Also I said I like how she said, "my hearts starts to pound like someone knocking on the door." Her poem was very good and I enjoyed reading it.

4. I commented on Kyan's post called Ireland Animation. In this Kyan did an amazing animation of a map of Ireland and a castle with a man walking by. I told him the castle and the map were very accurate and I loved the animation. I also told him it was neat how he got the man he drew to walk in front of a castle. I very much enjoyed seeing the work of kids mixing technology and animation.

5. On Mr. McClung's post Writing a Letter he talks how he is teaching his students how to write a professional letter. I commented on this post and said that I think it is great that he is teaching his students to do that because that was one of my favorite things I got to do in middle school was write letter and getting the responses. I also wrote and said I am in a class that is focusing on technology in the classroom, but it is good that he is still focusing on things like writing a letter because that is also important concept also.