Project #13 Collaboration Report

Our group, Kids "R" Us, consisted of myself, Taylor Davis, Victoria Kaplan, Shannon Watson. For projects 15 and 16, we were required to use a rather lengthy list of options to communicate with our group members by not seeing each other face to face. This particular list includes the following: Skype, screen recording to record video sessions, Google Docs, Google chat, hangout in Google +, and emailing via Gmail accounts. We had to choose two of these to use to communicate with and we chose to use Google Docs for Project 15 and used both emailing and Google Docs for Project 16. We had found that using these two tools for communicating had made it easier than the other forms of communication.

With using Google Docs, we were able to see who was typing and what they were typing. We had made a script to use for Project 15 and used Google Docs so that each member could see what the other was writing and write the parts of the script. For Project 16, we decided to use both Google Docs and Gmail as a form of communicating with each other. We had used Gmail to set up the time and date on when we will be meeting for recording the project and used Google Docs to write the script as we had done for Project 15. Everybody did their part in participating in both projects.

Blog Post #15 Final Reflection

C4K Summary for November

For this past month's C4K (Comment for Kids), I was assigned to comment on three posts: Hunter, Isabella, and John. Hunter is a student from Canada and his blog post was about Alberta, Canada. Isabella is a student from California and her blog post was about two chapters that she had read in James and the Giant Peach. Lastly, John is a high school student from Robertsdale High and he wrote about YouTube and the French Revolution.

Hunter wrote his blog post about the wonderful things about Alberta, Canada. I had commented stating that After watching the videos, I now want to visit Canada to personally see the beauty of nature there. In Isabella's blog post, she wrote about chapters one and three of the book James and the Giant Peach. She wrote about how the aunts that were having to raise James were completely rude and seemed like they did not care about him. I had commented saying that I thought that his aunts were being quite rude to him since James did not have any other family members to turn to. John wrote in his post about how if YouTube had been around when the French Revolution occurred. I commented stating that I would have never thought of using YouTube as a way of communicating.

Last C4T

In this past C4T (Comment for Teachers) I was assigned to Mrs. Denise Krebs. In her first blog post that I had commented on she was talking about a conversation that she and a student had had about the usage of the word "their", "there", and "they're". In the second blog she was talking about how she had just recently lost her older brother.

Mrs. Krebs wrote about how one day she and her student named "J" had a conversation about the correct usage of the word "there", "their", and "they're" and how it had left an impact on him. I had commented saying that if he was not taught the different ways of using the word "their" then how would he ever know the difference? Along with that, I hoped that one day I will leave an impact on one of my students like she has had. In her second post she had wrote about how she had just recently lost her older brother and how she will miss the relationship that they once had. I had commented saying that I am truly sorry about her losing a family member that she has been close to and I know the feeling because about five years ago I had lost two of my aunts within a six week period. It was very heart breaking to me.

Blog Post #13

In Brian Crosby's video, Back To The Future, he had a class of forth graders that had been enrolled with him for three years (grades four through six), and about ninety percent of his class are learning English as a second language and are at risk students for poverty. On the second day of school, Mr. Crosby had them fill out a survey which consisted of the following:
1. What city do you live in?
2. What state do you live in?
3. What country do you live in?
4. What is your address?
5. What is your home phone number?
Here are the scores to the survey:
1. 9 correct
2. 12 correct
3. 3 correct
4. 7 correct
5. 4 correct, 7 no land line, 13 did not know

Almost the entire class did not know what city, state, or country that they lived in, their address and home phone number. This was truly shocking to me. The reason I say that is because back when I was in Elementary School, I had already memorized all of that information by the age of five or six. Mr. Crosby had asked the question "Why is there such a disconnect for these students?" And the answer to his question was stated as "You don't want to have a narrowed curriculum for students and you want the students to have the schema to build the world." On a side note, he had mentioned that as of a couple years ago, his sixth grade students had one to one laptops with webcams and blogs to think outside of the box.

Mr. Crosby had his students do an experiment called "The "High Hopes" High Altitude Balloon Project" and in this experiment, they had used a coke can and watched it compress as the air mass was changing. The students were allowed to video the experiment and embed the code onto their blog individually and write about it; as in why did the aluminum can compress? Once they had done that then they went into the history of ballooning and saw that the maker Zeppelin wanted to use hydrogen to fill the balloon up instead of using helium. After learning this useful information about ballooning, they each made their own wiki page about the specific topic. They were to also write their own story about being the balloon, where they went and talk about what happened. And on their blogs, they had to write about their high hopes for their school, community and world.

He let them make their own trade cards and called them "strato cards" because they were going into the stratosphere and putting their high hopes and picture on it. The students made their own "High Hopes" webpage wanting people from around the world to comment about what their high hopes were. When the students got done with making their cards, they made a carrying case to put them in and tied it the balloon to have it sent up. The students were able to watch the balloon on the computer screen because of the video camera attached to the balloon. They were able to see how far up it went, to when it exploded, then to when the parachute deployed. Also, these students were able to track the balloon by using Google Earth. I wish that we had done that when I was in Elementary School what with making your own card, sending it off in a balloon, and watching it float towards the stratosphere before it could not take the pressure anymore and explode thus deploying the parachute.

After making this experiment/activity, the students had gained the following:
1. Read/write to learn content
2. Writing to clarify and share
3. Write to tell a story thus using creativity
4. Feedback from the teacher and peers globally
5. Articulate orally
6. Connect globally/aware globally
7. Authentic audience

Along with this, the students were also able to gain the possibilities of empowerment, activity, motivation, being included, connecting, and collaborating. I think that this activity was an excellent way for the students to learn about all the subjects and have fun by doing it. It would be interesting to see his students were more connected to their surroundings after having taken this class at the end of the school year.

In Michael Wesch's video, A Vision of Students Today, he had started the video with a quote from Marshall McLuhan "Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects, and schedules." I think that this quote still holds true because it is talking about how college classrooms are auditoriums, filled to maximum capacity, and the professor only uses the blackboard. With the world the way that it is now, the modern teacher can not just simply teach a lesson on the chalkboard. They have to be able to use pictures, animations, videos, and websites to illustrate the information. He had used the quotes " If the walls could talk what would they say?" and "If students learn what they do...what are they learning sitting here?". Well, if this were a world of talking walls and seats then they would probably say that the new students would not learn anything from the old style of learning. But obviously that is not the world we live in because only that is found in cartoons, if that.

He had a document using Google Docs with the title "A vision of students today" and of the two hundred students in the classroom, three hundred and sixty seven edits were made to the document. They had also surveyed themselves to bring us a message, some have suggested that technology can save us...some have suggested that technology alone can save us...on the benefits of the chalkboard. He had needed the video with another quote but this time from Josiah F. Bumstead "The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind." I think that that was a great way to end a discussion because inventors do in fact need to recognized for the inventions that benefited in this society. Also, it lead you wanting to know more and discuss more because of all the possibilities.

Final Report on PLN

In this final PLN (Personal Learning Network) report, I have found to absolutely love using Symbaloo as my gateway to find the blogs and websites that I had found interesting. This website makes it easy to add the pages that are my favorite, places it in my Webmix, and add a tile of the website so that I can always find it. The pages I have found consist of anything from my jobs, to where I like to shop, to the schools I graduated from, to the church organization that I belong to. Having a PLN has definitely made my life simpler by having it all together instead of having to click the favorite button or bookmark button and having to search for my favorite page. With having Symbaloo, it makes it easy to go to the website by clicking on the tile; whereas before, I would have to go to Google to find what I was looking for.

Final Project #16

SMARTboard Lesson Project #15

Progress Report on Final Project

Our group, named "Kids 'R Us", consist of myself, Taylor Davis, Victoria Kaplan, and Shannon Watson. When Dr. Strange first assigned us to be in a group together, I was actually quite worried. In past groups, I have always been placed in a group where the majority of the people did barely any work to contribute to whatever project that we were assigned to. I was actually surprised to see that everybody gave one hundred percent to contributing to each project that we had to do. After getting to know each person I grew to love them and would not trade them for anything.


We have communicated through e-mails, texts, and Google Docs. I would have thought that this would have been a challenge since some people do not check their e-mail that often but I was astounded that we were able to communicate through e-mail. For our final project we had decided to make a movie because of the ideas that we were coming up with. We had discussed it through Google Docs and made the script through that as well. I can not believe I am saying this but I will actually miss working with these great girls and I know that we will all become amazing educators.

Blog Post #12

While sitting in my driveway next to my fire pit this week thinking of what I could do as a blog assignment, Jeff Foxworthy's game "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" and Dr. Strange's saying "Some of you will not pass the 3rd grade." just kept on replaying in my mind. After some time thinking about the two, I finally found the assignment that I think Dr. Strange should have done: "Are You Smarter Than a 3rd Grader?". This game will be set up like the popular game show but with a slight twist; you have four to five third grade students as the panel, the contestant will be one of the student's parent, and the topics will solely be based on the criteria that the children were taught in school. Here is the catch, if the parent does not know what the answer to the question is, then they have two choices: take the (play) money and leave or pass and it will come back again later on. If the parent choses to take the money and leave, then they have to turn to the audience and say their name and say "I am not smarter than my 3rd grade child". Are you ready to play? Let us begin!
These are the criteria that is met in the third grade:
1. Mathematics
2. Social Studies
3. Science
4. Language Arts
5. Reading

Each topic will have two questions. Every other topic will be worth at least five hundred dollars or more as the contestant moves up and the other topics will be less than five hundred dollars. Starting to sound like fun does it not? So let us begin to play Are You Smarter Than a 3rd Grader! The way that I want the game to be shown is by using a comic preferably Pixton.

Blog Post #11

In Mrs. Cassidy's YouTube video, Little Kids...Big Potential, she had shown how she incorporates technology in her first grade classroom. She had them using the SMARTboard, writing blogs, wiki, and Skype. I would have thought that this would have been a challenge for the six year olds with using all of these advances in technology. But in actuality, they had made it seem like it was second nature to them.

When they were using the SMARTboard, Mrs. Cassidy had them do several activities to get use to using the SMARTboard. They got to write out the letters of the alphabet, practice writing numbers, and drawing shapes. When I was in elementary school all that we had in the late 1990s and early 2000s were overhead projectors and tracing paper. I would have loved to have had a SMARTboard to practice my letters, shapes, and numbers. In my group's SMARTboard video tutorial, we were each to show how to turn it on, calibrate it, type text, put pictures in, animation, and hide and reveal feature. Each of us had a hard time on making the keyboard work and using the animations. As I was working on mine, I kept thinking to myself how easy this must be for a first grader to accomplish yet it is taking us college students a day or two to figure how to operate it. I just thought that this was astounding to me to see how far they have come along since we were their age.

The children had said that they loved writing blogs everyday because it not only helped with their writing style but also their spelling. Before I had taken EDM310 this semester, I had never written a blog. The only thing that I have written were papers and essays, and that is all I ever have known to write. Since writing has become second nature to me, I thought that I would have no problem writing blogs once a week. Now if it were everyday like these first graders have been doing, I do not know what I would be writing about because there is so much going on that just writing it in one post would be a complete nightmare to me. Just kidding, but it would be a challenge with all of these other classes and state exams that I am having to take just so that I can graduate and hopefully have a job.

Another part of the video was that the students were using wiki. With using wiki, they were able to post questions about any topic that they were given, and have random people from around the world to post an answer. Although I have never used wiki before I would give it a try before letting my students post anything on the site. I think that this is a wonderful idea considering the fact that they will get to know what other people celebrate if the topic was Christmas or Thanksgiving.

The last part of the video was about Skype. These children seemed really excited to talk to a professional, another student from across the world, or another classroom. It is amazing to me to think that before Skype we had face time with the iPhone, then texting, pagers, cellphones, home phones, payphones, and lastly telegrams. Where would we be in the world if Alexander Graham Bell did not invent the telephone? Or Benjamin Franklin with inventing electricity? If these great inventors did not create these things, we would be in a world of darkness. I know that this may have been a little off topic for a minute but it really got me thinking of what the world would be like if we did not have these great technologies. I have used Skype a couple of years ago but I never really understood why you would want to see the person you were talking to unless you were talking to them in person and not via webcam. Later on in life when I have a class, I would love to use Skype because it will give my students a chance to see what other children their age are doing.

Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

In this past C4T (Comment for Teachers) I was assigned to Mr. Daniel Edwards. In the first blog that I had commented on he was talking about "What can you do with an iPad in the classroom?". In the second blog he was talking about how Twitter had helped him prepare for an upcoming job interview.

Mr. Edwards wrote about how iPads can be incorporated in a classroom. His reason for using the iPad were: "Assessment for Learning", "Collaboration", "Practical Use", and "Informing the Next Step". I had commented saying that I had a pro and a con for the usage of an iPad in a classroom. The pro: Students can share data instantly and/or be more portable than a laptop. The con: What if you were to have misbehaving students they would most likely use the iPad for non class related topics. After contemplating these two issues I came to the conclusion that I would use an iPad for the classroom but will want to have a tool that shows what the students are doing on the iPads.

In his second post he wrote about Twitter had helped him get ready for a job and get the job. He had explained how using Twitter as his PLN (Personal Learning Network) had gotten him organized for the interview. I had commented saying that I have had my Twitter account for about two years now and I love how much easier it is to interact with other people to get advice about certain topics. I hope that when I graduate from college in a couple of years that I will be able to use Twitter as my PLN to get ready for a job interview at an elementary or middle school.

C4K Summary for October

For this past month's C4K (Comment for Kids), I was assigned to comment on three posts: Christian, Dallas, and a teacher's trip to Ireland. Christian is a student learning English as a second language and in this particular blog post, he had made it into a guessing game. Dallas had recently read a book called The Outsiders, and he had used the question/answer format to discuss it. The teacher that went to Ireland had posted up pictures from the portraits hanging from the ceiling of the airport.

Christian had made his blog post into a guessing game. He had given a description about this specific person as in: the color of his hair and the appearances he had made on a couple of popular television shows. I decided to participate in his guessing game and said that he was probably describing Carlos Alcalde. Dallas had read a book titled The Outsiders. He had categorized each part that he wanted to talk about into questions and then underneath it had the answers for it. I thought that this was really interesting. I had commented saying that even though I have never read The Outsiders I enjoyed each part of topics that he had chosen to talk about. The teacher that had went on a trip to Ireland had posted pictures of the Face of Ireland. I had commented on saying that I thought that the Face of Ireland is a great way to show the portraits of the citizens of Ireland.

Special Blog Assignment

"A World Where No Grades Existed."
This article, written by USA Today, explains how teaching students should be more like playing video games. It also said how more and more teachers are "flipping" their classroom so that students are doing their homework at school and watching lecture videos at home. The last idea explained in the article, was that possibly in thirty years, there will be no more grades. As a future teacher, I would want my students to know what their grades were so that they know what to improve on.

In the first part of the article, USA Today mentioned that teaching students should be like playing video games. Now I do have to admit, playing video games are fun and challenging, but there is a time and a place for playing video games and it is not in a classroom. I would, however, play mind games with the students to get their brain working so that it is easier to memorize facts rather than "drilling it into their heads" per say. When I was in Elementary School and it came time to memorize the multiplication table, the teacher had us play a game to help us recall how to multiply four by seven and so on and so forth. Sure, Angry Birds is a fun game to play because it gets you thinking about how to knock down the forts to crush the pigs, but I personally do not think that students will get the benefit of how to use that knowledge in real life.

The second part of the article mentioned how teachers are now "flipping" their classrooms. The whole concept of this idea is that there will be less time lecturing about how to work certain problems and more time actually working out the problems. I do have a pro and con about the whole idea about "flipping" the classroom. The pro: less time lecturing during class time so that the teacher can help students who do not understand how to work out a certain problem. The con: having to watch the video lecture at home on the computer. I thought that the whole concept of "homework" was so that it was meant to be worked on at home and not school, hence the name homework. What happens if the student does not have a computer at home? Then they would go to school early the following day to watch the video. Well what if the school does not have computers or iPads because of funding issues made by the school system? Then that student is probably going to fail because of not being able to watch the lectures. I do not think that that is fair because how will the student succeed in life if everything is converted to watching videos? Simple solution. Have tutoring sessions so that the children will succeed and not fall behind.

The last point made by USA Today was that in about thirty years from now, there will be no such thing as grades. I will admit that grading papers and assignments are time consuming but in the end it will all be worth it. The reasoning? Students will know what they need to work on so that they can improve their scores. I am for grading because I want my students to know what the certain areas are that they need to work on so that their scores will become better.


In conclusion, I believe that teaching should not be like playing video games but more like logical games so that it will benefit them later on in life. I also think that "flipping" the classroom is one's own choice. If you want to record the lessons and make your students watch the videos then by all means go right ahead. But I personally do not think that recording lessons will help the students in working on their homework. Lastly, grades are essential in schools because it allows the student know if they are behind in a certain area and where they need to work to improve their score.

Blog Post #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga.
In this cartoon, the artist is showing how the "papermate" is cheap and useless; as for the "ticonderoga", is expensive and what all children and adults use. The artist, however, made the popular pencil's names into human forms. I thought that this was a very clever way of showing the differences between the two.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?
In Mr. Spencer's blog post, the principal has an issue with a teacher playing games with the students instead of teaching them. The principal wants the students to have a "burp back" education, as Dr. Strange puts it, and the teacher is just not going to have it. He believes that students will be able to memorize better by playing games to learn rather than having to memorize text after text. Victoria Kaplan posted a comment saying how she knows first hand what it is like trying to memorize straight facts. I agree with both of them in how we need to be creative in teaching students how to remember facts better instead of drilling it to them, having them test on it, and then forget about it later on as they continue their education.

Don’t teach your kids this stuff. Please?
In Mr. McLeod's blog post, he showed a little bit of sarcasm of how teachers are afraid of new technology and thinking that their students are going to use it the wrong way. He had stated that he uses the technology with his students to show them the right way of using it. I agree with Mr. McLeod in how teachers should not be afraid of teaching technology to their students because how else are they going to learn how to use it? I for one will be using technology in my future classroom because I want my students to be able to interact with the way technology is improving around them.

SMARTboard Project #14

Green Screen Project #11

Blog Post #9

In this weeks blog post assignment, we were assigned to read two out of the four blog posts that Mr. McClung had written. When he wrote these, he wrote them at the end of each school year to be reflective on what he had done differently each year and how the students reacted to it. In his first reflective blog post "What I've Learned This Year", he was explaining how he was a fresh new teacher with little to no experience in the teaching field. In the first section of the blog it discussed "How to Read the Crowd" and how teachers are so concerned about lecturing that they fail to get the students' attention. I know from experience that if a teacher did not make a lesson interesting or exciting, I was not going to pay too much attention to it because of how they had delivered it. If the teachers had made it a hands-on lesson that would have gotten my attention. I do not work well with just the teacher lecturing. In the second part of the post it was titled "Be Flexible", meaning that everything does not have to perfect when teaching lessons and making activities for the students to complete. Because of my background I strive for perfection but after reading this section it made me realize that students are not really going to care about how perfect it is but how you as their teacher relate the lesson to them. Another section that I thought that was interesting was labeled "Be Reasonable." He stated that teachers set their students up for disappointment when they do not meet their teacher's goal. I do not want to be that teacher. I want to be the kind of teacher that if one of my students was having difficulty with the assignment, I would help that student with the assignment so that they do not fall behind.

For the second reflective blog post, I chose to read "Version 4 Post." In this blog post, Mr. McClung had just ended his fourth year of teaching. He wrote this post a little bit differently than his past three blogs. Instead of having four or more sections in the blog, he had only put two sections about what he had learned this past year of teaching. The two sections were: "You Gotta Dance With Who You Brought to the Dance" and "Challenge Yourself." In the first section, he was explaining how for some reason he was worried about what his peers (fellow teachers) thought of the way he was handling business; when normally, he was worried about how the students and his superiors thought of the way he was teaching. I personally will not care how other teachers think about my way of teaching but as long as my students are learning and my lessons are up to par with my superiors, then it would not bother me. In the second section, he explained how for the past three years he was stuck teaching the same thing (Social Studies and Arkansas History) and had gotten way too comfortable with the lessons, and the opportunity he had gotten for the coming year: teaching pre-AP civics and American Government. I hope that when I find a teaching job that I will not become too comfortable with the lessons because I do not want my students to become as bored with the assignments as I was when I went through school.


After reading these two reflective blog posts, I hope that I will become a better teacher from learning from the past year and using it for the year to come. With my mom teaching Family and Consumer Science, she never has had a dull day in the life of the classroom, because everything is changing and so she has to think of new ways to interact with her students to get them interested in either of these classes that she teaches: Fashion, Food and Nutrition, Housing, and Basics. When I enter the teaching field, I want to take what I have learned from EDM310 and find a way to incorporate it with my lessons and activities.

Project #10 PLN

For this weeks Project assignment, we were assigned to create our own PLN (Personal Learning Network). We had two choices to choose from (Symbaloo and Netvibes) and I chose Symbaloo. After watching the videos on how to make a PLN I decided on how I wanted mine to look. I have the following tiles for my Symbaloo account: EDM310 Class Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS). I really enjoy using my webmix because it allows me to access information I need without having to use Google Search.

Project #12 Book Trailer

Scavenger Hunt Social Tool

I found a social network called edmodo because it provides a social platform for teachers, parents, and students. I would use this site because it is sort of like Facebook, where you can post notes and assignments. In a lot of ways it is very similar to Facebok because of the way that it is set up. I think that edmodo woud be a great tool to use in the classroom for its easy to navigate.

Poll Time South Alabama!

Scavenger Hunt Comic Strip

Blog Post #8

This is How We Dream

In the first part of two YouTube videos, Mr. Richard Miller kept saying that the learning style currently is an incremental change and not a fundamental change. I was not to sure on what the differences were between the two, so I googled incremental, and the definition I got was "increasing or adding on". And so from finding that out I understood what Mr. Miller was talking about. He was explaining that learning in the twenty-first century we have to add on to the previous style of learning and not staying at the original "fundamental" change.
In the second part of the YouTube video, he explained how material that we use for research can be updated right before our eyes. Back when I was growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, the internet was so slow that while I was looking up something, I would be doing something else, and come back to it in a while because it took that long to load. With the way that modern technology is changing, it makes it seem like we do not have time to learn about ti teach about it.
With the technology changing the way it is, we can not have voice overs in our videos and videos and pictures put into our blog with links to watch the videos or find out where the pictures came from. With the technology now, we can search for anything that our heart's desire right from home on our laptops, iPhones, and tablets. Before this we had to go to the library and search through books to find out what it was that we were looking for. I believe that I will be ready to write with multimedia and so will my future students with my learning from EDM310.

Carly Pugh's Blog Post #12
In Carly Pugh's Blog Post #12, she wrote how she would want Dr. Strange to teach her assignment as though he had thought of it. She had wanted everyone to make a YouTube playlist that had to have at least five out of the ten that she had listed. I must say that this seems like an interesting activity to do, for you have to use the things that you have learned to make this playlist because like she said "good teachers teach by example".

EDM310 for Dummies
In this very hilarious YouTube video called EDM310 for Dummies, a group of EDM310 students made a video about making the class simpler, and suggested ways on making the class more enjoyable. An idea I had is called EDM310 Sparknotes. In the video I would explain the ways to get through the class, and highlight the mainpoints to help students survive Dr. Strange's class.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
In the video, they argued how technology is no longer a choice. It is rather a way of life now because of finding information and communicating. I argee with their arguments because I believe if we educators are not up to date on how the world is running, with technology that is, how are the students going to know how to use the technology that has been given to them properly? I would want my students to learn how to use it properly so that when we have assignments, they will use their knowledge that they have been taught on how to do it.

C4T #2 Post #2

In this past C4T (Comment for Teachers) I was assigned to Mr. Bill Genereux. In the first blog that I had commented on he was talking about the Amazon Kindles. In the second blog he was talking about the differences between Godin and Mann.

Mr. Genereux wrote about in his latest blog about how fragile the Amazon Kindles were and how they should not be recommended for young children. I had commented saying that I agree that the Kindles should not be for younger children because of getting scratches on the screen. In his second post he wrote about a book he had recently read and explained the differences between the two people. I had commented stating that his post about Godin and Mann was very intellectual.

Blog Post #7

The Networked Student


In Ms. Drexler's video, she explained how the student networking would be related to the class. She hoped that students would be able to find useful information on the internet, whether it be by Google Scholar or WikiLinks, and be able to post this information onto a blog site. Because of the "Networked Student" how would students, being in the twenty-first century, be able to share their useful information?


The point she was trying to make was that students in the twenty-first century need to learn how to use the internet wisely. Some students nowadays tend to "abuse" the power of the internet to work on assignments. I want to use the term "abuse" lightly simply because Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers want to steal someone elses work and call it there own. With using "Networked Student", students are taught how to use Google and WikiLinks wisely, then they are to use what they have gotten from the internet and write about it in a blog. With doing this, many students tend to not want to cheat on what they are writing about because they have to put their findings in their own words for the blog.


When students are using the network, they are using it to not only gain information but also share it with other classmates and teachers. I would want to use this in my classroom because I do not want my students to steal another person's work and lie about calling it their own on their blog. When I teach it to my students about networking, I will teach them how to use the internet properly and not having them rob other people from their hardwork.

Podcast Project #8

Part One





Part Two

C4K Summary for September

In this past month for Comment for Kids (C4K), I was assigned to three children: Bryan, Mr. Capps' class, and Destiny. Bryan was a student from Australia showing a video about his field trip to a small town named Sandwich. Mr. Capps' class blog was about a game that he had created called Coin Combination. Destiny is a Middle School student who wrote about how you should view life.


Bryan made an Animoto about his trip to Sandwich to learn about plants and animals living in and around the tidal pools. I had commented saying that one day I want to be able to visit a town like Sandwich to view all the interesting creatures that live there. Mr. Capps made a game called Coin Combination, so that it would be easier for the children to learn how to count. I responded how that I would love to use this game, so that my future students would be able to learn more quickly and have fun memorizing as well. Destiny wrote about how people should live life to the fullest. I had commented stating that I liked how she viewed life, and that I wish others had her outlook.

Blog Post #6

The Last Lecture
In Dr. Pausch's video, he had made three points to discuss about in his lecture: childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and how you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. He named the title of the lecture "Last Lecture" because he had wanted people to think about what would be their last lecture before they died. If I had to give a lecture and it was my last one before I died, I would definitely want it to change someone's life. Would not you?
In his first point, he mentioned that he had six goals that he wanted to complete before he died. They were: being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopdia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, and being a Disney Imagineer. When I was growing up, I always had a few goals I wanted to achieve before I would pass away: play a musical instrument, become a cheerleader, graduate High School, and go to college. Now obviously his dreams were much bigger than mine, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could do all these things that others said I could not achieve. When Dr. Pausch said that his first goal was being in zero gravity he had really meant it. There was an aircraft named "Vomit Comet" that made his dream become a reality. He was a professor at the time and his students won a trip to try a fixed-wing aircraft that lasted about twenty five seconds. I wanted to play a musical instrument because it helps you memorize things better (like in math with counting and adding numbers). In the video he had mentioned how there is a reason why there are brick walls: they let us prove how badly we want things. He wanted to play in the NFL and I wanted to be a cheerleader. He wanted to author an article in the World Book Encyclopedia and I wanted to graduate High School with all my other friends. He wanted to be a Disney Imagineer and I wanted to go to college to better myself to become an educator.
If life did not give us brickwalls then how are we going to teach our students how to obtain their goal? Are we going to take the easy way out and sugarcoat everything? I hope not. I do not want my students to always think that everything in life will be handed to them. If they really want something, then do you not think that they should work hard to reach their goal? I know I do. If Dr. Pausch did not have the coaches he had to push him and the mentors telling him that he can do better, then he would not be where he is today. If I did not have the amazing band directors, coaches, and teachers, I would not be here at college wanting to get a degree so that I can help educate people.
Dr. Pausch had some awesome advice about how to get people to help you: you can not get there alone, tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you screw up, and focus on others, not yourself. I would most definitely use his advice in my classroom because there are no other ways for people to help you. If we keep working hard on meeting our goals and our students goals, then the brickwall will be knocked down because we know that with hard work and dedication, it will all pay off at the end.

Blog Post #5

The iSchool Initiative

In Travis Allen's first video, he explains how our world is changing with advancements in technology. He said that with iSchool, students, teachers, and parents all benefit from using the school provided iTouch because all the textbooks, homework, and calulators are combined in one device. It actually makes sense to switch because you will save over $500 by not buying bookbags, binders, paper, pens, etc. Can you imagine what you could do with all that money that you have saved? I know I can because I have already started to do so with my iPhone and Kindle Fire. Keeping all your course work in a tablet, in my opinion, can save you a trip to the chiropractor because of lugging all those heavy books on your back.
In his second video he explains how much has changed since his first video that he did when he was seventeen. He had gotten CNN to recognize him and his work with the iSchool initiative. How cool is that? To have the most watched news, CNN, talk about how you think the education systems should be ran. I think that all school systems should make the switch because if we are all about saving the Earth and making it greener, then why not start with using technology that has been given to us.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

It is amazing to think that you can have an entire choir and never have to meet in person, all because of technology. To see and hear how these people sound just from recording on their laptop webcam is awesome to me. I am a huge fan of music (playing instruments and singing) and I absolutely loved hearing all the voices in Mr. Whitacre's virtual choir. Also, to have him directing, from a screen I might add, is truly amazing as well.

Teaching in the 21st Century

In Kevin Roberts' Prezi presentation, he thinks that to teach in the 21st century, the students and the teachers will need to be up to date on technology. Because of rapidly changing technology we, soon to be educators, often have diffculty using technology that has been given to us. How can we expect students to learn technology if we do not know how to use it ourselves? Roberts sees teaching changing with how students are using Twitter, Facebook, and Skype to connect with fellow students to work on projects, and to ask the teachers questions about assignments that they are confused about. I feel that the positions expressed in the video are true. In my mother's family and consumer science class, she has almost completely changed the way she wants the class work to be done, by using Moodle. If Roberts is correct, I personally do not think that it will affect me as an educator because I will have adapted to using technology in a way that I can teach my students how to use it.

Why I Flipped My Classroom

In Katie Gimbar's YouTube video, she explained how flipping her classroom has helped the three levels of students: the middle (eager to learn), higher learning (wanting to be challenged), and the stragglers (have no idea what is going on in the class). When she was able to flip her room, she was able to meet all the students needs about questions on the assignments. She was also able to post the videos ahead of class time so that the students were prepared for the lesson that day. With doing this she spent 90% of the time applying the applications for her math class and only 10% discussing; where it was the other way around before she had flipped. I would use this technique in my classroom because I do not want my students to fall behind, but instead, be ready to move forward and learn more when they enter.

Dr. Lodge McCammon's FIZZ-Flipping the Classroom

Dr. McCammon created FIZZ because he felt that his students were not getting the full benefits in being in a classroom. He had made it so that the students could watch the videos that their teachers had created before class starts, and feel better about the assignment instead of feeling disoriented. All in all, flipping a classroom is an excellent idea for all levels of students so that they will not fall behind or want to learn more; but can not, because of the other students holding them back. I would use this technique in my classroom because I do not want my students to fall behind, but instead, be ready to move forward and learn more when they enter.

Flipping the Classroom-4th Grade STEM

In Ms. Munato's video, she explained how Dr. McCammon came up with the idea of flipping the classroom. The main reasoning for flipping for Ms. Munato was so that her students were well prepared for the next day's assignments. She also mentioned that if a student does not have a computer at home that they were more than welcome to use the school's computers or iPads the following morning. I would use this technique in my classroom because I do not want my students to fall behind, but instead, be ready to move forward and learn more when they enter.

My Sentence Video

http://youtu.be/ohgLpLGI7sI

Project #5 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Podcast Preparation

In the first of three podcasts that I read/listened to, the first graders had made their own read along using podcast. The story that they had created was about book traveling back in time to the time of dinosaurs. I thought that they did an excellent job making the sounds of each dinosaur that they had mentioned (wings flapping, jaws opening and closing, and chewing noises). The teacher had let each student talk in the podcast, and she/they picked out a sound to signal a chapter ending and a new one beginning.

In the second podcast, the children had learned a little bit a hebrew in their podcast Purim. It is truly amazing that these second graders were speaking another language and using it in their story. Purim is a Jewish holiday with it being the most joyous as well as fun holiday. While wanting to research some more about Purim, I found out that the story is found in the Bible in the book of Esther. The story talks about how Esther, a Jewish woman, was taken to the King of Persia's house, and that he loved her more than any other woman. The story goes on saying that Esther never told the King that she was Jewish for he was wanting to get rid of all the Jews; as Hitler tried doing in the late 1930's to the early 1940's.

In the last podcast, the students had created a "Flat Stanley" that could travel with family members around the world and take pictures. With using a Flat Stanley, the children were able to see what the other countries were like; as in how the people dressed, how they spoke, and interacted with each other. I would love to use this idea for my future class so that they know that children their age did almost the same exact thing as them. Flat Stanleys are used in all grade levels including High School when the students are traveling to Costa Rico or Rome and they want their friends back home to see the places they have been, food they have eaten, and the people that they have met along the way.

Project #3 Post #2

Mrs. Boerend had made two posts that were very insightfull: All They Wanted and Another Lesson from the Garden. In these two blog posts she had a couple of main points: giving students examples on how long the paper has to be and getting rid of the old ways to make way for the new. With her sharing these ideas on how to help students succeed, it seems to be a no brainer; when in actualality, it is not because of the amount of time and effort that is made to help them learn better and faster.
In her post "All They Wanted", she had said that her students were always asking how long their paper had to be. I had commented saying that I used to ask my teachers that same question all the time in Elementary School. I had also mentioned that the little box "Mentor Texts" sounded like a pretty nifty idea, because it allowed the children to post their writings to and have models to look at as examples.
The second comment that I had made on her blog "Another Lesson from the Garden", I agreed that students need to be taught a new way of learning, and not just sticking to the old, easy way to get by. I gave an example of when I had worked as a three year old teacher at a local DayCare this past summer. I had the pictures of the alphabet with pictures of animals on it. By the end of the week I had the children come up front, say their name and sing the alphabet in front of the entire class. Not only did the children have fun learing but I did as well by teaching them.

Blog Post #3

Peer Edit

In the video, Peer Edit, the teacher narrating the video offered three steps into how to edit your peer. The first step is to always compliment him/her. You want to stay positive because how would you like it someone (your peer) commented on your blog and said "This is the worst blog I have ever read"? So you always want to compliment the writer and not criticize him/her. The second step is to make suggestions on how they could improve; as in word choice, organization, and topic. You might want to make a suggestion on how not to use a runon sentence or fragment.
The last step is to check for corrections like punctuation, grammar, and spelling. The main idea behind editing your peer is to always stay positive. If you are confused on how to compliment someone try using "I thik you used a lot of good details". The Big Ten on mistakes for peer review, as shown in Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, are: being picky, saying whatever, being social, being a generalizer, or being mean, loud, pushy, off task, speedy, and/or defensive. If I can learn from elementary schoolers on how to comment on your peer's blog then I believe you can too.

Technology in Special Education

Technology in Special EDucation gave a few knowledgeable tips on how technology has helped both the students and teachers in special education. To name a few of the technologies used in helping them are: the iPod touch, powerpoint, and laptop. Without any of these wonderful technologies, life would be difficult for the students as well for the teachers.
With the Apple iPod touch, students who have a learning disability with reading, can use the iPod's audiobooks to keep up with everyone in the class. These audiobooks make silent reading exciting and independent and I can see why this would work for someone with a learning disability. Students that have a speech impediment are able to use a laptop to either spell out or have it say what they (the student) wants to say. When using technology it is almost effortless to captivate the student's attention and keep them interested and eager to work.

How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism

How the iPad works with academics for autism was actually quite interesting because before any of these fabulous technologies, children with autism did not have a fighting chance at surviving school without being behind all of their friends. Having a family member with autism can be difficult for the parents, but I think that with a few helpful hints about the iPad, it will make a world of difference to each of them. Apple has made it possible for any child with a disability to have a chance to succeed in life with the education apps that they have developed.
The education apps help the child learn to count by touching the item on the screen, and he/she instantly sees and hears the number being read to him/her. These apps also help with sight words, as in dad, like, and help. It also helps enable the child to write better by using a stylus because it resembles a pen or pencil. The app that I found that coud be using to help a child with autism or any other disability is called Alphabytes. This app teaches him/her the alphabet, how to write, spell, and memorize.

Hardness Your Students' Digital Smarts

In Ms. VIcki Davis' video, Hardness Your Students' Digital Smarts, she explains how you must teach them how to be comfortable with any type of technology. She also said that students should be thinkers. The two blog related websites that they use in her classroom were Digiteen and Flat Classroom Project.
With teaching the students how to be comfortable with technology, she explained how she teaches them to be interactive with other students their age from around the world. When she had mentioned that the students should be thinkers she was meaning that they should think for themselves and not have her think for them. Because she had said that she is learning something new everyday with them, and how they are using technology. Digiteen and Flat Classroom Project is how Ms. Davis keeps up with their blogs and to make sure that they are all on schedule.

Project #2

Blog Post #2

Did You Know 3.0

In the video, some very interesting facts were pointed out about the intelligence level of people outside of the United States, how the best students in grades Kindergarten through the Twelfth grade are honor students, and how putting those two together to make the other countries have more honor students than the United States. The intelligence of the other countries is just astounding on how well they are able to learn at a faster rate and be better than us Americans.
The Chinese have been doing things better such as vehicle making, cell phones, and robots. This is something the United States wishes they could do. Technology has evolved so much that at almost every minute there are at least one million people watching YouTube. This is just amazing to me to think that we have gone from not many people having computers, who use the internet, to now everybody uses internet via laptop, tablet, and cell phone. It is truly amazing that over the past couple of years every age group and ethnic group has a computer and cell phone. After watching this short video I had no idea that we have evolved so much in technology. We are still learning about it, as it changes every day.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

In this short video the author tells us about a man that had just woken up after a hundred years of sleep. To his surprise, there were tall buildings everywhere, and when he went inside one of them he found people talking to other business people on screens that were on their desks. He never knew that people would have all these technologies in a hundred years.
Mr. Winkle was truly amazed when he walked into the hospital and found that there were machines all over the place to help people live. The last stop that he made was to a local school where he saw teachers teaching and students learning. He was delighted to see that that has not changed in a hundred years. Even though technology has changed over the recent years, schools are still doing the basics of teaching students how to read and write.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

In the speech that Sir Ken Robinson made, he mentioned that getting a degree hardly does not mean much of anything anymore. He also mentioned that we, as adults, must rethink fundamentals in order to help children make something of themselves. Also mentioned were the three D's in intelligence. "In thirty years from now, more people will be graduating through education worldwide since the beginning of history."
When Sir Robinson had stated that degrees do not mean much anymore, he means that children and teenagers these days are more concerned about playing video games, then going to college and making something out of themselves. I personally think that in order to rethink fundamentals to help children means using the imagination(e.g. a child's mind). We need to know how and what they are thinking in order to help mold them into what they want to be when they grow up.
Once he had mentioned what the three levels of intelligence were I thought to myself, the three D's (Diverse, Dynamic, Distinct) are a very clever way of explaining intelligence. The reasoning for those three words is that we think in a world of diversity meaning that everybody has a different way (kind) of thinking or reasoning. We also have the level of dynamics meaning that we are energetic or forceful. The last level he mentioned was distinct, meaning that everybody's intelligence is not identical. In conclusion, even though we all think differently we can still think like a child to help them make a difference for their generation.

A Day Made of Glass 2

In this short video Corning shows us how glass effects our everyday life; for instance, being able to touch an item on the screen and it transferring it to another item. The technology being put behind a sheet of glass is just simply amazing from it being on a tablet to the dashboard of a vehicle to a wall in a classroom. People are always thinking of bigger and better ways to incorporate glass and technology.
Referring back to the video Mr. Winkle Wakes, it explains how technology has changed over the past one hundred years. With how technology has changed we are now able to keep files on a device, talk to other people from around the world, and keep people alive with a breathing machine. How Corning and Mr. Winkle relate is that we use technology for teaching in schools and working in an office. Without the use of these technologies we would not be able to communicate with other people from another country or save a person's life.

Blog Post #1

My Life

I was born and raised in the state of Alabama. I have moved from city to city ever sice I was six years old. The first city that I lived in was called Slocomb; which is right outside from the Dothan area. Then I moved to Elba, Mobile, Pensacola, and finally Grand Bay. My major interests are reading (when I find time), cooking, keeping up with technology, spending time with my family, and writing.
I happen to be attending USA because of when I moved from Pensacola, FL to Grand Bay, AL I had to transfer colleges. Something that might interest you about me is that during my high school career I commuted from Pensacola, FL all the way to Mobile, AL to go W.P. Davidson High School. My mother is the Family and Comsumer Science teacher (formally known as Home Economics), and it made sense to ride with her instead of transferring schools right after Freshman year; I graduated from Davidson on May 19, 2010. My father is the Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church of Grand Bay since July of 2011. My brother is a Freshman this year at USA and is in the Jaguar Marching Band playing the tuba; he graduated from Davidson on May 24, 2012.
I want to enter the field of education because of family members being educators and I adore being around children as well as teaching them manners, life skills, and how to read and write. My passion is playing my flute, piccolo, and alto saxophone; I find them to help me deal with stress along with patience. The thing that I like to do more than others is traveling down to New Orleans and going to the French Quarter to go to Cafe du Monde and ordering cafe au lait with beignets.

Randy Paush on Time Managment

In Dr. Paush's lecture on time management, he explained how we should set our goals, prioritize, and plan our time wisely. He also mentioned that we Americans are focused on doing things right adequately; meaning that we want to meet a need. One of his mentions from earlier in the video was planning, and that planning has to be done on multiple levels. After watching this video, I now know that to manage my time wisely I must set a goal, prioritize, and plan out the day/semester wisely.

Test Post #2

This is just a test blog post to make sure all signals are coming in.

My Test Post Title

This is my First Post. I clicked the HTML button which I should always do in EDM310. I am now a Blogger!