Thursday, September 27, 2012

Blog Post #5

iSchool logo

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.
people singing through webcam


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.
octopus multitasking


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.
teacher with an idea


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.
words flipped upside down


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.
classroom flipped upside down


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.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Project #5 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Podcast Preparation


1st Graders podcasting



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.
purim


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.

Flat Stanley


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.

Friday, September 14, 2012

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.

disabled student

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.

iPad

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.

Cool Cat Teacher

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.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

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.