Thursday, October 25, 2012

Blog Post #9

recycled lesson planning

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.


The real meaning of lesson planning

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

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

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

students have the key for technology

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.
YouTube playlist


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".
Dr. Strange's EDM310


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


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.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Blog Post #7

Networked Student

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

Comment for Kids ad

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.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Blog Post #6

Dr. Pausch's Last Lecture

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.