Blog Post # 15 Final Reflection

C4T Summary of Jennifer Brokofsky

Mrs. Brokofsky is a Math teacher. I am horrible at math!! I have actually learned about some math types that I think will even help me now. I  have never been good at math and it was really nice to learn some things that will help me now. The first post I read by Mrs. Brokofsky she talks about teaching can some times be like driving a car. We can not just drive the car ourselves she says "Teachers are very skilled in I do it (I’ll drive) and You do it alone (You’re in the vehicle alone) phase, but it is the middle two phases We do it and You do it together that we need to focus more attention on. “We do it” is like sharing the wheel with the students" This stuck out for sure! I think this will be great for any teacher this is probably one of the most important tools that a teacher can have. Her next post she talks about an assignment that she didn't do well with as a student and then used the assignment with her students. Which is something to think about. Don't do something that you see failed, try a new route. I really enjoyed her post.

C4K Summary November

The first C4K I had in November was part of Mrs. Yollis' Class His name is Rexon. Mrs. Yollis had her class do a project called the 365 day Photo Archive. I had Day 281 and Rexon had put pictures of Aspen trees in Colorado. They are beautiful and yellow the leaves are turning. He did a great job.

The other C4K I had was a student in Ms. Squires class. In her class they did a project for science where they made comets! From what I read the class was very excited. I am going to teach high school history but for a science teacher this is a great project and the kids love it. They told what they did, exactly how they made them. They actually sounded really good. I am posting the ingredients below.

Ingredients:

Ice-Cream(Whatever flavour you like, better with chocolate)
Biscuit
100's and 1000's
Chocolate Sprinkles

1. Crush biscuits until dust like.
2. Add the sprinkles and 100's and 1000's and mix
3.Scoop ice-cream then dunk and roll it in dust until completly covered
4. Put in a cone and ENJOY!

Blog Post # 14

After exploring boxoftricks.net by Jose Pircado I was very impressed. His list of resources was incredible there were so many resources that I had never heard of! Some of which I use often though. I love Gimp, Facebook, and iTunes of course. Gimp is something I discovered this year and use for editing my personal photos. One of Mr. Pircado's resources I think I will be using is OneTrueMedia.com I really liked it. What I was most impressed with of  all is Quizlet.com what an amazing website! How useful it will be in my classroom! I will be going back to this blog. I saved it so that I can use his list of sources in my classroom.

Project 16

Final PLN Report

I chose to use Symbaloo as my PLN. I made it my homepage on my computer and love it. I have links to my job, bills I have to pay, and so many more things. I think it will be a great tool to pass on to my students. I have passed it a long to a few friends who also love it. Thank you so much for showing it to us.

Blog Post #13

Dr. Strange this is by far my favorite assignment! I chose Option 1 because, I am a Secondary Education and History major and planning on getting my Masters in Geography. I was in International Studies in high school for four years and loved it we had to be very familiar with our countries. I had never heard of WolframAlpha or google/squared. When I looked up to see the what percentage the United States population is in China's population I was kind of frightened, we are 22.8% of China's population. So just to see I reversed it. To make China's population we would have to increase 439%. Wow! That is scary when you think of everything that can happen. I am addicted to WolframAlpha now. I then looked up the United States population compared to India. We are 25.4% of India's population. Which is still very scary. In high school I did a paper on the World Water Crisis. In my research for that paper I learned that New Delhi, India is predicted to be completely out of groundwater by 2017. Then what? This is why history is so important to me. I feel that if we do not know where we have been we won't know where we are going! This information totally reiterated everything we learned from the video Did you Know? We have to do something or else I feel we are doomed. We don't need to catch up with their populations but we do need to be more competition than what we are. If not they will have our jobs, our schools will be taught what they are taught, our businesses ran by them and last by not least our money going to them. I will without a doubt be using WolframAlpha in my classroom. I think it is a great tool. I feel my students will be able to look up the country we are currently studying and be able to relate to it more and get a better understanding of what we are talking about. Thank you so much for introducing this to us.

SMARTBoard Project Part 2

Blog Post #12

The assignment that I have chosen to create is very simple. I think that it is one that we should have done in the very beginning of class. As we have all learned in EDM310 a lot of assignments have to be completed on a Mac. There is just no way around it. For many PC users like myself, those days were like learning Chinese. I have found two similar videos on how to use a Mac. Both of these videos just start with the basics. First the video PC to Mac: The Basics shows the difference between a PC and a Mac. The video starts with the Finder application and compares it to the Start menu on a PC. This video then compares the Dock on a Mac to the Windows task bar, showing a comparison each time helps out because you then have something to relate to. The next video I have is How to use a Mac- Guided Tour this video starts out with explaining all of the applications on the Dock. After the video goes through the applications and gives a quick guide to the Finder app it talks about connecting printers, cameras and more. Once you know the basics of a Mac it makes it much easier to operate things such as iMovie. Everything starts with the basics. I think a good assignment would be to watch these videos or others like it maybe something a little more in depth and then demonstrate something that you have learned on the Mac. This will do a few things; one, show that the student watched the videos, two, show they learned something and three, for most of the class they would have to go in to the lab. 

C4K Part 1 Mrs. Yollis' Blog

I believe it is safe to say that Mrs. Yollis' Blog is the best blog that I have ever seen! I loved it! She is doing so much with her students! I saw in reading her blog that they do post for everything. Mrs. Yollis finds a way to fit technology in to every subject and I admire that. Not every teacher can do that. I can not believe how many people her blog has tracked and from so many countries! That is amazing!!! She really is an amazing teacher and I know her students will remember her forever! Third grade is very impressionable on a student. I remember third grade very well and that I had a great teacher! My sister teaches third grade in Mississippi and was awarded teacher of the year I believe it was two years ago. She loves third grade and has so much fun with her students but she does not have a blog anything like Mrs. Yollis'. I am actually going to pass her blog to my sister to see if she can get any ideas. I love the videos and how much the students get involved. I am so thankful that we are learning all of this now so we can use it in the future.

Progress Report on Final Group Project

My group which members other than myself are Alyssa Jackson, Morgan Sims and Katie Wilhelm have decided to do a "How To" video on an assignment using all of our outside resources we have learned in EDM310 combined into one project. We are using everything from the SMART Board to Google Documents. We made a Google Document to share our ideas when we are not meeting. We do not have our topic yet but are meeting on Tuesday to decide which topic we will be using.

Skype Interview

Blog Post #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and
Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy

Thank you so much for this video I thought it was great! All the students knew so much about technology. They talked about their blogs, wikis, Skype and more. You can see they are all doing a wonderful job learning everything there is to know about technology. I admire Ms. Cassidy in all that she is doing with her students. I saw that the students were using the SMART Board, this is something that I want to do with my classroom. Even though I am planning on teaching in the Middle to High School level most students like to "mess" with the board, computer, or overhead projector. I think that using a SMART Board is a great way to get students involved in what they are learning. When I was in high school my Forensic Science class used Skype (or something like it, I am not to sure) to talk to other Forensic classes. Our class was the only one in the county at the time, so we talked with other classes in the state to see what they were doing and sometimes to help us solve our cases we were working on. I think that she is doing a great job preparing them for the future in school, as well as in their lives. She seems to have approached every angle of technology she can for their young age and has done amazing. They probably know more about technology and computers than most adults. I feel safe trusting them with our future for society. In her Skype interview with Dr. Strange I like how she talked about the way she addresses the fact of keeping the children's identities hidden. That is a very clever way to still be able to post their work online by not matching pictures up with names and only using the student's first name. Because first graders do not understand with their names and pictures can not be online, at that age they want it to be. They want the credit. I thought both videos were great. I am going to try to use her interview as an example for my Skype interview.

C4K Summary October

The first student I had this month was Tiffany. She did not have any actual blog post just pictures and some animation. She is young and had put a lot in to her blog that she could. I told her that I liked her page and its many colors and all of her pictures. Dr. Strange wrote in our assignment to tell them something about the United States. I thought about this and thought that for her age I would tell her about Disney World. I told her how amazing it was and if she got the chance to come to the United States that it is a must.
The next week I had two students to comment on, the first student I had was Tabbey. I got her name from the name generator they had on their classroom blog. Tabbey had recorded a project of her and a fellow student Peyton. In their project they set a timer on an iPhone to see how long it took to chew up bubble gum. It was very cute. I told her that next time they should try to have someone video them so they did not have to pass the video back and forth. Her blog was put together very well.
In that same week I was assigned Raymond from the same science class. Raymond seemed to LOVE science. He had graphs, and pictures galore. He is a 12 year old boy and has a very strong love for animals. He talked about animals in his blog and had a ton of pictures of them. I really like Raymond's blog it was very colorful and he did an amazing job.

The following week I and a few others had Ty, Hailee, Payton, and Cole. Wow they were some cool kids! They had an assignment to create their own animal after reading about Flat Stanley. I had a Flat Stanley project on year. It was so much fun. We got to take our Flat Stanley everywhere and take pictures. Oh how the imagination is so grand! Ty created a Choth, a Choth is a mixture between a Cheetah and a Sloth. He described his Choth as having a body of a Cheetah and legs of a Sloth. Hailee created a Girafhant. Yep a Giraffe and an Elephant. She described her Girafhant having the legs of a giraffe and the body of an elephant, but with the neck of a giraffe as well. Payton created a more house friendly pet, a Catdake. Which is a mixture of a cat and dog. She said it had the body of a cat and the head of a dog. Lastly Cole created a Chipliz. A Chipliz is a combination of a Chimp and a Lizard. He said his animal has the body of a lizard with the legs of a chimp. I wonder if I could have come up with one of these animals at their age. It was so much fun to try to picture these animals in my head. You can without a doubt see that these were the minds of children a few reasons were because when they had to described what their animal did during the day the most common things among them were that all the animals LOVED ice cream! Every child talked about ice cream. They also talked about how their animals jumped on the trampoline with them and took naps. This was a very creative project and I enjoyed it.
In the last week I had a history class in Portland, Oregon. I can admit that I was a little confused on which post we were to comment on so I picked one from their class blog. Their class blog was amazing! They are high school students and seemed to have been working with Blogger for a while. The post I chose to comment on was the introduction to Learning about the Reformation. This post was written by Lucy, she opened an introduction perfectly. She talked about how going in to the subject she could recall vague memories of what they were about to be learning she said " I was almost clueless. At that point, I had a few vague memories of this topic from history books in years past, involving a man nailing a paper to the door of a church." She then went on to talk about how much they were learning, what they were expecting and so on. The students blog was very thought out and neat they had all the authors (students) links to each post and many pictures to guide you through that period of history. 

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?
I loved how this video was put together. Amazing, how something so simple could give such a powerful meaning. I think this is without a doubt a video all future educators should watch. The meaning behind the words were so inspiring. I want to be an educator and know that I never wasted an opportunity to show my students the best that I possibly can. Being a future history teacher I want my students to not just leave my classroom with facts but the knowledge on how to make a brighter future for our world. We learn from the past and the classroom is where it all begins. I thought this video was amazing, the few words said it all, the music was great, and the pictures were powerful. My favorite part was "Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel"- Socrates

Don't let them take the pencils home!
I thought Mr. Johnson did a wonderful job presenting this argument. It is a very simple statement, "Don't let them take the pencils home." He addressed just as that, simple. Why should we stress about something to the point that it gets in the way of education. If you do not focus on the solution you will never solve the problem, that is all there is to it. He tells her that he has given the children an assignment that will keep them interested enough to know that a pencil is not an object that it is a tool and that is how it is to be used. Some teachers are stuck on test scores and statistics that they have lost the focus of mentoring, inspiring, molding...education. Learning is what it is all about and even as teachers we learn more every day.

Summary C4T October

This month I had the blog Langwitches
by Silvia Tolisano I enjoyed reading her post. The first post I read by Ms. Tolisano was an outline on how to have a great blog. She breaks it down into steps on where someone needs to start on a blog, what you need to know before you start a blog and so on. She said in the first blog that this is going to be a few week process. In her outline she starts with the basics; Reading, Writing, Commenting, Connecting, Reciprocation, Consistency and Quality. Her outline was very helpful. Her outline talks about how teachers need to be prepared before they start blogging. They need to read other blogs to understand the basics of how to write a successful blog. Here is a little of what Mrs. Tolisano had to say about reading;
Part I- Reading
As teachers, we need to be aware of  blogging potential in relationship to learning. We need to formulate and address intended student learning outcomes beyond checking off “technology integration” on our lesson plans. Becoming an avid blog reader of a variety of other blogs will help expose teachers to the potential blogging holds. As we read blogs regularly, the better we will become in RECOGNIZING learning opportunities, GAGING the quality (or lack) of our own students’ blogs.
This part will include sample blogs for different grade levels and subject areas to give teachers a head start in finding quality examples.

The second post I read by Mrs. Tolisano is the beginning of the steps. It is about reading. She stresses that teachers need to read other blogs to learn what is to be expected for a successful blog. She says to have a blog you must first become an avid blog reader. She gives many examples of blogs to start with to become a reader. Mrs. Tolisano then talks about how to find quality post, so that you are not lead in the wrong direction reading poor post. Lastly she breaks down the basics on what you need to know if you are an Elementary teacher, Math, Science, History, English and so on. She even talks about what you need to know for a Librarian. I really enjoyed Mrs. Tolisano's blog and look forward to more of what she has to say. 

Blog Post #9

First I read Mr. Joe McClung's post from May 27, 2009
  What I've Learned This Year (2008-09). I thought this would be a great place to start since it was his first year. The first year has to be the best but yet scariest time of your life! It is the moment you have worked up to for years then you realize it is fly or fall. I really enjoyed this first post. I could see that Mr. McClung grew as a teacher in that first year. I know that there will be triumphs and I know there will be time when I fail. I feel that seeing that it happened to someone I do not know puts mind my at ease knowing that it is a learning process for even the teacher that I am not the only one that will make mistakes. I think the most important part was that he talked about listening to the students and understanding them. How well you teach, in reality is not decided by our superiors but by our students. I think that his post will really help us understand how our first year will be like. Having the tools and guidance to move forward makes all the difference in the world.
Then I read Mr. McClung's post from June 23, 2011 What I Learned This Year (2010-11). His second post was also amazing! Reading it I can see how he has matured in to an amazing teacher. I like how he shows from one post to the next that no two years are the same. In this post he talks more about being a teacher and your adult  responsibilities rather than basing it about the students. I like this because he has now given us a very rounded look on teaching. What I got out of this the most was the paragraph on "Don't touch the Keyboard" That is something everyone struggles with at one point or another. You see it would just be easier to just do it and think you are showing them when really you are not teaching them how to do it at all. I have had a major issue with this with my grandfather and his cell phone. I feel it is much easier for me to just do it, and it is. But in the end he hasn't learned anything.
I loved this post. Thank you again Dr. Strange.

Smartboard Project #13

Green Eggs and Ham Book Trailer

Blog Post # 8

This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
I could not really get into the groove with this video. I feel like he was talking about information we have already learned in EDM310. We know this is where the world is heading, we are already there now it is just getting better with time. I thought the video was put together very well I just feel his information is all information we have already seen in other videos and personal assignments. I do feel my students will be able to do this, I feel they will learn very early how to write with multi-media. Studying to be a Secondary teacher I know I will be giving assignments like this and I am looking forward to it. To see what a student can create with an unlimited amount of resources is going to be incredible. Teaching is taking a whole new turn visual learning has gained a new chapter.

Blog Post #12 by Carly Pugh
First I would like to start off by saying that I think Carly Pugh is going to be an amazing teacher and her students are very fortunate to have her as their teacher. I wish I had English teachers in my past that had as much spunk as she seems to have. I loved her videos. They were all very inspiring, watching her playlist I thought of something. What a great idea to have a playlist for your classroom. Making a playlist on YouTube to follow along with what your class is studying and while a teacher is presenting the lecture boom there the videos are all on one page. This also gives light to what we have learned with podcast for a student to be able to go back and watch what they had seen in class that day for extra help. I think she did a wonderful job with her post. I hope to get as much out of EDM310 as she clearly has. Multi-media learning is a very important tool. It can reach out to all of the many types of learners you will have in your classroom and will give them all the keys to success in learning.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies
I really enjoyed these two videos. They are helpful, I think what I try to remember the most when it comes to EDM310 is to just breathe. It gets a little stressful. It was a very good message showing the road Chipper went down when she did not try at school. This happens to many people and I have seen it first hand. With EDM310 for Dummies I believe this is every student in EDM310 until it is over then we look back and will say "Wow, that wasn't so bad!" We will also then realize everything we have learned in EDM310. I can already see a difference in my life I know that in the end it will be amazing. The video that I would like to see more in EDM310 or PC friendly videos. I personally can not afford a Mac. I would love one but do not see myself having one in the near future. It is very difficult for some students to get to the lab often and not having a Mac makes things even harder when you truly do not know how to do something on a PC.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Once again another amazing video!!! How do you find these Dr. Strange? I really want to keep them for my classroom! I loved this! This video was so true. I think that people that have nothing to do with education should watch it. I make my roommate watch at least half of the videos we watch in EDM310. I love where education is going. At the beginning of the school year I was very hesitant towards technology in the classroom and now from this class I have learned I was hesitant to the most useful tool there is to teaching. Why not teach children with what they use everyday outside of the classroom! I applaud these educators and the educators we have for pushing this forward. Thank you so much!

Project 11 "Why I want to be a teacher!"

Dr. Strange I tried everything I knew to do to fix the audio where it is in sync with the video. I do not know what happened.

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch Last Lecture

In the beginning of the video Randy Pausch does a very brave thing. Like he said he wanted to "get rid of the elephant in the room." He talks about how he is dying of cancer and that how this lecture is not about that. It is about fulfilling your childhood dreams. I really like how he is showing basically his notes on what he is talking about. He has everything on a list then he breaks them down one by one. He talks about how some of his childhood dreams had to change a little and some didn't. For instance being Captain Kirk changed to meeting him, and he talks about how amazing that was to meet your idle. I really like how he truly did not give up on any of them. One of my favorite quotes from this video is him talking about brick walls he says "brick walls are there for the other people" saying brick walls are for people that give up and he wasn't giving up.
I love that how some way his dreams came true. They may not have been how he had exactly pictured them but they still came true. I love what extent he went through to make sure he got to experience zero gravity. Then he says no to taking a job as an imagineer. It is incredible that he worked on the Aladdin ride at Disney. I know that those six months were incredible. He then talks about a project that he is doing with his students and how they work in a group of four for two weeks then switch up. I think that is an amazing strategy and can not even imagine the number of ideas that went through that room. I thought it was so funny that he said he had students parents showing up to class to see their projects.
I have to admit I did not really get the "Hello World" it was a little odd. But I know that for the time, it was awesome. The Virtual Worlds were amazing! I know they had so much fun! I really liked the raft one. I wish I could do something like that. What an amazing Masters Degree, the ETC how much fun five projects doing something fun and that you love. Who wouldn't love that? Randy Pausch is like Dr. Strange with no book work it seems he doesn't like the burp back education. I really liked the bar chart on other students feedback on each student. Showing how easy or hard a student is to work with.
Alice oh what a great "head fake" he made. Teaching kids without them know they are learning. They think they are having fun. When really they are learning how to program. He talked about how his next version was teaching kids Java and really they think they are making movies. It is so sad but also amazing that he talks about how he knows he will live on in Alice, that is his legacy.
I love the "Lessons Learned" part of the lecture. It was without a doubt my favorite part. I feel it shows his "I am a normal person" how his mom would say "This is my son the doctor, but not the kind that helps people" I just thought that was so funny. How he can admit when Andy van Dam told him he was being a jerk. Not many people can call themselves out like that. He talks about never losing your child like behaviors and to have fun. I have a lot of a respect for someone that is dying and can give such an inspiring lecture to a room full of people. Thank you so much Randy Pausch, you much like Steve Jobs will be missed.

My PLN

After watching a video we had a few weeks ago I fell in love with Symbaloo! I had never heard of it and now I have everything on there. I have work sites, school sites, and ones that I need for my personal life. I love how I can have everything on one page. What I use or consider to be my PLN is facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Skype, Hotmail, Gmail, YouTube and even texting
I use them all in so many ways. I use facebook to talk to my friends but mostly to stay in touch with my family even my grandparents in their 80s have facebook. Facebook is what I use the most it is sad to say that facebook comes up in just about any conversation I have. I will actually say to some of my friends and family when we go to talk "Let's see if we can have a full conversation without saying the word facebook" usually we can't. I use Twitter to follow my stuff with EDM310 some Hollywood stars, and some others but I mostly use Twitter for school stuff. I use Blogger strictly for school, I use our C4C blogs to help with my own. Seeing others really helps me work on mine. I use Skype to talk to my friends even to help studying. It makes for a nice study session. I use Hotmail for all of my bills I can email my bank, and all my other bills. I get everything paperless. My family also emails me through Hotmail just about every day. I use Gmail only for school. My EDM310 stuff of course but also everything that goes to my jag account is forwarded to my Gmail. I use YouTube to see all kinds of videos, ones I've posted, my friends posted, commercials, clips I want to remember and so much more. YouTube is an amazing contribution to the internet. Lastly my favorite, texting. I text all day. I wouldn't know what to do without it. I can get in touch with every one I talk to all day at any time. It is a wonderful feeling.
Well that is what I consider to be my PLN, and it is all organized by Symbaloo.

C4T Summary of Steve Anderson

I had the pleasure of following Steve Anderson and his blog, Blogging about the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom. The first blog post I read was "Some Google Searches You Might Not Know About" I learned more about Google than I even thought was possible. Mr. Anderson broke the blog down into Google Books, Google Blog Search, Google Scholar, and Google Patent Search, he also has a link to so much more. Google Patent Search? Wow, I did not know that even existed. My favorite part from this post is Google Books. I looked up some of my books I needed for this semester and there they were, free as can be. I thought it was amazing. I will definitely be giving Google Books a try next semester before I buy my books.
The second post I had by Mr. Anderson was about Steve Jobs. Mr. Anderson posted Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford. I have seen this video many times and like I said in my comment on Mr. Anderson's blog, every time I watch the video I don't know if I learn something new, fall in love with it more or both. Steve Jobs was an amazing person. I hate that he passed away I feel like his work wasn't done. His inventions changed everything. Our lives were touched in so many ways. For instance, my iPhone I love my iPhone it is my second one and I will be getting the iPhone4s next month. I am so excited thank you Steve Jobs. In his speech he talks about his life. How he was adopted, and his birth mother wanted him to go to college and he went to college but dropped out after six months. The crazy part is that he still went to college. He just sat in, he talks about how he sat in a calligraphy class and that when he was designing for Apple that the class came back to him. He talks about he used everything he learned and made different fonts for the computer he then made a joke about how Windows copied everything they did and that if he hadn't dropped out he wouldn't have taken that class and PC's may not have ever had fonts. Crazy stuff. He talks about how we need to live our lives for ourselves that we do not have much time it is a very touching speech and I suggest everyone watch it.

Blog Post # 6

The Networked Student
I have to say I did not really enjoy this video. I didn't get much out of it. I like the ideas of the iSchool, blogs, podcast and all but I do not like the thought of students learning from blogs. I think that blogs should be how students show what they have learned. Because of blogs being so opinion based I do not think they are a good tool for facts. I feel that a student could misinterpret what a person has stated as an opinion for a fact. That in some ways can be tied to plagiarism. A student can take someones opinion write it as a fact when really they should have been forming their own opinion in the first place then what has happen? A students belief has been skewed. I don't know, I believe I am taking it to far but that is how I feel. I think that it is appropriate for students to read a professor's blog and state their own opinion on what the professor has said like we do but I do not think blogs should be used as sources. I wish her good luck with her middle school students I hope it all works out as she has planned.
I think that even with this plan the teacher will be needed just as much as teachers are needed now. A student will need guidance on how to write a blog post, if the source is credible, and so many more things. We will need to grade the students, tell them if they are going in the right direction or if they have gotten lost along the way. Students want to know if they are right or wrong. That is something we have been taught all our lives, to get the answer right. Teachers will be there for the students each step of the way. Whether that is physically  or virtually teachers will always be here.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)
I really enjoyed this video. The student really seemed to enjoy how her science class is being taught and I must say I enjoyed it as well. With that being said I really hope that they do like we do and meet in class from time to time. I think that at her age group they should be meeting at least once a week. I really really enjoyed how she had every thing set up in fact I liked it so much I Googled "symboloo" and I am going to try it out as soon as I get done with my post. I think her class is a lot like ours. It is not a go at your own pace class and I like it. I think the way her science teacher has everything set up that it is very effective and educational. I hope all of the other kids enjoy the class as well I am interested to see what students have to say that do not enjoy the new method of teaching.
Thank you so much Dr. Strange.

Group Project

Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? by Scott McLeod
When I first read Mr. McLeod's post I was a little confused I was thinking, we follow him on Twitter he doesn't think like this? I then saw he was being very sarcastic. I agree and disagree. I think that children should be taught technology and prepared for the future but I also think there is a breaking point. Children should be handed a book, and they do need to write with no short hand text. There is a time for children to go to the black/dry erase board and do problems or write the answer they got. I think that mentally and physically people need a break from technology. Kids eyes need a break I am sure hours looking at a computer screen can not be good every day. Mentally we need to escape the technology world. Do you not want to just turn your phone off every once in a while? But with that being said I know that technology is here to stay I know that we have to have it. I am just saying I do not believe that what we know should be left, we should just add more. Mr. McLeod's website is very impressive. I loved the setup and I hope to one day have the skills to have a website as impressive. I did not know that he was a professor at the University of Kentucky or the director of CASTLE. I am sure we will be hearing much more from him.

The iSchool Initiative  
I have to say I disagree with Travis. With his plan I think, maybe 15 years after the iSchool Initiative is worldwide we will not need teachers. I don't know about you but I need a job. I think its a great tool and a great add on. I do not think that it should be the only means of schoolwork. Children need physical interactions with teachers and other students. We need social skills and just human interaction it is embedded in our brains to be social beings. When a baby is born it is instinct to want to be held and loved. We need to talk to people and have human contact and I am really afraid if the world goes this route we will not have that. What is that going to do to our country? If we don't need to teachers in the classroom to teach, where else can we cut people out? Grocery stores, movie theaters, where else? It just scares me, I do not want people to be a minority in the world. But like I said I think his idea is a great add on and should be used responsibly in the classroom not as a replacement but an addition. I admire Travis Allen in the fact he has taken this initiative and gone so far. He will do great things.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
There are no other words to describe that video but amazing! I did not even know something like that was even possible. I was very impressed. The whole choir did an amazing job and I know they are all very proud when they watch the video. Watching the video it takes me back to what I said before though. None of the singers every interacted with each other. I just can not help to see something wrong with that. People need people. All of those people were sitting in their own homes. If we can have an amazing choir without any of them being in the same room. What else can we do without seeing another person? The design of the video was amazing I do not think they could have done a better job, the singers were in perfect harmony, its scary what we can do with technology.

Teaching in the 21st Century by Kevin Roberts
Yet again another great video. Mr. Roberts raises many questions on how to teach in the 21st Century. What are we going to do considering all the information out there at the touch of our fingertips. Well we will teach. Students do need to learn how to use these tools that is why it is important for us to learn how to use them first. I believe we are on the right path. Schools are starting to get iPads and do podcasting. Everything seems to be coming together. I really liked how the video was put together. It shows that we are not using the plain power point presentations anymore. He showed what can be done to make a lesson unique. I really liked what he said about "How will we monitor these new tools, the same way we do with pencil and paper" That is so true! Kids are going to get in trouble some how, there will always be that student that wants to test the limits. I remember when I was in high school and Myspace and facebook were blocked one student would find a proxy then that would get blocked we would find another and that would and so on and so on. It is going to happen and we will just keep pushing back. It is a crazy feeling to think that when I graduated in 2007 Myspace and facebook were banned and now they are growing to be almost requirements, in four years the world has changed so much. Just imagine ten.. Wow. Thank you so much for the amazing video I am going to keep those questions with me for the future.

Time Toast

Blog Post #4

I started my reading with Langwitches. I had not thought about recording the students and playing it back for them. I thought that was a very unique idea and also very effective. I like that after she recorded the students she gave them scripts to follow along. That way that are not only hearing the word they are seeing the word. Relating the spelling to sound, hearing the meaning, and learning the context of the word. For younger students this is one of the most important tools for language. I also like how she showed how to use this same strategy with older students. Reading Edgar Allen Poe I could hear the students getting involved in the story. When they are reading they are reading with excitement and feeling. Lastly on Langwitches I really appreciated the photos, with how they showed what they had written on the board, the students following along and more. These showed us where to begin with trying to use this assignment in our classroom.

Second I read Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom by Joe Dale. Mr. Dale is the teacher I had been following for C4T. He has so many great ideas for the classroom and is so involved with many things. In the video he gave us some ideas of how to use the podcast with the students. I agree that podcast for when a student misses class is an amazing idea. Also some students need a little extra work after being in the classroom this will help them once they are at home trying to do homework they can play back the lesson from their teacher for help. With some podcast they can have videos and text some students are visual learners and need to read the text to learn, and some need to hear the lecture. With podcast you are catering to all kinds of learners.

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection
I knew that the term "podcast" had something to do with iPod but I had never put broadcast and iPod together to make "podcast" neat. I loved that Ms. Scharf started with the terms, told us what podcast meant, how it came about and what sites find the software to start our own . Then she gave seven tips to success on using podcast in the classroom. These will be very helpful she told us to start with making sure we learn the software which in theory is common sense but can be over looked by thinking on the lines of learning as we go. Most importantly in her steps she tells us to let our students make the decisions on, who they want to work with, their topics, and giving them a time frame. Then Ms. Scharf broke down a time frame of how to teach students how to make their own podcast, Amazing! She gave step by step ideas to an amazing process. She did a wonderful job on her page to show us by breaking down all the procedures to making a great podcast even giving us examples. Thank you so much Ms. Scharf.

This is my Sentence.

Blog Post #3

It's Not About the Technology
After reading Ms. Hines' post I have to say I agree with her 100%. I do not think it is all about the technology. Even though we are changing and in time it will be all about the technology but you have to build the house before you can live in it. There are teachers in public schools today that are well into their sixty's and they are not "technologically literate." Is that a problem today? Well in my opinion no, I think it will be in the future. That is why I am thankful for this class because when we graduate if we are not technologically literate we will be over looked in the education world. The teachers today that are not up to date with technology some of them know enough that they can get by but there are others that are so far behind that a workshop is not going to help. Are their jobs at risk for the future? I think so. I think they will be replaced by a new generation, one with new ideas. Technology is becoming a huge deal! I personally do not know how many years it will take but one day we will not have books for schools. What will the older generations do if they do not know how to operate what is in the future?
In a class that I have at South one of my teachers (in an education class) does not know how to operate the Smart Board. He literally stumbled across the fact that you can just press the board during a power point to go to the next slide. Meaning he tripped and caught himself with the board and said "Wow, did you all know it did that?" In another one of my classes a teacher asked me if I knew how to work the projector. I think that while yes teaching us to be technologically literate is most important I think the next step should be revamping our own teachers. With that being said I know we will get there one day.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher? By Karl Fisch
I understand why that post won most influential post of 2007. That was very impressive. I am more thankful for EDM310 every week when we read these post. I am going to be honest, I did not know how important it is to be a technologically literate teacher. After seeing every week how many extremely intelligent people stress the importance of technology I see I was very wrong. I do not know as much as I should and I am learning. My sister is a teacher and when I was telling her about this class she told me to learn as much as I can because she now has to have a blog and website for her 3rd Grade class. She was not taught how to manage her own website and has had to learn herself. I never even thought at any time in my life that I would have to have a website when teaching a history class, but the day is coming.
I would like to thank Mr. Fisch for this post it put a lot in to perspective for me and I now want to focus and make more time for EDM310 because I am realizing this is a class I am going to need and use everything we learn. I would now like to thank Dr. Strange for showing us these videos and post, and also giving us the skills and tools we need to make it in the future. In Mr. Fisch's post he said "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it' s equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." Wow that is amazing! That one statement I feel sums up the basic purpose of our class. It is an amazing feeling when you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Gary's Social Media Count
I watched the Social Media Count in amazement. I watched it change by the millions per second. Then I noticed that I had only seen the information for 230 seconds! The numbers for a day, month and year were incredible! I could not believe it. This is going to change our lives forever. Teachers need to be more and more prepared for the technology in our future. Our lives will revolve around it on day! Students will be required to have social media accounts, assignments will be sent through them, who knows what all is going to happen? The amount of online classes are getting higher and higher. People are getting there Masters Degrees without even stepping into a classroom. The state of Florida has started an online high school program. Children are being taught at their own pace. Is this going to help or hurt our social skills? How will this effect our interactions in the future?
In five seconds I watched items shared on facebook jump to 67,000 items, in five seconds! I can barely say my name in five seconds. Thats insane! After watching the Social Media count I started messing around and watched the "Mobile" tab, I have an iPhone, I love it but watching the difference in Androids being activated compared to iPhones I think the world disagrees. There are about 400,000 Androids activated compared to iPhones sold. The world changes more and more every day. I never thought Myspace was going to be a thing of the past. But it is, I don't know anyone that still has Myspace. I can not help to wonder if facebook will to be in the past one day? With the way technology changes will facebook be able to keep up? Will people? I guess we will see.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today


I really enjoyed watching this video. I feel it tells the truth about how students really feel. We are tired, sometimes we don't want to go to class, we are thinking about other classes or taking the time to not think at all. I respect the students for taking the time to do the surveys to breakdown down their day by the hour the message is loud and clear. I agree one hundred percent that technology is the future, now is the time for us to learn how we are going to protect it so that it will not be abused. Students bring their computers but that does not mean anything related to school work is taking place. Teachers need the tools and knowledge of how to monitor and mold students into using technology in schools how it should be. There is a time and place for facebook, class is not it. I know that videos, blogs, articles and so on can send a different message to each person. Watching this video I thought how good is the classroom. Are students learning any more than they would online? I personally am a social person and I like the "in the classroom" feeling. I live in Baldwin County and commute just because I like being in the classroom listening to the teacher. Online teaching does not work as well for me.
With that being said, are those students going to be taken into consideration? Classrooms can not just disappear. How far can technology really go in schools? We still have to have them. How will we balance both? They sent the message in the end that implied to me that they do not believe technology alone will save us. I have to say I agree, life is more than technology. We are preparing for battles that are not here yet, jobs that are not useful yet, technology that can not be invented yet. So many things are going to be obsolete before they are even used. Life seems now to be a competition. Nintendo came out with Wii, then there was Xbox Kinect, then Playstation Move, they are all the same concept all different prices all claiming to be the best each putting the other in the past. What all is technology going to put in the past. The thought of people being replaced crosses my mind every now. It is a scary thought that technology is no where near where it is actually going.

C4T Summary of Joe Dale

In Mr. Dale's first post that I read he talked about the benefits of Twitter. Mr Dale is a language teacher and talks about how important Twitter is with language skills and communicating with other countries in the world. He has videos and links to Twitter, Flickr, Peekr, Twittersheep and so many more things to do with Twitter. I clicked on a few of the links and they were all actually very interesting. He talks about how important it is for teachers to continue their professional development and what he has found is the best way is basically by Social Media, in this post he talks mostly about Twitter.
The second post I read by Mr. Dale was about a competition called The Language Perfect World Championships. This is an amazing competition with countries from all over the world. It last one week and in the first day students had answered 2.5 million questions. Mr Dale has been placed in charge for making sure that England brings home the trophy. I am interested in seeing how the United States does in the competition. I am going to be sure to ask him when the competition is over.

When I first looked at Mr. Dale's blog I did not know what to think. His blog is titled "Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom: Getting Personal at Language World 2011. I thought "Hmmmm, I need to look into this." Language, well grammar is not my strongest subject. But what I am learning from his blog is very interesting. He is much like Dr. Strange and has become a rather large fan of Twitter. I am still trying to figure out Twitter. He actually wrote me encouraging me to enhance my Twitter skills and use it now and in the future with my career. He shows in his blog how much Twitter has helped him learn from all over the world and how much you could learn from Social Media. In Mr. Dale's second post talking about The Language Perfect World Championships I had to admit to him that I was embarrassed that I have never heard of the competition. I wished him good luck for England in the competition. I also hope that the United States does well.

Google Presentation

Sir Ken Robinson:The Importance of Creativity

This has been my favorite video so far! I have never heard of Sir Ken Robinson, oh my gosh he is so funny! During this video I could not help to take notes, I wanted to remember everything he said so that I can share this with others, I wrote two pages. The video was filmed in 2006 and in the beginning of the video he talks about how children that started school that year would retire in 2065 now children that started this year will retire in 2070. How do we prepare them for a life that we wont even be here to see? We can't. But we can give them the skills to learn along the way so that they will know how to change with the world. I believe that is the most important trait among man kind. The ability to adapt, the world changes everyday. Why should't we? He says that kids will take a chance, they are not afraid to be wrong but by the time they become adults they are taught it is not okay to be wrong and we take less chances. Fear is not an instinct we are born with, its developed. Why should we teach children to be scared to take a chance? Its okay to be wrong, that is why its called learning you learn from mistakes.

Sir Ken Robinson made a very interesting point when he said that schools around the world teach the same, even though we know schools around the world beat us academically. They do teach the same we are just lazy as a unit. He says that the curriculum is Mathematics, Language, Humanities then the Arts. When a school needs to do a budget cut they don't start with sports its the Arts. They cut out new band equipment and Art projects. Education can kill creativity. Art is a language, when you can not speak to someone you can show them. Even back to caves thousands of years ago, they had no written language so they drew. They told their stories in pictures. I thought his jokes about Shakespeare were incredibly funny I like how he brought humor into such a serious subject. Humor always keeps an audience interested. When he talked about Gillian Lynne, he showed that she was an exception of the "We do not grow into creativity we are educated out of it." Now more so than ever children are put on medication to get them to sit down and listen. Do we think about what we might be destroying inside? If Gillian Lynne would have left that room that day being told she had a learning disability think how much would have changed in the art world today? How different Broadway would be? This video was amazing. I hope to see more of his videos.

Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman

The message in this video is very clear. It is showing that the world is changing so rapidly but yet we are not teaching people how to change with it. Everything we once knew in the world is changing and converting to technology and schools still teach on the same curriculum "Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic." I remember when I was in high school and would bring home assignments from classes such as Forensic Science, or Criminal Law and my grandfather would tell me that when he was in school "All you needed was Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic." That is just not the same story now. If we do not teach students about computers and social media even, they will be lost in their future schooling, jobs, even grocery stores. Drink machines take credit cards if that does not tell you that the world has turned to technology then I have beach front property in Kansas for you! Nah, just kidding. But really is it too late for us to catch up? If we as teachers should be steps ahead to teach our students and schools have not changed than how far behind are we? Scary thought.

Did You Know? 3.0 by Karl Fish and Scott McLeod

Wow!!! Is all I can say at first to that video! I have seen a video similar to it before and knew a few of the facts but it doesn't matter how many times you hear it, I can not believe the United States is falling that far behind! We have gotten so lazy and it seems that the generations tend to be getting worse. I definitely did not know that India has more honors students than we have children! How can that be? We are becoming so technologically based that if we do not catch up we can kiss World Super Power goodbye. All of the facts were so incredible even the fact that in the time that I watched the video 67 babies were born in the United States. I highly recommend the video Social Media Revolution Socialnomics 2011. It is just as amazing as this video!! With me becoming a History Teacher its a very scary thought to think how much the world will change between now and the time I become a teacher. The video says that technology doubles every year and by seeing the statistics about the United States and how soon China will be the number one English speaking country. Its scary, what will I be teaching? Will I be telling my students stories of how we once were the Super Power but we fell to far behind?

This video truly showed me the importance of being technologically literate. Just with the fact of how much technology and the world has changed since 2008 will blow your mind. As teachers we have to keep up. We actually have to be five steps in front! Because think about it, they said that a student getting a four year degree by their Senior year what they learned their first two years will be outdated. Being teachers we are preparing students for the future, so really we need to be teaching them two years ahead. Teaching students how to do jobs that don't yet exist is crazy I can not even wrap my head around that but they prove the point so loud and clear when saying that the top ten jobs in demand for 2010 did not exist in 2004! What? How are we moving so quickly? I think what got my mind thinking the most was B.G. What did we do before Google? I personally use Google I would say at least 15 times a day. If you can not find it on Google you might as well forget it. Its the same way with cell phones. First graders have cell phones, I can not imagine the future. But I also can not wait. Thank you so much Dr. Strange for sharing this video with us.

Project 2 Wordle

A little bit about me

My name is Brittany Grogan, I am 22 years old and I am going to be a High School, World History teacher. My family has many generations of teachers and administrators, a few of which graduated from South. I am originally from Atlanta, Georgia but my family moved down here when I was a year old. I grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama and just bought a house down the road in Summerdale, Alabama. The most important thing in the world to me is my family. I have a wonderful family we are all so close. I cannot remember an experience without. But most importantly I have an amazing niece and nephew, Logan and Adelyn; they are my entire heart, well them and my four dogs. They drive me crazy but keep me very entertained. Their names are Twix, Hal-ee, Reese and Jinx. Logan started Kindergarten this year (Oh how it has changed since I was in it). Adelyn is four and still in Pre-School but do not let this fool you. This four year old dominates our entire family and her Pre-School, she is a typical princess.

 I have wanted to become a teacher since I was in 6th Grade when I had the most amazing History teacher in the world. I remember she never looked at her book, she taught with passion each and every day.  I do not have a lot of free time, I am a full time photographer for Eastern Shore Toyota and Eastern Shore Hyundai, my job is my life; not because it is my passion but because I dedicate myself 100%. I want to be a teacher because I feel that if we try, we can change the world. We know we need to change the world, stop racism, end violence, do away with drugs and so much more. Everything we learn comes from somewhere and starts when we are children. If we don’t teach racism, violence and drugs if we show they need to be in the past they will cease to exist. That is why I want to be a teacher to change people. I want to be a history teacher to change our country. If we know where we have been then we know where we are going. We learn who we can trust, what we should and should not do. Basically from history we learn from our mistakes. If we do not learn from our past than history will continue to be the greatest horror story ever told and repeat itself over and over again.

After watching the video of Dr. Pausch, I learned the biggest key to time management is planning. Make a To-Do list, first for your day, then week, then semester if you are a student. The best thing about a to-do list is that it can always be changed. You may be given a new opportunity and something on your to-do list may not be as important. Dr. Pausch made a very interesting point by saying do the "ugliest thing first" this is so true. Its as if you are moving furniture you move the heaviest items first. With a to-do list you don't want to wait until the end of your week when you are worn out and do your most extensive chore or assignment. I learned to use this with EDM310 I do not want to wait until the day an assignment is due to complete all of my assignments. I need to start with the task that is going to take the most time, then gradually step down throughout the week. Unfortunately this video is the first I have seen by Dr. Pausch, but I do remember seeing everything in 2008 about his death. He was a very inspirational man and I know his lectures will live on in colleges for years to come.