Blog Post #15

Final Reflection

Final Project

PLN Final Report

I have found that a PLN is of great use for managing and getting around the internet. I really like that I can go to one page and have all my information right there for me to access. My PLN has grown vastly over this summer semester by me adding sites and deleting ones I rarely use. I think the PLN project was definitely one of the many things that were beneficial to me from this course. I will continue to develop it to meet my needs as my courses and tasks change throughout the years to come. My PLN is definitely something that I will continue to use for the rest of my college career as well as my professional teaching career.

C4T Summary #4

The teacher I was assigned to follow was Ms. Andrea Hernandez. He first post was about ways that children can take an image, along with a set of verbs and write a poem pertaining to how they see the image. Ms.Hernandez used a program called PicLit in her classroom. This program seemed to be a good activity for getting children to apply their individual views to one particular item.
The next post I commented on pertaining to Ms.Hernandez's blog was about change and the risks that come with it. She seemed to be more on the side of leaving things as they are, or just simply "making do" with what you have. I completely agree that sometime people try to take a great thing and do to much to it, like sequels in movies that were great to begin with but are ruined by the second one. However, I believe that there is always room for improvement. This doesn't necessarily mean i believe in making change for the sake of making change but I believe in making change for the sake of a better or improved outcome of the original product.

Blog Post #14

For post fourteen, I decided to go an entire day without technology. On Saturday July 9th, I spent my entire day without a phone or any type of electronic device. I notified certain people the night before of my activity and why they would not be able to reach me on my cell phone the following day.  I thought it would be easy to make it through a day but simple things that I used to take for granted became very noticeable early in the day. I tried to go fishing in the morning to spend some time doing something that did not have any temptations for my phone. Then I went golfing and finished my day playing tennis. The thing that hurt me the most I think was not being able to check my eBay (since I check it several times a day, everyday). 

I was able to complete this task by keeping myself occupied throughout the day. I feel like if I were to have stayed at my house all day that I wouldn't have achieved this goal. I think my computer, cell phone, and xbox would have been my biggest weaknesses had I not kept myself busy. I realize that if i used technology this much today that the children I teach will use it twice as much. It will be an everyday part of their lives and would be foolish not to incorporate the things they are already familiar with into the classroom. All and all this was a much harder activity than I anticipated.

Blog Post #13

I really liked the tips given in the video. I plan to use most of them in my classroom, especially Smart board and blogs. I do not think I will use social networks in school because most schools forbid you to be friends with your students on Facebook. I like the tip of using teleconferencing and plan to do so in my class to gain new perspectives on subject matter around the world. Another tip I plan to use is interactive exercises in the classroom. There were many times that I had to do an activity on the internet in high school growing up and they always helped me recall things faster and more accurately.
I was familiar with all of the types of technology being integrated into the class room. The only reason for that is being a student in this class. Before this class I knew what a blog was but not how to make one or manage it. I had never herd of Google docs before. I had also never herd of Dropbox or Kahn Academy. Lastly I had never herd of a wiki and did not know how to use skype. Thanks to this class I have learned more about technology and will be a better teacher for it.

Final Project Progress Report

I and my group have brainstormed several idea but have not yet landed on one in particular. We will be meeting several times within the next two weeks to put together a story board. After this we will be acting out the video and posting it.

Project #15

Blog Post #12

Watch the video and notice some of the tools in it that we use in EDM 310.
Write a quality Blog post on why you think these tools are effective of ineffective in the world of teaching today.

Smartboard Project

Project #14

How To Place A Bid On eBay.

Blog Post #11

Ms. Cassidy's Skype Interview
This interview was very beneficial to my ideas of using technology in the classroom. I liked the way she described how she protects her students from the bad things on the internet. This is a big fear of adults when finding out their child will be doing a large amount of work on the internet. I thought the idea of having children make wikis was a great idea to show students how people of different background treat different situations. I think this would be great in decreasing racial acceptance problems in children. They could learn that all humans are the same and no one person is different based on their appearance. I look forward to using some of the methods that Ms. Cassidy used in her video in my own classroom one day.

Special Assignment #2

Part 1 & 2
The Kahn Academy is a site that allows children to look up videos on different sets of curriculum and learn. Most of this curriculum has to do with math, science and numbers. It started with Mr. Kahn making a YouTube video for his cousins on math and quickly grew into a non profit company. This is great because they do not have to say can you repeat that, they can just rewind the video. Kahn Academy is also a fantastic tool for teachers that I plan to use in my curriculum. It allows teachers to test students and see what the child is excelling in and what they are struggling at. It allows them to see what concepts they understand and what one they have trouble with. This allows the teacher with a greater understanding of the child's learning capabilities.
iTunes U is a form of iTunes that has lectures and teachings from schools and colleges all across the globe. There are lectures on almost every subject imaginable and the subject is taught by some of the world leading professors. You can literally listen to an entire Psychology class from a teacher at MIT as if you were sitting in the front row.
TED is a non profit organization devoted to spreading great idea from many well known speakers across the internet. There are many videos on the site that display great ideas that people are trying to incorporate into our every day world.

Part 3
For the Kahn Academy I watched the lecture on Trig Functions. This video covered the ways to find the adjacent and opposite sides of a right angle.
Next on iTunes U I watched a MIT Psychology Lecture 1 on love in the human brain.
This lecture covered the ways that the brain reacts when you see something you love. It talked about different stimuli and what parts of the brain go off when you love someone.
Lastly on TED I watched Robert Hammond talk about his project of Building a park in the sky. This project talks about taking the old abandoned railroad and making it into a park. He talks about money raised and the amount of architectural value in the project.


Part 4
I feel like I would use the Kahn Academy more than any of these resources when I begin teaching. This program allows you to keep up with your students in ways that many teachers wish they could. It will really help me in assessing which students are having trouble in which areas and how they need to be addressed.
I really liked the range of lectures on iTunes U. I will definitely relate to this for my teaching skills and learn ways of covering material in a more in depth way. I plan on listening to other professors and their views and teaching styles in hopes of improving mine. I also find this useful for student assignments to listen to certain lectures pertaining to their individual subject.
I think TED is a great site that I plan to use to increase my knowledge of events happening in the world today. One Idea can always spring from another and with this site being full of ideas I plan to incorporate it into my classroom frequently. I am looking forward to encouraging my students to watch videos on this site making them think about how to improve the world we live in and make a difference.

Part 5
This assignment has surprised me about the Kahn Academy. I had never herd of this site and think it is a great tool that I plan to use probably for the rest of my teaching career. There are several times in college that I could have really used this site and wish I had known about it sooner. I have already used iTunes U several times in college and it was not so surprising for me. TED actually surprised me by the amount of ways that people are thinking of change in the world. It is amazing what the human brain can come up with and to visit this site and some of the videos really shows you all the ways that improvement in the world today is possible.

C4T Summary #3

Mr. John is a seventh and eighth grade teacher in rural New York. His latest post was one that I was quite fond of called It Must Be Nice. The blog included all of the things that Mr.John had to do on his computer while watching his kids draw on his driveway with chalk. It entitled many things he had to do to wrap up the school year as well as all the things he was preparing for a summer book club. As he is finishing his vast number of things to do, a neighbor walks by asking his if he was done with school and he replies "almost, this is my last week". The neighbor replies "It must be nice to only work nine months out of the year".  Mr. John thinks to himself how it would be nice if he know anything about it. I really enjoyed this post because it showed how there is more to being a teacher than meets the eye.

The second post I commented on made by Mr. John was centered around using Edmodo in the classroom. Edmodo is educational social networking site that incorporates books and allows students to discuss them. Mr. John describes how he plans to use the site program for a summer reading course to encourage reading outside of school. Mr. John is big on making sure the use of the site is successful and and he is not just using technology just for the sake of using it. As he experiments with this product this summer, he plans to keep updating his blog on his progress.

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?
When I graduated high school, the last place I ever thought I would be is in the teaching field. I used to wonder why would anyone ever want to go back to school. Now I know how good it feels to teach someone something and make an impact on their life. I intend to be an educator that inspires his students to do more and go the extra mile. I intend on being the educator that students come to for advice pertaining to anything inside or outside of school. I want to give kids the tools and skills necessary to achieve their goals.
Inside the classroom I plan to educate children on the subject matter and show them how to incorporate it into every day life. I will make kids eager to get to my class and start on projects and other activities planned. I want to encourage kids when they are struggling and show them that hard work and perseverance  will pay off.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Then Take the Pencils Home!
It seems to me almost like the post is trying to say that people should become more accustom to technology in the classroom for these tests. I liked when the teacher referred to students using pencils for pen pals and stuff, to me this relates to twitter and Facebook by contacting one another. It is kind of crazy to take away pencils seeing that it is one of the most used things by children in a classroom. However, I do think that the examples about the use of a pencil on this post are in every way related to the use of technology. Standardized test scores that have to be filled in with a pencil mark can be taken on a computer and you have your scores instantly plus the teacher doesn't have to waste paper. I do understand the overall concept that just because you can use a pencil to do other things than work doesn't mean that you will. In relation to kids using computers for school work and not as a distraction like most teachers think.