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.