Blog Post Assignment #16 - Final Relfection

What My Future Classroom would be like

Describing The Classroom

My future classroom would be an oasis for learning. There will be a smartboard in the front of the room instead of a white board. Each student would have access to an ipad or a laptop. The walls would be decorated with math related items that are colorful and attractive. As soon as the students walk in, I want them to say, "This is going to be a fun and exciting class!" Instead of arranging the desks in rows, I would have them in a circle centered around my desk(in the middle).

The Types of Methods for Teaching

I would use several different methods for teaching my students. I will NOT stand up and lecture for 90 minutes a day, seven days a week. I will lecture when necessary, but the other times the students will be asked to teach their peers. I will use the smartboard to lecture and teach, and so will the students. I will also use online videos from different math teachers around the globe to give the students a different perspective on the lesson at hand. Also when the students do projects they will be required to teach the class on what they have learned by doing the project.

The tools that I will be Using in the Classroom

I have already mentioned a few tools that I would like to have and use in my classroom. I would love to have a smartboard to do lessons and presentations on. I think this gets the students involved because it is something different then sitting there listening to a teacher lecture through a lesson. I would also like my students to be able to use ipads and computers for research when they don't understand something from the material or if they question what I am teaching them. I would also use blogs so that the parents of my students can see what their students are doing in the classroom instead of having to rely on their children and I. I would allow calculators for some parts of the material, but not all.

The learning That Will Take Place in my Classroom

Not just the students will be learning in my classroom. I feel that if I am trying to get my students to learn, then I should be learning as well. I think that when you have a classroom that learns together then nothing is impossible. I think that if we learn as a unit then we will achieve great things. Also part of the learning will be collaborative. I would have my students apart of a "learning community", which means that every will have a part in the class's learning. In my classroom, if you don't want to learn then to bad. In my classroom, learning is a vital part of growing, and if you don't want to learn then you are telling me that you don't want to grow. Learning will be self inflicting. I mean that I want my students to want to learn for themselves and not take my word for it. I would want them to question me, and then go and research the answer.

What I would change about what I wrote at the Beginning of the Semester
First, I would change the fact about calculators. Although I was taught to hate calculators and that I should be able to do the math without them, I think that calculators can play a vital role in helping students understand why they got the answer they did. I don't think that they should be used in excessive, but as long as they are used in moderation to aide my students in their learning I will not have a problem with them. As Dr. Strange asked in class, "What do I think about calculators?" I said I hated them because I thought that they would hurt the student more than they would help. But then he asked, "Would you say the same thing about telling time?" I really didn't have an answer for that. I wear watches all the time, and I don't know how I would tell the time without pulling my cellphone out of my pocket to check. It's not like I could pull a sun dial out and check the shadow of the sun. No one uses those anymore so why should I expect my students to revert to past history if I do the same thing with telling time.
Another thing I would change is my teaching methods. I would still want my students to apply what they have learned to real world settings, but now I would want them to be able to learn on their own as well. I think that it is vital for my students to perfect this type of learning because who better to learn from then yourself. It is like the old saying goes, you will never learn unless you learn from your OWN mistakes. I believe this to be so true. You do not fully learn something unless you have tried and possibly failed for yourself. Also, I would add to this that I would want my students to be apart of the teaching process. I don't want to stand up in front of the class everyday lecturing each lesson and I know that my kids wouldn't either. I would want them to teach their peers on what they have learned from projects and presentations

Blog Post Assignment #11

Part 1: Little Kids...Big Potential

In the video, Little Kids...Big Potential, the students were really excited about the things that they were doing inside their classroom. They showed us all the different technologies they were using. The students know how to use blogger, skype, video-recordings, and much more. They even used their nintendo DS's. I thought that was really neat how they incorporated a video game into the classroom. I also thought this was interesting because there have been many debates about banning video games, and how they are such a distraction from school work. I thought that it was very cool to see a video game used as an educational tool.

Part 2: Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy

She got involved in technology about ten years ago because she was given five computers. One of the main points that I want to talk about is that pen and paper are not appealing to children. These days, children are always in some sort of technology whether that be a video game, an ipad , or the computer. So Ms. Cassidy chose to have her students write on blogs on the internet. That way her students could get their ideas and thoughts seen by anyone with access to a computer and the internet. I think that this is a good way for students to get feedback from someone other than their peers (in the classroom) and their teacher. I think that this way motivates these students to want to do better and strive to do better. When they see that other people are viewing their blog posts and leaving comments, I think that gets them excited to want to do more.

C4T #4

Live the Conversation

Struggles

In this blog post, Becky Goerend talks about how she struggles with keeping her students social habits under control. Most days she feels like a broken record by the end of the day, so she asked herself and some colleagues of hers to come up with an idea to put that in her students hands. So she came up with an idea and decide that she would implement it into her classroom over the next several weeks.

My Comment:
Hi, I am a student in edm310 at the University of South Alabama. I like the fact that you are trying to engage your students to see what you could do about their behavior. I think that it is really important to bring to their attention the problems that their talking and lack of focus is doing to them and to the rest of the class. I really look forward to your next post. Turning it over to them - Success in the Making
In this blog post, Becky Goerend talk about a project that she had her students do. It was a project to define where they had the most trouble in behaving while learning. So that got together as a class and came up with a rubric and the areas where they had the most trouble in. Next, they set a goal to reach, and then for four days when it came time for those subject areas, she had two students each day assess the class and then collaborate together and report back to the class their findings. She continued this process for another couple weeks. Each week they set new goals and tried to go past them. Each week the students saw improvement.

My Comment:
"Hi, my is Chris Perry and I am a student in edm310 at the university of south alabama. I think that this project was a great idea. I think getting your students involved with their own assessing of themselves is an ingenious idea. It gets the students more involved in class, and keeps them focused on their work just as your data was and is showing."

C4T #3

What Now? What Next? So What?

In the blog, PaCT with the Devil, she talks about this new system that their education system is developing and trying to put in place. It is a system that is designed to categorize every student into different categories based on the number of years they have been taught and so fourth. She goes on to explain that you can't do this for every student because not every student is the same. She thinks that this new system will hurt many students more than it will help. So she just wishes that they would stop trying this new system and take a different approach to the problem. This is all happening in New Zealand. But let's think about it. Isn't this very same thing happening in our education system. Isn't that what standardized testing doing? I think so.

My Comment:
"Hi, I am a student in edm310 at the University of South Alabama in the United States. I agree with your blog. I don't think you can categorize every student. Each student is different and no two students are the same. So why are education leaders trying to make it this way. I have asked myself this question many times and I have yet to come up with the answer. I wish that these leaders would take a step back and give the teachers and the students the reigns since we are the ones in the classroom and are seeing what is going on."

Tears

In the second blog post I read. She talks about one of her students getting really excited about Arbor Day. She then goes on to talk about how she didn't get the chance to talk to him in class so she tweeted him. I was shocked to see students at that age already using twitter and facebook. I couldn't believe that children of that age could learn and understand how to use those technology tools, but some adults cannot. I thought it was amazing how she used those for of communications to talk to her students.
My Comment
"Hi, my name is Chris Perry and I am a student in edm310 at the University of South Alabama. I think that it is amazing that your students are so interested in a day such as Arbor Day. I know that many children in the United States are not. They think it is silly and unimportant. It is nice to know that there are still children out there that do care about our planet. Also I am shocked to see that your students know what facebook and twitter are. I did not think that they would have any knowledge about those things. The use of technology can go a long way if used in the proper setting."

Blog Post Assignment #14

The Blog Post that Dr. Strange FORGOT!

Read Bellman Receives T3 Leadership Award for Creative Technology in the Classroom.
Summarize the article and then tell what you could learn from Allan Bellman.

What can I learn from Mr. Allan Bellman?

In the article, Bellman receives T3 Leadership Award for Creative Technology in the classroom, the author, Jerra A. Scott gives us a little background into who Mr. Allan Bellman is. He taught for 35 years in the state of Maryland, and then moved to the University of Mississippi. There he began to work with T3 development team to help develop the TI calculators that we now have today. He wanted to help create something that would help give his students a deeper knowledge into the material. He also incorporated this new technology into his lesson plans in hopes of challenging his students to use technology. Throughout his career at Ole Miss, he used many different activities to help his students understand the material. He used toy cars to race them down the halls, the popular video game "Angry Birds", and even a barbie doll bungee course to help relate mathematics and physics to everyday objects. He hopes to inspire his students that want to become teachers, to continue with this type of method when they start teaching.
I think that Mr. Bellman would be an awesome teacher to have. I believe that if he can relate those items to mathematics and physics, why can't I? Throughout this class, I have always wondered how I was going to incorporate technology and project based learning into math. But, after reading this article I realized that if you think outside the box from normal everyday teaching then you can engage your students to things and objects from outside the classroom. I mean really who wants to sit in a classroom all day and listen to some know-it-all lecture to you. I know I don't, so why would I expect my future students to do the same. But if I incorporated some of these new-found ideas into my lesson plan, then I think I would see a change in attitudes from my students. I think that my students would rather enjoy coming to my class then dread the awful subject of math.

Project #16 - Prezi Presentation

Blog Post Assignment #15

ICurio After watching the interview session with Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I learned quite a few things that I did not know about iCurio. ICurio has several different features to the program. The first is that it is a curated search engine, to allow students to safely search the web and find videos, music, and texts for their projects that they might be working on. The next feature is that iCurio allows you to store your information that you may have found that would be useful for your project. So you can create folders and then drop your items into those folders. The last feature that Anthony talked about was the timeline. You can go into iCurio and search for specific people from a specific place and a specific time period. It is almost kind of like a directory. But, I thought this program will be a great tool for students to use in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom.
Discovery Ed. After watching the interview between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, I feel like I have learned a lot about Discovery Ed. One great thing about Discovery Ed. is that you can use this program to add to your lesson and/or text. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, well then I guess a video is worth a million. Anyway you can keep your students engaged in the lesson and have them retain the information, then I don't think we should be opposed to using that method. I think that Discovery Ed. is a great tool and I want to do some more research to discover more for myself. The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1
In the video, Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps discussed a few ideas to be a great teacher and the steps you need to take. These steps are:

Be a great learner to be a great teacher.



Be flexible, The Unexpected will happen.



Teaching Never ends it is hard work and it is very rewarding.



Engage 100% of your students 100% of the time in 100% of their projects.



Reflect, Revise, Share work with an audience.

I think that these are all great things that everyone who is aspiring to be a teacher should set as their goals every time they step into a classroom. I know I cannot wait until I watch the second part of the video series so that we can finish the list and that way I always have something to work towards and remind me of what it means to be a great teacher.

Use Tech- Don't teach it - Sherri Hudson

Interview with Anthony Capps Dr. John Strange directed a podcast with third grade teacher of Gulf Shore Elementary Anthony Capps. Not only is Anthony Capps a third grade teacher, but he is a good friend of EDM310. They talked about two educational search engines throughout two videos, iCurio Anthony 070113 and Discovery Ed Anthony 070113. One search engine is called iCurio, and it allowed Mr. Capp's students to safely search the Common Core Standards. The other is called Discovery Ed. The search engine iCurio allows students to access the account. There is a feature that allows the students to pick up where they left off. They can search by criteria, and if there is an abrupt disruption iCurio lets the students pick up where they left off. Students with disability can have the text read to them. After listening to Anthony Capps I understood that Discovery Ed is much like iCurio. It does have a feature where a student can watch a video that matches the criteria that they have research. Dr. Strange said that our generation is "listen-watchers" which means we learn through visuals. Because it's more like a hands-on project, I think iCurio and Discovery Ed is a good addition to the classroom. According to Use Tech--Don't Teach ItMr. Capps, "technology shouldn't be a list of things to do." He stressed that technology made executing the curriculum or lesson plan easier. His lesson plan didn't consist of teaching the technology either. He suggest that we allow students to figure it out independently. For example, his students rapidly learned iMovie. While they learned the technology, they made mistakes. He recommended giving them time for the reflecting over their mistakes since nobody is perfect. When the students ask questions about using the technology that is incorporated into the assignment they learn two 21 century skills. PROBLEM SOLVING and QUESTIONING. I learned that iCurio and Discovery Ed are very vital for the classroom, but most importantly I learned to let students learn technology by themselves.



It's Hard Work:A Day In The Life of a Third Grade Teacher - Tonya Murphy

Blog Post # 15 The first video I watched was iCurio. This video was a conversation between Dr. Strange and a previous EDM310 student, Anthony Capps. Anthony is a 3rd grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary in Baldwin County. Anthony talked about the important tools that iCurio have to offer. iCurio enables students to begin learning the basics of storing things in folders. This allows students to begin organizing things early in life. Another point he brought up about iCurio is if for some reason the students had to leave what they were doing in a hurry, when they came back, they could just pick up where they left off. I think the best thing about iCurio that was mentioned in the video is the fact that all the information is filtered to the appropriate grade level.

The next video I watched was about DiscoveryED. In this video Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps were discussing the facts about this useful tool that is used in the classroom today. One of the main facts that were brought up is, with DiscoveryED, the students are able to get a video with the topics that they are searching for.

The last video I watched was, It’s Hard Work: A Day in the Life of a 3rd Grade Teacher. In this video conversation between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps, they discussed the downside of being a teacher. Anthony tells us that in the beginning, until October, he was spending 16 hours a day Monday through Friday working. On weekends he would spend about 8 hours a day. In October, he began to get exhausted and cut his days down to 10 hour days and began to hate his job, because he wasn’t able to find time to finish his work. He said that during this time he would go home and mark “yes” or “no” on the calendar. He did this because at the end of the year, he would add them up and that would be the deciding factor as to whether or not he would work the next year. In November, after talking to some of the other teachers, he was about to balance out his work schedule and began liking his job again. He also told us that teaching needs to be a hobby and is not for everyone. He explained that his work does not stop at the end of the school year. In order to be a good teacher, you must take the summer to begin planning for the next year.

Project #8 - Book Trailer

PLN #2 - Final Summary

It has been a long semester and I have found it difficult to keep track of all the new applications that we are learning to use. But when I started using Symbaloo, I realized that I could use this program to keep up with all of these applications. I have used this application on many occasions. Whenever I couldn't find the right application that I need for a particular project or assignment then I would always turn to my symbaloo webmix. It keeps all my favorite applications neat and organized. On my webmix, I have each application color coded so that they would be even more organized. I think that this is a great tool for teachers and students to use. I know I will continue to use this application throughout the rest of my college career and my teaching career.

Smartboard Project Part B

Project #15

Blog Post Assignment #13

Salman Khan: Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education

I watched the video, Let's use video to reinvent education by Salman Khan, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He starts off by telling us how he came about making these youtube videos that he has done. He started it by doing these videos to help his nephews learn math. He did not make these videos private and very soon he started getting comments from other people telling him how these videos helped them. So soon after that he decided to quit his job and focus only on these youtube videos. His organization is a non-profit organization.
In his video, he talks about humanizing the classroom. What he means by this is getting the students that are watching these videos and working on these problems in the program are now learning at their own pace and then going and tutoring their peers. Now instead of the students going to class listening to a one size fits all lecture, they can watch these videos at their own pace and as many times as they need to until they understand the lesson they are trying to learn. In the program you can work many different types of problems, any where from basic mathematical problems to vector calculus. This program is designed to help you master each step along the way so you do not miss any important details as you go along in math.
I think that we can learn from Salman Khan is that students shouldn't have to learn in a setting of a one size fits all lecture. I think that students if are given the chance to explore and learn for themselves, then they will surprise all of us. Also if the students can learn to master the lessons on their own and then come back to the classroom and help other students who are struggling is less intimidating, then having a teacher come to them and not understanding why they are not getting it. I think that if we incorporate outside instruction and supplement from someone besides the students teacher, then when they get back in the classroom with the teacher they will be more prepared for what the teacher has in store for them.

Education in the Slums - Sherri Hudson

From Ken Robinson's ten favorite Ted Talks, I watched the video Education Innovation in the Slums that was conducted by Charles Leadbeater. I learned that any child can learn through technology. During his lecture he empathized the drive that children living in the Rio and Kibera slums possess to better themselves with education. The children in those slums went to research centers and locations where computers were in the wall and willingly taught themselves information. Two thousand games were designed to teach the children, and they were gathered to sit in a circle to answer a question. Most of the children didn't have living parents, and the ones that did have parents had dying parents. Those living in those conditions believed "education plus technology equals hope" Mr. Leadbeater says that "motivation is the key," and I believe that motivation kept the children from giving up. The conclusion: Let children be attracted to their education. If we make radical teaching more possible then more ideas are developed to improve the future! Think about what Mr. Leadbeater discovered about education from the slums. I believe American children have a lot to learn from children in the slums. They can learn drive, dedication, and gratefulness for the new aged tools and assistance they have. I learned to attract my students to my lesson. I can ask quality, open- ended questions such as "how" or "why." From there I want them to control what they learn next.

"To This Day"...for the bullied and beautiful - Tonya Hudson I watched the video, Shane Koyczan: “To This Day”...for the bullied and beautiful. WOW! What a powerful video. This video brings to life the reality of bullying in the classrooms and in the hallways. This video brought me to tears. The age that bullying starts amazes me. How can children be so mean.! As teachers of these young children, we need to tell our students every day, “you are beautiful.” We need to uplift our students to compensate for the tearing down that the other students may be doing. We need to find a way to constantly be trying to build the confidence of our students. Being a teacher shouldn’t only be about teaching. We have to love on our students as well. I know there are boundaries in school, but we have to find a way to let the students know that they are loved and cared for. We as teachers need to let our students know that we chose to be teachers because we love children and we love them. We didn’t become teachers just because we love to teach reading and writing. In his poem he said to look in the mirror and see something beautiful and if you don’t see it look a little longer. We need to help children find beauty in themselves. Children are so influential. If they are constantly hearing you are nothing and you are worthless they begin to believe it. As I said earlier, we need to counteract this and help these children discover their beauty and talents. Show them that they are worth something. I did a little research and according to bullyingstatistics.org, 42 percent of kids have been bullied online. 77 percent of children have said that they were bullied. “The American Justice Department bullying statistics show that one out of every 4 kids will be bullied sometime throughout their adolescence.” As a parent this is appalling. What is wrong with children today. Something has to be changed. Koyczan mentioned that he tried to take his own life. This breaks my heart. According to bullyingstatistics.org, “10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide, according to the study above.” These are babies! What I got from this video is bullying is real. We as adults and as teachers have a responsibility to educate these children on the effects of bullying. I remember bullying was around when I was in school. I am sure it has been around forever. I don’t ever remember a teacher educating us on bullying or trying to talk to us about it. We need to do that.

Blog Post Assignment #12

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson I watched the video, How to Escape Education's Death Valley, and Sir Ken Robinson talked about how the education system is very different here in America. He started with the no child left behind act. He stated that in reality that we are leaving children behind by following this act. He gave three principles to bettering our education system. The first principle is human beings are naturally diverse and different. There are no two children alike. So he asks why do we set up our education system to treat them as such. Sir Ken Robison said that children prosper best when they are introduced to a broad curriculum. The second principle is that children are curious. Children are natural learners. They thrive on wanting to know more information then what they already know. He states that curiosity is the engine for learning. So we have to ask ourselves whether or not we are teaching our children to be more curious when learning something new. Are we provoking them to want to learn more? Teaching is the lifeboat of the school. Teachers are also there to mentor, provoke, stimulate and engage students into learning. Sir Ken Robinson states, "If there is no learning then there is no education." I found this to be a rather curious statement. I said to my self, How can there be no education without learning? Then it hit me, if we as teachers are not engaging our students to want to learn for themselves; then they will not and cannot learn. If they do not learn then we cannot say that we are educating them. Therefore I do not think that we can call ourselves educators. The role of the teacher is to facilitate that learning. Sir Ken Robinson also stated that standardize test should support learning not obstruct it. I could not agree more. Students do not need to wake up dreading going to school in fear of a standardize test. They should be waking up saying that I am ready to learn something new today. The third principle is that human life is creative. We are creatures that want to develop new things everyday. Our minds should not have limits placed on them. If we give our students the reigns and sit back and let them create something, I think they will arise to the challenge and surprise us all.

I think that we can learn a lot from Sir Ken Robinson. He is a great and knowledgeable man that knows a lot about education and how children learn. I think if we stop putting pressure on our students to prepare for these so called standardize tests and start putting more emphasis on the learning of the material, I think that we will start seeing our dropout rate decline. The students that are dropping out are costing us more in money then keeping them in school. If we work harder to keep our students in school and give those students who are struggling the help that they need we will see a rise in our economy.

I FAVOR CREATIVITY, NOT CONFORMITY- Sherri Hudson

Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity and is he lying? No, he is not lying. Last semester, I learned that school is designed to convert students into conformed, manageable citizens and not engaged, creative learners. I've read articles from various authors that make the same argument. Children who grow up in front of the television or with their noses in books are used to having an imagination something compelling--something they can't resist enjoying. Creativity.

Creativity is as important as literacy," says Mr. Robinson. In his video, he passionately lectured in favor of creativity in the classroom because the children are our future, destined to live in an unpredictable future. How can our children surive the future without creative alternatives? They can if our schools keep striping them away. History is ordained to repeat.

As teachers we have to promote creativity. I learned from Ken that I should let my English students express their imagination because those with great, creative minds are the ones that drive the future. I want my classroom to be the place where it happens.


Changing Education Paradigms- Tonya Murphy

I watched the video, Changing education paradigms. This was a presentation given by Sir Ken Robinson. The presentation was animated with drawings of the things he was talking about throughout his video. He started the video out by stating that all countries are reforming public educations for two reasons. The first reason is the economy. He asked the question,” How do we educated our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century?” The second reason in culture. He asked the question, “ How do we educate our children so that they have a sense of cultural identity, so that we can pass on the cultural genes of our communities? Robinson said the way they are trying to achieve these things are by doing what they have done in the past. By doing this, they are alienating millions of children who do not see the point in going to school. One reason students do not see the necessity of an education is because graduating college no longer guarantees a job. Sir Ken Robinson also talked about ADHD and stated that it is NOT an epidemic. He said that the farther East you travel in the U.S. the worse the diagnosis gets. He stated that children are being medicated to sit still and listen to boring stuff and I agree with this. I believe that ADHD exists, but if education was a little more interesting, maybe children would not have to be medicated. Many students only receive their medication while in school and during the summer, their parents take them off. The reason we have to medicate our students in school is because there is no stimulation in the classroom. My son can play educational games and watch educational movies and give it is undivided attention, but he gets in trouble in class because he can’t sit and focus on the teacher. He also made a point that we are anaesthetizing out kids instead of awakening them to what is inside themselves. I agree, we wouldn’t have to medicate as often if at all, if the classroom was an enjoyable place to be.I think the classroom should use technology to teach. Our children are growing up in the times of advancing technology. They are bored unless they have some form of technology or something hands on in front of them. Why not take advantage of that? Robinson also asked the question, Why are students classified by age? I agree! Why can’t students advance in their own time? Why can’t education be individualized? Why can’t students advance at their own pace?

Project #14 PLN #2

Project #13 PBL Lesson Plan #1 - Collaborative