Project 15: Book Trailer

Blog Assignment 13

ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange) seems like a great site. They provide you with lesson plans for all grades and all subjects. For new teachers needing ideas, this would be greatly helpful. I'm glad I found out about this site. In my high school French 3 class, I had to go to a feeder school and teach second graders French. Sometimes finding interesting activities was a rather difficult task for me though. I always enjoyed making the lesson plans but sometimes I would find the children wouldn't quite catch on to the games and activities. This site seems to have activities for any age group, which I simply think is fantastic!
ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) also seems to be a great site. From what I read they seem to want to reach out to all learning environments. One of their pages I visited showed the curriculum of each class. For someone homeschooling this site could be utilized for a basis of what to do. I also found here that they are responsible for the curriculum and placement tests I took for AP courses in high school. ACCESS seems to try to reach everyone in a learning environment which is an amazing feat.

Project #6

I did my Project #6 Questionnaire on peoples' favorite things. I asked about sports, colors, hobbies, etc. You can follow the link embedded in the first picture to see the results.


I was surprised to find that when given the option between rap, hip hop, country, and other music students chose other majority of the time. Most people also chose other when given the choice of a favorite color being red, black, or blue. Eighty one percent of people decided that their favorite pet was a dog and most said their favorite number was between one and twenty five. Majority of people said Dr. Seuss was their favorite childhood author and chose other when given the options of Facebook, Blogger, and Myspace for favorite site to visit online. Most people voted Alabama as their favorite SEC football team and heart as their favorite shape. When given the options of other, football, soccer, and baseball, people said their favorite sport was one other than the three named. I also found that most peoples' favorite hobby was something other than reading, browsing the internet, watching television, and sports. For the most part I was slightly surprised at the responses. I had sixteen people respond to my questionnaire. 

Additional Assignment #4

My Sentence

Final Project Report

Ann(Right) and Me(Left)

I. Topic: Educational Video Games: concentration on handhelds

II. Partner: Ann-Marie New

III. Objectives of our project:

-Introduce video games as an educational tool

-Characterize educational video games by brand, price, and academic merit

-Illustrate advantages of educational handheld video games

-Demonstrate the ability and willingness of students to utilize these tools

IV. Project Duties:

-Research educational handheld video games: brand, price, academic merit (Kirby and New)

-Record a student who has and regularly utilizes educational handheld video games (New)

-Record a student who regularly plays non-academic based handheld video games (New)

-Spreadsheet of educational handhelds, prices, age group, curriculum, and features (Kirby)

Blog Assignment 12

I am assigned, this week, to give a blog assignment we should have been assigned and to do it myself.

Watch the video The Sound of Learning: Albano Berberi and, in your blog, post what you thought of the video and how technology has assisted Albano. Also consider any other methods of technology that could be useful for physically handicapped students, including deaf, mute, amputees, and any other handicap and feel free to look for similar posts and share.


I, personally, enjoyed the video. New technologies such as computer audio programs have assisted Albano with being able to participate in classroom assignments. Braille books and keyboards have also been helpful in Mr. Berberi's learning environment. Other handicaps, such as being hearing impaired, also have technical innovations to assist with learning. Ann-Marie New also speaks of the physically handicapped in her Blog Post # 12. She addresses hearing impaired students and the technology useful in the classroom for them.

Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

My third assignment for C4T was Arvind S. Grover. His post was about a colleague of his sent him a quote by Hiam Ginott. Because it had such a great, valid point here is the quote:

"I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. My personal approach creates the climate. My daily mood makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate, humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated, a child humanized or dehumanized."
-Hiam Ginott

I thanked Mr. Grover for sharing and told him I thought the concept of the quote was nice and it really made me think. I told him, also, that I hoped I could think on this everyday before walking into a classroom. He responded back that he thinks we as teachers should always be cognizant of how contagious our attitude toward others' is. I replied I completely agreed and thanked him again.

Project # 14- EDM 310

Blog Assignment 11

FIRST GRADERS IN MS. CASSIDY'S CLASS


I was honestly very surprised by this video. I never thought I'd see the day first graders were blogging and had wikis. I think this is a good thing of course as long as the teacher monitors which sites the students are visiting, They seem to be learning manners as they know to be nice to others and they also seem to be learning how to be safe with the internet and technologically savvy. Through their blogging they are learning better writing skills and they seem to be accepting the fact that they will always be learning new things and growing in their technological experience. I would love to use blogging in my classroom as well. It would allow for students to not only form an opinion and learn, but to also see what others are thinking. They would learn how to be safe on the internet. I would also like to have a classroom webpage like Ms. Cassidy did. As previously mentioned, it would allow the students' parents to be more involved.

Blog Assignment 10

I completely agree with Morgan Bayda's view after reviewing the following video. I have attended class after class of lectures where the teacher doesn't even attempt to learn his/her students' names. Some instructors seem to think that education doesn't have to change even when the world is changing drastically for students to be fully prepared to step out into the world. Without knowing how to use today's technologies where are our students going to be? What are the going to be able to accomplish? I don't think there is much they will be equipped to do without a thorough understanding of the uses of technology in the work force. Society itself is changing and if methods of schooling doesn't, our future generations will be jobless.

My experiences are the same as Ms. Bayda's and Mr. Brown's experiences. Sometimes I think instructors have forgotten what education is really about. It's about broadening your horizons and looking past facts to see something that nobody has ever seen before. There used to be a time, a long time ago that is, when students didn't attend a school, but they were considered scholars. They would speak with intellectuals such as Aristotle and others and never receive credit for this course or that. They didn't go to these discussions because they had to, they went because they WANTED to. They wanted to broaden their views and see how far their minds could stretch, what they could learn. I wish sometimes that classrooms today were like this. Not structured to the point of stifling any and all creativity but, rather, to where students are free to speak amongst themselves and to the teacher as a peer. We need to incorporate new technologies and findings into our classroom. We need to keep up with the times. And we need to broaden our horizons.

I took a look at Tom Johnson's post and was astounded actually that somebody would be upset about children having pencils at home because test scores might be a little lower. I don't really know what to say aside from 'Wow'. I'm still unsure, actually, if I maybe misunderstood the post and maybe there was something more there because I was just lost at what the lady's point was behind screaming at a teacher because his students had pencils. Sorry, but if I missed something please let me know.

I also watched the video Two Questions That Can Change Your Life. My sentence is "I will continue daily to strive to become the best teacher I can, always keeping our future generations in my priorities, and hoping to give back to them what my teachers gave to me and helped me keep: support, comfort, strength, ambition, values, and a desire to do better because I could."

Skype Interview Recorded Project #12

Project 13: Smartboard Instruction

Blog Assignment 9

In this post, Mr. McClung writes about a lot of things that he has learned from teaching this year. I believe that everything he wrote can be useful for teachers of any age and with any type of degree. I agree with everything that he said and I find it all very important. The topics he discussed are to read the crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology, listen to your students, and never stop learning. All of these are important in the occupational area of teachers. I posted a comment to Mr. McClung saying that his focus on creating a relationship with our students by listening to them is one of the most important things that a teacher can do. These children need to know that their teacher is more concerned about their educational growth than what the other teachers think of them.

Timetoast Instruction Timeline- Priject #9B

Short Movie Project # 11

Blog Assignment 8

This Is How We Dream, Parts One and Two is a speech given by Dr. Richard Miller. He speaks of restrictions we place on ourselves with technology, the possibilities therewith, and the ways in which we can utilize technology to better our creative output and writing. Dr. Miller talks about how he is currently learning about new technologies.
He states in the beginning of part one that books are rarely used now. He has written a book and even realizes that it can be bought for less than a dollar on amazon. The goal of learning how all these technologies work can give voice to students' dreams. The technology allows us to articulate dreams and share them. These idea driven web documents can show the world what the university is for. It's there for ideas.
Once, a long time ago, there were scholars. These students paid nothing to learn and teachers got paid nothing to teach. Rather, in days such as I speak people wanted to pass on new ideas and innovations as a gift, a pleasure, to themselves and each other. I wish today monetary feedback wasn't so important. I wish we could learn these technologies because we were driven by an internal desire to know it ourselves and not because we simply had to for an assignment. The university is there for people who want to learn, it shouldn't be used by people simply because they think the have to learn.

In The Chipper Series I saw something I've realized is quite common among college dropouts. They typically shuffle from job to job after dropping out and finally realize they should have never quit college to begin with. The main character, Chipper, is a procrastinator and doesn't seem to want to show up for class or do her work on time. After she drops out, these characteristics stick with her on the job. She gets fired from several of her jobs and finally decides she'd like to put forth the effort to get her master's degree.
The EDM 310 for Dummies video was interesting. I think the way the characters acted is probably very similar to the way I felt the first couple of weeks of class before I fully understood where I went for my assignments and where to post them and other basic needs of the class. I think the idea of a book for the class might be a good idea for those people who feel overwhelmed and I think the video was cute.
If I were to do a video about EDM 310 it would, obviously, be about where to look for your assignments and where you post about them. My video would focus more on how you get started. That was the hardest part for me. Another thing I would include in the video is managing time. I must admit, I'm a big procrastinator, but every Sunday I devote simply to church and homework. I know at the end of every weekend what hasn't been completed prior has to have time set aside for it. I would definitely tell incoming EDM students to set aside a day like this where they get their homework done no matter what.

While reading Why Smartboards Are a Dumb Initiative I don't think I could agree more. In high school my teachers were all getting these 'Smartboards' as they call them. But what, really, was the purpose of them? It caught half the class' attention simply because it was technology and they wanted to write on the screen without using ink. Set that aside though, and how is it different from a whiteboard? (This is excluding, of course, the price tag.) I, personally, never got hyped up over the idea of walking up to the board and getting drawn into the curriculum because of it. Sure, if it helps the students learn, then I say 'Go for it', but in my experience this wasn't really the case. Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards seems to carry the exact same views on the matter as did Why Smartboards Are a Dumb Initiative. I found a different view of smartboards online at: http://www.ehow.com/about_6635274_can-board-beneficial-students_-learning_.html Here it is basically explaining that smartboards are useful in the classrooms because children are technology savvy and can figure them out and because it allows students to participate more in the lesson. I must say I still agree more with the two arguments given by Dr. Strange. What do teachers today do with a smartboard that cannot be done with a projector or whiteboard. Nothing worth a few thousand more dollars, I can assure you.

PLN Progress Report #1

I started playing around with my Symbaloo today. I actually got rather excited about my Symbaloo. I put new programs on it and took some off that I didn't need. I made my twitter button to where it will automatically sign me in and also synced my Myspace and email accounts to it so I can receive messages all together. All in all, I'm excited about starting my PLN.

Timetoast Outline

One of my assignments for EDM 310 is a Timetoast timeline. It had to be about us or our families. Here is mine.

C4T # 2

My teacher for C4T#2 was Mr. John Spencer. His post was about people looking back upon our pictures and questioning what type of person we might be. He states that one of his students asked him if people would think we were all very serious and never smiled from serious photos taken of people. I responded that this is a good point. All our future generations will have are our stories and photographs, our videos. But will they only see the serious side of us? I think so. That is if the only side we portray in these technological advancements is our serious side. My teacher did not post back to me in response.

Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture is an extraordinary video. I enjoyed it a lot. It is not the first time I've seen the video but I didn't quite remember everything from the first time I watched it. Mr. Pausch gave an exceptional speech for somebody who had ten tumors in his liver and knew he was dying. I appreciated the way he was honest and spoke to the audience as though he already knew them. Mr. Pausch hit many of what he calls 'brick walls' throughout his life. He states that these walls are not there to stop people, but rather to see who wants something bad enough to work for it.

He overcomes many obstacles. Some of these are being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals at the fair, and being a Disney imagineer. He never did get to play in the National Football League but Mr. Pausch states that he probably learned more from not reaching this goal than he did from all the accomplishments he did achieve.

Mr. Pausch teaching methods could be termed 'hands-on'. He allows his students to do things using the technology they have access to. He says they will not read a single book in his class. People learn through experience and his methods prove this. Students in his class were allowed to make their own programs and test them. Everything they did in his classes were hands on and allowed the students to explore their realms of creativity. Too few teachers use this method of teaching. I wish there were more.

Randy Pausch is an exceptional speaker in this video. He maintains a professional demeanor while in a time in his life that most people would be more morose over. I enjoyed the way he made you think he's talking to the audience until the very end when he says the second 'head fake' is that the speech is actually for his children. He seems to be an exceptional person, teacher, father, husband, and coworker. I wish there were more people like him today.