Thursday, April 23, 2015

Blog Post #5 Part 2

Final Summary of My Personal Learning Networks

Starting this class I had no idea what a Personal Learning Network was. I mean to me, it's really just a fancy way of saying social media. From this class I have expanded my PLN immensely. Although I have not used it much I have created a Symbaloo account that I plan to grow on in the future. I also have: Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Delicious, Netflix, and many others. These PLN's could very well be useful to teachers in the classroom. Skype would allow you connect with students all over the world that you otherwise would not be able to. Facebook, Twitter and Blogger could be useful with connecting with parents and also with other teachers and/or students. I have found these PLN very useful so far and plan to use them further in my future career as a teacher.The brain of a blogger

Blog Post #14

Teaching Can Be a Profession By: Joel Klein

Teacher quote    For this blog post we were to read the article Teaching our children can be a profession, by Mr. Klein. As I was reading this article I found a couple of problems that bothered me with the way that people view teaching and teachers in general. The first problem that stood out was that anyone with a college degree can become a teacher. This was a very hard thing for me to accept when I decided I wanted to become a teacher. I always knew it was my passion to work with children but I also knew that the pay was not very good. I honestly don't think just anyone should be given a degree unless they have a true passion. I people don't just want to teach for the money, they should want to teach because they have a love for children.

   The second problem that I came across in this article was Seniority Distraction. "Job Security and seniority dictate the way our schools operate". This could not be a more true statement. Some teachers all they care about is working hard to get their tenure and then from there, they're in for the long run and don't care. On the other hand it's also frustrating knowing that teachers that are just coming out of college are getting paid the same exact salary as those who have been there for many years. I think if your teaching is effective and you are going beyond what you are asked to do for your students, then you should get paid more than someone that is just starting out.

Monday, April 20, 2015

C4K Summary for April

Sean J's Blog: C4K#8 

     Sean's post about Johnah, is very interesting. He talks about God helping Johnah in his time of need. When you are in need of help or support it's really comforting knowing that there are people out there that are willing to help you along that way. I really enjoyed reading Sean's blog.

Faith's Blog: C4K#9

    Faith is a student in Mr. Gardner's 5th grade class at Holly Elementary. I chose to read and comment on Faith's, This is Me, post. It doesn't give any instruction as to what their assignment was, but I am guessing it was to tell a little about themselves. Faith writes on her blog and tells us that she likes to read and do math while listening to music and she also likes to sing and dance with her friends.

basketball player clip art Kalonji's Blog: C4K#10

    Kalonji is a student in Ms. Thomas' Class at John Hanson French Immersion School. I read Kalonji's blog on his Making a Mark on the World . He wrote that he wants to be a professional basketball player and host basketball camps sponsored by himself and he also told us that with the money that he raises he would give it to charity. This is a great goal for young children having this excited to help others that are in need.

C4T #4 Steve Wheeler

   In Mr. Wheelers blog post, Share Trading, he explains to us the meaning of sharing is changing in today's society. Kids view sharing as giving to others what they have or part of what they have. With social media growing and changing every day sharing could mean much more than that. Facebook and Twitter are the first to pop into my head when I think about sharing in this day in time. People all over the world can share: photos, videos, quotes and anything else they wish with someone 3,000 miles away.

Kids sharing ice cream My Comment: 
Mr. Wheeler,
My name is Alison Earley and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. To kids, sharing means giving someone else something that they have or even a part of it. In today's society sharing can mean so many different things. There are numerous social media networks that their purpose is for sharing. Facebook and Twitter are the main sources of social media that I personally use and there are many ways to share things: photos, quote, videos, etc. Thank you for posting! 

Friday, April 17, 2015

Technology and Teaching: My Philosophy

Technology and Teaching    Registering for this class I was a little skeptical, I've heard many horror stories that slightly terrified me. Knowing that I had to have this class to graduate and get the degree that I have always dreamed of, I went for it, and to be completely honest I am so glad I did. Yes, I must say it was a lot of work and it took up 99% of my time, but I learned so much about technology and ways of teaching that will help me in the long run with my future career. I was unaware of how many different kinds of technology tools were available and useful for educators. By taking this course, I've learned how useful it is to incorporate technology tools into the classroom. Incorporating technology into lessons gets students excited to get their school day started. Technology also gets students engaged and involved in their own learning process. Another aspect of this class that I really like was learning about project-based learning. If you would have asked me four months ago what PBL was I would have looked at you like you were speaking a different language, but after furthering my knowledge on PBL, I have found it quite interesting. PBL helps students LEARN. Usually, students are given a bunch of definitions and information to study (memorize) for a test and then that's it. With PBL it allows students to apply deeper thinking to real life problems and actually learn the material, not just memorize it for a test. Now that this class is coming to an end I am so grateful that it is a requirement for my degree. I have learned so much useful information that I plan to apply in my classroom and hopefully bring out the best in my students.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Blog Post #13

How will you as a teacher accommodate lessons for students with leaning disabilities in your classroom?
 
Start by watching and/or reading these 3 given materials and then answer the essential question in blog post form.

1. Watch Maureen Ostrander's, Inclusion Strategies for Students with Autism.
2. Watch Accommodations and Modifications for Students with Disabilities.  (6:67)
3. Read Common Modifications and Accommodations.


Blog Post:
   As for me as an elementary education major, I think learning how to accommodate lessons for students with disabilities is extremely important. In this day in time students with special needs are no longer separated from those without. Its important for teachers to be aware of how to modify and accommodate their lessons to make sure that those students understand the lessons that you teach. After watching Maureen Ostrander's Strategies for Students with Autism, I've learned that every student is different and not every method works for every individual. I want every one of my students to feel like a part of the classroom and don't want those student who have special needs or a learning disability to feel like they unaccepted. This task could be very challenging for teachers, not knowing the severity of their needs could be difficult when putting a lesson together. I think it's important to get to know all of your students so you know what you can and can not do with certain students.
Learning knows no bounds

   According to the author of Accommodations and Modifications for Students with Disabilities, there is a difference between accommodating and modifications. Accommodations are adjustments made to make sure all students have equal access to the curriculum to be successful. Meaning when you accommodate your lessons for students with disabilities they are still learning the same set of standards just in a different way. Modifications are changing your lessons a lot. Which means that it is changed so much that the students with disabilities aren't expected to learn the same content as the rest of the class.
Accommodations for Reading: Here are a few things that you can do to accommodate for students who have trouble reading: reading test or material to them, when available use books on tape, allow extended time to complete assignments, and/or use highlighters to highlight key concepts in books or in notes.
Accommodations for Writing and Spelling: Here are a few tips that you can do to accommodate for students who are having trouble with writing or spelling: let them record their tests rather than write them, supply them with a written assignment sheet rather then make them write it down, allow extended time or shorten the assignment to allow them enough time to finish, or allow students to use an electronic spell checker.
Accommodations for Mathematics: Here are a few tips that you can do to accommodate for students who are having trouble with math: allow students to use calculators, use graph paper for completing calculations, and read math problems aloud the the students.
Accommodations for Communication/Auditory/Visual: Here are a few tips to help accommodate for students with communication, auditory and visual disabilities: summarize lessons on a regular basis, keep instructions brief, allow students to use recorders to record lessons so they can go back and review, and provide pre-written notes.

There are many more different ways to accommodate lessons for students with disabilities. We, as teachers, have to get to know our students before we try and accommodate for those students.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Blog Post #12

After researching, We came across many different useful technological devices that can help students with disabilities feel more comfortable in their classroom.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

C4T#3: "Arvind Grover"

Screen Smart Parenting By: Jodi Gold 
Jodi Gold's screen smart parenting book
   I was very please with Mr. Grover's review of Jodi Gold's lecture to his parent association meeting. Just reading the a few of the points that Mr. Grover acknowledged in his blog post made me want to go out and purchase Jodi's book right away.

My Comment:

Mr. Grover,
My name is Alison Earley and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I am currently studying to pursue my degree in Elementary Education. From the very start of your blog post, you made me want to purchase Jodi Gold's book right away. The points that you summarized of Jodi's were spot on and I look forward to reading her book in the near future!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful resource!


Photomath App

    This was a very interesting read by Mr. Grover. This App could be very useful for students struggling with math problems. It could be looked at as a way to "cheat" but it also gives step-by-step instructions on how to solve the given problems,  which could be very useful for students to learn for tests.

My Comment: 

Mr. Grover,
My name is Alison Earley and I also am a student at the University of South Alabama studying to pursue my Elementary Ed. degree. This app seems to be the perfect tool for students struggling with algebra. Students may see this as an easy way to "cheat" and get done faster but it not only tells you the answer it also gives you instruction on how to do the problems. Thank you for sharing!!  

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Blog Post #11

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?

   First, I want to start off by say Mr. Crosby's way of teaching is excellent and inspiring. In his TEDx Talk, he shows us the different uses of technology he uses with his students. In his classroom they have 1:1 use of laptop computers that they have personal blogs on. I love the use of blogs in the classroom its a great way to connect with students not only in your class but with students all around the world. Instead of giving them a 25 question multiple choice test, Mr. Crosby has them film their experiments that they are doing and embed them in their blogs, which not only is more exciting for students but would possibly less nerve-racking to them as well. I loved that he took it upon his self to make Celeste feel like she is apart of his classroom. Directly quoted, "Not only are we learning, we are changing peoples lives". This statement is so true in his classroom. They are making this little girl part of something that she would otherwise not be able to participate.

The Blended Learning Cycle    Mr. Anderson's teaching style is a great approach for a science class. He uses the Blended Learning Cycle which includes: Question, Investigation/Inquiry, Video, Elaboration, Review, and Summary Quiz. He basically starts off with a driving question that he asks his students and lets his students take over from there. The students investigate the question on their own, watch a video given by Mr. Anderson that explains the concept of the question, and then are to elaborate and find more information about that question on their own. He then reviews with each student to make sure they understand the question and understand what the question is asking. They then are allowed to take the summary quiz for the assessment portion of the class. This approach at teaching is great for a project  based learning class.

   Mr. Sam Pane teaches his students how to use safety when working on the internet and he shows us how he does this in his Super Digital Citizen video. His students are to create a comic book character and illustrate a comic strip where their super hero "saves the day" by helping them be safe while on the internet. It's very important for teachers to teach their students how to be safe using the internet so they are not exposed to anything they shouldn't be exposed to. This lesson is a great way to give parents a sense of ease, knowing their children will be exploring the internet throughout this class.

   In Project Based Learning and Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program, their students are actively involved in Project Based Learning. Project based learning deepens students knowledge and gets them more engaged and more excited to learn. Incorporating projects into students' learning process will help them when they step out in to the real world with real world problems. I think all schools should incorporate PBL, although it may take longer to finish, more subjects are incorporated into one class and help apply those standards to real life.

   In the video, Making Thinking Visible, Ron Ritchhart talks about teaching for understanding instead of teaching and students memorizing stuff for a test. If students just memorize information for test they really aren't learning anything. When you teach for understand they understand the material and can apply what they learned to the real world similar to PBL. 

   

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Project 12A--SMART Board Instructions


Blog Post #10

What Can we Learn from Mrs. Cassidy?

  In the first video of Mrs. Cassidy's First Grade Class, she showed us all of the uses of technology that she uses in her classroom. Students were blogging, skyping, videoing, etc; to learn their material. I thought it was great that Mrs. Cassidy let her students take control of their own learning, she let them do a lot of it on their own and she was there to guide them when they got stuck.
Mrs Cassidy

   Mrs. Cassidy's uses a bunch of different kinds of technology in her classroom, such as: blogger, videoing, skype, etc. She says that blogging for young children is a great way to get students involved, because it gets them more excited to do their work and do it more accurately because they know that their parents and students around the world can see it and comment on it.  In one of the videos with Dr. Strange, he asks her if she thinks teachers should be technologically literate. She say yes because technology is never going anywhere it is here to stay. I do believe that teachers should be technologically literate, but I also believe that no one teacher is going to know everything that there is to know about technology because it is always changing. I love the fact that Mrs. Cassidy chose blogging and skyping as useful technology in her classroom. I think it's a great way to get students more involved and interested in learning. Being able to skype other classes around the world is so neat for young children and lets them see how different learning can be in another states and/or countries. It was so interesting learning about Mrs. Cassidy's blog that I just had to find it and read some of the posts. As I was browsing, I came across a blog post called Flashlight Friday and the caption said that some Friday's they read by flashlights instead of using the overhead lights and that you would be surprised how engaged and tuned in your students are. I absolutely love this idea and will most definitely try this in my future classroom one day!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

C4K Summary for March

C4K#5:   Chasity.

   As I was reading Chasity's Blog, "Threats on Social Media Shouldn't be Tolerated", she made some really great points. She said that she believed that freedom on speech is taken too freely especially on social media. I agree with her everyone should be entitled to their own opinion, but bullying should not be tolerated on or off social media. If you are old enough to have a social media account, you are old enough to know what to and what not to say to people.

Black History Month Photo ChallengeC4K#6:   Alfonso.

   Alfonso is a student at Joliet West High School in Mrs. Maslowski's Class. The most current blog post that I read on Alfonso's blog was his Black History Month Photo Challenge, his class was to pick one of the challenges from the list and write a 100-200 word reflection on the picture. Alfonso picked #15 Favorite African American Entertainer and he chose Kevin Hart. He write about his success as an entertainer, actor and comedian. I never knew that Kevin Hart did so many things in his career.

C4K#7:   Blaine F. 

   Blaine is a 7th grade student in Mrs. Lombard's English class. I chose to read his post about Frenchies, because french bulldogs happen to be my favorite breed of dog. He explains a few characteristics about french bulldogs that I never knew, such as; that they were bred with pugs and terriers. I think it's great that he took the time to research such a cute and unique animal. 

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Project #9

The New Role of the Teacher!
Team Serval's Video Book Commentary.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Blog Post #9

   In this weeks blog post we were asked the question, "What can teachers and students teach us about project based learning?" Project Based Learning is a great way to get students involved and interacted in their own learning process. Before starting this class, I had no idea what PBL was or had even heard of it. I now have a deeper understanding of what it is and how much it can really change how a child learns. 

   In the Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning article, there were some very important things that I did not really know that went into PBL. The seven essentials are: Need to know. This is your "entry event", what you need to gather before you start your project. "What do I need to know to meet the challenge I have accepted?"A driving question. An essential question based around your individual project. Question needs to be a question that: solves a problem, is complex, is a real world problem, is open ended, concrete and abstract. Student voice and choice. Students need to have free reigns for their projects. Yes there needs to be guidelines, but they need to be able to use their imagination and creativeness. Students can choose their own topic that interest them. 21st century skills. Using rubrics, collaboration, role playing and team building. Inquiry and Innovation.  Their project work is more meaningful if they could conduct real inquiry and with real inquiry comes innovation. Feedback and Revision. Students should critique others work using rubrics. "First attempts don't result in high quality. Revision is frequent." A publicly presented product.  Schoolwork is more meaningful when it is not just done for the teacher or to just be applied to take a test. Students should be allowed to show off their finished product to a large audience.


   The video, Project Based Learning for Teachers, is a very informative video about the standards of PBL. Project Based Learning has students working longer hours and more efficiently instead of just giving them a chapter out of a book and telling them to read and answer questions on it. In PBL students take charge in their learning and their learning process and they get to voice their own opinions and share what they found during research.
  • Common core is the WHAT.  
  • Project Based Learning is the HOW. 
  
   I loved the invention of the, No Watery Ketchup Cap, that Tyler Richards and Jonathan Thompson created. Yes. At first I said to myself, "Are these guys serious do they really care that much about ketchup?" but after watching their video and reading the project guidelines, I totally get it. The prompt that was given was, something that was relevant to them and to help come up with a topic their teacher said to think of the phrase, "...it really bugs me when?" This product seems like it took a lot of time a patients, but I think it's really neat that they got to use a 3D printer to print their final product.

Hand with a bunch of words
   As I was watching the given videos, I found a video that was not on our list that really stood out to me. Building Blocks of Project Based Learning, there is a statement given by one of the men in this video that I feel like is essential in PBL. "Just because its always been done a certain way doesn't mean it always has to be done a certain way" Just because lessons have always been taught on white boards or chalk boards with books and pens/paper doesn't mean that that is the only way to teach a lesson to students. One teacher says that this is not "her" show that its "their" show so she lets them take control of the class and she is just their to assist where needed. PBL is definitely teaching students how to survive in the 21st century work world.

   What Motivates Students? In this video, they have asked a couple of students what motivates them to do good in school. The answers that these students give are obvious. "I won't be able to play sports" or "I want to have a good job when I am older so I need to do well in school". These are all very true. Instead of parents being the ones that motivate students to learn by threatening to take something away or telling them they can't do something, teachers should play a part in this as well. By introducing PBL in schools and letting students use technology to create projects that adapt to a certain concept it will give students more motivation to do their work and learn the required material. Also using PBL will help students actually learn things rather than just memorize them.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Blog Post #8

Randy PauschAchieving Your Childhood Dreams!

    WOW! After watching Randy Pausch's, "Last Lecture", I am in total awe. This man spoke some very powerful words and words of wisdom at that! Randy Pausch was a tenured professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. He was the co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center and instructed researchers that created Alice; which is a way to teach students computer programming. Randy was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in 2007; but he, in no way, let that bring him and his dreams down.
dream--the future belongs to those who belive

In his talk about, Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, Randy talks about his childhood dreams. I love how Randy's dreams were very elaborate and not the same ole dream of: going to the moon or being a firefighter. They were very thought out and reasonable dreams and wishes that he hoped to accomplish in his lifetime. He goes into great detail about how he accomplished or tried to accomplish each and every dream. Most of them were successful, some were not but that didn't make him lose faith!  
Randy's Childhood Dreams 
  • Being in zero gravity 
  • Playing in the NFL
  • Authoring an article in the world book encyclopedia
  • Being (meeting) Captain Kirk
  • Winning stuffed animals 
  • Being a Disney Imagineer 
At the end of Randy's speech he gives up some inspiring advice on every day life obstacles we all face on daily basis.
  • You should decide whether you at a Tigger or an Eeyore. Meaning decide if you see the glass half empty or half full. 
  • Never lose your child-like wonder.
  • Help others
  • Never give up!
  • Get a feedback loop and listen to it.
  • Show gratitude. 
  • Don't complain just work harder.
  • Be good at something; it makes you valuable.
  • Work hard.
  • Find the good in everybody; no matter how you have long you have to wait for them to show it.
  • Be prepared; "luck" is where preparation meets opportunity. 
What I learned!
The advice that Randy share with us at the end of his speech at Carnegie Mellon is very inspiring. I believe I learned a lot from this professor. Just because something doesn't come to you naturally or you weren't automatically picked for something like, not getting accepted to your dream school, don't give up, there is always a brighter light at the end of the tunnel. My favorite line from this video, "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things and it shows dedication". This statement could not be any more true, those brick walls weed out the ones that aren't willing to work hard for what they want. Randy Pausch is a very inspiring man and I tend to tell everyone to watch this video!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

C4T #2: Annie Palmer

What am I supposed to be learning?

    I had the pleasure of reading Mrs. Palmer's blog about her students taking control of their own learning process. I think this is a great way to get students involved and motivated to learn effectively. Letting them decide how they want to tackle a specific subject or concept will get them much more eager to learn new things.

My Comment: 
Hi Mrs. Palmer! My name is Alison Earley and I am a student at the University of South Alabama and I am currently working towards my elementary education degree. I loved reading your blog post. I think it is a very effective technique for teachers to use to get their students involved in there own learning process. As a future educator, I hope to one day use this method of teaching with my own students and get them motivated to learn!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful post and the video of your students!
Alison!
Twitter: @alieliz_beth

teaching children a lesson
Instructional Strategies: A Direction for Learning

    As I read Mrs. Palmer's blog about instructional strategies, it really got me thinking about when I was in elementary school. I never was asked if I understood the background of the material before they started teaching a specific subject my teachers just jumped in and assumed that we all understood. I will certainly use the technique that Mrs. Palmer is addressing in her blog post and hope many more future and current educators will do the same.

My Comment: 
Hi Mrs. Palmer. I recently commented on your, “What Am I Supposed To Be Learning” post. I also loved in Jason’s video the statement, “Tell me what you know about this target, and what you’re wondering about.” You need to set aside time in your lesson to give students the opportunity to ask questions about what they are fixing to learn. It will give them a better understanding of the content when you are actually teaching it to them. Thank you for sharing!!
Alison Earley
Twitter: @alieliz_beth
Class Blog: http://earleyalisonedm310.blogspot.com/ 
    

 

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Blog Post #7

Video Chat with Dr. Strange, Mrs. Elizabeth Davis, and Mrs. Michele Bennett   
    Becoming a teacher in the 21st century will require us to better familiarize ourselves with technology and learn to properly use and accommodate for Elementary students. I learned a lot from watching the provided videos of Mrs. Michele Bennett and Mrs. Elizabeth Davis. They informed us about a lot of helpful and useful tools and information.

Using iMovie and Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten (AVL).
    Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Bennett explained to us about the uses of iMovie and AVL. In Gulf Shores Elementary, their kindergarten classes are using iMovie to produce book trailers similar to the ones we had to create in EDM. Mrs. Bennett was very impressed with the younger students knowing how to use these apps effectively. That goes to show that in this day and time younger students are more technologically literate than high school or college students. I would have never imagine being in kindergarten and being able to produce such work that students, that young, do in today's society. Also students at Gulf Shores Elementary want their work to be outstanding so they review and edit their trailers many many times before they turn them in. Most of the time college students won't even read over their work and turn it in as is with all spelling and grammatical errors and hope their professor won't notice.

We All Become Learners!
    As Mrs. Bennett stated, "Teachers teach students, students teach students, and students teach teachers. Everybody becomes a learner and a teacher." This statement couldn't be more true. I love how teachers learn new things from their students on a daily basis. It amazes me what students already know before they even start school just from one little device. The two ladies explain the use of the website Padlet. Padlet is a website where you can add people to a group and post questions or statements that everyone in your group can see and respond to. This is a great website to use for open-ended questions and group projects. Dr. Strange made a great point in this video when he said, "Students are so eager to share their work with everyone and they sometimes get their feelings hurt when they don't get the chance to." It makes students feel so proud of themselves when they can show their work to their teacher and classmates and if they can teach their teacher how to do something she may not know.

boy sitting at desk working on an iPadiPads in the Classroom.
    Are they beneficial? In this video, we learned about many different uses of iPads in schools. One of the teachers in this video explains to us that it gives her more of a variety on how she teaches each subject. If there is museum or field trip that a teacher feels that is a great way of engaging students,  but visiting these places are just not physically possible, they could visit virtual labs or museums and get the same experience right from their classrooms. Going along with the virtual field trips or museums, they could also help schools save money. They mention in the video that they could now put more than one teacher in the classroom to assist the main teacher. I also loved the app that special education students could use that had pre-recorded statements or sayings that they could just tap and interact with people.

10 Reasons to Use Technology in Education.
  1. Students love it--it has cool factors and engages students. 
  2. Engages the four key components to learning: Active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction in feedback, connection to real world experts. 
  3. Professional Development
  4. Makes life easier for the teacher--They can have online test and quizes and students can get immediate feedback and teachers don't have stacks and stacks of papers to grade.
  5. Improves test scores--Students can now go at their own pace and progress at their own speed. 
  6. Helps students with low attention spans--It keeps them actively engaged and busy working instead of staring into space. 
  7. Lean from experts.
  8. Encourages completion of homework. 
  9. Saves money--As I stated before, they now can have more than one teacher in the classrooms to assist the main teacher. 
  10. Remove obstacles--If you have students hard of hearing you can invest in a voice amplifying device to project your voice louder when you teach. 

Thursday, February 26, 2015

C4K Summary for February

Ben's Blog

C4K#1:   I had the pleasure of reading Ben's Blog about Nebraska's state senator, Mrs. Crawford, visiting their school. Ben shared with us, that he and his classmates concluded that being a state senator is a lot of work. Getting to meet the state senator of Nebraska was very inspiring to Ben's class because she is such big named figure for their state, but soon learned she is just like any of them when it comes to her life outside of being a state senator. He and his classmates also learned from Mrs. Crawford which laws actually made Nebraska its own unique state.
Play Learn and Grow Together
Brenna's Blog

C4K#2:   Brenna's blog post, She Doesn't Need A Glass Slipper, was very interesting to me. I loved how she first told the original story of Cinderella and then went in to telling a different version. The second version was Cinderella standing up to her step mother and two step sisters, instead of, them picking on her and her just sitting back and taking it. Brenna's version of Cinderella should be the one told to young kids instead of the traditional one.

Bridget's Blog

C4K#3:   I was very impressed when reading Bridget's Blog; DC in December. It was about her and her family traveling to DC to visit some family members. I'm guessing there assignment to create a rhyming poem about a specific event. Bridget did an excellent job on structuring her poem and making the last word of every sentence rhyme.

Alexis' Blog

C4K#4:   This week I was required to read a high school students blog named Alexis. I choose to read her blog post, Valentine's Day. It was very interesting that she took the time to research what Valentine's day is really about. Most people don't know the real reason behind it and that it was named after a guy name Saint Valentine, who wrote a letter to his daughter right before he killed himself and signed the letter, "Your Valentine".

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Project #8 Book Trailer

Fancy Nancy: Book Trailer

Blog Post #6

For blog post #6 we were given 6 different videos of interviews from a former South student named Anthony Capps. Anthony is now a 3rd grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary. In his interviews, Anthony gives very constructive information for future educators. I found all of his videos to be useful and informative, but the most useful to me were: ICurio, Discovery Education, and Anthony-Strange Tips for Teaching Part 1.

illustration of education object in wisdom treeICurio: ICurio is an online tool to allow students to safely search the internet to find useful information. I have never heard of ICurio before watching Anthony's videos. I think that this search engine is not only helpful for teachers but it also ensures parents that their kids are learning how to safely use the internet.

Discovery Education: "A picture is worth a thousand words"; Discovery Education is another useful online tool to help with listening-learning. Some students need visuals to help grasp certain concepts and material. This website lets you find pictures, videos, and audios about any particular subject or keywords. Anthony uses the example: If his students are learning about plants and they want to know what kind of plants kill things, they can type in "what kinds of plants kill things?" in to the search bar and it will give you all kinds of different visuals to teach them about different the plants.

Anthony-Strange Tips for Teaching: Dr. Strange and Anthony construct a list of tips that all new educators should take into consideration. I think the list that they create is a great start to any and all future educators. Here are the important things that they think we should prepare for as future teachers:
  1. You really need to be interested in learning yourself. If you are not a learner then you will not be a successful educator. 
  2. Teaching is hard work, but let your work become a fun and fascinating experience for you! 
  3. Teachers should be flexible and creative.
  4. Have your students engaged. 
  5. Reflect on what your students do. 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Blog Post #5 Part 1

socail media heart What is a Personal Learning Network? A personal learning network is a way to describe the people or sometimes organization that you connect with in order to learn from their ideas, questions, reflections, and references. Its personal because you choose who you want to be in your group. Its also about learning you choose what subject or what content area you want to learn and choose people who have that same interest. Most people have a personal learning network and don't even know it. If you have accounts with Twitter, Facebook, Skype, A personal blog, ETC; then you have your own personal learning network. As a future educator, I would encourage young children to start creating their personal learning networks now and continue to add to it as they get older. Personal Learning Networks are very useful to classes that are project based. Students use online sources when creating different projects to help locate knowledge and skills.

Project #3 Presentation

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Blog Post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher? 

   Asking effective question's is a important factor of being a teacher. I never was really the type of student to immediately raise my hand an answer questions, whether I knew the answer or not. I also never realized how the wording of questions can make a difference on what kind of answer you get from your students. As a future educator, I want every student to be engaged in answering questions and even asking questions of their own. In my future classroom, I want to generate a strategy to get my students actively answering questions without me forcing it out of them.

I found that all of the sources that were suggested were very helpful. Two sources that I found very helpful were: Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom and Questioning Styles and Strategies.
    A sun with a question mark about his head.
  • In the blog, Three Ways to Ask Better Questions, the author makes wonderful suggestions to take into consideration when asking questions. Her first tip to asking good questions is preparing your question. I never knew asking questions could required prep time before asking, but when dealing with students you never know what kind of answers you will get so you need to be prepared for any type that is thrown your way. The second tip she suggest is, play with your question. Playing with questions means, asking it but leaving it unanswered and come back to it once your students have had time to think in depth about the answer. You can also play with a question when you are preparing them. Make sure you ask your questions in the best possible way that students understand. Finally, her third tip is preserving good questions. You want to preserve the good questions for possible test questions, pop quiz's questions, and even bonus questions on test.
  • My most favored source was the Question Style and Strategies video. I love how the teacher in the video uses a variety of different techniques and styles in his teaching. A few techniques that were used in this video were: provisional writing and cueing, think pair and share, random calling, surveying, student calling, and value feedback. Having students answer a question in a journal and then compare their answers with another classmate may help students feel less nervous about answering questions, especially if they are questions that can have a variety of answers. Randomly calling on a student makes sure that all of your students are thinking about the questions asked, because no one wants to get called on and not have some kind of answer ready. I also like how he had a student call on another student to share, it makes students aware that their teacher is not just "picking on" them. Giving students valuable and positive feedback is a MUST! Boost their self confidence! When they answer correctly or if they give elaboration to an question without it being forced, repeat that adverb or descriptive word and show them that you acknowledged and appreciated their effort and it will make them want to answer more frequently.


Project #15 Search Engines

Eight Different Search Engines-What does each do specifically?

1) Wolfram Alpha
  • Wolfram Alpha is a "computational knowledge engine". 
  • This search engine is useful for comparison's, mathematical problem solving, locating where you are or locating a specific place, and can also generate unique passwords for you. 
  • Is said to be the most useful site on the internet. 
2) Bing
  • Bing was created and released by Microsoft. It is the second most popular search engine. Before Bing it was named Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search. 
  • You can search keywords or phrases and it will direct you to articles containing those key words.
3) Dog Pile
  • Dog Pile is known as a meta search engine which means that it gets its results from multiple search engines and combines them to give you the best information. 
4) DuckDuckGo
Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN, Bing, About.

  • DuckDuckGo searches social media bio's without you having to leave the search engine. 
  • It can also check and see if certain websites are down or not.
5) Yahoo
  • Yahoo is the second largest search engine on the web.  
  • According to, The New York Times, "Yahoo has said to collect more data about users than its competitors".
6) AOL
  • AOL is mostly used for AOL instant messaging.
  • People also use AOL for email purposes.
7) Lycos
  • Its initial focus was broadband entertainment content. 
  • Most popular in the 90's.
  • One of the earliest crawler-based search engines
8) HotBot  
  • Considered to be a meta-like search engine, which means it searched its results from four different search engines and compiled them into one.
  • HotBot's wild colors, great results and impressive features drew everyone in. 
 

Thursday, February 5, 2015

C4T#1: Elizabeth Moore

   Conferring and Student Goals

      As I read Mrs. Moore's Blog on conferring and student goals, I didn't realize how important such small acts of acknowledgements meant to students. In her blog she gives a few ideas of how you can personalize each students goals/tasks and make it "theirs". The one that stood out to me the most was printing each student their own individual picture, goal or task on a mailing label and sticking it in the back of their notebook. She explains to us, that students love to show off their unique "stickers" to their classmates. It's such a great way to show your student's that you are taking the initiative to give them something that they can call their own and also it can get them motivated to learn tasks and accomplish new goals.

My Comment:                                                                                                                                        Hi! My name is Alison Earley and I am a student at the University of South Alabama studying elementary education. I have about 2 years left in my college career and I am stoked about becoming an elementary school teacher. I loved reading your blog, though I am not big on writing, I loved the clip art “sticker” idea. It seems like a great way to get students encouraged to accomplish whatever goal that their teacher has given them, because face it who doesn’t love stickers!
Thank you so much for sharing this information.
Alison!
Twitter: @alieliz_beth
Student Blog: http://earleyalisonedm310.blogspot.com/

Slice of Life Story Challenge

Slice of Life Story Challenge        The second post that I read from Mrs. Moore's Blog was very new and interesting to me. She explains to us what the Slice of Life Story Challenge was and how it can be useful to teachers and students around the world. The Slice of Life Story Challenge is basically a big composite blog that students all around the world share their stories. I hope to get more educated with this tool as I further my education career and hope to use it in my future classroom.   

My Comment:
Hi! My name is Alison Earley, I recently commented on your blog “Conferring and Student Goals”. I have found the Slice of Life Story Challenge to be very interesting. I think it will be a great tool for students to use in classroom to connect with students around the world. I also admire that you took the time to post a section about internet safety. Most students don’t realize what they post on the internet is public and anyone anywhere can see what they post. I hope to accept this challenge in my future classroom!
Thanks so much for sharing.
Alison!
Twitter: @alieliz_beth
Student Blog: http://earleyalisonedm310.blogspot.com/