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/