Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Summary C4K Comments 4-6
C4K 4
Osana @ Pt England School
This post was done by a year 6 student in Auckland, New Zealand. Her post was relatively simple. She had an image of puppies sitting in the grass with a link on the side to take her viewers to the source of the photo. It was obviously a lesson in how to create links.
I commented that I thought it was good that she is learning how to add links to her blog because it adds interest and value to a post. Also, I commented on the fact that she chose to use an image of puppies because I love dogs also.
C4K 5
Lepa @ Pt England School
This post was done by a year 6 student named Lepa from Pt. England School. The post was a very good one done on the favorite foods of another classroom at the school. Lepa polled other students on which food was their favorite (pizza, butter chicken, burger, curry and kumara, hot chops, taro and chopsui, fry bread, sandwiches, mussels, jelly, and nachos) then turned the results into a bar graph. Lepa then summarized the findings and concluded that most preferred nachos and the least favorite food was curry and kumara.
I commented that I was very impressed and interested with the topic of the post. I let her know that it was interesting to me because I wasn’t familiar with some of the foods that she had included in her poll. They were quite different than some of the favorite foods that we have in America. I also commented that I liked how she summarized her findings because it made it easier for the reader.
C4K 6
Mr. Webb's Room 8 Blog
This post I commented on was from Mr. Webb’s class in New Zealand. The students were aged 12-13. The assignment was to complete a digital photography challenge which consisted of working in groups to take creative photographs of their school and then working those photographs into a video slideshow. I watched videos from both groups one and two, and commented on the second video.
My comments included how impressed I was. I truly couldn’t believe that the students found all of those pictures in fifteen minutes. Also, it impressed me how creative they were in finding their photographs. Some were better than others, but overall, the students were innovative in seeing interesting things to photograph. I also commented that I enjoyed seeing a little bit of their school.
Osana @ Pt England School
This post was done by a year 6 student in Auckland, New Zealand. Her post was relatively simple. She had an image of puppies sitting in the grass with a link on the side to take her viewers to the source of the photo. It was obviously a lesson in how to create links.
I commented that I thought it was good that she is learning how to add links to her blog because it adds interest and value to a post. Also, I commented on the fact that she chose to use an image of puppies because I love dogs also.
C4K 5
Lepa @ Pt England School
This post was done by a year 6 student named Lepa from Pt. England School. The post was a very good one done on the favorite foods of another classroom at the school. Lepa polled other students on which food was their favorite (pizza, butter chicken, burger, curry and kumara, hot chops, taro and chopsui, fry bread, sandwiches, mussels, jelly, and nachos) then turned the results into a bar graph. Lepa then summarized the findings and concluded that most preferred nachos and the least favorite food was curry and kumara.
I commented that I was very impressed and interested with the topic of the post. I let her know that it was interesting to me because I wasn’t familiar with some of the foods that she had included in her poll. They were quite different than some of the favorite foods that we have in America. I also commented that I liked how she summarized her findings because it made it easier for the reader.
C4K 6
Mr. Webb's Room 8 Blog
This post I commented on was from Mr. Webb’s class in New Zealand. The students were aged 12-13. The assignment was to complete a digital photography challenge which consisted of working in groups to take creative photographs of their school and then working those photographs into a video slideshow. I watched videos from both groups one and two, and commented on the second video.
My comments included how impressed I was. I truly couldn’t believe that the students found all of those pictures in fifteen minutes. Also, it impressed me how creative they were in finding their photographs. Some were better than others, but overall, the students were innovative in seeing interesting things to photograph. I also commented that I enjoyed seeing a little bit of their school.
Blog Assignment 9
"What I've Learned This Year" by Mr. McClung
I really appreciate this blog post by Mr. McClung. I think it really embodies what it means to be a teacher, not only because he is showing professionalism and dedication, but also because he is practicing what it means to be a teacher: he is continuously learning and sharing that knowledge with others.
Mr. McClung shares six lessons that he learned in his first year of teaching. The first is to learn how to read a crowd. This means learning how to make your classroom student based instead of becoming preoccupied and obsessed with your own assessment as a teacher. I definitely think this is something that is important. Even though I haven’t had very much experience, I have already caught myself doing this. It’s very easy to get caught up in making a creative and well planned lesson plan and forget that you are actually speaking to students and asking them to take in your words.
Next, Mr. McClung discusses the importance of being flexible. He says “no lesson is ever perfect. The lesson you teach and the one you plan are always different.” To me, flexibility is one of the most important aspects of being a teacher because nothing in life ever goes perfectly. Also, if we aren’t flexible as teachers, might we miss a valuable learning opportunity?
Mr. McClung also expresses his belief that communication is key. He discusses that communication is necessary in the workplace to build relationships with both teachers and students. I believe that being an effective communicator is the basis of being a good teacher. We don’t have to know every detail about quantum physics; what we must know, however, is how to effectively communicate with our students and learn with them. Also, we must help make our students effective communicators both verbally and written.
Being reasonable is the next lesson that Mr. McClung discusses. He believes that we as teachers can have the tendency to set our expectations too high and therefore set our students up for failure. He says “our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again”. I definitely agree with this, but I also believe that it is imperative that we set high expectations for our students. If we set expectations that are just high enough, it will encourage students to work harder in the future. The art is to not set these expectations to where they are unattainable. I believe that all expectations can be met though.
Next, Mr. McClung discusses technology and encourages adults to not be afraid of computers and technology. As I have discussed in my other blog posts, I definitely believe in the power of technology in the classroom. However, I do think that without a good teacher and a valuable lesson plan, technology can be useless.
Listening to your students is another lesson that Mr. McClung learned in his first year of teaching. He believes that it is important to build relationships with your students. Having a good sense of rapport and trust with your students is something that I believe to be beneficial and important, but I think a line has to be drawn somewhere. We aren’t meant to be friends with our students. For me at least, I think it could be hard to listen closely to my students and not offer my personal beliefs and personal life experiences. Maybe it will just take practice and time to learn how to give advice without becoming too personal with my students.
The final lesson that Mr. McClung discusses is to never stop learning. He discusses the fact that we encourage our students to keep learning, so we should hold ourselves to that same standard. Our classrooms can change from year to year or from class period to class period, so we always must be learning and changing our way of thinking. In high school I had an AP American History teacher who really embodied this. If someone asked him a question that he didn’t know, he would respond with “I don’t know. I’ll research and get back to you”. I just thought this was such a good answer and he would expect us to answer him in the same manner if we couldn’t answer one of his questions.
I really appreciate Mr. McClung writing this post about the lessons he learned in his first year of teaching. I know that we are learning a lot about the profession while still in school, but I definitely believe that we will learn infinitely more once we get in our own classrooms and being teaching.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Blog Assignment 8
Richard Miller: This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
This video definitely raises some good points and makes you think a lot about education. When I was watching it, I kept comparing education of the future to the education I received growing up. In the video, it is said that the workspace is now the desktop. My generation grew up with paper and pencil so the next generation will obviously have a very different education with technology and computers.
I am mentally willing to learn much more about writing with multimedia. Am I totally competent and have I mastered the art of writing with multimedia? Of coarse not. I would not say that I am very interested though and see the value in it as an educator. In the video, it was said that our information won’t be stored in a place like a library, information will be readily available on the web and shared infinitely. Because of this, I am hopefully becoming more and more prepared to write with multimedia to share my ideas and to have the knowledge to gather other ideas.
Students of the next generation will definitely be able to write with multimedia. It will come more naturally to them. As educators, we must give them the tools to learn to collaborate with others and write with multimedia. Students will be able to express their creativity through collaboration with other students and the use of images, films and other media. I definitely think there will be less of a learning curve with the technology for the students of the next generation, therefore we as educators must work hard to keep up and learn to learn the way our students will learn.
The Chipper Series
EDM 310 for Dummies
These two videos are great examples of student made videos with great messages and lessons. The first, The Chipper Series, Chipper redefines procrastination and hard work. Through a little skit with Dr. Strange, she grows as an individual from a procrastinating student to a drop out with many failing jobs, finally to a hard working student. Her primary message is that we must be timely, hard working individuals in all aspects of our life. We must accept responsibility and not make excuses for ourselves. EDM 310 for Dummies is another example of a great student video. In it, students market a EDM 310 handbook with tips and tools to “keep an A” in the class. The primary message of this video is to not get frustrated with the class and to use all resources possible to succeed.
Some videos that I would like to create would probably be based around continuing education for educators already in the field. I think it would be a great way to teach myself some things as well as benefit the educators in our schools who are struggling with technology. I always learn the best when I am teaching others something.
Learn to Change, Change to Learn
This is a great video that will really make you think! Some of the ideas seem radical, but they are all very practical and true if you let them sink in for a minute. It is suggested that our schools today are very much run like factories with control and order being the priority. Also, we are taking away the student’s world and creativity by banning technology and really doing our students a disservice.
If we want our students to succeed we must make them at the center of their own education. I definitely agree that we must allow students to use their own tools outside of the traditional classroom if they are going to learn and reach their potential. The time of the traditional classroom that we grew up in is over! Students have to use the web, the community, and other resources to gain knowledge and the classroom and school as a meeting place to collaborate and share ideas.
Also, the argument about standardized tests made a lot of sense to me. I always have the concern in the back of my head about traditionally meeting state standards and objectives. In the video, however, it is stated that jobs don’t call on the knowledge of standardized tests. Jobs call for students to be able to work as teams, to find information in context, to synthesize, and think critically. I definitely think those things are more important and more valuable than teaching to any test.
The Secret Powers of Time by Philip Zambardo
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by David Pink
In ‘The Secret Powers of Time”, Philip Zambardo discusses the concept of time and time zones such as the past, present, and future. He claims that the pace of life and duration vary by culture and can explain actions and personality. For example, all people begin life in a present hedonistic state, meaning we all have the desire to meet our more immediate and basic needs. However, depending on culture, maturity, and a number of other factors, our states change. The example given in the video was of teenage boys who play video games. These video games cater primarily to immediate gratification and re-wire the brain to think that way. Therefore, when they go to school, which is primary centered around delayed gratification, their brains will consider it boring and not be interested. I think this applies to the growth of people’s education and their drive for success because we must give our student’s something to control in their education. We are moving more and more toward an immediately controlled present time culture so we must adapt to that.
In “The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us” David Pink discusses rewards and punishments. He mainly focuses on reward though and challenges some of the previously claimed ideas. His research proves that rewards are successful when the work is basic and mechanical. However, when it requires even a small amount of cognitive ability, a reward doesn’t work and gives poor performance. Basically, they found that higher incentives yield worse results, except for simple and straightforward tasks. The video also discusses three factors for better performance: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. It is claimed that humans all have a desire for self-direction (autonomy), the urge to get better (mastery), and purpose. I think this is something we should think about when we have our own students and our own classrooms. Because we know that students need autonomy, we should give them projects to work on themselves and the freedom to be creative. Because we know they have the urge to get better, we should let them have their sense of purpose and start treating our students like humans instead of animals. We all have a natural urge to succeed so we shouldn’t rely solely on extrinsic motivation for our students.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Blog Assignment 7
Watching Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams is definitely well worth the time. He is such an inspirational person and his messages are all ones we should learn from and take into consideration in our own lives. What struck me most were his positive attitude and his teaching philosophies.
Randy Pausch had every reason in the world to let himself become depressed and bitter. Instead, he obviously radiates confidence and a very positive attitude about life. He wove humor throughout his whole lecture, which I thought added to his credibility and appeal. Near the very beginning of the lecture, he thought it best to talk about his cancer or what he calls “the elephant in the room”. This is a healthy habit and I think it sets a great example. Randy Pausch is obviously not depressed, but he is not in denial either. He just knows who he is and has a very deep relationship with himself. He wants to share his dreams with others and encourage everyone to make the dreams of others come true.
Before I comment on his teaching methods, I think it’s important to comment on how inspirational Randy Pausch is as a person. As teachers, we are automatically put into a position of being a role model for our students. We see our children almost as much as their parents do, and that puts a huge responsibility on our shoulders. I think as teachers, we should all strive to be the best role models we can be. This means exuding confidence and a positive attitude every day just like Randy Pausch does. If he can do it and be dying of cancer, we can definitely put our burdens aside for our students and give them our most positive attitudes. In his lecture, Pausch says “decide if you’re Tigger or Eeyore”. I really liked this quote and I think it’s a great way to remind students as well as others to evaluate their attitudes.
As far as his teaching methods go, I definitely agree with his philosophies. I think his “head fake” educational style is really effective. I definitely believe that indirect learning can be one of the most successful ways to learn. It’s supposed to be fun to learn, and as educators we must be creative and think of ways to teach our kids multiple lessons. I definitely had tears in my eyes at the end when he said that his talk “is not for you, it’s for my kids”.
Randy Pausch had every reason in the world to let himself become depressed and bitter. Instead, he obviously radiates confidence and a very positive attitude about life. He wove humor throughout his whole lecture, which I thought added to his credibility and appeal. Near the very beginning of the lecture, he thought it best to talk about his cancer or what he calls “the elephant in the room”. This is a healthy habit and I think it sets a great example. Randy Pausch is obviously not depressed, but he is not in denial either. He just knows who he is and has a very deep relationship with himself. He wants to share his dreams with others and encourage everyone to make the dreams of others come true.
Before I comment on his teaching methods, I think it’s important to comment on how inspirational Randy Pausch is as a person. As teachers, we are automatically put into a position of being a role model for our students. We see our children almost as much as their parents do, and that puts a huge responsibility on our shoulders. I think as teachers, we should all strive to be the best role models we can be. This means exuding confidence and a positive attitude every day just like Randy Pausch does. If he can do it and be dying of cancer, we can definitely put our burdens aside for our students and give them our most positive attitudes. In his lecture, Pausch says “decide if you’re Tigger or Eeyore”. I really liked this quote and I think it’s a great way to remind students as well as others to evaluate their attitudes.
As far as his teaching methods go, I definitely agree with his philosophies. I think his “head fake” educational style is really effective. I definitely believe that indirect learning can be one of the most successful ways to learn. It’s supposed to be fun to learn, and as educators we must be creative and think of ways to teach our kids multiple lessons. I definitely had tears in my eyes at the end when he said that his talk “is not for you, it’s for my kids”.
My PLN Project 10
I have definitely come a lot farther in developing my PLN. After watching some videos and doing a little bit of research, I’ve learned some of the benefits of a PLN and gotten some helpful hints. I’ve gotten comfortable using the tools associated with Google (e-mail and Google docs) as well as social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Also, I’ve lately started using Symbaloo to help me navigate the internet and stay organized. I’ve found it to be a really great tool to help me navigate more effectively and avoid confusion.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
C4T 2 Dr. Paige Baggett
Ibiyinka Alao, Nigeria's Ambassador of Art
The first post I commented on from Dr. Baggett was one about Ibiyinka Alao who is Nigeria’s Ambassador of Art. She wrote this post to educate her readers about Ibiyinka Alao because he visited the University of South Alabama on February 8th and gave a presentation. Alao was born on October 17, 1975 and was trained as an architect. In 2001, he won the United Nations International Art Competition and Nigeria named him their “Art Ambassador”. In 2003, he was named the “Ambassador of Peace” by the United Nations Population Fund. He was given this title because of his believe that peace is achieved through art and creativity.
When I commented on Dr. Baggett’s post, I thanked her for introducing us to an important contemporary artist. I expressed my belief that it’s important to have knowledge about the art around us so we can appreciate creativity. After looking at Alao’s art on some of the sites that Dr. Baggett provided, I also mentioned how I love his use of color and how he uses art as a way to express emotion. The final thing I mentioned is how I hope we as teachers can use art as a way for our students to express themselves.
Leading by Example and a Pointer Finger: Enriching our Lives through the Arts and Technology (high and low?
The second post I commented on from Dr. Baggett was one about the blind artist Ricky Trione. Dr. Baggett had the opportunity to meet Ricky Trione when he was visiting a second grade class at Boothe Elementary School. He shared his story with the students and demonstrated how he has overcome his disability in order to continue to paint. Through his determination, he has developed his own method to paint which has him using his finger and technological tools to identify colors. Mr. Ricky Trione’s method is one of inspiration; he is living proof that anything is possible!
I shared with Dr. Baggett how I also found Ricky Trione to be extremely fascinating and talented. I was especially interested because Ricky also came to my art class when I was in high school so I got to see and hear his stories firsthand as well. I still remember them today. I told Dr. Baggett that I don’t remember him using technology back then though. He brought someone with him who directed him to the paint color he wanted to use. I made the comment that even though its only been a few years since Ricky Trione visited my high school art class, there have obviously been great technological advances.
The first post I commented on from Dr. Baggett was one about Ibiyinka Alao who is Nigeria’s Ambassador of Art. She wrote this post to educate her readers about Ibiyinka Alao because he visited the University of South Alabama on February 8th and gave a presentation. Alao was born on October 17, 1975 and was trained as an architect. In 2001, he won the United Nations International Art Competition and Nigeria named him their “Art Ambassador”. In 2003, he was named the “Ambassador of Peace” by the United Nations Population Fund. He was given this title because of his believe that peace is achieved through art and creativity.
When I commented on Dr. Baggett’s post, I thanked her for introducing us to an important contemporary artist. I expressed my belief that it’s important to have knowledge about the art around us so we can appreciate creativity. After looking at Alao’s art on some of the sites that Dr. Baggett provided, I also mentioned how I love his use of color and how he uses art as a way to express emotion. The final thing I mentioned is how I hope we as teachers can use art as a way for our students to express themselves.
Leading by Example and a Pointer Finger: Enriching our Lives through the Arts and Technology (high and low?
The second post I commented on from Dr. Baggett was one about the blind artist Ricky Trione. Dr. Baggett had the opportunity to meet Ricky Trione when he was visiting a second grade class at Boothe Elementary School. He shared his story with the students and demonstrated how he has overcome his disability in order to continue to paint. Through his determination, he has developed his own method to paint which has him using his finger and technological tools to identify colors. Mr. Ricky Trione’s method is one of inspiration; he is living proof that anything is possible!
I shared with Dr. Baggett how I also found Ricky Trione to be extremely fascinating and talented. I was especially interested because Ricky also came to my art class when I was in high school so I got to see and hear his stories firsthand as well. I still remember them today. I told Dr. Baggett that I don’t remember him using technology back then though. He brought someone with him who directed him to the paint color he wanted to use. I made the comment that even though its only been a few years since Ricky Trione visited my high school art class, there have obviously been great technological advances.
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