Blog Assignment 12

Watch Google Docs Sharing and Collaboration

Then familiarize yourself a little with Google docs.

I would add this lesson into the curriculum because I think Google docs is a really valuable too, not only for EDM 310 but also for collaboration in any other class or situation. Something I would change though is how the collaboration takes place. I definitely agree that collaboration and group work is essential, but I think it would be cool if we were assigned groups according to Google docs and communicated that way. I have used it to work on papers and projects with other groups, and I think it's important to know how to use it. Also, because we don't meet in the physical classroom that often, I think it would be better to have a required collaboration project in Google Docs to get us familiar with the features as well as to eliminate the problems of forming groups and finding class time to meet. For Also, it's important to become really familiar with all of the features of google docs because it could be wonderful too to use in the classroom. Not only can it facilitate group projects, but it also allows the teacher to moderate and check on the group and their progress.

Project 15

Project 14 Teach Someone Something

For this project, we were required to teach someone something. I decided to teach the future students of EDM 310 how to succeed in this class. Click on the link to see!

project 14

Special Assignment: Mr. McClung's World

1. What do you know (or have you found out) about Mr. McClung that is reflected in the way he has constructed his class blog?

He is an organized person and cares deeply about his profession and his students. He constructed his class blog as a community so everyone can learn from each other, which I think speaks volumes about who he is.

2. Comment on what you would say about Mr. McClung as an educator.

Mr. McClung is definitely dedicated. I would say that he is definitely the type of teacher any student would benefit from. He likes to bring energy to his class and seems like he would be able to relate to his student’s very well. Also, I like that he sees that his students learn better through group work rather than traditional lecture/note methods.

3. I asked above that you read Mr. McClung's "rules" and think about them. What do they say about Mr. McClung, his teaching, and his connection with his students? What is your reaction to these rules (and guides) as a student and as an aspiring teacher?

Wow! These rules, guidelines, and procedures are so innovative to me. I really like them and I definitely would try them in my future classroom. I really like the high level of attention and energy that Mr. McClung requires of his students. My favorite procedure is the “Teach-Ok” procedure. I think it’s a good way to make sure the students are paying attention, as well as a good teaching strategy. It ensures that students are evaluating their own learning.

4. What was the first thing under Everyone needs? Why do you suppose that is the first requirement?

The first requirement was a day planner. I think this is the first requirement because Mr. McClung values time management and responsibility. This is seen through his policy for late work and make up work.

5. Note the penalties for being late (under Homework). Compare them with my penalties for being late. Comment.

I think Mr. McClung’s penalties for late work are a little clearer than your penalties originally were. You both value responsibility and timeliness though and try to hold your students to high expectations.

6. Read carefully his paragraph about what he hopes to accomplish with his blog.
Comment and apply to your own aspirations as a teacher.

It’s obvious that Mr. McClung’s blog is the center for his daily classroom information and activities. I think this is the best way to use the blog; everyone must be invested and involved! He hopes to connect the students, teachers, and parents with his blog and I plan to do the same in my future classroom.

7. I asked you to review at least two Useful Links in depth after reviewing all of them. Which two did you review in depth? Describe each of the two. How might each be used? Why do you think each made Mr. McClung's list.

One of the links that I reviewed and found especially useful was the one to convert PDF files to word files. I have always had problems with editing PDF files, and I found some of the solutions to my problems by Googling the problem, but this link will be so valuable to me! I often find PDF files that I would like to change the font color on or edit somehow, so I will definitely be going back to this site. Another link that I reviewed was for the Plagiarism checker. This site allows you to paste student work into a box and it will detect plagiarism. This is definitely a good tool for teachers, but students would also find it valuable. Sometimes plagiarism isn’t even intentional, so students could use this site before turning in an assignment just to double check themselves.

8. Under Internet Safety I asked you to read carefully the rules Mr. McClung sets forth for safely using the internet. Comment on these rules. Are there any you would add or subtract.

This is definitely something that is important. When I begin teaching, I will go over this list of rules with my students on the first day because I think it’s very important to teach and enforce internet safety. I wouldn’t subtract any of these rules because I think they are all very important, but I would probably add that students aren’t allowed to communicate in our class with non-approved members of their PLN. I think it’s a good idea though that Mr. McClung created a generic e-mail address for his class to use when an e-mail address is required.

9. In the C4K part of this blog I asked that you look carefully at one of the categories under which you assigned post was filed. What did you find? Select one of the posts in the category and review it for me.

I commented on a blog post that was under the category of “Lesson Learned”. These were all obviously things that Mr. McClung’s class had discovered and learned. There are various pieces of information and news under this category, but I commented on a piece of news that regarded the cross country team. It was apparently their first meet, held in Bentonville, Arkansas, and they had a very good showing.

10. Mr. McClung uses Edublog as his blog host. In some ways it may seem more "advanced." But Blogger has many abilities that we have not covered in EDM310. This leads to this question: Is there anything (or things) that Mr. McClung can do with his blog that you would like to do in Blogger?

I really like the search feature that is available in this blog. Sometimes I find it a little difficult or time consuming to go through my blog or the class blog if I am trying to find something in particular.

11. In what ways does Mr. McClung make his blog useful to parents, teachers, administrators, students like you, and others?

Mr. McClung’s blog is highly visible. He probably gives the link to his students the first day of class as well as the parents and encourages them to check in daily.

12. How does Mr. McClung's 8th grade blog differs from other blogs you have visited including other 8th grade blogs? Why the differences do you think?

Mr. McClung’s blog is slightly different. For example, his blog includes a lot of information about himself as a teacher to make his classroom extremely transparent for everyone involved. Also, it includes links that are valuable for various people with various interests.

13. Add any additional comments you think would be useful in analyzing Mr. McClung's World in depth.

I think this blog is very valuable and a good example. I bookmarked it so I could come back and easily find all of the useful links. There were tons!

Blog Assignment 11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class

EDM 310 Skype Interview

It’s really great to see a classroom using and applying all of the technology that we are learning about. Sometimes it’s overwhelming to think about using technology to enhance a lesson, but Ms. Cassidy obviously does this very well.

In the video she created, I love how it has the text “little kids, big potential”. This reaches back to another assignment we had in which I commented that we must hold our students to the highest achievable standards possible. I don’t think it’s wrong at all to expect our students to learn how to use all sorts of technology at an early age. I think young children are a lot more familiar with technology than we give them credit for.

It definitely gave me a little more confidence after watching her video and listening to the Skype interview. I got some ideas of the techniques that I would love to incorporate into my classroom. I think it’s a great idea that Ms. Cassidy infuses her classroom with technology, but I think it’s especially useful that she uses the computers for center time. This gives children the freedom to discover information on their own. I think this is the best way (maybe sometimes the only way?) for people to learn. In fact, more information can be found about this in Joe Bower's blog post Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School. I also think the idea of using skype more in the classroom is something that will be very valuable. In most schools, it will be impossible to take students on all of the field trips that we want to go on, and I think skype could be a very helpful alternative.

There are obvious benefits from this type of approach that Ms. Cassidy has. Aside from the fact that our students need to learn from an early age to be technologically literate, there are other benefits to the student and their families. By providing parents with the links to the class website and their student’s blog, it allows the parent to be more involved and see what’s going on in the classroom. It just makes everything more transparent.

However, there will undoubtedly be a few roadblocks. To begin with, not all students will be guaranteed access to a computer and internet at home. While a majority of the work is done using the technology at school, students may be given outside work to do, may want to visit other student’s blogs, or their parents may want to check up on the virtual classroom. This creates a big problem for me. Another roadblock would be privacy. There are ways to protect privacy, like Ms. Cassidy explains, but some parents may still view it as a risk.

I believe that the positives outweigh the negatives in this case. Students are obviously going to be using technology in the future, whether at home or in the classroom, so we need to prepare our students for that as early as possible. It will be our job as educators to implement and unite other teachers and parents in this journey.

Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

This month, I read Mr. Joe Bower's Blog. He is an innovative teacher in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.

Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School

In this post, Joe Bower discusses the method of indirect teaching. He references two different experiments that helped him shape and support his beliefs. The first was done by a group at MIT. The researchers either gave the students a toy and played with them to discover its capabilities or had a director show the students what the toy could do. Of course the students learned more and continued playing more when they were allowed to discover new information. The other experiment was done by Mr. Bower and three others. Again, this experiment was designed to test the student’s learning capability when allowed to discover information on their own rather than being directly taught. Mr. Bower ends his post with this quote: “Perhaps all learners would be better off if every level of education was a little less like school”

My comment to Mr. Bower first included me thanking him for the various resources he includes in his blog. They are valuable for future educators and very interesting. Next, I thanked him for sharing his view on this topic and providing the research to support it. While I completely agree with the indirect teaching style, I had to raise a question that has been on my mind a lot: what about those students who are “too cool for school” or who are unable to motivate themselves?


Fair Isn't Always Equal

This post contains the above cartoon and discusses fairness and equality in terms of standardizing our students. In this post, Mr. Bower mainly lets the cartoon get across the message. After all, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

My comment on Mr. Bower’s post mainly discussed my take on fairness and equality. I shared with him how I think of the two: “you can teach your students in what you consider a ‘fair’ way, but the results you get will never be equal”. I further explained myself by saying that the results are never equal because students are never the same and never learn in the same way. Also, I shared with him my desire as a future educator to be able to get to know my students well and teach them fairly AND equally.

Blog Assignment 10

An open letter to educations by Morgan Bayda

I think in her blog post, which includes a video by Dan Brown, Morgan Bayda expresses a concern that a lot of students have, including myself. She explains an experience she had in her classes in which she struggles to stay awake listening to a professor try and stuff his student’s brain with all of his thoughts. The students aren’t encouraged to be creative and aren’t allowed, much less even encouraged, to express their own beliefs or thoughts. This is very similar to a lot of lectures I have been required to sit though. While I cannot make a generalization because I have had a number of exceptional professors, many of my professors were like the ones that Morgan described.

This got me really thinking when Dan Brown was describing how our education was changing. Institutionalized schooling used to be valuable because the ones who “held the knowledge” really had something to give their students. However, in the age that we are in now, where information is readily available, professors like this are virtually useless. In this new age, professors and educators have to teach their students how to use the readily available information to build their own opinions and information. Educators must encourage their students to be creative and collaborate, something that most of Morgan’s and my professors have failed to do.

Don’t Let Them Take Pencils Home by Tom Johnson

I really like the message that is in this blog post by Tom Johnson. The lady in this post complains about students using pencils and bans them instead of simply allowing students to use their pencils in creative ways. She complains about students playing the game of Hang Man instead of doing their assignments. Who is to say that most students won’t do their traditional assignments after they are creative with their pencils and let their minds “warm up” anyway? I think a lot of times it is easier for educators to simply get rid of the problem rather than come up with a solution to allow students to learn and develop their creative sides. It isn’t ALL about the test scores.

It may seem like a stretch, but I think the issue of technology can be applied to this, even though it probably wasn’t Tom Johnson’s original intent. By this, I mean that just because it may be recognized that there is a need for a revolution in traditional education, it’s not enough to just slap a solution on it and be done. It may look good on paper and seem like the answer, but it’s simply not enough to install SMART boards in every classroom and require students to blog once in a while. That’s just removing the problem which is the need for more technology in the classroom. Educators must focus on the cause and become creative with the solutions.

Another part of the post that I really liked was at the very end. Tom Johnson comments on the use of “your” when the lady tells him to not blame her when “your test scores are lower”. While the teacher is indirectly evaluated with the results of standardized test scores, it is ultimately students who earn and receive the scores.