Project 9: Skype Interview

Blog Assignment 9

What I Learned This Year
By Mr. McClung

When I read the title of this blog post, I'm not sure what I was expecting to read, but it wasn't what I found. I loved this post and I bookmarked the link so that I can go back to it and remind myself of these very important points on being a better teacher. I really like his "Be Reasonable" point. I know from personal experience that teachers often have very high expectations for their students. While it is great to have high expectations, it sets students up for disappointment when they do not reach their teachers expectations. They will, not only feel disappointed in themselves, but they will feel like they have disappointed their teachers. Even if they may have slightly disappointed their teacher, they need to be feeling encouragement from their teachers.

Another good point that Mr. McClung made was "Don't be Afraid of Technology". This is something that we are learning in this class and most of our blog assignments have been focused around proving why we should not be afraid of it. I understand this, however, I understand that there are still a large amount of people who are still afraid of technology. But I think teachers, whether in-training or many years experienced, need to take EDM310 and learn how to do some of the things that we are learning. Technology is very useful and pathetically, it is not being utilized. So as Mr. McClung said, "...so jump in head first...the water feels fine."

Another wonderful point, "Listen to Your Students." He points out that we, teachers, may be the only person that does. We do not know the life that our students go home to and we may very well be the only person they have to talk to.

Last, but not least, he states that we need to Never Stop Learning. As I have said in previous blog posts, it is important that we, as teachers, keep our education up-to-date. No one ever finishes learning. Learning is a never ending adventure.

Comments for Kids 2

C4K 4:

My student's blog was a child named Raenan. He is a year 6 student at Pt. England School in Auckland, NZ, and his teacher's name is Mr. Barks. Raenan is nine years old and wants to be a fireman when he gets older. In his spare time he enjoys rollerblading, riding his bike, and playing his PlayStation2. In Raenan's most recent post, he embedded a video of an interview with the famous swimmer, Hayley Palmer. Hayley is a nation and international swimmer who has won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games and went to the 2008 Olympics. I am not sure why Raenan shared this video in his blog. Therefore, in my response to him, I told him I enjoyed watching it and also asked him why he choose to share it.

C4K 5:

This student's blog was by a child named Victoria. She is a year 8 student at Pt. England School in Auckland, NZ. Her teacher's name is Ms. Tito. When I went to Victoria's blog, her most recent post was done on March 1, 2011. In her post she wrote a prayer for the people in Christchurch who were victims of the devastating earthquake. It was a very touching and genuine prayer asking for God to touch the families who have lost loved ones and to help them stop crying and be happy again. She also prayed that the people who were still stuck under the building to be okay. In my response to her post, I told her that her prayer was very touching and that it was very kind of her to take time to pray for these people.

This was the attached picture to Victoria's blog post.

C4K 6:

For this assignment, I was given a video to watch that students in New Zealand made. The video was filmed by Mitchell and Kris who attend Melville Intermediate. They are in Room 8 and their teacher's name is Mr. Webb. These students researched the sport Handball, which is a game they play for fun on their lunch breaks. After watching their video, the game Handball, reminds me of a game we play here called Four Square. I commented on their post telling them who I was and that their video was interesting. I, also, told them that watching their video proves how interesting the different games cultures play are. They did a great job in filming their video and I really hope they enjoy having technology incorporated into their classroom and learning experiences.

Project 13: SMART Board Lesson

This was a collaborative project, using the SMART Board, by Jenna Baxter, Kelsey Robinson, Kristan Steele, and Woodie Holloway.



     After teaching our lesson, we sent our test to our "students". Three, of our four, students answered all of the questions correctly and the fourth student only answered one incorrectly. Great job! The following is a summary of the test results in the form of graphs:

Which planet is farthest from the Sun?
  

Which of the following planets have moon(s)?

Which planet is closest to the Sun?

Which planet(s) have rings?

Which planet(s) can support life?

Which planet is called Earth's "sister" planet?

How many planets are in our Solar System?

Several of our questions could not be put into graph form so this does not show the result of all of them.

     I really enjoyed my first experience with a SMART Board. I have never been taught with one or used one. If given the opportunity, I would definitely love to be able to have a SMART Board in my future classroom and I know I would use it regularly. In creating this survey/form/test, I learned a new way to create a test and another interesting thing that I can do in Google Docs.

Blog Assignment 8

This is How We Dream 
by Richard E. Miller


     Richard Miller points out some things that really show how our learning has changed. Quite often, we do not carry pens, pencils, books and paper to class; we simply carry a laptop. This video was made a few years ago and we can even assume now that iphones, ipods, and ipads (and other similar devices) have replaced some of the laptops carried to class. The devices we use to learn are forever changing and expanding, becoming more compact and easier to carry but able to do much, much more.
     We have the means to communicate "instantly and globally." You can easily do research for a paper or project without actually touching a book or stepping foot in a library. Libraries are becoming more and more available online. You can, virtually, "go" anywhere while, literally, going nowhere. You can learn from reading text about a specific historical "happening" or you can learn by visually viewing videos or images that you find on websites all over the internet.
     "Ideas do not belong to us individually but they belong to us as a culture. We as educators must be in the business of sharing ideas freely." This is such a powerful statement by Richard Miller. The internet, this virtual world, allows us to share our knowledge with people all over the world. As educators, if we are not sharing our ideas with other people, how can we even begin to say that we are doing our jobs?

EDM310 for Dummies and The Chipper Series

     I watched both of these videos at the beginning of the semester and they were a funny, but helpful, way to introduce us to EDM310 and how important our education is. EDM310 for Dummies gave good advice on how to stay SANE during this semester. It prepared you for what was to come during the semester and gave useful sites that would help along the way. The Chipper Series was a humorous way to show how important it is to go to school and get your education and the troubles you may experience if you do not.
     I would like to participate in an instructional video that more clearly explains to the students how to use Twitter. For the first few weeks of the semester I could not figure out Twitter to save my life. I had a friend, that is not in EDM310, show me how to use Twitter and now I understand. Had we been  provided an instructional video explaining these things to us more clearly, I would have used it and greatly appreciated it.

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

     This video discusses the ways technology can enhance the education of our young people today and how many schools make them give up these ways during school hours. Texting, blogging, emailing, skyping, and so much more, are often banned when inside the walls of a school (where they could be most useful). These technologies and devices allow students to learn outside of the classroom; so why are we forbidding them INSIDE the classroom? I agree with everything said in this video. Allowing these things to be used in a classroom will allow students to learn on a much broader level. When we do not allow them to do these things, we are preventing them from learning to their full potential. I think teachers all over our country need to watch this video and think about the BENEFITS that cellphones and computers can provide for our students, our future.

The Secret Powers of Time
by Philip Zambardo

               and
Drive: The Truth About What Motivates Us 
by David Pink

   The video The Secret Powers of Time was very creatively made. I enjoyed watching it and was a little disappointed when it ended. In this video, Professor Philip Zimbardo discusses the different types of people in the world and the things that they focus on: the past, present, or the future. He discusses religion, family, education, success, and money. He uses statistics to show us how people's values and lifestyles have changed. When he mentioned the number of people who do not have sit-down family dinners, I thought about his statistically numbers. Twenty years ago, 60% of American families had sit-down family dinners. I was just being born twenty years ago but I remember having sit-down family dinners when I was younger. Now that I am older, my parent's are divorced, and my sister has moved out, it is normally only on holidays that we have sit-down family dinners. The number of people who sacrifice family time, sleep time, and friends to be successful is sad but impressive. It is unfortunate that success sometimes requires sacrificing all these things at some point in your life. I really enjoyed this video.
     David Pink tells us in the beginning of his video Drive: The Truth About What Motivates Us, that he wants to talk about how we are motivated and two specific studies: If you reward something do you get more of the behavior you want? If you punish something do you get less of the behavior you want? If you reward something you do not always get more of the behavior you want. If you offer really big rewards to people for certain challenges, sometimes they will try too hard, get frustrated and end up failing. When you ask someone to do something that requires creativity they do not do as well with monetary rewards. It makes sense to me! I enjoyed this video, as well, but not as much as I enjoyed the first video.

Project 11

For this assignment, I chose to discuss why I wanted to be a teacher.

Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

      Randy Pausch tells you that during his video he will discuss: his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned. He begins by talking about his childhood dreams: be in zero gravity, play in the NFL, author an article in the World Book encyclopedia, be Captain Kirk, win stuffed animals, and be a Disney Imagineer. He achieved all of these dreams except for playing in the NFL. However, he uses the quote, "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." to describe how he feels about not achieving it. Although he did not play in the NFL, he discusses the football coach he had and talks about the critics that we encounter in our life. His coach was a critic to his football. We, as educators, are critics to our students. I think it is important to point out to our students, at an early age, that we are not there to tell them they aren't doing well to be mean/hurtful but because we care and we want them to be successful. Pausch says that critics are simply people that are trying to help us because they care about us and love us; when people stop criticizing you when you are doing something wrong, they have given up on you.

     Pausch points out that no matter what we try to achieve in life, we will most likely run into "brick walls" here and there. He says brick walls are there simply to prove to us how much we want something and to stop those who do not want things bad enough. This is very accurate. Throughout my life, I have hit quite a few "brick walls." It is important, though, that we teach our students to not give up until you reach the other side.

     Randy Pausch proceeds to tell us how he created a class called Building Virtual Worlds. In this class, there were 50 students chosen at random to work in groups for two weeks. Every two weeks the assigned group and assignment were changed. This forced students to work together as a team, multiple times, with different people. In doing this, you learn people skills. You learn how to interact and work with other people. They also learned how well other people were able to work with them by putting data into bar graphs. Seeing where you need to make improvements to yourself can help you be a better teammate and a better (future) teacher. This will not only benefit the students in the classroom but in life as well. He makes a very true statement when he says "The best gift an educator can give is to teach someone to be self-reflective."

     He also talks about the use of technology to involve a large group of people at one time. Using interactive learning can really keep the attention in a classroom. If you give all of your students something to do to interact in the learning process, they are more likely to walk away remembering more than they would have if they had watched the instructor lecture while flashing a power point slide show. Allowing students to have fun while they learn something that would, otherwise, be boring is truly great.

     Towards the end of his lecture, he talks about the role of parents and mentors. I can honestly say, I do not know if I would be as passionate about my education if it were not for my mother. My mother has played a huge role in my life and has always encouraged me to do my best and achieve what I know I am capable of and even more. As for my mentors, I would say that I have had two teachers who have played a very big role in my wanting to become, not just a teacher, but a life changing teacher. I had a teacher in elementary school who started my love for education. She made learning fun and she loved coming to work everyday and working with her students. The second, would be my English teacher from my junior year of high school. Not only was she an amazing person who was there for her students unconditionally, she made learning enjoyable. I only hope that I can have as big of an impact on my students lives as they have had on mine.

     I only have one more thing to touch on. Randy Pausch had 10 cancerous tumors on his liver but he did not let it stop him. We can all learn from this; every single person can learn from his attitude. He is dying and he knows it and yet he is so content with where he is. We can go through life and let one small thing put us in a horrible mood. From now on, we should think about Randy Pausch when we are feeling a little more like Eeyore than Tigger.

Comments for Teachers 2

I was assigned to comment on Ms. Angela Maiers blog for this weeks assignment and after reading her most recent post, I am more than thankful that I was assigned her blog. Her post was titled World Read Aloud Day 2011: Words Changing Worlds. She says, "World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people." World Read Aloud Day is on March 9, 2011, and you can find links (for more information about participating) in her blog. Attached to her post she has a video and this is what she said about it, "See first hand how the simple act of reading a book aloud to a student unleashes the full power of words and changes lives in the process." I encourage you all to watch the video. As I watched it, I was truly touched by the pure enjoyment of children having a story read to them. The video tells you several devastating facts:

• Over 72 MILLION children around the world are NOT in school.
• 759 MILLION people worldwide are illiterate and two-thirds of them are women. 
• 10.3 MILLION teachers will be needed worldwide to achieve universal primary education.

"Together we can ensure that all children will learn to read stories to change their lives. And tell their own stories to change the world." This video is truly inspirational and I think every teacher and teachers in training should be required to watch it. I am not going to lie, I was even a little choked up while watching and I cannot wait to make a difference, even in the lives of just a few children. The following is a little bit of my response to Ms. Angela Maiers blog post and the video:

"...After reading this post, and watching the video, I cannot help but to think of all the people who CAN read and write but take it for granted. When you think of the number of children, and adults, who cannot read or write and would love to have the opportunity to learn but do not have the means, it is depressing. However, to have people like Pam who go all the way to Kenya and read such an encouraging story to young people is truly amazing. The response to Charlotte's Web from Diana should be looked at as motivation to all of those who CAN read and encourage them to teach others. After hearing the story she sees the importance of bravery and if you can positively influence just one child's life by reading a story, well, it cannot get much better than that..."

Now I leave you with these two questions and I would love to hear your answers:

• Are you taking your literacy for granted? 
• How can you make a difference?

All literacy begins with the alphabet.

"WRAD Assignment: What would you miss most if you could not read or write?," is the title of Ms. Maiers second post that I commented on. In her post, she simply asks you to think about this question and then answer it. Doing just that, I decided I would be devastated without these abilities! Think of all the simple things that you would not be able to do. You would not be able to read a simple recipe, write a distant loved one a letter, or even read what you are right now. In my response to her post, I stated that as a person that has had the pleasure of these abilities, I know I would be devastated to no longer have them. However, a person who has never experienced these luxuries, doesn't know what they are missing out on and how horrible is that? It is up to us, the future educators, to change that. I have always loved to read and I will always love to read. I just can't imagine life without a good book in hand! So what would YOU miss most if you could not read or write?

Project 10: PLN- Progress Report 1

It has taken me a while to figure out exactly what my PLN is but I am catching on. I have found the website "Symbaloo" to be very useful. So far, I have added a few websites to my Symbaloo webmix. I have created several webmixes. My first webmix is for my personal use so that I can get to my most frequented pages all from one location. I have titled my second webmix "EDM310 PLN" and I have added the websites that I most frequently use for this class:

• blogger.com- for my EDM310 blog and the EDM310 class blog
• twitter.com- used to follow EDM310 staff and other students
• gmail.com- which I use for all of my emailing for this class
• youtube.com- which is also used to upload videos for EDM310
• dropbox.com- for use in several classes to have access to documents at any computer