Blog #16: Final Reflection

Blog #16 Part 1

At the beginning of the semester, in the If I Built a School blog, I said I saw my classroom having Smartboards and interactive technology for both students and teachers attention. My classroom would influence positivity with hip motivational signs and posters. I also said that I would rather take the roles out of the classroom, while still being the authoritative figure. I would want to learn as much from them as they learn from me. I want my students to learn efficiently rather than quickly, to understand concepts of different subjects and life itself rather than unnecessary repetition and memorization that most people forget in weeks or even days.One of my main points was that

"the theme of the school and my classroom would be respect, communication and character while teaching each student that those are the three things most needed with interaction in life. Testing is realistic and necessary, but I would bring back learning the joy of school and how it doesn't have to be a fearful scary or overwhelming environment. I want my students to know this joy and know that while the journey through school can get tiring and frustrating, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The joy that one would receive as they accomplish each level of education is greater than the trying times of the process."

After watching videos on Ted Talks and The Teaching Channel and doing some observations in a real life classroom, I think I now know what I want out of mine. Ted Talks and The Teaching Channel have shown me videos regarding behavior, group activities, classroom tone, and common core lessons. I have learned so much from both of these education websites. I see a few changes and additions I would make.

Tools and Methods
First,I would add a few tools to implement. With the use of SmartBoards, I would make those available for them to use. In a lot of the classrooms I have been in, the SmartBoards are only being used by the teacher. Students seem to enjoy board work so I would give them an opportunity to use the SmartBoards themselves. In my middle school math class, I feel like this would be a great way to use this technological tool. It exposes the students to technology they have never used before while grasping the content and material at hand. I would also start recording group work and activities and start a class blog where their work can be showcased to various classrooms, teachers parents and other students. I think recording the group work gives the students a chance to show off their work and see themselves in action. This way, they can see their mistakes and things they need to improve on. Even from EDM 310 I have seen where the class blog can be a great tool for the classroom. One method I would change is the burp-back education. I think a lot of us revert back to that when it comes time for testing. I would try to present all content and material to my students in real world situations so that they can apply it to more than just a test. I would change the paper/pencil theory in my classroom. I would try to use more technology and move away from lecturing from a textbook. Using technology gives an alternative way for students to learn without lecture or memorization.

Classroom and Activities
In school, one thing I hated was desks in rows. When I walked in and saw rows of desks I felt like, "oh here comes another lecture...boring." Since Common Core calls for a lot of group work, I would arrange my desks that way. This might cause me to circulate more for classroom control and management, but I think it would be a great way for students to learn more efficiently in a more welcoming, less overwhelming classroom. Therefore, I would create as many group work activities as possible to give the students a chance to build teamwork and communication skills. I also want my classroom to be an open space for discussion. I want my students to stay updated with what is going on in the world and I to stay updated with what is going on with them. In the small amount of free time we might have I would try to open the floor for class discussion. I want them to feel open enough to tell and discuss with me what is going on with them and trust me while I trust them. This would be something I implement during Guided Study, making it an assignment. In our free time I would also play some videos from Ted Talks and The Teaching Channel. Both of these websites provide videos on behavior, material and content, and lesson ideas.

I have learned so many things to include in my classroom from the assignments in this EDM 310 class. I really can not wait to start using some of these tools and ideas in my classroom.

Blog #15

Ronald-

There are many great assistive technologies available for teachers. Two important aspects of assistive technology are understanding students’ disabilities and selecting the appropriate assistive technology that is available for those students. These two concepts go hand in hand. If a teacher has a solid grasp on the disabilities in his or her classroom, then selecting the right assistive technology becomes much easier. Also, having extensive knowledge on the available assistive technologies leads to accurate pairings between programs and students.

The first assistive technological program I would like to mention is JAWS screen reader. JAWS screen reader is a computer program that allows students with blindness to use a computer. The program reads text on a computer screen and allows for easy navigation on the computer. This program is perfect for any classroom that uses technology. Throughout this semester many educational technologies have been discussed, and it has become evident how some of these technologies can be a game changer in the classroom. Unfortunately, disabilities can sometimes hinder the use on all available technology. Programs like JAWS fill the void that certain disabilities create and enable disabled students to benefit from technology. A simple example would be iCurio. iCurio is an amazing resource for students to research specific topics and gain an abundance of knowledge. Now, insert JAWS and students who are suffering from blindness can immediately benefit from this great resource.

Many schools are now utilizing iPads for their students, so it makes sense to use application programs as a form of assistive technology. Dragon Dictation is a great application for students with little or no use of their hands. Just like Jaws, Dragon Dictation bridges the gap for students who are not able to use a computer without assistance. Dragon Dictation allows one to use their voice to type text on a computer. There are a lot of educational systems that use computer programs as an intricate part of the curriculum. Dragon Dictation is a great assistive technology that allows schools to integrate more computer related education.

Having a disability should never be a catalyst to second rate education. Using programs like JAWS and Dragon Dictation are good ways to put assistive technology to use. As a teacher, one should be aware and have a good understanding of the assistive technologies that are available. Having a solid knowledge of these things can be the difference between a disabled student getting the education they need and rightly deserve and being left out in the cold fighting with their disability.

Eric-

While trying to be a math teacher, I never realized that the blind would have the issue stated in this video from Professor Art Karshmer. He stated that blind students would have problems visualizing how to set up problems to solve, by unable to see how to line them up. Braille is unable to help as well because it doesn’t line up the problems in the proper way. My personal belief is that anyone can learn math if taught the right way, and in the case of blind students, the right way involves assistive technology.

Professor Art Karshmer in the video uses a talking computer with a matrix grid that has pieces that are registered as numbers. This reminds me of a digital talking chess board, similar layout, it says where you put the piece, just it is with flat pieces that have braille on them to say what number the piece is. This is rather ingenious, it is difficult to tell a blind person what to see on paper, but with assistive technology, it can help them see the concept of math that is on their paper.

Math-to-speech is an important tool for blind students and teachers of blind students alike. However it is limited, according to Design Science and Educational Testing Service. Does the speech of certain mathematical expressions, in the case of fractions, sound like one-third or one-over-three? Design Science and ETS are both working hard to improve on the tech, which is good, improvements can always be made. Making the lives easier for students that have a hard time learning is important. Everyone, no matter what disability they have, have the right to an education, and we as teachers must do what we can to make it possible.

Cameron-

In an English classroom setting, I feel that direct feedback about understanding is necessary to adapt to every student’s learning capabilities. Using the Mountbatten Braille Writer allows for this feedback in the classroom. It allows for both audio and tactile feedback which I think provides a wide range of ways for the teacher to efficiently meet the needs of that particular student. The program is very advanced, doing things a computer would and being a learning tool itself for those who do not know braille. I love this because it gives the student an opportunity to work in peer groups and not feel excluded or different from others in the classroom. For an English class, I think this could be a very useful tool for both me and the student. For the student, it gives them a way to be on the same accord with the rest of the class, not having separate less challenging work. For the teacher, I can understand the students needs a bit more and become a more efficient teacher for them.

I also came across the Special 2 Me blog. I really loved this blog because it really hit home for me. I have worked in a lot of low income, inner city schools. People sometimes seem to think that the students who attend these schools are only troublemakers who simply do not care about their education. Well I beg to differ. I love these students and they are the only ones who I would really want to work with. This blog talks about a fairly new teacher taking over a new classroom. She let her students set their physical boundaries and she respected their wishes. She was not scared of her students. She let them know who’s classroom it was and that she sets the tone and rules each and every time they walk in the door. With this attitude she was able to change one student who was starting to cause problems from the start. It seems like instead of walking into this inner city school thinking the kids it possesses are a problem, she walked in with an attitude knowing that they are students who want to learn like everyone else. In my own personal experience, some of these students just want to know that their teachers care.

School has become an outlet for some of the trouble-making students and with them maybe not having the proper support from home, we have to take on the role of supporter, parent, friend and teacher. I loved this blog because it shows us future first year teachers that we can not have attitudes about our students before we even meet them. Also that the classroom period is all about progress: progress of our students, of our classroom and importantly of ourselves as growing teachers.

C4T Summary Post

In Project Based Learning via Javascript this 7th grade math teacher talks about incorporating programming into her common-core-based seventh-grade math class this year. She stated she wanted to integrate the common core standards and teach programming with a purpose. To do that she used a lesson on congruence transformations. She gave her students the task of creating a computer program that created a design with symmetry. The program she used was Khan Academy’s Javascript. She said she chose Javascript because of Khan Academy’s easy integration with Google accounts and the class management tools given to teachers.

Here are some of her students work:

She encourages everyone to incorporate computer science in math. She says the key isto hold on to the mathematical purpose behind it. I really found this idea very interesting and something I could do in my own classroom.

My reply was:

Hi there! Im Cameron Hall, a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed your blog post! I think that this project is an excellent way to incorporate computer sciences into mathematics classes. And programming is something I think kids would get interested in easily, for class and something they might be interested in later on in life. I love this idea!

The next post I commented on was One Good Thing where the prompt was to talk about one good thing that had happened at the start of the school year. She thought of many different things she could talk about and came up with a few good ideas. That Friday something tragic happened in her community. They had a big flood, one that hadn't been so severe since 1976. She felt helpless and unmotivated to do anything since she couldn't go anywhere or help anyone else in need. She made a map that explained her location and what the different icons meant on the map.

My reply was:

Hi there! I am Cameron Hall a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. Sorry to hear about this tragedy in your community. I experience somewhat of the same thing here in Mobile having gone through Hurricanes Ivan, that hit us directly, and Katrina where we suffered a lot of damage. When we returned back to school after both hurricanes, one thing my teachers did was have us write about our experiences and have a class discussion about what happened. We did this in our homeroom classes. I think this is a great icebreaker to kind of get everyone to relax a little and get the elephant out of the room. After this everyone was a little more comfortable with continuing our academic day.

C4K November Summary

The student I had for November's C4K was Sisilia. Sisilia talked about her first day of school. She described her feelings and actions on the way to school and when leaving her mom. She spoke about being excited about meeting her teacher and what they did in class. She talked with excitement about lunchtime and recess and how she thought that was the best time of the day. When the bell rang she said said goodbye to her teacher, ran to the car and told her mom about her day.

My reply to Sislisia was:

Hey Sisilia! Im Cameron H. a student in EDM 310 at USA. I loved your blog post! Sounds like your first day of school was very exciting and filled with fun things to do! Practice working on your punctuation though, Good Work!!

Project #2: Final Report on PLN

Since my last Personal Learning Report, I have added a few more resources to my list of tiles. I have added iCurio. iCurio gives access to content of the curriculum to teachers, parents, and students. It provides examples for students to work on, content for parents to stay updated with, and engaging lessons for teachers to use in their classrooms. I have also added The Learning Network which is a blog done by the NYtimes about different topics in today's education. I chose this tile because I think it gives us teachers a way to comment and give our own opinion from experiences in our own classrooms. The next tile, Discovery Education gives access to resources for administrators, teachers, parents and students. I chose this tile because it would be a great tool for my classroom and for my students to use. At the beginning of the year, I can introduce Discovery Ed to the parents just to give them a resource that they can turn to when helping their children at home. The last tile I have added is TED talks. We have used TED talks a lot in EDM 310. I love the videos that are offered on this site. Recently I watched a video on bullying on TED talks and I loved it. Ted talks can be a great tool to use in the classroom for not only academics, but different social topics that arise in the classroom.

Project #2: PLN

For my PLN I chose to use Symbaloo. So far I have about 8 tiles. The first 2 tiles are my blog for EDM 310 and the EDM 310 class blog. I chose to list these 2 blogs because this gives me an easier way to access my own blog and the resources it entails for future endeavors in my classroom. I chose the EDM class blog because of the access to class announcements, links and resources that I might need now and in my future classroom. The next 3 tiles I have are my Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. These both give me access to my email accounts, both personal and school related. These give me access to contacting my instructors, classmates and even other teachers who can give me pointers to having a successful classroom. The next tiles I have are Pinterest and YouTube. I love Pinterest. They are both social networking sites where people can post their ideas through text and videos about projects done in their own classrooms and the classrooms of others. My next tile is Google search. I have this for information purposes for questions of my own and questions asked in the classroom. Google Search provides many different results from different sources about the question or topic asked.

SmartBoard Video Part B

Blog #14

In EDM 310 we have discussed things like technology in the classroom, what we have learned from other teachers and lesson plans for our students. I think that one thing we did not focus on was classroom management and control when using technology. I think a good blog post would have been to explain different ways to have good classroom management and control while our students use and experiment with these expensive technological tools. The Blog would be: "How Classroom Management, Discipline and Control Be Effectively Enforced In Your Technologically Advanced Classroom?"

How Classroom Management, Discipline and Control Be Effectively Enforced In Your Technologically Advanced Classroom? My ideal place to work would be in an inner city, minority school. With this being said, I understand that my students may not come from families who have a lot of money or families that can provide them with different technology tools that more privileged kids would have. I prefer to work with these kids. These students also may come with behavior problems inside and outside of the classroom. I think that they should be introduced to these tools despite that. Who knows? It could give them an incentive, a boost of motivation, or simply just provide a more exciting, hands-on way of learning. In math, we do a lot of hands-on group projects. One of the projects I have for my students is creating their own 3D geometrical shapes. Introducing technology into the classroom, I might have the students video their process of working in groups: assembling their geometrical shapes and working as a team. I would have one person out of the group to be the narrator/recorder.

Classroom Management

I realize that this may cause some outside disruption in the classroom, both the use of tablet for video and the group work itself. Students can get silly, playful and off task while working in groups with their peers. For classroom management and control while working in groups and with an expensive technological tool, I would make sure I circulate throughout the groups and keeping a strong eye on those who have been chosen to be the video recorder. My classroom noise level would remain at a certain height, not exceeding the limit that could disturb other groups or even other classrooms. I would time the groups so that they could be thoroughly monitored and helped if needed. I think this keeps everyone on task, allows me to circulate and make sure each group understands the task at hand and gives the students to work and learn the material without a lecture being involved.

Classroom Discipline

In my opinion, the use of technological tools is a privilege, but also is necessary for the advancement of our students. As stated before, students easily get off task, silly and playful when working in groups. In my experience, there is always that one that pushes the limit to what they think they can get away with in the classroom. While I do think it is necessary for their overall diversity and advancement of their education, it is also something that can be taken away. Sometimes our students, not having one of their own, can abuse what is provided for them. For example, using the tools for something other than for educational use, constantly getting off task, or simply being careless with the use of the tool. I think technology in the classroom, especially tools like tablets, is something extra and fun to offer the students but not mandatory. They can learn the same information with a book and paper...it just might not be as fun. Being that it is a privilege, I would have the students come up with the rules and follow up make the rules as visibly and understandably clear as day in the classroom. If I caught them not following the technology rules then for that activity, the technology used would be taken away from them. If the offense was reoccurring, they would not be able to use it period. They would work alone, taking it back "old school" with a good book, pencil, and paper.

I think classroom management, control and discipline are key when using technology and group work. They set the expectations, tone and standard for the students behavior, especially when working in groups and with technological tools. Working in a school now, I see daily where the discipline and classroom management play a key role in how your class, lesson and tasks/activities will flow.

Blog #13: What Can We Learn From Ken Robinson's TED Talks?

Eric - Mae Jemison: "Teach Arts and Sciences Together"

Mae Jemison’s video “Teach Arts and Sciences Together” is her saying that, as the title suggests, art and science aren’t two separate subjects. That there is a common misconception between intuitive and analytical. How scientists are ingenious but not creative and how artists are ingenious but not analytical. Mae Jemison says that by separating these two into such dichotomy we force people into a choice of being either analytical but not creative or creative but not analytical. Why can’t we be both?

She also mentions that many scientific advancements came around due to creative thinking, such as fiber optics, compact discs, and flat screen televisions, to name a few. She says by cutting the link between art and science we stunt our growth and hinder further advancement. I agree with her that science and art can be and should be taught together, just as she quoted Einstein on how there is beauty in the mysteries of the universe and how that it is the source of all art and science.

I would say let’s also go further on this. Not only teach the arts and sciences together, but also other subject materials. The basis for her argument was about how subjects are one in the same, specifically art and science, but still there is room to grow. Language and the arts are already taught to be the same as language arts, but what about math and physical education? Many more subjects can be taught to compliment one another, since all subjects are connected with each other. Mae Jemison’s proposal is just the start and I hope educators will go further on it.

Cameron - Shane Koyczan: "To This Day… for the bullied and the beautiful"

I have learned a lot from Shane Koyczan’s video To This Day… for the bullied and the beautiful,. Shane Koyczan begins with talking about the popular quote, “Stand Up for Yourself” and how at some point we are all told that. He talks about how that directly relates with definition: we are expected to define ourselves and if we don’t someone will do it for us. Defining ourselves comes from three places: how we see ourselves, what others have for us (peers) and when we are asked what we want to be (parents/teachers). Agreeing with Shane, I think that unfair question confuses and discourages kids. In a way, I even think it can be a form of bullying from the people they are supposed to look up to. Sometimes as teachers and parents, we ask them what they want to be, but shoot down their answers because we do not like them. This affects their own dreams and what they feel like they can do.

“Standing up for yourself doesn’t have to mean embracing violence,” Shane says. I think this is a great thing we should tell our students. Outsmarting can go so much further than violence against another person. He says that we should teach our students and our children that standing up for themselves is being yourself and accepting yourself while making others do so as well.

Shane also talks about how bullying really affects us. The sticks and stones rhyme only goes so far. The way I see and interpret it, is that the words we are called stick with us forever and hurt like stone. They affect us later on in life: in our jobs, in our relationships, and mainly in all of our interactions. I think Shane’s main point in this is to tell us that we can not tell others how to feel especially when it comes to bullying. The sticks and stones rhyme ending with “...but words will never hurt me” is a prime example of this. We can say this a million times, but in reality they can cut us to the core. Instead of telling them how they should feel or how they should take it we should teach them on how to accept themselves and make others accept them. We should show them confidence and how to use that to block those titles others put upon us. “Get over it” is a phrase lacking understanding. We can not tell others how to feel, how to take things or even how they let it affect them because unless we are in their shoes, we can’t even begin to understand.

Shane’s video taught me that as a teacher, I need to understand a better approach when it comes to resolving bullying. Simply telling one how to feel or how they can let it affect them is not enough or the right way, in my opinion. As teachers, we have to promote acceptance. We have to show our students how to accept themselves and how to make others accept them by defining themselves before someone beats them to it. Our own definition of ourselves is what makes us who we are and defines the rest of our lives.

Ronald - Salman Khan: "Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education" Several great things can be learned from the video Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education. In this video Salman talks in detail about Khan Academy, his created educational video series. The founding ideas for Khan Academy came from YouTube videos Salman made to help tutor his cousins. He received a lot of positive feedback on his videos from teachers and students alike, and soon realized he had the makings of a major educational breakthrough. Salman ran with the opportunity and founded Khan Academy, which serves as a great technological tool for classrooms around the world. It features over twenty two hundred educational videos, subject mastery content for students, and detailed feedback on student progress for teachers.

The first of two educational things that I would like to talk about from Salman’s Khan Academy is giving students a solid educational foundation. Khan Academy offers subject specific programs for students to work on that focus on mastery of that specific subject. Salman stresses that gaining mastery on each subject is the key to students having a solid educational foundation to move forward with. Salman made a great analogy of this concept to learning how to ride a bicycle. He said if a student can only ride a bicycle at eighty percent proficiency, then he or she isn’t going to be ready for a unicycle. The same concept is true of education, students must be proficient in fundamentals of a subject matter before moving on to more difficult areas of that subject. Having a higher level of mastery can be the difference between future failure in a subject and future success.

The other educational point that can be learned from this video is about humanizing the classroom. Salman points out that many people view humanizing the classroom as having a good teacher to student ratio, but he offers a different view. He thinks humanizing the classroom is more about student to valuable human time with teacher ratios. Khan Academy offers this alternative classroom humanization technique. This technique can be accomplished by assigning Khan Academy video lectures as homework and then doing subject mastery homework in the classroom. Doing this will free up teachers from lecture and allow them to spend valuable face to face time with individual students. Khan Academy also offers spreadsheets to teachers giving detailed progress for each individual student which helps them to delegate their time with the right students on the right topics. Also, parents can access this information to play an active role in their child’s education.

Salman’s Khan Academy is a great educational option for classrooms around the world, but maybe even more importantly it can connect classrooms from around the world. Students who have mastered certain concepts can help other students who are having trouble with those concepts. Ultimately, it serves as a major aid to teachers giving them more individualized or human face to face time with their students. At the end of the day, I learned that excellent tools such as Khan Academy can make one a much more effective teacher. These tools lighten the load on teachers and enable them to give the much needed individual attention to students that can help them better succeed.

Blog #12

Eric: Changing Education Paradigms

What we can learn from Sir Ken Robinson in the video “Changing Education Paradigms” is that the world has changed since when educational institutes were thought up and embedded into our lives. Now that the world has changed since then, so should education. We shouldn’t devalue what we see as non-academic, we shouldn’t lie to students saying that a college degree guarantees you a job, we shouldn’t separate our kids by all of these classifications we have them in right now. Sir Ken Robinson believes we should encourage our students, wake them up and excite them.

Sir Ken Robinson states that there is a consensus that there is an ADHD epidemic, but he believes that there is no epidemic. He states that we live in a world filled with distractions that are meant to distract us, and expect our kids to focus onto something that is boring. So boring in fact, that what we focus onto devalues our divergent thinking. Divergent thinking stated in the video is the ability to think of multiple possibilities for answers, whereas in school we are taught there is only one answer, that it is in the back of the book, and to not look, else we are deemed cheaters. Children in kindergarten are genius level divergent thinkers and as they grow older they become less of a divergent thinker. This is bad because it is an anesthetic experience, shutting our senses off. We need to have aesthetic ways of thinking, where our senses are at their peak, and by being a divergent thinker is a way of telling where we are having an aesthetic experience.

In the video he states that the current education paradigm is a myth, just that we are blind to seeing it that way. He says in the last part of the video that we must think differently about human capacity, and I agree. Education is not something that can be industrialized anymore, but should rather be more individualistic and personal.

Ronald: How to Escape Education’s Death Valley

Sir Ken Robinson goes over some great learning points in the video How to Escape Education’s Death Valley. Ken believes the educational system is broken in America and offers several reasons why. Ken’s first reason is the educational system is about conformity. He highlights the No Child Left Behind Act as an example of this. The No Child Left Behind Act focuses on conformity with testing, and Ken says this directly clashes with the human attribute of diversity. He says education should celebrate all the different kinds of talents and diversity each student brings to the table, and not just shove each student into the tight box of standardized testing.

The next reason Ken gave for the failed educational system is lack of curiosity. He rightly points out that if students’ curiosity could be better sparked, then learning would skyrocket. Tapping into the interests and talents of each student is a way to reach their curiosity. Curiosity then leads to self motivated learning, which can be one of the most effective forms of learning.

Ken defined the third reason as a lack of creativity. He says creativity is the reason humans are so diverse and interesting. If creativity isn’t used in education, we are all selling ourselves short. Ken says the top educational systems individualize learning and promote creativity among students. Creativity should never be overlooked. So many everyday situations hinge on creativity. For example, if one is half way done cooking dinner and realize they are missing an ingredient, creativity comes into play. They then have to use some creativity to replace the missing ingredient and still make the meal taste good. School is the perfect place to facilitate creative growth. In the end, Ken relates the American educational system to Death Valley, CA. Both the educational system and Death Valley are not dead, rather dormant and with the proper nourishment they can be fruitful. Promoting individualized learning, creativity for both students and teachers, and curiosity is Ken’s formula to bettering a dormant educational system.

Cameron: The Importance of Creativity

In the Ted Talks video How Schools Kill Creativity Ken Robinson talks about how creativity is lacking in our education systems throughout the world for both students and teachers. The first part, he talks about is that education is what is taking us into the future and a lot of people cannot grasp that. The second part he talks about is the unpredictability of education. How are we to teach our students preparing them for the future, when we as teachers do not even know what things are going to be like ourselves? I personally think this is one of the greatest questions we have to ask ourselves when we teach. The third part he talks about is our students capacity for innovation. I think this is mainly where their creativity has the biggest growing point. Robinson explains that schools can take away from the natural talent, innovation and creativity our students possess.

“Creativity is as important in our education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” Robinson says that students are not afraid of being wrong, but teachers can sometimes relate “wrong” to being creative. His statement is that wrong is not always bad. Wrong creates some type of originality. In my opinion, as adults we need that really just for growing pains. Robinson also says that we criticize and critique mistakes instead of building on them. In turn we are educating people out of their creative capacities. When we take the creativity out of our students at a young age, it is removed and typically never gained back as they grow older. We get “educated out of it,” Robinson says.

We think about the world visually, kinestically, and sound. Intelligence is dynamic and covers all movements. Acknowledging multiple types of education is apart of the creativity we have as teachers. He says we need to pass that along to our students and cultivate creativity. In order to teach our students we need to rethink our teaching processes. Our education does not need to take away from the individuality, creativity, or originality each student possesses. Stripping our students of their natural talents is not the way to go. As teachers we need to build on those talents, influence originality and let our students be creative in their intelligence. We have to teach for the unpredictable future and by doing so create students and adults that can adapt to any and every situation they can encounter.

By: Eric Merryman, Ronald Griffin, and Cameron Hall

PBL #3: Writing! Reading! Acting!

Blog #11

Ms. Cassidy's Technology Implementation

In Ms. Cassidy's class she implemented the use of blogs as well as using their regular. Her students say that they love the use of blogs because people all around get to see them. They also say that the use of blogs has helped them with their grammar, pronunciation of words, the rules of commenting on their peers blogs and how to be safe on the internet.
She also implements the use of webpages. The students can get on the webpages during free time. The webpages have working links that take them to other pages where they can get extra help and use different online learning tools. The webpages are also available to the students outside of school for extra help at home.
The next online tool she uses is Wiki and Videos. The use of Wiki helps the students learn about broader information that can come from people around the world. They used this when learning about traditions, rituals and the alphabet. The videos are what the students used to show what they have learned in their own classroom. This is how Ms. Cassidy's students show their learning.
Ms. Cassidy also uses Skype to talk to people in different places such as those and other classrooms and experts. She lets her students use their Nintendo DS's in groups for practice in reading and word pronunciation. In using the Nintendo DS, her students have learned how to become better problem solvers and better sharing partners.


My Classroom Technology

The 2 uses of technology I would use are videos and a class. I would also use the blogging, but have only one class blog. I think that in a 6th grade middle school math class, these would be easy to incorporate into an every day class period. The students have to work in collaborative groups for the common core standards. So I would record their presentations to the class on video and make it visible on the class blog. I would also post extra credit work, absentee work, links to give extra help and examples and the different activities that we have done in class for parents and students to see. I think this would help the parents stay up to date with things that are going on in class and give students an opportunity to catch up on work they missed and possibly get extra help if needed from working links.

The videos are something I would use maybe twice a week when each task is done and ready to present as a group. I would use blogs at the beginning and/or end of the week to let students know the different things that have been uploaded for their use. I would also use them in the beginning, middle and towards the end of the semester in open houses or parent/teacher conferences to show them they have access to see what their kids are doing in my class.

Setbacks

By making the videos an in class activity the only things the students have to do is show up, participate and help present with their group. I would not make every student have a blog. I want to work in a low income, inner city school, I realize that most of my students would not have access to computers or internet. Therefore, I would only require a class blog that I would run, but have different activities so that they could be apart of creating and maintaining one class blog. I would do this by having them work in collaborative groups.


Beneifts

I think the main benefits for the students would be giving them a fun, more engaging way to present their work to the class using something other than poster boards or white boards. The benefits for parents would be that they are able to see everything their kids are doing in class and stay updated with the class events and activities. For me, the teacher, the benefits would be being able to showcase my students work, stay in contact and updated with my students parents, create a way to use less paper and give an alternative way for students to get assignments and make-up work.

Interview With a Teacher: Mrs. Angela Hall 6th grade Adv/Reg Math Teacher and Department Chair

October C4K Summary's

In Alex's Blog he told us about his Kiwi heritage and why they do the things they do. He seemed to have a lot of knowledge about his people. I told him:

Hey Alex! Im Cameron Hall, a student in EDM 310 at USA. I loved your blog! I think its great that you know so much about your history, ancestry and heritage. Sounds like it is a lot of great things that make up why you are kiwi. Good Work Alex!

In Evan's Blog he told us about the levels of the Alberta Forest. He also showed us the drawings that he did of the Alberta Forest. I told him: 

Hey Evan! Im Cameron Hall a student in EDM 310 at USA. I love your drawings! You seem to know and understand a lot about the levels of the alberta forest and which animals live where. Great work Evan!!

SMARTboard Project Part A

SMARTboard Project Part A

C4T #3

In From No Spoons, to Ladles and in Between Jonesy reflects on the experience of his class from the past 9 months. He talks about the tools of OneNote and  blogging he used and how it worked for his students. He also talked about textbooks and how because of tradition, not having them became a distraction. He altered his methods and began using snippets of the textbooks with the incorporation of laptops.
He came up with a plan including

• A real life approach to learning
• Cornell Notes
• Edmodo
• Making lesson delivery as vibrant and engaging as possible
• Quality exam preparation

With the plan he says that he is feeling more confident that he can pull this off with his class.

I commented:

Hey Jonesy! Im Cameron a student in EDM 310 at USA. I am loving your blog so far! I think the tools you have implemented in your classroom are great tools to kind of guess and check when it comes to your classes. Curious about how they are continuing to work or not work. Cant wait for the update!

Lesson Plan #2

Blog #10

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

Blog #9

Collaborative Blog by Eric Merryman, Ronald Griffin, and Cameron Hall.

In the video Back to the Future Brian Crosby is doing a TEDtalks video about twenty-four fourth graders that are around the age of nine years old. Brian Crosby starts off his talk, speaking about how his students are in poverty and do not know questions about themselves, due to the students having such a narrowed curriculum since they were born. Brian Crosby teaches us that this shouldn’t stop teachers from teaching, but it should rather motivate us to teach smarter.

Brian Crosby comes up with an idea that sparks the motivation and imagination of the children’s minds after showing them mind blowing projects such as an aluminum can crushing itself in due to air pressure after getting dunked into cold water. Brian Crosby takes project based learning to another level by getting not only all of the students involved, but also the whole world involved. This project had students write to learn content, write to clarify and share, write to tell a story, get feedback from peers, articulate their project orally, connect globally, and have an authentic audience(not just the other students in the classroom).

We must learn from teachers like Brian Crosby to give project based learning to students not just to have them learn about a subject but to empower the students, to motivate them, to collaborate with others, to get active in learning. Active learning is important for students, we as teachers should not teach our students that learning is listening to lecture, if they want to comment or ask a question they must raise their hand and must wait for me to call on them. We as teachers must include our students into the learning experience, have them connect with the subject at hand.

Mr. Paul Anderson is a high school science teacher in Montana. Many things about teaching and learning can be obtained from Paul. The first thing is his website Bozemanscience. This website is a wonderful educational resource for both students and teachers. The website features ten different categories of scientific instructional videos. The videos were all done by Paul in a video podcast format. The videos can be a great reference for a multitude of scientific knowledge. The resourcefulness of this website is an important thing to learn from Paul. As a teacher, one could use this to help students all year long. Students could use the website for current information and even review of topical information.

In the video Blended Learning Cycle Paul talks about the approach he takes in his science classroom. The first point Paul makes is that he takes a “everything is a remix” approach to teaching. He constantly researches educational techniques and learns from them. Paul then integrates what he likes best about these ideas and applies them to his teaching style. This a great learning point from Paul. Wanting to learn as a teacher and having a thirst to gain more knowledge shows a true commitment to the art of teaching. Paul goes on to explain what exactly the blended learning cycle is. The blended learning cycle is a combination of blended learning and the learning cycle. Blended learning consists of classroom learning, mobile learning and online learning. The learning cycle is broken down into engage, explore, explain, expand and evaluate. Paul molds both of these templates into his own six stage masterpiece of learning.

In the first stage, Paul starts off with a question. The question needs to be able to draw the student in and capture their attention. If done properly then the student will have the right amount of motivation to continue on to the second step of investigation. During investigation, students will be able to make inquiries and experiment on the subject at hand. The next stage is video. This stage goes hand in hand with investigation because it can serve as foundational knowledge to the students, enhancing their ability to experiment and quenching their inquiry thirst. The videos are podcasts made by Paul. Elaboration is the next stage. This stage includes critical thinking and reading to elaborate on the subject. This can be accomplished from the videos and also from the textbook. The fifth stage is review. During this stage, Paul meets individually with students / small student groups to ask questions about the subject. This stage is critical in making sure the students have gained sufficient mastery over the subject. Until the groups show they have learned enough, Paul doesn’t clear them to proceed to the final step. Once cleared by Paul, the students can move on to the final stage; the summary quiz. The summary quiz tests the students on the knowledge they gained from the other five stages.

Ultimately, Paul represents many great points on teaching and learning. Learning is not just for students, it is also for the pure teachers who always want to create a better educational environment. Asking the right questions can lead to student motivation, which in turn will increase the level of learning for the student. Using resources like a website and podcasts can be informative but also free the teacher up in the classroom to dedicate more individualized time to the students. Meeting with the students individually / in small groups holds each student accountable for the information, and makes sure no one student is left behind. Integrating these ideas into one’s classroom will put them one step closer the their own “everything is a remix” style of education.

In the Making Thinking Visible video, March Church talks about documenting student work and making it visible in the classroom. He teaches us that in our curriculum we need to have our students connect with ideas and focus on how their ideas and thinking were extended. Our students need to think of the challenge, puzzle or driving question of the topic in order to expand their ideas and thinking. I think this causes them to relate the topic to the real world ideas they need. I think what Mark Church was saying was that students need deeper understanding to connect real world ideas to the topic they are discussing. How I would implement this in my classroom would be for English, relate the literature to a modern, real world situation they could comprehend and understand. I would let them get into groups as he did and maybe put a story we have read into their own words or create their own story using the same plot and situation, making it more modern. I definitely think the real world relativity gives students a better understanding and comprehension of the work that they are doing.

We all have something to learn with these three teachers, but the important thing isn’t just to learn what these teachers are saying, but also putting what they say to good use. Not putting what they say to good use is not actively learning. To actively learn is the main point all three teachers share, and to not actively learn would be folly.

Blog #8: 21st Century Learning and Communicative Tools

Cameron: The Teaching Channel

The Teaching Channel is a website filled with videos, Common Core resources and lesson plans for teachers. The videos are for each and every subject, grade and topic and have different time frames from 1 minute to around 20 minutes. The videos give an example of a teacher in his or her classroom addressing the topic at hand. The videos range from addressing different topics like assessment and behavior to teaching specific content like fractions or punctuation. The videos have a brief description of the topic, teacher and where this is located. The Teaching Channel can be accessed from different devices, such as a smartphone, laptop or computer, or ipad/tablet.

The Teaching Channel has different categories for topics, subjects and age groups you can pick from. The teachers in the videos talk about how they have made their classroom a modern more technology based classroom and give examples of how others can do so as well. The videos also address the common core standards and give ways to incorporate them into your everyday classroom activities. What I found interesting is that these examples are in all of the topics such as behavior, assessment, and class culture not just the ones relating to specific concepts like fractions, exponents or grammar.

In my classroom I plan to teach middle school Math and English. Specifically for math, I think the Teaching Channel would be a great tool to use. With Common Core standards becoming the main point in education, collaborative groups in the classroom are a must. In one of the Teaching Channel videos, Lauren Hobbs talks about how she groups her students and why it is important. She says she groups her students sometimes based on interests, grades, projects, and scores. She says that in working with different people each time gives them a better understanding of working with other people, reflect on their own learning and talk within a classroom setting. Collaborative groups can be fun and a different way to learn for all age groups but I have to know how to group the students so that it is enjoyable for them, but also efficient and effective in accomplishing work.

The Teaching Channel videos give a lot of examples and insight to things other teachers have tried in their classroom. Because it is so easily accessible and useful in our own planning, I think it would be a great tool in a 21st century classroom.

Eric: Ted Talks Education

I chose to talk about Ted Talks Education as a 21st century learning and communication tool. Ted Talks is a website filled with videos of professors and business professionals all around the world talking about different subjects that you can search from. These videos can be anywhere from being 3 minutes to 18 minutes long. Ted Talks Education can be found on their website and can be accessed on any computer all around the world and in many different languages. The website also has an app that can be downloaded on any smartphone or tablet device for an easy to use experience even when not at home, to catch up or to show off any video that may interest you. Not only Ted Talks Education videos can be found on personal computers, smartphones, and tablets, but many other devices as well thanks to all videos being uploaded onto youtube and a few even on services such as netflix. All videos give a date and location of when and where the speech took place, giving context of why the video may of been made and to see if it may be relevant to where you are today or not.

Ted Talks Education has professionals talking about subjects they are familiar with such as technology, business, entertainment, design, science, global issues, and many others. The speakers tend to keep the message short and to the point with plenty of humor and visual aids to keep people entertained and have the videos easy to watch. With each video not being too long, you may find yourself looking for another short video to watch, learning something new every video you click on. These videos aren’t just to educate, but also to invoke questions and thought. Certain videos pose a question and do not give a clear answer, these are meant to give people ideas about a certain subject or to bring awareness to a particular matter.

In my classroom, I plan to teach high school mathematics such as Algebra, and Ted Talks Education has a lot of neat videos on all sorts of math, including the history of certain types of math. Terry Moore, a speaker in this Ted Talks video, speaks about the history of Algebra and specifically the history of the variable “x” and how it came about, in a humorous way. The history of anything can be entertaining with the right speaker and if I cannot come across to some of my students as such, I can direct them to these short videos they can watch at home, and give some context in what they are learning about. Context is very important in when trying to understand something, which goes for mathematics as well. With Ted Talks Education videos being so easily accessible, entertaining, educational, wide ranging, and easy to use, it would be hard to think of a reason why not to use such a valuable tool in the 21st century.

Ronald: SAS Curriculum Pathways

Twenty first century learning and communication tools can help foster a better educational experience in the classroom. So how does one find them? One easy and fast way would be to simply conduct a quick internet search. Another way is to acquire the help of teachers who have experience with 21st century learning and communication tools. This assignment is the perfect example of tapping into the resources of an experienced teacher. Dr. Strange gave a great list of 21st century learning and communication tools. I think this highlights the importance of PLN. The bigger one’s network is the more resources they have to use.

The 21st century learning tool I would like to talk about is SAS Curriculum Pathways. SAS Curriculum Pathways is a great online resource for both teachers and students. It provides educational material in five major areas; English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Spanish. What makes this tool even more useful is the resources are all standard based making it easy to integrate Common Core. Another amazing quality SAS Curriculum Pathways brings to the table is being free. Free is always good, and it can help alleviate any financial concerns teachers and students may have.

So now that we have the ground work covered on SAS Curriculum Pathways, lets see how one might use it. I am going into science, so I will use that subject area as an example. Lets say I wanted to get lab ideas for the way planets moved in our solar system. I would go onto the SAS Curriculum Pathways website (link above) and click on the Classroom Use link on the left side. This would direct me to a page with the many resources including a search engine, a standards link, plan books and even “Tips and Tricks” on content. Next, I would click on the science link and do a search of “planets moving”. Within the results an interactive lab is displayed about planetary motion. Using this resource made finding information on my science lab extremely easy. Ultimately, SAS Curriculum Pathways is a great 21st century tool that offers standard and subject specific resources designed to deepen critical thinking in students and strengthen the educational arsenal of teachers.

C4T #2

Blogging and the Literacy Curriculum: Kathleen Morris

In this blog Kathleen was talking about how she used blogging in her classroom and the feedback she got from it. She learned that squeezing it in during lunch or transition time for a few minutes was not the way to do it. She soon realized that blogging needed to be prioritized and planned for so she began to integrate it into her curriculum. She states that literacy is a big part of blogging. She says

Our students need to become transliterate and develop the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media, both traditional and digital.

In integrating blogging into the curriculum she decided to spend class time reading their latest posts and comments. She gives 2 more ways to integrate literacy into blogging. She says to build blogging into literacy rotations. In doing this the students read their peers blogs and leave a comment. This is a classroom activity that helps practice their literacy goal. The next way was to create digital portfolios for her students. She says that this can replace more traditional ways of writing or using journals in the classroom.
My comment to Kathleen was completely agreeing with her ways of integrating literacy into blogging and blogging into the classroom. I told her that I thought it would help the students later on in life when it came to using literacy in technology and in other subjects. I looked forward to seeing the other ways she used blogging in her classroom.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I really loved this blog by Kathleen. She talked about her preparing to be on maternity leave and her disposing of worksheets. She says that she used to love worksheets and making them, but in creating her new modern classroom she realized that

hands-on, authentic, collaborative, open-ended tasks have a much bigger impact on students than a prescribed worksheet.

I commented that when I was in school, I saw worksheets just as busy work that I could get done with quickly, and would be bored with. I also said that I thought that hands on tasks would grasp your students attention much more efficiently than worksheets. I looked forward to see how this works out in her classroom and her students feedback to her.

C4K September Summary

Riley

Riley was in Mrs. Lieschke's class. There assignment was to post pictures they found interesting. Riley posted 4 and I commented that one really stuck of to me.I thought the picture was really clever and witty especially for a younger student to actually understand.

Tisha
Tisha's Blog: "This I Believe" was about her self expression in piercings. She named all of the piercings she had: surface, scaffold and lip, and why she got them. She also stated that everyone has their own identity in expressing themselves and use different ways to do so. We should not be concerned about why others choose what they choose but embrace their self expression. I commented that I was very proud of Tisha. I also named some of the piercings I have and commended her on her encouragement to others and her individuality and that she should keep expressing herself.

The last C4K I had was from a student outside of the United States in London. In his class they were working on peer communication and making new friends. He stated that he was excited on helping the other students in his class and hoped to make some new friends in the process. He was also excited in the process of making new friends. I commented that communication is key to making and maintaining new friendships and that he would soon learn that honesty and loyalty go hand-in-hand with it. I also told him that all of these skills would help him later on in life with more friendships.

Project #9 Podcast

Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering For Real Learning Discussion

PBL Project 13

Why This Age Group?

I picked Middle School students as my hypothetical students for this PBL project simply because it would be attention grabbing for these students because they are in the growing and maturing stage where they can be interested enough to complete the task and be mature enough to stay on a task that it spread over a set of 4 weeks. I felt that this would be the best age group to complete this project.

Why This Project?

I picked this project because I thought it would be interesting for the students to do. Since in my experience, during basketball season especially the playoffs, a lot of the students come in the classroom talking about the game held the night before. I think that all students can take a part in the project with some interest.

Why 4 Weeks?

I think 4 weeks was appropriate for this project because it would give the students enough time to watch enough games played by different teams. 4 weeks would not be too long of a time for the students to get unfocused or off track with the project and not too short of time for them to want more out of the project. It also gives them a start and finish time for the NBA playoffs so that they can watch not only for the project but for their own entertainment as well. I also think it gives the project closure, ending with the NBA Finals. Using the Buck Institute Project Calendar I have created a calendar of the project over a span of 4 weeks. This will help the students develop critical thinking skills for a real world situation. iCurio helped develop the lesson plans for this project.

Learning From Anthony Capps

Collaborative: Cameron Hall, Eric Merryman, and Ronald Griffin:
In the Discovery Ed video Anthony Capp tells us about the tools it provides for both teachers and students. The most important tool he talks about is the many visual aides discovery ed has. Anthony and Dr. Strange both agree that visual aides help students retain information better because people remember far more of what they hear and even more of what they see. Anthony and Strange agree that students are watchers and will watch more than they read or write.

Dr. Strange and Anthony continue to discuss PBL, and reflect on some experiences Anthony has had with PBL. Anthony starts off by talking about how PBL doesn't always go as planned. He gave an example of a project were his students did a video of Afghan culture. A student in his class had a father who served in Afghanistan and didn't want his child to learn about that specific culture. Anthony had to then exhibit flexibility and assign another project for that student. He said the alternative project turned out great for the student. Anthony went on to say for the other students who did do the Afghan culture project, it turned out wonderfully. He said the students presented the videos to about fifty parents and most of the parents were blown away with how great they were. Anthony said one of the important features of the project was letting the students decide some of the intricate details of the project. He said some chose Afghan food, some chose Afghan fashion, and some warfare. This made the project extremely well rounded and was a big reason why the parents were so impressed. Anthony stressed that by not controlling every aspect of the project it allowed the student to make decisions, and that helped keep the students motivated about the project. He said it also created student satisfaction with their own work. There are two major things that can be learned from this video. The first is the ability of Anthony to be flexible with the project when the student's parents didn't want him to participate. Being prepared and being able to successfully delegate an alternative assignment for the student is important. Everything is not always going to go as planned. The second thing is being able to create opportunities for students in projects and then letting them take over from there. Doing this can lead to inspired work and eventually student satisfaction with their work.

It is important to give students a hook and to be content driven, so that they feel motivated and interested to get the work done and done well, while having met common core standards. Also, it is good for us to understand we must have constantly evolving ideas about project based learning lessons, and understand that project based learning is not a project we come up with to show what we learn, but something we do to help us learn. Never limit your students by telling them exactly what you want them to do and how to do their project based lesson, give them room to explore and grow, let them fiddle around and learn their potential, as a teacher, you may just be surprised on how creative students can be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf3sYSukl7I&feature=share&list=UUBhoQHFgz0SbhN48mBipPlQ
http://youtu.be/LTCjeN6Hzvs

What are Discovery Ed and iCurio?
Discovery Ed provides text articles, pictures, videos and research tools for all subjects. Students can research things about upcoming content in classes using pictures and videos and this enriches their research experience. In Anthony's classroom he has his students create their own visual aides using audio and videos. He says their reaction is not choosing either or (reading/writing or audio/video), but that they associate reading and writing with the visual aides.
iCurio is also a technological tool that can be used in the classroom. It is an online tool that provides students with a search engine for educational use, including audio and video finds. Anthony tells us that iCurio has many advantages. It has a storage area which helps students draft virtually organized material using folders. It is safe for students leaving and picking up where they left off and helps filter out inappropriate material.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUadLUEHY4I&feature=share&list=UUBhoQHFgz0SbhN48mBipPlQ
http://youtu.be/YFPjVtUJ9Vk

Cameron: Dont teach it Use it:
Anthony also stress using technology in the classroom not teaching it. He says that technology is natural for kids and they enjoy every opportunity to use it. There should not be lists to teach technology. Instead teachers should design assignments using technology (discovery ed, imovie, etc) and they should scaffold or break up skills each week. Through scaffolding students can learn and use one tool at a time then combine that tool with the upcoming weeks tool. Teachers should not expect perfection when their students are using technology. Technology can be somewhat of a guess and check system; one where students can learn from their mistakes. Teachers should allow students to reflect on their mistakes so that they can understand why and how they can correct their mistake.

Anthony also says that technology is also about sharing. Students should share how technology helped them, if they are confused, and what they learned. He says one way he lets them show mastery is through the skills for the next week. He incorporates scaffolding in this as well. Technology also helps teachers introduce technology smartly. Anthony says teachers need to do the technology assignments themselves first to ensure the assignment is understandable for students so they can do it. Technology teaches students to ask valuable questions which helps the teacher understand why the questions were asked. Summarily, technology can promote any questions and problem solving and gives a platform for figuring out steps toward an answer.
http://youtu.be/Xqqmq_hEPms

Eric: Additional Thoughts about Lessons:
Anthony basically breaks down lesson planning into four parts: yearly lessons, unit based lessons, weekly lessons, and daily lessons. Each breaking down into a smaller and smaller planning method. Yearly lessons are lessons you want the students to have learned by the end of the school year. Unit based lessons are checkpoints for yearly lessons and are lessons based off categories or chapters you want to cover. Weekly based lessons are what you want to cover within a week to reach your unit based lesson, and daily based lessons are planned lessons every day that you want to cover to reach your weekly based lesson. As an aspiring mathematics teacher, the math book breaks up lesson plans quite well for me, weekly lessons can be by chapter and daily lessons can be segments within the chapter, such as 2.1 or 2.2, and weekly lessons would be 2.1 through 2.5 otherwise known as all of chapter 2. Unit based lessons would be planned as multiple chapters of the book such as chapters 1 through 3 can be a unit, and yearly lessons would be all the chapters of the book put together. It is also important to be flexible in lesson plans, if something may seem very difficult to plan accordingly and if something may seem very easy to plan accordingly. Lessons are easy to plan when broken down from yearly to unit, from unit to weekly, and from weekly to daily, which is why Anthony gave his additional thoughts about lesson plans and I agree wholeheartedly.
http://youtu.be/wB3uKpOKQwA

Ronald: The Anthony-Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1:
In this segment Dr. Strange and Anthony talk about things all teachers should be prepared to do in the classroom. The first topic was teachers being learners themselves. Dr. Strange made the point that good teachers will lead by example for their students and continue to learn throughout their career. I believe this is a very valid point. As a teacher, one of the best ways to become better in your teaching subject is to show mastery over that subject. It seems the best way to gain mastery in a subject is to constantly learn more about that certain subject.
Anthony continued the list by saying teaching is hard work. He said good teachers will continue to work on their craft after they put in their eight hours in the classroom. He likened teaching to a hobby, because if one truly cares about their craft they will work on it in their free time. I think this is a great point. If one is truly passionate about something and they want to be the best at it, it takes hard work. Think about professional golfers as an example. Tiger Woods not only pounds balls on the range and works on his short game all day at the golf course, he also has a personal putting green in his own back yard. In his free time he still works on his game. This concept is the same with teachers. If as a teacher, one wants to be the best they are going to have to put the extra work in to achieve that goal.
The next point made was being flexible. Dr. Strange talked about how having a plan is a necessity, but being flexible with that plan is a must. Things don’t always go as planned and as a teacher it is an important responsibility to have a viable backup plan in place. An example in Anthony’s classroom was used for this point. A lesson plan which required the use of technology was quickly thwarted by the loss of power. Anthony had a backup plan that didn’t require the use of electricity and the class was able to proceed and make good use of time in the classroom. I think this is a very resourceful point. It is definitely the responsibility of the teacher to make the best use of the time he or she has with students in the classroom. Having a backup plan can be a great counter to unexpected happenings in the classroom. The next two points were start with a goal and engage one hundred percent of the students in the classroom. These two points go hand in hand. Anthony pointed out starting with a goal serves as motivation and motivation is absolutely needed if one wants to have one hundred percent participation from students. The real challenge lies in being able to motivate every single student. I believe this point goes back to bettering oneself as a teacher. If one strives to be a better teacher each year than setting goals of having one hundred percent participation is a good thing.
The last point made was using projects and sharing those projects with an audience for better learning. Dr. Strange and Anthony discussed the importance of getting feedback from an audience. Getting constructive outside feedback, enables students to reflect on their work and ultimately revise it to a better end product. The idea of outside feedback is a wonderful thought. Sometimes receiving feedback from the same source over and over again can be taxing on a student, but introducing a fresh face into the equation can ignite heightened attention from students. Overall, hard working flexible teachers who want to be learners and have a passion to engage all students can be an invaluable asset to any school. The ability to incorporate project learning and then use feedback from outside sources to shape that learning adds to the quality of education. It may be easier to stand in front of a class and read from the textbook, but applying the ideas from this conversation will elevate learning and produce a more well rounded student.
http://youtu.be/nLne0iMZXJQ

Who Did Patrick's Homework? Book Trailer Project #8

Effective Questioning in the Classroom

Strategies for Asking Questions to Improve Learning
Asking questions in the classroom increases student participation, encourages active learning and in my opinion, creates the classroom to be a welcoming place for students. There are a few basic strategies to asking and responding to questions in the classroom. The strategies include keeping course goals in mind, using follow up yes-or-no questions with an additional question, avoiding asking leading questions and being clear with the ones you ask, asking a mix of open and closed questions, only asking one question at a time, and for the teacher, planning out when you will pause for questions.

The first one that stuck out to me was that teachers should follow up yes-or-no questions with an additional question. With our classrooms moving to common core and career ready objectives, the students need to know more than just how to solve a problem; they need to know why as well Both Common Core and Career Ready objectives call for students to think at a higher level, more than basic memorization and recall. Simply asking, "Is 2+2= 4?" is not enough for higher level cognitive thinking. The students need to be able to explain how they came to the answer of 2+2=4, why 2+2=4 is the answer and why it is important and relative to real life.

The second strategy I thought was very useful was that teachers should ask a mix of open and closed questions. Closed questions are those that have a limited number of correct answers and really do not call for discussion. They are for lower level cognitive thinking. These are necessary in the classroom because they are a basic quick check for understanding, comprehension and retention of information. Open questions, which are my personal favorite, are questions that open the classroom for discussion. I love these when teaching math. I think a lot of people think that math can only call for closed questions, that there is just one answer and no need for discussion. Common Core and project based learning have changed this thought about math. Math teachers now have to instruct using open ended questions and create the classroom to be a discussion area. I love open questions because you really get to see how your students process information and how their mind really works. It gives them a chance to speak in front of their peers and even teach the class how and why they got their answer. I think open questions shows us teachers that our students can teach us almost as well as we teach them and gives everyone a chance to be heard and even kind of show off their brain.

Tips for Responding to Questions
1. Wait for your students to think and formulate responses.
2. Do not interrupt student's answers.
3. Show that you are interested in answers, whether right or wrong.
4. Develop responses that keep students thinking.
5. If a student gives an incorrect or weak answer, point out what is incorrect or weak about the answer, but ask the student a follow-up question that will lead that student, and the class, to the correct or stronger answer.

It's Not What You Ask But How You Ask
As teachers, when we ask questions, a lot of the time it is to check for understanding. The basic and obvious question would be, "do you guys understand?", but that simply is not enough. Ben Johnson tells us that as teachers we need to go more in depth with our questions because the students may not know the real answer to that question. We need to be specific in our questioning and address the entire class with the question first, then call on one student randomly. This way, no one student is completely on the spot without any time to think about the question and each student has the potential to answer at least one question. Also the floor is open for everyone in the class to think about the question and their answer. In my opinion, this creates a better way for the class to participate and confidence to be built within each student.

Questions are More Important than Answers
I love this motto in our EDM 310 class. I think that answers are important, but I also think that the questions that drive us to these answers and the thought process in between matters more. In my classroom, I want my students to think and think critically and not just become robots reciting answers all day. Answers are great for tests and checking for understanding, but for retention and comprehension I think that asking questions provides a better way of thinking critically and discussion. The robotic behavior of reciting and recalling answers can make the classroom boring and unwelcoming. I want my students to discuss with others and myself, which I think would give everyone another way of thinking critically, learning from others and teaching others.

iCurio and Discovery Ed

My Sentence and My Passion

My sentence is: "Be not afraid of growing slowly; Be afraid only of standing still."


My Passion: Teaching

Project #3 Presentation

C4T #1

Struggles-Becky G

In this blog post Becky talks about her 5th graders preparing to become 6th graders and how they had become more talkative during instruction time. She said she had talked with some coworkers on how to control this and they suggested taking away minutes of their social time. She asked other teachers what their suggestions were and how they prioritized learning time over socializing.

In my reply I took the approach of what I would want as a student. Repeating "get to work" or "be quiet" many times throughout the day would just get annoying to myself as a teacher and a student. I feel that the students would eventually block the noise out. I also suggested that taking away social time would be the wrong approach. I think that it might only provoke the students to talk more during instruction time and for them to even do it on purpose. I suggested that she should reiterate that instruction time is for just that and nothing more and enforce some consequences if those rules aren't followed. If as a class they choose to completely go against this, then social time would be completely removed and they wont have it anymore. I think that this would show them that she means business and not take her actions for a joke. I see that in her following post she came up with an action plan that does this.

"Turning it Over to them- Success in the Making!"-Becky G

In "Turning it Over to them- Success in the Making!" she talks about the struggle of too much social activity and not enough learning happening in classrooms. She then came up with an action plan, identifying the focus areas, collecting data, identifying the data and developing a plan of action. She identified the areas of focus being in the area of behavior: being on task, voice levels, and respect and care towards others. With these areas she identified the times in which they most frequently occur being math, words their way and during independent reading. She had the students assess themselves with a rubric and give themselves a goal. Once the students reached their goal she consistently kept up with this plan and after each week had the students set a new goal.

My reply to Becky G basically said that I like the fact that she had the students assess themselves instead of herself, the teacher or administrator because I think it gives them a better understanding of how others see their behavior and how it can even affect their work and grades because they are not on task. I know from experience that involving socializing with instructional time non-educationally is means for disaster. It only takes away from the student focusing on their work and creates an area where they can fail at turning in and correctly doing assignments. I also expressed that I thought it would capture the students respect for her as an authoritative figure and teacher, seeing that she has enough respect for them to let them assess themselves.