I agree and disagree with Sir Ken Robinson. I agree that "to be in your element you have to love it". Passion is the best way to do anything. If it's worth do, it's worth doing right. I also agree that college does not begin in kindergarten, but I also think that you should prepare your children for college before they get there. I do not think that you should start preparing your children from birth to go to college, but maybe around middle or high school they should start thinking about what they are going to do with their lives.
I do agree that we should teach children different subjects than just math/science/language/etc. The arts are just as important as the other subjects. Children need a way to express themselves and the arts are the best way for them to do this. Where would we be without music or art shows. We teach our children to be good at the arts when they are small, but when they get older we say "you should get a real job". Being a musician or artist is not what most parents want for their children, they want them to be a doctor or lawyer doing something that will make they lots of money. Money isn't everything though. What about doing what you love and what you are good at?
My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete
Finally, this semester is over. I always feel this way about every semester though. It just seems like they will never end, and then they do and it seems as though they flew by. For most of us our college years are almost over and we will be going out into the workforce. I wish everyone of you the best of luck finding a job in this mess we are in. Hopefully, one day someone will figure out how to handle the taxpayers money properly and maybe we will not be in this mess again. This has been a good semester for me and I hope for you too. I wish you the best of luck in the finally stages of your college careers and in your future teaching careers.
Things I've learned in EDM 310
I've learned alot about blogs in this class. What I've learned the most about blogs is how useful they can be to me as a teacher. No longer will I have to hand out assignments to all of my students who were absent. Now, all I have to say is "go to the class blog". Presentations will always be a good way for students to get used to speaking infront of people. In my field of study though, math, there will probably not be many places that a presentation would be appropriate. Google Docs was a good item to cover. It can be very useful to a teacher, especially since it is free. Google is nice since it is free; however, I do not know how much I will use it because most students would prefer to use word seeing as how they already know how to use it. This in turn will save me valuable time and effort because most classrooms do not have computers for the students to use. Picasa was a wonderful tool and lots of fun to play around with pictures. I see myself using it more in the future. Podcast would be great for high school students. I am going to be a math teacher, so my students could do podcasts/videocasts to help other students learn the material. Personally, I was not all into twitter. It is a great tool for people who like to use this kind of program. It's not just twitter, I have never really been into facebook, myspace, or instant messaging. Contacting other teachers around the U.S. is a great way for teachers and future teachers to get ideas on how to mix up their class. It is also a good way for teachers to tell other teachers what has and hasn't worked for them in the classroom. iTunes is another great tool that I enjoyed even before I took this course. It has a plethora of different information and tools for students and teachers alike.
Something that I would have like to have covered more of would have been spread sheets. Personally, I think that we should have taken more time to cover more about how spread sheets can be useful to future teachers. Seeing as how I do not know much how what spread sheets can do I can not give specific examples. However, I'm sure that spread sheets can do more than concatenate and figure out car loans.
There was nothing in EDM 310 that I would say "no, I never want to learn that". I like to learn different things so that I am a well rounded individual so if someone offers to teach me something I usually do not resist.
Something that I would have like to have covered more of would have been spread sheets. Personally, I think that we should have taken more time to cover more about how spread sheets can be useful to future teachers. Seeing as how I do not know much how what spread sheets can do I can not give specific examples. However, I'm sure that spread sheets can do more than concatenate and figure out car loans.
There was nothing in EDM 310 that I would say "no, I never want to learn that". I like to learn different things so that I am a well rounded individual so if someone offers to teach me something I usually do not resist.
Learning about Twitter
The way I learned about twitter is the same way that I learn about anything new. Usually I try not to look at the manual first, not because I think that I do not need the manual, but because I retain the material longer if I figure it out for myself. This is exactly what I did with twitter, so this would explain why I might not know as much about it as some other people who actually "read the manual" so to speak or why I did not tweet as much as others. The first thing that I always do is to go through all of the different tabs. For example there is a home, direct messages, favorites, and following tab.
I personally did not tweet very much because I really just liked to read everyone elses tweets; some of them can be quite interesting. Usually before every class on Tuesdays and Thursdays would be when I would read other people's tweets or occasionally write my own tweets. I never directed a tweet to a specific person because I was too busy reading other people's tweets or exploring twitter.
As a future high school teacher, I do not see twitter as much use to me. This is because twitter is different than a blog. On a class blog the students can only click on the things that I want them to, but on twitter they can write anything that they want. This is why I think that a class blog would be much better than a class tweet. At the high school age, more things than just school will be coming up in the students tweets and it would just put more things on me to have to make sure that they are only tweeting about apropriate school topics.
I personally did not tweet very much because I really just liked to read everyone elses tweets; some of them can be quite interesting. Usually before every class on Tuesdays and Thursdays would be when I would read other people's tweets or occasionally write my own tweets. I never directed a tweet to a specific person because I was too busy reading other people's tweets or exploring twitter.
As a future high school teacher, I do not see twitter as much use to me. This is because twitter is different than a blog. On a class blog the students can only click on the things that I want them to, but on twitter they can write anything that they want. This is why I think that a class blog would be much better than a class tweet. At the high school age, more things than just school will be coming up in the students tweets and it would just put more things on me to have to make sure that they are only tweeting about apropriate school topics.
Being a critic for EDM 310 podcasts
One thing that I noticed about the first podcast that I listened to; The Strange Crystal Ball by Jamie Newell, Laura Mackay, and Katie Vadakin; was that there were times when someone would try to talk and another person would interupt accidentally. This tells me that the people performing this podcast were not listening to each other or were not looking at the other people around them to see if they had an idea they were about to say. It is easy to see when someone is about to say something, and if you see this don't try to overpower them by jumping in real quick. However, I do understand that it is extremely nerve racking to perform a podcast.
The next podcast that I listened to; Did you know? Shift Happens by Jessica Prestage, John Dunlop, and Christie Love. Something that came up in this podcast was the fact that it seemed like John was leading the entire podcast with Jessica and Christie just jumping in here and there. I think that everyone should have had an equal part in the podcast. He would ask a question and the other two would give their opinion and this was the only time that you really heard Jessica and Christie. I think that if you're going to ask questions and other people answer them, then you need to alternate who asks the questions and who answers the questions.
The third podcast that I listened to; ACCESS-Distance Learning in Alabama's High School by Megan Morgan, Alicia Baxter, and Angel Jackson. This was my group needed to slow down on their speaking. Especially in the beginning, we talked so fast that it was hard to keep up. Another thing was pronouncing. There were times when the only reason that I could understand what we were saying was because I helped perform the podcast.
The last podcast that I listened to; Pros and Cons of Facebook in the classroom by Peyton Ivey, Kendra Hill, Jessica White, and Jessica Courville. The first thing that I noticed was that when you mess up don't laugh, it is not very professional just correct yourself and move on.
The next podcast that I listened to; Did you know? Shift Happens by Jessica Prestage, John Dunlop, and Christie Love. Something that came up in this podcast was the fact that it seemed like John was leading the entire podcast with Jessica and Christie just jumping in here and there. I think that everyone should have had an equal part in the podcast. He would ask a question and the other two would give their opinion and this was the only time that you really heard Jessica and Christie. I think that if you're going to ask questions and other people answer them, then you need to alternate who asks the questions and who answers the questions.
The third podcast that I listened to; ACCESS-Distance Learning in Alabama's High School by Megan Morgan, Alicia Baxter, and Angel Jackson. This was my group needed to slow down on their speaking. Especially in the beginning, we talked so fast that it was hard to keep up. Another thing was pronouncing. There were times when the only reason that I could understand what we were saying was because I helped perform the podcast.
The last podcast that I listened to; Pros and Cons of Facebook in the classroom by Peyton Ivey, Kendra Hill, Jessica White, and Jessica Courville. The first thing that I noticed was that when you mess up don't laugh, it is not very professional just correct yourself and move on.
Pluses and Minuses of blogs in a classroom
In my opinion there are more pluses than minuses for a blog in a classroom. One plus would be that the students would have a place to go to for all of their work if they were absent one day. Another plus for this is that the students will not be bombarding the teacher with a million questions about what they missed, all the teacher has to say is go to the class blog. If a teacher teaches 4 classes a day and has 30 students in each class, then if 3 are out from each class this could take precious time away from the teacher getting other work done.
A minus for the class blog with all of the class work on it would be that this is just extra work that the teacher is having to do. Keeping up a blog can be time consuming work. Along with all of the other mountains of paper work and reports that teachers have to do, trying to keep up with even more stuff would be hard. This is especially true for first and maybe second year teachers too.
Another plus for a class blog would be that it would be a good communication device for the students to ask questions about something that they did not understand in class that day. The student could make a post saying hey did anyone understand how to do number so and so on the homework, I'm stuck on the third step. This allows the students to interact with each other and also frees up the teacher, allowing him/her the extra time needed to finish the test/reports/paper work.
A minus for the communication device would be that the teacher would have to monitor this blog very carefully to make sure that it is being used how it is supposed to be. The students might try to cheat and get answers from one another instead of just asking how to do one step. This inturn means more hours of work for the teacher because he/she now has to read all of the posts and comments to make sure that they are appropriate for a classroom.
A minus for the class blog with all of the class work on it would be that this is just extra work that the teacher is having to do. Keeping up a blog can be time consuming work. Along with all of the other mountains of paper work and reports that teachers have to do, trying to keep up with even more stuff would be hard. This is especially true for first and maybe second year teachers too.
Another plus for a class blog would be that it would be a good communication device for the students to ask questions about something that they did not understand in class that day. The student could make a post saying hey did anyone understand how to do number so and so on the homework, I'm stuck on the third step. This allows the students to interact with each other and also frees up the teacher, allowing him/her the extra time needed to finish the test/reports/paper work.
A minus for the communication device would be that the teacher would have to monitor this blog very carefully to make sure that it is being used how it is supposed to be. The students might try to cheat and get answers from one another instead of just asking how to do one step. This inturn means more hours of work for the teacher because he/she now has to read all of the posts and comments to make sure that they are appropriate for a classroom.
"Growth" vs. "Fixed" Minds
Student's with a fixed mindset believe that their basic intelligence is just to fix trade. They base their activities on whether or not their intelligence is going to show positively. Other student's who have a growth mindset believe that they can develop throughout their entire lives. They feel they can grow through passion, studying, and education.
Standford decided to teach the growth mindset. They developed an eight session workshop. In the workshop, half of the students were taught the study skills and the growth mindset, and the other half got only study skills. The students with only study skills did not do as well as the students with the study skills and growth mindset because they did not have the motivation that the other group had.
We have always been told that the brain is a muscle that needs to be worked just like any other muscle does. People who work-out don't just work-out until they see results, they have to keep working-out to keep those results. The brain is the same way. If we don't exercise our brains, then what is the use of even trying to learn something. Chances are if you don't exercise your brain in a math subject, in a couple of months to a year you probably will not remember how to do those math problems. This is a very good mindset for a teacher to be in for him/herself and for his/her students. If a teacher does not have a growth mindset, how will their students ever retain what they have learned?
Standford decided to teach the growth mindset. They developed an eight session workshop. In the workshop, half of the students were taught the study skills and the growth mindset, and the other half got only study skills. The students with only study skills did not do as well as the students with the study skills and growth mindset because they did not have the motivation that the other group had.
We have always been told that the brain is a muscle that needs to be worked just like any other muscle does. People who work-out don't just work-out until they see results, they have to keep working-out to keep those results. The brain is the same way. If we don't exercise our brains, then what is the use of even trying to learn something. Chances are if you don't exercise your brain in a math subject, in a couple of months to a year you probably will not remember how to do those math problems. This is a very good mindset for a teacher to be in for him/herself and for his/her students. If a teacher does not have a growth mindset, how will their students ever retain what they have learned?
Grades 9-12 video podcast
The video podcast that I watched was Galileo on the Moon. This vido podcast was not very long, only about 33 seconds. The astronaut had a feather and another heavier object and he was going to test Galileo's theory that every object falls at the same time.
This is great for a teacher, because this experiment is very difficult to recreate on Earth because of wind. If you have ever seen the movie Forest Gump and you see the feather floating on air, this is why the experiment is difficult to recreate on Earth. The feather is so light that the wind can manipulate how fast or slow the feather falls. The moon, apparently, does not have this problem so the two objects fall at the same time.
For a student, they just have to take your word for it because it is so difficult to show them that the two objects will actually fall at the same time. This video podcast takes all of the difficultly away. If you show your students this video podcast they will not have to take your word for it, they will actually be able to see it for their own eyes.
This is great for a teacher, because this experiment is very difficult to recreate on Earth because of wind. If you have ever seen the movie Forest Gump and you see the feather floating on air, this is why the experiment is difficult to recreate on Earth. The feather is so light that the wind can manipulate how fast or slow the feather falls. The moon, apparently, does not have this problem so the two objects fall at the same time.
For a student, they just have to take your word for it because it is so difficult to show them that the two objects will actually fall at the same time. This video podcast takes all of the difficultly away. If you show your students this video podcast they will not have to take your word for it, they will actually be able to see it for their own eyes.
Edible Schoolyard/Night in the Global Village
The Edible Schoolyard
At Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California, students spend their first period planting. This outdoor classroom is a learning lab for social studies, math, science, and life. At the Center for Ecoliteracy, they teach teachers how to make the garden the center of teaching. The children learn about different cycles: water, plants(photosynthesis), composition. Along with learning these cycles, the children are also learning how to cooperate, do projects together, and to build community. The founder for The Edible Schoolyard is Alice Waters who runs Sha Ponice restaurant in Berkeley. She came up with this idea in 1994 as a way to improve on school lunch programs.
A Night in the Global Village
Students from the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning in Denver, Colorado, are for one night going to live as the many less fortunate people of the world. The Global Gateway program is a unique learning experience that really lets the students take a walk in someone else's shoes. This program provides the students with structures that represent living conditions in Guatemala, Thi Land, and Zambia. It also includes a generic urban from Appalachia, and a refuge camp. Each teacher and student is given a number and then placed in a family. Each family is given a bucket of resources which might include: flashlight, dishes, or raw food. No one will have everything they need for the night. They will have to trade and bargain with the other families for what they need. Also one member of each family has to become pregnant for the night, and another looses the use of one arm. The families have to learn how to cooperate with one another if they want to have food or a fire.
These podcasts could be of great help to teachers. Granted, not everyone has the opportunity to actualy go and live like the students in A Night in the Global Village or have a real garden like the students in The Edible Schoolyard. However, these videocasts alone could be enough to get your students thinking about how they can save electricity by turning off the lights when they leave a room, or saving water by turning off the faucet when your brushing your teeth. People do not realize the difficulties that other less fortunate people have to go through until they see it with their own eyes.
When your teaching about science, show the students a video/podcast about The Edible Schoolyard. Do they really know as much about cooking or gardening as these students in California do? Students can learn so much more from hands-on learning than if they just see something in a book. They will probably learn more from a videocast than from a book too.
At Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California, students spend their first period planting. This outdoor classroom is a learning lab for social studies, math, science, and life. At the Center for Ecoliteracy, they teach teachers how to make the garden the center of teaching. The children learn about different cycles: water, plants(photosynthesis), composition. Along with learning these cycles, the children are also learning how to cooperate, do projects together, and to build community. The founder for The Edible Schoolyard is Alice Waters who runs Sha Ponice restaurant in Berkeley. She came up with this idea in 1994 as a way to improve on school lunch programs.
A Night in the Global Village
Students from the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning in Denver, Colorado, are for one night going to live as the many less fortunate people of the world. The Global Gateway program is a unique learning experience that really lets the students take a walk in someone else's shoes. This program provides the students with structures that represent living conditions in Guatemala, Thi Land, and Zambia. It also includes a generic urban from Appalachia, and a refuge camp. Each teacher and student is given a number and then placed in a family. Each family is given a bucket of resources which might include: flashlight, dishes, or raw food. No one will have everything they need for the night. They will have to trade and bargain with the other families for what they need. Also one member of each family has to become pregnant for the night, and another looses the use of one arm. The families have to learn how to cooperate with one another if they want to have food or a fire.
These podcasts could be of great help to teachers. Granted, not everyone has the opportunity to actualy go and live like the students in A Night in the Global Village or have a real garden like the students in The Edible Schoolyard. However, these videocasts alone could be enough to get your students thinking about how they can save electricity by turning off the lights when they leave a room, or saving water by turning off the faucet when your brushing your teeth. People do not realize the difficulties that other less fortunate people have to go through until they see it with their own eyes.
When your teaching about science, show the students a video/podcast about The Edible Schoolyard. Do they really know as much about cooking or gardening as these students in California do? Students can learn so much more from hands-on learning than if they just see something in a book. They will probably learn more from a videocast than from a book too.
iTunes University
iTunes University helps both students and teachers search and download education information just like you can search and download music. It helps students study whenever they like. This is good for college students who usually have to have a job. iTunes University allows them the freedom to look up items on break, lunch, or in the middle of the night when they get off of work. It also helps them if they have to miss class one day. All they have to do is go to iTunes and download the lecture for the day they missed. Never again will students have to rely on their classmates to take notes for them.
iTunes University also helps the teachers because they no longer have to write their lecture over and over again for each of their different classes. All they have to do is pull up their presentation on iTunes. This allows the teacher more time to interact with the students and really help them understand the material. Another way that iTunes University helps teachers is when they upload their lectures to iTunes, no longer will they have to send home what was done that day to a student. Now the student can just go to iTunes and download it themselves.Click_Here
iTunes University also helps the teachers because they no longer have to write their lecture over and over again for each of their different classes. All they have to do is pull up their presentation on iTunes. This allows the teacher more time to interact with the students and really help them understand the material. Another way that iTunes University helps teachers is when they upload their lectures to iTunes, no longer will they have to send home what was done that day to a student. Now the student can just go to iTunes and download it themselves.Click_Here
Suggestions or experiences in using iPods in instruction
Duke University found that an iPod can be very useful for the teacher to look back on how he/she did a lecture so they could see what needed to be improved upon. They also found that they needed a bit more practice with the iPods. So my suggestions would be to not give up, because the first year might not be the best. There is always room for improvement especially when working with technology. To go to this site
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I think that an iPod could be very useful to me as a teacher. Everyone needs to look back at any work and see how they could have done better at it. Using an iPod is a great way to do this. You might be thinking well I am already there so why would I have to record it and listen to it again? Sometimes it helps if you put yourself out of the box to watch/listen to something to get an unbiased opinion about it. Sure you were there and nothing went wrong, so you think that there is nothing that could have been done to make it better. Wrong! Taking yourself completely out of the situation and acting as though you were never there can make you see the way your students will see you. After all, they are the reason that you are there so why not try to make the lecture more suitable to them?
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I think that an iPod could be very useful to me as a teacher. Everyone needs to look back at any work and see how they could have done better at it. Using an iPod is a great way to do this. You might be thinking well I am already there so why would I have to record it and listen to it again? Sometimes it helps if you put yourself out of the box to watch/listen to something to get an unbiased opinion about it. Sure you were there and nothing went wrong, so you think that there is nothing that could have been done to make it better. Wrong! Taking yourself completely out of the situation and acting as though you were never there can make you see the way your students will see you. After all, they are the reason that you are there so why not try to make the lecture more suitable to them?
Dr. Christie's site
The part of Dr. Christie's site that I choose was Constructivism. There are several points on this site that I really like, this first is learning is an active process facilitated by an environment that encourages: risk-taking, creative thinking, and critical thinking. This is really true. Education is not just about me teacher you student, and you sit there and do nothing but take notes. The students actually have to take a risk to ask questions that they might not know the correct answer to, or think creatively to get a good grade on that project. Another thing that I liked on this site was teachers create such environments to: facilitate learning and provide opportunities for self-reflection and self-evaluation. I liked this because teachers can make or break an opportunity for learning for a student. The third thing that I like about this site was learners learn by doing within a specific context. If a student is an intrapersonal learner, then they will learn better by themselves; but if they are an interpersonal learner, then they will learn better in a group. Teachers need to know this about their students so that they can mix up the lecture so all students have an equal chance at learning. The final thing that I liked about this site was students and teachers learn through their mistakes.
This speaks for its self. The best way to learn something is to mess up and try again.
This speaks for its self. The best way to learn something is to mess up and try again.
NPR blog on Wikipedia
The only way I think that Wikipedia can be a trusted source of information would be to do a background check on the person/computer that did the editing. If this is a credible source then I think that Wikipedia could be a trusted source of information. However, this is very time consuming work, and it would probably just be easier to find a good, credible source and not have to worry about whether or not you could use this as a source for a paper. Wikipedia is edited by many people, so the odds of getting a bias source that puts their bias opinion on Wikipedia is very likely. They might put the truth on the site but neglect a few important details.
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
The first important teaching advice that Randy Pausch gave was be good at something: it makes you valuable. Especially now with the economy, teachers need to have something that makes them valuable to that school in order to get a job. If there are several people applying for the same position you are, there needs to be something particular about you so that the principal will be able to make a good,just decision. If everyone had the same credentials then the principal would have to close his/her eyes to make a fair decision on who gets the position.
The second important teaching advice that Randy Pausch gave was work hard..."what's your secret?". A good teacher needs to have a good work ethic. If a teacher does not want to work, then the students are going to have a harder time learning. A teacher that will take the time to look up a question that he/she does not know for a student or take the extra time to explain that math stuff, the student is not going to learn near as much. However, if the teacher does take the time to look up that question or take the extra time to explain that math stuff, the student will learn more and will be more willing to learn from that teacher.
The third important teaching advice that Randy Pausch gave was find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it. This is great advice because everyone has good in them but is not always willing to show it. It takes different things for different people to show the good they have. If you take the time to find the good in someone, it will pay off in the end. If a teacher gives up on a student, the student is going to know it. In return, the student is not going to do their best in their education. However, if a teacher encourages a student to do their best, the student will probably try their hardest in their education.
The fourth and final important teaching advice that Randy Pausch gave was be prepared: "luck" is where preparation meets opportunity. This is the best advice a teacher could give a student. Most people just think that when opportunity knocks, then this will be their big break. However, most people don't know that when opportunity knocks, you better be ready to knock back. If a job falls into your lap and you don't have a resume or something to show the employer, they are probably not going to want to hire you because they will think you don't have you stuff together.
The second important teaching advice that Randy Pausch gave was work hard..."what's your secret?". A good teacher needs to have a good work ethic. If a teacher does not want to work, then the students are going to have a harder time learning. A teacher that will take the time to look up a question that he/she does not know for a student or take the extra time to explain that math stuff, the student is not going to learn near as much. However, if the teacher does take the time to look up that question or take the extra time to explain that math stuff, the student will learn more and will be more willing to learn from that teacher.
The third important teaching advice that Randy Pausch gave was find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it. This is great advice because everyone has good in them but is not always willing to show it. It takes different things for different people to show the good they have. If you take the time to find the good in someone, it will pay off in the end. If a teacher gives up on a student, the student is going to know it. In return, the student is not going to do their best in their education. However, if a teacher encourages a student to do their best, the student will probably try their hardest in their education.
The fourth and final important teaching advice that Randy Pausch gave was be prepared: "luck" is where preparation meets opportunity. This is the best advice a teacher could give a student. Most people just think that when opportunity knocks, then this will be their big break. However, most people don't know that when opportunity knocks, you better be ready to knock back. If a job falls into your lap and you don't have a resume or something to show the employer, they are probably not going to want to hire you because they will think you don't have you stuff together.
April Best of Fischbowl 2007
The blog I chose to read for this post was the April 13, 2007, "180 days?". Mr. Fisch makes such a good point when he talks about how the teachers say there is not enough time to teach more curriculum. Personally, I think that teachers giving movie days to students who have been exceptionally good do deserve a movie day every now and then. However, I do not think that teachers should give movie days just because they needed a break. If you can't control your students maybe you need to find another profession. Not trying to sound harsh, but there is no reason for someone to stay in something that drives them crazy or drains them.
Teachers/administrators need to find better ways to manage their class time and lecture time. Students are there to get a good education, not to sit around watching movies and listening to speakers. If you want to have speakers and other people come and disrupt class at least try to do it all on one day. If you know your going to have a speaker on class rings why not have to counselor come that same day to talk about senior class schedules? Stop trying to spread everything out so the students are not tired. Newsflash if they are going to college or work do you think their boss or college professors are going to give them extra time on a project because they're tired? I don't think so.
Teachers/administrators need to find better ways to manage their class time and lecture time. Students are there to get a good education, not to sit around watching movies and listening to speakers. If you want to have speakers and other people come and disrupt class at least try to do it all on one day. If you know your going to have a speaker on class rings why not have to counselor come that same day to talk about senior class schedules? Stop trying to spread everything out so the students are not tired. Newsflash if they are going to college or work do you think their boss or college professors are going to give them extra time on a project because they're tired? I don't think so.
What would have made Fall 08 podcasts better
The first podcast that I listened to was Distance Learning in Alabama:ALEX and ACCESS by Susan Smith,Bridget Thompson-Hall, and Angela Minish. These three students sound very much like they practiced their podcast before they actually made it. However, they all sound like they are nervous and they do not sound like themselves. Something that I could do different in my podcast would be to not only practice the podcast but to practice it on a recorder so that I would be used to being recorded before my group actually does the podcast. Another thing I could do would be to just be myself. The students on this podcast sound like they are just reading something, they should have treated this like they were giving a speech in front of actual people so they would sound like they were giving a speech and not just reading something from a report.
The second podcast that I listened to was Blogging and Teaching by Rachel Davis, Justin Tullis, Myrenda Howze. These students sound as though they did not practice their podcast very much before they made it. This is one thing that I would change about this podcast. The other thing that I would change about this podcast would be the amount of um's that were said in this podcast. People will naturally say um in the middle of a thought; however, if you practiced a speech or podcast enough you will be less likely to say this. The information that they gave was good, but the way they presented it needed work.
The second podcast that I listened to was Blogging and Teaching by Rachel Davis, Justin Tullis, Myrenda Howze. These students sound as though they did not practice their podcast very much before they made it. This is one thing that I would change about this podcast. The other thing that I would change about this podcast would be the amount of um's that were said in this podcast. People will naturally say um in the middle of a thought; however, if you practiced a speech or podcast enough you will be less likely to say this. The information that they gave was good, but the way they presented it needed work.
"Best of the Fischbowl 2007"
I agree and disagree with this blog. I agree in the fact that teachers should incorporate technology in their classrooms so that the students can better understand how things work. The internet and computers are a beautiful thing that makes life a lot easier for many many people. The internet is a great tool for students to do research for a subject and learn things that one teacher might not be able to teach in a classroom of 30 students.
However, I disagree too. When my niece was four-years-old she could run a computer, DVD, or any other piece of technology as good as I could. Kids now are so much more technologically advanced than I was when I was growing up, but we also did not have computers, TV's, and phones in every room either. Teachers should not be made to keep up with their students in technology because they just physically can't. In my opinion, yes they should know the basics of technology, but they should not be expected to teach students (unless they are a computer teacher) about technology. It's just not going to happen because kids now are so technologically advanced.
However, I disagree too. When my niece was four-years-old she could run a computer, DVD, or any other piece of technology as good as I could. Kids now are so much more technologically advanced than I was when I was growing up, but we also did not have computers, TV's, and phones in every room either. Teachers should not be made to keep up with their students in technology because they just physically can't. In my opinion, yes they should know the basics of technology, but they should not be expected to teach students (unless they are a computer teacher) about technology. It's just not going to happen because kids now are so technologically advanced.
Podcasts
In the KidsCast, the man that was talking said that he was in his living room, so pod casts sound like you can pretty much make them anywhere. The people that make these pod casts seem like they do a lot of research on the subject of the pod cast before they actually make the pod cast. None of these pod casts have a video, they are all audio only. Which makes me think that someone has their research in front of them and they take a recorder and record the message they want to say.
These pod casts really remind me of radio shows. The difference being that radio shows are heard over radio waves which only span so many miles. However, pod casts can be heard all over the world by anyone who has an internet connection. The pod casts that we had to listen to were made by educators and most of them had guests on that were technologically savvy. These guests really gave good advice to teachers as far as how to incorporate technology into the classroom.
Most of these pod casts really give you a good sense of what technology is being used today. They tell you what kids in classrooms are using and what kids can and can't do today with technology. They also give you information on technology that people in general are using now so that you can keep up with the technology around you. It also gives you some insight to the latest google and other free web pages that everyday people can use especially with the economy as bad as it is now.
Teachers who can't afford Microsoft can use this free information to help create lesson plans and googles form of power point to make their classroom more technologically savvy. These pod casts also give teachers an idea of how to make good pod casts for their students. Pod casts can be a great asset to teachers.
These pod casts really remind me of radio shows. The difference being that radio shows are heard over radio waves which only span so many miles. However, pod casts can be heard all over the world by anyone who has an internet connection. The pod casts that we had to listen to were made by educators and most of them had guests on that were technologically savvy. These guests really gave good advice to teachers as far as how to incorporate technology into the classroom.
Most of these pod casts really give you a good sense of what technology is being used today. They tell you what kids in classrooms are using and what kids can and can't do today with technology. They also give you information on technology that people in general are using now so that you can keep up with the technology around you. It also gives you some insight to the latest google and other free web pages that everyday people can use especially with the economy as bad as it is now.
Teachers who can't afford Microsoft can use this free information to help create lesson plans and googles form of power point to make their classroom more technologically savvy. These pod casts also give teachers an idea of how to make good pod casts for their students. Pod casts can be a great asset to teachers.
International teachers using blogs in K-12 classrooms
The first international blog that I found was by a teacher from Windsor,Ontario, which is in the southern part of Canada. This blog does not necessarily have class objectives on it, but it have a day-by-day blog that gives the students some insight to various different things. This teacher does make the students post different assignments to the blog though. However, this is not a bad thing for everyone. The teacher has less papers to take home every night; all she has to do is log on to her computer at night now instead of keeping up with and sorting through 80-90 papers a night. The students don't have to carry binders, paper, or any other normal classroom materials to class. All they have to bring is their computer; they can just post all of their lectures to their own blog.
To go to this linkClick Here
This blog at first does not look like a school based blog;however, it is. The school is located in Guia, Canary Islands, Spain, where it is a language school for the students there. In the case of this blog, it is an English language. This blog has everything you would need to help you learn the English language. The way we learn our language to begin with is listening to our Moms and Dads. On this blog it has different videos the students can listen to, to help the students with their pronunciation.
To go to this linkClick Here
Schools using blogs in K-12 classrooms
The first blog that I found was by a 6th grade teacher in Georgia. It is really neat what she has done. She puts up on the class blog everything that they did in the class that day. So if you had to be absent one day, you could get what the class had done before you actually went to school. This is really cool, because let's say that you where absent on Thursday and you had a test on Friday. Usually teachers have a review the day before a test. This means that you would still be able to take your test and not have to worry about doing worse on the test than everyone else because you got the review too.
To go to this linkClick Here
This blog is not so much a classroom blog as it is an informational blog. It was set up to see how the parents and students like the idea of a new "21st century", as they call it, classroom. This classroom will be set up a lot like college is in the fact that the student will have to come see the teacher during office hours. It also has a list of the equipment and technology that will be in the classroom so that the parents can "poke at it", as the blog says, and give the teachers good feed back to see what is going to be a better leaning tool for the students.
To go to this linkClick Here
thefischbowl.blogspot
This video was really kind of shocking. There were many statistics that I did not realize just how high they were. For example, I did not realize that India and China had more than three million college graduates than the United States. Another statistic that was shocking was that 70% of U.S. 4-year-olds have used a computer.
These were all shocking to me because I was in middle school before I was ever allow on a computer let alone know how to operate it well. Now they tell me that 4-year-olds are not only on a computer, they're actually navigating around on the internet and all. Another thing that is absolutely amazing is how far the technology has come in just a few short years. When I got my first cell phone I was 16-years-old; and my dad was not very happy about me getting one either. On that phone you could really only send a call, receive a call, check the time, and store numbers. Now, only four years later, elementary aged kids have phones and the phones are like little computers. You can send e-mail, send text messages(which when I was 16 we did not even know what those where), and thousands of other things. In my opinion, schools need to be teaching kids how to use this technology properly because if this is how far technology has brought us in 4 years think of how far we will be in 10 more years when some of these kids will be out in the work force.
These were all shocking to me because I was in middle school before I was ever allow on a computer let alone know how to operate it well. Now they tell me that 4-year-olds are not only on a computer, they're actually navigating around on the internet and all. Another thing that is absolutely amazing is how far the technology has come in just a few short years. When I got my first cell phone I was 16-years-old; and my dad was not very happy about me getting one either. On that phone you could really only send a call, receive a call, check the time, and store numbers. Now, only four years later, elementary aged kids have phones and the phones are like little computers. You can send e-mail, send text messages(which when I was 16 we did not even know what those where), and thousands of other things. In my opinion, schools need to be teaching kids how to use this technology properly because if this is how far technology has brought us in 4 years think of how far we will be in 10 more years when some of these kids will be out in the work force.
ACCESS
ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide. It is a great new program for students who are attending a school where either the teachers are not qualified to teach the courses the student needs or the school does not have the money to provide the equipment needed to have proper labs. Some of the objectives for ACCESS include advanced diploma courses and advanced placement or dual enrollment credit. These courses will help the student achieve college credit and allow them to have more challenging courses in high school to better prepare them for college. The courses offered by ACCESS will be web-based and videoconferencing, which means that the students will get experience with web-based classes (which most college classes are now) and the student also gets to see the classroom from the computer screen like they were actually in the classroom.
Although some students might think that they could take these classes at home on their own computers, one rule of ACCESS is that the courses will be taught at the students high school during regular school hours. However, one good thing about this is that the program is provided free of charge to all public high school students so there is no fees like there would be in a college web-based course. The Clanton Advertiser said "After walking into the Boaz classroom," (one of the 24 pilot schools) "it was like walking into the classroom of the future." This is a neat statement because it proves that Alabama is taking one good step forward in education.
ACCESS will help me in my classroom in many different ways. It will allow me to teach many more students who otherwise would not be able to take my course to help them prepare for college. Also, if I needed to be absent one day, I could tape my lecture and the students could still watch it and not get behind. If they had any questions they could always e-mail me to get help. ACCESS would also help me not to have so many papers to grade. I have had several web-based classes in college where the computer graded your test as soon as you finished it and then e-mailed your score to the teacher. I could teach more classes because I would not have near as much grading to do.
Although some students might think that they could take these classes at home on their own computers, one rule of ACCESS is that the courses will be taught at the students high school during regular school hours. However, one good thing about this is that the program is provided free of charge to all public high school students so there is no fees like there would be in a college web-based course. The Clanton Advertiser said "After walking into the Boaz classroom," (one of the 24 pilot schools) "it was like walking into the classroom of the future." This is a neat statement because it proves that Alabama is taking one good step forward in education.
ACCESS will help me in my classroom in many different ways. It will allow me to teach many more students who otherwise would not be able to take my course to help them prepare for college. Also, if I needed to be absent one day, I could tape my lecture and the students could still watch it and not get behind. If they had any questions they could always e-mail me to get help. ACCESS would also help me not to have so many papers to grade. I have had several web-based classes in college where the computer graded your test as soon as you finished it and then e-mailed your score to the teacher. I could teach more classes because I would not have near as much grading to do.
ALEX
ALEX is a very useful tool for teachers. When you first see the website, you will see how easy it is to use. There are eight different tabs to help teachers in a classroom. ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange, and it really is a learning exhange and learning tool as you will read about in the next paragraph.
The first tab is courses of study, where there is a list of the different subjects taught in school.
Web links is the second tab, here teachers and administrators and students can go to research different areas of school. The third tab is lesson plans, where teachers can go to see lesson plans on all subjects and all grade levels. Search is the fourth tab, here teachers can search for different aspects of ALEX. The fifth tab is personal workspace, where teachers can go to store their own lesson plans and create their own web pages. Professional learning is the sixth tab, where teachers can see the Alabama Department of Education Program websites to find learning tools and professional development opportunities. The seventh tab is distance learning or ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide), here students can take classes, not offered at their high school, by web-based classes and video lectures from schools all over the state. Finally help is the eighth tab, where teachers can see how to set up an ALEX account and other things to help them navigate in ALEX.
ALEX can help me in many ways in my classroom. First of all, my first year as a teacher is going to be a lot easier in the fact that I will be able to see how other teachers set their lesson plans up and I will have a tool that will help me learn how to set up my own lesson plans. The web links will help me find neat math websites that I can use in my lectures. Also, personal workspace will give me a safe place to store all of my lesson plans until I get ready to use them. Professional learning will help me keep up with professional development opportunities so that I can make sure that my professional development hours are up to date. These are just a few ways that I think ALEX will be able to help me in my classroom.
The first tab is courses of study, where there is a list of the different subjects taught in school.
Web links is the second tab, here teachers and administrators and students can go to research different areas of school. The third tab is lesson plans, where teachers can go to see lesson plans on all subjects and all grade levels. Search is the fourth tab, here teachers can search for different aspects of ALEX. The fifth tab is personal workspace, where teachers can go to store their own lesson plans and create their own web pages. Professional learning is the sixth tab, where teachers can see the Alabama Department of Education Program websites to find learning tools and professional development opportunities. The seventh tab is distance learning or ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide), here students can take classes, not offered at their high school, by web-based classes and video lectures from schools all over the state. Finally help is the eighth tab, where teachers can see how to set up an ALEX account and other things to help them navigate in ALEX.
ALEX can help me in many ways in my classroom. First of all, my first year as a teacher is going to be a lot easier in the fact that I will be able to see how other teachers set their lesson plans up and I will have a tool that will help me learn how to set up my own lesson plans. The web links will help me find neat math websites that I can use in my lectures. Also, personal workspace will give me a safe place to store all of my lesson plans until I get ready to use them. Professional learning will help me keep up with professional development opportunities so that I can make sure that my professional development hours are up to date. These are just a few ways that I think ALEX will be able to help me in my classroom.
About Me
My name is Megan Morgan. On August 1, 2008, I married Tim Morgan. I came to the University of South Alabama to get a degree in Secondary Math Education; graduating in 2010. Hopefully, I will be teaching math at Faith Academy after I graduate. Singing is something that I love to do. I have sang in the praise band at my church, Saraland United Methodist Church, for about six months now.
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