Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Final Blog Reflection

I know it's a little longer than ten minutes, but I had a lot of explaining to do. I couldn't possibly sum this semester up into ten minutes. I apologize. I think the tools that I have learned in this class will make a lot of my dreams possible...maybe I'll get to go to Spain. I would also like to say that I do plan to reflect on this blog, and I also plan on creating another blog that is a little more personal. I will share that information when it is up and running. I think my boyfriend has also benefited from this class as well, and he has since created his own personal blog. We are having a lot of fun with this learning tool that is so new to us.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Our Little Something Extra for Our iBook

This was a lot of fun to make. I am glad we got to give it a go! Thanks to everyone in the lab that helped us create this video.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

What tools I am taking with me from EDM310

This will appear in our iBook. I had to make it a little longer, because I addressed what I would like to use as a teacher and a future counselor.

Project #13: Report on Collaboration for Projects #14, 15, and 16


Wow! I can't believe this semester is coming to an end. It's felt wonderful to be back in school. If the Alabama Department of Education will hurry-up and validate my teacher's certificate, I will be starting my graduate studies this Fall. Here's to hoping!

Our group will hopefully be done with our final project tomorrow, and I don't know what I am going to do without these girls. We have had a lot of fun. We have collaborated for projects #14, 15 and 16 through a few different methods. We have used our time wisely after we have filmed our projects, but we covered things forgotten through text messaging, email, Googledocs, and through Google+ Hangouts. It's been a lot of fun learning all these different ways to communicate. I plan out using hangouts more frequently for everything! I like putting on all the different effects.

Final Report on My PLN....For this Class

Final Report on My PLN....For this Class

It's not Over

Like we have said throughout this semester, our PLN is on-going and ever-changing. It's not something that can ever be complete or "Final". In saying that, this is not "My" final PLN. I will continue to add to my PLN.

I am still using Symbaloo to bookmark all of the people, places, and websites that are critical to my PLN. It's great and very easy to use. You can even find suggestions for pages that might interest you. I have maintained a professional PLN thus far; however, I plan to add some of my favorite personal sites soon. Since my mid-term report on my PLN, I have begun to use Twitter more, and I have become a lot more comfortable with it. In fact, I would almost say that I am fond of it. I think I am going to take Ms. Cassidy's advice to her students and create a Facebook account just for teaching.

I would like to share a few new components to my PLN:

Edutopia

Daniel Edward's Blog

Education Rethink - I think a great assignment for next semester would be a blog post found on this site called New Teacher Toolkit. I also plan on using some of the tips I found in Social Studies Project Ideas, if I go back into the classroom.

Living Facebook: Forty Days of Doing Facebook in Person - I love this experiment of Mr. Spencer's. I would love to do something like this in a classroom. I almost wrote a voluntary blog about it. It speaks to me.

Mindshift

As you can see, I am a big fan of John Spencer.

Spencer's Shirt for his Living Facebook Project

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Blog Post #13

 When I was a Student

After watching Back to the Future , I will attempt to illustrate how "one topic can encompass a huge range of learning" in Mr. Crosby's video and in A Vision of Students Today. I thought both videos were excellent examples something that should be a basic skill for all teachers, crossing curriculums. Being the "Grammar Nazi" that I am, I often found myself incorporating a lot of English and Literature into my History class - I always tried my hardest to fit some Science and Math, but it wasn't always possible.

In Mr. Crosby's video he not only was teaching Science (and Science standards), but he was also teaching Technology, Language, Networking, Social Studies, Reading and Citizenship. It's obvious that they were learning Science through their studies and experiments, but these students barely new where they lived when the class started. Through their blogging, wiki, and internet usage, they broaden their knowledge not just nationally but globally. It was also through this process that they bettered their technology skills and also became "networked students". Through blogging, they also improved reading language skills. They are becoming more well-rounded, and it is creating a path to prepare them for jobs of the future (and also meeting the standards dictated by the state). I thought the most poignant statement made in the entire video came near the end, when Mr. Crosby said that this new type of learning was creating a future that some students may have never had. Overall, I loved the video. I could tell he was really enthusiastic, but I wish he could have slowed his speech in some parts. Great contribution to our class!

In the video from Kansas State University, I felt like it was from the other end of the spectrum that Mr. Crosby was talking about. These are the kids that have had more opportunities, but it was still an excellent example of how they covered a wide-range of topics. These were students that were not only learning from their studies, they were learning honesty, statistics, cooperation, and reflection. While I think it's obvious how I think how all these blend, I think that it's also important that these students are recognizing how lucky they have been. They are learning honesty, statistics, and cooperation through their surveys, but reflection (a key element in the world of academia)is probably new to them. They are also becoming citizens of the world through their final reflections by asking for the change they desire. They are multi-taskers, why can't their teachers be as well?

Student Reflection

What I Want my Students to.....



1. To know.... I want my students to know what they have available to them, to be able to use information they have at their fingertips, to be able to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, and most importantly be able to rely on me for help with this shift in leaning (there will be many times we have to learn together).

2. To Be able to do.... While I want them to be independent learners, I also want them to use their imagination beyond what they think they are capable of. I want them to email, use Wikis, blog, search, create and reflect.

3. To have experienced....This is a big one. I was them to experience it all! It's through the impact of technology that they will be able to experience things I never got to as a student. Not only do I want them to experience a meaningful education experience and everything I have stated above, I also want them to experience times and places throughout history that they couldn't before now. I want them to go back in time and experience the chaos following the Boston Tea Party, the horror in Nazi Germany, and the revealing after President Kennedy was elected President. We can all do these things!

Reflection I would love to make a video just for a introduction to a history class. I would first pose a question about how I could help them become more fond of History in the classroom. Followed by questions concerning creating a personal email account for my class. I would them introduce them to several historical figures that would stand-out to them. They could design a blog as their favorite history figure. I have always felt that students could learn history better by reading the history text more like a novel. They could report on their blogs from their figures point of view. It would change over the semester to past, present, and future. Not only would it have them using more technology and being creative, it would give them a new perspective on the timeline of major historical events. I would like them to keep their blogs anonymous until the end of the term. As part of their final, they could create a final project as their character and reveal themselves. They would have assignments to explore each other's blogs throughout the semester.

Jefferson's Blog

Technology Toolkit

Teacher's Toolkit

This is Dorothy Burt's Toolkit List. I will "bold-face" everything I can do...

All our teachers are able to:

check an email account daily and manage it efficiently
use a computer or laptop and trouble shoot basic functions ie on/off, connect to P/I
use the internet to search, find information and to communicate
particpate in online environments eg blogs or forums or Nings or Trademe or Facebook
manage music files in software eg in iTunes
manage photo files using software
download photos from a camera
use a word processing document efficiently
store and retrieve data from a hard drive eg your computer
access Google Docs
edit a short video clip using simple software


All our teachers are able to use the following independently:

video camera
still camera
laptop
cellphone


All our teachers will need to learn quickly (with help available) once on the job:

administer a student blog ie upload content, manage commenting, manage student use
edit online pages e.g blog or Google sites or KnowledgeNet
social networking
store and retrieve from network
Google Apps - personally and with students
how record and edit audio
a graphics programme your level of students is using
create a basic presentation eg Keynote or Google or Prezi or Powerpoint

MacOS basics
saving files in a variety of file formats (e.g .mov,.dv, .jpg, .aiff, .doc etc)
student management system
printing to networked copiers
use of sound field
use of data projector
use PhotoBooth

I think to make the most beneficial learning environment for our students that this is just a basic list. It should be more expanded into content.

Disabilities and Technology

After reading At the Teacher's Desk and watching the accompanying video, I was truly inspired. He's advocating on how technology can engage ALL learners. The little boy is blind. I believe Webb was saying that he was a somewhat reluctant learner because of his disability. They have finally reached him! This is awesome! I have heard of how iPads have helped with Autistic children. There are so many ways to reach all children with technology - it is their language.


Jenny She is a teacher that loves to use technology and social media in her classroom. She lives in New Zealand. I have been following her on Twitter since the beginning of the semester. Big fan of using the iPad in the classroom.

Progress Report on Final Project


Group #5 will be presenting a play-off of the popular What to Expect Series for our iBook. It's title is What to Expect when Enrolling in EDM310. We've been working really hard learning the program, learning the Mac better, formatting the book, finding what pieces we would like to use from the semester, and coming up with a few original pieces. The book is broken up into two chapters and each chapter is broken up into sections. The format is:

Introduction with Audio

Chapter 1: Personal Contributions

Section 1.1:Lindsay

Section 1.2: Shaniqua

Section 1.3: Lacie

Section 1.4: Britney

Chapter 2: Group Collaborations

Section 2.1: Podcast

Section 2.2: SmartBoard Lesson

Section 2.3: Our little Surprise!!!!

Section 2.4 Group produced text...still deciding on our topic.

We have been collaborating through google docs, email, and text messaging. We have only met once together (minus Lacie) - we didn't make this mandatory. I would say we are about half done. We are hoping it will be complete this Thursday.

The process that has become most timely is importing our videos.

It's been a lot of fun. I previewed our book yesterday on my iPad, and I am very proud of what we have done so far.

My annotated picture will be this....

 Gollum with his iPad

I am going to try to add some audio with this.

I can't wait to see what everyone has created, and I hope everyone has had as much fun as I have had....

Sunday, July 8, 2012

C4T #4

Read. Write. Connect. Learn.

For C4T #4, I was assigned to Read. Write. Connect. Learn. It is a blog produced by Will Richardson, a parent of two middle-school aged children, a former public school educator for 22 years, and co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice, a unique professional development program that has mentored over 5,000 teachers worldwide in the last five years. He's written three books that I think I am going to read: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (Corwin Press, 3rd Edition 2010), Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education(Solution Tree), and Learning on the Blog, was published in August of 2011 by Corwin Press and is a collection of blogs.

There's No Eye in Team

On June 30th, 2012, Mr. Richardson posted a blog entitle Co-operation vs. Competition (vs. Collaboration). In his blog he discusses the problems with "cooperation" and "competition" in classrooms throughout the United States, and that we should be focusing more on "cooperation" and "collaborating" together to have better learning environments for all. His blog touched close to home being that I am a former ball player and coach. I understand competition. I understand collaboration. I do not understand cooperation with "other teams" as well, and it is something I can grow from as an educator. We all can. Often times we are concerned with "I", and "I" can be us as a individual teacher, the students we have in our classroom, or simply the school we teach at as a whole. We are all familiar with there being no "I" in Team. That's why we all our in the field of Education, but there is too much emphasis on who has the best test scores, who's students get the most scholarships, and who's students are going to the best colleges. We should focus more on "collaborating" and learning together throughout our country - our students would thrive more, and it would make our education system better overall. It does make me think about the perfect Utopia though, and we all know it works best on paper and not in real life. How can we make this really happen?

Utopia, Next Exit

How Radical are You?

Standardized Tests

Think about this:

- We don’t need better assessments; we need different assessments that help us understand students as learners and constructors of their own ongoing education instead of knowers of information and narrow skills.

- We don’t need better teachers; we need different teachers who see their roles as master learners first and content guides or experts second.

- We don’t need better schools; we need different schools that function as communities of inquiry and learning instead of delivery systems for a highly proscribed, traditional curriculum.


In Redefine "Better", a blog posted by Will Richardson this week, he reflected on one of Umair Haque’s essays that appeared in the Harvard Business Review. He often reads the review and the comments. He says there are always comments that jump out at him. In this essay there was a comment involving education:

“…We can’t merely call for a set of broken institutions to work slightly better, to restore the present to the state of the past. We’ve got to redefine better; to redesign the future.”

I would like to pose two questions:

1. Do you think we need to improve or become better at education as a whole?

2. Or do you agree with what I post earlier, do we need something different?

Is there a need to redefine education? That's what Richardson and Haque are attempting to create.

I am more of an advocate of the latter. I believe that we need different assessments. Maybe it's because I taught History for so long, and I understand objective-based tests can really limit the student. I began giving essay tests my second year of teaching. Sure, I still used some of the tests that came with the book, but only because my students would see these types of questions on their CRT's, graduation exams, and ACT's. It's more work on the teacher, but there are so many kids out their that can explain an answer to me and still not have the ability to pick "A", "B", "C", or "D".

I don't think we need "new" teachers as a whole. I think there are teachers out there that do a wonderful job with what they know. There are teachers out there that are in it to be off at three, summers off, Spring Breaks off, and a longer Christmas break. These are your same teachers that don't understand the concept of their roles as "master learners first and content guides or experts second". We have to be continuous learners to be Masters at anything in this world. You can't stop the day you walk across the stage. We also have to prepare our students for changes to come.

Here's where it hits home for me...

"We don’t need better schools; we need different schools that function as communities of inquiry and learning instead of delivery systems for a highly proscribed, traditional curriculum". This is so true. Our school systems are "messed up". I would like to preface this with saying that I was never an advocate of "Now Child Left Behind". I think it was a concept put into play to fix a irreversible decaying problem.

1. Schools for kids - Schools are not places of learning. It's more social than anything. Students often don't even know what they should be learning.

2. School for a majority of teachers - It's a job that doesn't require a huge amount of time. Very few teachers understand that they are key to establishing a learning community, and those that do feel shunned for thinking this way. Thus, making their job meaningless, unfulfillable, and squashes a process that is in the beginning stages.

3. School for parents - It's become a babysitter, and they usually end up only blaming the teachers. They don't ever take into account that they have a role in preparing our students for the best education out there.

Why did I mention "No Child Left Behind"? It's fundamentally the same thing. They were trying to create a equal learning environment that was supposed to be better and all could benefit from. Guess what? We aren't all equal. We all learn differently. We all learn at a different speed. It's part of being human. While I am for inclusion, I am not for full inclusion. We have I.B. and Magnet schools? Why can't all schools have a primary focus. It eliminates the issues with inequality. It's something I have toyed with for a long time. This would also eliminate for students that need help in specific ares, the more advanced students wouldn't become bored (and allow grades and ambition to slip), and help teachers with classroom management. I guess I am radical, but I really don't care. Equal learning environment? Why not a learning environment that knows how to specify specific needs.

There is a need for redefining education with the changes that are happening.

How radical are you?

The Future Classroom

Friday, July 6, 2012

Blog Post #11

Skype

I love Skype!

After watching First Graders in Ms. Cassidy’s Classroom and Ms. Cassidy's Skype interview with EDM310 students, I was amazed at how well she has implemented technology in her classroom with such young learners. There were some major key points from the interview that she’s used in her approach to technology that I think could benefit any teacher.

Safety:

 They Will Find Ways Around It

I am going to take Randy Pausch’s advice in The Last Lectureand go ahead get this one out their – I have gone on and on this semester about how I feel “social media” should have a limited role in the classroom. I think that I am hesitant to incorporate sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to some extent into the classroom for safety reasons, and it might have something to do with me being a mother. While it is a cause of great concern in the elementary classroom, I think that risk only becomes greater with high school students. Why? High School students are going to be the students that click on that “shiny link” outside of the assignment that I have given to my class. They have also been around longer, and they are going to be the ones to find a way around the firewalls the school board has set-up. There is also going to be a greater risk of these students giving out personal information (i.e. last name, city name, etc.), because they are not only more inquisitive but more defiant. These kids also have a great chance of meeting someone they have met online outside of school, because they can either drive or have friends that can drive. They are your rebellious group. I think there needs to be stricter boundaries set-up with the older a student gets. That’s just my opinion and it could be wrong.

Comfort:

Help them See the Stars

Ms. Cassidy said that the best way to approach becoming more involved with technology is by beginning in your comfort zone – I couldn’t agree more. I’m not saying that a teacher should limit the use of technology in the classroom based on individual students’ wishes. For example, Kelley, my 9th grade World History student, may be comfortable using Facebook, but that doesn’t mean she should only use Facebook in her PLE. Kelley should START with Facebook and expand from there. Let’s say that Kelley is also interested in theatre and watching herself perform on the stage (through videos her mother or others have filmed). I think this would be a great place for a teacher to start. I have been thinking a lot how I could implement class blogs into my classroom or a blog for counseling. Hypothetically, my class could be studying about the Renaissance. Having already established the classes’ initial first blog, I would already know some of their interests. If Kelley seemed hesitant to participate in blogging, I could ask her if she had ever done any Shakespeare. In all likelihood she had probably done a little at her age, and I could ask her to share some of her work on Facebook. She already has an established comfort zone with Facebook and videos of herself on stage. I could suggest she post some of it to Facebook. Hopefully, it would spark some interest with her classmates. Now, she can include her feedback from her Facebook posts to her blog about Renaissance culture. With positive feedback and a little more self-confidence, I can probably successfully suggest that she expand into YouTube.

Commenting:

The Golden Rule

I thought the way she addressed inappropriate commenting was great! A technique that I often used with my students I carried into my career as a mother. How would you like it if Joey pulled your hair? How would you like it if Ashlee borrowed your book and didn’t return it? How would you like it if Kalen locked you out of the bathroom? Turning a situation around on a student always seems to get through to them, and I think it is a great way to implement successful peer editing. I also think that you should also prepare students for retaliation – although, you should always stress that two “wrongs” don’t make a “right”. The fact is that it is going to happen – Ms. Cassidy said it was inevitable. You can’t get away from it, and I think it’s something that should be addressed by a teacher at the beginning of every school year or semester.

I think there are some problems that are going to arise in every new technique that is introduced into the classroom:

It Wasn't Taught to Me During my Student Teaching


1. There are always going to be “bumps” in the road. Like Ms. Cassidy said, we are continuous learners. It’s our job to prepare our students for their future, and in return, we are gaining knowledge in the process.

2. There are going to me Administrators and fellow teachers that don’t like the change. They are also not going to be interested in how well it’s working for you. It’s not that they don’t agree with you necessarily, but it’s more like they aren’t ready to accept change. I don’t think we should push it through ignorance – show them that it works and be proud of what you accomplish.

3. There are always going to be students that are not going to accepting of technology. It could be for many different reasons. It is our job to prepare them. We should do what Ms. Cassidy said – find them an area that they are comfortable in beginning with.

4. Online Predators and unsafe sites! They are there. They aren’t going anywhere. It is our job as educators to protect our students. Do it! Do whatever it takes to provide a safe environment.

5. There are always going to be naysayers. Prove them wrong.

The Road Less Taken

I may go back into the classroom or become a full-time counselor, and I plan to use blogging in whatever path I follow. It’s obvious that I would use a class blog in my classroom, but I have been thinking about how I could use blogging as a counselor. I have already begun developing ideas, and I think that I am going to begin by setting up a Counselor’s Corner Blog at the school I am assigned. I think it would be a great mediating point between teachers, counselors, administrators, students, and parents. I could post information about ACT AND SAT Testing dates, information on the test’s best prep classes, information on remediation classes offered at the school for any subject, set-up an online tutoring system that kids could access from home from students at their actual school, and also have a way for parents to set-up conferences with teachers through the counselors (this is my own little baby, because so many teachers are reluctant to make those calls home). The ways to design this blog are endless, and I am super excited about it! I am sure that I am not the first, but it’s the first that I have encountered.

In closing, I would like to say that Ms. Cassidy’s discussion of Facebook was a little ironic, only because Facebook started on the campus of an Ivy League school.

 The Facebook

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Project #15

Smart Board Presentation: Part 2

The Objective We Chose to Create a Lesson:

Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m. [2-MD7]

What I Learned from this Project

Telling Time

Brittany and I brought our kids to interact in the lesson. Caroline was a little shy. Hope everyone enjoys! I would also like to point out that I am better at playing a elementary student than being a elementary teacher. Although I was somewhat out of my element, I did have a lot of fun. I would like to thank my group for pushing to think outside of my personal "box".

In my quest to discover more about my iPad, I have discovered Extras4iMovie. It's an application that allows you to create more media for your productions. One of my biggest complaints about using iMovie on the iPad, is that it is really hard to add and manipulate sound or sound effects. I thought this application might make it easier. It did but it would allow you to add sound and text. I'll keep playing with it.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Blog Post #12

Creating My Own Assignment

Scavenger Hunt

After our midterm, I suggested an assignment for EDM310 as the subject. My inspiration came from our group work. My group lucked up - we all have personalities that mesh well together, we all have similar priorities, we all have a keen work ethic, and we all enjoy our time together. I am sure that hasn't happened in every group. I also thought about how web-enhanced classes really don't allow us to know one another, and a key concept in this class is connectivism. Are really connected? We all have to write about "About You" blogs, why not build off that assignment? I decided a Scavenger Hunt would be a fun way to do this - a Scavenger Hunt of each others' blogs. I had to tweak my original assignment, because we didn't really have any rules about what to include in that blog. My questions got a little too specific. I think we could learn a lot from this assignment.

The assignment would have to occur after the first blog has been written about ourselves. You or the lab assistants could create a document that lists a variety of questions. The questions would primarily be education based, but there could be a few questions related to personal life that might be relevant to being successful in EDM310 (maybe for forming groups). You could also incorporate Skype somehow.

Note to Dr. Strange – I had to manipulate the questions from the original email I sent. I think it might be beneficial to include a small questionnaire or format for our first blogs. Some people didn’t write enough, some people didn’t elaborate, and I think it would also be beneficial for people to write about computer skills they are bringing into the class or hope to learn from this class (it would help for this assignment).


The instructions are simple:

Objectives:

-To have EDM310 students master the use of Blogger and how to successfully navigate the class blog and other members' blogs
- To have EDM310 students begin building their PLN from the first day of class.
- To have EDM310 students become familiar with their classmates, create a more personal learning environment for a class that does not meet regularly, and have them be familiar with students that have similar interests or majors

Directions: Using the questions provided for you in your email, look through your classmates introductory blogs to find out more about them. Find one person to answer each question. You may not duplicate answers. You may not use any other semesters' blogs. If you find someone that may answer a question but you are unsure, you may use Skype or email to clarify your answer. Also, you may not use yourself to answer any question. Post your answers as Blog Post #2 and include a paragraph explaining how this activity is going to help you in EDM310 (use specific names and examples). You must also include clickable links to each blog.

Questions (examples of something I was thinking of):

1. A classmate that is majoring in Secondary Education/ English?
2. A classmate that is majoring in Elementary Education?
3. A classmate that is renewing certification?
4. A classmate that is a non-traditional student (maybe has children, drives from Biloxi, Ms for class, etc)?
5. A classmate that has used iMovie in the past?
6. A classmate that went to another state or out-of-state college prior to USA?
7. A classmate that enjoys running?
8. A classmate that enjoys reading?
9. A classmate that has just had a child?
10. A classmate that is on Facebook? And send a friend request.

My Answers:

1. A classmate that is majoring in Secondary Education/ English? Hannah Albano
2. A classmate that is majoring in Elementary Education? Jamie Cunningham
3. A classmate that is renewing certification? Courtney Blackmon
4. A classmate that is a non-traditional student (maybe has children, drives from Biloxi, Ms for class, etc)? Angelia Gafford
5. A classmate that has used iMovie in the past? Lacie Brothers
6. A classmate that went to another state or out-of-state college prior to USA? Keith Tardibuono
7. A classmate that enjoys running? Byronn Brye
8. A classmate that enjoys dancing? Courtney Hieronymus
9. A classmate that has just had a child? Brittany Collins
10. A classmate that is on Facebook? And send a friend request. Angl White

My Paragraph:

I was so excited to learn more about my classmates by doing this assignment, especially since we are in a web-enhanced class. I feel like I know a few people now! It really allowed me to see who I had things in common with, who could help teach me things I didn’t know how to use in this class, and who might be a possible group member for later in this class. The repetition of the html code for the clickable links will also help me in my future assignments for this class. I can now navigate around our class blogs so much easier!

 Happy Hunting