Blog Post #10 What can we learn from Mrs.Cassidy?

      Mrs.Cassidy's approach to the use of technology has grown over the years. She first started ten years ago with a homepage. She started blogging with her first graders five years ago. She does most all of it by herself. She keeps her students private by not putting their picture with their name. She doesn't allow students to post their last names. They do post their work online. She also sends home a paper for permission from parents to post children's work online.She doesn't allow them to say negative things to each other. She keeps track of how many readers have read her student's blogs. She also has them Skype with other students. She is recently looking at Twitter.

     She has the students blog at the same time in a computer lab.
She believes information is more collaborative so the teacher should be creative to make the assignments individually yours.
She thinks Facebook could be a good learning tool like Twitter. This can help students find other teachers or students for resources. She teaches them not to go to places they aren't suppose to be. They only have certain places they can visit that are linked to her homepage.


  In my own classroom, I'm not entirely sure what I would use. However I know I will not use twitter. I only started using twitter in this class and honestly I don't really like it. I do want to teach with technology because like we have said in previous assignments it has become a major part of the world. I'm not sure I would do blogging in a Kindergarten class but I would use it in a higher grade level, starting with the first grade. I do like the idea of using an Ipad or tablet for reading and other things for smaller children.

C4K Summaries October

My Student's name is Darren. His blog post is of a picture. He is strictly talking about the color sunset-ish orange. I asked him what they color was. I also commented on his painting.

My second student's name is Bella. Her blog post is about  What Kids Should Be Able To Decide In School. She wants to be able to decide how long she has in between classes, how long lunch is, when lunch is, and how long her classes are. My comment was " Hello Bella,
My name is Jennifer Parker and I attend the University of South Alabama. I agree you should have some say in some of these things. I remember middle school and we had 5 minutes and it still wasn’t enough time to use the bathroom and make it across the school and my locker. Also I never had enough time at lunch, even in high school. I suggest eating enough to fill you up before you go to recess or even a bigger breakfast."

My third student's name is  Finnley. His blog post said "likeschool". My comment was the following: "Hi Finnley,
My name is Jennifer Parker and I attend the University of South Alabama. I was wondering if your post meant you like school in general? If so, what do you like about it? I like when I get to learn something new. I also enjoy doing great on test and projects."

My Fourth student's name Paris. She posted about the Rena Oil Spill. She talked about how it sank because of a reef and now the water is polluted. My comment was "Hi Paris,
My name is Jennifer Parker and I attend the University of South Alabama. Thank you for telling me about the Rena Oil Spill. I have not heard of this one. I lived really close to the oil spill that happened in the United States a few years ago."

Project #12 Smart board lesson part a

Blog Post #9 What Can Students and Teachers Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning

  One essential is "need to know". Give the students a good reason to know what you want to teach them. A way that could be more fun way to learn. John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller call it an "entry event". A second essential is to have a "driving question". This gives the student a sense of purpose. They like the challenge. The criteria should be an open-ended, complex and linked to the core of what you want students to learn. This question will be the support of your project. The third essential is " student voice and choice". This gives the student more of a choice about the project. The teacher can have a list of their choices but more of an option. The fourth essential is "21st Century Skills". This should include collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the using technology. The teacher should teach and assess these skills and also allow the student to assess themselves. The fifth essential is "inquiry and innovation". The students do not simply use books, websites, or other resources, they use their own questions to find innovation which leads to new questions. The sixth essential is "feedback and revision". Feedback needs to be available throughout the entire project so students know what they can improve while they are still working on it. It teaches students that they won't always get it right the first time. The seventh and last essential is "a publicly presented project". The students will put more work into a project that is being presented in front of a real audience. The project will have better quality because they will not want to embarrass themselves in front of people.

Project Based Learning For Teachers
  There is no more "busy work" for students. They are spending a certain amount of time answering a certain question, the driving question. It requires students to have an end product and for them to share their learning. It also includes the common core studies. It improves the collaboration skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, and career and life skills. You also use technology! Students are taking charge of their learning.

PBL- High School Math
  Not a lot of people think math could be in project based learning. Teachers are learning how to use this in a math class. They are more focused on the learning now then on the tests they are being giving. PBL is only used in certain concepts because it can not be used for everything without losing content.

What Motivates Students?
 If you give a student praise for doing well on something, it makes them feel good about themselves. Instead of giving the student negatives reviews of their work. Also, their future motivates them. They want to be able to support themselves and family. They also want to have a good job. Getting into college is also a major motivator. They are also motivates by being able to do extra curricular activities. Teachers can have in classroom motivators to help with students attitudes and grades.

Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in Project Based Learning
   One website is Titan Pad. It is a great way to share a document. You don't need to sign in or an email to use this website. Also Wall Wisher is a website that has virtual post-it notes on a virtual wall. Then you have Corkboardme is a program is used for a group project that includes collaborative activities. Google Docs, which we use in this class, is used for for sharing documents and online collaboration. Microsoft Live is also used for collaboration tools. Today's Meet is a way to run a back channel in the classroom. A plus side is you do not need hash tags, logins, or accounts. Will you type with me is like Titan Pad but has some more capabilities like attaching more than Word files. It also has a timeline function. Linoit is an online electronic classroom display board. It is available anywhere. Skype in Education is a communicating program. Quick Screen Share helps you share your screen with anyone.

Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camara Use in Teaching and Learning

Part A:
    Technology has become an invader in the world. It has made an impact on everyone and even has been input in the school systems. Some counties have banned the use of technology, while others only allow certain things to be in the classroom, and others have certain times when technology is allowed. For example Foley High School only allows cell phone use in between classes, during breaks and lunch. It is prohibited to be used in class.

   The implications for education, school, teachers, and learners is that we are finding ways to use technology in schools without losing control on what the students can do during class. The data provided in the class blog, shows students and young adults have become reliable on their cell phones, some even require a camera when looking to buy a new one. I think teachers and schools should use this to their advantage when providing an education. If you can't beat them, join them.



Part B:
   Why banned the use of technology? When I'm a teacher in the future, I'm sure most, if not all, of my students will have a smartphone or a tablet. I think we should use these as resources. However, I do not think they should be present for test, because it just makes it to easy to cheat on things. I hope I can trust my students to use technology to the best of their abilty without being dishonest. With the use of smartphones and tablet we have information in the palm of our hands, we should use that to our advantage especially in a class room.

CAT #2 Brian Crosby

"Sometimes You Feel Like You Have Not Even A Remote Idea Of What's Going On!"
This teacher had given a presentation at a school district's Professional Development day. He set up early and also started a little early since the room was full. He was doing great and had people laughing. However, after a while he noticed he slides were changing on their own, every 15 seconds or so. He though he was holding the remote to tight, he was alright for a little while until it started happening again, so he turned off his remote and he used his arrows on the keyboard. Finally, he was back in sync and had the room's attention again. All the sudden it started again, the only thing he could do was plow ahead. When his presentation was over, he met with other presenters. Come to find out everyone had the same problem during the presentations. They were each changing the others slides. 

My first comment is "Hello,
My name is Jennifer Parker. I attend the University of South Alabama and am in the EDM 310 class. I was wondering if you found a way to prevent this from happening again? I’m sure some found it funny while others found it frustrating. I’m wanting to teach Kindergarten, so I’m not sure if this will help me. However, I would love to know how to avoid this in the future. Also I was wondering how your presentation went when you had to plow ahead? Did you keep the interest of the people in the room?"

Brian's Response: 

"Hi Jennifer – 1st, yes the presentation actually went well … it was a bit frustrating, but folks had a bit of a laugh and saw that even someone that is supposed to have some level of tech savvy-ness can at times struggle. And the issues mostly happened far enough apart that the content was understandable.
Now that I know it was an issue of other remotes, I’d just turn off the remote and remove the reader you plug into your computer to make it work and just use the controls on my laptop to run the presentation. Hope that helps."

My second response:
 "Brian,
 Thank you for your response. This did help. I'm still new to some of this technology, but thank you for telling me how you avoid this problem. Hopefully by the time I graduate I will know how to work all programs."

Project # 9

Blog Post #8 What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

   

       He started the lecture by telling them about himself. He captivated the audience with his information. He keeps them laughing and engaged by making jokes. He didn't stick to one topic, he had different things to talk about. He has examples for everything, he also have pictures and a power point but is not reading off of it. He did talk a lot about his dreams. The best part of this lecture he is teaching that you can learn things by trying to reach your dreams. He talked about how you can learn many things while being a teacher. He uses his childhood dreams as an example.

    I learned a lot while watching this video. I admire how he focused on how to get the most out of life instead of focusing on the fact that he is dying of cancer. He stated the brick walls are not meant to stop you but to show you how much you want something in life. You have to work hard for something that you really want. He is showing us that everything that can go wrong when trying to achieve something will. You should have fun while trying to achieve things in life. He showed me I want to be a teacher that learns and teaches her students, while we all have fun

Project #13

Project Based Learning Plans

Lesson Plans

"The Three Little Pigs" by Judy Tenuta

"The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka

T-Chart 

Bar Graph 

Venn Diagram

 Story Map 

Blog Post #7 How do we all become learners?

  Michele Bennett: How to make an Audio QRCOde:
     I was taught how to make an audio QRCOde. I honestly have never heard of this before. She told use we have to use two websites and a word processor. She should me how to work the program. You can save recordings or you can start over. I would probably re watch this video often when making an audio recording.

Ginger Tuck: iPad in the Reading Center
  I was taught how technology can be used in a Kindergarten Class. I was wondering how you would introduce technology with such a young age group. I think this is a wonderful idea. Mainly because students can see and hear how they read. They get to grade themselves. They can improve themselves. They simply record while they read, then replay it and follow along checking for mistakes.

Poplet as a Center:
   Poplet is a free app you can download. This video teaches you how to use the app by showing you how her kindergarten students use it. I also think this is a good idea. They are learning to gather information to use. I have never heard of this app, so I have never used it. I would like to use it in the future for teaching. I like how you are still using actually books while incorporating technology. This helps with their reading and typing skills.

Alabama Virtual Library as a Kindergarten Center:
  I was taught how to log on and use AVL. I have never heard of this program. This program seems like an easy thing to use and also really helpful. She shows you how to use the program step by step. She also shows us how she has them use it. I think this would be a helpful program in any class.

Mrs.Shirley's 1st Grade Class: How to use and build a Board in DE for a Project Based Lesson:
     I have also never heard of this program. I was taught how to create a board using this program. You can use this program to put together a lot of facts, videos, and pictures about a certain subject. I think this could help students learn and continue to study certain subjects.
  
Mrs.Tassin's 2nd Grade Class: Student's Sharing Board Builders
    This teacher shows how using this program will help students learn subjects and how to talk in front of the class.For both of the videos shows certain students sharing their work. It shows that board builders can be used for multiple purposes.





Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten:
   I have recently learned how to use iMovie. I also just learned what the Alabama Virtual Library Library. This video showed how you use technology with Kindergarten in the classroom. Students make book trailers using iMovie. Also the video told us about how AVL is helpful and how it is used for Kindergarten.

We All Become Learners
  This video talks about everyone teaching and learning. Teachers are teaching students, but also learning from them. Some technology the students understand what they are doing better then what the teacher actually knows how to work it. One person told us about padlet, which we have used before.

What I still need to learn:
   After watching these videos I realized though I know some of the programs I still don't know all of them that could be useful. My strengths is that I can learn new programs fast, however one of my weakness is that I don't know all the programs that are available to me. For the next two years I need to keep better track of what is available to teachers to use to teach better. I want my students to learn what we talk about not to memorize it.

Project #7 Four Movies Part B

Parent

                                                      Student