Project #12

Book Trailer for The Little Red Riding Hood by Mercer Mayer

Blog #9

At The Teacher's Desk: What I learned this year 2010-2011

Here Mr. McClung is leaving his third year as a teacher and going into his fourth. McClung keeps a blog going of what he has learned every year as a teacher and posts it for all to see. In his third year he wore many hats as a head coach, a coach for cross country, and a computer applications teacher.

In his second paragraph he mentions to remember who you really work for. Not talking about your principal or administration but your students. Your job is to keep them happy and excited not to find acceptment from others. As he was going to begin his fourth year he was becoming afraid of being too comfortable in his work. In order to steer clear of this he picked up new tasks to keep him busy and make him learn new things. As an educator we must remember while teaching new tasks whether difficult or hard we must not get so frustrated with the student that we begin to take over their opportunity at learning. What I mean with this is not to not to touch the keyboard as McClung says. If we do the task for the student they'll never learn how to do it on their own.

Mr. McClung's World 2012-2012

As McClung left his fourth year he brought up a similar topic from last year. Pleasing others that aren't your students. Last year he said he didn't mind being the outsider that he would rather hang out with his students than the other teachers even at lunch time. It seems like McClung forgot about how important it is that it's not important what the other adults think of you. He eventually got over this worry but it took his most of the school year. Secondly, his other topic was one that he covered in his last blog as well. He previously said not to get too comfortable but this past year he found himself using old lesson plans and his kids weren't getting excited anymore. He was given the opportunity to teach a new grade and subject next year so he's really excited about the new change he must take on. He's taking this opportunity to snap out of his funk and challenge himself to be a better teacher.

Mr. McClung comes across as a genuine teacher. I know he means well and he teaches with best intentions. I feel as though he forgets what he says at the end of the year and then the next year he struggles with his forgetfulness.Many have commented on the his 2010-2011 blog I posted. They gave some of their ideas like the less is more approach and being so tech-savvy in a school that's not can make them become the oustider and not in a good way. Also, someone mentioned that all year long we train students for a test at the end of the year that doesn't benefit the students but benefit adults that use the test scores. That's not fair. Our job as professionalists should be to teach students to help them later in life and morally our standards set by the government are just off. It's pretty ridiculous. McClung's ideas were right, we should pay the most attention to our students and not the other teachers; especially if they're the type that slacks or are debbie downers. I don't think routines keep students learning I think it makes everyone comfortable. If your lesson plan calls for a routine for a couple of weeks then sure that's fine but after that switch things up. It'll keep things new, fun, and students will have to stay up-to-date on what's going on and what's due in class.

PLN Project #10

This is my first progress update on creating my PLN. I'm using Symbaloo as my tool to hold all my bookmarks on one page. I've set Symbaloo as my homepage so that way I conveniently have everything I need when I first open my computer. Also, Symbaloo has a Google search box in the center of my page so if I happen to need Google it's right there. I have all my blocks color coordinated as well. The red are the ones I have to look at every day. The pink on the bottom are for recreation when I'm bored. The green blocks are a necessity and the white ones are there for that random day when I need them. Like if mom says she needs me to look up plane tickets I have Expedia and if I'm looking for something for sale I have Craigslist. On the bottom I've got the orange (I haven't really figured out how I want to organize those or what sites I'd like to add there) and lastly is the blue, Twitter and horoscopes are for entertainment and when I want to stay in the know.

So far, this idea seems to be working better than clicking on my favorites bar multiple times.

Blog #8

This is How We Teach Parts 1 & 2

In these two videos Dr. Miller talks about the importance of writing and how writing in this present time is very influential. He begins talking about incremental change is how we use our laptops and the desktop is our 'work area' we can search the web and learn about anything without stepping foot in a library. He wrote a document about the Bush Doctrine all on his computer without a physical book. He published his document in print form and in online form. When you throw away the print form we will still have the online form indefinately.

Also, the perks of doing a document online you can add video and audio to it. One could take threads of different forms of documents and weave them into one document online. Even the newspaper companies are moving from a paper printed document to primarily being an online source. These were the incremental changes Dr. Miller spoke of.

As we begin to work online we can see how the websites we use change frequently and daily. This has become our culture and we now have begun to share our ideas freely. There are minimal restrictions to this new form, he says the only restrictions we have are the ones we place upon ourselves. A person must write a 'compelling composition' one that is interesting and intriguing. It will grasp attention and be shared internationally, it will start arguments and conversations. That is how one can make a difference.

There are more ways than using letters and pictures to express yourself or your document. The web offers new animation and autobots that can retrieve all kinds of information and you don't even have to use Google!

To sum it all up, I believe Dr. Miller is saying instead of using the old pen and paper function to share an idea or thought use multi-media and a computer! When you publish things on the web they get to people faster and when you publish your writings beautifully and different they are eye-catching! It makes people want to read it or at least look at. Yes, by the time I'm an educator I will be able to do this and I specifically want to work with special needs students so I'm not sure if they'll be able to do everything but they will for sure work with technology to learn and express themselves.

Carly's Blog #12

After reading Carly's blog, I absolutely love the format and lay out. It's pretty, colorful, has a not so typical font. She's funny and genuine about herself and her thoughts. I think she came up with a great idea and a lot of students expressed their same feelings in her comments. Carly has come very close to Dr. Miller's theory. The ten options she gave for students to use for their YouTube playlist were thorough and if I had been assigned that I know it would involve lots of time and thinking. I agree with her, that in a perfect classroom students have to think. She listed the videos she added to her playlist and then described why she chose those. I honestly think she did a wonderful job. I can tell she put in a lot of work into this blog and into her playlist.

EDM for Dummies & The Chipper Series

In the "EDM for Dummies" YouTube video, two students act out their frustration for EDM 310 class and they made a book called EDM for Dummies to help anyone taking EDM 310. I thought the idea was super cute! I'm sure many students that take EDM 310 can relate to the stress these students feel, especially in the beginning of the semester.
"The Chipper Series" is tummy aching funny!!! I laughed so hard at every episode! The students that made this video came up with several great ideas. If students don't go to school and get an education with a legitimate school, it looks like their life could go like Chipper's.
If I could participate or make a video I think it'd be fun to make a video on why you should be a 'good' teacher. I'd shoot what a 'bad' teacher is such as one that doesn't care what their students do, the kind of teacher that is looked down upon and doesn't uphold to moral standards. This would show students and others that teaching is not only a simple, mindless job. People chose to become teachers because they have a passion for it not because of its sterotype, "Those that can't do, teach."

Learn to Change, Change to Learn, is a phenomenal video, period. This is the first video I've watched that has an older generation of adults admiting the faults that the government and schools have. They are saying, having technology in schools would ultimately change schools for the better. They have seen how much people, especially the younger generation use technology for daily tasks. One of the commentors in the video says children are big communicators, they use text messaging, emailing, and instant messaging but all of those things are banned from their schools. As I was watching, I just began to nod my head; I couldn't agree with them more. I wish I could've joined in on their conversation. The government wants to make school such a rigid place. Full of rules, regulations, children have to be quiet all day; I wish they could see how children would act differently in a more warm, interactive environment. Children don't prosper in a cold, white-walled room with a monotoned instructor. Children are full of life, energy and joy. They want to be comforted, loved, enthralled, amused. Having technology introduced in the classroom would help those that are shy have a voice, help the ones that don't pick up on things as fast, show students a different approach to learning, for children that are hands-on learner they could use it, there are just several ways it would increase the productivity. I just wish those that are writing and approving the laws and bills would take a step into a 21st century classroom and get an eye full.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0
Discovery Education

On PhotoPeach an educator can use this site to post assignments or lessons such as a slideshow and make their students accounts. The teacher can post pictures, audio, and projects for parents to see as well. The students are not able to modify or delete their account. The cost to use this program in the class can be as low as $9/month for up to 50 students!! That's incredibly cheap.

This video Teaching in the 21st Century was made from a Prezi Presentation. The Prezi website offers similar qualities that the PhotoPeach does. Prezi's prices give you a little more bang for your buck at $4.92/month or $13.25/month. Prezi gives you so many choices to make your presentation more entertaining than an average powerpoint. If you're an educator think of all the presentations you'll have to make for your students and all the different lessons you'll teach, that small price won't even put a dent in your wallet.

Animoto is a video making tool. Its ability to analyze music, photos, and content automatically makes this tool unlike any other. This feature gives you the time to work on other things. You can choose your music, pictures, and share it even in high definition. Animoto even offers a mobile app for you to share videos from your iPhone or Android.

Here is my poll I created on Polleverywhere.com. It took seriously, less than 30 seconds to create it. I love it!!

Blog #7

In this quick video called, The Networked Student, the narrator gives an example of a student in the 21st century classroom and tells how his teacher "teaches". The teacher doesn't lecture often and the student learns from a network of other students, classmates, teachers, and resources. The narrator asks an important question, "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" and the answer is she teaches him how to build his network and take advantage of opportunites. She helps when he gets stuck and shows him how to communicate, asks respectively for help, how to turn a websearch into a scavenger hunt, and gets excited, and organizes his mounds of information. The teacher hopes when he leaves he'll maintain his network and use it to navigate in his future. I really enjoyed the short video, it wasn't animated or anything fancy but it was very interesting! The narrator was clear, precise, and thorough. I believe everything he said was of importance and I agree with him. As the centuries progress so will our students and technology. The only thing constant is change so therefore, we as educators need to continue to change our styles so that they stay up-to-date.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

This video was done by a 7th grader on her personal learning environment. It's all on a computer and very well organized. I see she made her short cuts to her frequently used sites on a website called "Symbaloo", I actually want to test it out and see what mine would look like. This student did an excellent job showing how she maneuvers through her PLE and what each site does and why she uses it. She sounded very mature for a 7th grader! I'm very pleased to see our young students learning how to network and use different websites so well! I must admit her PLE is a lot more organized than mine, I feel ashamed to see such a young student so much more organized than I. She made it look so easy so now I'm going to clean mine up and get mine going like hers. I appreciate her uploading that video to YouTube for everyone to learn from! Thank you!

C4K Summary

Issa's Blog

During the month of September I commented on Issa's blog and Sarah's blog. Issa is a 5 year student at PT School in England. The post I commented on was her September 18, 2012 entry. She wrote about the last day playing basketball at school and she thought to herself, had she learned everything she could about basketball? Issa said they had gotten into groups and their first race they had she came in second place but the last game they played her group came in last. Her basketball teacher's name is Tai and she says they all screamed "Thank You!!!" as they ran inside.

Sarah's blog

For Sarah, I commented on her September 27, 2012 blog. Sarah is also a 5 year student at PT School in England. Sarah had posted about her family going to the ocean and how she almost got eaten by a shark! Her mother and her were standing in the water when they noticed a fin circling them! Thankfully her dad threw a dead bloody fish in the ocean for the shark to take and go away, which he did. Sarah said her dad saved their lives that day and even though it was really weird and scary she still had a cool day.

Both of the girls did a great job giving excellent details about their stories and it brought such a vivid image to the reader's mind.

Project #8 Podcast

Project #9a

Blog #6

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
Randy Pausch, born in 1960 was told a month ago he has 3-6 months to live due to having 10 tumors in his liver. Dr. Pausch is a public speaker and in this video he gave a speech at Carnegie Mellon University about reaching childhood dreams. He began his speech talking about his life dreams he had and how he achieved them. Dr. Pausch said, "When you're screwing up and no body is saying anything to you anymore that means they gave up." I absolutely love that quote! That's exactly right, if someone is getting on to you to try and get you to do it right that means they still have faith in you.

His dreams ranged from small to large such as being in the NFL. He never did get to actually be in the NFL but he did practice, try, and put a lot of hard work into it. Dr. Pausch brings up 'brick walls' he says the brick walls aren't there to stop you from acheiving your goal but to show you how bad you really want it. Dr. Pausch has experienced incredible things throughout life such as make a virtual reality at a time in life when that was really expensive and technology hadn't advanced that far yet.

Once he had completed his childhood dreams he wanted to help others complete his dreams. Being a professor, he was able to begin helping his students enable their dreams. This speech you could read between the lines and understand what Dr. Pausch was trying to say with his stories.

We as educators, can help encourage our students to keep the drive for what they dream of doing. Teachers have a bond with their students that differs from any other bond. We encourage, shelter, advise, discipline, care, and better our students. It's like we're the mother duck and they are our ducklings. The brick walls Dr. Pausch mentions will arise in our students' lives and when they do we need to be there to tell them his famous quote. That brick wall isn't there to prevent you from reaching your goal it's to show you how bad you want it so you can try harder. Life is about experience and excitement, when I have my own classroom my students will definately know what those two words are!