Blog Post 10

What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy?

In the first video Mrs. Cassidy showed us how her students use technology in the classroom. The students are excited to use the technology for the learning process. I was amazed on how much the first graders could do. We as future teachers do not need to put a limit on our students on what their abilities can be.

In the skype videos part 1,part 2, and part 3 Dr. Strange interviewed Mrs. Cassidy. I really liked the idea that they discussed about why they have class blogs. Honestly, I really plan on having a class blog with my future classroom if the administration allows it. Having a class blog is so beneficial to the parents of the students in the classroom. They can see what is going on daily they can see what their child is posting. When getting students interested in learning we need to appeal to what there interest are. Once we have their attention we can teach them what they need to be taught all the while having them interested in the whole part. Children need to be interested in learning or they are just not going to care and therefor they will not learn anything.

I like how on the third video she mentioned online safety for elementary students. It is very important to keep our students safe. She said that they do not need to give out any personal information and do not post any pictures of themselves. This is a very important point that every teacher should go over with their students. Technology is apart of the learning process and we need to act safely when on the internet.

C4K for October

Post #4
Summary:

The student wrote about online safety. She said that we should not meet anyone from online unless we talk to a trusted adult first.

What I posted:

Hi Iliana, my name is Lauren. I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I really like your blog post. It is always a good idea to be safe on and offline. Like you said, if you have any questions or concerns about anything dealing with your safety you should always ask a trusted adult. Great post!

Post #5
Summary:

The student wrote a kind of journal entry. She was also writing about some books she recommends. She even writes a summary of the books she recommended at the end of her blog post.

What I posted:

Hi
I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I love your post! Your writing has great personality! It was a very organized post. I really enjoyed how you had a little summary of the books at the bottom for us to read a little more about they books you suggested. Keep up the great blogging!

Post #6
Summary:

The student said, " at school. I like recess."

What I posted:

Hi Jacob
My name is Lauren and I am a college student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. We are learning how to post on our blogs as well. I love recess too! It is tons of fun running around and playing with your friends! Keep up the good blogging!

Post #7
Summary:

The student gave tips on how to stay safe while in the sun.

What I posted:

Thank you for the helpful tips on sun safety. I am from Mobile, Alabama in the United States and we get lots of sun exposure! I really like how organized your post is. Keep up the good blogging!

Project 12 Part A

Blog Post 9

What can teachers teach us about project based learning?

The Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning are a need to know, a driving question, studnet voice and choice, 21st century skills, inquiry and innotation, feedback and revision, and a pubicly presented project. Without the essential componets the project will fail. Every project needs to make the project matter to the students and to be educational as required by the state's standards. Teachers can grab students attention by starting out with an attention grabber. The attention grabber can be anything like: a video, a lively discussion, a guest speaker, a field trip, or a combination of them. You really do not want to start off a project by handing the students a pack of papers and just read off the instructions. "A project with out a driving question is like an essay with out a thesis." There needs to be a purpose behind the project that the student can understand and follow. To make a project meaningful to the students they need to be able to have a voice within the project. Something that helps them make it their own. A good project lets students make use of all the wonderful technology we have in the 21st century. Letting students branch off of the subject of the project lets them make them feel like they have control on their learning. When students know that they will be presenting their work they will care more about the outcome of their project.

In the video Project based learning for teachers it said that we need to stop having teacher based classrooms and have student centered classrooms. When students use project based learning it has students working over an extended period of time answering a driving question. The question must be deep and have the students to complete and end a project and to also share the project. Project based learning is the big HOW in problem solving.

When finding a project to do with our students we need to make sure that they will want to do the project. In the video What motivates students? they gave some suggestions to motivate our future students. Acknolowledging students work, do well in school, making good grades, parents, and extracuricular activites are all good motivatavers. One of the biggest motivators are REWARDS! Studetns espically younger students love getting rewards like candy or extra time at recess or snack.

I found an intresting article called How to get high quality student work in PBL. In the article it said that the use of rubrics with PBL is a good tool to show srudents how to work on the project. Getting profesionals to come in or online communication can really motivate students into really getting into the project. A teacher needs to give feed back to the students so that the student can correct the problem. Making sure there is enough time allowed to do a good job on the project is key when wanting students to do good on the project. Having students care about the project is important because if they do not care they will not want to do the project let alone do a good job.

I also found a video The Building Blocks of Project Based Learning. I found it on the teaching channel. It said that deeper learning comes from a list of things. Master core academic content, thinking critically and solve complex problems, working collaboratively, communicating effetely, learning how to learn, and developing academic mindsets are key to having PBL successful. The hole reason to have project based learning in school is because project based learning supports deeper learning. When doing the project and discussing the project the students retain and truly learn what they are taught.

Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning

Part A

When I was in high school cell phones had become a huge issue. With the data Dr. Strange shared with us on his blog you can see why it was such an issue. Although the staticts are for ages 18-24 I am sure that they would be really close to the high school age. With the percentage of 87% of people say that their cell phone never leaves there side it is bound to cause disruptions in school.

Cell phones are a huge part of today's youth and I count myself in on that. Teachers in my high school were always worried about who had cell phones out and who was texting. They even when as far as making it hard for people to get siginal in the school. We as future teachers need to find ways to make school the focus while students are at school and at the same time not make it seem like technology is the enemy.

Part B

As a future elementary school teacher I think I have it the best when it comes to using technology in the classroom. There are so many different programs out there for elementary students. Also being in Baldwin county is amazing! I am in my observation right now and my teacher is all about using there lap tops to good use. She as showed me so many great thing to do with my future students.
1. They can do projects on board builder
2. Online scavenger hunt (approved sights only)
3. Mobey Mac
4. Spelling City
5. Digital story telling
6. Finding videos that deal with what we are currently learning
7. Virtual field trips
8. Skype a professional to speak to the students
9. Making book trailers of their own using iMovie
10. Using Google docs to do projects with other students
11. Padlet
12. Google slides
13. Blogging

Project #9

Blog Post 8

What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?

This was the first I had heard of Randy Pausch. I could listen to him for hours. He had a way about him that just keeps the listener intrigued. I am not going to lie, when I saw that that the video was one hour and sixteen minutes long I was trying to figure out ways to get around it. I was watching and I just could not stop watching until the end. I did cry at the end and when he had the whole audience sing happy birthday to his wife. (I am such a sap.) Randy had so many great ideas on teaching and learning. The only way I can share all the ones that I caught is to list them.

Randy Pausch's last lecture

1. We can not change the cards we are dealt we just have to play the hand.
2. He laughs at himself.
3. Enabling the dreams of others is more fun than your own dreams.
4. You have to get the fundamentals down otherwise the fancy stuff just wont work.
5. Your critics are the ones telling you they care.
6. Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted.
7. Most of what we learn we learn indirectly. ex: Teamwork, by working in a group to do a project.
8. Wait long enough and people will impress you.
9. Identify dreams and work on how to get you there and others there.
10. You don't know where the bar should be and you will only be doing your students a disfavor by setting one. (keep the bar moving!)
11. Bonding!
12. You can tell if a project is good if the group members have bonded.
13. When you are doing something that is pioneering everything that could go wrong will go wrong but the end result will be amazing.
14. Find someone better than you to hand over your legacy. (does not really have anything to do with being an elementary school teacher but still very important because you don't need to take your self too seriously and if you truly want your students to succeed you will give them the best opportunity no matter what.)
15. Key to success is hands on project based learning.
16. Focus on people and learning to work in groups.
17. Have peers evaluate each other.
18. A good teacher will have a student become self-reflective.
19. The best way to teach someone something is to make them think they are learning something else.
20. Everyone should be helping others.
21. Let your children/ students express themselves.
22. if you are going to sell someone something sell them something worth while... education!
23. Tell students to have fun.
24. Teach by example.
25. Loyalty is a two way street.
26. Ignore what people say and only pay attention to what they do!
27. Never give up.
28. You can not get anywhere alone, you need help!
29. Apologize when you screw up.
30. Focus on others not yourself.
31. Brick walls let us show how dedicated we are!
32. When you do the right thing good stuff has a way of happening.
33. Get feed back and listen to it!
34. Show gratitude.
35. Do not complain just work harder.
36. Be a hard worker.
37. People will show you their good side you just have to wait.
38. Be prepared.
39. If you lead your life the right way, karma will follow suit.

My favorite analogy Randy stated over and over again was the brick wall. I had heard the expression before but not explained the way he explained the way he did. Brick walls keep people out who do not want it bad enough. If you truly want something you will work your butt off to get there no matter how many obstacles you have to over come.

C4T #2

Post #1

Our Greatest missed Opportunity?

This article shared an article that was about how this group of high school students were creating computer programs alongside processionals for elementary school teachers. At the end of the article it says that people dont like this type of teaching because too much technology is involved. Turns out the article is from 1983.

What I wrote...

The article you shared was very interesting
I would of never know it was from so long ago unless I was told so. I believe that some people still believe that computers are involved in too much of school but that is where the future is taking us and rather than backing away from it we need to embrace it. Thank you for the very informative article.


Post #2

Mom and Dad: How they spend their weekdays (1965 and 2011)

This article showed a chart had showed how mothers and fathers spend their day in 1965 compared to how they spend their day in 2011. One of the major differences in the chart was how many hours the mothers work a week and how fathers help out with childcare more in 2011.

What I wrote...

The bar graph is really interesting. I like how it shows the differences in how mothers and fathers spend their workweek. The way the graph is organized makes it really easy to see what has changed and what has stayed the same for the most part. It is important to keep track of this information because we need to know how we have changed over the years, weather it be for the good or bad.

Blog Post 7

How Do We All Become Learners?

I really love project based learning. Students have more independence and take charge of their learning. Students can help others or get others to help them. When students are researching on there own they learn more information on the topic. The students must weed threw the information and pick out the information they would want to use on their project. In the video We All Become Learners Michele Bennett used the term challenged based learning. Which is exactly what project based learning is. As a teacher you do not give the student all they information on a silver platter you are actually helping them more when you make them search for it. This helps them develop life time research skills.

There are so many great programs and websites now. On How to use and build a board on Board Builder the teacher shows you and student also shows you how to create a board. The students looked very excited to show their boards on the Whale project and The Animal Haven Project. The students do all of there own research on their own. One of the best resources for students to use is AVL (Alabama Virtual Library). This is a safe search engine and has videos, audio, text, and pictures. If the students can not read very well yet they can click on an audio buttion and follow along while it reads to them. One of the best videos is Alabama Virtual Library as a Kindergartner Center. This video shocked me on how easy and resourceful the AVL app was. Kindergartners did there own research on their iPads, watched videos, listened to audio, and then completed an activity that corresponded all by themselves. This is crazy cool! Kindergartners doing there own research! It just blew me away.

One of the best things I have going for me when it comes to the technology revolution, is that I know that I am well aware that I do not know it all. I am very willing to learn and I want to learn. I want to give my future students the best education possible. Students are so excited to use new technology. They should not suffer just because I do not know how to use it. Michele Bennett said that students can show us how to use things. We do not have to know everything. Students half the time already know more about technology than we ever will. I could improve on finding my own projects to do with my future students; like doing my own research on new and up coming teaching programs. Things are constantly changing in our world and we must change too.

Project 13

As a group we decided to have our students complete a project on the solar system. They will be sepreated into groups and assighned a planet. The students will be separated into groups and assigned a planet. The students will be researching their planet and required to do in an iMovie.






PBL Lesson Plan

Project Calendar

Project Chectlist

Project Rubric

Project 7 Part B

Meet the Parents




Meet the Students