Blog Assignment #16

Blog Post #15

 Personal Learning Networks are a place for educators to turn to if they need help or guidance. This a network for you to connect with teachers, get advice or assistance in your teaching career. Teachers will be able to give your ideas for projects, research, and assignments that have worked for them and might work for you in your classroom. I use twitter and many other useful things that I am connected to. 

Blog post #14

Problems with Teaching in teaching our children can be a profession:

1. Problem with picking teachers
2.Problem with seniority


Solutions to these problems stated in the article:
1.Do not just pick teachers because they have a college degree
2. Just because a teacher has been there longer, doesn't mean they are better than a teacher who just got hired?

In the article Teaching Our Children Can Be A Profession, Joel Klein gives many wonderful examples of things that could be enhanced in the educational system. The most important of these issues have to do with teachers themselves. The way the workforce for teachers works, and has worked for as long as I can remember, is strictly by seniority and not by qualifications. This leaves for the newer hires to get the boot when there is a budget cut or other type of issue. The point that Mr. Klein makes is that we should start picking from the best, whether that be teachers with seniority or some of the newbies like I will be in a few years. In order to assess the skills of the teachers, they would be assessed with a "teacher’s examination". The newer teachers would be evaluated op for over a 3 year span. I agree with Joel on the changes that need to be made. 

Blog Assignment #12

Blog Post #11

PBL

Back To The Future
I really enjoyed watching this video. It was really neat to watch the experiment that Brian Cosby did with his class. He not only got his classes attention but he used technology to get other people in different states involved. This video just goes to show people how technology can connect people all around the world.

Blended Learning Cycle
In the video Blended Learning Cycle, Paul Anderson shares some great methods with PBL. Anderson says that if his students are not understanding by the end then they will start back over until they do. I think for teachers this is a great method it shows students that teachers will not give up until the student understands and can master the concepts.

Teaching Digital Citizenship In Elementary School
This video was a very good video that shows people how technology is good to use in classrooms and how elementary schools are using it.  This video shows how elementary classrooms are using it to make comic books.

Project Based Learning

In the video Roosevelt Elementary the students were willing and excited to start the projects and learn. PBL is hands on and the students are engaged in what they are doing, and the parents, and staff seemed to like that their children were teaching themselves to be self-motivators. PBL learning teaches students problem solving skills, collaboration, presentation skills, and speaking skills. All of these aspects of PBL are important for students in their school careers and their future jobs. I will be using project based learning in my classroom when I am a teacher. I think it helps students be better prepared in their future careers.

Roosevelt Elementary's PBL program
This video shows how Roosevelt Elementary uses project based learning in their school. Project Based Learning is where students use projects to gain more knowledge. Projects help students retain information better then just telling them the information. It requires them to use the information they have received.

Blog Post #10

I enjoyed watching the interviews between Dr. Strange and Kathy Cassidy. Kathy made a lot of great points about technology. There are many things to learn from Mrs. Cassidy. First, I want to express my appreciation for how she brought technology into the classroom. I graduated from high school in 20011 and we were doing zilch even close to what these 1st graders were doing in her classroom.  I loved how Kathy stated that because technology is so advanced and used by many that teachers need to incorporate it in lessons so that students learn more about it. Technology is vital. Many people say that it is too hard to learn technology since they never really used it growing up, but Kathy made a great point about how technology is such a useful tool because it is easy to learn new tools.
I also loved how Kathy uses blogging in her classroom. She allows students to blog and she keeps a blogging portfolio for her students and allows parents to view it at any time. I believe this is great for parents because they can access it at any time in there connivance.
I enjoyed watching Kathy's Interview and gained more knowledge to use when I become a teacher. 

Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2
Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 3

Blog Post #9

There are many things we can learn from students and teachers about Project Based Learning (PBL). There are many blogs and videos on information about PBL.

Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning
In this blog page, John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller explain the 7 essentials for PBL.
The seven essentials are:
1. A Need to Know
2. A Driving Question

In Project-Based Learning for Teachers it starts off saying that PBL is a deep question or the driving question we want are students to be able to answer and to be able to create an "end product" to share with their classmates. PBL learning allows students to answer open-ended questions and to develop problem solving skills in a group. Teachers will use collaboration and communication skills in their jobs. Teachers will have to be able to communicate and collaborate with their co workers. Some of the things that students and teachers can use for PBL would be Google Sites, Poppet, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. The main thing that students and teachers can learn from PBL in this video is that the "students take charge of learning", students are creating the end product. 

3. Student Voice and Choice
4. 21st Century Skills
5. Inquiry and Innovation
6. Feedback and Revision
7. A Publicly Presented Product

Seven Essentials for PBL In this article Ms. Mclntrye gives her high school students a “project" on water-borne bacteria. Ms. Mclntrye showed her students a video on contaminated water and then the students participated in a lively class discussion. This teaches students and teachers that using something that activates students will get their attention when it comes to projects. Some ways that you might get the students attention would be to show them a video, have a class discussion, field trip, or a guest speaker. Ms. Mclntrye then went on to state her driving question for the class by having the students brainstorm solutions, think of enacting laws, and how the students could design their own waste-treatment system. A driving question will give students a challenge and sense of purpose in their assignment. We want students to be focused on how could we solve the problem? what could we do to fix it? Ms. Mclntrye let her students have a voice by assigning them an oral presentation of their work, and a paper. She has the students use media as one of their tools in this assignment. Teachers should design projects that give students a voice and choice because it makes the project mean something to the students. Ms. Mclntrye used 21st century skills, she had the students collaborate and had the students form groups of 3 or 4. Students would be learning how to work together a skill that you will need for not only college but for future jobs. All projects should have things like critical thinking, communication, and the use of technology. Ms. Mclntrye had the whole class generated a list of more detailed questions about bacteria, diseases, and the effects that they would have. Students follow a trail of questions that they have and that will lead to new questions being asked and students will find new ways to solve them. As the students were working on their projects Ms. Mclntrye would go around and give the students feedback and monitor their progress to see if revision was needed. It is important as a teacher and student that you give feedback. Students need feedback from peers and teachers to see what they can work on to improve for the future. Revision is another important aspect we want the students to have because when we have jobs in the future we will have to revise things many times. Ms. Mclntrye then had the students present the finished product to the class. I agree that school work is more meaningful when students present their work to the class either as an individual or as a group. It gives students a chance to present projects to a real life audience something that you will have to do in future jobs. 

PBL and PE in this article the students used the same seven essentials like the previous article. High school students were given a letter from the principal asking them to create an exercise program for middle school students. It is important for the students to ask themselves what they need to know. Students can do this by creating a list of questions to answer or having a discussion about it. Students will then answer the "driving question", the driving question for this assignment was "How can we create the best exercise program for our school?” Teachers should allow students to have a choice for what they plan to do their project on. Let the students choose how it is presented whether that be on a slideshow, podcast, or if they want to demonstrate what they did to their classmates. Since this is the 21st century the students will have to learn how to connect and cooperate with their classmates. PBL has open ended questions that are constantly keeping students engaged in the learning process. As a teacher and student feedback is critical. You cannot get better at something if you do not have somebody to point out your mistakes. Once a teacher or peer has pointed out your mistake that you have made you will have to go back and review your project. The last thing that is important would be presenting the finished presentation to your classmates. That way you are practicing giving speeches, or showing projects. Students will feel like they have accomplished something because they are showing their peers and teacher something that they have created.

PBL: What motivates students today
In this video, students explain different techniques that motivate them. A few of my favorites are the classroom money, the candy, and the verbal rewarding. This video was very interesting. It had some great tips to use for when I become a teacher.

Project 12 part b

plog post 8

Pausch an excellent educator, he was a amazing person with wonderfully optimistic outlook on life. In the video, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture Mr. Pausch was given the devistating news that he only had three to six months to live. Mr. Pausch decided he would live life to the fullest and was positive about how he lived his life even though he did not have much time left. In the video you can see how much Mr. Pausch enjoys teaching and helping others learn. He gives some examples of his childhood that I think help the audience connect with him as a speaker. Mr. Pausch's main focus was that learning should be a fun experience for children. If learning is a fun experience children are more likely to want to learn what you are teaching them. We must make learning fun for our students. Hard work can actually be enjoyable with the right kind of teaching, group work, and assignments. Group work is also valuable because it allows students to connect with and help each other. I agree with Pausch in that we as humans are meant to help each other. We are not meant to live this life alone.  Two of the things he focused on were PBL and Technology. Project Based Learning and Technology can be used as a creative way for children to express themselves and as a tool to make learning fun. Mr. Pausch said that you should strive to be the best you can be. He gives some advice; 1. Give feedback and listen to your students. 2. Work harder and dont complain. 3. Find the best in every person. This advice was very helpful for me as a future teacher. When I am with my students I know to look for the best in each one of my children, and when I give my students feedback to listen to what they have to say. I really enjoyed this blog post.

Not only was the most important thing I learned from his lecture is that a career in teaching will never be easy. There will always be complications, setbacks, and injustice. However, teaching is a learning process. We must learn to adapt and realize there is an always an opportunity to better ourselves. Sometimes a "brick wall" is necessary for us to realize what we are actually capable of. Once we do this, we can accomplish things bigger than our dreams thought possible. 

project 14 part a

W6 Lesson Plan

Blog post 7

Preparing Myself for Project Based Learning

Strengths:

Ø  Familiar with Apple, iPads, etc.

Ø  Familiar with PC computers, Google slides.

Ø  I have worked with children in summer camps.

Weaknesses:

Ø  Never practiced this kind of learning as an elementary school student

Ø  Unfamiliar with Discovery Education Board Builder

Ø  Slightly unfamiliar with Alabama Virtual Library

Ø  Unfamiliar with Poplet

Ø  Slightly unfamiliar with QR codes



In "How to Make an Audio QR Code," Michele Bennett demonstrates how teachers can record files and transfer them into a QR code. Students can use it when reading a pre-recorded book, or when listening to a recorded story out of their reading book of the teacher’s voice. Michelle Bennett says that "Children listen to the story three or four times", and think of their teachers voice as a tutor that is helping them learn how to read. It is a great way to get children reading.
 This could be useful for many events such as Meet the Teacher Night, when parents can scan the code to find an introduction video by the teacher. These could also be used by students in their projects and they could also make their own recording for a code. "iPad Reading Center" and "Poplet with Ginger Tuck" both showcase ideas for kindergarten reading centers using iPads. In the first video, teacher Ginger Tuck shows how her students can record themselves reading and playback the recording to better student’s fluency and other reading skills. Tuck uses the application Popplet in the second video for her students to make visual web maps of books. Alabama Virtual Library is a resource that students can use to research and organize information, as shown in "AVL and Kindergarten Students." Another great online resource for project based learning is Discovery Education Board Builder, which allows students to create virtual bulletin boards of information. In "Tammy Shirley Discovery Education Moon Builder Project," Tammy Shirley's first grade student showcased her Moon Project Board she created. In "Mrs. Tassin 2nd Grade Students Share Board Builder Project" and "Mrs. Tassin students share Board Builder Project," Mrs. Tassin's second graders presented their project based learning group assignments using Board Builder. Imovie and Alabama Virtual Library, Dr. Strange asks Michelle Bennett and Elizabeth Davis to share about Imovie and AVL and how children in kindergarten are using these programs. The students use Imovie to make book trailers just like students in EDM310. Teachers in these schools use these programs as a means to help children learn. We All Become Learners, Dr. Strange again asks Michelle Bennett and Elizabeth to share with everyone that we all become learners. Michelle Bennett shares that a student in Kindergarten showed her how to do something on and his or her Ipad. Dr. Strange sums it all up when he says that we are all "teachers and learners," teachers as well as students learn something new every day. 

Blog post 6

1. Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher
2. Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher
3. iCurio
4. Discovery Education
5. The Anthony - Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1
6. Don't Teach Tech - Use It
7. Additional Thought about Lessons

Anthony Capps is a former EDM310 student, who now teaches third grade in Baldwin County. He uses what he learned in EDM310 with his students in his classroom. In the video Project Based Learning Part 1 and Project Based Learning Part 2, Project Based Learning is an actual learning process and not students taking tests on what they have learned. Mr. Capps mentions that the projects have to meet the common core standards for the state. PBL lets students be creative with their school work, and also lets students ask their peers questions if they do not understand the assignment. So, PBL allows more student-students and teacher-student interaction. Mr. Capps mentions that he records feedback from his students so that he can continue to do things that interest them. It is important as a teacher if you are using PBL to create projects or assignments that interested them. 

Project 12 Part A

Project #9

Blog post 5

What is Personal Learning Networks (PLN)?  -  Personal Learning Networks (PLN's) are money-making resources for teachers to grow skillfully. Individually PLN is created and personalized based on the professional interests and goals of an individual educator. This is a free means of professional development available 24/7 from anywhere.

How can they help us as teachers? As we carry on into 21st century education system, teachers must acquire new techniques and practices to better ourselves and to prepare our students for our constantly evolving world.  One way to do this is through a Personal Learning Network (PLN), a network of people, websites, blogs, and other resources. Vicki Davis best explains how PLNs can work in the classroom in her article "Personal Learning Networks Are Virtual Lockers for School kids": "A PLN becomes a student's virtual locker, and its content changes based on the student's current course work. When I assign them a term paper, the students comb the Web to sign up for information that will feed into their personalized Web page to construct a PLN for that topic. When they get a new project, they assemble another page."

How are they made? How can you create your own PLN?

Dr. Strange has stated before that Twitter is best way for him to connect with other educators and resources. He has also provided a list of many educators in Project 6 Fall of 2009. Once you discover new resources to include in your PLN, you can use websites like Symbaloo or Netvibes to form and keep track of your PLN resources. Symbaloo organizes different website icons by tile blocks, while Netvibes organizes RSS feeds of sites into block arrangements. Both are effective tools and easy to use.

Who will be the first additions to your PLN?

 I have little to have begin to build my own PLN, but I have planned to add Dr. Strange, friends and classmates to my network through Twitter when i do.

My passion is...

My sentence is....

My Intervention of PDL

Blog Post 5

What is Personal Learning Networks (PLN)?  -  Personal Learning Networks (PLN's) are money-making resources for teachers to grow skillfully. Individually PLN is created and personalized based on the professional interests and goals of an individual educator. This is a free means of professional development available 24/7 from anywhere.

How can they help us as teachers? As we carry on into 21st century education system, teachers must acquire new techniques and practices to better ourselves and to prepare our students for our constantly evolving world.  One way to do this is through a Personal Learning Network (PLN), a network of people, websites, blogs, and other resources. Vicki Davis best explains how PLNs can work in the classroom in her article "Personal Learning Networks Are Virtual Lockers for School kids": "A PLN becomes a student's virtual locker, and its content changes based on the student's current course work. When I assign them a term paper, the students comb the Web to sign up for information that will feed into their personalized Web page to construct a PLN for that topic. When they get a new project, they assemble another page."

How are they made? How can you create your own PLN?

Dr. Strange has stated before that Twitter is best way for him to connect with other educators and resources. He has also provided a list of many educators in Project 6 Fall of 2009. Once you discover new resources to include in your PLN, you can use websites like Symbaloo or Netvibes to form and keep track of your PLN resources. Symbaloo organizes different website icons by tile blocks, while Netvibes organizes RSS feeds of sites into block arrangements. Both are effective tools and easy to use.

Who will be the first additions to your PLN?

 I am a little to have begun to build my own PLN, but I have planned to add Dr. Strange, friends and classmates to my network through Twitter.

Blog post 4

  After reading these articles I have learned a lot about how to ask questions and what questions to ask. The first article I read was” Three Ways To Ask Better Questions in the Classroom”. In his blog post "The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom," Ben Johnson asks why teachers ask questions in the first place. As he says, "What does a teacher asking questions of a class expect the class to learn from the questioning method?" First, we must prepare questions while we are creating or writing lecture it is crucial that we do this so that we are prepared to ask important questions that relate directly to the content of out speech. Next, we are to be sure to engage our students in the question asking process, by maybe leaving the question unanswered.  Lastly, this article states that we must save good questions. Good questions help students to see the importance of questions and how they make us think. The best questions of all are those we cannot answer.

  We must remember that as teachers we do not know everything, as stated in The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom this article taught me that questions to check understanding benefit the teacher more than the student, for instance some students might say that they understand when they really do not. Instead of asking if everyone understands, ask specific questions about the content taught but avoid questions that require a simple fact as answerWe will always have those students that keep quiet and count on the smarter students to answer the questions for them. Including every student in the question process will help everyone in the end.

  Asking Questions to Improve Learning was most helpful in my opinion. This article tells us to keep our course goals in mind as we ask questions. We must keep them in mind if we want our students to major core ideas and critical thinking skills. We must avoid questions that answer themselves this does not allow students to think of their own answers.

 

Blog Post #3

    What is Peer Editing? Peer editing can be a self-confidence builder to those writers who are insecure about their own writing. You are likely to find that others' first drafts are not so great either, and you'll find out how much you can actually benefit other writers with your own helpful opinion.  As Lucy Calkins (1983) states, part of being a good writer is being able to give valuable feedback to other writers. Peer response and editing helps students.  Adriana Zardini also defines editing as "making suggestions, compliments, and changes to writing," as shown in her slideshow "Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial". 

   Peer editing is done so all students can improve their grammar, editing, and writing skills. Peer editing can be chancy when someone is too serious and or too defensive, as shown in the video "Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes" created by Tim Bedley. It brought up a lot of interesting points and was pretty funny considering the age of the children. The point of the video was that all the students must keep constructive and positive attitudes during peer editing reviews in order to learn from another person’s peer editing. The overall goal of peer editing is to help students work more efficiently. We always need to remember to leave compliments, suggestions, and suggest corrections that are not to critical, but helpful.

Blog Post #2

What Will Teaching in the 21st Century Be Like?

"Mr. Dancealot"

   Every course has its different conducts of teaching techniques that are suitable for the subject being taught so that students can easily understand the subject being taught to them and if not shown fittingly it can be a complete catastrophe, as presented in the video "Mr. Dancealot". Learning to dance cannot be shown merely by lecture, but instead a student must actually dance in order to learn. There must be effective teaching methods in order for students to be successful and proficient in a course. I partially agree with his conclusion because I want my own students to learn in the best possible way that they can, but i understand that every student learns differently. Teaching methods may need to be changed over time with the way technology is sky rocketing on being more viral in teaching online.  I think the question with the way the world is going should be "Will there be classrooms in twenty so years from now?" Only time will tell.

"Teaching in the 21st Century"

"The Networked Student,"

    A student can acquire what he or she needs by being linked to many different technological tools. Examples include searching for sources with Google Scholar, bookmarking sources with Delicious, listening to professor's podcasts on iTunes U, chatting with experts on a subject through Skype, and many more mentioned throughout the video and I am sure many more we have yet to hear about. In the video "The Networked Student,” uploaded by Wendy Drexler sets forward that the best way for a student in the 21st century to learn is by a theory called connectivism. The teacher in charge educates and helps the student in just how to take benefit off these opportunities and build his or her connection network. I agree with Drexler's position as far as the student is connected to more sources than ever before and therefore is able to create a better research project . However, the teacher should also teach on the subject taught in addition to teaching how to build a network because I believe some students could struggle in that area. Meeting in an in-class setting might would help solve that. I still believe is still the most effective in some cases. 

"Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts,"

  In the video "Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts" uploaded by Vicki Davis on the Edutopia webpage is arguing that teaching kids in a more technological way in a group based way is an efficient way to teach. She also stated teaching this way is beneficial to her teaching the students and also learning from the students because their young curious minds explore different options. Vicki Davis practices technology to link her students to other students around the world and to different cultures which is very interesting and in my mind very productive in spreading new ideas and learning others opinion. I like what she is doing a strongly support it based on the video she presented.

"Who's Ahead in the Learning Race"

It is pretty clear from the video "Who's Ahead in the Learning Race" by Dr. Strange that elementary school students in Baldwin County are far ahead of undergraduate and graduate students in using Macbooks and iPads for learning purposes. I know growing up we had none of that and it for the younger generation that have practically grown up with technology constantly around them. Our generation is adapting and learning to use today’s technological advances and it a struggle for most of us but we will continue to improve. I know for myself I usually pick up quickly to sports and technology so it has not been a difficult transition for me. I find it quite overwhelming that these kids are so far ahead of us. 

"Bringing the Locker Room into the Classroom"

As to be a future educator and coach I believe all sports help teach a lesson of teamwork and honesty that is hard to teach. It is something you do and feel. Involving team based activities is a good way to do it and comparing sports to give a general idea.

1. What are the things (if any) you have heard about EDM310? I heard about EDM310 from one of my friends that had taken it in the fall semester of 2013 and I heard it was a difficult class that requires a lot of your time.

2. What fears (if any) do you have about EDM310? 
The only fears I have for EDM310 is that the class may overwhelm me considering I am not the best at managing my time.
3. Compare and contrast EDM310 with other courses you have taken in college or high school.
It is something new to me with the class mostly requiring some type of way to access the internet. Most or almost of my classes require a book.

4. What do you think will be the most difficult thing for you in EDM310? 
I have never been the best at managing time, but I have defiantly gotten better at it.

5. What is the best way for you to address this “most difficult” aspect of EDM310?
I have a time schedule and daily reminders on my phone.

6. What questions do you still have about EDM310? What ideas do you have about how to 
address those questions? 
I am still figuring out the purpose of this class towards my major, but I am intrigued to learn more about technological things

Practice Blog

Practice Blog

Practice Blog

• About me - where I lived , fun facts, my major, life events that brought me to USA, etc.
• Why I want to enter the education field
• A brief description of an educators work in the 21st century

Maria Brooker (My girlfriend and I)

    
    My name is Daniel Syngen Taylor. I prefer to be called by my middle name, Syngen. I am from Excel, Alabama. My address is a pretty unique thing if you ever hear it. I live at the address, 52 Out of the Way Rd. I am really athletic, I tend to surprise most people. I have played many sports growing up. Football was and still is my favorite, but cheer leading is what landed me at south

    My major is secondary education Physical Education. I want to wake up to a job I love every morning and coach a team while helping mature young peoples lives. An educators work in the field I plan to join is busy, active, and exciting. I can not wait to start one day soon.