Blog Post #7

     For this blog post, I was required to watch several videos about what technology is starting to look like in the classroom. A question was posed afterwards about what I need to do in order to prepare for my career as a teacher that I have answered below.

What are the things that you believe you will need to know and do to prepare for your career as a teacher before you graduate that will enable and support your ability to use technology effectively as a component of your classroom instruction and to foster student participation and learning?

     To prepare for my career as a teacher, I think I will have to learn a lot more about technology and practice what I learn every day. I've never been very good with technology because there is so much you can do with it and I just never wanted to take the time to learn about it. There are several apps and tools that will be beneficial to learn in order to enhance learning in the classroom. For example, iMovie could be very useful in my classroom since I plan on being an English teacher. They could use this tool to create book trailers and short movies to show that they comprehend what they read instead of just taking a quiz. It could also help with grading because I could have them take tests online that automatically give them feedback. Clearly, I have a lot to learn about technology before I graduate, but I am willing to learn more if it will help my students learn in the classroom.

Here are the links to the videos I had to watch for this post. I have also included summaries of each and what I have learned from them.

Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten

     In this video, I learned about what children in kindergarten are doing in classrooms with iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library. With iMovie, the children can take a book that they read in class and create a book trailer in which they reflect on the book. This helps them to be more engaged with the book and make a project that they are proud to take complete ownership of. It is also a great source to start fostering the necessary skill of editing. The Alabama Virtual Library is a free tool that can be used to teach students how to research. It is safe and can be used to practice searching each week. It pulls up the best articles for whatever topic they are doing research on. I can see myself using both of these technologies in the classroom.

We All Become Learners

     This video had to do with how technology changes the dynamic of learning in the classroom. Everyone becomes a learner when technology is involved because the teachers are teaching students and students are teaching the teachers. For example, there was an app called Padlet that was described in the video. It is used by the teachers and students to post questions and answers. The teacher was trying to figure out how to take a picture and a student ended up showing her how to do it correctly. Clearly, technology provides the chance for everyone to learn rather than have the teacher teaching and the students learning.

iPads in the Classroom

     This video was a newscast about the way iPads are being used in the classroom. One teacher said that iPads provide the opportunity to take a virtual field trip. For students in special education, there is a tool called iconverse that allows them to communicate via touching buttons. In a physics classroom, students can build coasters with an app on the iPad. Another use of the iPad is the ability to take tests or take pictures of writing assessments and get automatic feedback. Technology provides students and teachers with many ways to access information, converse with professionals, provide accommodations, and to create new and inventive assignments. As more and more schools adopt technology as an enhancement to learning, it is important for educators to learn how to use this technology effectively and to their benefit.

Top 10 Reasons to Use Technology in Education

     I learned ten of the many reasons to use technology in education from this video. Students love it because it allows them to be creative. It engages the four components of learning which are active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and professional development. It makes life easier for teachers because they don't have to spend as much time grading or teaching in the classroom, and they can focus more time on the questions students have. It improves test scores. It helps students with low attention spans because it's constantly changing and there are several online games that aid in learning. Students can learn from the experts. It encourages homework. Over time it saves money. Finally, technology can remove obstacles to learning by allowing several types of learning styles in the classroom.

C4K #1

Comments for Kids #1

Below, I have written summaries of the blogs I have visited that were written by kids. I also have left comments on their blog posts which I have also summarized.

Winter Weather Goes Bad

This blog post was by Dante in Mrs. Weil's fourth grade class. He talked about how happy he was that it was winter until it got to cold to play outside. Instead of going outside, he played some video games and ate. He then decided that he was ready for winter to be over because he was bored. I agreed with him that it was time for winter to be over. I told him that we would have 6 more weeks of it because the groundhog saw his shadow. I then asked him what he likes to do in the snow, but I have not gotten a response back.

JJ Watt in the Pro Bowl

This post was by Brandon in Ms. Leatherwood's language arts class. Brandon talked about J.J. Watt and Pro Bowl 2015. For people not familiar with the Pro Bowl, he explained what it is and why the teams competing in the Super Bowl are not allowed to play. He also informed readers that J.J. Watt was a captain of one of the teams and that he is Brandon's favorite player. I thought his post was very informative because he made the Pro Bowl easy to understand for someone who doesn't know anything about football.I asked him who his favorite NFL or College team was and he responded by saying that he focuses on individual players more than teams. However, he did say that if he had to choose his favorite NFL and College team, it would have to be the San Diego Chargers and the Florida Gators. 

All the Wrong Questions: When Did You See Her Last? Book 2 (Part 2)

This post was by Ava in the Hartman/Centeno Readers & Authors blog. She gave a summary of a Lemony Snicket book that she was reading. It was about two characters, Lemony Snicket and Moxie, who were trying to investigate what happened to another character named Cleo. She was very descriptive and left me wanting to know what happens in part 3. She also gave her opinion about Snicket's mentor Theodora. She talked about what she would do differently if she was Theodora. I told her that it was a very well-written post and asked her what skills she thought were important for an investigator to have. I haven't gotten a response yet.

Black History Month

This post was by Alysa in Mrs. Maslowski's class. Alysa had to choose an inspiring person to talk about for Black History Month. She chose Gabrielle Union who is an actress in movies such as "Bring It On" and "Bad Boys II". She said that Union was inspiring for the work she does in the community and for giving back to the world. She also said that watching Union in movies and on television makes her want to do more in her personal life. I didn't know anything about Gabrielle Union, but Alysa's post made me want to research her to see what she has done. Alysa could have been more descriptive about how Union is an inspiration, but overall I thought it was a good post.

Blog Post #6

What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

This blog post covers a series of videos between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps who is a 3rd Grade teacher in Baldwin County. I have watched each one and written a summary for each one about what I learned. 

Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher

In this video, I got the chance to really learn what project based learning is all about. I learned that it is used to get children to take control of their own learning and have fun with it. Anthony Capps also talks about four main components to project based learning that make it successful. There has to be an authentic audience, student interest, involvement with the community, and it should be driven by content standards. As an example, he talked about a project he did with his class that required them to write letters to a congressman about whether women should serve in open combat or not. This gave them the chance to research historical women and use it to argue for which side they chose. They were able to make it their own and because it was relevant, they were interested. They then had the opportunity to revise and reflect on their work and they even got to choose which letters went to the congressman. I think his example was very enlightening on how effective this type of learning can be on students.

Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher

This video was a continuation of Project Based Learning Part 1. In this video, I learned that it is best to create opportunities for students to have some freedom to go beyond what you want. Capps gave an example of a project he did where the students had to write a narrative script as a child in Afghanistan. His class went beyond his expectations because he gave them freedom to write it from any point of view. Because the students had the opportunity to choose, they had more ownership of their work which is very important to learning. I learned from this video that the more students are engaged, the more they are learning. Projects like these also take a lot of planning and work, but Capps also points out that it is okay if something goes wrong. You just have to readjust the project to cover the content you want the students to learn.

ICurio 

This video taught me about a very helpful tool called ICurio. Basically, it is a search engine that allows students to safely search the web for audio, video, and texts. It has kid friendly buttons, a storage capacity for students, and can be used by any grade level. It also has a read aloud feature for students to use if necessary. I think this tool will be very useful in my classroom in the future. It is a lot easier to use technology in the classroom if you have tools like these that can filter what students have access to.

Discovery Education

Discovery Education is a tool that can be used along with project based learning in order to enhance learning. It combines textual and visual elements in order to create a learning experience that uses more than one method to help a child learn. It brings the text to life and also brings experts into the classroom. This tool can help enrich research for the projects a teacher implements in the classroom. I learned from this video that it turns students into listener-watchers which can aid in comprehension of the material that is being covered.

The Anthony-Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1

This video gave me a list of tips for teachers created by Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange. The first one covered was that you have to be interested in learning yourself. Teachers are life-long learners and it can be very difficult to teach unless teachers are constantly learning too. The second tip was that work is not separate from play when you're a teacher. Teachers are learning how to teach in their free time. The third tip was that surprises always happen in the classroom, so it is important to be flexible. There is no way to predict what will happen, so teachers should always start with the end in mind. It's okay to change the schedule just as long as the students master the content at the end of the day. The fourth tip is to get students engaged. Teachers can only get students to learn if the students are engaged. Project based learning can really help with this. The final tip was to reflect and share work. Teachers should always reflect on their work in order to make it better the next time and it helps to share work with other teachers in order to get valuable feedback

Don't Teach Tech- Use It

This video was helpful on describing how to use technology in the classroom. Capps suggests that teachers should build on the use of technology each week. Teachers should focus on one part of the technology at a time and then add new things to it each week. This makes it easier for students to learn and it doesn't require taking a lot of time out of class to teach it. Capps also says that it is helpful for teachers to do the project themselves first so they know what kind of questions the students might ask. The video also describes the effect technology can have in the classroom. It's clean, shareable, and allows students to express themselves.Working with technology can also help teach problem solving to students. Teachers can figure out the kinks in the technology with their students.

Additional Thoughts About Lessons

In this video, I learned that lesson planning is four layers thick. First, teachers should think about how it fits in the year. Does it cover content standards? Then, they should devise it into unit projects. This unit is stretched from the time period of 6-8 weeks. Then teachers should figure out how they can get everything done for that unit each week. Finally, teachers should look at the daily schedule. They need to think about how they will deliver the content to the students and how they will measure what they learn. These four components should be used for each one lesson.

C4T #2

For this week's post for comments for teachers, I was assigned Joey Feith. I read a couple of posts from his blog which were very interesting. I have written a summary of what he said in each post. I have also included my opinions and comments I sent to him. If you want to read the actual posts, I have included a link to the post in the subheadings for each paragraph. Enjoy!

How I Teach

Joey Feith creates a post on his blog each week that highlights a physical education teacher. He typically asks the educator a series of questions about themselves and their teaching. He also provides links to get in contact with that teacher. This week he picked Osama Abujafar who is a physical education teacher in Dubai. He asked Osama about what resources he can't live without, what his classes look like, what the most unique thing about his teaching is, and what the best advice he ever received is. I think these are very important questions to ask other educators in order to get new ideas. This post is a great example of educators communicating with each other from all over the world to share ideas. I shared my opinion of this tactic with him and also asked him about his process for choosing a new educator each week. So far I haven't heard from him, but I included a link to my blog in case he wanted to get in contact with me.

The #PhysEd Calender

This post was about a tool Feith created in order to keep up with all the events and chats that were going on in his Twitter feed. His tool is called the #PhysEd Calendar which is a public Google Calendar that allows physical education teachers to keep up with professional development opportunities. He also included information about the calendar, adding events to the calendar, and subscribing to the calendar. I think this idea could be used for teachers of all subjects around the world. This calendar would be a great way to build your PLN also. It seems like it will be really easy to use and it helps for those who don't have time to search for all the interesting events happening on Twitter. I made sure to inform him that I was working on building my PLN and that something like this could help me with organization even though I'm not planning to teach physical education.

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence Is...

My Passion Is...

Project #15

Search Engines

For this project, I was required to search eight different search engines that do different things. I will review each one of them and include a link so you can try them as well.

1. Blinkx : Blinkx is a search engine for videos. You type in what you are searching for, and it pulls videos from all over the web in order to provide the most results for your search. It's very easy to use and has a simple layout. This website is most useful for entertaining videos. It has educational videos that could be used in the classroom, but the search has to be very specific and it doesn't always come up with what you are looking for. I recommend it for personal entertainment, but I'm not sure if I would use it for research or in the classroom.
2. eHow : eHow is a search engine for finding step-by-step instructions on how to do things. You can type what you are looking for into the search engine or you can look under the various categories if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. It also gives you what's trending on the home page. It gives you results from what people have posted on the site.When you pick an article, a question box pops up that asks if you want to talk to someone who is an expert in what you are trying to do. It is a great resource for people who want to learn how to do things by themselves. 
3. Freebooksearch : Freebooksearch.net is a search engine for books. You simply type in the title or author and it loads various sites where you can get the book from. You can do a simple, advanced, extended, or audiobook search. It gives sites that you can get the book from for free or it gives sites that you can buy it from. It is very useful if you are trying to find a book quickly and see if it is offered for free. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading or is trying to find a book for class. Teachers could also use it to find free books for the class.
4.  Monster : Monster.com is a search engine that allows you to look for jobs or that allows employers to add jobs. You can also join the website and post your resume for employers to see. You just type in the type of job you are looking for, any skills or keywords, and your location. It then sorts through several jobs to provide you with the ones closest to your search results. The website also provides articles and resources that can help you with your job search and interviews. I recommend it to everyone because it gives you the best results for your search and is very easy to navigate.
5. Newslookup : Newslookup.com is a search engine for looking up articles and headlines. The main page gives you the top headlines for the day and also lists several categories you can look under if you don't know what you are looking for specifically. When you type something into the search engine, it gives you the most recent articles in your results. From there, it has several options to narrow down the search results. It is very useful for anyone who is interested in current events or needs the most recent articles for an assignment. I recommend it to anyone because it is a great way to keep up with the news and get a wide variety of articles on a subject.
6. WebMD : WebMD is a search engine for medical information. You can search symptoms, doctors, news, medications, etc. Pretty much anything related to the medical field is available for you to search on this engine. It gives overviews of diseases along with their symptoms and treatments. This can be very helpful to anyone who is trying to go into the medical field or anyone who just wants to learn more about all kinds of medical information. I recommend this to people doing research, but I don't recommend it as a way to diagnose yourself. You can easily misdiagnose yourself on this site because there are so many diseases that have similar symptoms.
7. WolframAlpha : WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge engine. You type in what you want to learn or compute and it gives you the most accurate and reliable information it can find. It gives you a small amount of information, but it tells you what you need to know without all of the other random stuff that comes with most search engines. I think it is a very good engine to use for help in school. I recommend it to students and teachers mainly since it is a really good resource for learning.
8. Zoo Search : Zoo Search (also called Metacrawler) is a metasearch engine. Basically, it takes results from several different search engines which gives you a wide variety of sites to get information from. The first sites it gives you are the top sites on the web. It also has side tabs that can narrow your search results by categories (images, videos, news). It is easy to use, but there is an overload of information. I only recommend it for entertainment use. I wouldn't use it when doing research.

Blog Assignment #5

In this blog post, I will discuss  what PLNs are, how they can help teachers, how they are formed, how I can create my own PLN, and who will be my first additions to my PLN. I used a variety of sources from the assignment to assist me in learning about PLNs which I will include at the bottom. 

What are PLNs?

PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) are online communities that allow you to get in contact with people from all over the world in order to get advice, share ideas, and learn.

How can they help you as a teacher?

PLNs can help teachers get in contact with each other and collaborate. They're a great way to get new teaching strategies, ideas for lessons and activities, and feedback. They can also help with learning in the classroom. PLNs can help students keep up with what's new in the world and help them collect and organize information that is necessary for each lesson. They get to enhance their learning through a network where they can get information and feedback from professionals. PLNs give students freedom to learn in a way that is creative and unique to their learning style.

How are they formed?

PLNs are formed by finding information, people, and conversations on the internet about subjects you are interested in. You then form a page that receives a feed from all of the sites and people that you are following and conversing with in order to learn more about what you are interested. You can follow blogs, podcasts, Twitter conversations, Youtube channels, etc. PLNs are all about researching and collaborating with others from around the world who share your interests.

How can you create your own PLN?

I can create my own PLN through identifying subjects that interest me and through finding people who share those interests. I can also find other educators who inspire me and who I may want to collaborate with or ask questions. The important thing is that I constantly do research and keep growing my PLN. The people and sites I involve in my PLN are important for the future because they can be helpful resources and contacts. Once I have figured that out, I can use a site such as Symbaloo to help organize my information in one place.

Who will be the first additions to your PLN?

The first additions to my PLN will be educators who I find inspiring and educators who are in the field I want to go into. I will also add people who are interested in the time periods of WWI and WWII, DIY projects, and creative writing. Dr. Strange provides a great list I will use to get started at Developing a Personal Learning Network in EDM310.

Sources

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

Michael Fawcett Discusses his PLN

Personal Learning Networks

Creating a PLN with Web 2.0 Tools

Blog Assignment #4

Outline

 In this post, we were asked to do research about the question above. I used my research to explain the importance of questions and a few guidelines to follow when creating questions. I wrote that it is important to plan the questions we should ask, come up with different styles that invoke deeper thinking, and keep the questions we create. I have included a few sources at the bottom that can be helpful, including one that I didn't use in this post.

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

     In order to be an effective teacher, it is important that we ask questions that will provoke critical thinking and problem solving skills. It is not enough to ask close-ended questions that merely require a yes or no answer because that doesn't get students engaged in the lesson. We want students to really think about the topic we are covering so that they can improve their learning and understanding. I have found some guidelines from my research about questions that I think could be very useful. 

     First of all, it is vital that we plan out what questions we are going to ask and when. Maryellen Weimer wrote "When you write out a question, you can make it clearer"(Three Ways to Ask Better Questions). Often times, instructors will ask questions that students don't understand which results in a silent classroom and time wasted. Planning ahead can help to make sure that instructors are asking questions that will improve understanding of the material and could even result in students participating in class discussion. Instead of just asking a random mix of questions that are unclear or close-ended, we can ask thought-provoking questions that will get the students truly engaged. 

     Secondly, it is important to come up with a mix of questions that will result in critical thinking. Students won't get anything out of the lesson if the instructor only asks yes or no questions. In the video Questioning Styles and Strategies, Dr. Harvey Silver gives examples of different questioning styles that accompany different learning styles. Each questioning style furthers the students' understanding of the material and keeps them engaged. He also uses a random pattern to call on students and asks questions about their answers that forces them to think more about their answers. These two techniques help to engage students and get every student to answer rather than a select few.

     If a teacher has good questions, but notices that his or her students are responding with short, simple answers, there are some techniques that he or she can employ to make them more open-ended. Andi Stix gives teachers a few ideas to enhance their questions. By adding "for what reasons", "in what ways", "describe in details", "explain", and "generate a list of" to the beginning of the questions, instructors can create a deeper meaning to them. For example, Stix asked "For what reasons did the American Revolution begin?" (Open Ended Questions). This helps students think of the various reasons the American Revolution began and to really dig inside their brains rather than just asking "why?". 

     Finally, instructors should keep the questions that they ask that seem to be the best or most thought provoking. This can be useful in the future so that they can tweak the questions to make them even better. Old questions can also be used as guidelines for future questions or can be referenced back to for class discussions. Teachers can also pass those questions along to other teachers who may need ideas for ways to create more critical thinkers. 

     These guidelines can really help instructors and future educators to really think about the importance of questions. Questions guide the discussion and enhance the material.In order to create critical thinkers and problem solvers, teachers have to ask questions that guide that type of thinking. Hopefully, students will begin to ask instructors more thought provoking questions.

Sources

Open Ended Questions

Questioning Styles and Strategies

Three Ways to Ask Better Questions

Asking More Effective Questions

     

C4T #1

        I was assigned Dr. Jerrid Kruse for my first comments for teachers (C4T) assignment. I enjoyed reading his blog posts and I even got some interesting ideas from them which I will summarize. I will also include a link to his blog which I hope you will take advantage of. I believe he has some interesting things to say!

https://educatech.wordpress.com/

C4T #1, Comment 1

         In his post "Planning vs Reacting", Dr. Kruse talks about how unsettling it is for him to carefully plan out everything for his classes. With such a busy schedule, he finds it hard to plan ahead when there is no way to predict what will happen in the classroom. He believes great teachers are those who can react rather than plan. He then talks about how programs should be preparing future educators to react rather than plan. While he thinks planning is an important part of the process, he also thinks that teachers should be prepared for situations in which it is not always possible to follow a schedule.

         I had never thought about teaching in that way. I always thought that teaching involved a  lot of planning with little room for change. Dr. Kruse's post really made me think about how there is no way to predict what will happen in class each day. Therefore, it is important to know how to react and adjust to situations. I agree with what he is saying about teaching future educators to react rather than focusing on planning. I would love to hear his ideas on ways to prepare future educators on how to react.

C4T #1, Comment 2

          In the second post I read "How I Spend My Fridays", Dr. Kruse talks about how he uses teaching in a sixth grade classroom to teach his students who are going to be educators. He spends the entire day in a sixth grade classroom and allows a group of his students to come in to the classroom at different times in order to watch him teach. Later in the semester, he allows his students to come up with lesson plans and teach his sixth grade class. The students get the chance to observe his teaching style, and he gets the chance to observe them and give them feedback. He believes this is a great way to interact with his students and give them valuable experience for the future.

         I agree with this teaching method wholeheartedly. It is extremely important to gain experience with teaching and creating lesson plans when becoming a future educator. What's great is that they get the chance to watch him and get ideas for their own teaching. He can also get some ideas for his teaching from his students. I think it is great that the students and the teacher get to give each other feedback. However, I am curious to know what his sixth grade students think. I wonder if they enjoy the opportunity to be taught by different people and experience different teaching styles.