Smart board Project #14

Blog Post #10

1. From what I can gather from other students comments on this cartoon and reading a few of Mr.Spencer blog post. I conclude that he isn't talking about different types of pencils he talking about about different types of computers Mac's and PC's to be exact. I think he is poking fun at the two companies and how people a line themselves with either or. In the end they are both computers they both do the same things one is just more expensive. I think that is the point he is trying to get across with the two pencils. One is cheaper and one is more expensive but they both write with led and do the same thing.

2. Why Were Your Kids Playing Games? This post really hit me. I never expected a principle to be that closed minded. All his principle was worried about was cramming the kids full of information for the standardized test. It didn't seem to me that he really cared about the kids retaining the knowledge or being engaged. Even though he found out his principles disapproval of educational games he knew that the kids were learning more from the games then just force feeding information. So he told his principle that he would "we'll create an algorithm factory and integrate it into our Conflict-Oriented Reading and Writing Project."I laughed because I could just see the principles face being full of agreement not knowing that he was going to keep engaging his students. I believe Mr. Spencer is telling us that sometimes you have to take risk.

Dr. Mcleod
I agree with Dr. Mcleod. Even though he was being very sarcastic in his post, still some people still feel that way about technology. He does a great job at making those people sound foolish, after all it is kinda foolish to have that point of view. As educators we must be able to change with the times and adapt. That is the only way our future students are going to have a chance at being successful. If we still teach our students that pen and paper are still the only way to go they won't be prepared to take college courses where most of the work deals with online material much less in a workplace where ever job these day's has something to do with technology. That is why we must teach our students how to properly use this new technology.Dr. Mcleod I recognized as one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues. serving as the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency 8 in Iowa.

blog post #9

At The Teacher's Desk is a great tool that I am going to include in my (PLN) just like Dr. Strange. I believe that Mr.Joe McClung was lucky to be able to work a long side Mr. William Chamberlain. These two men represent what teaching is all about. They inspire their kids to be great. They also push themselves to be great. I will most certainly be reading At The Teachers Desk on a regular basis. I think its a great idea to write a blog post like Mr.Joe McClung, it allows us to see the progress that we as teachers have made.

After reading Mr. McClung volume-4 post I was amazed. He honestly took the time when he was writing his blog post to evaluate himself. I honestly thought he might talk himself up a little but he didn't. It goes to show that it doesn't take long foe teachers to lose their spark and creativity for teaching. We have to be aware of that as teachers and make the decision to not get in a rut. I love the fact that he is challenging himself with something new. I intend on challenging my self in every way possible in order to become the best. Yes it might be difficult and hard trying something new but in the end its worth it for the students.

I decided to read the post at the end of his third year as a teacher. He makes a great point that he spends some of his time trying to please the people that are over and around him. He knows that it is important to be in good standings with his Superiors but he makes the point that pleasing them shouldn't be our main priority that the kids are. If we focus to much on pleasing people the kids will start to suffer there has to be a balance to pleasing.

C4T Summery

Summery #1
The Principle is talking about a success story a teacher told her about his class. The foreign language teacher states that he was frustrated that his students weren't able to learn certain vocabulary words. He knew that he had to think of something new. He came up with the idea for each word to have a movement. The class bought into the idea 100%. After this new learning strategy was deployed it only took the students one day to learn the whole list. He came to the conclusion, when students are having fun they are more likely to learn.
Comment
Thanks for sharing! I am a student at The University Of South Alabama in a course called edm310. I am going to school to become a teacher. This story really speaks to me, I travel to Guatemala twice a year and when I first started going I didn’t know how to speak a bit of Spanish. I learned what to say and when to say it through movement also. I think its a great way to get kids involved and moving around during the learning process. Thank you for sharing once again. Stephen Alexander

Summery #2
The principle is talking about a seminar that she gave. She states that she had a problem with making it around and observing all of the schools classroom. She said when she would make it to a classroom it was difficult for her to turn it into a meaningful visit. She points out the fact that it is important as a principle to give feed back to teachers on what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong in order for the best possible learning environment. She started using her Google docs in order to give immediate feed back to her teachers.
Comment
I think a lot of people had the thought “why didn’t I think of that” pop up in their head’s while they were reading your post. I know I did. I am still in school at this moment and I do not plan on becoming a principal. I do think as a future teacher this is great. “Lightening fast” feed back means “lightening fast” changes. Thank you for the post Stephen Alexander

Blog Post #8

Dr. Miller

Watching Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2 kind of caught me off guard. I was expecting him to talk about something else. It was a little difficult to follow what he was saying at first, because he had a lot if information come up on the screen and i wasn't sure what he was talking about. He then started using a program that helped the viewers follow along. I agree with everything that he said in the video about how we have to change along with technology. If we don't we are going to become the obsolete device.

If we as educators are going to provide our students with the latest and greatest knowledge and technology, we are going to have to build our curriculum around said technology.If we as educators fail to adapt to the technology we have already hindered our students. There has to be a base line that is set. Then going above that line is key in order for those students to be educated individuals in this technology rich world.

Multimedia doesn't scare me. I am a very competitive person and so naturally I like to win. I look at multimedia and technology as getting ahead of the game. That's how I intend on explaining it to my students. I believe that my students wouldn't have a problem learning how to write with multimedia. How can I be so sure? I believe it is all in how a student is taught, if the instructor is knowledgeable and interesting then the students will buy into what I am trying to tech them.

Carly's Blog Post #12

Talk about having your mind blown. You can tell that she is excited to become a educator. Also that she is a overachiever. Which is a great thing to be. All of the links that she provided were more the helpful. I think videos are a great way to learn new information. I myself enjoy it because I learn better with seeing and hearing information then just reading it. I think she is right on track with Dr. Miller's multimedia guide. I like how she goes through and does the assignment for herself and explains that she did that because good teachers teach by example. She also talks about improving assignments which I think is great because with everything we do there is always something that could have of been done better.

Chipper

I thought this video was great. It's sad to say but I really could relate. When I first started college I was the worst at procrastination. I thought and felt the same way as Chipper. Also on the fist day of class when Dr. Strange told us we would be teaching ourselves I was kind of mad because I had the "Teach me so I don't have to learn" mentality. I soon learned how thankful I was for Dr. Strange making us learn on our own. I found myself learning and retaining knowledge. The "Teach me so I don't have to learn" mentality will get you no where fast. In today's society you will have to learn on your own, and will need a degree in order to succeed.

EDM310 For Dummies

I loved the over kill in this video. I'm sure many people really do feel that way. I know I did. Coming into this class I knew that it would be time consuming. I found that out from friends that have already taken EDM. The class itself really isn't that hard it just takes time. If you do a little work on each assignment each day the stress is cut down significantly.I think this video should be shown on the first day of class so students are able to realize how to handle the class.

Learn To Change, Change To Learn

This video hits the nail on the head. Student's are exposed to technology 24/7. They are already engaging in social media such as facebook and twitter. They point out the fact to what if they were engaged with people at M.I.T. or Harvard. They make a great point. What if instead of teacher's worrying so much about keeping technology out of the classroom they simply let it in. This would allow teachers to teach students how to use technology for educational purposes. Give the students a chance to learn how to properly use technology. The fact of the matter is technology is here and is here to stay. The only choice is to get with the program and keep up with technology so we can prepare our students to be successful.

Project #9

First Post: A Summery of your progress in developing your PLN.

PLN's are great. The PLN that I use is Symbaloo. It is a great tool to keep me organised. It is simple to organize things. I have all the things I need for school such as blogger, twitter, and google in one section. In the other I have recreational things like Facebook, My personal twitter account, and youtube. I am very happy I decided to use this tool. I am looking forward to using symbaloo as a tool to help me connect with different people around the world.

Project #8

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's

In Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. He starts off by telling everyone that his father always told him if there is a elephant in the room then talk about it. Then he showed the audience his medical scans. In the scans you can see that his body is over run with cancer, he also points that out. Then it hit me, this is actually his last lecture. Right from the start you could see the passion that he had for learning and teaching. You didn't see a "dying man" with less than six months to live. You saw a educator who loved life. Talk about being inspired!

Pausch talks about his childhood dreams and how he was able to make most of them a reality, So he decided to help other people make their dreams come true. This is exactly the reason I want to become a teacher. I want to inspire kids to "reach for the stars". Just like Pausch, I don't take life to seriously. I enjoy finding the good in everything. That is why I wanna teach my students in fun creative ways. Pausch talks about how kids don't mind learning something hard when it is fun. Yes this is off the wall for most schools. I think our school system's are to focused on feeding kids information for test and not really concerned if they have truly retained the information. In the video Pausch puts on a vest will arrows sticking out the back and says "If you are going to do anything pioneering you will get arrows in your back. In the end wouldn't it be worth it though? Yes.

I want my students to come out of my classroom with knowledge. I will stress to them that, Yes they will make mistakes and screw up sometimes and I will correct them on it. But give them this great line from Pausch's video that says, "when you screw up and nobody says anything to you anymore, it means they have given up". I want them to know that correction isn't a bad thing. I am correcting them because I care. All of that falls back onto what Pausch said when he tells the audience to think about how you say things. As a teacher when I am Speaking to or correcting a student I must think about how I say things. It will do that student no good if I speak to them with a attitude, even if it is the 100th time they have screwed up. Pausch says it best when he says, " Find the best in everybody no matter how long you have to wait for them to show up.

As a new teacher I know I will have a few "brick walls" to go through as I start out. I am exited to see how my students react when I blow their minds with awesomeness! They will quickly learn this will not be their typical class of writing notes and listening to me talk. They will see that learning can be fun and exiting. I know as I start off my teaching career I will be learning as much from my students as they will be learning from me. Pausch point that out, That we should learn from our students. Also that brick walls let us show our determination. Pausch was a awesome educator, if everyone viewed learning and teaching as he did nothing would seem impossible. Even being Caption Kirk.