Additional Assignment # 5

I have to admit, I was one of the students that missed the point the first time around. Reading the article over with a better idea and understanding of his writing technique I really appreciated the article. Mataphors are what make the article so strong, it's just a matter of recognizing these metaphors and understanding the real issue being addressed. I enjoyed reading John Spencer's four posts. The way he used pencils as metaphors was creative and interesting. He used them to talk about teachers, children and computers. I really enjoyed "He Just Likes the Class For the Pencils" this was a very influential article. The message was strong about the child loving her classroom because she was respected by her teacher and the teacher listened to her. As future teachers we need to always keep this in mind. We may be older and the operatorator of the classroom but in most cases nobody gets respect unless they give respect.

Blog # 13

ALEX- Alabama Learning Exchange
This website is awesome and free! This website can be so benefcial to all teachers and allow them to gain numberous resources to use in their classrooms. I think the best part of the website is how easy it is to navigate. It can be difficult for teachers to come up with new lessons everyday that will keep their students engaged. With this website a teacher could log on and be able to find lesson plans, activities to do, communicate with other teachers and view podcasts. A teacher can learn different techniques to use from this site by being exposed to what other teachers are doing. I think every state needs to have a similar website for teachers to have access too. I know this will be a website I am very active with when I have a classroom of my own.

When a visitor first gets to the ALEX website they will notice a left-hand column with links; courses of study, web links, lesson plans, search, personal workspace etc. By having these links the website is very easy to operate. I imagine a teacher who uses this website would have a reason for visiting the website and could click on the appropriate link needed. There is a web links tab which has resources for teachers, administrators and students. This section of the website allows a person to give feedback, suggest links to others and report links not operating correctly. The search tab allows you to narrow down a search by choosing an ALCOS standard, lessons, weblinks and lesson plans. The personal workspace allows you to log in, submit lesson plans of your own and visit other teacher web pages. The professional learning tab allows a person to gain information about grants, ALEX leadership, special education, library media, google tools and web development. The podcast treasury lab which is my favorite part of the website allows you to choose a podcast by subject, view the top downloads, Alabama show cases and content partner. The ALEXville link is a globe surrounded by houses. Each house leads you to a different page; professional organization, visit ALEX the channel PLC, podcast PLC, A.C.E, trainers, ALEX/AMSTI PLC, teach 21 PLC, learn more about GEMS-U and join a list. I would recommend this website to any future teacher I will work with.
ACCESS- Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide
The purpose of ACCESS is to supply equal access to high quality instruction to improve student learning achievement through distance learning. The mission of ACESS id to deliver equitable, quality learning opportunities for all citizens. This is for public high school students. ACCESS also encourages users to visit ALEX on its resource page.

Blog Post #12

Watch these two videos and respond in a blog your reactions to them. Ask yourself and answer these questions:
1.) Is the price of a college education really worth the potential debt after graduation?
2.)What other options do/would I have without a college degree?
3.) Does society need higher educated people to function properly and effectively?





My response:
I can't really relate to many college students regarding debt after college because I am not paying for my own college education, I am one of the lucky ones.  Many students struggle for four or more years to make ends meet, pay for textbooks and live off of peanut butter and jelly only to be on average 20,000 dollars in debt. Especially with today's economy the way it is a job may not even be guaranteed upon graduation. As far as other options without a degree I feel I would not be satisfied or happy with any job I may hold. I want to be a teacher and maybe one day a college professor, without a degree these would not be options my future would hold. At best I could be a substitute teacher by passing a test or a secretary for a college professor. Both options do not appeal to me. Which for me personally means a college education is the first and most important step to reaching my future goals. I do agree that society needs higher educated people to function properly and effectively. However, I don't feel every member of society needs to be educated at a higher level to have an effective influence on society and contribute to the bettering of a school system, community, state, nation ect. Some people don't have the funds or ability to attend college even though they may be qualified to do so. We need to remember that this does not take away their voice, their thoughts and opinions about improving society.

Progress Report on Final Project

For the final project I am working with Lola Solano and Courtney Bellais. We have decided to create and act out a rap. The rap will consists of our first reactions to EDm310, things we have done/learned and how we feel about the class now. Hopefully our vision will be successful and it will be entertaining!

Teach someone Project # 14

Form Results and Commentary Project #6

Google Survey Results Project # 6

Summary Post C4K Comments 3-7

Doing C4K three through seven I came across some very creative students! They were from all over the place and each had their own blogging style. NaomiG for example wrote a blog assignment about vampires. She had people in her life as the character and created this story on her own. The story had me interested from start to finish. At the end she put in a little twist and brought herself into the story by waking up from a dream when it was time for school. It was creative and cute! Naomi's blog os a prime of example of how student blogging can increase their writing skills and allow them to be creative. I also commented on a student named Aaron's blog. In his post he wrote about how his parent-teacher meeting did not go very well. He seemed a little bummed about it and wrote about things his teacher probably told his parents. In his blog he wrote how he was artistic, noisy and didn't always follow instructions. He also said he didn't want to go into detail on why he knew his teacher would be telling his parents these things. I thought that was kind of funny coming from a sixth grader! I also commented on Allison's blog who was a huge harry potter fan and had her blog decorated. I was impressed with the students blog that I was assigned to, some of them had uploaded videos, put music on their page and pictures to go along with their blogs. Student blogging is clearly very beneficial in many ways. I plan to have my students create and run blogs when I have a classroom.

Summary Post C4T- Teacher #3

For C4T #3 I was assigned to the blog created by teachernz titled What now? What next? So what?. This teacher runs his blog out of New Zealand and spends half of the time in a classroom and the other half educating students and teachers through their digital learning journey. I commented on the post web 1.0 and 2.0 to 3.0 and was amazed. This video was about what web 3.0 will potentially be able to do. The internet in the near future will be connected to EVERYTHING! An example in the video was how internet and our washing machines could be connected. That is an amazing thing to think about. We will have the ability to be out of the house and operate things such as lights, washing machines and temperature settings from an internet source. This video was a real eye-opener to how important internet is, how I use it to my advantage and how I will use it to my students advantage. I recommend this video to other EDM310 students.

http://teachernz.edublogs.org/2010/09/28/web-3-0/

Skype Interview Recorded Project #12 with Amy

SMARTboard Instructional Project #13

Blog #11

Ms. Cassidy's Class
What a great video Ms. Cassidy has created! This video needs to be shared with all teachers, especially those who are opposed to incorporating technology in their classrooms. In her classroom she has a SMARTboard, multiple computers, headphones, projectors, nintendo DS and more! She is very lucky to have all of these gadgets to offer for her students, but she also worked hard to get to where she is with her classroom. Her first graders all have blogs and operate them with ease. It was pretty amazing watching these "little kids with big potential" in action. By having her students blog they are always writing and improving their skills. She also has clear direct blogging rules, which all of the students are aware of and understand. I was a little shocked when I saw the nintendo DS in the video. However, like the children stated, they are learning how to problem solve and share. Her kids were obviously enthused with the educational approach being presented to them everyday at school. Ms. Cassidy's approach also allows parents to view an online portfolio of their children's work via blog. This is a huge advantage because they are able to constantly be aware and updated of their child's educational progress when convenient for them and not just at parent-teacher conferences.
Skype interview with Ms. Cassidy
This skype interview was very interesting, Ms. Cassidy is full of knowledge and has a lot to offer to her students and fellow educators. She started off her career with little to no technology in her classroom. Eventually she was given a sunray computer(something I have never heard of). What I liked most about the interview with Ms. Cassidy was the way she spoke of how she pushed for the things she wanted in her classroom. She wanted a computer that could do more than just go on the internet, she wanted a computer that could hold programs. So she worked for it, I think this needs to be a message to all future educators and current teachers. Ms. Cassidy worked hard for her students and was diligent with her visions. She started blogging about five years ago and has benefitted from it ever since. In the video when one student asked if she felt there was cheating involved in her students blogs she had a great response to the question. She said that, "you have to present information in your own way, piggybacking is not cheating it's collaborating and I agree with that."This is a great statement and I completely agree with her.
When I have a classroom I hope I can run it much like Ms. Cassidy does. She is innovative and creative. She also allows her students to venture out and be creative in their own way. I think allowing a student to be creative is a vital part of education. One of the problems I may encounter would be a student accessing a website that is not appropriate. Like Ms. Cassidy said in her interview, the students are aware of the rules and given specific instructions of what to click on and what websites to visit. Ms. Cassidy also said, "you are handicapping your students and yourself by not taking advantage of technology." This statement is very true. I also liked Dr. Strange's last question to see her backyard, lots and lots of snow! I am used to it being from NY!

Short Movie Project #11

Additional Assignment # 3

I enjoyed this video, I though Sir Ken Robinson made some great points and had information to back it up. His main point was the fact that children are being medicated at such a young age. His study was the way he tested a number of students in kindergarten and then tested them again five years later. Through his method it was clear as crystal that the students divergent thinking had decreased and would continue to do so. I think he also made a good point when he talked about how children are over medicated. Our society is always looking for a "quick fix." Especially when it comes to children, parents wonder why their child is hyper, why their child is this or that. Instead of working with their children and trying to fix the problem through trial and error they take them to a doctor and before you know it their child is diagnosed with ADD. Some children do have ADD and do need to be medicated, but the number of students who are diagnosed with such things like ADD have drastically increased over the past ten years. The same goes for autism. 
So we ask ourselves, what can be done to change the issues brought up in the video? I find myself struggling for an answer. I can speak for myself and say that when I am a teacher I will know about these issues and do my very best to educate in the most productive way possible. We need to teach using different styles because in any given classroom each student prefers a different learning style. This may lessen the amount of bored children and keep students interested. We need to be creative in our lesson planning. Standing in front of a class and lecturing with a white board is not enough. Introduce technology, our world is very virtually based, why isn't our education system? If I were to produce a project like this I would see myself as an artist or possibly the narrator.