Blog Post Assignment #13

Back to the Future By: Brian Crosby
This video by Mr. Crosby is probably the most interesting video I have watched all semester. Mr. Crosby is a firm believer about the use of blogs in the classroom. In this video he talks us through a demonstration of a Science lesson. This lesson incorporated language arts and technology. If you watch this video you will realize the use of technology in a classroom is endless.
Mr. Crosby demonstrated a lesson about the Earth's crust. He did different activities with his students about the effects on different types of material whenever they travel through the Earth's layers. Instead of giving his students a multiple choice test to see what they learned, they had to put a video of the activities done in the classroom on their blog then write about what they learned during the activity. Once these activities were published on the web different classes from around the world wanted their teacher to do this with them. The only problem was that the teacher did not know how to do the activities. So Mr. Crosby and his class Skyped the class around the world and preformed the activities for them. This gave Mr. Crosby's class the chance to shine on their own. He also had a "High-Hopes" project. This included his students setting goals for themselves, their community, and the world. Mr. Crosby did not stop there he set up a wiki for individuals around the world to share their "high-hopes" on. These goals were published and sent up into the sky on a balloon. The balloon was also a part of the Earth's layers lesson. This is a very neat video, if you are not sure how to incorporate technology in your classroom, I encourage you to watch it!

A Vision of Students Today
This video was made by students at Kansas State University. A Google document was made that asked the students what it is like to be a student today. The students were invited to answer the question and make edits to the document. By the time the document was completed, 367 edits were made to the document. The video then shows students sitting in a classroom holding up a piece of notebook paper with different random facts about being a student today. Some students said how much time in a day it takes them to eat, how much they sleep, or how much time is spent doing homework, ect. With all of the hours added together it came out to be 26.5 hours a day. So how does all of these tasks possibly get done? It is call MULTITASKING! If we did not know how to multitask, we would never get any sleep.

I enjoyed watching this video. It is amazing that students in 2007 felt the same way about technology then, that I do now. Technology has definitely brought an entire new way of learning into classrooms. Some teachers are not using textbooks any more and relying strictly on technology and the web. It is really no need to be required to by a $100.00 textbook whenever it will never be opened or whenever you can find the same information on the Internet. Technology can help save some money by possibly cutting down on the money spent on textbooks.

Final PLN Progress

Looking back on this semester, I am amazed on what all I have been exposed to. I have been able to be connected to great teachers on Twitter and Blogger. I have experienced and became very familiar with Google. I not only use Google for EDM, but for my other class projects also. I also honestly never thought that blogging was so beneficial. I thought it was just a waste of time, but now that I have visited several teacher blogs and explored them I realized that I can learn a ton from being a blogger. Each of these different tools have been added to Symbaloo. I have also added YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, and Delicious to my PLN. I am excited to see what my PLN will look like in years to come!

C4K Summary: November

My C4K comments for the month of November were the following:

Colton wrote a post about the Gary Paulsen book, Hatchet. He said his favorite part was when the bear attacked the guy. He said he did not like the ending of the book, because it was nonrealistic.

This is the comment I left Colton,
Colton,
I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University at South Alabama. I am studying to be an elementary teacher. I just did research on Gary Paulsen and his book Hatchet. He is a very interesting author, if you have not found out anything about Mr. Paulsen, I encourage you too! Did you know that Hatchet won the Newbery Award? I encourage you to check out his other books, they are all about adventure and the outdoors! Hope you are enjoying your school year!
Cheyanne Wilson

Clara wrote a blog post about if she she a personal assistant for a week. She chose to pick Albery Einstein. She chose him because he is smart and could help her with her homework and schoolwork. She said he could also help her refrain from getting distracted while doing her work. She also said she would get him to help her acquire studying skills.

This is the comment I left Clara,
Clara,
I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University of South Alabama. I am an elementary education major.
I think you definitely picked the right person to help you with your homework. I probably would have picked Albert Einstein too! He was a very smart man! If it was not for him we would not know anything about the world of physics! I am sure he would have some great ways to help you start studying and doing your homework without getting distracted. I enjoyed reading your post! Enjoy your school year!
Cheyanne Wilson

I watched a video for my final C4K. It was composed by Nelson's Navigators. This video was titled, The State House. It included several pictures of the State House and surrounding tourist attractions. This video was made by 4th grade students using iPads. The video had pictures and text as well as the students' voices reading the text. It was a very great video.

This is the comment I left for Nelson's Navigators,
Hello Daphne East Elementary 4th Graders!
I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I am studying to be an elementary teacher. I was assigned to watch on comment on your video, The State House.
Your video was very interesting, had great pictures, and it contained very interesting facts! Whenever I was in middle school, I went to the House of Representatives and was a Page. It was a very interesting experience. One day maybe you can be a Page. I am glad you enjoyed your trip to the State House!
Cheyanne Wilson

C4T #4

For my final C4T, I was assigned to comment on Becky Goerend's blog. You can find it HERE!

The first post I commented on was titled "All They Wanted". Mrs. Goerend said that she attended a conference during the summer that touched on the subject of assessment. This particular post she said that students always asked her "how long does a paper need to be?" and she would reply "how short can it be to get by, Mrs. G?" She realized that most students were not wanting to know how short the paper had to be; they were wanting to know how long it needed to be so they could do their best. One thing that she learned while at the summer conference was that students need examples of writings that meet, does not meet, and exceeds her standards. She said she was giving them a rubric, but students were not able to transfer that info into their own writing. Mrs. Goerend said that she hopes to improve on her "teaching writing techniques" this school year.

This is the comment I left Mrs. Goerend,
Mrs. Goerend,
I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University of South Alabama. I have been assigned to comment on your blog for Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class.
I never realized that whenever students ask how long a paper needs to be they are really wanting to do a fantastic job on it. I always thought they meant how long does it need for them to get by also. That is a very interesting point to me. I also like how you provided text for the students to read before they proceeded with their papers. I hope this change helped you in your teaching career!
Cheyanne Wilson

The next post I commented on was titled "The Checklist". This is an informative post about how she is assessing her students and how the students are assessing themselves while writing. She found a resource with mini-lessons for each day, which helped students finish their paper piece by piece. She said after several mini-lessons they created a checklist that included the components of a excellent paper. Instead of using a rubric she used this checklist. Before the students turned the paper in they were to look at the checklist and make sure they included what was needed before Mrs. Goerend graded it. She also mentioned that some students still did not see the need in the checklist, but she hopes to stress to them the importance of this little guide. She also included a copy of the check list, if you would like to view it click HERE!

This is the comment I left Mrs. Goerend,
Mrs. Goerend,
I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at South Alabama. I really enjoyed this post. I think having student assess their own work not only helps them catch careless mistakes, but also allows them to learn from those mistakes. Whenever I become a teacher, I will most definitely take a check-list into consideration. I hope to incorporate this idea into other subjects instead of just writing.

Thanks for sharing!
Cheyanne Wilson

Final Project Progress

For our final project, my group is doing a video for "Prospective EDM 310 Students" and "How to Survive EDM 310". This video will address the basics students need to know when they enter EDM 310 and once they get in EDM 310 how to be successful. I think we have some really great ideas going. We have most of the skit done and we will start taping and editing the video soon.

Blog Post Assignment #12

Since EDM 310 and EDU 301 collaborate with a SmartBoard lesson. I thought it would be neat for future students to create a lesson that incorporates a core subject, SmartBoard technology, and have a visual art to go along with it.

Future students will be allowed to get as creative as they want with any subject they want. These are just the basic steps to get students headed in the right directions.

1. Pick out a core subject and grade level that you are interested in: Math, Science, Reading, or Social Studies

2. Download the SmartNotebook to your own computer, here! Either you should have already have the product key or you can ask Dr. Strange for it! Once you have completed this process go to ,Smart Exchange, to find a SmartBoard lesson that fits your topic or get creative and create your own!

3. Once you have completed steps one and two, search the web for a visual art that corresponds with your lesson. Crayola has some great items to choose from, they even have lesson plans! Since meeting in EDM 310 is only so often it would be sufficient enough just to include a picture of the art you would like for your students to participate in.

******************************************************************************

Here is the lesson that I put together:

The core subject and grade level that I am interested in is 5th grade Science. Science has always been fascinating to me and it has a lot of useful information for students.

You can view my SmartBoard lesson that I found on Smart Exchange, HERE!

This LINK takes you to the lesson plan for the visual art. The picture is included below.

Blog Post Assignment #11

Little Kids...BIG Potential By: Kathy Cassidy

Let me start off by saying that this video is absolutely precious! The stars of the video are adorable! In this video, Ms. Cassidy's class is engaged in working on blogs, wikis, Skyping with different classes, and different online educational activities. One thing that was very interesting to me in this video is that Ms. Cassidy allowed her students to play on their Nintendo DS'. They of course only played educational games and I believe the game was called "Word Dog". I couldn't quite understand what the children were calling it. I also need to mention that this is the work of 1st graders not 4th, 6th, or 8th graders. These first graders are able to learn about different traditions from around the world by using wikis this is where they post questions and people from around the world answer their questions. In the videos the students tell us that they are not allowed to put their last name on their blog, they only go by their first name. This ensures the children's protection over the internet. By using blogs in the classroom parents are able to view their students work, such as their writing progress. These are only a few tools that Ms. Cassidy's class mentioned in this video.

During the Skype interview, by Dr. Strange, with Ms. Cassidy she was able to answer and elaborate on several interesting questions. Some things that I would use in my classroom would be blogs, wikis, Skype, and if I had older children I would use Twitter.

1. Blogs- The ways that I would use blogs in my classroom would be endless. My students would be allowed to post different assignments in the blog. Students would be able to communicate with their classmates. I would also try to find other classes around the world, colleges, and their family members to comment on their work.

2. Wikis- I am not very familiar with wikis, but I am interested in learning about them. Seeing the response Ms. Cassidy's class got from their wiki makes me want to incorporate these into my future classroom. By using wikis in my classroom, my students will be able to learn from around the world. Not only will my students be able to communicate with people on their blogs, but they will also be able to post a question on the wiki and people from around the world can answer that question. This will help students realize how different other parts of the world are.

3. Skype- One way I would use Skype would be to chat with other classes in the world. Ms. Cassidy used Skype with another class and create a Reader's Theatre play. That is a fabulous way to incorporate Skype into the classroom. I could also find several people to speak with my class about things we are studying in science, math, and social studies, ect.

4. Twitter- At this point in my education experience, I am not entirely sure how I would incorporate Twitter into my classroom. Although I am quite sure it will include a lot of trial and error.

By incorporating these four items into my classroom I am almost positive I would encounter a lot of negative feedback. Before I incorporated these items into my classroom, I would make sure to have a strong support team. This support team would know just what and how I am going to use these tools in my classroom and how effective the tools are. If I was approved to do these things, I would also brief my parents on each item and how it would be used. I would make sure my parents knew all of the security precautions I would use and how each tool would make a difference in their child's education.

I am mostly excited about the outcome of these new learning tools in my classroom. I am anxious to make a change into the education system and teach older teachers how effective this new learning style is. I am also excited to see the look on my students' faces when they are able to use the Internet for their in class assignments.

View the interview,HERE!

Special Blog Post #1

A World Where Grades Will Be Left Behind By: Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

In this USA Today article by Mary Beth Marklein, it describes a type of education that will be free and available to anyone who wants to participate. It is a type of education where no one will be late for class, no one will be counted absent, nor will they have an option to fail. Google vice-president and Standford research professor, Sebastian Thrun, is seeking to make this change to education. Thrun does this work at his education company, Udacity, in California. Thrun says, "You want learning to be as much fun as it is to play a video game." Now Udacity is up and running trying to enable this change in education. Special effects are being used, video cameras are taping instructors' hands while writing on boards, and Thrun's team is making computer generated activities. Thrun says that he has no idea what education systems will look like in 30 years, but he does know that it will be top of the line due to the use technology. Classes will never again have a size limit, students will not be given grades, and instruction will be free. The only thing that might cost students is additional services. Thrun compares to this revolutionizing of education to the revolutionizing of the movie theatre. Whenever the film-making business grew it did not shut down live theaters. It just allowed people to watch movies in every town, it suited large audiences, and was very reasonable. This is what Thrun wants to do with education. He wants the education systems to reach people everywhere and be affordable without closing down the regular school buildings. His vision of the future is summed up in these few words, " offers "a message of hope, of aspiration -- not of destruction."

Thrun has a friend, Sal Kahn, who is encouraging teachers around the word to "flip" their classroom. Flipping the classroom means to take away books, paper, and pencils to incorporate computers, the Internet, and SmartBoards. Students will not have "lectures" by their teachers nor worksheets for homework. These students will be engaged in at home online lectures provided by their teacher then they will complete homework in the classroom. This enables the teacher to answer questions the students have as they face them. Schools in the north have already designed a curriculum that enables students to play games while they are in school. Some colleges even want to create a way to get an education that is CHEAPER than a CELL PHONE bill! Wow!

After reading this article I found that it was very similar to Dr. Strange's theory of learning. Udacity will be free, students will not be given "grades", and it is practically available to everyone. Just like in EDM 310 it is pretty much free, except for tuition, but we did not have to buy an expensive textbook. We are not given grades; we are just evaluated on our work quality, which makes us try harder. The EDM 310 class is also pretty much available to anyone. Since everything is online in EDM 310 anyone in the world can participate in this class.

If I was not experiencing this type of change that this article is talking about then I would completely disagree with the ideas. I think that it is a great change in the education system by incorporating technology and doing away with the grading system. Sometimes students tend to focus too much on the grading scale and do not learn anything while doing that. By not receiving a grade on every assignment in EDM 310 I have noticed myself trying harder on the projects and actually learning more.

C4T #3 Summary

I was assigned to comment on Debbie Maiers' blog. You can find her blog here!

The first post I commented on mentioned the curiosity of students. Ms. Maiers was praising the teacher, Debbie Stephens. Ms. Stephens is a teacher who encourages her teacher to be "geniuses". Ms. Stephens makes her children feel like geniuses by letting them come up with ways to help schools and make new lessons. She also stated that the only way children can become geniuses is through using their curiosity and this leads to asking questions. Ms. Stephens also stated that, "Genius is messy and learning is messy and classrooms get messy when genius shows up!" This is the comment that I left Ms. Maiers, "Hello Ms. Maiers, I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University of South Alabama. I am an elementary education/special education major. I was assigned to comment on your blog for my EDM 310 class with Dr. Strange.
I really enjoyed reading this post. I will benefit greatly from it whenever I become a teacher. It reminds us that all children are capable of something and they are all a geniuses. Brainstorming different things helps students learn to think out of the box. Being curious is probably the most important thing for students to do while in school. If they do not explore different subjects, then they will never know what will work and what does not work. This was a very interesting post!
Thanks for sharing, Cheyanne Wilson".

The second comment I left was on a post that discussed the importance of writing our life story and embracing it. The stories we create give us tools for life. Ms. Maiers said that imperfection makes us unique. That means that our life story does not have to be perfect; we all make mistakes and we have to live with that. This is the comment I left Ms. Maiers, "Ms. Maiers,
I am Cheyanne Wilson from the University of South Alabama. This is a very powerful post. I enjoyed it throughly. I think it is important to create our own story and share it with our own children and students. They need to know that life will not always be perfect and not being perfect helps us learn and grow. Thank you for sharing this!
Cheyanne Wilson".

C4K Summary: October

The first blog I commented on was talking about job insourcing and outsourcing. It stated that it was very important for jobs to stay in the U.S. so our citizens will be able to have a surplus of jobs. If the U.S. contracted jobs out of the country then our citizens would not have a lot of jobs to choose from. Also it brought up that the country may save money by outsourcing or insourcing jobs, while that same country may lose money by doing the same thing. It all depends on the job. The comment I left was, "Hello! I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I am studying to be an elementary teacher. I was assigned to comment on this post for my EDM 310 class.
I think this is a very true and interesting blog post. I have never paid attention to the fact that some jobs benefit local area, while others do not. As bad as it it seems this does hurt our local community whenever they are trying to find a job. Jobs are very hard to find for individuals if they do not have some form of education.
Thank you for providing us with this information on job insourcing and outsourcing.
Cheyanne Wilson"

The second blog I commented on was Mya's blog. This post was entitled, "The Flag that Survived the War". It gave several facts about the American flag. Some of these facts were very interesting. The comment that I left Mya was,"I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I am studying to be an elementary teacher. I was assigned to comment on your blog for my EDM 310 class. I am just now learning how to blog in this class, so you are one step ahead of me and starting out early!
I enjoyed reading your blog post about the American Flag. I did not know that the symbols that were first placed on the flag were called standards. I also did not know that the symbols were made out of several different types of material. It is great that you researched the American Flag and found out all of this neat information. Keep up the good work and good luck in school!
Cheyanne Wilson"

The third C4K comment that I made was on Hanna's blog. She had a slide show of pictures from Alberta, Canada. Her teacher assigned them to find interesting things about Alberta. This is the comment I left for her, "Hey Hanna! I am Cheyanne Wilson, a student at the University of South Alabama. I am going to school to be a teacher!
I really enjoyed your slideshow! The pictures that you included in your show were very breath-taking! I hope you are having a great school year!
Cheyanne"

The final comment I made for the month of October was on the blog of Ireland by Dr. Santoli and Dr. Vitulli. This particular post was just talking about their food experiences that they have had while they were in Ireland. The pictures of the food they provided on the blog looked very amazing! This is the comment I left on the post, "Hi Dr. Santoli and Dr. Vitulli, The food looks amazing! I find it quite funny that you mistaken carrots for sweet potatoes. Their food mixtures and choices are very different. But like I said it looks amazing! I do not like trying new things, but I think I would try the seafood chowder! It looks like the both of you are having a great time! Enjoy yourself!"

Blog Post Assignment #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga. By: John T. Spencer
While I was looking at this picture it never occurred to me that it could have been referring to a MAC and a PC. I knew what a paper mate was, but I was clueless about a Ticonderoga. After I did a little research I found out that a Ticonderoga was a very expensive writing instrument that only the "hip" crowd purchases. It wasn't until I read the comments on John T. Spencer's blog that I found out he was relating this picture to the differences of a MAC and a PC. This picture is insinuating that Personal Computers (PC) always break down and MACs are purchased by the "hip" crowd and are probably the most expensive purchase the hipsters will ever make.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?
In this blog post by Mr. Spencer, a teacher is getting scolded by their principal because the teacher is not "lecturing" to their students. The teacher is engaging his/her students in "active simulation" activities. The principal called this playing games, which was against their school rules. I think this entire meeting between the principal and teacher could have been avoided if the principal would have stepped into the classroom and watched the simulation. The principal could have witnessed that this style of teaching was keeping the students engaged and that they (the students) were actually learning something from this "active simulation".

Should We Be Anonymous?
The second blog post I read by Mr. Spencer was, Should We Be Anonymous? In this post Mr. Spencer had someone leave a "mean" "anonymous" comment on his class blog. The student that brought this issue to his attention was very upset about it. Later that day, he had a discussion with his class about if they should allow people to leave anonymous comments on their blog. He says to his class, "People hide when they are anonymous. They attack, because it is a surprise attack. It's secret." The class agreed that people are more than likely to leave rude comments on someones blog if they (the commenter) remains anonymous. One of his students made the statement that if people make a comment on a blog and remain anonymous then their boss or future boss will never be able to see their public internet trail, whether it is good or bad. Mr. Spencer agreed and thought that no one should be able to leave anonymous comments to commit acts of kindness or acts of cruelty. This reminds me of EDM 310, we are not allowed to make anything anonymous. Everything is out in the public for everyone to see. If we have a tech-savvy boss one day they may decided to get the urge to Google us. The quality of our work may depend if we keep a job or leave a good impression with the boss.

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? By: Dr. Scott McLeod
Lets face it, blogs, internet, social-networking sites, and cell phones are the top sources of communication in this century. Kids as well as adults need to know or learn how to use these types of communications. I think this is a great blog post to make people realize just what types of communication are out in the world today. Most people just look at the internet as a tool that presents their children with inappropriate pictures, messages, and people. This is only the case if that child searches for that kind of stuff or does not have any type of internet experience. Parents, teachers, and schools need to quit flipping out about children using the internet, because it is a great learning tool. Children need to experience the new types of communication and new ways of conducting research that they will be presented with in the later stages of their life.

Who is Scott McLeod?
Dr. McLeod is a technology guru. He is a member of different types of committees that encourage the use of technology in school systems. He is currently the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency 8, he is the Founding Director of UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), and he was the co-creator of video series Did You Know? (Shift Happens). CASTLE was the first graduate program designed to prepare technology-savvy school leaders. Dr. McLeod was named Leader in Learning by the cable industry, Emerging Leader by Phi Delta Kappa International, and one of National School Board Association's 20 to Watch. This is only a few awards he has received, you can check out his bio here!

Project #14 SmartBoard Instruction Part 1

Project #11 Green Screen Movie