Final Reflection

Project #13

Project 15 required groups members to use collaborative tools like Google, Skype, Facetime, and cell phones. We could not meet face-to-face to complete this project. To communicate with each other we used Facetime, Skype, and text messages. Once we got our project looking like we wanted we set up a date and videoed the lesson.

Having these tools really cut down on the stress about meeting everyday to do a project. These tools are really useful. I could see myself incorporating Google and Facetime into my future classroom.

Project #16 Final Project

Project #15 Smart Board Project (Part 2)

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.

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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

Blog Post Assignment #9

What I Learned This Year 2010-2011 By: Mr. Joe McClung
Mr. McClung is a teacher who writes blog posts to summarize what he accomplishes, what he learns, and what adventures he encounters each year of his teaching career. I read the 2010-2011 school year post, this was written after his third year of teaching.
I really enjoyed reading this particular blog post by Mr. McClung. He made some great points for teachers that are not as experienced as he is. One that Mr. McClung pointed out is to remember who your boss is. He said that as teachers we do not need to get wrapped up in a "social co-worker" life, because we need to remember the reason we are in the education field, the kids. I think this is a great point. While teaching we need to realize that we maybe the only positive influence in our students' lives. If we get wrapped up in pleasing others rather than our students our job will never get done. Another point Mr. McClung made was, "don't touch the keyboard". He explained that if a co-worker helps another co-worker on a difficult task and he/she takes over while explaining the task then the other person will never learn how to do that one task. This is the same idea with students, as teachers we are there to teach the students, not do their work.

What I Learned This Year - Volume 4 By: Mr. Joe McClung
This was Mr. McClung's fourth year of teaching and he realized that he was not the teacher he use to be. He was worrying about what his co-workers thought of him and what his reputation was with them. He got into a routine with his teaching and he realized by getting into a routine his creativity was drifting away. To change himself back to the teacher he use to be he told himself that he needed to remember the rule "remember who his boss is" and not worry about what his co-workers thought of him. To bring his creativity back into the classroom he accepted new subjects to teach in the upcoming school year. Mr. McClung will now be able to construct new lesson plans and get out of the routines he got himself into.

The points that I have read in these post are beneficial to any first year teacher or twenty-fifth year teacher. Basically Mr. McClung says that as teacher we need to be there for the kids, never get into routines while teaching, and do not depend on others to do your work. I agree with all of these points. If every teacher would focus on just these three points their teaching careers will take a tremendous turn.

A Bad Case of Stripes Project #12

PLN Progress Project #10

For my PLN, I have started using Symbaloo. Symbaloo is a great tool to organize different educational or personal websites. On my Symbaloo, I have the access of twitter, Facebook, and teacher blogs. This way I can stay up to date with new teaching idea put out by the "professionals". By using Symbaloo, any websites that I come across while in college I will be able to keep in this program. You can organize the different websites by name, category, personal, or educational. Symbaloo is set up just like Google docs, I could access this program from any computer anywhere in the world and it is free. By being able to save these websites and organize them, I will be set as a first year teacher with cool new tools to show to my kids.

C4T #2 Summary

I was assigned to comment on David Truss' Pair-A-Dimes Blog.

In the first post that I commented on Mr. Truss was just starting a new job working with students and letting them experience the use of blogs. He did an activity with the students and gave them a tube of toothpaste and a paper plate. He told the students to squeeze the toothpaste out and try to put the toothpaste back in the tube. After several minutes of trying to do this, Mr. Truss stopped the students. He then explained to his students that once the toothpaste is out of the tube it cannot be put back in. He told the students that this was just like putting information on the internet; once it is put on the internet it will never be able to be taken back. That is why everyone should watch what is put on the internet. Everyone will always have an internet trail.

I told Mr. Truss who I was and that I was commenting on his blog post for my EDM 310 class. I told him that I loved the toothpaste demonstration and that my mom done this same demonstration except she talked about what comes out of someone's mouth cannot be put back in. I told Mr. Truss that this is what we are reminded of in Dr. Strange's Class. Dr. Strange tells us that we need to do our best on assignments and not say anything negative because we may be Googled by our boss one day. I then mentioned that I would share this lesson with my students whenever I became a teacher.

The second post that I commented on was a podcast. This was Mr. Truss' first podcast he had ever done. He done this podcast with a light scribe pen. He was at a conference and saw a friend of his and they conducted this podcast. In this podcast they mention how easy podcasting is, what tools can be used, and how it enables students to be exposed to higher level thinking skills.

I told Mr. Truss who I was and that this was my second comment that I would be leaving him. I told him that I enjoyed his podcast and learned several techniques that I would use whenever I became a teacher. I also told him that I was amazed at how simple podcasting is. Podcasting only requires a few tools and a speaker and you are good to go. I told Mr. Truss that I enjoyed exploring his blog and I hoped to come back and explore it more at a later date.

You can find Mr. Truss' Blog HERE!

Blog Post Assignment #8

Writing with Multimedia By: Dr. Richard E. Miller
Dr. Richard E. Miller tells us that in this century we can do any kind of research without stepping foot into a library. Our way of writing and researching is changing from day to day. Instead of using notebook paper, text books, and going to the library the only thing we have to do is sit down at a computer to conduct our search. The beauty of having computers to do research with is that we are not limited to just our University library; we are able to use several different library databases that are located on the web. Another way that writing and researching has changed is that we are not limited to just reading text, we can watch videos and look at pictures that deals with the topic we are researching.

Information that is placed on the internet can be edited any day or time, this means that whenever we are researching on the web we are presented with the most current information. Being provided with the most current information while researching enables us to turn in outstanding work. Publishing information on the web is better than writing a book about that topic. If information is published on the web it is there as soon as it is published and of course it can always be edited; if we write a book about a certain topic it may take up to two years to be published and by then the text will more than likely be out of date.

Dr. Miller's videos made a strong statement about today's technology. I thought that this video was recently made, but Dr. Strange placed it on his blog in 2009. I thought that Google Docs and blogs just recently came into being, but I was totally wrong. I am glad that I am FINALLY being introduced to all of these neat ways of researching and teaching. The education field is going to be out of this world in the next couple of years. Watch the Videos Here!

Carly Pugh's Blog Post
While reading Carly's post I was blown away by her creativity. The videos that she included on her playlist were so diverse, but yet all tied together in some way. Having a teaching philosophy and exploring it before we actually become a teacher is a brilliant thing to do. By finding different videos on YouTube and incorporating them into lesson plans will keep the students interested in what they are being taught. If the students see that a teacher is passionate about teaching then they will be passionate about learning.

Carly mentioned that she is an English major and loves the literature aspect of it. I am not as fond of literature as she is and never really liked it in high school. The reason I never really liked it was because we were reading the same ole text book and writing the same ole papers. I think if my teacher would have incorporated videos like Carly is suggesting, I would have been more engaged in learning about the literature. I think the reason we were assigned to Carly's blog post, because she and Dr. Miller were both talking about writing with multimedia. Whenever Carly becomes a teacher she wants her students to research with the internet, watch videos and then write about what they saw - this is writing with multimedia!

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies
Needless to say, I got a good laugh whenever I watched these videos. They were so creative and they presented all types of excuses that I am sure Dr. Strange hears on a daily basis. Chipper was a great example of a student that does not dedicate all of their time to school. Chipper had better things going on in her life and could not complete her school work. This would be a great video to share with students to remind them how important it is to be dedicated to school.

If I had to create my own video about EDM 310, it would be about putting things on the internet that does not need to be posted on the internet. My video would discuss once something is posted on the internet it cannot be taken away. That is why if we have a blog or assignments that they should be completed to the best of our ability. I would make sure that the message comes across that our boss may Google us one day and whatever he/she finds could make the difference of us getting a job or not getting a job.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
I personally cannot believe that education was ranked 55 on the IT Intensive Scale, below coal mining! That is completely absurd. The video says that children are learning more outside of school than they are in school. They are in a richer environment out of school than they are while they are in school. This blows my mind. Schools need to have the best learning environment so today's students will be able to excel in a variety of activities. The reason this video says that children are in a better environment out of school than they are whenever they are in school is because outside of school children get to have their cell phones, surf the internet, and communicate with others in various ways.

After being exposed to the new learning styles in today's classrooms, I agree with this video. Schools ban cell phones and laptops then block educational videos on the internet so that means kids are stuck with text books to read. They are not able to do adequate research at school because of all of the blocked websites. I think that since technology is changing so much, the school systems need to "Learn to Change" with the technology and the children would greatly accept that.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0
1. I created my first poll! This one is not educational, but it is in the right season! Answer it!

2. I have never used Prezi before! I think they may have used Prezi to create this presentaion. Prezi has several props to using it. Teachers are able to have a free license through using Prezi, it is called Edu Enjoy Subscription. All teacher slides can be private and you will even have your own logo. Not to mention the 500 mb of storage space!

3. The video tool that I have never used before would be Photo Peach. Photo Peach allows individuals to create a slide show in seconds. You are able to incorporate music, captions, and comments in the slide. Teachers can incorporate polls in the slide and create quiz slide shows. It is also kid friendly!

Blog Post Assignment #7

Networked Student By: Wendy Drexler
In the video, Networked Student, it describes the benefits of being a student that is allowed to use the internet instead of textbooks in his middle school classes. (I wish this was the case for me while I was in middle school or high school) This student does not have to be face to face with an actual teacher while he is doing his homework or classwork. Being a networked student, he is connected to various information from outstanding colleges and other teachers. He is also able to connect to his peers and give his own input on their blogs.
This student was able to find several research articles for his topic, American psychology, while he was searching on the internet, but the beauty of this is he could have research a different topic and got the same result. Being able to use the internet in school is such a great opportunity; not only does it give useful information, but also allows us to get familiar with technology and enables to create our own personal learning network. By creating this personal learning network, students from around the world can benefit from our blogs and we can benefit from theirs. Being connected to other students can benefit in the learning process, because we all learn from each other. Not only do we benefit from each other, but this information will stay with us for the rest of our lives. This student could have used the research he done in middle school in a college course, since he had it on his personal learning network.
With all of this being said this question may arise, Do We Still Need Teachers?, this is actually a great question. Students still need teachers, because since there is SO much information on the internet students need guidance on which information is useful and which is not. Teachers teach students how to find and use different websites to make their web-searching a success. Teachers also teach the student how to compile all of the information he/she found into a successful paper, powerpoint, or oral presentation. To answer your question, yes we still need effective teachers in today's education to teach students how to use this new way of learning effectively. Teachers will remain teachers and computers will remain a strong learning tool.
Welcome to My PLE! By: Wendy Drexler
This 7th grade student has got it going on! This style of organization and learning fascinates her and me also. She is so excited about this new way of doing Science work and creating her own personal learning network. I am also so excited to be able to learn all of these new learning styles. I only wish they were incorporated while I was in middle school or high school. Seeing students that are excited about learning, shows me there is a wonderful future ahead in the education field and I will get to be apart of it!

Project #8: Podcast- The ABC Group

Blog Post Assignment #6

The Last Lecture- Achieving Your Childhood Dreams By: Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch is such an amazing man! I was not so fond about watching this hour long video, but I was amazed by every second of it. If you have the chance to watch it, DO IT! Randy was so positive about everything going on in his life whenever he gave this speech. I cannot imagine standing up in front of hundreds of people giving his last lecture. This lecture was about his childhood dreams, enabling dreams of others, and lessons that his learned throughout his life.

Randy had several goals as a child. He did not achieve all of them, but he learned a lesson throughout all of them. Being a child I also had several dreams. Although I have achieved most of the ones I have set, I learned a lesson from most of them also. Pausch stated, 'Experience is what you get when you did not get what you wanted', this could not have been said any better. I will remember this statement whenever I start teaching. Being a first year teacher is sometimes difficult and everything will not go as planned. If I gain experience from something that goes wrong, I will remember what was done the first time and what needs to be done the second time to succeed.

Pausch mentioned ways that we could enable other's dreams. At the university Pausch taught at he was a pioneer of a virtual world class. He taught students how to create their own virtual world. This was never done at the university so Pausch had several arrows in his back. He said that whenever you pioneer something, what will go wrong-does go wrong, and that results in several arrows in the back. Pausch made this class fun for his students and it made their learning experience better. I hope to put this type of learning experience in my classroom. I want to make learning fun for my students so they will want to come to school. If school is fun for student then they will not realize that they are actually learning new skills everyday.

To be a successful teacher, you have to be a good salesman. Teachers are the most important salesman, they sale education. Two of the lessons Randy learned during his life were, learn from your students and have fun. It is important to listen to your students, because more than likely you will learn something new from them. Having fun while doing your job will allow you to enjoy your job and look forward to making a difference in your student's life.

Dr. Randy Pausch made this statement at the very end of his lecture, 'Lead your life the right way and karma will take care of itself, eventually your dream will come to you.' I think this is a very strong statement and something for others to think about. Just think about it.....

C4K Summary: September

The first student blog I commented on was Achu's blog in Buenos, Aires. He was wishing his best friend forever, Male, a happy birthday. I told Achu who I was, where I went to school, and where USA is located at. I told him that as college students we were learning how to blog like he was. I explained to him how great having a best friend was, because they were someone who could be with him for the rest of his life. I also told him I hoped that he had a great school year.

The second student blog I commented on was Jake's blog. He is in Ms. Dunlop's 4th grade class. In Jake's blog post he said some reasons that he admired his mom. Some of the reasons he admires her is that she is a heart doctor, she takes care of him, and she takes care of people with heart problems. I told Jake who I was, where I went to school, and my major. I also told Jake we are learning how to blog just like he is. In my comment I told Jake that it was so important to admire his mom and moms are important to everyone. I also told him I am a mom and that it was cool that his mom is a heart doctor.

Project #9a- TimeToast Timeline: Significant Events to U.S. Education

My Sentence Video Project #6

Blog Post Assignment #5

The iSchool Initiative
Travis Allen is the Mark Zuckerburg of Education says his video, Travis Allen's ZeitgeistYoungMinds entry (Mobile Learning) iSchool Initiative. In his high school years, Travis, wanted to come up with a way to help cut education cost. This includes the cost of notebook paper, text books, pens, pencils, and ink cartridges. Travis decided that a great way to do this was to come up with the iSchool initiative. The iSchool initiative informs education systems how much cost they will save by using the iTouch interface. By watching the video, The iSchool initiative (Mobile Learning), you can see how useful this new technology is. One single device can store homework, class assignments, textbooks, and be used to take lecture notes. By using this tool, the cost of each student will only be $150.00 versus $600.00.
Travis had some great points in his videos. If schools were to take away textbook cost that would be a huge chunk of money they could use on teacher funding. By having the iTouch feature in classrooms, students will have everything they need in one tool. This will help cut down on losing homework, forgetting textbooks, and not having any notebook paper. This will even help students become more organized, because they only thing they would have to remember is their iTouch device.
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir - 'Lux Aurumque'

Seriously, what can not be done in the virtual world? I am beginning to think everything that we do in real life can somewhat be done in the virtual world. This video is truly amazing. There are close to 200 people performing 'Lux Aurumque' altogether. The unique quality of this video is that these people never met or talked. Eric Whitacre had a fantastic idea of creating this masterpiece, it really does embrace the new technology that we have today. Web cameras, YouTube, and editing programs-along with a ton of patience-made this video happen.

21st Century Teaching
Teaching in the 21st Century can be exciting, innovative, and mind-blowing. Teachers have so many tools in their classrooms to enable a technology style learning. This will allow students to use technology to do homework and problem solve with different social networking sites.
Teaching in the 21st Century means to engage students in everything they need to know and give them experience to test out various form of technology. In the video, Teaching in the 21st Century By: Kevin Roberts, a John Strange Version, it describes the ways teaching is changing in the 21st Century. I think that all of the points made in the video are correct. Teaching is changing to technology and social networking sites. Students can find out so much information by using the internet. Even though so much of the information on the internet is not useful at all, teachers can narrow down websites for their students to use to make sure they stay on the right track. Although I am being exposed to all of these fabulous ways of teaching, it changes every day. This means that all the way through my college education into teaching, I will have to stay on top of the new ways of teaching and using technology.

Flipping Your Classroom
Katie Gimbar,Why I Flipped My Classroom, Dr. Lodge Macammon, Dr. Lodge McCammon's FIZZ - Flipping the Classroom, and Ms. Munafo,Flipping the Classroom - 4th Grade STEM , have all obviously flipped their classroom. You may ask what is flipping the classroom? Well it is simply having students watch lectures on a computer so they will come prepared to class to learn. The lectures would be their homework and to ensure they watch the videos the student will have a sheet to fill out with example that was in the video.
I love the idea of the flipped classroom. It enables teachers to be more interactive with their students and spend more time on students who need help. If students do not need help, then the teacher can present challenging problems to increase their learning. Whenever I land a job, I hope that I will be given the chance to incorporate this type of learning into my classroom.

Blog Post Assignment #4

1st Graders Create Their Own Read-Along Audio Book
Sometimes we doubt the ability of younger children. We may say that they are to young to read, they will not listen to directions, or organizing a fun activity is a nightmare. Ms. Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano had different thoughts on what younger children can do. She took a group of first graders, yes first graders, and allowed them to do a podcast. Allowing these children to experience with podcasting not only shows them how great technology is, but allows them to practice their reading, grammar, and listening skills in a FUN way. After reading and listening to Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting, also provided by Ms. Tolisano, I realized that not only does podcasting allow students to practice their reading and grammar skills, but it also allows them to transfer into "different characters" so to speak. These children did an entire podcast in the Hebrew language. After recording their parts, the children had to organize each recorded part so they story would flow right. This ensured the teacher that the students comprehended the story. If you listen to it you will hear how much they thoroughly enjoyed it.
After listening and reading each of these post I realized how important and neat podcasting is. Children can spruce up their fluency, comprehension, enthusiasm of reading, and listening skills in one simple activity.

Why Podcast in the Classroom?
Mr. Saunders states in his video, The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom, podcasting is very important in the classroom. Podcasting allows a teacher to record the class lecture and students can review it on their class blog to help them study for test. If students are out sick they can watch these podcast and never miss a day of class. A literature teacher and his fellow co-workers podcasted a story for students to listen to. This allowed students to enjoy the piece, because emotions were added and it made the story more interesting. Podcasting has several benefits in the classroom. It benefits absentees, students who do not like reading, or students who want to act.

I found several techniques I would like to use for my own podcast. Adding emotions and a differentiation of voices adds character to the podcast. Once I land a teaching job, I will coordinate podcasting into my classroom. It adds another dimension in the learning environment.

C4T #1

I was assigned to Mrs. Vicki Davis' blog. It is entitled "Cool Cat Teacher Blog". She is incorporating technology into her classroom.

In the first blog post I commented on she was blogging about incorporating Google Earth into the classroom lesson plans. Several activities can come from Google Earth. Students can look up a place they want to study about and get different kinds of info about that particular place. In my comment, I told her that this was a great way to use technology in the classroom. Google has a lot of different tools for students to use now that encourage fun learning. I also mentioned that we were learning how to use the different tools of Google in our EDM 310 class.

The second blog post I commented on was so inspirational. Mrs. Davis was reflecting on how she was always busy and never got to spend that much time with her family. She said that we all need to realize from day to day that we are not granted life. Mrs. Davis said to enjoy each moment that you have with family, because babies will get older and not give out hugs or love as often as they use to. In my comment, I told her that I was so glad that I was able to read this post. It opened my eyes and made me realize that I need to spend as much time with my family as possible. I need to stop stressing over getting everything done and enjoy special moments with my baby, husband, and parents.

Project #5 Presentation

Blog Post Assignment #3

Peer Editing at Its Finest
In the video What is Peer Editing? and the tutorial Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial , we are informed of what peer editing is and how you do it. Peer editing is editing work that your peers, people the same age as you, have done in class. Editing means correcting a student's work to rid it of mistakes and make it a better quality. Three things have to be done in order to make peer editing effective.
1. Compliments: Complimenting someone's work means to praise all the things that your peer done right in their assignment. This could be their use of wording, creativity, and topic.
2. Suggestions: Making suggestions on someone's work means to tell them what you think they should have done to make their assignment more effective. Suggestions can be made on their word choice, the flow of their assignment, and their use of details.
3. Corrections: Making corrections on someone's work means to make sure their assignment is free of mistakes. Corrections can be made on punctuation, spelling, and incomplete or run-on sentences.
Peer editing can be a great tool to use in the elementary classrooms. This way students can learn from their mistakes and learn how to catch mistakes in other student's work. Although this can be such a great learning tool, teachers and fellow classmates may come across a "Mean Margaret" or a "Picky Patty". In the video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, students critique their fellow classmates work. They provide a cute video of what NOT to do whenever you are peer editing someone's work. Take for instance someone may become a "Mean Margaret" and be completely hateful towards their peer while editing their work. Others may become a "Picky Patty" and be so picky on the little errors and not worry about the big errors. Don't get me wrong all errors matter! If a teacher decided to let their students peer edit their classmate's work this would be a great video to show before they started.

Using Technology in Special Education Classes
In the YouTube video, Technology in Special Education, a teacher explains why and how using technology in a special education setting is important. Students with special needs have difficulty in not just their regular life, but their school life as well. Learning and doing school work come as a challenge for them because some students may not can talk, write, hear, or see. Using technology in the special education classroom made the students more eager to learn, because learning was so much easier for them.
Laptops provided a way for the students who could not speak to communicate with their teacher. A student who could not speak nor write was able to use a special clicker attached to his wheelchair and computer to type messages to his teacher. This also allowed him to finish his assignments. Another student that could not see small text had a special program installed on his laptop that zoomed in on the text, which allowed him to read his lessons. Allowing special needs students to participate in classroom lessons and get educated will allow them to be successful in the real world. Also by incorporating technology into their classroom they will know how to operate computers and possibly become smarter than a normal person whenever it comes to using technology.
Any teacher can be faced with a special needs student in their class. I learned from a personal experience ,while I was substituting at an elementary school, that having a iPad close by helped a special needs student feel important. This student was not on the grade level with her classmates, so that meant she could not complete any of the work that was presented to her. I allowed her to play educational games on the iPad that allowed her to work on things that she knew how to do. This allowed her to feel like she was "smart" in her own way.
iPad, Academics, and Autism- How Do They Work Together?
After watching the video How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism, you should be able to answer the question "How Do They Work Together?". It is truly amazing how these different items work together. The iPad contributes a way of presenting academics to children with autism in a unique way. First of all we all need to give props to Apple for contributing this aspect to education and families with special needs children. Using the iPad allows children with autism to get automatic feedback whenever they are counting, reading, or spelling. This is great because these kids do not have a long attention span for focusing on daily lessons. Plus this is a great way to keep them entertained. Apple provides several "apps" for parents and teachers to choose from to help their children learn.
I found an app on the Apple website that I would use if I had a child at home or in my classroom that had autism. This app is called Memory Train. Memory Train allows children to look at shapes and remember which shape goes where. I would use this app for a math skills game and just a fun game within itself. This app would make children focus on what shape they saw and where it went. After choosing this app I read the customer reviews and found several great reviews. One customer wrote, "This is a great memory app. My daughter has autism and This app forces her to focus. Also, She's waaay better than me at this!!".
Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts By: Vicki Davis
After watching this video I have a new concept on teaching. Vicki Davis states in this video, "that to be a teacher you do not have to know everything!" We learn something new everyday. In this video she let her students learn to how navigate around "Teraform" and they had to teach her what to do. They changed their avatars and communicated with each other in this virtual world.
Davis shows and allows her students to work with the new technology that we are presented with today. She teaches them how to blog effectively, use Google docs, and interact with children around the world. Even though her classroom is in rural Georgia her students are connected with students from all over the world. These students can participate in assignments together and interact with each other from just a click of a mouse.

Wordle

Blog Post Assignment #2

Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version
In the You Tube Video published by John Strange there are several interesting facts that he presents to us. It is truly a "Did You Know" video. Did you know that technology is what this world is coming to? Technology changes every day, every hour, every minute, and even every second. Owning the "high tech" version of today's technology is the cool thing to do. Sadly, most technology gurus can not keep up with the technology themselves.
Here are some of the facts that Dr. John Strange presented in his video.
1. India has more K-12 Honor Students than ALL of the K-12 Honor Students in the United States.
2. In ONE single minute 1, 097, 220 You Tube Videos are being watched. WOW!
3. Google processes 1, 393, 519 searches every MINUTE!
4. Texting is very popular being that 11, 453, 577 messages are sent every MINUTE!
These are only a couple of interesting facts in this video, I encourage you to check it out!
Mr. Winkle Wakes by Matthew Needleman
Poor Mr. Winkle just did not know what to do in this new day and time. Everything changed while he was sleeping and whenever he woke up he did not like anything he saw or heard. This included the noise of telephones and fax machines, communicating with someone overseas by a computer, and even life-saving tools in hospitals. Everything changed since he had fell asleep 100 years ago. The only thing that stayed the same was schools. The children were in boring rows, with a teacher lecturing everything into their brains, and they were having to take handwritten notes. He did notice one new thing, a laptop, but it was very dusty and unused.
This is a great video on how new forms of technology are being placed into different areas. Mr. Winkle was over a 100 years old and did not have a clue about new technology and he did not like change. Whenever new technology is brought into classrooms (ex: Smartboards and Elmos) most teachers do not want to incorporate them into their lessons. They either do not like change or have not been taught how to use these gadgets in their room. Little do they know, but they are hindering their students from learning about new ways to learn and study.
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
Sir Ken Robinson presented a great lecture on creativity and had some very good points on expanding how children think. Creativity comes in various shapes, forms, and ideas. Some kids may not show their creativity as much as others, but that does not mean that they are not creative. These kids may need just one tiny spark of encouragement to open their eyes to their creative side.
In Sir Ken Robinson's lecture he shared a story about a girl who could never sit down in school and always had to be doing something. This sounds just like ADHD, right? Well like he said ADHD was not "invented" whenever this story took place. The principal called the child's parent to come to the school so they could have a conference. During the conference, the principal, student, and mother was present, the principal told the mother everything the child was doing wrong in school. Once he was finished, the principal and mother stepped outside the office and left the girl in there. Before the principal shut the door he turned the radio on. Only a couple of seconds went by and the girl, who sat so still during the conference, jumped up and started dancing. The principal looked at the girl's mother and exclaimed that she was a dancer and need to go to a dance school. The mother did as she was told and her daughter became a brilliant dancer. This girl who was labeled as a "wild child" opened up Julliard Dance School and is now a millionaire.
In school systems today, if a child cannot sit still in class or cannot finish their work because they are "zoning" out teachers think something has to be wrong with them. They are automatically labeled with having ADHD and not given a second chance. Having ADHD means the child usually has to be put on medicine and therefore their life and actions are changed. If one person could just sit down and see what is going on in this child's life he/she could become the next millionaire in some creative field.
A Day Made of Glass Two
A Day Made of Glass. Whenever I read this title I had no idea about what it was talking about, once I watch the video I was amazed. The technology presented in this video is mind-blowing. Everything is made of glass. Glass is in vehicles, schools, and hospitals. It not like the glass that makes up our everyday drinking glasses, it is way smarter! You can select different types of music on it, teachers can teach lessons using it, and hospitals can use it to look inside your body.
Glass is what the world is coming to. In the video Project Glass: Live Demo at Google, a bird's eye view of someone sky diving was videoed and also viewed LIVE by the audience. This is just 2012, I cannot imagine ten years from now, in 2022, what other uses of glass we will have! I believe by the time I start teaching kids will enjoy school more, because us teachers will have COOL ways of teaching reading, math, and science.

Blog Post Assignment #1

Cheyanne's Life in Three Paragraphs
Hello Everyone! I am Cheyanne Buckhault Wilson a 2010 graduate of J.U. Blacksher High School in Uriah, Alabama. I attended Faulkner State Community College from August 2010 to May 2012 and graduated from there with my Associates Degree. I have started my first semester at the University of South Alabama. I plan to graduate from USA with my Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education. Once I find a job I plan on getting my Masters Degree in either Administration or Counseling. I love kids and I am beyond ready to get into my own classroom!
On July 30, 2011 I married my best friend, Blake Wilson. He is truly an amazing husband. Then on October 28, 2011 we had a sweet baby boy, Trevor Wilson. Trevor is now 9 months old and is getting into everything. Once you have a kid you definitely find out the true meaning of love. Being married and having a little one while going to school is a hard challenge to face, but waking up to that sweet baby smile in the mornings makes me want to make Trevor's life so much better.
Back in my younger years (Elementary and High School) I rodeoed for the Alabama Jr. Rodeo Association and the Alabama High School Rodeo Association. I competed in just about everything I could like: Barrel Racing, Team Roping, Breakaway Roping, and Goat Tying. In Jr. Rodeo I was able to go to Gallup, New Mexico and compete at a National level for two years! It was an amazing trip. Since going out West was so much fun my parents and I loaded up the next year to travel and compete at the world's largest youth rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma. On about the second day we were there it RAINED for hours. So I competed in knee deep mud and I have pictures (I'll post later) where it looks as if my horse has no legs! Although it was a muddy mess it was a great experience.
Randy Pausch's Outlook on Time Management
In Randy Pausch's video on Time Management he points out ways to deal with stress and procrastination. These are two big problems high school or college students deal with on a day to day basis. I know it always seems like there is not enough hours in the day to make sure everything gets done. Once a student gets a job and adds school and sports into the mixture knowing how to manage time becomes very important in their lifestyles.
Pausch said to make sure you are doing the right things instead of doing things right. This makes sense, because if you are worried about doing something so perfect you are liable to forget about a bigger assignment that will take more time.
Next Randy Pausch states that planning is a big way to help manage time. He says that it doesn't matter if your schedule gets messed up due to another big event at least you have your day planned and can revise it as needed. To Do List are an easy way to help someone plan their day or get homework done. Whenever you are creating your To Do List arrange it so you complete the "ugliest" thing first which makes the rest of the day a breeze.
So to sum it all up Randy Pausch says to Set Goals, Prioritize, and Plan - three easy steps to a time managed life, which reduces stress and procrastination!
About Randy Pausch
Randy Pausch was a professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. He worked with Adobe, Electronic Arts, and Walt Disney Imagineering. Randy lectured on Time Management and Achieving Lifetime/Childhood Goals at various places including the university he taught at. His last lecture was at Carnegie Mellon University on September 18, 2007; on July 25, 2008, not even a year after his last lecture, Randy died of pancreatic cancer.