C4K Summary for October

My first comment was made to Aliya. She was talking about how she could choose to go to school at different times this coming up year. She was having problems deciding if she wanted to go to school later in the morning and getting out later on in the evening or stay at the normal time. She weighed her pros and cons but was not completely sure what to do. She also said she has a terrible time getting up in the mornings. I responded with one of my own tricks to get up and out of the bed in the mornings. I told her to put her alarm clock across the room so she would HAVE to get out of bed to turn it off.
My second comment was on Liliana's post about a book she had read called The Gold Fish. She explained that the book was not about a gold fish at all. It was actually about a grandfather who was able to drink a potion and become young again. In her post she stated she was eager to finish reading the book to find out what happened to the grandfather. I told her to keep up the good work and to reply to me with the ending of the story.
My last comment was on Nina's blog. She blogged about President Snow of The Hunger Games. She gave a numerical list of topics that explained his importance in the books. I commented that I loved The Hunger Games and that she had given me important information about that character. I also told her to keep up the good work.

Blog Post # 10:What can we learn from Mrs.Cassidy?

I really enjoyed her class video that she shared with us. I think the technique I liked the most was blogging within the classroom. It is also the favorite of her students as well. This allows the students to focus on what they enjoy and allows them to write freely about these interests. By allowing them to blog, it improves their spelling and also allows a way for parents to see their child's progress within the class. I think the biggest thing I would worry about if I chose to use blogging in my classroom would be protecting my student's identities. But Mrs. Cassidy provided multiple ways to do this. It is also important to protect what the children are viewing in the classroom as well. I would probably use a site blocker to keep the children safe from inappropriate material. I totally agree with Mrs. Cassidy's comment that not using technology is hindering both the students and teachers. Teachers of the 21st century have to be technologically literate and educated. Lets face it, technology is here to stay and really makes our lives so much easier. It is a very vital part of education and has changed the way children learn.

Project # 13: PBL Lesson Plan

Heres a link to our google site. Come check it out

Project # 12 A: Mastering SMARTboard tools

Group Project #9: Audio Book Commentary

Blog Post #9: What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Bases Learning?

Seven Essentials For PBL and Project Based Learning For Teachers : Reading/watching these blogs opened my eyes to the fact that when students are presented with a print out of information with guidelines and a subject for a project; this may come off as busy work. This could lead students to disconnect from the project and make them bored.The "print out" method also restricts the students and their creativity. It does not allow for the students to dive into the content and make their own decisions about what they would like to learn more about and focus on as a group. PBL focuses on seven main components: 1) Need to know: This is used to engage students and get them interested in the material in which the project will be based on. Your need to know can be an "entry event"such as a video, blog post, or podcast that gives the students information about the subject of the project. 2) Driving question: According to www.ascd.org; a good driving question captures the heart of the project in clear, compelling language, which gives students a sense of purpose and challenge. 3) Student voice and choice: When using PBL, it is important that project means something to students. The best way to make this happen is to allow students to speak their minds and make most of the decisions during the project. 4) 21st century skills: With PBL, students learn many skills that they will be able to bring with them to college and the workforce. Some of these skills include collaboration, critical thinking and technological skills. 5) Inquiry and innovation: This step allows for students to follow a trail of ideas and questions that are created while working on their project. they can use resources such as the internet, books, interview and more to gather this information. They will then filter the information gathered and use what is necessary for the project. This allows for the project to be more meaningful to the students. 6) Feedback and revision: This is a very important part of PBL. This step allows for students to go over their work with classmates, teachers, mentors and even specialists about their topic. By doing so, students can make the necessary changes and adjustments to their projects before presenting them to their audience, 7) Publicly presented product: The final step in PBL is presenting the finished product. By publicly presenting projects, students put in more time and effort into their work because they know it will be presented to a crowd and not just the teacher. This step seems to be one of the most important aspects of PBL because it makes the students strive to make a more presentable product. By reading this blog, I learned that if the essential steps for PBL are followed, it is possible for students to learn more effectively than if they were assigned a project with a strict topic and guidelines.

What Motivates Students: The students in this film taught me what drives them to do well in school. It seems that they understood that in order to succeed in life, it is important to take their education seriously. I really enjoyed the "classroom money" that one student's teacher used. I think that by offering students an incentive to do well in class could never hurt. From what I gathered, this teacher offered "money" to her students based on their productivity and allowed them to buy things with the money they collected at the end of the week. Others stated how they enjoy when the teacher calls them out for a job well done while others enjoyed getting treats such as candy and lollipops. It is videos like these that are important for educators. The kids in this video taught me some new ways to keep them intrigued in the classroom.

Project Based Learning and Physical Education: I learned from this blog that PBL can even be used in physical education. In Miller's blog, he teaches us how to use PBL and it's seven fundamentals to create a work out plan. I think this is a great way to incorporate new skills in an area that has never really been viewed as an "academically advanced" class. Yes, I so believe physical education classes are very important and I do believe that you learn from taking this class but lets face it; there is no physical education section on the ACT. Using PBL in physical education is a great idea that I would never in a million years thought of myself. Now that I have read this blog, I can think of multiple ways PBL could be used in physical education.

Ten Sights Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in PBL: I learned a lot of cool sites that could be used for PBL in the classroom. One of my favorites that was pointed out it is linoit. I think this would be a great tool for not only students but for teachers as well. It can allow you to create an online class board that you can put all of your assignments on and share with students. Also, students can use this site to share information they have found while completing research for projects. This allows for students to teach other students and teachers as well. I also learned about a great site called titan pad. Its similar to google docs but easier and more simple. This would be a good tool for younger students in elementary and middle school. It allows you to create notebooks and documents and also gives you the option to share these notes or notebooks with others. I also found out that Skype also offers a Skype in education site. I have not looked into this one yet but I feel this could be a great learning tool for group projects.

Overall I learned some great PBL tips from our educators and Kids by watching/reading the blogs for this post. It makes me even more eager to utilize these fun, new technologies and strategies in my classroom.

Blog Post #8: What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

Randy Pausch's last lecture was amazing. I took so much from watching it. I feel that the most important thing he taught us was to never let "brick walls" get in your way. Randy told us that those obstacles are there to make us do more to achieve our goals. He also taught us that we learn from everyone. He told us how he learned from his mentors, teachers, bosses, and even students. One thing that really stood out to me was what he called "head tricking". This is a great way to make students think they are doing something fun and interesting when in reality it is really teaching the students how to do a new skill. Head tricking is a great strategy that I would love to utilize with my students one day. Making learning FUN is another thing that Pausch believed was important. I believe that by creating a fun environment for students will not only make them enjoy learning; but make the learning process more effective as well. I am so glad that Dr. Strange shared this video with us. I hope that one day I can say I impacted as many people's lives as Randy Pausch did in his short life time.

C4T #2 Summary

I was assigned to Ken Hella's blog post which provided a TEDed video about the U.S. Constitution. As a history/secondary education major this was right up my alley. It touched base on some aspects about the people behind the Constitution we don't ordinarily consider. Some of these topics brought to light was the fact that each man was a land owner, well educated, and some were even slave holders. It also talked about how these men must have had great patience considering they met in mid summer and wore constricting, heavy attire at a time with no fans or air conditioning. It is a great video that I think would be interesting to share with my students one day. I commented on how the video brought to light these unusual facts that we never really think about. I also stated on how the video would be great to share in my classroom one day.

Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning

Part A: According to Zogbhy Analytics, 87% of people surveyed ages 18-24 say they never let their smart phone leave their side. With this information, we as educators can assume that our school aged students; (especially secondary education ages) have the access to their own, or a parent or guardian's smart phone everyday. And those that do have their own, very rarely let them leave their side. Educators should take into consideration this information and use it to their advantage. We know students are going to use their phone at school anyway, so why not make it a useful tool that can help our students learn?
Another statistic that stood out to me is the fact that 68% of individuals say they would rather use their smartphones than their laptops. This makes complete sense considering a smartphone can do almost everything one can do on a laptop. By allowing students to use their phones in class would also keep them in the classroom rather than in the office or in school suspension for having their phones out in the first place. It is new times in the learning environment. We have technology all around us; lets use it to our students advantage.

Part B: By using cell phones in the classroom, educators are utilizing a tool that is free of cost to the school system. Most people own smartphones that are basically portable computers. They also come equipped with cameras that can take still portraits or videos. You could allow students to access websites from their phones that pertained to the lesson being taught. You could also allow students to take photos of assignments on the board or let them use the video camera to video a mock presentation in order for them to make appropriate changes to their presentation. You could even go as far as letting them use smart phones to write notes using programs such as evernote. The sky is the limit concerning what we could allow students to use their phones for.

Project #7 Part B

Introduction for Students

Introduction for Parents

Blog Post #How Do We All Become Learners?

Watching the provided videos allowed me to see that no matter how old or how young, no matter your title, we are all still learning on a day to day basis. This is one of the great things about PBL. By providing students with technology and technological resources, educators are now creating an entirely new realm of teaching/learning for their students. By implementing technology within the classroom; students have more resources to learn than ever before. This includes learning from other students and not solely from teachers. PBL allows for students to engage with one another and help each other out when faced with a difficult task. It also allows for teachers to learn from students as well. As the media coordinator for Gulf Shores Elementary pointed out, sometimes the students actually teach educators new skills. By using technology rather than teaching technology we allow a much broader spectrum of learning. Students can now read, watch, and write what they have learned all by using one App, program, or whatever their teacher implements within his or her lesson plan. I know that I personally was in the dark ages of educating until I began this class. The information provided to me this semester in EDU 310 has opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that I can personally utilize when I am in the classroom. I know I have a lot more to learn but I am excited about utilizing so many of the skills, apps, programs Etc, that I have learned about these past few months. I am also excite to see the impact I can make on my students by using technology in my classroom.