Goodbye!

Goodbye my classmates and teachers! This semester in this class has been extremely... challenging and stressful but I enjoyed learning all the new technology that we can use in our future classrooms! I would like to tell you all this before I go:

When you become a teacher, you become representative of the subject you teach. If your students feel they can not connect with you then they will not remember anything you taught them, only that they could not connect with you. Soon, if they continuously get bad teachers in your subject they will grow cold and hateful towards it and you. Be careful of how you represent yourself and your subject!

Final PLN!

Click here to view my final PLN. I have thought long and hard and I will continue to add to this after this class.

Final Blog Post

1. I learned so much from this class! I learned how to make a podcast, how to use Google as an organizing tool and e-mail address; I also learned how to download videos from my iPod to the computer. This class has challenged me to learn how to use all these different kinds of technology and has shown me that I can use it on my class! I learned about the different tools like ACCESS and ALEX that will help my students become better students and I learned of websites that will help me become a better teacher. I now know why Wikipedia isn't a trustworthy site to go to for academic writing. I also learned how to use Google Earth which can be useful for me, when I become an English teacher, to show my students where the story we are reading takes place. Outside of this class I learned more about the Smart Board and how it helps teachers reach their students.

2.I would have LOVED to learn how to set up a Smart Board lesson and given it to the students at Burns Middle School when I go visit my old teachers, Mr. Berg and Mrs. Mattern.

3.I don't think there is anything that I have learned that I would wish to unlearn.

4.One of the things that excited me in this class was knowing that one day I would get to use this technology to teach students one day. The one piece of technology that excited me the most was the voice thread. This will be very useful I think in my classroom. Students can have the opportunity to explain poems or stories in their own words. This could make a very good poetry project for them.

5. I found the Google Earth project to be the second most intellectually challenging thing because I could not figure out how to upload it. I went step by step but somewhere along the way I got lost. The most intellectually challenging thing for me though was the Interview project. Not the interview itself but figuring out all the different things I needed to upload the video from my camera to the computer and from the computer to the internet! This was no one fault at all. It seems that the camera, computer, and internet were all bound and determined to outsmart me (thankfully I won!).

6.I did not find this class boring at all.

7. I did not find this course to have necessarily "too much" work as I found it to have too few deadlines. I do not feel like my work load was too much, on the contrary I feel like if I hadn't have learned everything that I did, I would have been cheated. I did find the deadlines very challenging and almost impossible in some cases. Now granted some deadlines were extended to the same date and that just magnified the problem. I just didn't understand why two very big projects were due back to back, both very involved and a lot of hard work. I think if the deadlines were further apart with just two or three things (one bug project and one or two smaller ones) due at once it would make things easier. I also believe that giving us the number of the weeks that the projects were due was very confusing. I have no idea what week of school I'm in, only the date. Plus the dates were off on the weeks after spring break, that really confused me. I also, think that more guidance should have been given on some of the smaller projects. Take the survey for instance, on the syllabus it said "Make a survey." and that was all it said. Okay... What kind of survey? How many questions? etc. If you don't care then put on the syllabus "Make a survey on what ever you please." Then tell us the minimum amount of questions you would like on it. I had surveys with one question and surveys with twenty questions. Will the ones who gave a survey with one question get as good of a grade as the ones who made a survey with twenty? According to the criteria in the syllabus they will... My last point is the grading process. Now I understand you do not believe in grades but nonetheless, a grade must be given at the end of this course. I personally did not find the surveys you sent out to be very helpful in figuring out my grade. If I don't have an A what do I have? An F? How is that fair? Is this class only a pass or fail class? If so I was not informed and feel a little cheated for not being so. I also believe that maybe you should make our grade available to us if we ask for it. Don't refer us to the syllabus because obviously, if we are asking you we don't completely understand. We are asking you for a reason, we want to hear you say it.

8.I believe I am more technologically literate than when I walked into this classroom. I can now set up podcasts, Google documents, and I have also learned many different things about education and the internet. I am not sure how literate I really am but since you asked I would say I am moderately literate with technology. I know I have a lot more to learn. I can't wait to get started!

9.I will maintain and improve my literacy between now and my time to teach and after I begin teaching by using my PLN and finding new websites and web tools that will help me keep my students interested in my classroom.

Podcast Project

Click here for my podcast project!

Interview Project

Part One


Part Two


Here is our Interview Project! We worked really hard on it and we hope you in enjoy!

Google Earth Project!

This is my google earth project! I worked really hard on this so comment and tell me what you think!

Teaching with Technology and Substantive Project!

I taught my classmate Alex how to upload a video onto his computer from his iPod and to e-mail it! Here is the link!

Click Here for our substantive presentation.

Voice Thread Project!

This is my Voice Thread! I'm really excited about it so go check it out!

April 25th Blog Post

Our assignment for this week was to watch two videos, one about a PLE (also known as a PLN) and one giving you two questions to ask yourself about your life.

The little girl who discussed her PLE was very informative. I loved how she showed us her home page. I think she is very responsible. I love how she told us that even though her school gives her the freedom to go onto the social networking sites she feels it makes her more responsible that she do her classwork. I feel that a PLE or PLN can be very useful and this video proves it. If she did not have her PLE then she would not have all the wonderful websites or she would forget which websites did what.

My favorite video was the second one. This is because it reflects where I am in my life right now. I adore that all I have to do is choose a sentence to reflect my life. I know if I were to begin to live my life by this sentence "I am going to be a great teacher!" I will become the teacher I need to be. I will have the motivation to be better than I was yesterday and to continue to overcome the obstacles that stand in my way.

Comments for Classmates

Week 15

Leigh Ankersen:

I agree with you that this class was stressful but useful. I too would be lost in the world of technology with out this class. I loved learning all the different things we can do with technology! I am also looking forward to using the blog for my classroom and parents! I think another way to use the blog is to keep parents up to date on homework and what their children our doing in the classroom!

April 18th Blog Post

I have thought long and hard about this post. I have decided that my own creation will be about what technology I would like to use in my classroom. The first piece of technology I would love to use in my classroom is the SmartBoard. I love the different things I and my future students can do with the smart board. As a future English/Language Arts teacher I can't wait to come up with games on the SmartBoard that teaches the different part of a sentence! Or to come up with ways for my students to remember the characters in a book and what happened in the story. Another piece of technology I would love to use in my classroom is the Wordle! (click on the link to check out the wordle I made to show the different parts of speech and sentences) I think this will be a great learning tool for my students and something really cool to put on my classroom walls. My favorite technology though has to be making videos! I can't wait to show my students how to make videos for projects. I think this would be a great way for my students to understand the stories that we read in the classroom. For instance, if my class is reading Shakespeare, I can assign my students groups and each group a different Act and have them video a reenactment of Shakespeare in more modern words. I truly believe that this assignment would help my students understand Shakespeare or any other older piece of work.

April 11th Blog Post

Our assignment is to prove that children posting to the internet is important. I can see where one could see it that way but I'm not sure I do. I see things from Kaia's father's prospective. He loves that he is exposing his child to the world but it scares him a little. We forget that we are not the only ones who can see our children's work. There are bad people out there who would use these blogs for things other than their intended purpose. That said, I think it is still a wonderful experience for these students to expand their world. The children in PS 22 would never have gotten the chance to sing in Madison Square Garden if their work were not published online. My favorite example are the students in Viki Davis's class. If not for posting their work online they would never have had the opportunities that were presented to them. Another example is one of the children I commented on Hannah. According to her blog, her teachers have her blogging as a creative outlet so she won't talk so much during class. The poem she wrote was just adorable. If she didn't have a blog then she would not have an outlet where others around the world could respond to her. One more example is unfortunately my blog. Through all of this I have learned that the world can now see how disorganized I really am. If it were not for this blog I would probably gone through life ignoring this problem until it got me fired from a job. Fortunately for me, this class has shown me how easy it can be to get organized and it has shown me that I do have the self discipline to organize my life.

Comments 4 kids weeks 13 and 14

Week 13:
The student I was assigned was Gianna. Her writing about the beach reminded me about the time I went to a beach and bit a crab in half on my dad's and uncle's dare! Here is what I wrote on her wall!

Hello Gianna! My name is Heather Love and I am in Dr. Strange's blogging course at the University of South Alabama. Dr. Strange assigned me your blog to read this past week. I must say I really enjoyed reading your post! It's a very wise idea that you put the crab down so it didn't pinch you! I bet being on the beach was loads of fun. I haven't been in years! Keep up the good work in your writing and good luck with your future endeavors!

Week 14:
Hello Awhina, my name is Heather Love. I attend the University of South Alabama and have been assigned to read your blog for my blogging class. I think your writing is very good. It is very cute too. I love your humorous ending! Good luck with your future writings!

Comments 4 kids!

The first girl I commented on was Britney. Apparently her class was climbing a rock wall and she got to go up. I think it's so cool that she got to do that at school! We NEVER got to do that in elementary school! This is what I wrote on her blog:

Hi Britney! My name is Heather Love. I have been assigned your blog to read. That is so cool that you climbed that rock wall! Congratulations on it. I never get to far on them because I don't have a lot of upper body strength. Good luck on your future endeavors!

Caroline is the next girl I commented on. She wrote about her favorite thing at camp which was the slide. At first she was scared but she persevered through it and the slide became her favorite thing at camp. This is what I wrote on her blog:

Hi Caroline! My name is Heather Love. I have been assigned your blog to read. I think its great you faced your fears and went down that slide! Your writing is awesome! Keep it up!

The third person I commented on was Brodie Jack. They were too cute! They had the cutest description of who they were. This is what I wrote on their wall:

Hi Brodie Jack! My name is Heather Love. I have been assigned your blog to read. I think your picture is just too cute and I love your description! Keep up the good work!

My results

These are my results on the questionnaire that I did. The purpose of my questionnaire was to see who wanted to teach where and why they wanted to teach there.

Comments 4 kids!

My comments today were on Sarah and Elizabeth.

Sarah is a little girl who is from Maori. The thing about Maori is the country is losing its culture. In an effort to preserve some of this culture Sara and her classmates are learning the native language.It is so cool that these kids are doing this. I think that it is terrible when a culture is lost. Ireland had that happen. The original Irish language, Gaelic, has been lost for at least a century. I think it is absolutely wonderful these kids take enough interest and pride in their culture to not want it to die! And I think the teachers should get a pat on the back for not letting it die also! Here is what I said to Sarah:

Very good Sara! You should be very proud. Not many people can do what you just did as I'm sure you know. I think it is AWESOME that you and your classmates are doing this! It is so important to know your heritage. Good luck on your future posts and in learning your native language!

Elizabeth's class had parent teacher night and Elizabeth did a video blog post about it. She was so cute! Here is what I said to her:

Hello Elizabeth. My name is Heather L and I attend the University of South Alabama. I am in a blogging class and have been assigned your blog this week. I'm so very glad because you did such a wonderful job! Congratulations on your mom going to meet your teacher. You sounded very excited about that. Good luck on your future blogs!

Comments for Classmates week 12

Holly Longnecker:
I totally agree with you! Dan and Morgan both have inspired me to learn more about education and how to incorporate the internet into the classroom. They are right education has become free! I hope everything works out for Dan.

Comments for Teachers weeks 10, 11, & 12.

My teacher's name is Lisa Thumann. The first blog I read was about G-mail. She went into great detail about how to organize your G-mail inbox. I really enjoyed reading her comments and ideas on how to organize everything and how this can lead into life getting organized also. This was my comment:

Hello! My name is Heather L. I attend the University of South Alabama and have been assigned to follow your blog for the next three weeks for Doctor Strange’s EDM 310 class. I really enjoyed reading all of the things G-mail can actually do! I had no clue that you could use filters for e-mail and they actually work. I also loved your advice on color coding things. I am in the middle of trying to reorganize school work right now and this post definitely gave me some great ideas on how to do that with my e-mail!


Post #2:

I LOVED the video! It was hilarious! I think it’s so funny though how the video is true! I am also a student at South Alabama and use Google a lot too. I hope your conference went well!

Comments4Kids weeks 9, 10, & 12

Week 9:
This video is a very cool video if you don't know the English language. I love all the different types of pretty clothes. It kept my attention even though I know English.


Week 10:

My student's name was Hannah. I explored her blog after I commented on her cute little poem. I absolutely fell in love with this little girl! She seems so cute and reminds me a lot of me when I was her age. If only my teachers had given me a blog to write on when they thought I talked to much. Maybe I wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble!

Week 12:

My student's name was P.J. He is two or three years old and his post was about his day at the senior playground. He was just so darn cute! Here is what I wrote:

Hello P.J.! My name is Heather and I am in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. Its a blogging course here at the University of South Alabama. Dr. strange assigned your blog to me this week and I'm so glad he did. You seem so adorable and rambunctious! You also looked like you had a lot of fun on the playground! I love that you can read! Keep up the good work!

March 28th Blog Assignment

I just got done reading Morgan Bayda's post. I completely agree with her and with Dan Brown. The world will leave the universities and schools behind if we refuse to catch up with it. The information is out there we just have to embrace the new way it is presented. I have begun to see the importance of this course after reading this blog. I know that even though I find this course difficult I must embrace what I am learning and go with the flow or risk being left behind! I am glad to here that her PLN has worked for her. I'm still not sure how mine is coming along (lol). I will continue to ask for help with it and continue to try and work on it. I believe that universities and schools alike must strive to use new technology in their classrooms. I feel cheated when I go into a middle school room to visit my old teacher and see that they are able to use a Smartboard. I have only seen a Smart board in one of my college classrooms and that is in out EDM 310 class, and WE DON'T EVEN USE IT! My one question is how are we to teach with this wonderful technology if we do not learn how to use it.


This is what I wrote on her blog:

I am glad to read that your PLN has gotten you a volunteer position! I completely agree with you that schools will be left behind if they refuse to catch up! I can sympathize with you on being cheated. I hate walking into a classroom and seeing a Smartboard or some other type of really cool technology and find out they we won’t be using it in the classroom.

April 4 Blog Post

I just finished reading these blogs. I believe that what Mr. Chamberlain did with his class was AMAZING! I think he opened up a new world for teachers! I can not believe how many things there are for us as teachers to use! Kaia's father seems a wonderful man who just enjoys his job as a teacher and enjoys his daughter! I think that these men have opened up a new world for their students now also. How many students in the past were able to say they spoke to, not wrote to but actually spoke to, a man from a different country over the internet! Ten years ago it would have been inconceivable! These men have opened the doors for communication between the students and his daughter for a life time! I believe they also unwittingly opened the doors for understanding of a different culture which is more amazing to me than the technology itself! I believe that future teachers will have to step up and use their technology as a tool to help teach and show their students life.

March 12th Blog Homework ALEX/ACCESS

ALEX:
ALEX is a website designed for teachers. It is amazing! There are several pages full of lesson plans, curriculum, and so much more! I loved exploring this website and seeing all the different things it could help me with in the classroom. Especially with the lesson plans! This website takes you step by step into making a lesson plan. AMAZING! It even has a page where you can look up grant opportunities!

I believe this website will be EXTREMELY useful when I first start out teaching because it gives you a place to look for lesson plans and how to carry out lesson plans. This website also has a page to go to for professional organizers giving deadlines for different contests or learning conferences for you and your future students.


ACCESS:
ACCESS is a website designed for students. This website provides students with many different resources to help them in school. According to a video on the site, students were even able to take different classes that were not available at their school. Another student stated it helped him pass his grad exams.

From what I saw on this site it looks to be very useful to students and teachers alike. Teachers can use this site as a supplement to what is going on in their class. Students can also take reviews for AP courses and see what text books they will use in the class. This website seems very useful!

Comments for Classmates (catching up)

I made several of these before and recently discovered that they needed to be put on our blog. So here they are in order:

Week 3:
Jasmine Marshall
I completely agree with you. Teacher and students now days must must must understand and use the new technology or risk being left behind in the stone age, but they must also know how to teach without the technology. I also find myself on Facebook during classes and it is comforting to know that other people really do the same things.

Week 4:
Carlesia McIntosh
Though I wish your statement about drawing more people into the teaching profession were true, I really doubt more people will want to be teachers for many different reasons but mainly for the money. But if you think about it that is better for us because if you flood our market with more teachers and we become a dime a dozen then jobs will become more scarce for us then they already are.

I definitely agree with your SMARTboard podcast comment. How very rude and unprofessional of him to try and do a podcast in the middle of ordering lunch. I tried to listen to that three different times and still didn't get anything from it other than he ordered soup.

Amy Stork
Hi Amy! Sorry it has taken me so long to comment on this! I totally agree with what you are saying about using technology but at the same time I believe that we should also use books and writing. As a future English teacher I absolutely LOVE that blogging gets these students excited about writing and wanting to get better at it! Hopefully students everywhere will be able to have this experience and be able to get my students excited about writing again!

Week 6:
Kimberly McNorton
Isn't it sad that teachers are not student orientated? I agree with you about not trusting Wikipedia. As a future English teacher I will never allow it to be on a works cited page!

Angela Gagliano
I completely agree with you! I would also like to add that this helps us keep the parents informed. With this when a parent comes in asking for information we can show them the podcasts online and give them any further information they might ask for.

Week 7:
Lauriel Mcquieter
Awesome that you did your own research. iPods really are great learning tools if people use them that way. Isn't it wonderful that something as simple as learning can turn a child's day around and lift their self esteem?

Alicia Gunnerson
I completely agree with you! The statistics are amazing! Who would think that talking to children about internet safety would actually get to them? I really hope that everyone continues to educate themselves on internet safety.

Week 8:
Cara Noble
I agree with you distinguishing between propaganda and truth is very difficult. My advice would be to do more research on it. Visit different kinds of sites to see if there is anything that says the opposite of what you read. I also agree with you on inspiring teachers! This world needs teachers who are willing to learn and inspire and motivate others to want to learn!

Alex Harper
I can't wait till my first year of teaching either! I'm confused about iTunes U too. I'm sure there is a point maybe someone can explain it to us. I'm a little skeptical as to how schools would work without books though.

Week 9:
Michelle Jackson
I loved Mr. Paush's speech and was very inspired by him to be the best person I can be! It is amazing what he was able to accomplish in his life! I loved that he never gave up trying to inspire people even up to his dying day. He truly was a great man and the world lost a terrific educator. I hope you hear back from your kindergarten class you commented on soon.

The student for my class was not on the master list.

Comments for Teachers weeks 7,8, & 9.

I forgot to post this.

My teacher to comment on was Mr. McMahon. He is a math teacher who now works for Mathletics. Mathletics is an online program where elementary and middle school teachers can take their students online to make math more fun to learn, rather than try to bore them to death with lectures. This website also provides curriculum for home schooling teachers and students. This website looks like a very promising tool if the participant is willing to pay. Mr. McMahon was not very up to date on his blogs so I went back on his blog and chose two other posts to comment on. Here are the results:


Mr. McMahon,
My name is Heather Love and I am a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama and have been assigned to follow your blog for the next few weeks as a class assignment. I must admit when I read your blog was about math I cringed, being an English major math has always been one of my worst subjects. Upon further reading this blog I became enthralled. I am very curious about Mathletics and about your job for it. What is it that you actually do for them? I look forward to reading your earlier and future blogs!


Mr. McMahon,
I'm sure you are glad not having job security is over! A late congratulations on the Mathletics. I'm sure Asia is a beautiful and exotic place to live. Good luck on your future endeavors!

Mr. McMahon,
You bring up some interesting points. I’m not sure what the solution to the worksheets problem would be but I do believe that there has to be some other way to get information across to students without giving them an abundance of worksheets!

PLN

A PLN is a Personal Learning Network. This network shows who you learn from. My personal learning network includes the following thus far:

My EDM 310 class
My British Lit class
My World Lit class
My psychology class
Dr. Strange
Mr. Sullivan
Mrs. Daley
Ms. Meyers
ABC
NBC
Discovery Channel
My family
Mrs. Hines
You tube
Sir Ken Robinson
iTunes U

Its not very long but I hope to continue to add through out this semester.

Skype

Skype has been very useful in this class in that when I had a question that needed answering I was able to Skype my teachers and get an answer. Skype was also very useful in the fact that when I was in my pod cast group we were able to talk to each other and set up times when we could meet. Skype has also been useful for this class because when I could not get a hold of a teacher for various reasons, mostly because it was late at night, my boyfriend was able to walk me through what we are supposed to be doing.

Timeline

This is the time line of my relationship. Click and tell me what you think!

This is my teaching survey...

Copy and paste the URL below in your address bar to complete my survey:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHRScm9ZWFR4SEx5S0RiUGFSU2tJQWc6MA

March 7, 2010 Blog Homework: The Last Lecture

I just finished watching this lecture and I must say it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen or heard! What this man accomplished in his life even after he found out he was dying is one of the most remarkable things in this world. How many people can actually say they accomplished their dreams by living their life the right way despite all the obstacles they or other put in their way?

Mr. Pausch was a very remarkable man. I loved his idea getting people to learn with a head fake. I mean how remarkably simple is that. I think it's one of those "duh" moments to! I mean how many times have we tried to use reverse psychology on someone to get them to do something we want? That's all a head fake is, reverse psychology. What a wonderfully nice way to say use reverse psychology on your students, it works.

Another wonderful thing this man did was show how if you live your life in a caring, loving, way life will reward you. Everything this man accomplished he was able to accomplish because he lived his life the way one should. He didn't back stab anyone or sleep his way to the top. All he did was do his job to the best of his ability. He enjoyed life and no matter what happened, it happened for a reason and he accepted it.

Mr. Pausch looked like he was a wonderful professor who could capture not only his students' attention with ease but the entire student body's. I think even though his last lecture was for his children we could learn a lot from it, not only about how to live but how to teach as well. He was charismatic, fun loving, and just plain interesting to watch. He seems like he was one of those teachers you don't mind learning from. If we cold all remember to be charismatic about teaching and to have a positive out look on life no matter what happens not only would we be great teachers we would be terrific people in general.

February 21, 2010

Dr. Alice Christie

Dr. Christie's website is a website designed to help teachers succeed. I have explored this site a little and I have found Webinars, educational technology, and how to design your own web site. It even has a search engine designed just for teachers! I think that this website could be very useful!

This website, if used properly, can be very useful for teachers as it has links to other websites with educational tools, and lesson plans. The Webinars also seem very useful. Dr. Christie also has links to her classes that I assume, for a fee, you can sign up for.



iTunes U is a very useful tool. Imagine as a student you have missed class because you had to go to the other side of the country to a wedding your family would not let you out of to save your life. Now imagine knowing that everything you miss will be on the test that will happen when you get back and your teacher won't let you make it up. Before you start having a panic attack you remember your teacher downloads her lectures onto iTunes U so you can get the notes you need even though you missed a week's worth of classes!

As a teacher this tool will be useful because your class can be more engaged during class time and not have to worry about if they missed something important because the class lecture is online when they get home. This tool can also be useful as a teacher if you were sick and had to miss a day. Now you don't have to give your students busy work the substitute can just pull up iTunes U and play the lecture for the class and your class can take notes from it! How amazing is it that technology has come so far!

February 14, 2010

Wikipedia

I think it is amazing that someone thought of this! Unfortunately, I believe this just proves that Wikipedia cannot be a trusted website for any academic research. All this scanner does is show teachers how fallible Wikipedia is. This website is great for initial research, but it falls horrifically short of being a trustworthy academic site for students.

At the Teacher's Desk

I loved Mr. Mclung's entry on his first year of teaching. His advice was very much like the advice my mother has been giving me for years. Read your audience don't worry about what your superiors say to much because all that matters is that your students understand your lessons. Do not flip your lid when your lessons don't go your way. Sometimes your lessons will go in a completely different direction than you intended but don't freak, as long as the learn something that's all that matters. COMMUNICATE and LISTEN! Your students will respond better to you and you will make a more profound impact on their lives if you COMMUNICATE with them. I think this is the most important piece of information he could have given us. Being reasonable is not an option. We all remember that one teacher who refused to understand that we had a death in the family and refused to give us an extension on that really big assignment that we had all year to work on. So what this same grandparent dies every semester!? We still deserved that extension. Now this is over exaggeration, obviously, but seriously, we all had that teacher who wouldn't budge on an assignment no matter the reasonable circumstances. None of us want to be that teacher. Use technology in the classroom. Don't be afraid to help your student with the use of technology. Don't give up if you don't get it the first time. Keep trying! His last piece of advice was to continue to learn. We as educators cannot expect our students to learn if we are not willing to continue ourselves.

My Presentation

February 7, 2010

How many times have we been talking to a non-education major friend about something that we are so interested in with education and their eyes just glaze over? If we can not get our friends excited about what we are learning how can we get our future students' parents excited? I believe that Langwitches confronts this very well. Though I know he or she did not address how to get them excited she did discuss how to keep them informed and to show them how having technology in the classroom will help.
Langwitches addresses a very serious problem but does not answer it. How are we to keep our future parents interested in how technology really helps their child? I shudder at the idea of my first confrontation with the parent who believes technology can do nothing but harm to their child. I hope maybe someone can answer this very pressing question for me.

January 31, 2010

SmartBoard Lessons Podcast
OK, first things first. Why in the world is he doing a podcast while he is ordering coffee? I feel this is extremely unprofessional, you would not take a conference call while you were in line to get coffee much less talk about your coffee and soup. Well, if you did you probably wouldn't keep your job for much longer. Now on to the important stuff. I found Mr. Hazzard's information interesting, though I did not get a whole lot of it because I was just so distracted about his coffee and soup. [By the way I love how it was 4.16. Maybe we should all go to Ontario for coffee and soup:)]

Kid Cast Episode 62
I think the speaker on this podcast is extremely correct! So many teachers have tried to incorporate videos they have made in their classrooms and it just completely fails. I love that the speaker goes step by step into how to do a video podcast and an audio podcast. This podcast was very helpful and I feel like when I become a teacher I will use this for my classrooms.

Racism in Photography
So I can only listen to a few minutes past 25 minutes. I completely agree that a photographer has the right to refuse a job. Who is anyone to say that even though this is against your beliefs and you aren't going to do a good job with it you have to do it. Though I do believe in accepting everyone for who they are, I believe that the people who the photographer refuses to take pictures of should be understanding of the photographer's either ignorance or beliefs and not fight it with more ignorance.

Episode 96
I absolutely LOVED this podcast! I think that incorporating the computer and the internet in classroom is a wonderful idea! Students now days identify with the internet more than with just pencil and paper. Students generally do get more excited when they get to create things and other people outside of their school get to see it. I have the opportunity to observe classes at a local middle school sporadically and I have seen students' faces light up when they get to do projects with the computer. I firmly believe that incorporating the internet into the classroom would be the best thing for students now days.

January 17, 2010

Did you know? and Mr. Winkle Wakes
It amazes me that people never think it is important to know random facts about the world around them! For instance the radio took 38 years to reach 50 million people while the T.V. took 13 years, the internet took 4 years, the iPod took 3 years and Facebook only took 2 years! How amazing is that? Or is it really amazing? Is it amazing that people have become such sheep they will do whatever the more successful person shows them? What truly amazes me though is that half of the information I learned is outdated. The only information that I know is outdated is the way students cite works on their works cited pages.
Mr. Winkle wakes disturbs me because it strikes such a close cord. How can we expect our students to be prepared to go out into the working world without the skills to succeed? I know that when I first came into this class I was intimidated, and on some level I still am, because I have never had to blog or do anything extensive on the computer. Fortunately, my teachers have helped me and this class doesn't seem as daunting.

The Importance of Creativity
Sir Ken Robinson wasn't far off the mark when he stated that children grow out of creativity. How many times have we seen the child in the back of the room who loves to draw or read made fun of by the other kids because he or she is different from the "norm?" These students are called out by the teacher (unintentionally) to pay attention and to get out of their dream world so that the teacher can teach them something the student may or may not use the rest of their life.
I believe that Sir Ken has captured educational system perfectly. How many times have we just written a student off as oh they just have ADD or ADHD and told their parents that they have to put their child on medication or they will never learn. We have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking that people that suffer from these disorders can not function without medication when in fact 50 years ago the people with this disorder functioned perfectly! I believe that we need to find a better way to teach students with ADD and ADHD than to drug them and conform them to us. Yes, this makes our job easier as teachers but does it really help these students?

Harness your students' digital smarts
How amazing is it that rural students from Georgia, who would more than likely be ignorant of the world around them, get to experience the world in ways most students could never imagine? I love how the teacher is so optimistic about life and her students' ability to learn! She has truly inspired me to continue to learn how to use the internet and computer systems in my future classrooms. I cannot wait to become a teacher!

January 24, 2010

I just watched the first video we were told to watch: A Vision of Students today, I'm not sure what to think about it. It amazes me that we college students somehow manage to fit 26 and 1/2 hours into 24 hours. I just have to sit here and wrap my mind around that. I mean, if I think about it I guess it makes sense, with all the studying, jobs, social activities, classes, and even our web world students now days really are filled with activities. Everyday, college freshmen students enter the classrooms having no idea what to expect because in high school they did not have to cram everything into one day. It is no wonder half of every college's freshman class fail out every year.
This video only brings questions to my mind. How are we supposed to manage our time wisely? Where do we go for help with it? and the big one... How in the world do people do all of the activities (social, physical, relationships, and school) and manage to make straight A's?

I just had the privilege of reading Kelly Hines's blog(http://tinyurl.com/ydkng3l) about how teachers must be up to date with technology in order to be effective teachers. I agree with Mrs. Hines's, teachers must know how their students learn and in order to know this they must be able to operate the technology in his or her classes better than his or her students.
I completely agree with Mrs. Hines's list of four things teachers must be and do in order to be effective teachers. The one thing on her list that I agree with the most is that "Teachers must be learners." How can we, as teachers, expect students to learn if we are not willing to learn neew things ourselves? I can't recall how many times that I lost respect or admiration for a teacher because he or she was unwilling to help me learn or understand something better.

Is it OK to be Technologically Illiterate?
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Fisch. How can we expect students to excel in school and in the working world if we are unwilling to learn how to use technology and teach them how to use it? Teachers, unintentionally, narrow the jobs that students are able to get when they leave schools.
Teachers do have a lot on their plate, but it is our job to teach these students everything they will need in the world around them. If teachers are unwilling to learn new things, how can we expect students to want to learn the new things we must teach them?

Social Media Count
How weird is it that in only an hour or two the count from 0 to like 4,000 blogs and Facebook posts? I think that this will effect my teaching career drastically with the level of difficulty of keeping students' attention. I can only imagine how hard and frustrating it will be for me as a teacher when the technology becomes so advanced that I will not be able to tell when my students are texting or paying attention. It's a little overwhelming and a tad scary, to think that probably half of those numbers are children half my age knowing how to tweet, post blogs, buy things through Facebook and iPhones when I can't even grasp the concept of tweeting much less figure out how to buy things online without someone stealing my ID.

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