C4K October

Keira

I commented on this little girls blog, she is in the 2nd grade in Australia. Her post was about her favorite animal, the butterfly. She wanted to know in her comments what we thought of her blog, our favorite animal, and what kind of pet we have. I let her know that she did an awesome job on her post and to keep up the good work! I told her that my favorite animal is a parrot, because I think it's neat any time you can teach an animal to talk to you! I also told her that I have a dog named Lucy.

Lorenzo - Room 9

Lorenzo created an animation that portrayed the Australian outback and gave a few facts about the country, he also added music into the movie. I told him that enjoyed his animation and that he did a fantastic job on it! I also told him that I loved that he made the animals move around just like they do in the outback.

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or do You Educate?

I became interested in being an educator after my children were born. It has been one of the things that I have really become passionate about because I can see the results in my kids. I feel extremely rewarded when I can see them learn and grow as little people and how fast it can happen with a clear goal.

I intend on educating by being a mentor and educating by example. Kids learn more and retain more knowledge when they can relate and see that is useful in everyday life. I can remember in high school, my peers were always complaining about math and how it was pointless and something they would never use. I think this is because they were not shown by the teacher how you DO use math everyday. It tends to stick in our brains and become a story that we may never forget, and it's all due to the style of educating our teacher is doing while in the classroom.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home!

This was an awesome post with a clear message. Most people cannot think outside the box! This lady frantically comes in his classroom freaking out about kids taking pencils home and the effect it will have on standardized tests. Even after Mr. Johnson explains to her that it's ok, he has a solution by keeping the children engaged, she is still a non-believer. If there is one thing that bothers me, is pessimistic people that refuse to try to solve a problem first and then you may freak out if it becomes impossible. I hate to be defeated, it makes me crazy. In this case, even more so than others when dealing with a low income school is when you make these adjustments to try and make these kids learn. If it means they can take pencils home, then LET them! It's all up to the teacher as to the outcome of these types of situations!

Blog Post #9

At the Teacher's Desk

After reading Mr. McClung's post in May of 2009, I can honestly see myself doing exactly the same thing my first year. I will be the one that gets stressed out over a lesson not going as planned and nervous of what my superiors are thinking. It helps me to know that it's ok if lessons aren't carried out perfectly! I am going to bookmark this blog so that I can go back to it when I'm stressing and hopefully it will be able to calm me down. As far as what he said about technology and grown ups being afraid of it, I think I will be ok in that department. I have always felt comfortable with it and after taking this class, I have just been able to grow in that department.

Mr. McClung's second reflection in June of 2010 was a much different experience than that of his first year! He had all kinds of hurdles to get over. I'm kind of glad that I will not be certified to teach any higher than 6th grade. Teenagers are hard to deal with and at the same time there are those chosen ones that can make that grade worth teaching. I am not willing to take the chance though! I particularly liked in this post was about the conflicts he had going on with administration and co-workers. We have to remember it's not about the grown up conflicts going on behind the scenes, but the kids that are there to learn. I am glad he didn't take the advice that he received from his colleague and kept his students in mind to make the right decision.

Project #13

Project #11

Project #12

PLN Progress Report

I have created my symbaloo account and linked all of my accounts with it. I have to say this is pretty cool! I am still learning how to use it, but it does help with everything being on one screen when I open up safari!

Project 9b Instructional Timeline

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch The Last Lecture

First, I don't think that 4 paragraphs about this man is enough! He was a truly amazing person. I enjoyed this video for a number of reasons. I thought that the fact that he accomplished all but one of his childhood dreams was amazing, not many can say that they have done that. This gives hope to me that it's not entirely impossible to accomplish some of the things I have dreamed of even if they are a little silly! I liked that even though he didn't become an NFL player, that that was one of the most important training in life that he had. It taught him to be a team player, which we found was key to his success in his classes.

He had so many inspirational quotes throughout his lecture and my favorite one was that brick walls aren't there to keep us out, they are there to make us try harder to get what we want. The world would be a better place if there were more people like Mr. Pausch. He wanted to see his students succeed and kind of tricked them into learning while they were having fun. You could tell that he was so proud of his students and what they learned.

For someone who was terminally ill, he had a spirit about him like I have never seen. He introduced "Alice", his project and said that although he wouldn't be around to see the end he knew it would be a success. I believe it will too! His children are very blessed to have had a dad that was that extraordinary and I hope they will know that. He is and should be an inspiration to every teacher out there.

When I first opened this assignment, I was a little hesitant on watching an hour long lecture. However, after I started it I couldn't get enough. I watched it, then watched more videos about him and found a few more interviews that he did after he made this one. I came to wish I had actually known him after about 2 hours, and to me that is powerful! I will never forget this one.

Blog Post #6

The Networked Student

This video was interesting to me in that I did not realize how much students can take matters into their own hands in order to learn the material in their classes. We as teachers need to think like our students and be able to teach them as well as them teaching us. Kids now know all the new gadgets way before we do, for the most part. Before this class I thought I was pretty tech savvy, turns out not so much. I have all the gadgets, I just didn't know what to do with them.

The student in this video was definitely in the know on how to do what was necessary for him to learn in a way that he could connect to. I look forward to teaching with technology, because it is ever changing it will be hard to keep up with but well worth it.

A 7th Graders PLN

That 7th grader had AWESOME organizational skills, I can keep things in folders but this student had it all with a click! This video proves just how advanced technology can be a young age, and yet again I had no idea "symbaloo" even existed. It looked really neat but when I read some of the comments on the video, one person said that the program costs $500. Where would students get that kid of money for an organizational program?