Sunday, June 28, 2015

Project #12A

Blog Post #9

Project base learning

In the first article Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning it references that every good project needs to fulfill two criteria one) "students must perceive the work as personally meaningful" two) project must fulfill an educational purpose. The article gave a very descriptive evaluation of the "Seven essential elements" for Project Based Learning. According to the article the seven essential elements are as follows.
1. Need to Know
2. Driving question
3. Students voice and choice
4. 21st century skills
5. Inquiry and Innovation
6. Feedback and Revision
7. A publicly presented product.

In the video Project Based Learning for Teachers it highlights all the key points of PBL from a teaching stand point. In a sense motivates teachers to be inspired by the potentials of using project based learning in their classroom. The benefits of using project based learning is that is requires students to go deeper in the material. It prepares them for college and life after school, communication skills, life skills and the ability to problem solve.


The video What motivates Students Today was the most inspiring resource we had for this weeks blog assignment. Some of the answers of students who were fairly young of what motivates them was amazing. Some of these kids who had to have been in elementary school, were motivated now because they wanted a better future when they grew up. A lot of the students had decided what they wanted to be when they grew up, and knew they had to be successful now in school to achieve those goals later in life. Of course there were students in the video who were motivated by being acknowledged or by some sort of awards system. But overall I was very impressed with the answers from these students as to what motivates them.

Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in Project Based Learningis an excellent resource for teachers to use as a guide for incorporating technology and project based learning in their classroom. There are several sites that I haven't heard of before and after reviewing found very interesting.

I choose the Project Based Learning In PE for my last resource because I read one of my fellow classmates blog about not knowing how they would use PBL in physical education. This article gave a good idea on how to use PBL even in physical education. The idea was for high school students to create physical fitness plans for middle school students.

Blog Post #7


iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarden

I learned that kindergarten classes in Fairhope and Gulf Shore elementary classrooms are using iPads to create book trailers using iMovie. These children definitely know more about iMovie than I do. They are doing this on a daily basis and use iMovie in their centers. The kids are looking forward to editing each others book trailers and watch them. The Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) is also being used on a daily basis in these classrooms. The AVL is a free online encyclopedia filtered for the age of the students. Students are assigned keywords to look up every week and are getting practice by doing this research.

Children using iPads in the classroomWe all Became Learners

In this video, Mrs. Bennett speaks about how everyone in the classroom becomes a learner, not just the students. She gave the example of how she teaches in early morning library class and will learn something new about the technology. She then teaches the students in that class what she learned and tells them to go teach their teachers. In return the teacher teachers the rest of her students. This is a very prime example of how everyone becomes a learner.

iPads in the Classroom

Twenty-three schools in the Chicago area were given iPads in the classroom as a test run. The teachers said that the students have paid more attention in the classroom thanks to the iPads. The students use apps on the iPad to help with their spelling words and letter sounds.

 Top 10 Reason to Use Technology 
This video was very insightful. It gave ten major reasons why many different kinds of technologies should be used in the classroom. One important reason on the video was that it improved test scores. Allowing certain technologies in the classroom will let students work on their own pace and not be dragged down by slower learners. It also helps enhance students learning abilities by letting them dive deeper in to the school work. Another important reason is that technology gives you access to just about anything in the world. We can take advantage of this by collecting information from some of the best teachers and educators in the world.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Project #9

Project #14

Our group did a lesson on a corporative learning. We had the students get into groups and pick either a frog or a butterfly and go from egg to adult. We had them pick a picture and write a sentence about that picture. Also they has to make a slide show about the animal they have chosen.

Tree Frog

Butterfly


Sunday, June 21, 2015

C4t #2

In Dean Shareski blog post, Those Goofy DENny Award Videos He tells us how he started the DENny awards. He tells us that it is a awards just for fun to appreciate the community members work. Dean was asked by some members of the community to make some videos to get the members exited for this event so he went and found some different ways to make videos with apps. He is it took him awhile to get it right and for it to be 15 seconds. So he had re rehearse, revise, and record it many times before he got it right. The videos forced him to be more creative and goofy. He is no longer surprised with his stupidity with his videos.
Dean Shareski
My Comment: I loved watching your videos, hey were funny, This was very creative, and a really good idea. Thanks of sharing your process!

 In Dean Shareski blog post, My Ongoing Struggle with Diffusing the Impact of Grades he talked about how he doesn't really know how he feels about putting in grades. Dean says he struggles with rubrics for grading. After each assignment he asks his students to evaluate themselves. He says this works really well for his students. He says that he is there for the feedback and o provide shell for the students.

My comment: This is an awesome idea! I love how you have the students evaluate themselves.

Blog post #8

Randy Pausch
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was a great video. Throughout his video he tells us about childhood dreams. He says that anything is possible that you should always try to achieve your dreams. Every child has dreams and they should at least try too achieve one of their dreams.  He states " You have to get the fundamentals down, otherwise all the fancy stuff isn't going to work". As us being future teachers we need to learn the basics to that way we can learn anything else we need to know to teach.


Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Project #13

     My group and I created a lesson plan for first grade students. They collected leaves and then did crayon rubbings of their leaves. They also treated a classification chart of the different leaves. Then they created a paper slides slide show to show the different classification of leaves.

Project Planner
Project Calendar
Project #13 Rubric

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Book Trailer Project #8

Blog post #6

conversation with Anthony Capps



1. Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher and Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher Throughout these videos Anthony tells us about project based learning and how he uses it in his third grade class. He explains that PBL should relate to the students and their community. Also how it should have great content. Anthony says that we should create opportunities for our students so they can go above and beyond.

2. iCurio- In this videos Anthony tells us what iCurio is and how to use it. iCurio allows students to research safely on the web for content that is for educational purposes. It also helps them be more organized because they can save their work to folders online.

3. Discovery Education- This is visual learning for the students. Anthony said that when he added pictures and videos into they lesson helped the students retain more information. Today most students learn by visual learning. During the lesson if we add more visual learning then the students will learn more of the lesson.

4. the Anthony- Strange Tips for Teaching Part 1 throughout this video Anthony and Dr. Strange gave us a list of tips for teaching. In this video I learned that even outside of work you are always thinking or talking about your class. No matter what you do teaching always comes up in the conversation. Anthony says that work should become our play and we should learn to enjoy work just a much.

5. Use Tech Don't Teach it We shouldn't teach the technology because the students already know how to use it. We should use the technology because the students learn more by using it. It also gets your students excited about learning.

6.Additional Thoughts About the Lesson He said that lessons are four layers think: year, unit, week. daily. Plan they year about what you wan to achieve by the end of the year, then split it into units, then look at the week and see if you will make your week, then look at the daily and see if you will everything done to meet your year goal.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Project #3

Blog post #5

Scattered Words


      PLN stands for "Personal Learning Network".  It is where an individual creates their own network  of resources and other educators to help them become a better teacher. I have used Symbaloo to explore and create my own PLN. This helps me keep track of all my networks that I need for different things. I have added things on to it to help me to get all my networks easier and faster.
I Think this is a really great tool for college students and even high schoolers. PLN is something everyone could us to help them study and get work done.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Project #15


1. WolframAlpha- They market it as a computational knowledge Engine which gives you facts and data for a number of topics. It does all different types of calculations. I could see myself using this in my future between the rest of my college and when I start my teaching.

2. Blekko- was developed by ex-googlers and they present themselves as the "spam free search engine." It is better suited web masters and SEO's who need more data for SEO purposes rather that normal users. These seems good for people way over my head and I probably will not use this a lot.

3. Duck Duck Go- Has a number of advantages over the other search engines. It has clean interface, it does not track users, it is not fully loaded  with ads and has a number of very nice features. I could see myself using this one in the future.

4. Way Back Machine- You can use this search engine to find out how a website looked since 1996. it is very useful tool if you want to trace the history of a domain and examine how it has changed over the years. This is a great website for someone who needs to know what a website said in the past.

5. Fact Monster- This is a search engine for children. It contains several reference works, including Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Atlas and Almanacs. It also fetters quizzes, flash cards, homework center, and flash-based games. I will use this search engine when I become a teacher for my students. This will be a great tool to use in my classroom.

6. Kidrex- This is a chid safe search engine. The site utilizes google safe search and maintains to own data base of inappropriate websites and keywords. It has a very colorful design which draws kids attention. This is another website I would use in my classroom for my students to search for different things that I will teach them.

7. Blucora- formally know as infospsace is a provider of internet -related services. Blucora provide meta search and private label internet search services for consumers and online search. I couldn't see myself using this for anything.

8. Dog Pile- is a search engine that get results from google, yahoo, and Yandex and also from other popular search engines. I could see myself using this to look up different things.

C4Ta #1




  I just loved reading Jennifer Brokofsky's post "Cooking With Your Kids...the Perfect Time to #TalkMath". She was so right about how when you cook you use a lot of math and have fun doing it. The kids don't even realize they are using the math skills what they are cooking. I will use this later on in life when I have kids to spend time with them as well as helping them on their math skills.

     I commented, Hi I am Christian from University of South Alabama. I loved reading this post it was just wonderful.I always was in the kitchen with my grandparents learning to cook and always enjoying time with them. This is a very good way to spend time with kids and teach them math at the same time. I will have to use this with my children when I have some. 


     Jennifer Brokofsky's Post "Building on Mathematical Thinking Through Play! #PlayMath" she tell us about how she plays games to help her kids with math. It helps them and at the same time it is fun and they are spending time together.

Comment: this is a wonderful idea! I haven't ever thought about this to help with math. I will have to use this when I start teaching.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Blog Post #4

    In the article, The Right Way to Questions in the Classroom Johnson say the important question to ask is "What does a teacher asking questions of a class expert the class to learn from the questioning process?"

      Teachers ask questions to make sure that students are actually learning the material that is being taught. Some common questions include asking "Does everybody understand?" or calling on a student to answer questions about the material. Neither of these strategies are very effective approaches. Students some times don't speak up and tell teachers when they do not understand the material.
  
    In the article Asking Questions to Improve Learning  gives us some strategies that would be useful in the classroom. 1) When planning class keep in mind course goals, 2) Avoid asking "leading questions"      3) aim for direct, clear, specific questions, Plus many more strategies of ways to ask questions to improve learning.

     Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom recommends us to use three actions that have the potential to improve our questioning. For step one she says we need to prepare our questions. She says she never prepared her questions and in the end it left the students confused. So if we prepare we can help the students understand instead of leaving them confused. Step two she tells us  play with the questions. you could get several different answers for the question and then go over the correct answer. Step three is to preserve good questions. You can keep notes of good questions and the answers and content based around the question. 



Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Blog Post #3



     Peer editing is is a wonderful way for students to interact and to provide feedback to one another on their work. Through out these three different presentations I learned about peer editing. I learned what peer editing was and  the steps on how to do peer editing. Peer editing is helping someone your own age to  help improve, comment and give suggestions on their writing. Since this is done with people your age it is very important to remember not to give harmful remarks that will hurt them. Its okay to ask questions about what the peer meant to say or what they were saying but just be polite.
      Peer editing is a wonderful resource as long a both peers are in it together and they stay positive about each others comments and opinion. These resources helped me to understand how to comment on my peers blog post and writing. They also were a big help and I will use all of them when I comment on my peers writing.