PLN

Since our last blog update on PLN's I have added a couple more. I now follow Ms. Morgan whom we saw a video on her blog and how she described her first year teaching. I still follow at the teachers desk and read their blogs, which are very useful to me now. And the last one I follow is Mr. C's class blog which is probably the best one that I follow.

Goodbye

To my fellow classmates,

You made this year quite fun and interesting. I just want to say thank you to all of you that helped me understand somethings when my brain didn't want to work that day. You all are the best and I wish you luck as you finish college. But, maybe just maybe we will run into each other again down the road.

Mr. Tashbin,

You are great! You helped me out so much this year with everything! I love your personality and your method of teaching which makes you a great teacher. You are one of the best teachers I have had at South believe it or not. I wish the best to you and your family. Hopefully I will run into in the UCOM building a lot to just occasionally talk. Thank you again for all that you have done.

Sincerely,

Blaine

Dr. Strange,

You are really smart when it comes to technology and know way more than most people I know. Sometimes you confuse me when you start rambling about computers but its all good. You are nice guy and pretty good instructor. See you around Dr. Strange.

May 2 Final Blog Post

1. What I have learned from these things and my honest thoughts

• blogs- Blogging was quite new for me, at first I hated it because I didn't understand it. But, once I got the hang of it I started enjoying blogging. I loved some of the assignments like the PS 22 chorus. I will probably use a home blog page for my students, so that they will be able to find assignments and test dates and other stuff all on one page.
• wikis- They were alright nothing to special to them. I did know that anyone can change Wikipedia, because my teachers told me. I am not going to be to interested in using wikis in the future teaching.
• presentations- I liked them a lot especially using Google Docs, it is so much easier than Power Point.
• Google Docs- Like I said before they are great to make a presentation for to present to your students for class.
• Google spreadsheets- These was a very easy thing to make a questionnaire on. I mean it is straight forward and it gives you a lot space and freedom. I will most likely use this for making up all of my quizzes and test on.
• Picasa- I only used this tool once the whole time. I like though how it recognizes faces and immediately organizes people by who they were.
• Podcast- I absolutely loved them! It is such a great tool making a podcast and it is great for teachers and students so that they can listen to a lecture and study for an upcoming test or quiz.
• Videocast- They are pretty cool, but I think I would prefer to stick with just doing the podcast.
• YouTube- Is a gift sent from heaven. It gives you an insight into what people do with their lives whether it be funny or serious. It could be a great thing for teaching depending on the topic.
• Movie Making- I never did that at all.
• Posts you read- Some them were great like the teacher who got an iPad and the kids were so great, especially Kaia.
• PLN's- I have a pretty good one I would have to say. I follow Morgan, The Teacher's Desk, and a couple more and some students.
• Twitter- I never used twitter but I have friends who have one and they love it. Maybe someday soon I will get one.
• Other teachers and students outside our region- They were pretty cool, but the kids were the best they just gripped your heart.
• Comments 4 Kids- Probably the best thing we ever blogged on in this class. I love this kids so much. I think it is amazing the things that they are learning at such a young age. All of them are so sweet and gentle and they just talk about how their day was or a science project they are working on. I just love it.
• Comments 4 Classmates- I liked the fact that I got to see what some of my other classmates thought about certain things talked about or seen. Sometimes I got to see something from a different vantage point and it helped me appreciate things more. The only thing I have against it is that some students didn't keep up with their blogs. My advice would be let one student comment on five other students blogs for the whole year.
• Comments 4 Teachers- The thing I liked about doing this project was that I got to see what it was like being in the teachers shoes while I'm still a student. I got to see their encouraging words for me as a future educator and how we need to put more time in with kids to help them grow. It was very insightful.
• iTunes- Greatest thing ever made for music. I love using for music and now for downloading podcast.
• iTunesU- Thank you for letting us see this! I use it all the time to just find out extra information on different subjects, especially history.
• Accessibility issues and the use of html tag modifiers to address some of those issues- I don't remember doing anything on this, well at least off the top of my head
• Who you are as a professional- Right now, I am still growing and maturing just like I need to. I am starting to become more technologically advanced which I most certainly needed. I didn't know much apparently when I stepped into this class but, I will be ready once I graduate from South.
• Google Forms- Like I mentioned earlier I love Google tools they are so easy to use and just great for anything.
• Data Bases- I can't remember using any data bases through this year.
• Google Earth- Is going to be a must use in my classroom. Since I am going to be a history teacher I could show these kids where the battles and wars were located at. It will great to use.
• Delicious- I never used it once in this class, so I don't know what it does.
• ACCESS- Our group did our podcast on this. It is a great system that is being used the public school system. Hopefully sometime soon every student will be able to use it and help them advance themselves towards a brighter future.
• ALEX- I liked the website, because it gives me some ideas to do while I will be teaching like some crossword puzzles and other things. I will definitely use this when I teach.
• Technological literacy- When I first stepped into this class I thought I knew everything there was to know about technology. And when you started talking I was like I have no clue what he is talking about. Now though, I have a great idea and a knowledge about each subject.
• The future of schools- If they don't start using technology in there, they could set these kids back a couple of years from the students who are learning using technology.
• My "intellectual trail"- I must say that I have left a pretty good intellectual trail after this semester.

2. As of right now you have taught more than I can imagined. So, there isn't anything that comes to my mind that I wish you would have taught me how to do.

3. No, everything that I learned in class served a purpose at helping me to become a better educator. From blogging to watching videos on YouTube, all were right where they needed to be.

4. Yes, this class did "excite" me in a lot of ways. One is using audacity and making podcast from that to the most simple form of that type of thing using Vocaroo. The kids blogs did excite me the most they were great! All the things that were shown to me are going to be used in my classroom.

5. Nothing was super "intellectually challenging", it all just took a little work and some guidance from our instructors and fellow classmates.

6. I was never bored in this class, because I was always learning something different from either Mr. Tashbin or my classmates around me.

7. As of right now, honestly I don't know what you could add to this course to make it better. But, I know there will be a couple of things that will soon come up that you will like to incorporate into the class.

8. I came into the class low, but now I can say that I am pretty darn good. I have learned how to master most of the stuff that you assigned to us and will use a lot of it in the future. But, there is still some growing room for me to do on my own once I leave this class.

9. I will keep up everything by using another blog I will create and find the teachers that I am interested in keeping up with their work. I might not post as much to my blog, but I will learn from the other teachers.

Vocaroo Presentation and HW Week 13

To check out about my thoughts about vocaroo click here.

4/25/10 HW Week 14

PLE

Honestly, her PLE blows me out of the water. She has so many more sites than what I do. She has her own personal things that she likes to constantly keep up with and she has her education blogs that she has to keep up with. I think that it is great what she is doing, by keeping up with these blogs and actually learning things from them. She just motivates me to step out and be more into education blogs.

Two Questions That Can Change Your Life

The first question that was asked is, "What's my sentence?". I think that is a great question and to be completely honest I don't think that I can answer it right now. All I know, is that I would like it to be something great that everyone will remember me by.

The second question that was asked is, "Was I better today than yesterday?". Which that question I love, because it makes me push myself in every area of life on to be a better person. Such as in the future I can ask, "Am I teaching kids and helping them learn better everyday?'. This so great! I love the question and I think that I will use it as a motivation in teaching.

Google Earth Project on My Senior Trip

Interview with a Teacher

The teacher that I interviewed for this project was Ryan Smith. He his a history teacher at Faith Academy. He is one of the main reasons that I chose to become a teacher. The following questions shown are the ones I asked Mr. Smith and they will be followed by his response.
1. How long have you been teaching?
-I have been teaching for 5 years.
2. What made you want to teach high school?
-I could have the ability to help shape and mold a kids life to help them become a great person in the future.
3. Why become a history teacher?
-That is easy, I am a history "nerd".
4. Do you believe in using technology inside the classroom?
-Yes, it is a great tool and it makes learning fun
5. By "fun", what do you mean?
-It brings history back to life using technology by showing where famous battles were fought and using the internet to find videos that show things from the past
6. What tools of technology do you use in your classroom?
-I like to use power points, podcast, and Google earth
7. What teacher got you interested in using technology in classrooms?
-I can't remember his name now but he was a professor at the University of Mobile
8. Are you open to learning new things with technology to help your students learn?
-Yes, most certainly without using technology in somethings it would just make school more boring to some students.
9. What is your favorite time period in history?
-I love the Romans and the Napoleon era
10. What is your least favorite time period in history?
-Probably the whole papacy era where everybody claimed to be a pope.

Comments 4 Kids Week 14

I went to here. And checked out a blog by Matthew who wrote about a tornado that looked like a volcano which it kinda did. He is what I said "Matthew that is a very cool picture and I see what you mean about how it looks like a volcano. Keep up the great work man!"

Comments 4 Teachers Weeks 13-14

Week 13

I went to Shelly Terell blog site and looked at her blog on how we as future teachers should believe in our kids no matter what the circumstance. She made some great points that we should have the faith of a mustard seed, so we can move mountains in these kids lives. She mentioned just about how the kids who give you the must trouble are the ones that need the most reaching out to.

I agree with what Mrs. Shelly had to say. We as educators must step out and put forth an extra effort in these kids lives to help make them better students and people. It was a great blog to read and very resourceful.

Week 14
I went back again this week to Shelly's blog and looked at one of her past blogs that deals with PLN's and how she used those connections to hook up and help teachers that are in Nepal. She gives some details about what she did to help them. She also puts in there some questions that should challenge us as teachers, about how we should try and help our kids manage their time using the internet.
I love the questions that she presented, because it made me look at myself and see if I was doing those things. Like will I show my kids how to manage their time or will I just let them learn on their own. I loved the blog and the questions you should check it out here.

4/18/10 HW Week 13

Comments 4 Kids

I went to here and commented on Kaycee's blog about how her class went outside and looked at the clouds and also how her hat got blown off her head because of the wind.

Teaching Someone Using Technology

How to blog

Today I am going teach you all how to blog. The first step into becoming an avid blogger is going to www.blogger.com and signing up (making an account). One must first give their email address they want notifications sent to and make up a password that is at least 8 digits. Once blogger.com confirms everything, you will have your own blog page.

From there one can click on New Post to write about whatever it is they want to write about. Whether it be about their life or teaching. One can also follow blogs they are interested in just by finding a blog and clicking "become a follower". Once you have done that you will receive RSS feeds to your blog page. All that does is let you know is when they post a new blog to their page.

4/11/10 HW Week 12

Dr. Seuss "The Zax"

This was a great little video explaining just how some teachers are in today's world. That when they come along in their journey of teaching, they want move their pride out of the way to start teaching with technology. They will not even think about using it in their classroom, but they must know they better get on board or they will be left behind.

PS 22

All I can say is wow! Those kids have amazing voices and sound so beautiful. But the song is perfect for this age or generation of teachers, how some of them are afraid of changes like technology coming into their classroom. It is just that they are nervous about doing it, because they have never done it before.

I also think that it is a great idea to do blogs, so that kids can post their assignments without using paper. And it is also easier to find things on a computer than a sheet of paper that is giving to you.

Comments 4 Kids Week 12

I went here to see the blog of my little friend Cyrus. He told me about what he did on his vacation and how he played with his friend over the break and had fun.

SURVEY RESPONSES

This is where you find the answers to the survey I sent out. The questions that I asked fellow students were they live, how long they been here, and if they enjoy South.

4/4/10 HW Week 11

Kaia's Blog

The blog that was made for Kaia is amazing! I think it is very cool what she and her dad are doing, by going outdoors and looking at the beauty of things even though they are not sometimes beautiful. She had great pictures and a video that described her pictures and surroundings.

Kaia's Dad's Blog

He gave us a lot more information on why he and Kaia went outside and explored everything. It was sparked by the book that he was reading about the last child being outside in nature. So, with his curiosity sparked he and Kaia went out and took pictures of the things around them and made a video with Kaia talking about it. He also talked about how hard it was for him to make the decision and show everybody his daughter by putting her online. But, he ended up meeting Mr. Chamberlin and they made a video for Kaia describing what they saw back to her. Overall, it was a very interesting blog to read.

Comments 4 Teachers Weeks 10-12

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe Week 10

This week by Scott Elias, he wrote about what you need to know as soon as you finish teacher school. He basically gave ideas and some tips that we as future teachers should know before we step foot into a classroom. He told us that we should be fun not "funny", to take this job seriously, but at the same time have fun with what we are doing. Also he said that we should act interested in what we are teaching, because if we are not then they will not be interested in what we are saying.

I thought that these were great ideas that he brought up and believe me I will take them with me. Most of the teachers that I have learned the most from are the ones that loved teaching their subjects. And they have been history teachers which have in turn made me wanna be like them and make history interesting to the kids I will be teaching. I think it is a great blog and you should check it out here for your-self.

Week 12

This week on Scott Elias' blog he talked about something that I was very interested in finding out about, the iPad. He was just giving his experiences and thoughts about the iPad and about how amazing it is. He likes it because he says that it is in between a laptop and an iPhone. So, it is the perfect tool he needs.

He said that it is good for watching videos and having a calendar and notes. He had a lot of great things to say about it and he said that he is just waiting for just a couple more things and apps to come out so that he can make the iPad better for his use.

I actually enjoyed reading this blog a lot, because it gave me a great insight about the iPad and answered a couple questions that I had been wondering about. And after reading this and taking in some of his ideas I am probably going to buy one pretty soon and experience one for myself. If you want to check out the overview click here.

TimeToast Project

My Timetoast Project. The dates that are in my timetoast are important in my life. Such as first wreck, first car, and first state championship ring.

SKYPE

I had a conversation with Meghan Wallace through skype. She was at work at the Mobile Airport while I was at my house sitting on my couch. We were talking about our podcast and how everything went and we talked for about 10 minutes.

Week 10 HW

Comments 4 Kids

I went to Ms. Goerend's class and read an article by Gabe A on speeding. He talked about how we should be able to speed all the time, which is a great idea at first until you think about some things. I agreed that speeding on big roads is fine, but we shouldn't be able to speed on small roads, because of kids playing.
An Open Letter to Educators
I agree with what Morgan Bayda is saying. It is truly impossible to remember everything that you do in a two to three hour setting. And if you do not get students involved in what they are learning then it is even harder for them to retain it. I like what Dan Brown had to say that we as educators need to change our methods of teaching to the way the world is changing or we are going to be left behind.

Teacher Comments Week 7-9

Week 7

In this week Russ Goerend's talked about how the Des Moines was making a charter school for students that have failing grades and don't come to school a lot. I think that this is a great idea! I also think that it will work great, because the parents are going to have to put in about 40 hours a week on this. So, that will force the parents to pay more attention to their child's grades before they fail and make them go to school.

Week 8

In this week Russ talked about the love of learning, which really caught my attention. He said that we need to honestly ask our kids if they like school and that we need to truly care about their answer. Also, he said that we need to stop blaming them and look at the way we are teaching them. I love this post! It is so true about how we need to make kids loving coming to school instead of dreading another day of boring lesson plans. If we could get students involved in loving to learn and participate in things then the sky is the limit for the next generation.

Week 9

In this week Russ talked about how apple is opening up their stores to students. They are opening them up, so that students can come on a field trip and learn how to use programs. From these programs they will learn how to use iMovie, garage band, and iPhoto. Then once the students learn this they can compare one another's to see which one is the best. This is the best of both worlds for students and teachers to both learn the programs, so that they can incorporate the programs in the classroom.

3/14/10 HW Week 9

ALEX
This is a pretty cool website that is made just for teachers so that they can go look at it and see what kind of lesson plans are out there. They have some things where you can see lesson plans that teachers before them have done. The teachers can also look and listen to old podcast other teachers have done. You can also look in databases and find stuff that had been made a long time ago.
I think that this is a cool thing for teachers now. It is pretty interesting just looking around and seeing all the things that they have in there that is open to anybody who wants to use them. I will most certainly use this tool, because it might give me a different outlook on how I want to teach a lesson and how it will come across to the students. I could also use this website to make little puzzles and games to get the students involved.
ACCESS
This is a program that is designed for students that are in the upper part of their class. What it is, is that they can go to this class that is taught online and the students can use this to help them achieve college credits. The students can start the classes their freshman year and continue classes through out there high school career. The students can take a multitude of classes like exotic languages such as Spanish and french. They also take classes like math and English. The teachers do all their teaching online and some in the classroom.
I think that this a great program as of now, but I think that they should extend this program to the lower level students to help them get admission into colleges. The bad thing about this program is that the parents do have to pay for these courses. But, as of right now the program is doing good and will one day maybe reach the lower level students.
Comments 4 Kids
This week I went to Mrs. Yollis' class blog and looked around watched her video on how to comment and also looked at one of their topics from February on Chris Van Allsburg's books. Which are very interesting books which all of you should check out!

3/7/10 Week 8

Randy Paush: The Last Lecture
This was a very interesting lecture. I loved it from when it first started to when it finally ended. He has such a great idea of how to work with students and how to push them in a great way to where he helps them succeed. In the following paragraphs I will explain some of the ideas and things that he discussed in his video and I will give my opinion on it after explaining.
One of the ideas that he talked about early in his video was how to set goals and help your self achieve them. He talked about one instance when he was a little kid, how his football coach was getting on him pretty hard and he said he was thinking the same thing. Then another coach came up to him and said what Randy was thinking and he said the reason the coach was doing that was because he cared about him. The quote he said that caught my attention was "If you notice that somebody is criticizing you tough and continue to do it, its because they love you and care for you and once they stop they don't care anymore which is really bad." I think that it is a really good idea and I believe it so much that we should care for these kids and always critique them in a nice way like he said and help push them toward their potential.
The second point that he made was how to push your students even when they exceed your expectations on the first project or test. He used the example that when he first taught the class on virtual reality that his students did more than he could have imagined when he made up the idea. So, he went to his old professor and asked him what should he do since they did more than he imagined and his mentor said "tell that they did good but you can see that they could do better than that." So, that was a challenge that was sent out to the students and he said that they meet his expectations wonderfully. I like this idea, because I played baseball my whole life and when the coach told me something like that it really did work a lot.
Overall, Randy had great ideas on what he said and what he has done and what has been done to him also. I love this whole speech from beginning to the end and I will most definitively incorporate this into my future classes. And teach them these methods for when they get older.
Comments 4 Kids
I went to here and commented on her students blog whose name was Waylan. He wrote about how the loch ness monster was a hoax and I told him that he was right and that was about it.

2/28/10 HW Week 7

Comments 4 Kids

I went to Mrs. Goerend's class and read a essay by Katie S on how to take care of a pet rat. I must say that she went into great detail about how to do it. Also, she is quite a good writer for her age!
Richard Miller: This is how we dream part 1 and 2
This is very interesting to watch. Richard some great ideas about how things are changing around us so quickly that we need to catch up with the times. I loved his presentation he made, like how just gave us some quick insight on some things about becoming more involved as teachers, or future teachers, on how we need to use technology. He said something about how soon the way we teach will totally change in using things such as multimedia.
He did so much stuff on multimedia that it was kind of hard to keep up with. He showed how
one could use videos and sounds and put them all together and make excellent presentations. He
even showed us how technology is starting to become more ingrained in our culture, for example he
used the most recent election. He showed us how a person could have gotten online and watched
how each state was voting throughout the whole process.
I think that this is just absolutely amazing! But, as far as am I ready the answer to that is no! To be honest I don't know how to do all that stuff well at least for now I don't, but soon I shall learn how to do it. Once I learn this, I will most definitely incorporate it into my class, so that my students will know how to do it when they get to college.
Networked Student by Wendy Drexler
I thought that the video was very neat and pretty interesting. The reason I say this, is because you know we talk and talk about how we are going to be techlit teachers. But you know that if we don't stay with doing it our students are going to fall behind a lot. This in turn puts the blame on us and how we should have done a better job on teaching our students everything. I love how she just gives a walk through of everything that will go on in the process of helping your student become a technological literate person.
As of right now I am not completely ready to go on a journey with my students teaching them how to do everything that I am doing. Now, I could teach them to create their own blogs and follow me on the computer where I would post their homework and assignments. I also could teach them how to use podcast and iTunes U for their advantage to help them further their education. But, I am not very good with multimedia and other things we haven't explored yet.
The reason the kids will need teachers in the future, even though most of the work will be online, is because they will need someone to help them clear things up. Like if they had a question if a website was reliable the teacher could let them know if it is or not. And the teacher can help them keep things from getting cluttered on them and help them connect with people in their class and around the world.
Michael Wesch
This was video I really really liked. Mr. Wesch brings up great points how things have changed such as words like "whatever". He talks about how our generations change with interaction. How we have moved to talking to a camera which the whole world could end up watching. I think it is just awesome how we are united in a sense, even though we don't see each other. We have the beliefs and share them as one on one website.
It is true that basically does describe my life, when I post things on facebook. I don't even think that everybody I know can see and make a comment on it. It shows me that if I made videos for my students to watch and let them make comments and even video responses it gets everybody to get involved and learn at the same time.
PLN
As of right now I am working on how to establish my PLN making it larger so that I may follow more blogs and see whats going on with other people around the world. I am following Mr. McClung's blog, because I love the information he gave in one of his earlier post we had to read. I am also receiving notifications from Mrs. Goerend's student blogs.

My Presentation

2/21/10 HW Week 6

Dr. Alice Christie's Site

Dr. Christie has a very interesting website there is so many things there to just look at and get new information on stuff. Like she has examples of geocaching and she put it in her class. She had her students go find the stuff she hid around campus and once they had found the hidden things, they had to come back in and sample them and make graphs. She also teaches us how to make web designs like with tips and designs. She has so much with educational technology and photography.

This website is perfect for teachers now a days, just to help them with making a move into being a technology literate teacher. It is also great for students who are working to become teachers. This gives me great ideas and great insight on how to get myself ready for what I can do to help them get more involved which does help students learn more when they are more interactive with what they are learning.

Itunes University

I have to say I will probably use this thing provided by Itunes, because this has so many different looks on different topics and even in-depth looks at things. I like how it has recordings of some of the brightest teachers around the world. It helps students to go back and listen to the lecture if they missed it or they just weren't paying attention in one part. This actually helps one learn something by going back and taking notes on the subject again. As a student I am going to use this more than once, on a subject that I might need more help on.

As a future teacher I will use this to help me prepare my lectures if I get stuck on a certain part and I want more insight or a different view from another outside source. But, as a teacher this is an amazing gift to their students to find things and maybe do some research for their projects I would give them in class. This is such a great thing and there is so much one can learn more at this site.

Ipods in Instruction

As seen in the website,here, there it talks about and shows how the ipods can be used in classrooms. It gives us different looks on how podcasting or vodcasting or using ipods in the class are good. It teaches children or the teenagers how to interact with one another in things such as the things listed before. I think that this is a great idea with getting our kids to use this technology as a way of learning and interacting with their fellow students. The students can use the ipod, because they got some notes from iTunes U and that will help learn things a bunch. They will also use the podcasting and vodcasting to have interaction with the students, so they are learning together and having fun.

Looking at what The University of Duke has done during a study using iPods has proved to be rather helpful in most cases, where the students have learned better or their knowledge increased a little more in the subject. What Duke did was give iPods to incoming freshman and they had recorders on and most of the students used that for lectures and would play the lectures back later on to help them remember stuff for test. Some students just used the iPod for what most people use it for music and their grades showed why. There was some problems that were involved with this whole process, such as teachers who weren't technologically advanced and who used PC and not Mac's. Other problems is some students didn't know how to find the teachers lectures online, but in the end the iPods in class proved to be a great thing when used properly. To find some more information here is the Duke site here.

Comments For Kids Week 6

I went to here and searched around the website and looked at Asena's blog page and watched a video on what she likes to do.

2/14/10 HW Week 5

Wikipedia

I knew that Wikipedia was not the most reliable source on the internet, because my teachers in high school told me that I should not use it. I never knew why exactly that was, but now I know why. Because, anybody and their mother can get on their and write what they think something means on any subject. Then the world can get on there and think it's right without even checking out other sources. It is also crazy that the FBI and the CIA get on there and change things about their organizations. Especially big companies are known for doing these kinds of things to keep their company look good to the world's eyes.

There might come a time where we can finally trust wikipedia 100%. Until then, I think that we should be very careful about which things we pick out that we won't to use. But, don't get me wrong it still is a very interesting website that offers a lot of insight to the world and people which they never knew existed.

At The Teachers Desk

Mr. McClung wrote a very interesting blog. He just gives great ideas on how to do some stuff when it comes to the students. This blog is perfect for me, because it helps me know what to do a little more when I start my student teaching and then work my way into my own classroom. I mean I want to do this for my students, I want to know them personally to help them and mold their lives as they will move on. I want them to look back and remember me as someone who helped them in their life's journey.

I agree that all teachers should know how to work a computer and the programs with it to help teach the students new and brighter things instead of keeping them back. We should as teachers carefully listen to what our students say and do, and give the right direction not snap at them and make them feel down about themselves. All I have to say is Mr. McClung opened my eyes just a little bit more on what I should do with my future students.

Comments 4 Kids Week 5

I went to here and checked out Xochiti M's blog and looked at her picture she made and commented on that.

2/7/2010 HW Week 4

The benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

This video is very interesting and quite informative on podcast in general. It gave me a lot of insight on how big it is starting to get. Like the sixth graders in Mr. Dells class, are already listening to and making podcast on their own for their class. I think it is great how he is already familiarizing children at a young age something that they are going to be using in the future to come. Not only because the teacher is doing it, but because the students will have to know how to do it when they get into college and maybe even high school.

I like the idea a lot of podcasting. It gives me thoughts about using it with my students so that they will be able to find what they need whether it be notes or lectures. This will be a way for me to get my students involved in something that will like, most likely, and use for the rest of their lives.

Comments 4 Kids Week 4

I went to here and checked out Willy's blog and saw his science project which

was pretty interesting and I left him a comment.

HW 1/31/2010 Week 3

Media Literacy in the First Grade

I think it is crazy how developed these kids are, while just being first graders. They know so much stuff about how to blog that I never knew about, until I stepped foot into edm 310 for the first time. The show people how to find their class blog, and also how to leave comments for people to see. It is outstanding the work that this teacher has put in with the children.

It is very scary that these are going to be our future students. They know so much now, that it could be a possibility that they could be showing me some stuff when they get in my class. I love how the kids know the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I didn't know the difference until about fifth grade which is horrible, but they already know. They tell one that they need to leave nice comments on somebody's blog if you are going to comment. All I can say is that this teacher deserves a lot of credit for what she has done.

Little Kids...Big Potential

First off, all I have to say is that Mrs. Cassidy deserves the teacher of the year award. What she does with these kids is just outstanding. They already know how to use so many different programs that many adults today have no clue about. The ideas she comes up with the kids playing problem solving games on the ds, which is a fun way for these kids to use their brains and learn how to share with one another.

One thing I do know is if I have these kids when they are in high school, I don't know what I am going to do. Just because they will know so much more than me on how to make a presentation and how to present it efficiently to them. I might just have to get them to show how they do all those things, which means I will have to be a learning teacher. Which, is the best one's any student could ever find.

iPhone used by 1 year old baby

What can you say to that, but how crazy is it that these kids now a days know how to work an iPhone at such a young age. He knew how to unlock using his fingers and how to find pictures and scroll through them and even how to zoom in. This young child has a very bright future ahead of him if he continues in his path of an intellectual technological journey.

Podcasts

The smart board lesson podcast was quite boring to be honest. The guy talking had way to many noises and distractions going on around him, which that would throw me off. It just had me wondering where he was at when he did this podcast. He had some cool ideas with the smart board, how one could just put what they needed on the computer and do their presentation using the board, whether the be in a foreign country or even in the northern states.

Kids cast is pretty interesting how it kicks off, with all the music that really gets your foot a tapping. And the guy who is talking doesn't just cut the music off immediately when he starts talking, he allows to fade away behind his voice. He has a rather interesting point on his outlook on how teachers should go about using podcast verses "vodcast", which is video podcast. He talks about how it is probably easier on teachers to do audio podcast, because it is easier on the teacher where they do not have to do a lot work, taking up their time, and they still get the point across. But, he does say that it is good for students and teachers to do the video podcast, because it helps both parties prepare themselves for just speaking in front of people.

The EdTech talk is the most boring podcast I have ever listened to in my entire life. All I hear is this one lady ramble on and on and on about nothing it sounds like. I mean the talk shows I hear on the radio are way for fascinating then this one could ever be. The lady that was talking to the main speaker just sounded like a know it all person. She tried to use words that just seemed made up through out the entire talk they had. There no was change in voices, but it wasn't exactly monotone. Just overall, I really didn't enjoy this podcast.

Mac Break Weekly is pretty cool. They are like a legitimately radio talk show, which you can tell by the commercials, the guest they bring in, and the announcers. They hook your attention quickly with the cool up beat music playing at the beginning. I think that the iPad presentation is a great device. Just hearing them talk makes me want to go out and buy one. It sounds so neat with the power and speed it has to allow one user to go about on it. The neatest thing about it, is it is, a touch pad and you things around with the touch of your hand.

TWIP (This Week In Photography) was the same as the Mac Break, as far as, they both had music playing at the beginning and faded it away as the people started talking, which I like that stuff. The main speaker at first was quite boring, but the people he had with him made it interesting. They had a funny talk about a sony camera I believe, not being able to take pictures of Asian people, because the camera thought that their eyes were shut. And the people were doing was just discussing the whole thing, and what they think sony should do.

1/24 Week 2

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

I think this video does an excellent job at portraying the normal college student lifestyle. I mean the teacher has put a lot of things we do down to the "t". Many students who normally bring their lab tops to class usually play games or facebook the entire time. Also, if I were to average how much I worked a week it would come out to be about three and a half hours a day, which is crazy considering the fact that I take 16 hours, and spend at least two hours maybe more per class. I do not spend over two hours eating a day, I believe that is way to long for anybody. One thing I would strongly agree with the most, is the fact that we take these standardized test to help further our knowledge, but we will not need to know all that stuff in the real world. What does it do to help further our skills, when we are on our own?

For the most part I would say that the video does a pretty good job at describing my college experience so far. I do spend majority of my time studying outside of school, such as working on projects, typing papers, reading books, and keeping up this blog, which is pretty interesting. I do not get much sleep while in school, most of the sleep goes to homework, hanging out with my friends, and working. Out of all my teachers that I have had only four can remember my name to this day. What this video does tell me though, is that I should focus more on school then anything else if I am wanting to succeed in this life. I think this video should be shown to high school seniors before they come to college to let them know what they are getting themselves into.

"It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines

I love the way this essay starts catching your attention to the fact that "It's Not About the Technology". If you have the same thought as me when you first read it, you are like "what is this women thinking?". But I have to say this is pure genius on giving future teachers and today's teachers an idea on how to think of things to help make students learn. Kelly does a great job at singling out us teachers by telling us that we need to learn our students and how much they know before they even step foot into our classroom. I love her analogy on teaching and learning by equating it to a simple physics terminology. She also says something about working smarter and not harder. Is she meaning to say that we should let them all work on a computer, or should we get them involved even more?

The third idea she presents is great by my belief. She is telling me that I should not blame the whiteboard if these kids are not learning, because at the end of the day it comes down to the person who was teaching the class. Me! This just inspires me to use the tools I will have to my advantage, as well as being an advantage to the students. Just from personal experience, I would agree with Kelly that the teachers that actually make you use your brain and think are the ones that the students remember forever. Because, these teachers stepped out of the normalcy way of doing things and got us involved, so that we would know what is going on in the world around us. I will keep this in my mind as I teach, that I need to be a learning teacher till the day I retire.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Mr. Fisch has an awesome point even though it does seem pretty strict to those who do not know how to work a computer. But, I do agree with him 100%, because at the rate our world is changing technologically people are going to have to be able to work other programs. I think that teachers now should hold conferences, meetings, to where they could work on their computer skills and take it back to the classroom. I also agree with Karl that teachers should also work beside the students who are learning programs or systems, and learn with them.

His blog shows the importance of how us future teachers need to be technologically literate. It opens to my eyes to what is the possibility to the things that are going to come in 2020 when kindergartners are in college how much has change, how much have we taught them, and what are they going to do with the stuff that they have learned from us and on their own.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Wow, if everything in this continues to move at the pace it is going now, then there is no telling what it is going to be like when I am a teacher in a few years. There are going to be a lot of new things coming out within the next few years, that could possibly change the way we teach a little bit. But, people will be able to access anything from anywhere in the country and the world. It is just simply amazing how fast things change in just a short amount of time.

1/17 Homework Week 1

Mr. Winkle Wakes

This is a very interesting video in how demonstrates the changes that have occurred over the last 100 years. Matthew Needleman gives such perfect examples with business and health. Over the past one hundred years technology has expanded our business horizons to places we never thought possible. With the whole cisco networking system which allows us to speak with clients, share holders, and even investors that are located half-way around the world. The beauty of that program is one can see the person they are talking to even though they are miles away. Also the technology that hospitals have required nowadays can look at peoples brains without doing surgery, and they also have machines that help one breathe if one can not do it on their own.

I also agree with Mr. Needleman in the fact that not much has changed in our school system over the last century. Teachers still tend to teach at the front of the classroom and ramble on and on without giving any videos or pictures to help the students understand what is going on around the area of the subject they are talking about. Don't get me wrong there are some teachers that have made the move and it tends to be working well.

Did you know 3.0

Wow that was just a simply amazing video showing me facts that I never thought were even imaginable. Far as there are more english speaking people in China is remarkable it's beyond belief. Or also how about 25% of India's population with high IQ's is far beyond our population in the United States. What shocked me the most was how the top 10 jobs of 2010 in the U.S. didn't exist in 2004, that is so crazy how that works! I would have never thought that there was over 200 million people on myspace which could make up the fifth largest country. You know who would have ever thought that since 1992 text messaging would now exceed the population of the entire world.

There was somethings that I wasn't as shocked about as far as the working field is concerned. I knew that a lot of people do not stay with one job very long, just because they are always looking for new venues. Also, I have heard about many people meeting online, using chemistry or e-harmony websites.

Overall, this video is just so absolutely amazing! It has shown me how much technology has expanded over a short span of years and how it continues to get better as the years pass.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Sir Ken has a very interesting way of looking at things. He gave great stories through out his speech about how we should take a different look into the way we go about teaching and how we look at our students. He talked about just how young children think and how their minds are so open, like the little girl that drew God. He also pointed out that we need to spend time with them, in what they do, helping them to understand anything and everything. The thing I liked the most was how we should look at our students, for example Gillian, her teacher told her mom to come in, so that they could talk about her "illness". But, what he was doing, was pointing out to the mother that her child needed to be in a dance school. So, the mother listened to the teacher and Gillian made her mark down the road with the choreography of Cats.

The video overall was tremendous on how it makes one think outside the box when comes to dealing with the future leaders of tomorrow. On how we need to encourage them, not shut them down and force math and language down their throats all of their life. Sometimes we are going to have to step out of our comfort zone and tend to the kids, helping them figure out what they could possibly do in the future.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis has a great idea on how she teaches her students to work on computers. She teaches them by doing interaction with them and allowing other students on different days to teach the class. This in-turn helps the student leading the class to understand more of what he is doing, so that he may present what he has learned in front of the class. She is amazing on how she teaches and does all these other things around the globe, connecting students to one another from other countries.

The work that she has done with these kids and what she is going to do with these kids goes beyond the "typical teacher". She has introduced them to things that I myself am now learning for the first time. So, all she is doing is preparing these kids for a better life, by making them computer smart and not forcing them to guess at what they are doing many years down the road.