C4K Summary #1

C4K #1
Week 1 C4K
I just left a comment for Adam, a student in Iowa.  He has plans of being a rapper and a doctor.  He wants to be a billionaire and is very true to himself.  He wants to be muscular and is scared of being sick and dying.  He likes to play videos and enjoys being a kid.  I think that Adam is a bright and strong willed student that will be very successful in life.

Week 2 C4K
I just left a comment for Evan, a student in Mrs. Kilgo's class. Evan was saying that he wants to go to Paris. I have been to Paris so I left some comments about my trip. I told Evan about the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and the food. I hope that one day he gets to go to Paris. It is truly a beautiful country.

Week 3 C4K
I just left a comment for Emily, a student in Mrs. Huebner's class. She was talking about how excited she is about going to to county fair that weekend. She says she like the french fries and all of the crazy rides. I wrote her back telling her that our county fair is in 2 weeks and I can't wait for the funnel cakes. I hope that she had a great time at the fair.

Week 4 C4C
I just left a comment for Eric. Eric is blogging about places in the world that he would like to travel to and why. I think it is great that he is aware of so many different places and what they represent. He has listed several different countries and things he wants to do there. For example, he wants to watch a bull fight in Spain, eat spicy taco's in Mexico, and see a kangaroo in Australia. I hope he gets to go to some of these places and has a great time.

Project #9a

Blog #5

Scott McLeod is a professor at the University of Kentucky and is the founding director of CASTLE, the nations only academic center that is dedicated  to the importance of technology in the classroom.  He has also received many rewards for his technology leadership work.  In his blog "Don't teach your kids this,stuff please?", I had a hard time understanding the sarcasm that he uses.  I agree with the message and feel that if students aren't given the opportunity to learn about technology at a young age, there is no reason to prepare them for the future.  Technology isn't going anywhere, it is only getting more advanced.  There will be a point that if you don't learn at a young are, I believe you will never catch up.  Let's start young so we have a better chance at success for the future.

The iSchool is a device using the iTouch platform.  It allows email access for parents, teachers and students.  There are several different apps for the iTouch that could replace school books, supplies, workbooks and other teaching tools.  Some of the apps are Chem. Touch, US Constitution, World Wiki, USA Presidents, Star Walk, Formulae, Recorder, Scientific Calculator, Notes, and Calender just to name a few.  School supplies cost about $600 per student.  The iSchool costs about $150 per student.
I think the iSchool is a great thing.  It gives us the opportunity to spend money in other areas.  I believe that the students will want to do more school work using this type of technology.  To learn more about the iSchool, you can go to their facebook page and voice your opinions.

In Eric Whitacre's video, there are many people singing together that have never been together.  That is what I love about technology.  Anything is possible.  I believe that in my lifetime, internet access will be a must.  There will not be other means of communication. I think that it is great that people have fun with it.  Technology can be a very fun thing and there are endless possibilities.

Teaching in the 21st Century is a great video that demonstrates that students can get anything, anytime, anywhere.  I really enjoyed reading the various questions that were asked.  There isn't a right or wrong answer.  The key to it is teaching the students where to go to get the information to form an opinion about a topic.  None of the questions that were asked could be answered by the average student.  They would have to be researched.  But where do you go and what do you look for?  This is up to us as teachers in the 21st Century to teach these research skills.

Project #8 "Put Me in, Coach"

Blog #4

After reading the blog from Langwitches, I am very impressed about the ideas for podcasts with first graders. I think it is great that the students were following along using the script.  Word recognition is crucial at this age.  This is a great idea.  I also thought the idea about starting at the beginning of the school year and podcasting with other students is a great idea as well.  It gives students the opportunity to hear the different accents spoken around the world.  I can't wait to incorporate this into my lesson plan.

After reading the benefits of podcasting in the classroom, there are some benefits that I didn't think of to podcasting.  I like the idea of taping a lesson and having it available for the students to watch later to study and review.  It can also help a child that was out sick know what was taught that day and helps them to catch up.  While reading stories, it gives the students to demonstrate emotion to help capture the moment of what they are reading.  The students love podcasting and it makes them eager to learn.

After reading 100 ways to use your iPod to learn and study better, I have a better understanding of the multiple tasks of an iPod.  There are so man y different sites to go to that focus on iPods and podcasts.  More  and more students are using ebooks and podcasts as a way of learning and more teachers are using the same tools to teach.  I think that it's great that these tools are so accessible to students so they are able to keep up with technology.  Anything that makes learning fun sounds like something worth trying.  

Project #6

Project #5

Blog #3

Peer Editing

I think that the amount of corrections depends on how you should edit them.  If what you are reading is well written and has a couple of mistakes, I think that they can be notified publicly.  However, if there are many mistakes, the material is poorly written and should almost be redone, I think you should send a private email.  If the problem continues, then they are showing that they don't care and you may publicly edit their work. 

I always edit my work and check for spelling.  No one is perfect and sometimes you can read something and know what it is suppose to say and that be what you read.  I know that it usually takes another set of eyes to proofread my work.  I don't want you to change my message, I just want you to make sure that what I have typed or written is spelled correctly and correct grammar is being used.  

It's not about the technology

Kelly Hines writes about the technology that is being used in classrooms today.  I really like the point that she is trying to make.  The whiteboards that are being placed in classrooms are not what is doing the teaching.  The teacher is still responsible for making sure that the students are still learning.  Kelly made 4 valuable points that I want to summarize for you.  1) Teachers must be learners.  That is a must.  Our students needs and requirements are always going to be changing.  So are the way they need to be taught to learn.  What works for one, may not work for another.  You must learn new ways to teach so that each and every child is taught what they need to know to progress.  2) Learning and teaching aren't the same.  Isn't that the truth.  You can't just teach to the students.  If they aren't learning, you aren't teaching.  The main focus is to make sure that each and every child  learns what they need to progress.  3) Technology is useless without good teachers.  That is true with everything in teaching.  Nothing that you use in your classroom is going to work if you aren't there to teach it.  4) Being a 21st century teacher without technology.  It's not the technology that the students need, it's a great teacher.  If you can teach without, then go for it.  The technology is there is you want it and is designed to keep the focus of the students.  Nobody wants to just be lectured.  But, if you throw some interaction in there, they will pay attention.  I agree with this post.  Teaching is what you do, not what you use.

Is it OK to be a technologically illiterate teacher?

Karl Fisch is a teacher that has some very strong opinions about if teachers should be technologically literate or not.  After reading his blog, I gather from what he says that he feels that teachers should be somewhat literate in technology and use it regularly in their lessons.  I like how he explains that it's OK for a parent to admit that they aren't good at math or computers with no problem.  Yet, they aren't as OK if they are illiterate.  Why is it OK to not be good with computers?  I guess it is what society has labeled as acceptable. 

I agree with Karl Fisch in that teachers need to use technology of some type in their lessons.  I believe that if students see certain programs being used, they won't be so scared of learning new things.  I really liked what he said about the Kindergartners today are the class of 2020 and we need to have 2020 vision.  That is so true and amazing to think about.  It takes the level of success up a notch.  I don't think that everything a teacher does must involve technology, but I do feel that it needs to be used more often.

Gary's Social Media Count

It is really amazing at the amount of technology users out there.  Some of the counts that are being calculated are for social purposes and some are for work purposes.  The technologically enhanced world that we live in is growing rapidly every second. This is just a piece of the technology puzzle that is out there. 

I am not sure what this means for my teaching career.  I think I will definitely have to use more and more technology in my lessons.  There are endless possibilities as to how far this will go.  I just hope that someone doesn't go as far as replacing teachers.  There is no way to know what the technology of the future will bring. 

A Vision of Students Today

What a powerful and true video.  I have learned that being a student is about the success in the long run.  I am aware that as a student, I am required to spend money on things that I don't think are beneficial to me now but, once I start my career, I am sure that there will be some relevance to what was required of me.  You can't focus on the present, you must lean for the future. 

I noticed that one of the signs said something to the affect of I am studying for a degree for a job that doesn't exist yet.  I think that teaching is the same way.  I don't think that teaching will be the same in 2 or 3 years.  Once I graduate and start my career, the technology that I am using now sill be outdated and there will be something out there bigger and better.  I do believe that my understanding of what is out there now will prepare me and give me the ability to learn the new technology in the future.  Whether we like it or not, technology is a part of our future and is growing everyday.

Project #3 C4T #1 and #2 Summary

Beth Knittle made a blog post on August 17, 2011 about "Where is the Learning?".  She begins to explain that in a Twitter feed, she read about someone thinking that if you watch, view, or are aware of something it causes a change in your behavior.  Boy, was that person wrong.  Yet that is still how some teachers are teaching their students.  She had a friend ask her to set up a program on her classroom computer so that they could watch video's on materials that she couldn't fit into her instruction.  The fact that the students had watched the film was enough to mark it off the list and say it had been done.  THAT IS CRAZY!!!!!  I responded back to her explaining that I feel the interaction between the teacher and the students is what allows them to learn and is very important to their success.  The discussions that come about can't be reached by a video.  The class will watch the video and when asked "What is your input on what you just saw?", there will be no answers because they were bored with learning it on their own.  I feel that she should make the time in her instruction to teach the material.  There has to be a way for it all to fit in.

On July 25, 2011, Beth Knittle writes her blog on what she says when people ask her what her profession is and her reaction to their comments.  Beth feels that students need to be treated like individuals.  She feels that she works with people helping them develop effective, efficient ways to access, organize, communicate, collaborate, create and share information.  I agree with her thoughts.  In my classroom, I will be teaching more that the basic subjects.  I will be teaching life long lessons.  I think Beth says it best when she says, " I teach people about learning".



Blog Assignment 2



While watching the Did You Know Video, I learned some interesting facts.  Some examples of what I learned are 1 out of 8 marriages met online, there are 200 Million MySpace users, there are 31 Billion google searches monthly, the number of texts sent and received exceeds the total population of the planet, there are 540,000 words in the English language.  These are just some of the facts that I learned and found interesting.  At the end of the video, there were statistics of what happened during that particular time frame of the video:  67 babies were born in the US, 274 babies were born in China, 395 babies were born in India and 694,00 songs were illegally downloaded.

My thoughts on the video are that some of the facts are negative and make Americans look bad.  I understand that there are negative facts in the world and that Americans are not number one when it comes to certain statistics but, when a statistic about Americans was displayed, the following statistic was who was better.  On the other hand, most of the statistics I found to be interesting and informing. 

Mr. Winkles Wakes was a very interesting video.  I never really thought about how much technology changes but how teaches stays the same.  The general purpose of teaching back when Mr. Winkles was going to school was to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Now, 100 years later, the philosophy is still the same but it's up to the teachers to change, or update, the way it is being done.  Mr. Winkles said that when he went to the office building and to the hospital, nothing looked familiar or safe.  When he stepped into the school, things were just as he remembered them to be.  The desks were in a row, the teacher was in front of the class teaching, and all was the way it should be. 

I didn't like how the computer was is the back of the classroom with dust on it.  I feel that teachers should make learning as fun as possible and should keep up with technology.  Children want to be entertained when they learn.  They don't want to just listen to the teacher and watch a short film to finish up.  They want to have that interaction and discussion about what they watched and their thoughts about it.  Classroom interaction, I believe, is a huge part what makes a teacher and the students successful. 

What a great video.  Sir Ken Robinson is an amazing speaker.  I really enjoyed how he told his stories and the humor that he added.  I feel that kept the attention of the audience.  Some of the things that he said that stuck with me are about the children starting school this year.  They will retire in 2065.  Nobody has a clue what the world will look like then yet we are educating them for it.  How scary and true is that?  He also mentioned that creativity and literacy are of equal importance and should be treated with the same importance.  I feel that you can't have one without the other.  If you don't display both, you won't be able to truly illustrate the whole picture.  Kids are not scared of being wrong.  If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.  WOW!!!!  These are the things that we forget as an adult.  We had that as a child and lost focus of as we got older.  Adults are frightened of being wrong.  The workplace has made sure of this.  We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it.  Or rather, we get educated out of it.  Sad but true. 

 I think that video should be a mandatory video to watch for any profession.  Not only does it focus on the education point of creativity, it also hits on the points that adults need to find their inner child and let loose.  If we were as worried about creativity as we are being right and perfect, I don't think that the problems we have today with parents/children interaction would be as severe as it is. 

Cecelia Gault is a fascinating child.  I think that if she was a student in my classroom, she would want to help and be very involved in classroom discussion.  She would possibly was questions that I didn't know the answers to and I would let her know that I didn't know but we would find the answers together.  She would probably have a different opinion or see things in a different view.  I am sure that I and the other classmates could learn a lot from her and learn how to think outside of the box and look at the big picture. 

She is going to go far in life.  I am anxious to see where she is in 10 or 15 years from now.  Will she continue her path of interviewing of will she be introduced to a new passion.  I am sure that whatever she decides, she will be successful in her journey.

Vicki Davis is very passionate about her belief that students should be educated in technology.  She uses several different types of technology to allow her students to connect to other students in different regions of the world.  She believes that using technology and not just pencils and paper, all students are given a chance to succeed.  She is not ashamed to tell her students that she doesn't know how something works.  Once the students are able to teach her something, they feel that sense of accomplishment from teaching the teacher. 

I can't wait until I am in my own classroom where I will have the ability to show my students that technology is for more that video games and making plans for the weekend.  It is a HUGE part of how we communicate and i feel it needs to be learned.  



Project #2