Final PLN

C4T#4

I left a comment on Aviva Dunsiger's blog post. Her blog post is talking about letting students do things themselves. I think that her blog post is very motivating and gives us hope that what we are teaching our students is sinking in. One of her fellow teachers had 2 students that were trying to get a slide show together. After running into many different obstacles, they never gave up. They worked together and communicated and in the end, their show was a success. They never got mad an never wanted to give up. That is very motivating to me. The teacher even admitted that he would have given up long before they ever finished. I think this is a great post so I am putting the link up to share it with you.  http://adunsiger.com/

Today, Aviva's post again talking about stepping back and letting students do their own work.  She had some video's posted of students counting out the coins.  She caught herself helping a student and wished that she had let them do it on their own.  With the next student, she did, and they were able to work it out on their own.  I think that Ms. Dunsiger is a great educator and I hope soon that I am able to record myself with my students as well.

C4K #3

C4K #10
After looking at Ms. Yollis's 3rd grade blog page, I am amazed at how she involves so many people for her class to communicate with. Our class blog has over 48,000 visits and their blog only has more than 3,800. Even though they don't have the traffic on their blog, it is still amazing that they have hit that number for a school in California. I also think it is really neat that she has the different time zones of friends that they blog with in other parts of the world. There are also great links that explain how to take great pictures and how to leave good and proper comments. I can see that Ms. Yollis takes a lot of pride in her blog. She will only let the correct and well written blogs be posted for her students to read. I think that is great. If the students are able to read the incorrect grammar and spelling, they might feel susceptible to use it. I have high hopes of having a blog for my class and will have the same requirements for my blog posts as well. I think that everything she does for her students is great.

In the blog post I was assigned for Mrs. Yollis, the students had done a skype interview with Georgia. I think that it is great that the students are able to communicate with other students in another state or even in different parts of the world. I think that skype is a great tool and will definitely use it in my classroom.



C4K#11
Today I left a comment for Eleva, a sixth grader in Auckland New Zealand.  She posted about the Rugby World Cup.  She is a very descriptive writer.  She described what she saw and had a link up to watch what she described and the video was right on.  She is a great descriptive writer and obviously likes Rugby.  I don't know much about the sport but it looks like fun.

Blog #14

Here are the top ten tips for using technology in the classroom.

1.  Use streaming video.  Take advantage of the free resources such as YouTube for your students.

2.  Use music more often.  Your students are always listening to music so why not add some of their favorites to the lesson plan. 

3.  Use teleconferencing tools.  Using Skype is a great resource that allows students to communicate with people all over the world.

4.  Create your own interactive exercises.  Make your lesson plans to fit your students.

5.  Use your interactive white board more effectively.  Use the free tutorials that are available to learn the basics and enhance your students interaction.

6.  Create your own podcasts.  There are several ways you can make a podcast of your day and post it to your class blog.

7.  Start a blog or a wiki.  The class blogs are my favorite.  They are a great way to motivate the students to do their best work and show it off to the world.

8.  Use social networks.  Facebook is a great way to create a closed group for the class to communicate together.

9.  Use internet tools.  There are a huge amount of free games and products for the students to use.  USE THEM!!!!!

10.  Make the most of your pupil's gadgets.  Have the students use their phone to record or use their iPod for the music in your next podcast.  

Additional Post #1

1.  I consider myself to be a very literal person.  I am gullible and believe almost everything that I hear.  While I realize that this is a bad habit, I don't look outside of the box as much as I should.  

2.  Since Christmas is right around the corner and I have 2 small children, Santa Claus has been mentioned a lot around me lately.  I would definitely add that one to the top of the list.  

3.  I think that we, as educators, can come up with games that involve metaphors.  I love to play games to learn and I think that the students can learn a lot from them.  I think that it would be fun to act out metaphors and have the students guess what you really mean by them.

4.  I think that metaphors can be used to add humor to something serious of for a fun way to learn and remember something.  Metaphors can be a lot of fun and show your creativity.

Blog #13

For blog post #13, I chose to read the article out of the Wall Street Journal entitles "My teacher is an app." I chose this because it seems like an article that I can relate to after taking this class. After reading this article, I have been made aware of some interesting facts about Cyber Schooling. Schooling done strictly by internet has increased by 40% in the past 3 years. That shows that it is definitely going to be something of the future. While the enrollment is up, the test results are down. There is also a decrease in the cost which also causes a decrease in teaching jobs.

I am against the full cyber education. I think that the hybrid classes are a great idea. It gives the students the freedom to have online classes yet they must still prepare for class. I think that the students should meet at least once a week to make sure that everyone is up to speed and understand what is being taught to them. It is amazing that this is what our future in education could be.

Project #16

Blog #12

This blog assignment really had me thinking.  I know this is what Dr. Strange would want.  I thought that a great blog post would be about the technology we plan on using in our classroom.  Out of everything that we have seem, what do we like the most and what do we disliked the most?  What would we do to change something that we don't like into something that we would like to use?

I think that the most favorite thing I have learned in this class is the importance of class blogs.  I think that the students learn communication skills which are important in life.  They always strive to write their best work, be the most creative and go above and beyond because they know that others all over the world can see their work.  I think it is great how we do our C4K and I will do my best to contact a professor from another part of the world to communicate with my class.  I also like using Skype in school.  Skype also enhances their communication skills.  I believe that I will definitely use these tools in my classroom.

Final Project Progress Report

Shelby and I are doing our final project together.  We are going to make a still frame movie on the Do's and Don'ts of EDM310.  We are going to take several different pictures illustrating what to do and not to do and make it into a movie.  We have hopes of future students watching our movie so they can know what to expect.

Project #15b

Blog #11

In the video Little Kids...Big Potential, I was amazed at how much the students know about technology.  Before taking this class, they knew more than me.  The blogs are great for the students.  I hope that the school that I teach at will allow my class to have blogs.  The students that use blogs love them and learn more and more from them with every entry.  It helps their writing skills, creative skills and use of technology.  Not to mention that they love getting the comments.  The wiki's that the students created were great as well.  I think it's awesome that the EDM310 students were a part of that.  Also incorporating their Nintendo DS into their learning is great.  They want to play them and are OK with playing games that they learn from.  I think this video was great and I hope to be that same type of educator.

In the Skype Interview, Ms. Cassidy seems to be really excited about her students ability to use technology.  I like her determination.  She is supported by her principal and other staff but she is the one that does this.  The students would not write on blogs, make wiki's, learn how to use their DS in an educational way and so on.  I think that what she is doing is great and it takes an educator like her to make a change in the future for the students.  I have high hopes of making a difference just like she is doing.  I hope that I have the resources for my class to have a class blog.  I think it is awesome for the students.  They strive to do their best because they know that others will be looking at what they have done and they want it to be their best and most creative work.  After so long, that is the work skill that they develop.  I think that Ms. Cassidy is great as what she does and should keep up the good work.