Blog Post #10

    What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson? First I will start off by saying I loved watching this video. His accent is so interesting, it is not everyday I get to hear an accent that is not southern. I learned so many many things from him. To start off with, Sir Ken Robinson started his talk about humans making very poor use of their talents. He mentions that many go through life without knowing their true talents. I believe one hundred and fifty percent on this statement. This statement is so very true, I honestly do not know what my talent is yet. So hearing him talking about this really caught my attention. Sir Ken Robinson believes that students don't always need to go to college right away. That they can go later on when their talents are shown and they're wants in life are discovered. Another thing that we learned from him is a very interesting statement. Sir Ken Robinson said that our education is becoming like the fast food industry. He mentions that our education is depleting students passion and talents, just as fast food depletes our body. I really enjoyed listening to his different stories he would tell for an example. One story he told is about his wife. His wife recently wrote a book, and would be gone for hours. He used this example for passion. He expressed that whenever someone has passion time goes by so quickly. This is a very true statement. I feel it is so very important for everyone to have a passion in life. In my future teaching I will remember Sir Ken Robinson and his video. The number one thing I will remember is that everyone has talents. I will be sure to try and bring out the talents of my students.

Project #12

Project #15

My lesson plan I have created for this project has to do with math, and money. These days, children do not know how to count money correctly or know the worth of money. In this lesson plan, I will have pretend a grocery store, pretend money, and use the smart board as a cash register, set up in my class room. Before the kids can go grocery shopping I will show my students videos from the smart board about money and how much each coin, or dollar is worth. This allows the students to learn math, and about money in general. Every Friday, the students will be able to practice using money at the grocery store buying items. Using the cash register on the smart board, each student will have a turn counting money, putting the correct amount in the register, as well as using technology. This lesson plan allows them to learn about money, everyday life situations, while having fun!
      
Links: http://bestclipartblog.com/29-money-clip-art.html/money-clip-art-19
BuckInstitute

Blog Post #9

This week we were assigned to watch some of Kathy Cassidy's videos with her in her classroom. The biggest shock to me, was watching Little Kids... Big Potential. It was amazing to see how much first graders can actually accomplish. Having observed some first graders, they mostly played games, ate snack, and had fun in class rather than learning. In her video the kids are using so much technology. They were blogging, using skype and other activities with technology. I was really happy to see this. I completely agree on kids not only learning from a book, but using these tools with computers so they can succeed in the future.

For her first interview she is telling how she sends home letters to the parents about their child using technology and getting the parents involved in helping them use technology. Throughout this interview she expresses how its very important to keep her students privacy. She explains to her students how to not use last names or personal pictures, for their safety. I really enjoyed how Mrs. Cassidy allows her students to chat with other students around the world. In my future teaching I will remember this interview for different ideas I can teach my students, or parents.

In her second interview she really gave me some great advice. Her advice was to start using technology that interest you. She also mentioned PLN. Mrs. Cassidy discusses her PLN with twitter. She stresses the importance of using twitter for education purposes. This statement is absolutely correct. I also feel that twitter should be used as an aid to other people. Instead of just writing a tweet about random things. I really enjoyed watching all of her videos. In the future I will definitely remember her videos and the advice she has given.

                                 
Links: Google https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=02UY0407kHnX9M&tbnid=Ph95iCCwa60NiM:&ved=0CAYQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Floupemichelleedm310.blogspot.com%2F&ei=9qovU6K1MsPmyQHJ74HwDQ&bvm=bv.62922401,d.aWc&psig=AFQjCNHJ0-D_mY1raULRzKWcAWZm1jKeJQ&ust=1395719222549604
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvPZtTej0jQ&feature=player_embedded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YdHvzSb6AQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePznBZkzt4A

Blog Post #8

  When I read this assignment, I was really excited to search some education tools that could help my future teaching. To start my research, I simply typed in Google's search engine, education tools in a classroom. So many wonderful sites popped up. The one that caught my interest was http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/16-classroom-tools-teachers-should-know.html. This website had many useful education tools that teachers could use in a classroom.

     
  The first tool I will be talking about is edmodo. This tools is a social network for not only teachers and students, it is a network for schools to chat also. Edmodo is free as well as a secure site. This tool allows students, schools, and teachers to stay connected through notes, posts, messages, and also keeping up with events.
                     

  The second tool that I learned about is schoolbinder. This tool would be very effective for me. Personally, I hate having to carry a binder or keep up with folders. The schoolbinder is your own personal binder online. It holds your notes, lesson plans, grades, and whatever else you wish. I will definitely be using this tool in my future teaching.

START USING SCHOOLBINDER now and learn how it can help you stay organized!

 For my last tool I will be talking about is by far my favorite, Ediscio. My study habits are not so well. The only way I can pass a test is by flashcards. However, I completely dislike writing every note on a note card. So when I found this tool I got very excited. Ediscio is an education tool which you can sign up for free, and create your own flashcards. Yes, there are other tools like this but, Ediscio seems so easy and less complicated then studyblue. One service they offer is the memorize fast service. After you create your cards it helps you study. So not only can you create your own flashcards, you have this wonderful tool to help you study as well! This is by far my new favorite education tool.


Links:

http://jeanblamothe.com/?page_id=488

https://blog.edmodo.com/2011/06/24/new-release-fresh-new-look-new-gradebook-library-and-mobile-app/

http://www.myschoolbinder.com/

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/16-classroom-tools-teachers-should-know.html 

C4T #2

C4T #1 

For this C4T #I was given the pleasure of reading Edna Sackson's blog. She describes herself as an teacher, learner, and an inquirer. The first post I was assigned was about Edna explaining inquiry teachers teach. This post was very interesting she posted other teachers comments on how they teach. A teacher posted a great post about teaching her students how to take responsibility for their own learning. I commented in saying I completely agree on teaching students how to take responsibility. Yes as teachers and future teachers we need to be an aid to them but in reality they will be on their own in the world. I also commented on the quote she posted in her blog. Traditional pedagogy sees the teacher provide a set of instructions, make sure everyone ‘knows what to do’, explain everything and THEN students might be given some time to do a task themselves. It’s about 80% teacher led and 20% student. Inquiry-based pedagogy gets kids doing, thinking and investigating – and the explicit teaching happens in response to what the teacher sees and hears. The 80:20 ration is reversed. Good inquiry teachers know how to get more kids thinking more deeply more of the time. This was the quote she posted, I commented on this quote specifically because of the detail. I really enjoyed reading about the percentages and ratio of students that are taught through inquiry. 

C4T #2

For this post I continued to read Edna Sacksons blog. For this post she wrote about collaborative reflection.  Some key points she wrote were relaxation, inspiration,  integration, investigation, application, and presentation. I enjoyed reading each one of these topics. I took in some of her information for myself. I replied to her post thanking her for allowing me to read her post and giving me great information. I continued thanking her for the information that I would use for my future teaching. 


link: http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/ 

Project #9

Project #13

Plot Overview

Plot Calender

                                 

Blog Post #7

What can we learn about teaching and learn about Randy Pausch?
 
When I first opened this video I was surprised how long this video was. However, the first couple minutes I was very intrigued and wanted to continue watching. His video was very inspirational as well as helpful to not only teachers now, but future teachers. This professor from Carnegie Mellon was an highly intelligent, comfortable, and creative man. The main focus I got out of this video was about achieving your dreams, or helping achieve the dreams of others. Randy's message was, what can we as teachers learn about teaching about child hood dreams. Well what he spoke is teachers can be facilitators of their students' dreams. How, we as teachers can instill great qualities in our students to help them any way possible in succeeding in their life. By doing this it helps our students want to achieve their dreams. In Randy's video we learn that he does not have much longer to live. The mind set and goals he has is "nothing is impossible". This attitude of his an example of how we should help teach our students, and help them achieve their dreams.

Through out the video everything he talked about was interesting. However,one of his lessons was by far my favorite. He spoke about never giving up. This definitely hit home for me, growing up that saying was my families motto. We never gave up on anything in our lives whether school, sports, family, friendships, nothing. We always tried our best and I think that is what Randy was trying to get across. An example for future teaching is creating lesson plans. Not every lesson plan is going to be successful. We as teachers have to remember to never give up on not only ourselves but our students education. His final lecture was very interesting to me. He called it a "head fake". Throughout his lecture his many examples were used with sports. As a guy you would generally think this is normal for a guy to use sports. However, his reasoning of choosing sports as an example made sense. His thought was lessons in a classroom, trying your very best and it being very hard work. Just like in sports, but he put it in a classroom setting. For example in a group project, the students have to come together in the assignment and preform hard world to succeed. I would highly recommend this whole video to everyone. I am very glad this assignment was given to us. Randy Pausch was a huge inspiration to me.
                 
Links: http://frugalbeautiful.com/blog/free-inspiration-randy-pausch/
          http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/
          http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/

C4K Summary for February.

All of my comments for kids was very interesting. Each blog post I read for each kid surprised me. The hard work that they are showing this young is very impressive. The kids post I commented on, were on all different topics. Bailey S. post was about a color poem. This was my first time learning about a color poem. In her post she did the same thing we have to do in our post. She added pictures to her post, and detailed information about a color poem. Another post I commented on was Olivia's post. She wrote about birth stones. A lot of people do not know what their birth stones are, Olivia let us know what birth stones were, and their color for the month. In her post she also asked others to comment their own birth stones, which I thought was neat. Another little boy's post was so adorable. He talked about his dog spot and how cute and loves to cuddle. In my comment I told him how my own dog loves to cuddle. I think it is great that he is expressing his feelings and love for a dog in a post. Some kids would not think to post emotional posts. Lastly one of my kids post was a tutorial on how to do fractions. Personally, I am terrible in math. Her post could help other students in math. I commented on her post saying how great I thought it was that she posted a post to help others in math. All these different post were so detailed and educational for everyone. I am looking forward to reading other kids post, to see what this young generation has to offer education wise.