Blog Post #9

At The Teacher's Desk: What I've Learned So Far (2008-2009)
This blog post was really great. I enjoyed reading it. It was about how much he has learned so far as a teacher. He names a few different things that he has learned such as; how to read the crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology listen to your students and never stop learning. Reading the crowd was about how he was so concerned of what his superiors thought of him that he lost touch with his crowd that he was teaching, which were his students. He noted that we as teachers need to start making our lesson plans more student oriented instead of making it more about something that will make us look good to our superiors.

He stated in the Be Flexible portion that "No lesson is ever perfect, the one you teach and the one you plan are always different". I loved this quote. I am the world's worst at wanting to have something planned out. When things don't go the way that I want it to then I get aggravated really quickly. I have taken a speech class before and I always practice really hard, but my speech never turns out exactly how I want it to. I can only imagine that this is the same way in a classroom. Students have questions, situations arise, and things will happen that will delay your lesson or cause it to go off on rabbit trails. Being flexible is all part of being a teacher.

Communication was the next portion of the blog post. He put this portion in the blog because he said that  he knows drama does happen in the work place. The best way to get rid of this drama is to talk it out. Communicating with your colleagues also helps you form  relationships with them and you never know when you can seek out some advice from an older more seasoned teacher.

The next part was about being reasonable. As a teacher we set high expectations for our students. He said that sometimes we set them too high and then get upset when they can't reach the goals we set for them. It is hard being a student. We need to think back to when we were in school and remember how big of a deal it was to do homework or complete our classwork on time. When teachers set goals that aren't reasonable, then it makes it tougher on the child.

Don't be afraid of technology was a good part of this blog. I was glad that he added it in there. Technology should be our friend and we can't expect to just understand it the first time we try it. We learn by  making mistakes. He also mentioned that we should listen to our students. He quoted one of his students who said "I know my teacher cares about me when he listens to me". This is sad because so many students don't have teachers who care to listen to them or their problems. Some of them don't have anyone at home that can listen to them either so it helps to have a teacher who can listen.

The last thing he said was to never stop learning. This is self explanatory! You are never to old to learn something!

At The Teacher's Desk: What I've Learned This Year (2010-2011)
The first portion of this reflection for the school year was about how you should know who your boss is. He states how easy it is to lose track of who you are supposed to be pleasing. It is good to try to please your boss, but your students should be a top priority as well. "Our decision making process should always be student centered and not centered around pleasing adults" was a quote that he used in his post. The students should be our primary focus. The next segment was entitled, Don't expect others to be as excited about change as you are. This was mainly about how he is very optimistic about new ideas, but other people aren't. They don't seem encouraged by new ideas and often try to ruin his excitement about them. He just sends out a word of caution and states that we don't need to let negative people ruin the newness of an idea for us.

Don't be afraid to be an outsider. This was an eye opening paragraph. The main point was don't focus on seeking approval from other teachers. Be there for your students. He stated that he ate lunch with his students and goofed off with them. He isn't afraid of being immature or an outsider. I have always wondered where that line is that you have to keep from crossing, you know, the friend or teacher line. It's' very thin. If you become too much like their friend, then you have to worry about them running all over you, but he seems to have found a happy medium and has learned a lot from his students. He doesn't care about what the other teachers think of him. In his eyes, a good teacher is one who can spend time with his students without teaching.

Don't touch the keyboard!!! This is one of my BIGGEST problems. This philosophy was taught to him by one of the other teachers in the building. When she used to work at another job and was training someone this was the phrase they used. In other words, don't take the project out of their hands and begin to do it on your own. When you are teaching someone something, and take it over, then they aren't learning anything because they are just watching you do it instead of doing it themselves and learning from their mistakes. I tend to get impatient and frustrated and  have the mentality of "I can do it better". It is hard for me to take a step back and watch someone else do it.

Don't get comfortable was great to read as well. It's easy to get comfortable in day to day activities. Even in your profession. As a teacher he felt that he was getting comfortable and settling into a routine, which in his words, is not necessarily a good thing. When you settle into a routine, things can quickly becoming boring. So he started doing other activities to keep his daily routine different than the day before.

After reading these posts it has really encouraged me. I have always looked forward to being a teacher, but I always think about what will happen if I don't do a good job or if I mess up. I now know that I can learn from my mistakes. I also don't want to get caught up in trying to please people. I want to do what is right and what is expected of me as a teacher, but I want to be more concerned about teaching my students and being there for them. I don't want to be the average teacher that goes in a classroom and teaches a boring lesson, I want to be the one who makes learning fun and brings creative ideas into the classroom. I learned a lot from reading his blog posts!

Project # 14(part 1)

C4T 3/25

Building A Classroom Library
This post was about how Mr. John Mikulski filled out a survey about his classroom library. He wrote about how he had a classroom library of about 150 books. He teaches Middle School Language Arts and he seemed to think that most of his students were interested in the trilogy books that were popular right now. He named "The Hunger Games" as one of the more popular ones that his students gravitated towards. He finds most of his books at yard sales. I thought this was a great way to save money. Having books in your classroom that are used is a great idea. I know that none of my English teachers had books that we could take out of the classroom and read when I was in school. I guess they didn't care enough about the reading. I think some teacher are there just to teach and they don't care about getting students interested in learning. I hope to be the kind of teacher that encourages my students to enjoy reading and to use it as a way to escape every day stresses. To read more about his Classroom Library visit the link above. It is very informative!

Anti-Bullying Campaign
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem". This blog post was amazing. It talked about how students in his school wore blue clothing to support the victims of bullying. They made the local news and each signed an anti-bullying petition that was inspired by Dr. Phil. They then showed a video that they had made where students talked about how they had seen the bullying going on, but did nothing about it. Each student was videoed standing there with blue tape on their mouth while a voice in the background stated how another student was bullied and how they did nothing about it. For such a short film, it was moving. Bullying is a major problem in our schools today and its getting worse. The video ended by quoting "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem". That statement says it all. There was another video where different students stated different parts of an Anti-Bullying Pledge. I wrote in my comment that I was extremely proud of these students and that they never know how many lives they are saving by taking this pledge and signing this petition. Bullying is a problem and I am so glad that they removed themselves from the problem and became part of the solution!

C4K for March

What are the Names for by April
This post was a bit confusing. I can only guess that the girl who wrote the post was a bit young or from somewhere where her primary language was not English. Her teacher had posted something about the Titanic and the class was supposed to figure out the names of what the teacher posted. Amber figured them out and asked if they would be learning about the names. I asked her if she liked the story of the Titanic and told her it was very interesting to learn about and that I hoped she had a great time with this assignment.

Blog Post #8

Richard Miller This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
This video was about using multimedia to write. I had a hard time following him at first because it seemed like he wasn't clear on some of what he was trying to point out. He mentioned that we are now confronting a new type of material. We used to not have so much technology at our fingertips, but now we do and it is always changing. We can see so many things on the internet and see how much energy is put into it. He mentioned that there are people out there that know that our ideas don't belong to us individually but belong to us as a culture and that we as educators need to be in the business of sharing ideas freely.

We can produce alternative versions and distribute that information globally in different ways that may be able to be understood by others in an easier way. We need to get behind the ideas and look at them alternatively. We place limits and restrictions on ourselves. Society doesn't do this, we do it to ourselves. He is describing and educational system that he knows is hard to put together, but he thinks that one day students will be able to write using this type of educational system. Students will compose with digital composing material one day without the use of books. He and his colleague are learning how to use these things.

He thinks that we need to start producing compositions that are beautiful, compelling and pay attention to the auditory detail of the experience. This is something that he says is necessary if we are to argue for the humanities. Within 3 months this publication on youtube got 9,000 views. This is a way to push ideas into our culture. We need this type of composition. He can't imagine doing it himself, but there are people composing with the web itself. They don't use images or the alphabet. Teachers are needed to teach this visual literacy and many teachers aren't ready for this yet. This technology allows us to articulate our dreams and to share them with others. The problem with the humanities is that we can't make our work physical. This technology will change that.

This is something that I am definitely interested in with me being a teacher. I am also an English major so I am excited that someone has taken an interest in writing and taken an interest in making it concrete. This is something that can take off and make learning so much easier for students. Many students aren't gifted in the area of writing and I think that this would make it much easier for them. It puts it in a way that makes it easier for them to understand and easier for them to gather their thoughts.

Blog Post 12 By Carly Pugh
Carly's blog post was about writing while using multimedia. I thought it was genius actually. This is definitely a way for a person to write using their talents in a different way other than just putting words on a page. Carly made a playlist of things that interest her using youtube videos. It was a great way for her to use her mind in a creative way. We need more teachers like this who will allow students to search out their creativity and use it in ways that interest them. I would much rather sit down and write words on a page, but some students aren't able to write as easily as that. I would much rather sit down and read a book, but for others, reading doesn't come as easily as it does for me. This is something that I am looking forward to being able to do with my students one day hopefully.

The Chipper Series 
The Chipper Series was about procrastination. Something that I am really bad about doing. I have had to make myself complete one assignment a day in this class just so that I won't let it add up the last day of the week. Chipper also wanted to be taught so she didn't have to learn. She thought that just because she was paying for her education that he was supposed to just be taught things and not have to do things herself. Next, Chipper drops out of school. She has this great idea that she can't tell Dr. Strange. Her secret is that she opens a timeline pilot school. Students determine how long they want to stay in school. This may sound like a good idea to some students, but in the end I think that it would be a disaster. She then brings in one of her students and they won't give her student a pilot license because she hasn't spent enough time in the classroom. She only spent about a month in the simulator and they said that she needed to spend actual time flying a plane. Then the FAA shuts the timeline down. She has now gotten a degree online and is planning on being a teacher. She asks Dr. Strange if he knows of anywhere that she can apply. He gives her the name of a principal and the principal fires Chipper. Chipper then tells Dr. Strange that she was fired and is now a waitress. Chipper has had another job change. She was fired once again and says she's not too discouraged, she just doesn't understand why she got fired. Now she is a nanny. Next Chipper is a garbage collector, but then has a change of heart. She decides that she has a whole new perspective on life and she has decided she is going to go back to school. This video was a good way to show how many students, including myself, procrastinate with their education. I have done so myself and am now having to go back to school as a 24 year old single mother. Things like this are hard to swallow, but sometimes you have to go through the bad things to get to the good things in life.

EDM 310 for Dummies 
This video was about how EDM310 can drive you crazy, but it also shows us how different things can make EDM310 so much easier. The ladies in the video then go on to talk about how they are learning so much in the classroom and following different English teachers. The blog posts are getting easier for them and they are learning how to do things. They were so happy to get their hands on the "book" EDM310 for Dummies. All of these things that they have learned have helped them in their academic journey here at South. I would like to create some videos about how much my computer skills have improved since I started taking this class. I was really stressed out at the beginning of the class, but once things got going, I decided that I liked the class. It is just very demanding as far as time.


Learning to Change, Changing to Learn
This video started out by saying that education was ranked so low in the IQ intensity list. It was below coal mining. Kids are stimulated more outside of school than they are inside of school. Email, instant messaging, social networking and text messaging are banned from schools, when technology is what is stimulates the brains of these children. It is about relationship, community, and how the children are living in a different community. An online social networking community.

The very things that our students need are banned from their schools. Students learn at home, at libraries, at home, at museums and it is our responsibility to provide them with the best teachers for them. We have a "classroom system" when we need a "community system". Education doesn't have what it needs these days. They aren't interested in what they are learning because the teachers are banning them from being creative. Standardized testing doesn't make things better because economically speaking, these students will be doing work that calls on their artistic ability, understanding concepts, multilingual and multicultural abilities. Not on something that they should give a right or wrong answer to. I love this video. It was very inspiring. It made me think about what kind of teacher I want to be one day when I finally graduate.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0
Web 2.0 is interactive, there is something there that you can do or create. It is collaborative. Other people can contribute to the things that you create. This is a very significant and positive factor for education. it leads to higher education, critical thinking skills, new capabilities, alternative learning environments, extending learning beyond a school room, and finally it creates lifelong learning skills for students.

On the website I thought that the tool that created this presentation wast the Animoto. This was a tool that can be used to animate yourself into a video. It is a nice price because you can choose to pay 30.00 a year or 5.00 a month. That way if you don't want to pay for an extra month because you don't feel that you need it anymore,  you can just not spend the money. Paying monthly to me seems a little more ideal.

The tool that I had never used before was the slide share tool. I thought this was neat because it is something you can use to share presentation, slide shows and professional videos. There is even a way that you can share them privately so that you don't have to publish something that you don't want others seeing. I thought this was great.

This was a poll that I created using polleverywhere.com

Create interactive meetings at Poll Everywhere

Project #11 Short Movie

project #12 Book Trailer

Project 10 Progress report on PLN

I have many different resources that I use to organize my PLN. I like symbaloo a lot, and I am planning on doing more research. I use Facebook and Twitter to communicate and I plan on building my PLN with people off of there. Those will be good sites to help me with issues that I may have, as well as give me good teaching skills and ideas that I can use in the classroom.

Blog post 7

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler was a very neat video to watch. It was about a student who has to attend an American Psychology class 3 days a week and attend online 2 days a week. Throughout the video it speaks about what he does online and how he learns. He actually looks up other scholarly articles about psychology and writes his own opinions on it on the internet. He understands that what he reads on the internet is mainly the opinion of others. He also is able to get in touch with some of the top university professors in the world from Cambridge, Berkley and other colleges and get their opinion on American Psychology.
I think that this is such a good thing for a college student to be able to do. It is similar to EDM310 in many ways. Dr. Strange is here to guide us, show us how to use the internet properly, help us if we have any problems, give us his opinion on certain issues, and teach us how to do things such as; write a quality blog post, post pictures on our blog, as well as many other things. This is why the networked student needs a teacher. We cannot do it on our own. We need someone that is here to help us and guide us throughout the process or we will never get through classes like this.

C4T post 2

Think Thank Thunk: Standardized Testing Doodles

Shawn Comelly wrote about how his students had been tested this past week so he hand drew some pictures of a cell. At first he was just doodling, but once he began to draw, it became more and he eventually used it to become a full fledged lesson. I informed him that I was studying to be a high school English teacher and that I didn't think that I would ever be able to turn something like this into a lesson, but I would have appreciated a teacher that did this for me when I was in High School.

Think Thank Thunk: Dealing with the Fear of being a Boring Teacher

In this post Shawn wrote about how he believes that students are graded on what they don't know not what they do know. He believes this isn't the right way to grade students and that they should be graded on things they have been taught. "I have to get schools to stop grading what kids don’t have, and start recording what they do have." This was his quote. He also wrote that he believed in project based learning. I responded by telling him that I agree with this 100%. Students learn by helping each other. I am learning this as an adult in college because I didn't have much project based learning in High School."

Blog Post 6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randy Pausch begins his video by telling the audience that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He had many childhood dreams he wanted to achieve, I'm sure, but he mentioned a few which were; being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book Dictionary, being Captain Kirk, being a guy that won big stuffed animals in the amusement park, and being an imagineer with Disney. We learn throughout the video that he accomplishes almost all of these goals! He met Captain Kirk and became a Virtual Reality Specialist and helped design rides like Aladdin and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Randy Pausch not only wanted to help himself achieve his goals, he wanted to help others achieve their goals as well. He helped many students achieve goals in life. He even helped one student who wanted to be a part of writing the next script for the Star Wars movie. Even though he had to reduce some of his goals to something easier or more fallible to achieve, he never gave up. This is something that we as future educators can learn from him.

We should never give up! There will be times when we have students who find it difficult to learn. We will have days where we don't want to come back and teach the same group of students day after day because they don't want to learn, but it is our job as educators, to make it a fun environment for them. Dr. Pausch did this. He created a class called building virtual worlds for a class of about 50 students. The class completed certain projects and it helped many of them learn how to do things while they were having fun. It is hard to be a teacher and teach students who don't seem to want to learn. I want to strive to be more like Dr. Pausch and actually look for ways of not only achieving my own childhood dreams, but allowing my students to look back and search out their dreams and help them accomplish them.

Randy Pausch never gave up. He knew he only had 3-6 months to live. This inspired me so much. There is a country song that came out when I was in High School entitled "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw, it is very similar to what Dr. Pausch did. The song is about the Dad, who is dying, telling his son to live each day as if it were his last and to accomplish his dreams . Dr. Pausch had to live like he was dying because he was. Why should we wait until we are dying though, to actually live? It is okay to let loose and still be a child sometimes. It's okay to still dream big and want big things for your life. We have been taught from a young age that we have to do certain things or be certain things when we get older or we will never be anyone or make any money. I want to be the type of teacher that can encourage my students to live their life as if each day may be their last. I don't want to squash their dreams, I just want to take them and mold them into something better! I want to be an encouragement and Dr. Pausch's video truly showed me that it is important to be this type of educator.

C4K Summary for February

Jordan's Holiday Here I Come
Jordan wrote about how he just got a new teacher in his class, but the teacher has to meet with them on skype because she is in Canada. She gave them a blog challenge, which was to write about where is somewhere that they would really like to go. Jordan wrote that he would like to go to Hawaii and visit all of the islands with his family, that way once he got older he could know which island he would rather visit if he ever returned. He wanted to know if it was always warm in Hawaii or cold there sometimes too. I wrote back and encouraged him about his blog post challenge and said that it was great. I also told him I would like to go to the mountains when it snowed because it rarely snowed here in Alabama and I asked him if it snowed a lot where he was from.

Ethans Facts about Columbus

Ethan wrote about Christopher Columbus's trip to the new world. He provided many facts for the reader and I found them very interesting. He wrote about how Christopher Columbus didn't kill the Native Americans, but many diseases did. He also wrote about how Isabella knew that he was a good explorer so she allowed him to search out the New World. I commented back and told him that I was actually learning about this in my History class that I was taking this semester. I told him that I found it interesting that they were in the New World but didn't know that they were there already. I also asked him what his favorite part of the story of Columbus's trip to the New World was.

Our Science Adventure by Mr. Avery's class

Mr. Avery wrote about how his class visited The Boston Museum of Science to learn about volcanoes and earthquakes. They watched a movie in the Imax theater about the Ring of Fire which is a ring of underwater volcanoes in the Pacific. He posted numerous pictures and some videos of the children in the museum. I wrote on his blog and told him that we have a similar museum here in Mobile called the Exploreum and that I have visited it on numerous occasions. I liked this post because I got to actually see pictures of what the children were doing.

Project number 8-Podcast