Blog Post # 14

Jose Picardo's educational blog page www.boxoftricks.net is a great website for teachers to visit. Jose is very interested in integrating technology in the classroom by using all of the tools that technology has to offer. While searching through his site you will find the "A-Z Internet Resources for Education" where you can find every possible resource a teacher could ever want to used in alphabetical order. It also gives a brief description of what each resource is and what it has to offer. Jose updates the list periodically and this is great to look though in order to know what is new and available to you. After reading through many of the items I found doink.com is a website that allows you to create and share animations. I actually went on the website and made my very own animation! It was very easy to do and students in elementary school would love to make their very own animations. They could even narrate the a story they made up. I would have never known that doink.com existed if I had not been on Jose's website.
Jose Picardo also has a youtube video "Top ten tips for using technology in the classroom." This is a short video where he gives his top ten tips for teachers who are looking to use in the classroom. He also shares how to integrate these tools in the classroom. I hope to continue to visit Jose's website often because it is so up to date on what is out there for technology.

Final Report On PLN

Since the last time I posted about my PLN on symbaloo.com I have added many new tiles. I have discovered how easy it is to recall something I need to find quickly if I would take a moment to save it to my PLN. I am very pleased to know that I can find exactly what I am looking for in just a few clicks. I hope to show my students how to use a PLN while they are in my classroom and how easy it will be to stay organized in the future. I hope to continue to keep up with my PLN throughout my college career. I am really glad that we were introduced to symbaloo.com in EDM310.

C4T # 4

On November 5, 2011, Jo Fothergill wrote a blog "Stronger Together." He talked about how he and a few colleagues were collaborating about a few ideas they were trying in their classrooms. He said that he is realizing how important it is for teachers to talk together about what they are doing in their classrooms because they can share what ideas are working or what is not. He really shares how he and a few of his teacher friends are working together and coming up with new methods of teaching almost daily. Reading his blog really made me think about how important it is to share ideas with others when I become a teacher.

On November 13, 2011, Jo Fothergill wrote a blog "Conference vs (un)Conference." Jo talks about how he took a weekend and went to a educamp. There they focus on education and having face-to-face time with other teachers and talk about important issues that real teachers are facing. I never knew that they have weekend camps for teachers to attend and focus on education. I feel like it is a great way to re-coop and talk with other professionals about teaching students. I hope to find an outlet for me to one day get together with other teachers to have a little fun and focus in on very important issues.

C4K November Summary

Mr. Mclung is an 8th grade social studies teacher in Arkansas. In his blog post "Creating a Timeline" he teaches his students to create a timeline using timetoast. I told him that we in EDM310 have learned to make timelines using timetoast and I think it is great that he is having his students learn to make timelines also.

Dante from Pt England school wrote a blog called "Fireworks." He wrote how he thought they were very loud and beautiful. I really like how he writes and calls his "mom" "mum." I told him that I really liked firework too and that he needed to be careful around them because they can sometimes be dangerous.

Blog Post # 13

On November 12, 2011 The Wall Street Journal published an article "My Teacher Is An App." This article talks about how many states are beginning to have more and more online schools. Students can log in at home and do their school work at any age or any grade. "Many of the students that are taking a part of this online schooling are kids that were already home schooled, students that have medical problems that may not may not be able to be in a traditional school setting, or students that feel they should not be in school for peer pressure or bullying." Many people argue that having their children enrolled in these online schools is helping prepare them for college cyber courses. The concept of online schools seems to be relatively new because many states have not yet decided if they want to take apart of it.
I believe that having these online schools is a great alternative to many students who may not want to go to a traditional school setting. When I was a in the fifth grade I was really nervous about going into the sixth grade because the school I was going into had three elementary school fifth graders going into it. I decided that I wanted to homeschool for my sixth grade year and see how I would enjoy it. While homeschooling I found it really hard for me to focus on what I needed to learn because I did not have a good curriculum to follow. I feel like if I would have the option of online school I would have the structure I needed without the chaos of the larger classroom size. I hope that that more states come on board with this concept of online school because I know that there are many more kids in this world that may feel anxious about starting a new experience such as middle or high school.

Additional Post # 1

This week our Edm310 class stepped back and learned a little more about metaphors. Dictionary.com's definition of metaphor is [met-uh-fawr, -fer]  
noun
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”
It really got me to thinking about how often we use metaphors in our every day lives. Dr. Strange had us read a metaphor "Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home." Many of the students in our classroom, including myself, missed the metaphor illustrated in the story. I that in the future I can catch metaphors in my every day life more clearly. It is important for me as a teacher to really understand what the message in a metaphor is trying to say because we have a responsibility as teachers to teach our students what they are. I have really enjoy reading and learning about things like satire and metaphors in edm310. I hope to be an example in the future of someone who really gets the big picture when I am reading stories such as "Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home."

Blog Post # 12

Our assignment for blog post # 12 is to create an assignment for a blog post Dr. Strange should have created. Write the instructions for the assignment and then do it. For my assignment I chose to learn more about the flipped classroom concept. I read a blog post that Bryan Bennett wrote talking about the flipped classroom. He wanted the readers to know that the flipped classroom is not only about the video. I had never heard of the flipped classroom so I had to do a little research on my own. I came across a youtube video that a man named Aaron Sam's did.
For my assignment I want the students to watch the youtube video "The Flipped Classroom" and write two paragraphs about how they feel about the concept, and how they would use the concept in their future classroom.
After watching the video send Aaron Sams (@chemicalsams) a tweet thanking him and leave a #edm310 hashtag so I can see it.

**If you really enjoyed the flipped classroom concept you can also check out the flipped classroom's blog page "The Flipped Class Network."

I really love the concept of the flipped classroom. I think it is great that the students are able to have more time in the classroom doing labs and many of the things that teachers have to leave out because they run out of time. With the students being able to watch the lessons at home as part of their homework assignments, they can come to class with a base knowledge of the material. Parents can also be more involved in the student's schoolwork because they can watch the lectures with them at home online.
As a future teacher I would really like to use the flipped classroom concept for my students. If I can get the students on board with the concept they will learn more about the subject matter. In the classroom I would be able to concentrate on our classwork by showing the children through labs and hands on activities how things in the world work. I cannot wait to test out this concept for myself and see if it something that I would really like to do more in the future.

Project # 14 Recorded Skype Interview

Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog

Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog
Mrs. Yollis is a third grade teacher in Los Angeles,California. Her classroom keeps a class blog much like we do here in EDM310. The blog page is very detailed and organized and is updated by her classroom with new posts daily. Looking at her blog page you can really tell that Mrs. Yollis tries to incorporate technology in almost every single aspect of her lessons. I think my favorite posts are about when her students get to skype with other classrooms from all over the world. It is so great how instead of just teaching her students about a particular place in the country or world, Mrs. Yollis actually contacts another teacher from that country or state and they have their students tell each other about where they are from. Her students are learning so much about technology and they are not even out of elementary school yet.
Another really interesting fact about Mrs. Yollis' class blog is that she has people viewing the page from all over the world. As of October 2011 she has had over 72,000 viewers! I think she is a great role model for future teachers who want to learn more about technology in the classroom. Her class blogs has even been awarded two years in a row for best class blog. I look forward to keeping up with Mrs. Yollis' class blog in the future. I hope that one day if she wants to do a lesson about Alabama she will contact my classroom and have a skype session.

Progress report on Final Project # 16

Brittany Enright,Katelyn Callahan and I are grouped together for our final project #16. We met together one afternoon and spent over two hours in the lab gathering ideas and even started on our project. We decided on making a movie trailer for EDM310. We are really excited about the project and so far it is turning out really great. We will meet again in a week and finish the project.

Project #15b

Blog Post # 11

Mrs. Cassidy is a first grade teacher who has really taken advantage of using technology in the classroom. In her youtube video "Little Kids... Big Potential," Mrs. Cassidy's first grade students talk about all of the different things they do in the classroom that that involves technology. It is so great to see how these students are using computers, skype, blogs, and even the nintendo ds in the classroom. The coolest part to me was that they had their family members from all around the country commenting on their blogs. The students talk about how writing blogs help them learn to spell better. With this world being so technology based it is important to teach students at a young age how to use it. I believe that Mrs. Cassidy is a great role model for teachers everywhere.
In Mrs. Cassidy's skype interview with Dr. Strange she talked about how the students have a lot more pride in their school work because they know that people from around the world will be reading it. I think that is great because they will want to learn more about the subject before they start to blog about it. I also think it is great that parents are really getting on board with this idea of blogging in the classroom. If parents want to know what their children are learning about they can simply go to the internet and see for themselves. Before I took edm310 I never knew of this whole world of blogging. It is so great to see that real teachers are already applying this to their classrooms. I cannot wait to blog with my students! Maybe one day Dr. Strange's edm310 class will be commenting on my students blogs!

C4k October Summary Posts

Jake's Blog

Jake in Miss Hutchinson's class wrote about all of the places in the world he wanted to visit. He wrote that he his family was from Russia and he wanted to visit there one day. Jake wants to visit many places and he has very specific reasons to go to each place. I told him that my family was from Romania and one day I wanted to visit there. Many of the places he wants to visit are the same places that I want to visit one day also.

Brianna Takes Charge!

Brianna in Mrs. Jenny's room 6 made a video on how she has learned to take charge of her school work. She says that she can do her homework and listen to her teacher. I told her that I wished when I was her age I understood how important school work is. I also told her how important it is to listen to the teacher and I am glad that she does. I hope that when I am a teacher my students listen to me.

Night and the Friendship Club

Night in Mrs. Burne's room 10 made a video talking about how he loves friendship club. He said that they learn how to be good there and they play games with friends. He said that he tried toffee and thought it was good but really sticky. I told Night that when I was younger I attended girl scouts. I told him that I made a lot of friends there and that it is good to go to places like that because they are fun.

Nathan's Science Project

Nathan had to do a science project using the scientific method. He chose to grow two bean plants watering one plant with water and the other plant with coke. He studied the plants for a few days and neither plant grew. He said he still wonders why the plant watered with water did not grow. I told him that he did a great experiment. It is important to find things out for yourself and using the scientific method will help you organize your data.

Hunter's Blog

Hunter is in 5th grade and is on the football team at his school. Hunter's blog post is all about each game they played this year. He also talks about the other teams players, and if they won or lost. I told Hunter that I never played any sports growing up and that playing sports can teach you a lot of lessons about life. I also told him that I hoped he would continue to play throughout middle and high school because he can receive scholarships to continue playing in college.