Project 12 Part A Working with Smartboard Tools

Blog Post 10

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire" - William Butler Yeats

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution speech brought things to my attention that I was not aware of.  Sir Ken Robinson explained in his speech that we are in an education crisis and we need an education revolution. Education is just reforming and not being fix. What I personally took from the video is that we as educators need to help our students find their talents so they may use them in their educational journey and in life. He said in his speech," we make very poor use of our talents". I think as educators, we are going to come across talents that we did not even know we had, but there are going to be multiple talents that our students will have that will be benefit them tremendously in education. We must teach them to find their talents and use them not only in their educational journey, but in life.  Teachers must create conditions where our students' talents can  flourish. Education has been standardize for many years, but it is up to us to change our schools so that our students do not receive just a standardize education, but a personalize education. We have to allow our students to personalize their learning. I feel like if we allow that to happen, our students will learn so much more.

"Life is not a manufactured process, it is a organic process (Sir Ken Robinson)". As educators we must let our students create their own lives; we must solely be a guide for them and support them in whatever they decided to do. When Sir Ken Robinson mention that we have to create our own lives and let our students do the same, this hit home for me. I can clearly remember the teachers at my school encouraging all the students to go to college after they finish high school. It is nothing wrong with encouraging them to go to college, but I also remember a student in my class that did not want to go to college, he just wanted to be a police officer. My teacher told him that if he go to college in study criminal justice, he would make more money as a police officer. I know that  teacher meant well for that student, but she was trying to persuade him to go the route she would have went if she wanted to be a police officer. Listening to Sir Ken Robinson speech taught me that is is not about anything but passion. We must follow our dreams and allow our students to do the same. As educators, we must teach our students that it is okay not to follow the path that everyone went down, but to create their own path. We must teach them to love what they do, and do it to the best of their abilities.

As educators, we can not be afraid to to create a personalize learning environment in standardize schools. We must allow our students to use their talents. We can not keep going along with improving broken models, but we must come together fix education. We must remember that life is not a manufactured process, but an organic one. We must help bring on an education revolution so that our students can receive the best of the best education their is.

"And everyday, everywhere our children spread their dreams beneath our feet and we should tread softly"- Sir Ken Robinson

Project 15 Project Base Learning Plan 3

Nutrition Nutrition Nutrition!!!!

Nutrition Nutrition Nutrition!!!!

Blog Post #9

 What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy? What I have learn from Mrs. Cassidy is that we can not teach the future generations with the tools that we were taught with. As future educators, we have to be creative with teaching and find a way to engage our students and make learning fun. Mrs Cassidy stated that she got involve in using technology in the classroom about ten years ago. One approach that Mrs. Cassidy uses is blogging. The students love that they have an audience and they get excited when people comment on their blogs. She also uses the blogs as an online portfolio of her students' work. Through blogging,the students are getting a writing lesson. She also uses Skype to bring other people and classrooms into her classroom. This is great to for kids to see what other kids are learning. Out of all things, she uses Nintendo DS's for learning. I was thinking how can students learn from a Nintendo. In the video, one of the students said that they play games on their Nintendo that teaches problem solving strategies. I would have never thought a Nintendo could teach problem solving strategies. In my opinion and from what I took from Mrs. Cassidy, is that students learn more when they are enjoying using things that they are interested in. The use of technology has been very beneficial for her students.
The technique I will use in my future classroom is blogging. I want to use this because I feel that my students will enjoy writing more if they get the opportunity to do their work on computers instead of using pencil and paper. Along with blogging, I will allow my students to make videos of what they learn and post the videos to their blogs to share the things that they learn. I think this will be a great online portfolio for kids and for their parents to monitor their progress. I also can use our class blog as a place where I post reminders and upcoming events. I know that I will face some impediments such as, parents not wanting their kids to be on the internet and the lack of encouragement to use technology in the classroom. I will assure my parents that I will protect their children identities and what they see on the internet. I will post only the first name of each child and will approve every comment that will be posted to their blogs. I will invest in programs like Icurio for my students to use when searching the internet. Using Mrs. Cassidy approach to technology, I anticipate there to be great benefits. The greatest benefit I anticipate is that my students will have fun learning. I also think that the parents will be very appreciative that they get to monitor their children progress.

Blog Post #8

As technology has grown, so has the way we communicate. Some 21st Century communication tools consist of: e-mail, twitter, Facebook, Skype, face time, texting, and ooVoo. OoVoo is a communicating tool that we have not talked about in EDM 310. OoVoo is somewhat like Skype. It allows you to chat with up to twelve different people, send video messages, record and upload videos, send instant messages, send files, and so many more things. It also allows you to chat from your IPhone as well. I personally have an OoVoo and I love it. This tool is very beneficial to use if you need to record a short lecture or explain something through a video message. If your student is struggling with a homework problem and he/she e-mails you a question, you could send him/her a video message, or instant message. That student would always have that in front of him/her. In my opinion, this works way better than the use of telephone, e-mail, or texting. There are many ways to use OoVoo, but this is just one way I would use it. This tool is free and it is constantly improving.

Just as the way we communicate is changing, the way we are learning is too. In EDM 310, we have talked a little about the use of YouTube, Icurio, and Discover Ed as learning tools. After researching I have found that Evernote is a great learning tool for both teachers and students. I would use this tool if I was teaching 4th through 6th grade. Evernote is a place where teachers and students can organize literally anything. For teachers they can organize things by class (if you teach more than one class), school year, subjects and many more things. Students could use this to organize notes that they find on the internet by subjects. This tool also lets you use mobile apps, or computer base apps. You can save screenshots, use word processor and many more things. As a future teacher, I would use this tool to organize my notes by classes if I teach more than one class and I also would organize my notes by subjects.

Voki is another learning tool I came across during my research. I personally like this because this would appeal to the elementary students and I am studying to become an elementary teacher. I would use this tool if I was teaching 2nd through 5th grade. This tool lets you create an avatar that could present the lesson. You can customize the language you wish to use. You can create homework and projects on this site. It is a fun site where the students can do homework on instead of doing it on paper and turning it in. If a student was absence for school, he or she could view your presentation or lesson and do the homework that was assign on Voki. He or she could return to school ready to learn the next lesson. Voki is a really great learning tool to use in the classroom.

Project 14

Project 14

Structure and Function of a Flower/Plant

C4T #2

I was assign to comment on Brian Cosby's blog.. Learning is Messy. The title of the post I commented on was Unleash the Learning Power of Blogs By Actually Using Them Consistently! The post that I commented on was about blogging. Brian was explaining in his post about how powerful blogging can be. He mention that blogs should be used consistently for it to be power. He named numerous of ways that blogging could be a learning tool. He also mention that blogging could connect students and families, which I totally agree with. He suggested that if we use blogging as a way for out students to learn, than we need to let them blog consistently.
I am currently a student at the University of South Alabama majoring in Elementary Education. I am also enrolled in a course called Educational Media (EDM310). This course is teaching us the importance of using technology in the classroom. We also have a blog, where we have to post weekly and comment on our classmates' blog.
I agree that blogs are powerful and can be a learning tool. I have learn so much from blogging in my class and reading assigned blog post. I think if we allow our students to blog, it would be a great way to show their families what they have learn. It will connect their family to their learning process. It is a great way for students to meet writing criteria as well. I will definitely be incorporating blogging (safely) in my class. I agree with you totally. Thanks for sharing.

The second comment I left was on the blog post Stem: Cantilever Spans. This blog post was about a real cool science project that Mr. Cosby did with his students and their parents and friends. The materials need for the project are paint stirring sticks and washers. Sounds simple right? Well, it is just that simple. The students were to make as long a span  as possible using washers and stirring stick. He helped get the students started and than he answered no other questions. He wanted to let the students figured out how to do it. The parents even let the students take the lead. The project is pretty impressive. He walks you through how to do the project step by step. I recommend that you go look at this project.
I commented,  Mr. Cosby, I am really inspired from this science project. I love the fact that you were very creative with this project and you made the project fun. From the photos you shared, the students seem to be having fun, but most importantly they are learning. I hope to one day be a creative as you are and make learning fun for my students. I hope to use this project when I become a teacher. Thank you so much for sharing this.

Project #9

Project #9 Video Book Conversation
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Project 13

Project 13 was a collaborative project. My group and I created a project base lesson plan. We named it Shapes of Life. Click the link to check it out. Shapes of Life