Blog #10

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson?



After watching Bring On the Education Revolution, I realized you can learn a lot from Sir Ken Robinson. He brought up the fact that teachers need to enjoy what they do. I completely agree with Sir Ken Robinson. Teachers who enjoy teaching are more engaged in teaching their students. They want their students to achieve. The teachers that do not enjoy teaching are probably just wanting the weekend to come. Students can tell if their teacher is engaged, if they see their teacher is not engaged then why should they be engaged? If the teacher enjoys what they do, then they will try and find innovated ways to teach their students. Sir Ken Robinson also made a comment about teenagers these days do not wear a watch. They do not wear a watch because they are living in a digital day were the time is everywhere. They could just look at the time on the phones or computers. Teachers need to learn from this. We can not teach the children the way we used to teach children. We have to use technology to get them engaged. We have to change the way we teach constantly based on the students we are teaching. Children are all different and do not learn the same. As a future teacher, I already know that I will have to customize my lesson plans every year to teach my students the best way they will learn.

Project #15

For project #15, I created a website, "Why are they important?". Students will research their assigned person or event during the Civil Rights Movement using iCurio. Then they will produce and record a play using iMovie. The students will show their recorded play to the class.

Project #12 Part A

Blog #9

For blog post #9, we were assigned to view four videos: First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class, Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 1, Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 2, and Interview with Kathy Cassidy Part 3. In my future classroom, I will use the blogging technique that she uses in her classroom. I will have my children create their own blogs. The students can use this as their digital journals. Having the children blogging would benefit them in several ways. First the students will be practicing literacy. They will build communication skills as well. Also they will be able to make friends with children their age around the world. They can learn about the different climates around the world by communicating other students from different areas. Ms. Cassidy talked about collaborating with other classes around the world and have other students assigned to comment on her student's blogs. The students will not only learn that their blogs can be viewed by everyone in the world, but they will also learn online safety. As an educator, it is important to teach our students about online safety. It is our job to protect our students. The impediment I would most likely encounter is parental approval. Parents hear horror stories about predators online. They hack into games to try and get information from children. Parents do not like the thought of their child online without them there to protect them. I like Ms. Cassidy's way of protecting her students. She does not post the child's picture with their name and she has her students use their first name only. In addition to these, I would also make sure that I teach my students not to give any clues about where they live. They should not give out the name of the city or street they live in, school mascot, or the name of a local sports team.

Blog #8

After researching 21st Century learning and communicating tools, I discovered several tools that would be very useful as an educator. The first tool is Etherpad. Etherpad is a tool that allows you to work collaboratively on the same document. Several people can edit the document in real time. It is very similar to Google Docs. Another tool is Animoto. Animoto is a tool that allows you to make videos. This tools is similar to iMovie. Educators can use this tool to make videos to use in their lesson. The most useful tool I found is Khan Academy. This website is a wonderful tool for educators. Khan Academy is a database where you can learn anything about math, science, chemistry, and physics. It also has practice tools that the students can use to practice what they have learned.

C4T #2

I was assigned to Michael Gorman's blog called 21st Century Educational Technology and Learning blog. The blog I read was called Stem Education: Over 25 STEAM links Filled With Resources and Information. It was about integrating the arts in the curriculum or as he put it, turning STEM into STEAM. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. By turning STEM into STEAM you are adding Arts. Michael provide some excellent resources. I left a comment informing him he had provided some excellent resources. I think everyone should look at his resources. My two favorite resources were DIY and Makey Makey. On DIY students can create their own profiles and interact with other student with the same interests. Students are able to express themselves and show case their creativity. My other favorite is Makey Makey. Students would enjoy turning their fruits or other objects into a remote, piano, or even a keyboard. I truly believe students are more engaged when educators integrate the arts in their curriculum.



I reviewed Michael Gorman's blog again. His latest post was about bringing NCAA into the classroom. He told a story about a classroom doing their National Basketball Bracket spreadsheets. This was a project based learning assignment. Students researched the geography and pros and cons of each college. From the information the students gathered they came up with their spreadsheets. Michael provided fifteen links to bring NCAA into the classroom. I left a comment informing him that the most informative link was March Madness… Reading for information Lesson Plan. The website provided a lesson plan on how to read basketball information. As I informed Michael, I do not know a lot about basketball, so this link was the most informative to me.

Project #9

Project #14

For project #14, I created a website, Chose Your Inventor. Students will research their chosen inventor using iCurio and produce a hanging report. After they completed their hanging report, the students will present their inventor to the class.

Blog #7

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was a very informative and moving lecture. Randy talks about his experiences and journey to achieve his childhood dreams. He talks about everyone being able to achieve their dreams. He talks about brick walls being put up to stop you from achieving your dreams. He puts real life experiences into his lecture to make an impact on the audience, but the twist at the end made your heart melt. The lecture was not for the audience, it was for his kids.

Educators can learn from Randy by his experience with his brick walls. He gave an example about going and seeing Dean Wormer about getting approval to go work with the imagineering team at Disney. Dean Wormer told him he was not going to let him go work with them. Even when randy told him he was going to take an unpaid leave of absence to go work with imagineering, Dean Wormer informed him he he would not approve the leave. Finally Randy asked him if he thought it was a good idea. Dean Wormer told him he did not know in a way that a leader should not talk to any one. Randy then went to Jean Block, the person with the authority to make the decision on his work with imagineering. When Randy asked Jean if he thought it was a good idea, Jean told him I do not know, but tell me more. Jean show a perfect example of what educators should do when they do not know the answer or simply when a student is asking them a question that their not interested in. Educators need to build the confidence in their students. They can simply do this by listening to their idea, asking questions and encourage their thinking.

The most important thing an educator can learn from Randy is his passion to teach and his positive personality. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and given three to six months to live, one month prior to this lecture. Instead of feeling anger and desperate for a cure, he chose to live the rest of his life educating people and staying positive. He had a realistic perspective on life and knows you can not change the cards that are dealt, but you can chose how your going to live your life. Educators should always have a positive attitude on life and be a positive role model for their students. I just hope if I am ever diagnosed with any type of cancer, I will stay as positive and passionate as Randy Pausch.

C4K Summary for February

Jillian
The first February C4K, I viewed Jillian's Blog. She is in the fifth grade. Her blog is tracking the progress of her cats, Adipose and Ewok. She is tracking their length and weight. The background of her blog was animated cats and she had a few pictures of her cats on her blog as well.On January 30, Jillian commented that she had to take her cat, Ewok, to the vet the previous day. She also commented that she was trying to weigh and measure her cats to update their stats to her blog, but she had not done so yet. I left a comment on her blog telling her how adorable her cats were and hoped that Ewok was okay. I also complimented her animated cat blog background.

Najae
The second February C4K, I was assigned to review Najae's Blog. Her blog post was a questionnaire called About You! She asked questions about where you live, gender, age, siblings, pets, and snow. She also wanted to know if you liked school, favorite book, and favorite color. I left a comment on her blog telling her she was asking a lot of great questions to get to know someone else. I also complimented her border of flowers around her questionnaire.

Jillian
The third week of C4K, I went back to Jillian's Blog. Her last blog post was about her cat Ewok. Ewok went to the faucet and started licking it. Jillian turned the faucet on and Ewok started playing in the water, as well as, drinking some. I told her that my sister's cat, Timmy, does the same thing. He refuses to drink from his water bowl. If he wants a drink, he goes to the faucet and meow's until my sister turns the faucet on. Cats do adorable things.

Lillah Marie Johnson
The final C4K for February was Lillah's Blog. Her most recent blog post was an essay of what she believes. She wrote her essay about judging other people. She quoted the bible to emphasis her points. She made it very clear that you do not know what other people are going through, so do not judge them or bully them because of what we see. She also mentioned the tragic story of Phoebe Prince. Phoebe was a 16 year old girl who was bullied and one day she went home and hung herself. Her 10 year old sister found her. I informed Lillah that I was very impressed with her blog post. I agree with her, that no one should judge or bully another person. We do not know what other people are going through. As a society, we should look at what happened to Phoebe Prince and learn from her tragic story. As a future educator, I hope bullying will stop, so we do not lose any more innocent children.