C4T #4 Assignment

I was assigned to comment on Beth Still’s Blog post, Following My dreams . Mrs. Still’s blog post is about her pursuing her dreams. She is a teacher and has been working with technology with her students. Two of her students told her that she should help other teachers and students with technology. She then realized that her dream was to help teacher incorporate technology in their classrooms. She got offered a position of Instructional Technology Integration Specialist for Gering public School and will be starting in August.
On my comment to Mrs. Still, I started off introducing myself to her. I really enjoyed reading her blog post and found it very inspiring. I was impressed how she did not give up on her dream and kept on perusing it. I told her congrats on following her dream and I hope she loves it.

On my second blog post of Beth Still’s that I was assigned to comment on was Budding Artists Project . Mrs. Still’s blog post is about a project that helps her bond with her students. She created a very relaxed space outside of the classroom by listening to music, laughing, and joking to make it feel less like school. Mrs. Still says that she has enjoyed getting to know her students better and listening to the stories they shared. Each of the painting was hung up in the hallway of the school. She says it was incredible to see what the students came up with. This made the students feel like they have some ownership in their school.
On my comment to Mrs. Still’s blog post I told her I really loved hearing about this project and that I will also do a project like this with my future students. I feel like teachers should do more projects like this because it makes learning fun. Teachers should also want to get to know their students and creating a relaxed environment allows that to happen. I really enjoyed reading this blog post. I believe it will help me in the future.

Blog Post #13

Watch the TED video, What can adults learn from kids , by Adora Svitak. Write a blog post on what you learned from this lecture. This is assigned for all teachers.


My Post

Adora Svitak is only 17 years only and has been going around the United States to speak with adults and children as an advocate for literacy for a couple years now. In the video, What can adults learn from kids , really inspired me and just could not believe that she was only 17. The way she presented the information just amazed me. Adora talks about being called “childish”. For kids being called childish can occur frequently. Every time kids make irrational demands, have irresponsible behavior, or display any other signs of being normal American citizens; they are called “childish”. Adora’s example for adults is world wars, George Bush, and imperialism. Her example for kids is Ruby Bridges who ended segregation in the United States, Anne Frank who touched millions of people with her powerful account of the Hollocaust, and Charlie Simpson who recently raised 12,000 for Haiti on his bike. Those examples just prove that age has nothing to do with it.
Adora says that we should abolish this age discrimination word when it comes to criticizing behavior associated with irresponsibility and irrational thinking. Adults need to stop thinking it is impossible, cost too much, or will not benefit me. Kids do not think about those things. They are full of inspiration and hopeful thinking. Kids dream about perfection and to make anything become reality you have to dream about it first.
Kids already do a lot of learning from adults but adults should learn from kids. In a classroom, it should not be a teacher at the head of the class telling the students to do this and do that. The students should teach the teachers. Learning between grown ups and kids should be a collaborative thing, Kids have little or no say in the rules. The adults should take in account the wishes on the younger population. Kids grow up and become adults. The idea is that new generations grow and develop to become better than the past. No matter the place you are in life, it is imperative to create opportunities for children so they can grow and come up with new ideas. Adults need to listen and learn from kids and expect more from them. Kids are the new generations and the ones who will bring the word forward. For the kids to grow up and be successful the world needs opportunity for new ideas and leaders.

C4K Summary for April

I was assigned to comment on Ane’s blog post, Ane’s Setting . She is from New Zealand. Her blog post she is about Ane describing her bedroom. She describes the sunlight coming in through her curtains and waking her up. The ground outside full of leaves and how she was shivering she was so cold.
On my comment to Ane’s blog post, I started off introducing myself to her. I told her I enjoyed reading her blog post and that I could see and feel exactly what she was describing. I saw that she has been blogging for four years now which I found was amazing.

I was also assigned to comment on Rebekah’s blog post, Toy Story . She is also from New Zealand. Rebekahs blog post is about the move Toy Story. She says that she is excited to watch it tonight. She says she loves this move because when she and her cousin get together they pretend to be toys. She describes the move as one of the toys are jealous at the other toy because one boy likes the other toy the best.
On my comment to Rebekah’s blog post, I first started off introducing myself and telling her that I am from the United States. I saw on her blog that she has been blogging for four years now, which is awesome. I enjoyed reading this blog post because Toy Story is one of my favorite movies. I told her I like how she described the movie and then related it to her life.

Another student I was assigned to comment on is Hosea’s blog, My Butterfly Animation . His blog post is a video animation about a butterfly. Throughout the video, Hosea is explaining what is happing to the butterfly. The female butter fly lays an egg and out comes a caterpillar. Hosea explains the process of the caterpillar becoming a beautiful butterfly.
On my comment to Hosea, I started off introducing myself. I really enjoyed watching the video of butterfly animation that he did. I really liked how throughout the process on the caterpillar becoming a butterfly he talked and explained what was happening. I thought this blog post was very creative.

Blog Post #12

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

There are so many assistive technologies that are available to you as a teacher that can be very useful to you in your classroom. The first that I found was the Mountbatten Braille Writer. In the video, The Mountbatten – Assistive Technology for the Blind , would be very useful in the classroom. Using the Mountbatten brail allows for audio and tactile feedback. This machine is very advance. As the students brail the machine produces the brail while announcing what is being brailed. As the students brails it converts it into text and displays it onto a screen and allows teachers and students, who do not know brail, to be able to communicate. This machine can also save files, transfer files to a computer and receive files from a computer. Also allows blind students to be involved in the curriculum, receiving feedback from the teacher and participating in peer group projects.

In the video, Teaching Math to the Blind, the University of San Fransico have been working on solving this problem for blind students. Their idea was to build a device using small blocks that have brail and a visible number on the front. The students then place the blocks on the grid and can run their fingers back and forth across the problem. This allows the students to map into visual cortex with the two dimensional model of the mathematics problem. This allows the problem to be laid out just like site students would do. Everything on the device is in brail and text so that both students can read the problem. This device will help educate very young blind students into the basics of math. This will allow the blind students to have a foundation for later studies.

Project #12 Part B

Blog Post #11

What can we learn from these teachers??


Back to the Future by Brian Crosby
The video by Brian Crosby on Back to the Future is very interesting. Mr. Crosby teaches students that are secondary learners from fourth grade until sixth grade. On the second day of class, Mr. Crosby asked the students general questions that they should know the answers to like: What city do you live in? What state? What country? Over half of the students did not know the correct answers. Since theses students are secondary learners they have been taught a narrow curriculum since they were born. They do not have the same experiences as others. If the students are limited, it is hard for the students to imagine and if they can not do that where does your creativity spark from. All the students have their own blogs. The students do an activity where they are sending a balloon up in the air over 1000 feet. They students first have to do an experiment with a can to see how the air pressure changes and upload it to their blogs explaining what happened and why. The students then have to write a story about them being the balloon and taking the trip. They are telling about the trip from the beginning to the end. The students are starting to set goals for themselves and are building learning networks with blogging and skyping with people from all over the world. So then the students then write a high hope for their school, community, and the world and post it to their blogs. People from around the world were commenting on their blogs and the students came up with what if we let everyone send their own high hopes. The kids went out and started leaving comments on the people they usually blog with and the people they blog with. Many different people from around the world started sending high hopes. They burnt all of the world high hopes onto a cd and sent them up with theirs. A grad student came in the classroom and talked to the students about engineering and they learned how to build their own payload camera. All of the students contributed to making it. As the balloon rises the air pressure is going down, the balloon is expanding, and eventually the balloon bust. Since the students are still writing their stories about the trip as them being the balloon they had to imagine the balloon was them. The students now had all this schema to add to their stories. When it was over the students had to come in and write about what just happened but it did not stop just there. The students are now in a learning network. Another classroom wanted to know how to do the experience so the both of the classrooms skpyed each other. The students explained to one another how to do it.

Throughout the whole activity the students accomplished:
Language intense
Read/write to learn-content
Writing to clarify and share
Feedback
Articulate orally
Connect globally/aware globally
Authentic audience
Remember the science, high hopes art?

The students have to have active learning. The teachers need to empower students to be learners. They need to empower students to want to learn on their own, connect themselves to the worlds, and learning to collaborate in and out of the classroom. Mr. Crosby was told that he had a new student in his class but will probably never see her because she has cancer and will not be able to make it with her condition. Mr. Crosby sets up the computer so she can skype throughout the day and she can have a regular day in school like a normal kid. He says you can not keep racing kids through school. You have to make sure that we give the students the opportunities to build schema for the world.

Blending Learning Cycle
Mr. Paul Andersen teaches us about the blended learning cycle. Blended Learning is taking the components of online, mobile and classroom learning and blending them together in a classroom. The Learning Cycle starts with the five “E’s.” Start with an Engaging question, student then Explore that question, you then Explain the phenomenon, Expand upon that, and then you Evaluate. This a great way to present material and learn the material. When we put these two things together, we get the Blended Learning Cycle. His cycle in his science class for this year, which seemed to work great, was QUIVERS. First he started out with a really good driving QUestion; you have to have a good question to get the kids interested in the topic. The students will then Investigate on what you have presented to them. They then have a Video that has a lot of the direct instruction so that he doesn’t have to do all of the explaining; the students can watch this independently. Next they have Elaboration, this is where the teacher can give them reading on your subject and talk about what they have learned. The Review portion of this is where the teacher can meet with the students individually or in small groups to discuss and ask them questions to test their understanding; if they do not understand then they need to start over from the beginning. The students cannot move on to the Summary quiz until the teacher is sure they know what they are talking about. The summary quiz is made to test them on what they have learned from the IV and E portions of the QUIVERS cycle. I think this is a great way to get students more involved into classroom assignments because they won’t feel like this process of learning is basic like reading from the books and answering questions from what they have read.

Mark Church, Making Thinking Visible
Mark Church demonstrates the “Headlines” routine. This is where the students work in small groups and discuss a video from which they watched about the early human beginnings and the origins of human society. In their small groups, they come up with a headline to capture what the video is all about in one phrase. This causes the students to open up their minds and to really think about what they have watched and also to interpret what they think it is all about. Mr. Church said he would hang the phases up onto a board and come back to them a couple weeks later when they have learned more about the story. The students will be challenged to think if that is still their perspective of the story or not. I like this idea a lot, it opens up the students minds to think outside of the box and to discuss what they feel about something that they have read or watched.

Sam Pane 4th Grade
Sam Pane did a great job on teaching his students how to be a super digital citizen. He explained in the video how students are going to be exposed to all kinds of situations online and the students are incharge of knowing how to use the internet safely. Using the internet safely if very important for students to learn about since technology is such a big part of our world today. In his lesson about becoming a super digital citizen, the students created a comic hero online and they used dialogue to give safety tips. After the superheroes were created the students went around to their classmates computers to view their superheros and the safety tips they gave. The students were learning how to be smart and safe online when reading all the comicals. I loved the little girls example of being offered a free ipad online and all you have to do is submit your address. This is something that I have seen multiple times while using the internet. Young children may not realize that it is a scam so I think that it is extremely important to inform and direct them in the right direction when using the internet. Sam Pane taught a great lesson that really got the students involved and informed them how to become a super digital citizen. I would love to do a lesson similar to his in my future classroom so I could teach my students how to use the internet safely.

Project Based Learning
In the video by Dean Shareski, Project Based Learning, the teachers have combined 3 subjects together and incorporated project based learning. In the video he explained how research shows that integrated studies using projects increases students engagement and provides an opportunity for deeper understanding. I think that project based learning is a great way for students of all ages to learn because it makes them engaged and want to learn. In the video, he explained that incorporating technology into project based learning enhances and shares students learning in richer ways. I think technology is great because it will allow the students to have access to so many resources while doing their projects. When preparing and presenting projects it makes the students proud of their work because of the time and effort they have put into it. The students feel like they have ownership of their projects and appreciate them. When integrating subjects and using project based learning it allows you to provide your students with so many opportunities and teach them beyond the everyday curriculum. Project based learning is a great way for students to learn and push themselves to become better and better with each project they produce.

Roosevelt Elementary's PBL Program
In Roosevelt’s Elementary PBL Program, Roosevelt School introduces project based learning and they explain that this when the learning is different in the classroom. This school describes PBL as in depth learning that has integrated thematic instruction. The lessons are based on real world problems and require students to research their topic. After a project based learning lesson is taught, it is then evaluated with a project and/or a presentation. Project based learning allows for the students to really think for themselves. Teachers collaborate on differents things to do PBL’s about. They like to teach PBL lessons that will have an impact on their students and really make them be engaged in learning. Project based learning gives the chance for students to use cooperative learning while they work in groups. Another thing that PBL’s bring to the table is public speaking. Since the student’s are being evaluated with a presentation it allows them to become comfortable in front of a classroom of their peers, presenting their work. Project based learning gives the students a sense of empowerment and they learn skills that they call apply in the real world. For example, how to conduct a presentation. Students can use this their whole lifetime. In my opinion, PBL is one of the most beneficial things to use in a classroom. It can offer so much for your students and really give them the guidance for a great education. Project based learning is a must in the classroom and I recommend every teacher at least try it!

Project #10

My interview movie is with Mrs. Parker.She is a Kindergarten teacher at Mary B. Austin. Our interview movie is about using technology in the classroom.

C4T #3 Assignment

On my first comment, I was assigned to comment on Royan Lee’s Blog, Selfies are Bad, Selfies are Good, and Why We Ruin Everything Cool . This blog post is about gathering around someones phone to assert your coolness which would be called selfies. He believes for a long time that we spend far too much energy over time-honored handwriting over youth culture like this. Mr. Lee ends with asking many questions and our opinion about selfies.
On my comment to Mr. Lee, I started off introducing myself to him. I really enjoyed reading about this blog post because selfies are big today. I told him I do believe when people jump into your pictures is rude especially in a professional environment. But I do also think that there is a time and place that is appropriate for people to make selfies.

On my second blog post of Mr. Lee’s blog post is called My Student’s Advise to Parents on Social Media. This blog post is Mr. Lee just giving some helpful advice to parents. He encourages to use the privacy settings properly and if there is an age limit you should use them. Don’t be too pushy and tell your child no to using technology because all their friends are using social media and you do not want them to feel left out. Nothing should be inappropriate and you should always respect their privacy and trust them.
On my comment to Mr. Lee, I told him I agree with the advice he gave. I believe one of the most important is that parents should encourage their children to use technology. Technology is expanding more and more everyday. Also, respecting your children with their privacy and trusting them is very much important too.