Blog Post #16

What I learned from EDM310.

Blog Post#5 Part 2

Personal Learning Networks are very important not only students but also teachers. If a networks is set up correctly it allow students and teachers to converse with subject matter experts in multiple fields. There is multiple sites and apps that allows someone to set up their own Personal Learning Network, but the one that I use the most is Twitter. Twitter allows communication between a variety of different people simply by following them. This can be very beneficial to teachers as they are able to communicate and bounce ideas off of others in their field. This class has tough me the importance of creating a good PLN and this is something that I will always be able to use throughout my teaching career.

C4T November

Stephens Greenberg

This post is about a new exciting school in Brooklyn New York. This new school is nothing like the traditional school setting. Students meet with personalized tutors for two hours daily and often work in small group settings. My commit follows; Hello my name is Justin Thompson I am a student of EDM310 @ the University of South Alabama. I will post a summery on my blog at the end of the month. These new type of schools sound interesting. Do these schools offer after school activities such as sports and band?

Nicholas Provenzano

 Throughout this post Mr. Provenzano explains the benefits about Project Based Learning and shows an example of one of his students project. I would suggest anyone that wants to learn the benefits of Project Based Learning activities to visit his blogger. My commit follows:
Mr. Provenzano,

My name is Justin Thompson and I am a student of EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I will be summarizing your latest post on my blogger. Your students did an outstanding job making this video. It is amazing how Project Based Learning activities fully engage students.  

Blog Post #14

Teaching our can be a profession.

The article above was written by Joel Klein and published in USA Today on November 17, 2014. Throughout this article Joel writes about two main problems with the teaching profession today.

1. Problem hiring teachers.
2. Problem with seniority.

Joel Klein states in this article that school systems hire anyone with a college degree to fill their teaching positions. His solution to fix this problem is to recruit and hire the top third of college graduates. This seems a little ridiculous to me. It is very hard especially in today's world to be hired into the public school system. They simply do not and can not hire teachers based solely on their grades. The student teaching process is very strenuous. Joel fails to take into account that every teacher hired has once been a student teacher and has done so for free. As to hiring the top third of college graduates, it takes a special person to be an effective teacher, not everyone that has maintained a high GPA throughout college will become one. 

Joel Klein's second issue with the profession of teaching is seniority. He states that seniority dictates the way schools operate and it is impossible to fire incompetent teachers. I would argue that teachers are able to reach their seniority status because of their effective teaching abilities. He also states that the school systems often fire the last teacher hired regardless of their teaching abilities. This is simply not the case. Why would any one in their right mind want to fire the more effective teachers simply because of the number of years they have under their belt? I sincerely hope that the issues Joel Klein writes about are not the norm of employment procedures in the school systems today.

C4K November

Patrickm, Student of Mr. Akerson 5th grade from Saint Louis, MO

Patrickm wrote about the importance of not wearing uniforms at school. This is my response. Patrickm, I am an EDM 310 student at the University of South Alabama. I can tell this is a very important issue for you. I really enjoyed the passion you put into this post. I agree with you students should have a way to express their individuality. Great post keep up the good work.

Amaya, Student of Mrs Mena from Chula Vista, CA

Amaya wrote a compare and contrast blog on the differences and similarities between her and her mother. This is my response. Hello, I am an EDM 310 student at the University of South Alabama. You did a great job with this compare and contrast blog. I really enjoyed your last line about the jerky! Keep up the good work.

Paris R, Student of Mrs. Mena 5th grade from Chula Vista, CA

Paris wrote a compare and contrast blog post on Henry Ford and Maya Angelou. This is my commit. Hello my name is Justin Thompson and I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. You did a nice job on this blog post. Good job describing how these individuals helped shape the world. Keep up the good work and have a great rest of the year.

Blog Post#13

What can you learn from the following videos about teaching History?

Watch the following videos and answer the driving question above.
Teaching Students to Think Like Historians, by Stanford
David McCullough's 5 Lessons Every High School Student Should Learn, by Susan Goding
Powerful Teaching and Learning- High School Social Studies- Heather Fox, by thebercgroup

The video Teaching Students to Think Like Historians urges teachers to break away from the strangle hold of text books. This film suggests that teachers teach history by using primary sources, and secondary sources. Historical sites is a wonderful way for students learn using modern technology.

5 Lessons Every High School Student Should Learn urges teachers not to have their students memorize dates and quotations, but encourages teachers to give their students the opportunity to learn what happened in history and why. This video also encourages teachers to teach their students in other ways than just using text books. Some ways this videos suggest are; group projects, students make their-own documentary video, plays, and papers.

The Video Powerful Teaching and Learning shows a teacher as her class moves from an old lesson to a new lesson. The teacher , Heather Fox, asks her students a driving question before each new topic and allows the students to answer the questions orally to other students beside them. This grabs students attention and allows them to think critically about a historical event before any lesson is given. This is a great way for teachers to check on students existing knowledge and critical thinking skills.

Blog Post #12

What assistive technologies are available are available to you as a teacher?