Blog Post #7

Strengths

• Technology allows everyone to learn quickly
• Ability to learn new programs quickly
• Ability to watch how to videos 

Weaknesses

• Was not exposed to technology is school
• Not knowing what technologies works best for students

Throughout this lesson I have learned how to properly use technology in the classroom which will allow more children to thrive. Listed below are some great links that teachers can use in their classrooms.

• How to make an audible QR code

Michele Bennett shows in her video ,How to make an audible QR code, the advantages of creating an audible message for her classroom. These codes also allow teachers to get their student's parents involved because it allows communication between the two.

• How to use technology in the classroom

Ginger Tuck shows how she uses iPads in her classroom to help students learn to read. Her students video records themselves reading a book and plays the video back while following along in order to correct mistakes.

• How to use  Poplet in the classroom

Poplet is a tool that allows students the ability to create fun projects in a safe environment. Poplet with Michele shows how easy and fun Poplet can be for students.

Book Trailer

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Project 6 C4KSummarySeptember

Throughout the month of month I have posted on Damien's, Hailey's, and Hope's blog.

Damien's post was of a descriptive paragraph of an animation they watched in class named The Moon La Luna. I commented on Damien's post stating my name, where I attend school, and complimented him on his great blog post.

Hailey's blog post was poem about herself. Throughout the poem she mentioned that she loves to play basketball, roller skate, and many other facts about herself. I commented on Hailey's post stating my name, where I attend school, complimented her on her post, and shared with her that I too like to play basketball.

Hope's blog was made up of two short paragraphs about hard work, and talents. Throughout this post she described the differences between the two. I commented on Hope's post stating my name, where I attend school, complimented her on her good post, and shared with her my feelings of hard work and talents. I stated that someone may not be born with talents, but through hard work talents can be made.

Project 7 Part A & Part B

My Sentence




My Passion



Parent Introduction




Student Introduction

Presentation Project 3

Project Based Learning

Blog post # 5

Personal Learning Networks are a set of people and tools that someone can consult with to learn. Wendy Drexler's video, Welcome to my PLE , shows in detail how her 7th grades students utilize personal learning networks. This gives students the freedom to use technology in the classrooms.

There are many tools can be used to create a Personal Learning Network. One good site that can be used is Symbaloo. This site allows people to create a personalized homepage that can be used to store all the important apps that make up ones Personal Learning Network.

I will use the resources I mentioned above to create my own Personal Learning Network, and the first person that I will add is Anthony Capps. Anthony is a former student of EDM 310 and a current teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary.

Blog post #6

In watching these conversations involving Anthony Capps I learned many different aspects of project based learning.

In Project based learning part one and two, I learned that project based learning should not be used only in checking knowledge. It should be used as a way to learn. Successful project based learning projects should fit the audience, should involve the community, and should be content driven. (Meaning what you are asking your students to do should meet the standards of state and federal guidelines.)Some reasons why teachers should use project based learning are: students love project based learning, it allows teachers to engage all their students, and it has a high approval rating with principles if done effectively.

Anthony suggests teachers to allow their students to use iCurio throughout the project based learning process. iCurio is an online tool that students can use to search the web safely. This tool does not allow inappropriate content to display, and gives students organization skills. It does this by allowing students to collect important information be creating files.

Discovery education is another important tool that Anthony uses in his project based learning activities. This is a video tool that shines light on the text. This tool allows experts in numerous fields into the classrooms by allowing the students to watch informative videos on the subject they are working on.

Five tips Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange gives to teachers.

1. Teachers themselves must be learners 
2. Allow your work to become fun
3. Be flexible
4. Engage all your students
5. Reflect on completed work in order to make it better.

Another tip Anthony gives to teachers that want to use project based learning in their classrooms is to use technology don’t teach it. Give your students the ability to build on the technology throughout the projects. When using technology for project based learning do not expect perfection at first. The product is a building block and will get better over time.

The final thing I learned from Anthony Capps was how to create a lesson plan.  In his video additional thought about lessons he states it is important to think about each lesson as if it is made up of four layers. First, create the lesson while looking at how it fits in your yearly plans. Second, make sure the lesson fits in your unit plan. Third, make sure the lesson fits into your weekly plan. Lastly, make sure the daily lesson is carried out to meet your unit plan. He says this is done in order to make sure each lesson get you one step closer to teacher’s yearly goals. 

Project #4 C4T

Lynette Guastaferro is a former elementary school teacher from Baltimore and now is a key member of Teaching Matters. Teaching Matters is an organization that is dedicated to making the United States public school system better.

Teach Your Children Well is a blog article written by Lynette about how to create a quality Pre-K system and the importance of having one.I agreed with Ms. Guastaferro stating that Pre-K creates a solid foundation for young students.

Governor Cuomo's State of the State  is a blog article about New York's Governor Cuomo and his annual state of the state address. Governor Cuomo stated that New York will give a bonus of $ 20,000 to eligible highly effective teachers. I committed that this bonus should motivate all teachers to work hard to teach their students.

Project #15

Wolfram Alpha is a computational knowledge engine. This search engine was released on may 15, 2009, and is made up of a computational platform or toolkit that encompasses computer algebra. This search engine would be useful for for all math students.

Yahoo is an American multinational Internet corporation headquarter in Sunnyvale, California. It is one of the most popular sites in the United States. This search engine is used much like Google.

Dogpile is a search engine that gathers results from Google and Yahoo. This site is a trademark of Blucora, Inc. Dogpile started in 2008 in orer to use earnings from site traffic to raise money for animals in need. This search engine is much like Google and Yahoo and should be used be animal lovers. 

Ask is a question answering focused web search engine. Ask was founded in 1995 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley California. This search engine should be used by all that have a specific question to ask. 

DuckDuckGo is an Internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers privacy. DuckDuckGo does not profile its users which separates this site from Google and Yahoo. This site gathers information from the best sources rather than the most sources. The engine would benefit

 students researching for papers.

 Bing is a web search engine from Microsoft. Bing was reviled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in May of 2009. In July 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo created deal which would allow Bing to power all Yahoo search. This search engine can be used as an alternative to Google.

Yippy is a metasearch engine that was developed by Vivisimo. This search engine is family-friendly and only includes content that is appropriate for all ages. This search engine would be perfect for parents to add to their children's computers. 

Mahalo is a web directory and internet-based knowledge exchange. This engine started in May 2007 and it differs from algorithmic search engines like Google by contracting human editors to review websites and write search engine results pages that include text listings, as well as other media, such as photos and video. 

Blog Post #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

As teachers we need to be able to ask questions that will stimulate the minds of our students. Ben Johnson addresses this very important issue in his blog, The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom. Johnson states that teachers should ask their class a question then pause for three to five seconds and randomly select a student for the answer. Asking questions this way creates an illusion to students that they will be selected for the answer which stimulates them to be prepared to answer the question.

Another way teacher can be more effective is to ask open-ended questions instead of close-ended questions. Jeanne Chesley effectively demonstrates the difference between the two in her video, Asking better questions in the classroom. Asking open-ended questions allows students to think critically about an issue which will allow student's answers to be more complex. I feel that if teachers pair Ben Johnson's theory with Jeanne Chesley's theory teachers will begin to ask better questions which will engage more students.  

Blog post 3

Throughout this lesson I have learned how to properly conduct a peer edit. There are three important steps in peer editing. They are giving complements to your peers work, making specific suggestions that will benefit your peers work and making corrections to your peers work.

The first step is to stay positive and give complements to your peer by picking out some things you liked about his/her work. This step is very important because it allows you to help out your peer without hurting his/her feelings.

The second step is to make suggestions about specific ideas that will make the quality of the work better. Some specific suggestions you can focus on are word choice, organization of work and use of sentences.

The third and final step is to make corrections to your peers work. During this step it is important to pay attention to punctuation, grammatical errors and spelling. If these steps are followed correctly peer editing can and will benefit all that are involved.