Monday, February 25, 2013

Project #10 Finding The Right Tool

toolbox of teaching toolsFinding The Right Tool
It seemed like every time I did a search for this project I cam upon most of the sane topics and web pages that this class has required me to visit. I really think the most important tool I will use in the classroom is going to be myself. My students may be researching the internet and talking to experts, but they will still be looking to me for guidance and instruction. I might be just a "filter", but I will still be the person the students are looking to for the final okay. As an edrupreneur and a life long learner, it will be up to me to stay informed and up to date on everything and anything that will be a help to me and my students. Not only will I be an influence on my students, but my fellow teachers as well.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Blog Post #6

color coded people connected together by a lined shapeThe Networked Student
The Networked Student is a self starter motivated by his need to learn without the boundaries of a traditional classroom. Rather then sitting through a lecture, the student is using the internet to explore, communicate, and validate factual information. The teacher in the classroom acts as a filter to guide students, so they can learn to research and verify that the information is true and correct. Students learn to communicate with other students, teachers, top professors, and other professionals. This is a skill that will follow them out of the classroom and into the professional world.
I was born in the 1970's and feel like I am at such a disadvantage compared to young students.Most of what I watched in the movie is completely foreign to me. This is the reason I have struggled to write papers in college. In the middle of my life we went from using encyclopedias, textbooks and the card catalog in the library, to using the internet for our research. As an older student, I am still learning how to validate information that I find on the internet.
These skills will be second nature to young students. As educators, we must remember young children are like sponges. They soak up knowledge so easily. Once taught these skills, they will never forget them. They will easily continue to add to what they know as technology changes. It is vitally important that we teach them (and ourselves) to utilize everything that is available, so they can go out into the world feeling prepared and confident.

Welcome to my PlE (Personal Learning Environment)
This video just proves "The Networked Student" way of teaching is working. This students organizational skills are phenomenal. I really like how she has to do research on the animals in the classroom, before she can interact with them. She should be very proud that she is able to have a scientist review her work. That is truly an opportunity of a lifetime. When I was her age, we were just lucky to have a teacher reviewing our work. My PLN is non existent compared to hers. I am sure with time, mine will grow to be as extravagant as hers.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Blog Post #5

Venspired and If I Built a School
Krissy Venosdale is a ten year veteran teacher in Hillsboro, Missouri. Her recent blog post "I'm still learning" is so inspiring. As a thirty-seven year old that will be pushing forty by the time I step into a classroom she gives me hope. She professes to believe that even after ten years she has not learned everything she needs to know. She teaches gifted children that are in grades third through fifth. Her creativity and zest for teaching are impressive and make me wonder how long will it be before I feel like I am where she is. Her blog is chock full of everything to make me get excited about teaching.
After reading her post If I built a School it's truly difficult to think about a follow up. I really wish that we would have been asked to do this assignment without reading Mrs. Venosdale's first. Two of my favorite ideas were her library with the tree house, and the cafeteria that was more like a comfortable coffee house. I imagined hardwood floors with plush seating and students swimming with creative ideas. I think schools need an inviting environment that creates a comforting factor for them.
One of her statements is where I keep feeling I am running into a dead end, when it comes to all of these new ideas of teaching. No state test and students moving forward when they are ready, rather then by age, or grade. How are we as teachers supposed to incorporate all of this creativeness in our classrooms? It seems we will be spending most of out time teaching to test, instead of really teaching. I have had so many educators bring this up in conversations. Most have even tried to persuade me to pursue a different career. Is there a way to incorporate this style of teaching? I know I am veering in a different direction, but I am just full of questions about this.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
Music Notes on a Tree Eric Whitacre is a brilliant musician. Wow! He grew up wanting to be a pop star. After much persuasion, he joined choir in college. He did not know how to read music until after he started college. By the age of twenty-one he had written his first concert work called Go Lovely Rose. It is just unbelievable. To go from having virtually no experience, to what he has accomplished, he is truly gifted. As a former choir student, words cannot describe the image and sound of the virtual choir that he has put together. Lux Aurumque (meaning Light and Gold) is a beautiful moving piece. One of the viewers on YouTube described it as sounding like the horizon. Even if you are not a music person, you have to appreciate just the thought of 185 people, that have never met singing such beautiful music.

Teaching in the 21st Century
This video makes me question once again about change. I have not said anything about this in my previous post. I agree with most, if not all of the ideas in EDM310. I just wonder how an overall change is going to be created in the classroom, schools, or even school districts as a whole. Is everyone truly on board, with the idea of change, when it comes to how our children are learning, and how we as educators are teaching. I agree with the ideas in Kevin Roberts video. I do not understand how we are going to implement this into our classroom? Until everyone agrees that this is the change that needs to come about to get our students up and running, it seems difficult to think about. Are there enough people moving in this direction that it will make a difference, not just in the lives of student, but in the school staff too. I think that when it comes to students it will make my job easier if I can move forward with this idea in the classroom. However, it may make my job harder, if other teachers, administrators, and the like, are not in agreement with this teaching style.

Flipped Classroom

Even after my previous comments in this post, I do believe I could use the idea of a flipped classroom. It really hit home with the example being a math class. I was terrible at math. If I could have utilized a teaching video at home, it would have made my life much easier. Students need that application time in the classroom with the teacher. I can remember many nights of being in tears because I just could not figure something out. There just was and is not enough time in the classroom for a lecture and application of whatever we were learning that day. This is a brilliant idea. It puts responsibility on the student to do their part. I really like that it helped those that might be falling behind, and those that needed a faster pace in the classroom. It's a win-win situation for the student and the teacher. You will always have the occasional students that refuse to comply. I think that just goes with the territory of being an educator.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Blog Post # 4

The first link that I looked at was The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom. There is a short video, but what I found most helpful to me was the link that went into great details about exactly what a podcasts is. It is perfect for someone that knows absolutely nothing about podcasts. When you listen to podcasts you can pick and choose exactly what interest you. Most are free and they have very limited commercial time and some have no commercial time at all. This is because podcasts are really easy and cheap to produce.
This is a great tool for the classroom. It is easy to use. It promotes creativity and innovation. Students can practice role play and it can be easily accessed by parents and other interested parties. Podcasts also use the higher order thinking skills shown in Benjamin Bloom's pyramid.
Langwitches Blog really put using podcasts in the classroom into perspective. I really enjoyed listening to the children's podcasts It is amazing that they were only first graders. Their interview style podcasts with the characters of Vacation Under the Volcano was fantastic. I could tell that they worked very hard to accomplish a podcast that anyone would be proud of. I especially liked the different voices they used to show the personalities of the different characters. I hope that my own children,and my students, have opportunities like this in school. These same first graders did another podcasts during their second grade year. You can hear them speaking Hebrew on their podcasts. The teacher stresses though that the whole exercise is about writing a script, listening comprehension, collaboration, speaking skills, and fluency in a target language. I can't think of a better way to teach children these skills then through a hands on activity like this.
Judy Scharf's link to how to create a podcasts had a lot of helpful information it. I was able to download the program Audacity to my computer. This will allow me to make my own podcast. It will also edit it and convert it to an mp3 once I download that part of the program into my computer
I really wish these podcasts were available in the 1980's I used to spend hours locked away in my room with my microphone and radio. I would make up my own radio stations. I recorded everything on tapes. They had their own music, weather forecast, and news. I had the most fun as a kid doing this and it would have been even more fun if I could have made a podcasts with them. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a fantastic tool to utilize in the classroom.

Project #3 (C4T#1)

Jon Bacal is chief entrepreneurship officer and founder of Venture Academy, a grades 6-12 NGLC Wave IIIa grantee opening in Minneapolis this August. In his blog he offers sound advice of how to make sure that you have the enrollment numbers you need to have a successful blended school of choice. He breaks it down into three P's: picky parents, personalized learning’s benefits,and perseverance.
Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel’s classic, Picky Parent Guide: Choose Your Child’s School With Confidence.Its definition of a great school is one in which “students of all abilities and types achieve dramatically better academic results than similar students in other schools.” The Guide encourages parents to assess schools on seven Great School Quality Factors, including a clear mission, high and personalized expectations for all students, monitoring progress and adjusting teaching, focus on effective learning tasks, home-school connection, safe and orderly environment, and strong instructional leadership.
Jon Bacal's views on the benefits of personalized learning show that children will be looked at as an individual rather than as a group of children. Each child will have their own path of leaning depending on their specific needs. This means self directed learning, one on one help as needed, and clear direct information to the parents about their child's progress
Perseverance is key when connecting with parents and the community to promote a blended learning school. He suggest parks, community centers, churches, on the street, and even door to door. Another suggestion is to make flyers, brochures,direct mail, advertising and media coverage.He also suggest hands on activities for children and parents and keeping a constant record of who is committing to enroll at the school. One of his major concerns is getting the word out there about the school, because enrollment is key to keeping the doors of the school open.
We have schools of choice within the Mobile County Public School System. I was surprised to read in the blog that these types of schools have problems with enrollment numbers. I jumped at the chance to send my son to Old Shell Road Performing Arts School in Mobile, because I thought it was a good way for him to be exposed to activities like music, dance, drama, and art classes. To be accepted into these schools, you have to put your child, or children on a list and he, or she is picked by a computer drawing. I always thought that this meant that there were a large number of people trying to have their children educated at these particular schools. I have three children that will be starting school in the next few years and we (my husband and I) are considering sending them to Council Traditional School. Jon Bocal's blog makes me wonder (and want to investigate and find out) exactly what kind of enrollment numbers these schools actually have.
Jon Bocal suggest hiring edupreneurs instead of educators. Edupreneur combines the concepts of education and entrepreneur – a person who undertakes any enterprise or venture, usually with considerable initiative and risk. Edupreneurs bring passion, imagination, grit and a sense of urgency in their zealous drive to create and constantly refine optimal learning for young people, organization-wide, and for every learner. He offers five suggestions for picking edupreneurs.
1.Hire edupreneurs who are passionate, versatile, flexible, innovative and entrepreneurial.
2.Select humble, authentic, emotionally intelligent leaders eager to develop themselves and others
3.Choose learning-centered leaders who already live your mission, can build a culture around it, and can inspire and coach colleagues and young people to make it their own.
4.Only pick someone you’d hire in a heartbeat to guide and teach your own children.
5.If you’re not sure whether a candidate meets these tests, keep looking.
As a future educator, I hope that I will be looked at as a edrupreneur. I was born in 1975, so this is a new concept to me. I was taught by lectures, note taking, and the occasional movie (on VHS of course). We had a small computer lab, but our visits to it were rare. I hope to be exposed to this type of teaching through my classes at University of South Alabama, and my experiences in the classroom with other edrupreneurs.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Special Blog Post #1

Many Students Misinterpreted the Data in the Did You Know Video

Using WolframAlpha I was able to compare the population of India, China, and the United States. India-1.21 Billion People
China-1.35 Billion People
United States-309 Million People
In the movie, Did you know?, it states that 25% of the population of India with the highest IQ's outnumbers the entire population of the United States. India has 901 million more people than the United States. Without knowing this information, one would assume that India is further ahead of the United States when it comes to education.
It is estimated that 18 million Chinese speak English now and 300 million are learners. If we add these two numbers what do we get? So a total of 21 million people will be English speaking as compared to 309 million people total in the United States. I guess the lesson learned here is that when certain data is presented I should investigate further to do a comparison of numbers before I make an incorrect observation.
I just did a comparison search of Alabama and Mississippi. I got information on population, demographics, education, income, voting, school finances, along with graphs and charts. I know I was supposed to do a second search, but I decided to click on examples on the main page. This website does so much. You can ask pretty much anything and get some type of information. You can get information on weather, statistics, people and history, places and geography,music, colors, and transportation. This is just a partial list. It does not include the other choices available within each of these categories. There is a wealth of information available on this site. This is a wonderful site for students, or really any curious individual. I like that it does all the math for you when you are doing a comparison search. It's good for me, because I am not very good at math. I wish I would have known about this site before now. It is something I will definitely put to use in my classroom.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count Change


Gary is an award winning multi-platform producer, author, educator and Director. He is currently Senior Producer and Manager of Product Development at ABC TV Multi Platform responsible for delivering new editorial formats against ABC TV shows including dual screen, social TV and mobile. His Social Media Count gives numbers down to seconds. It includes numbers related to Social, Games, Mobile, and Heritage. The numbers are constantly changing. This includes Facebook,ipad purchases, music downloads, and money spent to make movies. There are too many categories to name. You can get numbers per week and monthly. There are several ways that he has broken down the information.

As a future educator it is more than a little intimidating. It allows one to see just how quickly things are moving and it will only get faster. There is some real truth to life long learning. To keep up with the world I will have to constantly be learning and updating what I have learned. This will be a benefit to me and my students.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Blog Post #3

Critiquing A Classmate's Blog

Paige Ellis's blog was very informative on how to successfully and professionally critique another person's work. In my case, as a student, it was helpful to be given the information in a simple form with added information to supplement the three easy to remember steps. Her best advice to keep in mind, is to be positive, and offer constructive criticism. Do this in a way that benefits the person you are critiquing without saying anything that could be discouraging for the other student. Both suggested short movies and the slide show reinforce her statements in her blog. Keeping this in mind, we should offer compliments, suggestions, and help make corrections.

When I make my comments to a blog, I am going to use both public and private comments. My first reaction to that question was that I would definitely use private comments mostly. I know what it feels like to feel stupid, because I did something wrong, and other people saw whatever it was. So, I can really identify with Paige's comments about shying away from offering criticism, because it can upset, or offend someone. I am sure that other people can identify with that too. I then thought that my public comments might help the individual, but they may also help other people (including fellow students) who might be reading them also.



The Mountbatten 
Made by The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind
boy using Moutbatten
The Mountbatten is a tool for the blind. It looks like a small typewriter. (hopefully everyone knows what that is) It types braille, while saying the letter for the student out loud. This provides immediate feedback to the student and appeals to their tactile sense. It can connect to a PC, save files and transfer files also. The video was very short and only provided a small amount of information about the Mountbatten.I did some searching on the internet and was able to find more information than what was provided by the video.
Reinforces recognition of Braille characters - utilizing speech output to enable and promote experiential learning.
Allows pre-Braille activities and play for young children long before they are physically able to use traditional mechanical Braille writers.
Develops technology and Braille as Life Skills - concepts of using files and editing documents are introduced at a basic level, all in the context of learning Braille.
Introduces organizational concepts such as planning and time management - using the built-in clock and diary functions. Removes attitudinal barriers by taking the "mystery" out of Braille - sighted teachers, peers and family can connect a regular PC keyboard and write in Braille.
Assists with inclusion and participation - the student's work is displayed on the Mimic screen.
Literacy through Braille opens up the world of communication and expression - essential for living successfully. Braille fulfills needs that cannot be addressed by verbal and audio methods. The MB Learning System is the ideal platform for launching children into the world of Braille literacy. (http://www.mountbattenbrailler.com/)
This little machine could give me and the student a connection, by allowing us to work together. If it connects the student to the teacher, it could also be a tool to bring the students together too. Many students might feel an awkwardness at trying to connect with someone that is not like them. This machine could help with that. It is not only important for students with special needs to learn in the classroom, but they need to feel accepted by their peers also.

Technology for Special Needs Learners
Teaching Math to the Blind  was created by Art Karshmer at The University of San Francisco, is a demonstration video. He has created a machine that helps set up math problems for the blind. This machine allows them to set the problem up just the way a sighted person would. It looks like a really old version Scrabble. There is a grid with wooden blocks. Each block has a written number and a number in braille. When placed in the grid the blocks number is said aloud. I wonder if this tool could help sighted people too. Everyone has a different need when it comes to their own learning style. So, I am curious as to whether this machine could be beneficial to other students in the classroom also.
iPad Usage For The Blind
This demonstration was done by Wesley Majerus. He is an access technology specialist with the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind (IBTC). His main focus was on the benefit of having voice over on the iPad. He showed how the reader feature worked. I personally did not care for the monotone voice of the reader and it was a bit fast for my taste. In my own classroom I would probably prefer to use books on CD. I grew up listening to books on records, tapes, and eventually compact disc. The voice of the author , or someone who has a good reading voice, is much more pleasant to listen to verses the robotic voice of the reader.
The last video (created by Denise Robinson)was another demonstration of the iPad. It was designed to teach parents what their deaf/blind children are learning with the iPad. It was a little easier to follow than the previous video. Having never put my hands on an iPad, it was easier to understand what the voice over was saying in this video. It also added some humor to the mix, because the mom was having trouble following the persons instructions about how to use the iPad itself.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
This video shows a true classroom of the future. Vicki Davis has stepped away from traditional teaching. She is leading her students to opportunities that other traditional students will unfortunately be missing out on. She is using wikis, blogs, podcasts, virtual worlds, and other new media tools to connect students in rural Georgia to the world. Rather than giving them all the answers her teaching methods empower the students by making them research and learn while they learn. She understands that not all students learn the same.
This video excited me to the very point of tears. As a substitute teacher, to see these students excited about learning, gives me hope. Mrs. Davis's students are taking on leadership roles in the classroom, and through teaming, they are reaching out to help others. The school must really know the importance of having technology in the classroom. Every student was sitting behind a computer. Some of them were utilizing phones in the classroom too. Everyone was engaged and actively learning. I hope that all schools are moving towards this method of learning, or I hope I am lucky enough to be teaching at one .