C4T #3 Summary

Jen Deyenberg's Trails Optional I explored the post Biodiversity in Antarctica- Wikis, Webs, and Penguins! in this post Deyenberg is stating the importance of exploring the ecosystem and finding places in which not many people know about. While exploring these sites using Wikis and the Web kids can learn interesting facts while keeping their information in an organized fashion to go back to for later reference. Jen did an example by exploring Antarctica, he used pictures, information on food webs, and much more. His point was to express the value of using the internet to research information creating a fun and exciting way.

In my response to Biodiversity in Antarctica- Wikis, Webs, and Penguins! I expressed my interest in learning about using Wikis to explore new areas of the ecosystem. I feel that this would be a great activity to incorporate into my future classroom. I explained how I think it would be very exciting for students to explore places in which they do not usually hear or think about it. I feel that this activity and tool can open students minds to another area of learning, giving them the desire to engage into more areas of learning. I feel that using Wikis and the Web is an easy and very helpful tool!

In Jen Deyenberg's post Wikis, Tagxedo and Science- A Forest of Words! he was sharing with us a tool to help children learn more about words and shapes. Tagxedo is a tool like Wordle, it makes shapes of words. You can organize your words into any type of shape such as; clouds, trees, cars, etc. This tool is a fun way for children to learn. It helps express creativity and engages students into social learning. It allows children to share their creativity with their classmates learning how to communicate and learn from each others experiences of creating their own Tagxedo.

In my response to Wikis, Tagxedo and Science- A Forest of Words! I expressed my interest in learning about this tool. I provided Jen with the information in our previous assignment of Wordle and how much I enjoyed participating in this activity. Learning about Tagexdo was something I found very helpful and beneficial. I feel that this activity will help keep students focused, excited, and interested in learning new things. Allowing your students to create their own Tagexdo and post to their personal blog I feel is a great assignment and one that I will keep in mind to use for my future classroom. This project allows students to learn the words and use their creative side while sharing and learning from other classmates creations! I enjoyed viewing and learning from this blog post, I feel it was very helpful and interesting!

Blog Post 10

Do you Teach or Do you Educate?
I really enjoyed watching this clip. I chose to fulfill the career path as an educator because I want to make a difference in children's lives. I intend to educate through creativity and inspiration. I hope to find ways in my educating to help students engage in a subject area fully rather than doing it just because they have to. I hope that I can give an assignment and due to my teaching have my students enjoy the researching process rather than it being a duty.

I hope my students will not look an assignment and the first thing they look at is the due date and wait until the night before to being the project. I want to educate my students in way that they are so intrigued and full of ideas for a project that they can hardly wait to being the assignment. I will try to find different ways to create an impact on all my students not just a few or half. I hope to never get comfortable, I want to always take risks and find new ways to educate keeping my classroom entertained, intrigued, and focused!

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home! presents his argument in a humorous way yet keeping the topic serious and important. Johnson is stating that people feel students should not use pencil and paper outside of the classroom due to lower standardize test scores. The argument is many feel that if a child is creating at home for personal joy that they will share the same incentive while in a classroom, instead of having a serious learning mindset. Many feel that this will create a carefree personality in a student. By finding projects for students to do at home incorporating fun, entertainment, and learning Johnson expresses the importance of creating outside of the classroom. Even when faced with a situation of the child straying away from the assignment given and playing a game, he/she is still in some way learning. As educators we must not be close minded to different ways of learning! We must think outside of the box and explore, even in a game of tic-tac-toe a child is still practicing drawing, thinking, and analyzing a situations. I think Johnson's title is meant to be sarcastic yet intriguing for educators to think in a different way!

Blog Post 9

In Mr. McClung's post, at the teacher's desk What I've Learned this year 2008-09 he is sharing with his viewers his experiences during his first year of teaching. By doing this he is providing us with helpful tips for future educators. His first tip is how to read the crowd, he shares how he was always concerned with how he was being graded or observed that he was hurting himself by not letting his real teaching shine. He was thinking about himself, not his students or even his lesson focus. By giving your students more opportunities to interact it allows a lesson to be taught properly and be beneficial to the students! Next we must be flexible, when preparing a lesson before teaching have a mind set of it is not going to go as planned, because it never will. You must be open for questions and be prepared for anything and just go with it. Communication is another tip, he gives a sense of humor/sarcasm when stating that of course none of us have ever been involved in workplace drama, but if we might happen to stumble upon a situation in our near future talking the issue out will solve all problems! We must also be reasonable, as educators we should always expect the best from our students but we must also remember that they are learning and to not be too critical if it does not meet your "highest expectations". Instead of getting upset we must work with the students and give them the information in another format until they better understand the material. As educators we must not be afraid of technology. By having an open mind to learning how to use new tools we could help students succeed on another level. Listening to your students is essential. It is a very simple task but it is the one tool that will lead to the greatest success. By listening to your students it lets them know you care which will keep a child motivated for learning.
In Mr. McClung's third year of teaching in his post What I learned this year 2010-2011 he encounters many exciting new events in his career. He became the head coach for the schools cross country team and also became the teacher for computer applications. He provides us with tips for how to handle new challenges as a teacher. First we must know our boss. Trying to impress your boss should not be your goal, we should want to impress our students. We should be ourselves around our boss and find ways together to better our students education. Also not everyone will always hold the same exciting or interest in incorporating new things. Do not let it bring you down, staying positive will lead you in the right path. We must also be a leader and know when to follow. It is good to go with others at the appropriate time but we must also remember to be ourselves to do what works best for our classroom! When teaching we must allow our students to complete the task at hand on their own. As educators it is our job to guide them with instruction but they should be the ones physically and mentally completely the task, not us. If we do the work for them how will they ever learn? As educators we must never get comfortable, we should always incorporate new material. Using the same stuff over and over again can and will become boring for not only you to teach but your students may not be interested. I was very glad this was an assignment, I feel that I learned a tremendous amount of information from Mr. McClung that will be helpful for my future career.

Project #13 - SMARTboard

Project 12

Project 11

Blog Post 8

This is How we Dream Parts 1 and 2 By: Richard Miller, After watching this video I have a different view of dreams. I was not sure what to expect before viewing this video but I will say I was very pleased after watching it. I enjoyed it very much. I think it is a very important time to engage in the tools provided to communicate globally like Dr. Miller states. Although we do carry around our laptops and use the word documents to type, I feel that we must still keep and enforce the importance of using pen and paper. The internet provides us with amazing facts instantly at the click of a mouse, and can be saved and stored forever while paper copies are often easily misplaced or thrown out. I feel that this is true but with proper organization we can save our copies.
I feel that I am prepared somewhat to write with multimedia but I also stand strong to using the basics as well. The web can provide us with fast information and I think it is amazing. I of course will embrace this tool and use it but as a future educator I also want my students to have the knowledge and ability to search for information through a library on their own.
I think my students will be able to do this, slowly they will gain knowledge on it. I think it will take time for them to be able to search while learning and stay on task of their assignment verses searching for pleasure. I want to encourage and support my students with information of how to use this while still providing them with the knowledge of using the basic research searching tools in a library.

Blog Post 12 by Carly Pugh
I really enjoyed Carly Pugh's blog post. This post allowed her to truly let everyone see her creative mind! By creating an assignment of ten videos using YouTube creating what kind of teacher she wants to be, which is an inspiring teacher. Carly adds several clips from YouTube that are examples of the way she feels towards specific topics. I think she fulfill Dr. Miller's hopes for writing in multimedia, she incorporates so much from the internet as her examples. By doing this she is portraying a sense that the web offers fun, different ways to get your teaching points across to your viewers. I must say I agree with Carly's closing thoughts of videos. I also feel that they provide a fun learning tool for students and adults. I have enjoyed doing many projects preparing myself as a future educator.

The Chipper's Series and
EDM310 for Dummies
Ideas for videos I would like to create are videos that can help students or viewers better understand an assignment or lesson. Giving them better ideas to go off of before starting a lesson. The primary message of Chipper is to not put things off until the last minute, to be on top of things, not waiting until the very last second of a deadline date. Everyone has a busy schedule but finding ways to keep it all in order without being on crunch time. We must be ready to learn and be willing to put the time into it all. You cannot put a time limit on it, to learn you must be ready in the beginning to put whatever it takes into learning.
In EDM310 for Dummies it is showing that this class can be frustrating. We must be patient and ask for help or use the tools provided to seek answers. Following the directions given will allow you to actually be able to learn from the assignment given. This class can be great by staying focused and on task.

Learn to change, Change to Learn
I feel education should be just as affective for children as the outside sources are. Children learn outside of the classroom through the tools they use in technology. As educators we should recognize and incorporate the tools that interest kids into our classrooms. This could create a positive learning environment for learning. I agree with this video, students learn everywhere all day. By using outside forces in the classroom it can open doors and minds to great new things! This video is an awesome video for an impact on educators! Thank you Christie for finding and sharing this with everyone.

Blog Post 7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture"
Before I began watching this lecture I must admit I was a bit nervous about the time limit of viewing it for an hour. After viewing this lecture I can now admit that I did not even look at the time and minutes remaining once. I found this lecture extremely interesting and inspiring. I found it to be interesting knowing his health situation is beyond inspiring. He gave me a feeling that nothing is impossible. As as a child he was a very happy young boy, who had dreams that most young boys share.

Experience is what you get what when you don't get what you wanted. Having experience is key to learning and growing. We learn through indirect learning, we want our kids to learn the details to the main task. By convincing people sometimes it works best to show them. The Aladdin project is what changed Randy, opening his eyes into situations with real people and putting artist and engineers together.

He created building virtual worlds, he wants to take your childhood dreams and find a way to make them come to life. Sharing what you know can be a great success for not only you but others as well. It can create excitement and eagerness to learn! Putting everyone together, not separating can create an amazing positive atmosphere with great results.

Being able to put on a show, creates excitment, involving the audience really attracts all viewers. Fulfilling dreams is an amazing thing to aspire to do. It is okay to do things differently than others. Finding what works best for you is key. I truly enjoyed viewing Randy Pausch's lecture, I feel that I have gained inspiration to follow my dreams and help my future students follow and achieve theirs as well!

Project 9b

My PLN Post 1

My Symbaloo
For my PLN I used symbaloo. Symbaloo really helped me add my favorite websites in a quick and easy fashion. Some of my websites include facebook, target, BCBG, and Nike. My PLN is very simple and plain right now but I plan to keep exploring and building to it!

C4T Summary 2

YouTube for Teachers
In this blog post Doug Peterson shares his thoughts and feelings on the importance of incorporating YouTube into the classroom. He gives a very helpful clip showing a presentation on a science experiment. He provides information to everyone that YouTube is actually blocked from many school districts computers. Many people feel that it is a distraction or causes problems in a classroom, and that it is something that is not needed. Doug shares that it is in fact a great learning tool to get students attention by viewing an interesting, exciting clip before learning out of a textbook. He shares a clip on how to teach a class how to use the technique of bubble sorting. By sharing this clip with students they may be able to understand the concept as a whole much better.

In my response to Doug I shared with him my feelings of importance in using YouTube in a classroom as well. I completely agree with Mr. Peterson on this topic. I personally have used YouTube throughout my career as a student not only in college but in middle school and high school as well. I shared with him how I have used YouTube clips in many of my powerpoint presentations over the past few years. I also told him I have ideas as a future educator of using certain Dr. Suess clips, or anything that involves the topic in which I am about to start teaching. I feel that beginning a lesson with a YouTube clip pertaining to the topic, can open a fun, positive, learning environment for your classroom.

OTR Links
In this post Doug Peterson is sharing with everyone a networking community involving information about education. It is a site in which you can share ideas, knowledge, questions, and basically any thoughts on education with other members sharing the same interest as you! This tool allows educators to provide helpful tips to others and also find ways to better their personal technology needs. This site has topics already being discussed, you click on them and can view the discussions taking place. In each topic you can comment, or if you would like to start a new topic you can make a new comment for others to view and communicate on!

In my response to Doug, I felt that this could be a very helpful guiding tool for myself personally as a future educator. I feel that I am always searching for answers or help with extra information on many topics in which I am learning or exploring. I feel that this is a very positive tool allowing learners to navigate their way to seeking their questions or opening a new idea to everyone to think about and discuss. I feel that it not only creates answers but it also allows your mind to keep exploring new tasks!

C4K Summary

My first child I was assigned to was Ilaivana, in her blog post she was explaining how well her schools team finished in competing in the New Zealand Aims Tournament by the Rugby 7s team. I shared with her my personal thoughts of not knowing what this tournament actually was until reading her entire post. I truly feel that it was a great activity for her school to compete in and would also be great for other children at other schools as well. This tournament was a week long event, I feel that participating in an event such as this one can help kids learn the importance of working together as a team when necessary. I shared with her how I feel that it is an awesome accomplishment for her school to have traveled and defeated everyone by winning all 12 games and bringing home the winning cup.
My second child I was assigned to was a little boy named Damien. Damien is a very talented young man, he provided his readers with that statement in the beginning of his post and I must say I strongly agree with him. Damien and his classmates created a video for the MTV Challenge. I was very impressed and amazed with the quality and amount of technology applied in these students video. It was shear entertainment and beyond enjoying to view. The choice of music in which Damien and his classmates chose to use was great, it created a positive, upbeat level of energy for the viewers and the performers. They showed the different ways to "jump" changing background sceneries, using different people, and creating illusions with the camera. These students truly did a fantastic job with creating this activity.
My third student I was assigned to was a little bog named Byron. I truly enjoyed reading Byron's blog. Byron and his classmates went the extra mile while doing assignments and took the time to look inside themselves for answers. I strongly feel, and I also expressed this to Byron, that if more people took the time to do this the world would be a much better place. Byron did a project in which he and his classmates has to describe themselves with as many different words you can think of. I personally feel that this activity is brilliant, it creates a positive environment and helps increase self esteem. I truly was engaged and interested in learning and reading all of my assigned students blogs and posts. I feel that by doing activities such as these helps me as a future educator see that children really enjoy certain exercises, if it works find other activities similar to the ones in which the majority of your students excelled in!