Thursday, February 27, 2014

Project #13 Lesson Plan

Befriend a President- Lesson Plan

In this week and a half project-based lesson plan, 5th grade students will obtain and share knowledge and information about a particular and interesting United States president that their group selected. There are five groups consisting of four classmates to a group. The objectives are to research, collaborate, share important information and create Google docs presentations. The groups will then present their presentations on the assigned day. Students are expected to use appropriate online tools including iQuiro and YouTube. Our driving question is: what were some of his most successful accomplishments during his presidency, as well as fun facts about his life?

Presidents

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Blog Post #7

I learned so much from watching Randy Pausch's video Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. He talks about dreams that we have as children. All of the dreams that he had as a child he went after in some sort of fashion. He talks about having brick walls get that get in the way, but he does not let them stop him. He says that the brick walls are there for the people who are not dedicated. This keeps the people who are serious and really want something separated from the people who give up. He talks about our dreams and how they need to be specific. This shows me that when dreams are specific there is a better chance for us to follow our dreams, and know how to go about following our dreams.

Randy then goes on to talk about setting the bar for students. He is saying that when we set the bar in our mind we are restricting the ability of the students. When students work hard on something they love to do, they will give their best. What we need to do is find where the bar is by letting the students show us. He talks about how his course does projects, and that is how they learn. This is project based learning, which is what we do in EDM310. They do not have books to read from, they work together to figure it out. He says the best way to teach children is by them having fun while they are learning something hard. If we do it this way the students will want to learn and be excited about learning.

He then goes on to talk about what lets you achieve your dream. It is all about your support system like your parents or mentors. This is important because as we grow up everything around us models and influences us. We have to be willing to accept help in order to get to where we want to go, and when we help other people then they will help us. He goes on to say that we need to have fun, and make it fun for our students. I love the end when he is saying that living your dreams is living your life, and we need to live our life the right way.
Albert Einstein

C4KSummary for February

C4KSummary from Luke

I had the privilege of reading Luke's blog post on Ms. Toals Class. Their class was learning to Skype with others to learn information. Luke was very informative in his blog post, and had very important details about sharks. I learned that 1,000,000,000 sharks die a year, and that some lip sticks are made from a shark's fin. I agreed with his teacher that I would check my lip stick the next time I buy some.

C4KSummary from Zoey

I had the opportunity to read Zoey's blog post on Kidblog. Her blog post was a survey question. Her question was "What would you do if you were locked your favorite department store overnight?". She wanted to be locked in Target and so did I. She wanted to do all kinds of things like eat ice cream, ride bikes, try on clothes, and ride a wave of movies, I thought that was funny. I would want do most of the same things Zoey would, especially trying on clothes.

C4KSummary from Michelle

I had the opportunity to read Michelle's blog post from Ms. Ruiz's 3rd period. Their English class is reading a book and they were supposed to talk about appropriate titles of the chapters. I really liked what she had to say. She was saying that when you finish a chapter you know why the chapter was give a specific title. I agree with her, titles always have something to do with the book or chapter you are reading.

C4KSummary from Michele

I had the opportunity to read Michele's blog post from Mrs. Long's Class. Her blog post was about young children, and how you have to constantly keep an eye on them. I completely agreed with her about this, and about how children have a lot of energy and are running all over the place. She gave some very good advice as to not turn your back on children, because you don't know what could happen.

I really enjoyed reading all of the C4K blog posts. I liked being able to see what different teachers are doing in their class rooms in all different grade levels.
BLOG

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Blog Post #6

We all need people in our lives to help and support us. A personal learning network is just that. In PLN you are able to connect with people who are in the same field of work as you are, and they are there to support and give you ideas. It works the other way as well, the people in your PLN ask you for ideas and support. How do we start our PLN? From the video PLN by Michael Fawcett, he talks about how to start your network. There are many different outlets that one can use to create their network. In Main Tools Used in PLN by Vicki Davis there are many different outlets to use in order to communicate. Examples are twitter, blogs, google docs, facebook, and photo sharing. Your network will not be large at the beginning, but over time you can add more and more people. To start off with you ask questions, and contribute to other conversations, then over time you network base will grow.

Having a personal learning network benefits you as a teacher in that you can get wonderful ideas from teachers all over the world. You can also tell other teachers about things that you have done in your classroom that are successful. Your network is also for support. If you are the only one in your school who is teaching with technology how can you get help? This is when you turn to your personal learning network.

After reading about PLN and watching videos it's time to start creating a PLN. Since I am a student I will have students in my PLN, but that will grow to educators as well once I get started. To create my PLN I will use twitter, my blog, and gmail in order to communicate. The first people I will add to my PLN will be the people who are in my group for EDM310. Then next step will be to add the lab assistance and then educators. In doing this I will be able to get feedback and help with any questions that I have, and I do the same to them.
world connected with computers

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Blog Post #5

There is so much information in the conversations It's Hard Work: A Day in the Life of a 3rd Grade Teacher, The Anthony - Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1, Project Based Learning Part 2, iCurio Anthony 070113, Discovery Ed Anthony070113, UseTech Don'tTeachIt Anthony070113, Additional Thought About Lessons Anthony 070113. In watching these conversations with Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps I have more interest in project based learning. It gives me more excitement in learning more about it. I am one of the students who wanted to teach the way I was taught. When I found out that things were changing I was very hesitant in project based learning, but now I look forward in learning how to use it myself. I like using creativity to create all kinds of things, and I can remember loving doing projects in elementary school. The projects were not like todays projects, but it gave me the opportunity to do something for myself. Listening to Anthony talk about his class and all of the projects they have done makes me look forward to doing it myself.

From watching these conversations I learned that children like to participate in project based learning. I was worried about have to teach kids how to use everything, but Anthony said that we do not need to teach technology. The question then is how do they learn then? Well, children learn technology faster than adults do, because it is the generation they grew up in. Our job is to introduce technology to children slowly. It is like a building block, children learn how to master tasks on the computer one step at a time. In the conversation about iCurio they talk about this search engine that allows children to look up information that is credible and safe for them to look at. I learned that you can save everything you search for as well as use other information that other people have searched for. This tool is good for any grade level and it seems like it would be easier to find good information that is usable. I also learned that teachers have to work hard and be creative in order to create projects that also fulfill the requirements that the students must meet before they go onto the next grade level.
Children

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Are there dumb questions? In reading The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom, Asking Questions to Improve Learning, Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom, and watching Asking better questions in the classroom, and Questioning Styles and Strategies I have come up with the conclusion that there are questions that make people feel dumb, or can insult their intelligence. I did not give this any thought at all until I started reading. I work at a daycare, and even at their young age I find teachers doing this, and I realize that I do it myself. The step to take after realizing that we ask simple minded questions is; to advance our thinking, so that we advance the thinking of our children.

Knowing about asking simple minded questions, how can I change and use questions to be an effective teacher? Well, first I need to talk with the children not at the children. No one, even young kids, likes to be talked at like they know nothing. When asking questions to the children I need to keep away from yes or no questions, because no real thought goes into them. When you call on a child's name and then ask a question no one else in the class is thinking about the question; they are simply thinking "I am glad it is not me". In order to prevent this we need to ask the question, then wait a few seconds to give the whole class a chance to think about it, and then call on someone to answer. It is also a good idea to call everyone in the classroom, instead of just the kids who raise their hands, this gives everyone a chance to be involved in the class discussion. A good example in how to do this is have a cup and put the children's names on popsicle sticks, and pull them when it is time for questions. When you have pulled someone's stick you put it in an empty cup, and start all over when everyone's name has been drawn. Some of my teacher's did this in high school and it kept everyone tuned into the teacher.

When students answer questions, another effective way to get them talking is to ask them to elaborate on their answers. When we do not get the elaborate answers that we want it's probably because we do not ask the right kind of questions. We need to ask questions that require a thought provoking answer. What kind of question is that? Well, it is a question that causes the student to think about their response, and it is up to them how they answer it. Dr. Chesley calls this an "open ended question" in her video Asking better questions in the classroom. All of the information given leaves me thinking about the questions that I ask, and the responses that they get. It shows that we need to think more before we say anything.
question marks

C4T summary #1

In David Warlick's blog Middle School 2014: A Future Fiction – Installment 4 he is writing installments to a book he is writing. He tells the story of a teacher named Mrs. Crabtree, who teaches a Biology 2 class. The students are given a project, and it is presentation day for the reptiles group. Before she allows the group to present she checks roll from her tablet. The students have name tags with a chip in them that allows the teachers to know who is in their class; that way they do not have to call out the roll. Mrs. Crabtree can also check assignments with her tablet, and see who has not turned them in. Before the group presents Mrs. Crabtree tells the students their new assignment, and explains where to find it. She then lets the group present.
Teacher Teaching

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Blog Post #3

Peer Editing is a very useful tool in editing a students work. In the videos Peer Editing, Tutorial Peer Editing, and Writing Peer Review (Peer Critique) TOP 10 Mistakes they cover many different ways to peer edit correctly. The first thing to remember when peer editing is that your peer is someone your age and in editing you make suggestions and comments. In the videos there are three steps to follow when peer editing, first you need to give compliments, second you need to give suggestions, third you need to give corrections. It is important to remember this order because you do not want to offend anyone while trying to help them.

There are different ways to let someone know about their mistakes. When you are helping someone, do not embarrass them by letting everyone else know their mistakes. When editing keep in mind that you are making suggestions, and telling them ways they could fix their mistakes, not forcing them do what you want. The decision is still up to your peer. Also when letting someone know that they have made a mistake, it is important to give them some way to fix that mistake. Peer editing could really help someone if it is done correctly and effectively.
Children Working Together