Sunday, September 30, 2012

C4K Summary for September

Summary of Emanuelle's Blog
Emanuelle's blog was very interesting to me and I must admit I was amazed by the whole thing. Emanuelle is a 5th Grader in room 14 at Pt. England School and his teacher is Miss Ouano. The blog had many interesting colors and there were a few stories that he wrote about a character named Dan. Dan seemed to be a very interesting person and I look forward to reading more about his adventures. I liked the blog and I can learn so much just from reading it as much as possible. The most recent blog post was a story about Dan wanting to get out of the house because his parents were fighting so he talked his sisters into taking a walk to the school. I can't wait to see what Dan, and his big sister, are going to be up to next.

Summary of Ata's blog 
Ata is a 5 year student at Pt England School. Ata's whole blog was kind of similar to Emanuelles's blog in the way that they were both very creative and had many ideas. Ata did a great job of expressing her ideas and putting them all into stories. I liked her story about the Paralympics and the way that she was so excited about trying something new. I told Ata that I hope she enjoyed her day just as much as I enjoyed reading all of her stories on her blog. I wish I could be that creative and put it all down in writing.

Blog Post #5

The iSchool initiative
Travis Allen really got me interested in his idea about iSchool and the many positives about the use of it. Budget cuts are being made in schools and classes are getting bigger. His idea of using one touch screen is one of the best things I've ever heard. Technology does belong and it can replace all of the papers, scanners, and even pencils used in a classroom. There are many ways that iSchool can help teach a class in any subject taught in school. World Wiki can tell you anything about the world and can show you any country at the touch of a screen. The math was the most interesting to me because students use so much money every year on scientific calculators and books. I liked his arguments about iSchool a lot and I think every school around the world should really look into it. This device could help teachers learn new ways to teach their students in ways that they wouldn't be able to without it. I love the idea of saving money anytime possible and comparing 600 dollars to 150 dollars, there's just no comparison.
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
I am amazed by this video. Knowing that none of these people have ever performed together is just mind blowing to me. People from many different places being able to make such beautiful music is something that makes the internet just so much better. The internet is just so much more than just researching stuff and looking for new games to play, it is also a way to make wonderful things to happen. This video was very inspiring to me and anyone that watches it will be just as interested as I was.
Picture from Pc Rentals
Teaching in the 21st Century
Roberts feels that teaching is changing in many ways. The main way it's changing, of course, is because technology seems to offer so many things at the click of a button that teachers just can't. Yes a cell phone, google, and computers can give you all of the information that you need but it's not teaching you. A teacher still has a high priority of showing a student why and how things are the way they are. A computer can't get hands on and show examples in real life in the way that a teacher can. A teacher has to validate and communicate with the students so that they learn and understand what they have looked up on their use of technology. This will affect educators in a way that just makes their job easier but still very important.
Flipped Classrooms
I think these ideas of teaching can become very useful. Why I Flipped My Classroom made many helpful points that really got me on board with this way of getting all of the students on the same page. Recording lectures and sending them to the students is a great way to have everyone prepared before they even step foot into the classroom. The students that are ahead of the class can just watch the lecture and be fine. The students that are struggling can stop and pause anytime that it is needed. When students are able to self pace, the learning should come so much easier. I want to use this in my classroom to make everyone happy and give them a chance to know all of the material ahead of time.

This Is My Sentence

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Blog Post #4

Podcasting With First Graders This blog made an overall good point that everyone enjoys being heard. The students were all so excited to record their stories and they were so interested in the lesson that they didn't even realize they were doing school work. Anytime a student is interested in an activity, is a good thing. Podcasting can be a great way to get quiet students more involved in the classroom. I never thought of podcasting as a learning experience but now I think it is an intelligent way to teach. I loved the way that the students that weren't being recorded at the time just sat at their desks quietly waiting on their turn to go back and be recorded. Listening Comprehension-Podcasting
Hearing is a very valuable tool that is needed to learn new things. You can learn just from watching but being able to hear is a huge part of understanding. Hearing things over and over in many different ways is an easier way to learn. Practicing the use of words is also very important in helping teach new languages. This post talked about putting a feeling to a word and I really liked that. Recording things and letting students hear them in different ways is the only way to learn new things. Podcasting can even teach someone to really pay attention to something that would have never gotten their attention otherwise.
The benefits of Podcasting in the classroom
One major benefit of podcasting is that learning doesn't have to take place just in a classroom. The teacher can reach his/her students no matter where they are around the world. The students can learn the lesson anytime anywhere. Another major benefit is that while learning and watching the students can stop or pause the lecture anytime they would like to take notes and such. Using the computer is way more fun than just sitting in a class listening to a boring lecture for hours. Another major benefit is that students can still learning when they are sick and can't get out of bed. The work will always be just a couple of clicks away. After watching all of these videos, and reading post about podcasting, I see a new way to learn and teach and it is just as effective, if not more, than conventional classrooms.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

C4T #1

Summarization of Karl Fisch's blog
I commented on Karl Fisch's "The Fischbowl." His blog was about an interview on a "Glee" star and how it had so much to do with his view on the world. He talked about how she knew she wanted to be a star but she also knew it was best for her to go to school and learn as much as she possibly could. Fisch was inspired by her story and wanted to use Benoist's ideas in his algebra class. My comment on Karl Fisch's blog
I liked how Fisch used this interview as a way to be better prepared to teach his algebra class. I told Fisch that all of his points made sense and how you never stop learning. Gaining new knowledge everyday is the best way to be successful in life. You can always use the new stuff that you've learned in a different aspect of your life. Summarization of Karl Fisch's Connected Learners at AHS
Fisch's second blog that I got to read was very interesting to me in the way that I didn't realize some things were still an issue in the world. The blog was about how he was trying to get enough funding for his school so every student could have access to their own laptop. He wanted them to have access rather it was just in the classroom or one that they could take home. He explained how funding was an issue, of course, and that he lived in an area where some students just couldn't afford their own. He brought this issue to his administration's attention and they agreed. Now their are programs in their school where certain classes need a laptop. They are trying to stress that money would not be lost in buying a laptop because the student could use it all four years. My comment on Connected Learners at AHS
This whole blog was very informative to me. I didn't realize that there were still places in the world that doesn't have computers in every classroom. I agreed that computers can be a great teaching tool for the students and every student should have access to one in order to learn new things. Money is always an issue with these things and there's only so much a teacher can do. I also agreed that funding would not be lost in the purchase of a laptop because it would be used far beyond school. Technology is a thing of the future and it is now a part of life.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Blog Post #3

Blog Post #3
Part 1
I learned that there a more than one way to comment on someones blogs. There are specific rules to follow in order to be a successful commenter. The number one rule that all three of the videos said was to make suggestions. The whole point in commenting is to help the blogger get better. If you don't make suggestions, they will never make progress. You should always make sure you add compliments too so you don't seem rude. You really want to be helpful so you must tell them what you really think and there are right ways and wrong ways to do that. Editing a peers work can and should be fun. Make sure you are polite in your wording and not like the mean girl in the video that pretty much told the other girl that her writing sucked. You must always care about what you're doing in order to help another person. Part 2
(A) Technology hasn't just affected the way that the world works but it has also made learning easier for students that are less fortunate. This video was awesome because I was able to see how people that can't really communicate like everyone else learn. The students in the special education class in the video weren't really able to communicate with just paper. The computer was put in front of them and they could spell and say exactly what they were thinking. Chris in Technology In Special Education had a hard time communicating with his teacher until the computer was there to help. Sherae was another student that couldn't really just say what she wanted. This video really made me appreciate technology a lot more. I liked it before but now I see it is a lot more helpful that just being there to watch tv or listen to music. Sherae was a very intelligent girl that was able to show it whenever the key pad was put in front of her. This video taught me new things that I never realized before. (B) I could use the math bingo app that i found on Apple.Education.Apps.Com to help a child with special needs learn more easily. The game is a fun way to learn while counting and looking at pictures. It could help the students try to win the game while also learning to add and subtract. Students don't even realize they are gaining well needed knowledge while playing on a phone/computer.
Laptop
Part 3
This video did another great job of showing the many ways that technology is educating our young students today. It's educating everyone really. The main theme in the teacher's classroom was learning how to learn. The digital world that the kids were creating was teaching them new ways to see the world and how to create new things with their own creativity. Blogging is a lot more useful than I realized before this video. It is a way to communicate with people that you would have never communicated with otherwise. Students and teachers can share ideas on each other's blogs. All people can learn from blogging and other forms of communication, not just students in a classroom being taught by a teacher. Students sharing ideas with each other is a lot more affective than just listening to a teacher lecture for hours.

Wordle Project #2

Wordle
Wordle about me

http://www.wordle.net/delete?index=5716936&d=XWAN

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Blog Assignment #2

Did you know

   I think this video was very informing about the world around us. The statistic about the number of Chinese learning and knowing English was very intriguing to me. I think it's awesome how in the future there will be other countries with more English speakers than there will be in the United States. It all just seems so unreal. I never really realized how many people actually use the internet everyday.
   The number of YouTube users and Google users are insane. The world does revolve around technology now and you don't realize it until you see statistics that are real. It's crazy to me how every minute 48 hours are added to the YouTube collection. I honestly feel like more sms text are sent everyday because it seems to be the main way of communicating with others.
Did you know 

Mr. Winkle Wakes
   Mr. Winkle Wakes woke up one day a hundred years later and saw his world turned upside down. He was overwhelmed by the way that everything was ran by computers. The office that he went to where there were workers was strange to him. The workers talked to one another and printed things off with just a click of a button. When he started feeling sick he went to the hospital and also found it to be very strange. He saw the same type of computers and equipment that he saw at the business office.
    The hospital still couldn't help his sick feeling. Winkle then went to a school, a place that he seemed to recognize more than the others. He walked in and sat in a desk and listened to the teacher lecture to the student for hours and he didn't complain one time. He seemed to like the way the teacher spoke to the children and taught them new things. He saw a computer there full of dust and not working and that made his day. He really liked school and the way that the world was still learning new things.

  The Importance of Creativity
   Ken Robinson did a brilliant job of explaining his views on education and creativity. One of the opening statements that he made was my favorite. He talked about how he doesn't get how educators can educator children about the world years from now when educators themselves have no idea what the world will be like or look like. Creativity, to me also, is as important as literacy. If no one thought on their own about the world there would never be new inventions or ways of doing things.
    Kids are not afraid to be wrong and are ready to share what is on their mind because they are prepared to be original. I liked how Robinson thinks that we are educating our children out of the creativity that they were born with and that is not a good thing. He made a good point when he talked about children not being allowed to take classes that will not be used in their job field, and I have to agree that is stupid. How else will the world learn new things? Brilliant people really may not think they are smart simply because the classes they are in doesn't allow them to show their intelligence.

  A Day Made of Glass 2
This video showed the amazing ways that glass can be used. It pretty much showed how our world works in one video. Everything is always changing and that includes the way that our children learn and our teachers teach. The beginning it was just a touch screen and then it continued on to way more advanced things that I found to be really cool. Whenever I think about our world in the future it is something like that video. Everything will be touch screen and the way of teaching will be so much more fun. The way of learning will also be different and paper and pens will be a thing of ancient history. My favorite part of the video was when the children were learning their colors and all they had to do was drag one or more colors together and they saw what came out of it. The future will be so much more advanced than it is now and our children will be so much smarter which is definitely not a bad thing.