Blog Post #5 - Final Part

Here is an update on my PLN that I have worked on. I have used both Symbaloo and Twitter the most. I have found both to be extremely useful, but I think I will use Twitter the most in the future out of the two and I think I will begin working on my PLN in Google+. This has been inspired by Mr. Sheninger, my C4T for November, who I found by using my PLN on Twitter.

C4T Summary for November

My C4T for this month has been Mr. Sheninger. He is a principal at a high school who has written books and even given a TEDx Talk. I was looking around on my PLN on Twitter and found that he had a very interesting blog. I decided I would comment on his blog posts for this month.

The first blog post I commented on was The Place to Be. This blog post was about finding a good school system for his children to go to school in. It circulated around the need to find a school that encourages 21st Century thinking and where change is willing to happen. Not only is the school system tech savy, but they promote the arts as well to expand their creativity. He is eager to get to working with the staff at the school to help further improve their school.
I thought this post was very interesting. I also thought it was cool that the students got to have the experiences of dancing and all of the technical aspects that expand the creativeness of the mind.

The second blog post I commented on was Stop Ignoring Google+. Mr. Sheninger wrote about the different components of Google+ and, to my surprise, Google+ seems to be the better option to Twitter. There are multiple plus-sides to Google+, including being able to message with more ease and being able to post something to a particular group, or circle, or to the entire Google+ universe.
I think I liked this one better than the previous one. This post inspired me to go to Google+ and explore it to my heart's delight. There seems to be a wealth of opportunities available through using Google+. I am very glad I came upon Mr. Sheninger's blog and I am eager to read more of his posts in the future. I urge you to do the same.

Blog Post #14

For this blog post, my class was assigned to read an article titled Teaching Our Children Can Be a Profession by Joel Klein. I found this article to be very interesting and informative. This article is about some of the changes that need to happen in public schools. The three points that are talked about in this article that we have been assigned for this week are to have the best academic training for prospective teachers with a system to choose the best teachers, have a system of job security that isn't based on seniority, and making radical changes to the system concerning privileges.

On the matter of prospective teachers, Klein stresses the importance of good, quality programs in colleges that teach the future teachers. I think this is very important and necessary because I know I want to be an effective and fun teacher. The system that Klein suggests says that there needs to be a more rigorous system of recruiting new teachers. He quotes Sandra Feldman who says that there needs to be a system in place where the top third of the graduates would be selected to work. I think this is a really good idea and allows for all children to have good, quality teachers.

I agree with Klein on the seniority issue. I think that if there is a circumstance where teachers needs to be cut, then it would make more sense to keep the newer teachers that are effective and entertaining, and cut the teachers that may have been there for longer, but are incompetent. Furthermore, I do think it would be good if there were a pay difference depending on how effectively they teach. This would be a good as a motivation tool for the incompetent teachers to step up their game to become a more effective teacher. By giving the effective teachers more of a pay check, it would be a reward for their good work.

Klein writes about having teachers take specialty exams to gain promotions. I think this is an interesting tool and I would think that there are probably evaluations as well. This would be an effective tool to use in schools. I think it is very interesting that they would restrict the number of teachers that get college aids in their classroom. This makes a lot of sense, and it would give the future teachers the best models and teachers to learn from.

I agree with everything that Klein has written in this article. I definitely agree that the system does need to change. This would be a great path to ensure that our children are getting the very best education that is accessible through the public school system. This education system has not changed much in the past 100+ years. It is high time for the system to catch up with the times and prepare students for the future.

C4K Summary for November

The first C4K I completed for November was on Peyton's Blog. This post was a Declaration of Independence from having a dress code at school. It was written very well and gave supporting examples. It was written very professionally. There were quite a few people who had signed it along with Peyton. I commented about how much I liked it. I also said that I have attended schools that have had a dress code and those which did not. I added that I much preferred wearing outfits that I pick out myself more. After that, I wished Peyton the best of luck on the rest of the school year.

My second C4K was Amira. The post that I commented on was about Thanksgiving. She talked about what it was, why we celebrate it and how we celebrate it in this day in age. It was a nice simple little post but it was written pretty well. She had a couple of minor punctuation errors, which I mentioned in my comment to her. In her post, she said that a lot of people eat turkey and potatoes among other things for Thanksgiving. I replied that I really enjoy turkey and sweet potatoes especially. She used emojis in her post and I told her I really enjoyed those a lot. At the end of my comment I wished her good luck.

My third and final C4K was Reyna. Her post was on Mod2. She said it was pretty easy but she did have a couple of complications with the last two. She said that she messed up counting the rows and making sure her boxes were big enough. She said that she will have to make sure she is more attentive to that next time. I commented saying that a chart can be difficult to read sometimes and that I used to have difficulty with it as well. I encouraged her to keep on figuring out ways to solve these problems because they will help her in her future. I did mention a couple of errors I found in her post, but it wasn't too bed.

The C4K's I have done this semester have been a learning experience for me. I am very glad I got the experience to comment on these children's blogs and help them in any way I was able to.

Blog Post #13

For this blog post, the assignment was to write on something that I had not gotten to write about yet. I was reading an article earlier from Edutopia, Empathy and Research: Engaging Parents With Tech Initiatives, which is about helping parents see the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom more fully. This topic seems to be very valid and important. There are many people who are hesitant about technology, partially because they do not quite fully understand how their children will be using it and how it will be useful to them. They may also feel like they don't know how to help their children improve. Many teachers may ask the question "How do I get parents more involved?" This post will discuss these further using a few sources: Empathy and Research: Engaging Parents With Tech Initiatives, Old School or New School, Keep Parents Involved, Blended Learning in the Mix: The Informed Parent, and Engaging Parents: An Elementary Teacher's Field Guide.

The first source I found was Empathy and Research: Engaging Parents With Tech Initiatives. This article is about parents' closure to technology becoming involved into the classroom. Some parents get the feeling that they are "out of the loop". They do not know how to help their children improve if they do not know what the teacher thinks each child needs to work on. I can definitely see the concern. They want to see the red markings on the page and get the teacher feedback in that regard. However, by using technology, teachers have all of their students work compiled and it is easier to see the data. Also, teachers can sometimes use technological terms that parents do not understand. For the most part, if a parent can express all of their concerns to their child's teacher, these issues can be addressed. When I am a teacher, I want there to be good communication between myself and the parents. I will use some of the techniques that I will discuss shortly.

The second source I found was Old School or New School, Keep Parents Involved, which is about keeping parents involved in the classroom. There are many ways that teachers connect with parents: agendas, flyers, test folders, phone calls, parents in classrooms, class website, ClassDojo, and Remind.

Some ways that are kind of "old school" can be modified to be more "new school". Agendas are useful because they can serve two purposes. They can be used to write down assignments, as well as notes from the teacher to the parents, upcoming events, minor problems that their child caused during the day, or if their child was well behaved. Flyers can be used to give parents ways to get in contact with the teacher. In addition to that, it can contain important websites to the class. This flyer can be printed and sent home with each student, given to the parents at back-to-school night, and/or attached to the class blog as well. Test folders can be very helpful. These allow parents to be aware of the progress of their children and get feedback from teachers. Phone calls are a very important mode of communication. A teacher should not only call parents for bad behavior, but for good behavior as well. A parent who hears the teacher saying positive things about their child will be more inclined to be involved in the classroom. Having parents in classrooms is another great way to get parents involved. They can be a part of the classroom physically and/or virtually. Students can write a persuasive letter to their parents on their blog, which their parents can reply to on the blog. It would be a fun way to get busy parents involved. They can also be involved by coming to see their children perform or present something. They love to see their children shine and it will also motivate the children to do well.

The rest of these ways to get parents more involved are more "new school" in nature. Having a class website is a great idea to keep the parents updated on classroom happenings. This way, all of the information that parents could need, such as calendar of events, contact information, plan for the week, photos of class activities, and good educational activity websites. I had not heard of ClassDojo or Remind before I read this article, but they both seem like very helpful applications. ClassDojo is an application that allows teachers to send weekly behavioral reports to the parents. It keeps them updated and keeps track of the students' behavior in one place. Remind is an application that allows the teacher to be in touch with the parents without having each others phone numbers. This app is used to inform parents on when tests are, events that are occurring, as well as early dismissals.

Lastly, one thing that I really got from Engaging Parents: An Elementary Teacher's Field Guide was that parents don't really care about your past experiences with teaching, where you went to school or how qualified you are. They really care that you care for their children and they will be loved. This is an important aspect that will determine how involved the parents are going to be.

I really enjoyed all of these articles. I learned a lot from doing this blog post assignment and I am very glad I got the opportunity to research how to keep parents a big part of the education of their children and help them become more comfortable with technology. I hope this blog post is useful to anyone who reads it.

Project #12b

SMARTBoard Lesson Plan

Blog Post #12

All of these presentations deal with technology that can help the blind. I hope you enjoy!

Mountbatten Brailler
by Natalie Thomson



Teaching Math to the Blind
by Patrick Rhodes



iPad Usage for the Blind
by Hannah Armstrong

Project #10 - Interview Video

Interview with Mrs. Haywood

C4T #3 - Summary of Posts and Comments

My third C4T assignment was Dr. McCaleb, or Doc Horse Tales. To view his blog, it can be viewed here.

Dr. McCaleb's first post that I commented on was The Reality of Transformations. This post talks about the question if you edit something, is it still considered authentic. He took a picture of a sunrise and edited it in iPhoto. He took another picture of the same sunrise from a slightly different location and left it unedited. He went on to ask if a painting, for example Van Gough's haystack, is real. Why or why not? These two questions were very thought provoking. The comment I left answered these questions and his other questions on this post. I said that both pictures are real, but they are different perspectives of the same thing. The edited picture is probably a closer representation of the sunrise seen in person with the human eye. However, the second picture is a real picture taken with a camera. The camera captured the colors and lighting that it could. It adjusted to the light of the sunrise, making the other aspects of the picture darker. Both are real, but different. Same thing with the haystack. There is an actual haystack, but Van Gough's haystack series is an interpretation of it. It doesn't make it not real. It is just another way to look at it.

Dr. McCaleb's second post that I commented on was Engagement with Home. This post makes a connection with the challenges in The Odyssey and the challenges with a intense class. He also references Odysseus' search for home throughout The Odyssey. He tied it to his search for home in his life and how the idea of "home" has changed for him. My comment on his post made the connection in my own words. I compared the challenges and search for home in The Odyssey to the challenges and search for home in everyone's lives. I know my "home" has changed considerably throughout my life because I have moved so much in my life. I know now where I enjoy being the best and it isn't just the house I live in. It is the area, the city, the feeling that I have connected to a place. I will always have a connection to Beaverton, OR. I will always have a connection to Lakewood, CO. I will always have a connection to Fairhope, AL. I think that where ever I end up living, I will make it my temporary home and see where I end up next.

Project 14

Group 6 -- Hannah Armstrong, Patrick Rhodes and I -- did the Project #14 PBL lesson plan revolving around the growth of plants for a 3rd grade class. I hope you enjoy.

PBL Lesson Outline

PBL Week Plan

PBL Group Rubric

PBL Individual Rubric

Blog Post #11

The question for this week's blog post is "What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?"

The first video was a TEDxTalk from Denver presented by Brian Crosby, which can be viewed here. During this video, I learned that learning is messy sometimes. We all make mistakes and that is how we learn. Without mistakes, I don't think that we wouldn't be able to learn as effectively. A great way to learn from other students from around the world is through blogs. Without this system, being able to communicate with children around the world wouldn't be as possible. Another way that technology is extremely beneficial is being able to accommodate for children who cannot attend class. One of Mr. Crosby's students had leukemia. Because of her inability to attend class, she had to be enrolled into a school, but she would be doing home studies. Mr. Crosby did not like that idea at all. He used Skype (or another tool like that) so she was able to participate in class without being presently there. I really liked that. Mr. Crosby is giving those children opportunities that they are new to. This class for them can help them achieve goals in their lives that they couldn't dream of achieving beforehand.

The second video was an introduction to blended learning by Paul Andersen, which can be viewed here. I really liked what he said about engaging students with the 5 E's. The teacher starts with an engaging question. Students can then explore the topic. Then, the teacher explains the phenomenon. After that comes the expanding of learning. Finally, there is the evaluation. When a teacher pairs this with the "compelling parts of online, mobile, and classroom learning and blending them together", the teacher has a great structure for a blended learning lesson plan. This will make learning more enjoyable and engaging for the students. Another way to structure the blended learning cycle is through QUIVERS: Question, Investigation/inquiry, Video, Elaboration, Review, and Summary Quiz. I really liked what Mr, Andersen did with the data from his experiments. His students put their data in a Google Spreadsheet to compile all of the data. I thought that was a really great idea. This way, someone can view all of the results at the same time easily. I will definitely be using QUIVERS in my classroom of elementary students, whereas he will continue on with his AP science class.

The third video was a look into Mark Church's classroom on a lesson about making headlines, which can be viewed above the comments section here. This was an interesting project. The students worked collaboratively to summarize the main idea into a simple "headline". This assignment required specific thinking to work together and bounce ideas off of each other. This project requires creativity of a specific nature. It's more intellectually creative than artistic creative. This would be a fun little project to do.

In the fourth video, Sam Pane was teaching a lesson on internet safety to his 5th graders, which can be viewed here. The way he taught the lesson was very interactive. The students created comic books with heroes that made sure that people were being safe and respectful on the internet. This lesson really showed that the students understood what it meant to be safe when they were on the internet. This lesson translates to real world situations really well when students are on the internet.

The fifth video was about project based learning in a high school, which can be viewed here. Three teachers -- a history teacher, an english teacher, and an information processing teacher -- came together to incorporate the three subjects together to create a project based learning class. They had to get special permission to do so from the administration from their school. With this structure, students could learn more, dive deeper into their knowledge and learn more fully to apply that knowledge. These students are going beyond what is required in their curriculum and they are loving it. They are proud of their work. I want my students to feel that way and I will incorporate PBL into my classroom.

The final video was about project based learning in the elementary classroom, which can be viewed here. This way of learning is more in depth and students really get to understand what is being taught. Also, because of all of the presenting in front of the class, it takes away any fear of public speaking. On top of that, the students make a lot of their own choices on how to do things. This creates a sense of ownership when they are doing a project. I think this is great. By doing this, it will help me learn to lay back a little bit and urging the students and asking them questions more to dive deeper in their knowledge. If they do not know it, then they will learn to look it up themselves. I think learning 21st century skills is a fantastic idea because it teaches them to be prepared for the real world.