Blog Post 10

1. I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga.



After looking at this cartoon from John T. Spencer's blog, Adventures in Pencil Integration, I was a little lost. I had no idea what it meant. So, I went to his blog and read the comments to see if I could find my answer. Sure enough, the last comment was from Mr. Spencer himself explaining that is was a mock of "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" commercials. Again, I was still lost. Thanks to DVR, I don't watch a lot of commercials. Luckily for me I went to YouTube and found this video of "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" commercials. Now, finally I get it. I Guess I was having a PC kind of day (slow). The cartoon is comparing a PC to a papermate pencil, they are cheap, but if they are always breaking, what good are they? The cartoon is also comparing the Ticonderoga brand pencil to a Mac. It is a better quality and lasts longer. Personally, I prefer Ticonderoga pencils, and I'm beginning to strongly dislike my PC. I just wish a Mac was as affordable as a Ticonderoga pencil. Oh well, we can always dream!

2. Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?

John Spencer's post, Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?, is about a teacher that gets called into the principals office because he was caught playing games with his students in the classroom. The teacher tries to explain that they were not just playing a game, they were drawing, reading, and learning. The principal is only concerned with the students passing a memorization test and wants the teacher to focus on memorization skills.
Personally, I believe that students are more likely to actually learn material when they have hand on experiences. Playing learning games and participating in activities will increase the likelihood of students not only learning , but retaining the information. Often, information that is only memorized, goes into our short term memory and is soon forgotten.
After spending some time looking around John Spencer's blog, Adventures in Pencil Interrogation, I also decided to include his post entitled, Are Pencils Making Us Narcissistic? in my post. In this post, Tom's principal warns him that using pen pal networks may make the students narcissistic. Tom argues that, "self-centeredness is a social and psychological rather than a technological issue". Tom also suggests to his principal that they should get rid of the school mirrors if narcissism is a concern. The fact is, students need to be taught how to correctly use technology so that it is not all about them. They need to learn how to use technology in a manner that helps others and not just as a way to "toot their own horn" on social networks. John writes in the last sentence of his post, "The issue isn't the technology we use, but the tone of voice that matters". This is such a profound statement. People often fear technology, but the fact is, it doesn't matter what technology you are using, but the manner in which you choose to use it.

3. Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please!

Dr. Scott McLeod is one of the nation’s leading academic experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues. He is also serving as the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency 8 in Iowa. Dr McLeod has has received many national awards for his technology leadership work.
I completely agree with Dr. McLeod's position in his post entitled, Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?. If we are not teaching our kids this technology they will be left behind, because somewhere someone is teaching them this stuff. I mentioned in my comment to Dr. McLeod that cheating, bullying, and porn have been around long before technology and will continue to exist with or without it. We can not use these excuses to keep our children from advancing. We have to teach them how to use technology correctly so they can move forward with the rest of the world.

Project 14- Smart Board

Project 11- Short Movie

Book Trailer

Blog Post 9

What I have learned this year volume 4

Joe McClung began his teaching career in the fall of 2009. At the end of each year he writes a reflection post on his blog. He reflects on the lessons he has learned as a teacher. His end of the year reflection for 2011-2012 was different from the posts he had written in the previous years. Joe McClung's fourth end of the year reflection was entitled, What I Learned This Year Volume 4.
He begins by discussing how he struggled to define himself as a teacher. He worries about how his peers view him as an educator. After worrying for the majority of the school year over this matter, Mr. McClung finally comes to the realization that he can not be concerned with how his peers view him. The most important thing to consider is, are the students having fun, and are they learning.
I think it is human nature to worry about how our peers view us. No matter how hard we try, it is impossible to please everybody. As educators our worry should not be weather or not our fellow teachers like us. That doesn't define who we are or how well we are doing our job. What does matter is the kids; are they learning, are they enjoying what they are doing? If we can answer yes to those questions, then we should have no doubt weather or not we are doing a good job.
Next, Mr. McClung talks about challenging yourself. After three years of being at the same school and teaching the same subjects, he worries that he is loosing his creativity because he continues to revert to his old lesson plans. He goes on to say that this has taught him a lesson that when we become to comfortable, we can become lazy. Mr. McClung accepted an offer to teach a different subject and a different grade for the following school year.
I think it easy for us to get stuck in a monotonous routine. We can easily loose our creativity by repeating the same thing day after day and year after year. If we are board with the lessons we are presenting, how can we expect our students to stay engaged? If we don't get an opportunity to change grade levels like Mr. McClung, we must force ourselves to come up with new lessons so our students don't suffer.

What I have learned this year (2008-2009)

For the next part of this assignment I chose to read Joe McClung's first reflective blog post, What I've Learned This Year. Mr. McClung points out some interesting things that he learned in his first year of teaching. I think these are some important lessons to keep in mind when entering your first year of teaching. The First lesson was, How to read the crowd. Mr. McClung pointed out that he was so concerned with how his superiors saw him, that he wasn't focusing on how he was delivering his lessons to his students. The most important part of being an educator is getting through to your students. I think your superiors will respect you and see your abilities as long as you concentrate on the student and not worry about the way others are viewing you.
The next lesson he outlined was, be flexible. Mr. McClung admits that in the beginning of the school year he was concerned with presenting the "perfect" lesson. As a teacher you have to be in control, but you can not always control the way the lesson will go. Teaching is kind of like a play; it's a live performance, and while you may have a script, it's not always going to go the way you planned. And that's okay! We are learning too, and when something doesn't work, change it.
Third, communicate. It's important to build relationships with your coworker. Just as we are learning to collaborate in edm310, it's important to continue that practice when we enter the teaching field. We can learn new things from our fellow teachers as long as we open up the lines of communication.
The fourth lesson from Mr. McClung's post was, be reasonable. Teachers begin the year with high expectations for their students, and while it is important to have certain expectations from your students, you have to remember they are children. Keep your expectations responsible and when they fail to meet them, pick them up and help get them back on track.
Fifth, don't be afraid of technology. Technology shouldn't be something we fear. We should embrace it, use it, and learn from it. As a society we are often afraid of the unknown. Among adults, technology is one of those unknowns we tend to fear. It is important to remember that our students fear a world where technology doesn't exist. If we are using technology in our classroom, then we have created an environment that is friendly and familiar to our students.
Sixth, listen to your students. Mr. McClung gives an example of an answer he received from an end of the year survey he gave his students. When asked, "I know my teacher cares about me as a person when he", the student answered, " Listens to what I say". So many adults don't listen to what children say; they are really missing out too. Often children have significant things to say, and too many adults tune children out. Even if it's not very meaningful to us, it means something to them or they wouldn't say it. It's important for children to know somebody cares enough about them to listen to what they have to say.
Lastly, never stop learning. This could also possibly be the most important lesson. One thing that really stuck out to me that Mr. McClung said here was, "We work in a learning environment, so why not soak up as much as you can? We owe it to our students". We are educators and we should lead by example. Our students will be more open to continuing their learning experience if they see us continuing ours. We should never get to a point where we think we have learned all there is to know. We live in a world where technology and information is changing daily. There is always something new to learn or something we can expand on.

C4T 2

C4T #2

Dear Authors,
My school has one iPad in the library, along with several iPods for kids to check out. The iPad is reserved for teachers to use with their students, and we have the accessories so that it can be hooked up to an LCD projector (in all of our classrooms) or the computer.Here’s my issue. Our PTO gave us some funds to buy children’s books and apps for the iPad and iPods. However, to populate those and get teachers to begin to use them, and kids to want to check out the iPods for something other than games, the books on there need to be high quality and intriguing to both the readers and the instructors. I really want to use this tool to introduce teachers to some amazing books and new authors instead of the same ones we already know. I HAUNT book apps online for bargains for cheap books. I subscribe to every single online place I can find that offers kindle books at a discount from time to time. I have just spent several hours trying to find cheap e-books to put on this iPad for kids and teachers to discover and experience good books. I AM a bargain shopper.But very few of you have cheap books out there…and by cheap I mean $2 or $3 ones. I guarantee if you have just ONE of your really good books selling as cheap Kindle book, people will buy it, and more people will get to know you as an author! Ask Amazon to feature it in their daily Kindle deals. The majority of the books I currently have on our iPad are newer authors I am discovering and recommending…and that means some of my favorites are losing out. I would love for my teachers to be able to use some of the books I love and some of their favorites with an iPad, showing it on the LCD projector. If you haven’t seen a picture book done this way, you are missing a great new way to share picture books with kids! Please consider changing the price of at least one Kindle adaptation of a really good book you wrote to $2 or $3 so that people can discover you anew…I have to say if I have a bound copy of your book, I won’t pay full price for an e-book. But if I can share one of your books cheaply, my kids will go home and talk about it and then the parents may buy several of your books for the home iPad. We teachers would love your support of education in this way.
Sincerely,
Paula White

Paula, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in EDM310. I haven’t become a teacher yet so I cant really relate to you. Even though I haven’t become one yet I can Totally see where your coming from though. I, myself am a bargain shopper and do not want to pay 15 or 20 dollars for a book for me much less buying a kids book. In my class room I will encourage to read, read, read but i do not want to pay 20 dollars for a book that they might not even pick up. Thank for this great word!

March 8, 2013
This post was by Ira Socol and she talked about the "yeah but response":
The "yeah but" response sounds like this, "I know this teacher is a problem, but she's really nice and she's been here a long time." Or this, "I know I should learn that, but its just easier to do what I've always done." Or this, "You know, you're right but we can't make our teachers uncomfortable." Or this, "Well, we're really trying to work on this, and he is trying to change a little."

My response:
Hello my name is Chelsea Strong and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. Although I am not a teacher yet I completely understand everything you are talking about. When I was in high school I heard teachers talking all the time about non sense stuff. Thanks for this post is changed me.

Blog Post 8

1. This Is How We Dream
How We Dream Part 1, Richard E. Miller discuses the incremental changes in writing with multimedia. Mr. Miller stated that we are experiencing the greatest change in human communication, in human history. Mr. Miller is primarily talking about books and news articles, but the way we communicate on a daily basis has also changed drastically. I remember when leaving your house for the day meant not communicating with anyone that was not in the car with you. Now you can stay connected with the world all from a device that can fit in the palm of your hand.
Additionally, Mr. Miller discusses the ability to research right from the web. Before all of the advancements with the internet you could spend hours at the library looking up books and going through the pages searching for valuable information. Now, you can do all the research you need right from your own computer. Mr. Miller stated that a print document will eventually make its way to the trash, but a web document will be available forever. Within a matter of seconds anyone can find any information they need right from their own home. People can collaborate using networking, text, image, video, and sound. With all of these advancements, the way we read, write, and learn has changed drastically.



Part 2
Finally, in part 2 of This is How we Dream, Mr. Miller discusses the fundamental changes that are involved in writing with multimedia. Mr. Miller said, "ideas don't belong to us individually, but they belong to us as a culture". I thought this was a profound statement simply because, what good is an idea or knowledge if we keep it to ourselves and do not share it with the world. We, as educators are responsible for sharing our ideas and knowledge. Otherwise, we can not and will not grow. It's up to us to publish our ideas to the web so that it will be available to the world. We can easily compose with the web to produce different versions of information that already exists and make it appealing to a different audience.

2. Carly's Post
I think Carly's blog post 12 was exactly what Richard Miller was disusing in his video's This is How We Dream. Carly's assignment idea was to have her students create a YouTube play list that contained video's that would help and inspire them as teachers. Carly not only used text in her post, but she used video's to help get her message across. I think this is precisely what Mr. Miller had in mind when he disused the changes in communication. Carly did a fabulous job with her assignment and I think she has a very good understanding of how to mix text, image, video, and sound.

3. EDM 310 Videos
I loved The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies. The Chipper Series is a great example of what can happen in life if we try to take short cuts or find an easy way out. Chipper started off on the wrong foot by not keeping up with her assignments and she lost control once she got behind. EDM310 for Dummies is a great example of what it can feel like if you do not know what's going on and get behind. Everything can become overwhelming if you procrastinate and let everything pile up on you. The moral of these videos is, don't procrastinate and do your research so you will know what's going on. Additionally, if I had the opportunity to create or participate in a video for EDM310, I would probably want to make one on creating a podcast and utilizing the green screen. Now that I have done it, it doesn't seem so bad, but going into it I have to admit I was terrified.


4. Learn to Change, Change to Learn
I couldn't agree more with the points made in the video Learn to Change, Change to Learn. Schools and classrooms need to change the way they are teaching children. The video mentioned that students have a more stimulating environment outside of school. The reason for this is because many school systems have banned the use of networking and other technology in the classroom. Students today are not going to respond to the same methods that used to work ten years or even five years ago. Teachers also need to be equipped with the tools and connections to teach their students to make global connections. Teachers and students are still working within a system that is mostly concerned with standardized testing; when in fact,in the 21 century they need to be concerned with how to find information, how to validate it, communicate it, collaborate it, and problem solve with it. If students are not being stimulated in the class room they are going to tune out and they will be forever lost. We have to change the way students are being taught in the classroom.


5. Scavenger Hunt 2.0
This assignment was suggested by Justin Cometti in the fall semester of 2011 in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. Like mentioned previously in this post, he also had to come up with an assignment, like Carly's. Justin came up with the Scavenger Hunt 2.0 . In this assignment, we were given 5 things to look for, but were to only choose 3 assignments to do on our post. I first, located Edmodo.com . It is a website that is much like Twitter or Facebook, but for students and teachers to interact with one another. This is a great tool for the classroom. It is a space where students and teachers can communicate back and forth. It is especially useful for parents, too. The parents will be able to see some, if not most, of the work performed by their children online.
I created a poll at pollyeverywhere.com
What is your favorite holiday?
This poll is stopped and not accepting responses. If you created this poll, start the poll, then refresh this page.

PLN

I chose Symbaloo to create my PLN. I have added our EDM310 class blog along with my blog to my PLN. I think it will take an adjusting period to get used to using my PLN but I look forward to learning from it and I plan on adding more sites as I find them. I have included a screen shot of my PLN on Symbaloo.

Blog Post 7

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dream

After watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, I honestly wasn't sure exactly what the lesson in this video was. After pondering over it for a couple of days I still wasn't clear. I decided I needed to watch the video again. After watching the video for the second time I realized the whole video was a "head fake" but, not the "head fake" Randy Pausch mentions in the end. Randy Pausch describes a "head fake" as information we learn indirectly. We learn best when we don't even realize we are learning. I think the reason for this is because we are more open minded when we think we are being entertained and not educated. I hope I can adapt the "head fake" method in my classroom so my students will become educated while being entertained and engaged.
The next lesson I took away from the video was, perseverance. Randy Pausch said, "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things". All too often, when people hit a "brick wall" they call it quits and walk away from their dreams or goals. Some one with enough perseverance will find a way through any "brick wall". As educators it is our job to make sure all students succeed. Sometimes you may encounter a student that doesn't care, your "brick wall". Our job as educators is to find a way to get through to that student to make sure he/she never gives up. We have to help them develop perseverance.
Something else Randy Pausch mentioned was the importance of self reflection. I believe self reflection is important because, when we can look at ourselves and see the areas where we have grown and also see what we can improve on, then we can and will succeed. We need to teach our students took look at their work and see where they went wrong and how it could have been better. This will help them long after they graduate.
Here is some more advice from Randy Pausch that I felt was worth mentioning; learn from our students, have fun, never loose our child-like wonder, help others, and never give up. Randy Pausch wants us to believe that the "head fake" in his last lecture was, "How to lead your life". I think it was about the legacy of his life.

C4K Feb

C4K #3: Zion wrote in his blog today that In the holiday his cousin and him went to the park and they played rugby. His cousin brought his friend. His cousin got 3 tries . Then they went and played at the park and he played on the swings. Responded: Hello Zion my name is Chelsea Strong and I am in College at the University of South Alabama in Mobile Alabama. I enjoy Reading your blog post. You write very well! The Holidays are my favorite time of the year. I have never played rugby before. Sounds very interesting and I think I will try it out on day. I also love the park and swinging. I like to go really high. Keep up the good work!!

Podcast

"Teach Like Your Hair Is On Fire" BY: Rafe Esquith