Blog Post #6

Dr. Strange proposed the question, "What did you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?". Below are the links to the video conversations between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps.

Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a Third Grade Teacher
Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a Third Grade TeacheriCurio
Discovery Education
The Anthony-Strange List of Tips for Teachers Part 1
Don't Teach Tech-Use it
Additional Thought About Lessons

I learned so much from listening to the conversations between Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps. It was amazing to me the amount of technological knowledge that Mr. Capp's 3rd graders had. I really felt like his students are on the same level as EDM310. School has changed so much since I was in third grade 14 years ago. We did not have as many awesome resources. The style of teaching have also been improved. Things like iMovie, iCurio, and Discovery Education are so fascinating to me. I really wish we would have had those resources when I was in 3rd grade. At first I was against using technology in classrooms, because that is not how I grew up. My outlook on that has done a complete 360.

I really enjoyed "The List of Tips for Teachers". I learned so much from just that video alone. I learned that to be a successful teacher, you must always be a learner. Through out your teaching career you will learn many new things. I also learned that being flexible is also a very important thing as teacher. Things aren't always going to go as planned, you will have to think on your feet and improvise. Getting kids engaged is also a good thing to do as a teacher. You want your kids to be involved. When they are involved, chances are that they are going to take so much more away from the lessons. The last thing that Mr. Capp's said that really stuck out to me is "teaching is hard work, but it's so exciting and rewarding".

I did like the videos about project based learning. I will use project based learning in my classroom, but if one of students are stuck on something, and they have tried everything they can think of, I will guide them to the correct answer. I will never just outright give them the answer, but some students need to be talked through a process. I like the concept of project based learning, but I do feel like it is a little harsh. Like I said, some students need some help walking through a problem or a question.

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Project #8 -Book Trailor

The Napping House By: Audrey and Don Wood

C4K Summary for September

In Rebekah's blog post, she was talking about how drugs will change the way your brain functions. She also talks about how people use drugs to make them look cool. One think Rebekah said that really stood out to me was "drugs don't choose people, people choose drugs". This is a really good outlook for someone who is as young as she is. She is obviously very smart for her age. I commented and said, "It was a very sad situation when someone makes bad choices when they choose to take drugs". I agreed with everything that Rebekah had to say about drug use. It is very sad when people think that choosing to do drugs makes them look cool.

In Ethan's blog post, he was talking about how his class will be using technology for their classwork this year. He seemed super excited that he did not have to go home and do homework to turn in the next day, he had to do everything on his laptop. He also said that they will be using things like Twitter and Skype to communicate with other classes all over the world. I commented and told him that is how our college class worked. We used our laptop for everything. I told him about our "no paper out, and no paper in" motto. He seemed pretty excited about using only technology in his class.

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence Is...


My Passion Is...

Project #3

Blog #5

Personal Learning Networks or PLN's are networks that we as students can use to help find information. Not only can we use search engines and websites, but we can use other individuals. We can use things like Blogger and Twitter to communicate with others who also have interest in the same particular subject. After watching A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment, I really started thinking about just how many PLN's are actually available to us.

After reading Eva Buyuksimkesyan's My Wonderful PLN, it is very important to teachers to have a PLN. As a teacher, you need someone who understands you and what you do for a living. You need a PLN who is supportive and empathetic as Buyuksimkesyan says in her blog. PLN's can help a teacher do more research on any particular thing. This is a good thing because your sources will expand.

You can form PLN's anyway you want. After watching Michael Fawcett discussing his PLN, I learned all about forming and creating a PLN. The most important thing is you don't always have to meet face-to-face with your PLN. You can use things like Blogger, Twitter and Skype to communicate. A network is there to be supportive. You need to create your PLN with supportive people who are interested in the same thing you are.

I am a college student who is majoring in Elementary Education. As I become a teacher, I will want to fill my PLN with other teachers. The first additions to my PLN will be other teachers. I can do this by following them on Twitter or Blogger. I have already started following Dr. Strange and a few other professors on Twitter. I believe that they are the first additions to my ever growing PLN.

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Project #4 C4T Summary

Mr. Grover's post about Jamila Lyiscott explaining her 3 ways to speak English was a definite eye opener. She shared that just because you speak a different language or use a different dialect does not make you foreign. After watching this video, I started to really think about the power of words. There are so many nationalities in our country. People may sometimes look at others with a strange look because they do no speak exactly the same as they do. I believe that Mr. Grover's post was meant to really open the eyes of his readers. We should be more open to different languages and dialects.

Mr. Grover's next post was about actually interacting with someone, instead of being buried in your cell phone. This is something that most of us are guilty of every day. There is no telling how many precious moments I miss because I am paying more attention to my technology. I learned from this post that you should put it down from time to time and actually talk to or spend time with someone. You might actually learn something new.

Project #15

Search Engines

1. Dogpile is almost identical to Google. You can use this search engine to search anything you can think of. It has it set up so you can search the web, images, videos or news. It is very user friendly. You just type in what you are looking for it pulls up all relating websites.

2.Ask is almost identical to Google as well. You just type in what you want to search for and it responds with websites relating to it. You can search for almost anything. The way it is laid out is very easy to use. It is very fast. I almost like it as much as I like using Google.

3. Duck Duck Go is very similar to Google, Ask, and Dogpile. To me, it is not very good as far as providing great relating websites. The home page is very useful to use. You just type in what you want to search. You can use it to search anything you desire. I really didn't enjoy using this search engine.

4.Bing is useful for looking up or researching things. It brings up many different relating websites to your search. It also suggest things to you to search. To me, this search engine is too busy. It might be distracting for someone who is trying research one particular subject.

5.Clusty searches other search engines for you. It is very useful. When you search one particular subject it brings up information that is clustered into groups. You can pick which group you want. I loved this, because you can go right to what you are looking for without scrolling and scrolling until you find what you want. I definitely recommend this search engine to anyone.

6.Webopedia is used to search the meaning of terms, and how they relate to technology. You type in your term and it brings up how it is related to technology. It is pretty neat for all those people who are not technologically savy. I would definitely use this search engine if I needed to know something about technology.

7.Mahalo is said to be a "human-powered" search engine. This means that a committee of editors manually look through content. With this, you get fewer results from your search. After exploring this search engine, it realized it was very hard to use. It seemed to me that whatever you searched for, you got a YouTube video about it. It did not seem very reliable to me. I would not suggest this site to anyone.

8.WolframAlpha is very similar to Google. You just type in what you are researching and it immediately gives you results. I really liked this search engine because you can search for anything, and it gives you all the facts about it. It is very user friendly. I had never heard of this search engine before, but I will definitely be using it more often.

Phot Source:www.kaushik.net

Blog #4

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

They are just questions, what is the big deal? I was totally wrong when I thought that after reading the question for the first time. After looking into some of the sources Dr. Strange left for us to look at, I had a totally different outlook on questions, and how to ask them. I knew there were different kind of questions like open ended and close ended questions, but after watching Asking better questions in the classroom, I learned it was all about how you wanted the student to answer the question. Did you want their answer to simply be a "yes" or a "no", or did you want them to really think about their answer and elaborate?

After reading The right way to ask questions in the classroom I learned that you should ask very specific questions. You should do this especially when you are trying see if your class really understands the subject. I took away from this article that you do not want to ask you class if they understand. Chances are that they are going to answer "yes", so you will just keep moving along. I really want my future class to understand what I am talking about. In order to make sure that my class is understanding, I want to make sure every student in my class gets the chance to answer a question. I would do this by asking everyone a question in random order.

I believe that we also need to know how to ask better questions. I got great insight from reading Three ways to ask better questions. You should really prepare your questions. Have them ready to ask before you start class. You should know exactly how you want to word them, so you are not stumbling around when trying to ask them. You should also "play around" with a question. Ask it at the beginning of class, and ask you students to just think about it while you are teaching. At the end of class get some of your students to answer it. The last thing is to preserve a good question. If one of your students ask a really good question, answer it and jot it down. Save it, and ask it later.

I believe that asking questions is very vital in someone's education. You want to make sure they are understanding you and that they are actually taking something away from your teaching. You also want to make sure that they are paying attention to you. If they cannot answer a question they are either not listening or just do not understand it. In that case you should try a different way of teaching it to help this student understand.

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Blog #3

After watching the What is Peer Editing? video and looking at the Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, I realized I may have been doing it wrong all along. I learned a lot about the way peer editing should be done. I should first compliment my peer and let them know what I like about their paper. I should then suggest some corrections to be made. While doing all of this, the most important thing to do is to stay positive. After all, I would not want anyone to be hateful to be about my mistakes.

The Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes video was so cute! I really enjoyed it. The one thing I really took away from this video was not to be so picky or mean when I am peer editing. You are only there to give suggestions and you should always stay positive! It is very important not to make your peer feel bad about themselves or their work.

Photo source: friskey.horseworld.se