C4K #1

I was assigned to view a student named Adam's blog. He had a post about sharks. His class skyped with Sharky Gillian who gave them information about sharks. He thought it was stupid that people killed sharks for soup that might be toxic. He also had an interesting fact about how many humans are killed by sharks each year vs. how many sharks are killed by humans.

The comment I left on his blog was "I think it's really cool that your class gets to skype interesting people. I also enjoyed really reading the facts you put about sharks. It's sad that sharks are killed for pointless reasons. I really enjoyed reading your post."

I was assigned to view Elijah's blog post. The instructions said to respond to the survey. Some of the class posted surveys. Elijah had no posted a survey, but he had done their previous assignment, so I commented on that. The assignment was to say why they liked technology. Elijah said he like technology because he could play games and blog.

The comment I left on his blog was "My name is Mallory. I am a student at the University of South Alabama and I was assigned to view your blog. Those are really awesome reasons for why technology is great. I bet technology helps you do cool things when you get to play games and blog!!"

I was assigned to comment on Bojangles19's blog. This person did not have any posts, so I had to improvise and comment on adrianb4673's blog. The post was supposed to be a reflection of a 2013 memory. The post was about a night when Adrian went swimming with friends in cold weather and had a lot of fun.

My comment was, "I am en EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I was assigned to view your blog. This sounds like a really great night. I think that jumping in the pool must have been a lot of fun, but I bet it was super cold. That was a great memory to reflect on!"

I was assigned to comment on T_RAW's blog. T_RAW, however, did not have any words and only a picture so I had to comment on Pickle's blog instead. The blog was about a short story. The story was about threee kids who went to a scary house with a murderer.

My comment on the blog was, "My name is Mallory Harris. I am an EDM310 student at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your story. You had some really good descriptions. It was very scary. Good job!!"

BLOG POST #7

The driving question for this blog was, “What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?”

After watching Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, I learned that Pausch’s main points were his dreams, helping other people enabling their dreams, and what lets you get to accomplish your dreams.

Pausch had some very interesting points. The quotes that I took away from the video were, “it’s all about fundamentals,” “the brick walls are there to show how badly we want something,” “wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you,” and “the best gift an educator can give is to get someone to be self-reflective.”

I think those quotes are important because they are all qualities he talked about which can help me learn about teaching and helping others to learn. Sticking to the fundamentals will help keep me focused. The brick wall quote is important because it can help me realize to stay determined and to keep my students dedicated. The waiting quote is important because it reminds me to be patient. The last quote is important because it shows a goal that I can try to attain with my students.

BLOG POST #6

What are personal learning networks? How can they help you as a teacher? How are they formed? How can you create your own PLN? Who will be the first additions to your PLN?
Those are the driving questions for this week. Personal learning networks are what a teacher uses to stay connected. It is the group of people who are available to give teachers support or advice. They can help me as a teacher because I can have someone to go to for information who might have already been through certain situations. PLN's are formed through branching out by teachers. They happen when teachers stay connected. I created my own PLN on Symbaloo. The first additions to my own PLN will be my classmates. They will be my first additions because who better to ask questions to, than people going through the same experience.

This week taught me that I can depend on my own classmates for advice/support in my future classroom.

Project 8 Book Trailer

Cub's First Winter

MY SENTENECE VIDEOS

MY SENTENCE IS...



THIS IS MY PASSION...

Blog Post 5

The driving question for this blog post is, "What do you learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?"

The first video was Project based learning part 1. This video had some really unique points about project based learning. Anthony said his ideas were constantly evolving. This is a good way to look at P.B.L. because it helpe him to keep an open mind. He also said that P.B.L. can be used as a way of getting students to learn something.What I learned from the video was that it helps if the students have a good audience, keeps the students interested, and involves the community. I also learned that P.B.L. is driven by content. Anthony had his students write letters to their congressman which allowed for writing, reading, and social studies standards to be met for the ACCRS. His students used peer review to narrow down which letters to send. This is an example of how democracy is key to project based learning. It is so important because it gives opportunities to revise and reflect on their work. I thought it was very interesting getting to hear about an actual project he used in his class room. This video made me very excited to one day be able to do these things with my own class.

The second video was Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher . I learned that a smart way to introduce new tools in P.B.L. is having students do simple projects in order to get to learn how to use the tools for more complicated projects. Anthony had his students write a narrative script as if they were a child in Afghanistan. He then had them record the narration on imovie and pull pictures from icurio to use in their videos. The focus was broad because it really caught the student’s interests so he did not have to worry about choosing for them. One child even had to do an alternate science project,but it ended up being beneficial to the entire class. The parents were very impressed with the work of the 3rd graders. Anthony said that, "With project based learning you will always get more than you expect." He also said to never limit your students by giving them exactly what you want them to do. Another important thing I learned from this video was that Project based learning involves not just a method for you to evaluate students but a very powerful method by which students learn. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of work.I also learned that it is important to always take feedback from the kids in order to make future projects better.

The third video wasIcurio. Anthony explained that Icurio is an online tool that serves a few different purposes. It allows student to safely surf websites that have been filtered for educational purposes. It not only searches text, but audio and video as well. The students can use it themselves. I also learned that it has a storage capacity for students and teachers for information that they find valuable. This helps with virtual organization. It also has kid-friendly buttons. Anthony pointed out that it is also convenient for classroom bells and sudden changes because it allows students to save their spots and get back to what they were doing quickly. He said you can also search by criteria by key words. I learned that it is useful for all grade levels, even high-school.It has a read-aloud feature which would be good for difficult circumstances. I think that Icurio is a unique learning tool that I can't wait to use in my own classroom.

The fourth video wasDiscovery Education. When talking about Discovery Ed. Anthony said, "A pictures worth 1000 words so a video must be worth a million." After viewing the video, it seems he is definitely right. Discovery Ed. has lots of visual aids which takes students beyond pictures. It also allows teachers to bring experts into the classroom via video. It also has student searches to enrich research experiences and teachers can use it to bring texts to life. It can teach students that making videos can be useful to them. It Compares and contrasts reading to what they are viewing. All of these things sound like things I can use in my class room one day, expecially as an english teacher.

The fifth video was The Anthony - Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1. The first tip in this video was that to be a teacher, you’ve got to really be interested in learning yourself. Dr.Strange said,"If you’re not a learner, you will not be a successful educator. We have to ourselves constantly learn and we have to model that for other people." This stood out to me because it brought up a valid point that teachers really do need to be able to learn themselves. The next tip in the video was that teaching is hard and work is not separate from play. It meant that teachers are always thinking about new ways to improve their teaching even when they aren't technically at work. The idea is to let your work become a fun experience for you. Another important tip from the video was that surprises always happen. The best thing to do in this situation is to be flexible. Another important thing I learnd from this video was that when you start with an end goal and it doesn't look like what you wanted, be flexible and see if you can make it work. It is also important to get students engaged and to reflect. Always ask, "How can I change what I did to make it better?"

The sixth video was Don't Teach Tech - Use It. This video stated that technology is natural for children and you shouldn't teach it. The idea is that when you are designing projects, you incorporate more technology each time. Anthony called it “Scaffolding.” By using this method, it allows for students to learn and review the technology. It is also sharable and teaches them how to do new things.

The seventh video was Additional Thought About Lessons. In this video, Anthony said,"A lesson is at least 4 layers thick. But if it’s any more than 4 its miserable." He said the four things you have to think about as far as lessons go are how it fits in with your year, unit,week, and day.Each is part of what goes into making successful lessons.

These videos really taught me new things that I can hopefully use in my own class room.

ASKING QUESTIONS: WHAT QUESTIONS DO WE ASK? HOW DO WE ASK?

"Good questions make students think, they encourage participation and I think they improve the caliber of the answers students give and the questions they ask." This quote came from Maryellen Werimer in her blog Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom. The three main topics addressed in this blog were preparing questions, playing with questions, and preserving good questions. This blog said that preparing questions for your class is especially important because it keeps your questions on track and useful to your class. The playing with the question idea was basically saying that it is sometimes best to leave questions unanswered for a while in order to encourage students to think. Preserving good questions was about remembering what your students ask and encouraging them to continue asking questions. These methods seem like they would really keep students involved and thinking the whole time.

"When you prepare for class, office hours, and help sessions, compose specific questions that you will ask your students (or that you anticipate they will ask you). Doing so will help you increase student participation and encourage active learning." This quote came from Asking Questions to Improve Learning. This article had strategies for asking questions, instructions for how to respond to questions effectively, reasons to ask open questions, and how to refine questions. It had points for each of those questions that were interesting because it explained exactly why you should be doing those things. The main focus behind those objectives was to encourage more focus and thinking in the classroom.

To answer this week's driving question, "What Do We Need To Know About Asking Questions To Be An Effective Teacher?" I have looked into those articles above and come to the conclusion that in order to be an effective teacher, I need to be prepared with the questions I want to ask my class and that I need to always encourage my students to ask their own questions. By doing those two things, I should be able to keep my class thinking and engaged.

Project #3 Google Presentation

C4T SUMMARY #1

I have been assigned to view and comment on Ms.Dahl’s blog For The Love Of Teaching.

The first post I viewed was called How To Plan and Schedule Guided Reading Groups. This blog post was about the plan she has developed in order to put her students in reading groups. Her plan included determining the students reading levels, scheduling the meeting times for the groups, and working the stations around the teacher table. She had pictures of the process to show the actual steps she took.

What I learned from this first post and a summary of the comment I left for this post would be that it is important to think about the individual needs of the children in your classroom. She took the time to assess each of their reading levels in order to work with them on their own level. She also thought about events that were currently going on in her school before planning out each groups’s reading time. I think that was a great way to create reading groups in the classroom.

The second post I viewed by Ms. Dahl was called Thinking Across Content - Good Mathematics Poster. This post was about the language used in a classroom to encourage deep thinking from students. Her steps to do this were knowing the language of learning, actively using the language, how much time will it take to use the language, and the use of the language posters.

What I learned from this post and a summary of my comment for this post would be that I had never thought to encourage my students through the use of this language, but it seems like a good idea because it would help students to understand more as I am teaching. I think that by learning this language of learning that I could really help my students in the long run.

I really enjoyed reading Ms. Dahl’s blog posts because they opened my eyes to new techniques. It was also very informative and had great use of visuals.