C4T#4

Kathy Cassidy
Primary Preoccupation has been developed by a grade one teacher, Kathy Cassidy. This week her classroom developed a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) day. This day was very successful and based on her children's enthusiasm, she knew that they would have to do it again. Mrs. Cassidy, mentioned that one half to two thirds of her class has a nintendo DS. I'll have to admit, I had know idea that this device supported educational apps. Four of my nieces and nephews own a nintendo ds. I ignorantly assumed that all you could do with it is play video games. Fifteen or so years ago the first handheld nintendo, was predominantly video games. I don't recall ever seeing an educational game for it. As hard as it is to admit, nintendo and other gaming brands, are trying to educate our children's future.
Mrs. Cassidy's students were each able to use their own DS, log into a private chatroom, and learn spelling or math lessons. Over all this experiment has been a success and tunes in to student's hobbies. This increases interest and, I would say, improves understanding of the concept.

One lucky teacher in Canada, Ms. Kathy Cassidy recently won a $20,000 spending spree from Best Buy! The contest was for her to purchase technology for the classroom. In doing so, she purchased iPads for every student in the class. Now, I don't no about you, but being 1:1 with any device, let alone an iPad, is a huge deal. This grade one teacher in Canada already had a few apps for the students to learn. One of them being Letter Reflex. This apps allows students having difficulties with the letters such as b's and d's or p's and q's another form of interactive practice. They also learned how to take pictures for a special project that they are doing with another class. Ms. Cassidy commented that her favorite comment from the day was "I guess we really like the iPads". I would say that is a definite understatement.

Blog Post #13

Twenty-four hours without technology might seem like an everyday issue but for others, well, they would rather have a stroke then put their iPhone down for fifteen minutes let alone twenty-four hours. I must admit that I was never able to go the full twenty-four hours without technology, as required for this assignment. However, the problems that I faced were work and school related. Being self-employed I couldn't let my phone sit idol. The instructions did allow phones for work purposes but I would rather have been able to commit 100% regardless. The second issue that I faced is that it is finals time. Keeping up with classes is a must have during the end of the semester. Other than these two slip ups, I did well. No radio, on the drive the school. No TV during down times. Perhaps I will try this assignment at a later date. I almost feel like it would be somewhat relaxing to be able to turn off every form of technology and focus on yourself and the others around you.
I was intrigued by this assignment, so I did a Google search on other peoples no technology projects. This was one article that I found relatively interesting and I wanted to share this with all of you. A college student did an Amish Project with no cell phone, email or social media for 90 days. His story really makes you think about all of the ways that we no longer communicate with people and how we only communicate with people.

Project #13

For project 15 and project 16 it was very important for us to say in contact with one another. We began by emailing, then we met at the lab to bounce ideas off one another. We had a difficult time coming up with, what we thought, would be the best topic for our project. Once we decided on a topic, often times we found flaws. So, we would switch to something else. We found that texting was the fastest method for an immediate response. It is quick and easy to send then the other person can respond whenever they have a chance. Instead of meeting at the lab, we used Skype for one of our conference sessions. It was a little tricky since we couldn't all look at the same computer screen but we made it work. Above all, I would say that we used a variety of communication methods in order to work together.

Final Report on PLN

My personal learning network is slowing increasing, although not too much has changed. I have begun to fill up my Symbaloo as well as my network of Twitter users. I spend a lot of time on Edmodo, I haven't been approved as a teacher yet, so I can't comment but I can still view what others have added to their pages. I also visit Pinterest on a regular basis, to get new ideas for projects and classroom activities. I also still remain in contact with a few educators that I know locally. So far I would say that my PLN is moving right along.

This is my Sentence Project 6

Blog Post #15

Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts - Special Post #12A.

1.) I believe that schools in the United States are inhibiting the curiosity and creativity of students. Schools are trying to use innovative ways of teaching but its not allowing the students to use their creativity. In a way the schools are still being led by the old school way of teaching. This is a problem.
2.) From my point of view, I'm not even sure how to stimulate a child's curiosity. My experience maxes out with my toddler who is still curious about everything. Getting a 5th grader to become curious about math or learning plant and animal cells, well I just am at a blank. There are the old tricks that simply don't work such as pretending that you, the teacher, is interested but kids are smarter now: they know better.
3.) I absolutely think that a teacher's actions can increase the curiosity of students. What are these actions? Well, honestly, answering these questions makes me feel ill prepared for running a classroom. I hope that between now and then, I find some amazing mentors. I think that the best way, is for the students to teach each other. If teachers give them access to all of the tools they need plus whatever they may come up with, teachers could stay up-to-date on what kids are using for technology. Plus, the students are now learning about technology and using it to teach their peers.
4.)I feel like a creative person already. I must admit that I would better with physical objects and mixed media but technology is slowing working its way up there. Teachers and schools could help with the creative process by searching for a new and improved way to keep everyone informed. Students often have an immediate question that simply can not wait until morning. What about assigning students to be "on call" for homework help? That would encourage students to work together and give one more way to students to learn the material.

Progress Report on Final Project

Our group shuffled through several ideas before we came to, what we think, is the best one. We have been meeting at the lab, emailing and texting for a couple of weeks, pulling our ideas into one. Since EDM310 is a technology class, we think that it is important to get, first hand what teachers are lacking in the classroom. By interviewing students, teachers and parents we can hear their thoughts and better prepare ourselves for what we, as educators, are about to walk into following this class. Classrooms are well equipped with computers, Smartboards and even iPads but what else can we do to help the parents stay connected to the class? Are we utilizing these products to the best of our ability to teach our students? Do teachers have knowledge on these products that are provided for them to use?

Blog Post #12

I am an elementary/special education major and my original goal for this assignment was to show how technology could be used even in a special education classroom at an early age. As soon as I read this assignment, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. For a couple of weeks now, I have been working on Smartboard lessons for my daughter. She now has numbers, shapes, animals and the alphabet. Each one allows her to interact with the lesson via the Smartboard by drawing out the shape, number or letter. The animal one allows her to click on the picture of the animal and hear its sound as well as see the name of the animal. As I practiced and practiced with her to make sure she knew all of the animals before we made the video, I made one mistake: we never practiced on the Smartboard. This afternoon we took our trip to the lab to show off how smart she is. Everything she had learned prior to this trip was erased. Her fascination of the Smartboard took over and she found it necessary to learn how to use the pens and eraser. I must admit, I have learned first hand that a lesson will never go the way it is planned. This incident forced me to take a new direction with my assignment. Did I mention that my daughter is not even two yet and she was capable of learning how to use the pens and eraser within a matter of minutes. Had we spent a day or two on what I had planned for us to do, I know she would have master it. I realize that teaching a toddler to use a Smartboard is not the same as teaching special education but for some students, their attention span and mental capacity is similar.
My assignment is to share a lesson in your area(special education/elementary education) to the Smart Exchange. Students learn from one another and I feel that it is important for teachers to do so as well. By sharing lessons to the Smart Exchange we are helping our community of colleagues.

Directions
1.) Watch these videos on Special Education and Technology for Special Education. I also suggest watching this video on a the day of a special education teacher. Think about how technology could help her in her everyday teaching and lessons.
2.) Create a lesson that would be used to teach special education students using the Smartboard.
3.) Sign into SmartExchange or signup if you haven't already done so.
4.) Click on Share a resource.
5.) Upload your lesson to the appropriate location.
6.) After sharing to the Exchange, please include a link on your blog so that others can find your lesson.
7.) Also, leave summary explaining why you chose this particular lesson to share.

My SmartExchange Lesson
I chose to share a lesson on animals to the Exchange. My thought behind this was to teach simple animal sounds for a special education class that my not yet be distinguishable. If you notice that some slides are not animals- I know. I wanted to mix in some things that were not living to inspire creativity of the children. When you ask a child "what sound a balloon makes?" or "what sound a banana makes?" it will stimulate the brain to come up with what sound a balloon really does make. I think that at such a young age, like my toddler, the attention span is hard to control, so I mix it up a bit.

C4K#-April

Megan
Not Your Blog, My Blog has been produced by Megan. Her first post was about her favorite animals and subjects. She has a love for animals and insects as well as science. Hopefully, the Blogging Challenge will give her some motivation about blogging and we will see many posts from her in the future.
Megan
This week Megan has posted about how excited she is for her upcoming spring break. Its great to see her enthusiasm. I commented to ask if she had any exciting plans for the week so we'll see what she has to say.
Jake
I received a different student this week, Jake. This week Jake, posted about pollution. Many people are unaware of the pollution problems that we face today, he noted about the amount of gasoline that we consume and the damage it does to the air. Jake is very knowledgeable on the subject of pollution. I mentioned a few things that we were doing around the house such as recycling, composting and shopping local. I asked if they were doing anything to help, so we will see what his response is.
Mubashshir
Room 9 @ Pt. England School is the main site for Mubashshir's class. This week it was his turn to blog and he chose to do an animation. During Mubashshir's presentation he told us a little about himself. He enjoys reading and he also hopes to be a great swimmer. I suggested that make a book trailer about his favorite book since he enjoys reading and animation.

Blog Post #11

I love how Ms. Cassidy incorporates technology into the classroom. Honestly, I would like to use technology in every way she does.  The first thing that I would like to include in my class is blogging. As many of the children said, it helps them write better. In my ideal classroom, I would have a class blog website. It would include my blog and an individual blog page for each student. The children's parents and the rest of the community could see all the great things that we are doing in my classroom. I have also, begun to play with the idea of a QR code. Qurify is a simple way to add just text. There are other sites that will allow you to link to a website or your class blog. I have tons of ideas of how we could use this for class but I'll save that for another post.

As I stated earlier, I see the techniques Ms. Cassidy uses to be very beneficial to her classroom. For this reason, I think it would be beneficial to my classroom. I already discussed this a bit, but blogging helps children write better. I expect students to work hard, but I don't expect them to be perfect. Blogging allows children to get positive feedback. Their parents, peers, or I could say how they could have written the sentence better. The techniques Ms. Cassidy uses also teach valuable life skills, like sharing, communication, and collaboration.

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?
After watching this video, Do You Teach or Do You Educate?,  I can see that there is a big difference between being a teacher and being an educator. I fully intend on being an educator. This video compares and contrasts a teacher and an educator. It talks about the teacher first and gives a few simple definitions: to show or explain how to do something, encourage someone to accept as a fact or principle, give information about or instruction in, cause someone to learn or understand something, and to induce by example or punishment to do or not do something.  I plan on leading my students to their future and do everything within me to help them succeed not only in the classroom but also in their lives. Educators are people that you can trust and confide in and I want my students to see me in that light. I want my future students to know that with the power of knowledge they can achieve anything. I want my future students to know that even if no one else believes in them, I will be there to support them. The way that I see it is, I will be a stepping stone for my students. My job as an educator is to help my students succeed in life so they may help me in life as well, because like they all say our children are our future. 
Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home
This post, "Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home", was entertaining, yet it is sad to know that this stuff really happens. Gertrude, the "School Curriculum Instructional Interventionist Academic Specialist" storms into Tom's classroom ranting about PENCILS. How we go about doing that is where things get fun. Not all students can just come in and listen to you lecture and understand, but everybody has a way to learn. It might be tough at first to figure it out but once they do things start clicking and they feel good about themselves and want to continue learning. It is important that we keep our students entertained while teaching them. I believe it’s time for teachers, parents, and administrators to stop viewing technology as a source of distraction. We must realize that in our society of ever evolving technology, it will be and already is a norm in our classrooms.

Blog Post #9

Mr. Joe McClung
After reading his first post "What I've learned this year" (2008-2009), I couldn't help but read the next two,"What I've learned this year" (2009-2010) and "What I've learned this year" (2010-2011). It was such a great idea for him to reflect on the past year and share all of the knowledge that he has gained from the experience. One particular thing that I will definitely steal, is to find a "schoolmom". I know that in my first few years I am going to need a lot of guidance. Mr. Joe Mcclung began his first year as an elementary teacher. Quickly moving up, he began his second year as a jr. high  teacher. He commented on changing his teaching style to match the jr. high way of thinking. Many teachers may not think about such thing but it is a good thing to do. McClung mentioned that teachers don't need to hold high expectations for their students, they just need to keep encouraging them. Another point he made was "Don't Be Afraid Of Technology." Technology is here to stay and don't be afraid using it. An important lesson to adopt is to "Listen To Your Students." He says to listen to your students and take interest in their lives. Finally, McClung says he learned was "Never Stop Learning." He says to never stop being open to learning new things. There was one thing that I feel that I am really going to have to work on when I begin teaching- "Don't Expect Others To Be As Excited About Change As You Are." McClung talks about how to not expect your students to be as excited about the changes as you are. Don't let that influence you and keep teaching. I really enjoyed his blog post and plan on following his words of advice when I start teaching.

C4T#3

Guhlin
Around the corner is an interesting blog supporting the Texas TEE. Guhlin makes a very compelling argument about "Glamornormous" which Guhlin defines as an enormous project, full of glamour; an exorbitantly expensive project--usually involving some magical technology--that is charmingly or fascinatingly attractive to school administrators looking to score points with the community, allowing the casual disregard of "purchasing rules" and "common sense."" 
In another post, Vicki "coolcatteacher" Davis posted on Why Schools shouldn't use GoogleDocs for anything Private. Vicki is actually a woman that I was previously following; she makes very good points in her blog and on twitter. Sharing personal information online can be dangerous-period. Both Vicki and my assigned blog, Guhlin, received a message from Teresa with the google community, assuring everyone that google docs is safe to use due to the fact that they scan primarily for information that can be used in identity theft, such as user IDs, social security numbers, ect. 

C4K#2

Umar
Umar is a student at the Bradford school and they are participating in a 100 word challenge. Like many other students, Umar is a great writer. He has a very creative imagination that allows his to come up with amazing stories. One particular story involved abominable snowmen and dragons on top of Mt. Everest! I just hope these dragons don't turn out to be fire breathing. Umar did a great job with this story and many others that he has written.