Final Reflection

Project 16

Anna Shartzer's EDM310 Class Blog: Project #16

During the process of making this project, it would not load to my blog correctly. I was apart of Anna Shartzer and Erica Roushe's group! They were awesome to work with and if you click on the link above to Anna's page you can see the project we created!

Final PLN 

PLN has been very helpful. It helped me organize websites I used for EDM and other classes I had this semester. I think that I will be able to use this in the classroom because it will help me keep my websites organized as a teacher. 

My PLN 

Blog Post 13

                                                 E-Media Fast 

    This blog post assignment was to not use technology for 24 hours.  I did not think that it would be to hard to give up television or computer for a day, but my cell phone was another story. The first day that I tried I did not use the television, but my phone kept going off so I tried turning it off, this did not work for me. The next day I tried I successfully did not use my iphone or television, but my computer was needed for school work, so there was another fail. Third times a charm you say? Well not for me. Unfortunately I could not successfully complete my third day either. I really do think that this is a good idea to try to do every once in a while. It really makes you think about how much you rely on technology through out your day. 

C4T Summary

During this C4T I was assignment to Anthony Capps and the St. Elmo Explorers. During the time that I was commenting on their blog they wer posting about the different amendments of the US Constitution. Each student picked or was assigned to an amendement and had to summarize what that particular amendment was about.
The first post I commented on was about freedom of speech. The student summarized the amendment and gave an example of how it would be used. The second post was on amendment 6. This student talked about if you can not afford legal council that one will be provided for you from the state. These students did a great job summing up the amendments to the constitution.

Project 15

Additional Blog Assignment

1. I believe that the schools in the United States do inhibit the student's creativity. Schools these days just tend to be worried about book smarts and not creativity; I think that in the classroom there is room for both. Not every child will be a genius, but it does not mean that, that child is less smarter then the genius. Ken Burns believes that there should be a creative side to learning; as do I. I believe that this is happening because teachers are not taught to teach creatively so students do not learn creatively.  I would like to teach in creative ways and to teach students how to be creative.

3. I believe that a curriculum can be changed to increase the creativity of students. This can be done by not doing such a traditional lesson; maybe incorporating some technology in your lessons would help students become more creative. The key component of this curriculum is not being afraid of stepping out side of the box. Teachers are so afraid of being creative I think that they tend to stick to the old traditional ways of teaching instead.

2. I also believe that there can be a curriculum that can increase the curiosity of students. I would say that getting the students excited about something would increase their curiosity. I would use technology, which is something that most kids get curious and excited about to peak their interest. I would try to find some unique things to use in the classroom to peak their interest also.

4. I absolutely believe that a teachers interest in the subject matter increases the interest of students. If the teacher is not excited about teaching something then the students will not be excited about learning it. The teacher needs to be excited and eager to teach the students whatever is in her curriculum.

5. I believe that the teacher can increase the amount of curiosity that the student's have. The teacher can just read directly from the book, or they can act out the chapter that they are learning about. I would say that most of the students would love for their teacher to act out the chapter in their history books instead of reading it directly.  Being a boring teacher will make boring students.

6. What would help me be more creative is having a free space to interact with my students and tell them that it is okay to be creative. I would love to harness their creativity and put it into productive things. As a teacher I would like to showcase each and every talents that my students have and put together a  production to showcase their creativity. I would take every opportunity to display their art work, stories or projects that they worked so hard on. 

7. What would help me become more curious is to explore the internet for some cool new education tools that are available online or in the app store. There are tons of websites/apps out there that would spark my curiosity. I think that schools could provide teachers, that do not already own one, with a computer or an ipad to help spark their curiosity.

Final Project Update

My group is just starting to work on our final project. We have been getting together once a week to discuss how we will be communicating with each other while working on this project.

Blog Post 12

While searching the internet for elementary education teacher tools. I stumbled upon a website that listed media production tools in elementary schools. It had a list of several media tools that we have used in EDM, but one that I had never heard of, Animoto. Animoto is an application that creates videos out of text, images, and video clips. You can choose from Animoto's stock photos and music selections or upload your own. Images are synched to your music choice, so faster soundtracks flash through images more quickly than slower songs.

I would have students make an animoto introducing themselves to the class. The video will be 30 seconds long and will include music and pictures.

http://animoto.com/play/rEkTDkyEWraCv2L3fupkuw- A link to my video

The only downside to this website is that you can only create 30 second videos with the free subscription; if you wanted longer videos then you would have to pay to use this website. All in all I really liked this website; it could be a fun activity for the students to use.

C4K April

Comments for Kids April 


     The blog I was assigned to was Jennifer, a middle school student from Vermont. Jennifer's first post I commented on was about her second favorite animal, a zebra. She talked about why she liked zebras; because they were cute and had cool stripes. I commented and said that I also liked zebras, but my favorite animal was a giraffe. I told her to keep up her love of animals.
     The second post I commented on was about her dancing. She said he loves to dance; she has been dancing for nine years! She loves tap, jazz and hip hop, but hip hop is her favorite. Jennifer says that she will be stopping dancing to become a cheerleader with her friends next year. I commented and told her that I was also a dancer, and danced for ten years. My situation was similar to hers; I stopped dancing to cheer. She commented back to me and asked me what all kinds of dancing I did and cheering. We struck up a conversation about me and how I was in college and my major. She seemed very interested in  college. She told me that she wanted to go to culinary school and open a restaurant.
     The last post I commented on was a opinion she had on pollution. She talks about how she does not understand why people do not just walk or ride a bike more places. She also discussed how she does not like the smoke that comes from the large busses or trucks. I commented and said that I completely agree with her about not liking the large amounts of smoke; it makes it hard to breath.
     I really enjoyed commenting on Jennifer's blog! She seems to be a great student and knows what she wants for the future.
                                           
 

Blog Post 11

Mrs. Cassidy's First Grade Class 

Mrs. Cassidy seems to be a great teacher! I love how she uses all of this technology in her first grade class. Technology seems to be a major part of her regular usage in the classroom. She not only uses it to get her students more technologically literate, but she uses it to help them learn to share and problem solve. If I had to pick one of her methods to use it would probably be the skype interviews. I think it is so neat how we can talk basically face to face with someone half way around the world from us. I would love to use skype to do interviews with specialist in a certain area we are studying, talk with different classes around the country that are learning the same things as my class and just to learn some interesting things that we would not already know. We might run into some problems with finding people that have the time to sit down and talk with the class, but I am sure there is someone out there that will take the time to talk to the class. Some benefits that I might obtain from using this method is helping my students become well diverse by letting them explore other peoples opinions on a certain subject by skyping with them. In general I think that this method helps students become a more well rounded student; the sooner you expose them to this, the better. 

http://gigaom.com/2011/05/10/microsoft-buying-skype/

Blog Post 10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate? 

    The video, Do you teach or do you educate?, really made me think. It made me think about how I will not just simply teach my students the required curriculum, but educate them to be better students and better people. As the video states being an educator is empowering the students; setting off the spark in them. I know I had many teachers that just simply taught me what they were suppose to teach me and had me go on my marry way to the next grade, but I also had teachers that truly inspired me to become a teacher and a better person. 

   I was thinking on why I wanted to become a teacher after watching this video, and I came to the conclusion  that I want to better the children  of the future. I could be the kind of teacher that simply teaches them the bare minimum, but I believe that students deserve more then that. I will try to be the best educator that I can be for my students. 

Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home 

   

     This post was pretty interesting. I had to re read it a few times and read some more post from him, but I finally got it. This post  goes way beyond just pencils; it is about creativity in and out of the classroom. The other teacher in the conversation does not get that it is not just about the pencils, but what they can create. As a future educator I strive to make my classroom a place where my students can be creative. 

C4K March

 

    My C4K for March was a blog post by Amel and Kaitlyn. This post was a short story titled "Change of World." It was about the world in fifty years; everything was white. The character was sitting in his bedroom bored, but he remembered he had a toy spider under his bed. He went to go grab it, but it wasn't there. He finally found it under the stairs. His brother pushed him and became grounded, but took his brother's spider first.  I found this story very interesting, unique and intriguing. I told them this and that they should keep up the good work.

C4T #3

              My third C4T was a teacher from Iowa, Mrs. Georend. On the first post she talked about her spending most of her time outside of the classroom doing crafts, starting up her shop and thinking of creative ideas. She asked these questions: "How can we transfer this feeling to our students who may feel trapped in the day-to-day reading, math, and writing?  What sort of things are you doing to allow your students (or staff, my administrator friends!) to feel alive in their creativity?" My response to this post was: I am also addicted to crafting and pinterest! I agree with you that creativity is being lost among students. They get so bogged down in the reading,writing and math that they forget it is okay to be creative. I believe that as teachers we should embrase children's creativity. We should turn a traditional lesson into a fun creative project!

   The second post was about her cleaning out her plants and making room for the new plants. She made an interesting comparison to plants and life. "Some times to try new things we have to clear out the old things in our life to make room for the new things in our life. After time the old must go away to make room for the new." My comment on this post was: I really like your analogy about planting new plants and clearing out the old to bring in the new. I will be asking myself daily what can I do to clean out the old and bring in the new! Thank you for this post!

Blog Post 9

What I Learned This Year 2008-2009 

   This blog post by Mr. McClung was after his first year of being a teacher. He was an elementary teacher in Missouri. This was a summary post about what he learned in his first year of teaching. The main points that he made about what he learned was, making his lesson student centered, to be flexible with his lesson plans, communicating with his students and fellow teachers, not to be afraid of technology, listening to his students, and to never stop learning. This blog post was very helpful in what I should do whenever I become a teacher.

Mr. McClung's Blog 

What I Learned This Year 2010-2011

   Like the above post, this blog post was a refection on the third year of Mr. McClung being a teacher. He states that this was a year of first for him, becoming a cross country coach, and a computer applications teacher. One lesson he learned this year is "our decision making process should always be student centered and not centered around pleasing adults." I think that this is a good lesson to learn because as teachers we will always be trying to please so many people; we need to remember that it is about the students at the end of the day. Another lesson he learned this year was to always be your self. It is okay to be an outsider as long as your doing what you believe in. Mr. McClung's blog is very useful for a student studying to be an educator. It is helpful,insightful and humorous.

Project 14

Book Trailer Project 12

Project 11

Blog Post 8

This is How We Learn Parts 1&2 

Dr. Richard Miller gives presentations on multimedia writing. I had some trouble following along with him at times. I feel that technology is shaping the way we write. These videos always make me ask myself if I am ready to teach with this type of technology.  As a future teacher I believe that programs like this will help me be a better educator.
I believe that students are ready for this kind of learning. Students love anything new; especially if it involves technology. Students adapt so easily to new technology. Technology consumes all aspects of student's lives now days.
While watching Dr. Miller's video it made me think that I really need to be ready to teach this way. Technology will definitely be apart of every day teaching life, so I need to learn to adapt it into my life. I still have mixed feelings on an all technology based classroom, but I am learning to incorporate it into my daily life.

Carly Pugh's Post 12 

Wow Carly! This girl can really write! I love the way she uses her intelligence, but also her wit. I see how her blog post went along with Dr. Miller's video. Her assignment was about writing technology. The students would write their teaching philosophy through text, pictures and videos. 

Google Images 

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies

In the Chipper Series , Chipper is having a conversation with Dr. Strange about her being late for assignments or not doing her assignments. It is very important in EDM to have your assignments done and on time to get a passing grade. 

In EDM 310 for Dummies some students are explaining how EDM 310 works. This is a pretty funny video. I think It would be fun to make videos for your classroom. It would make things more interesting instead of the same old traditional learning. 

Learn to Change, Change to Learn 

  In the video Learn to Change, Change to Learn, educators discuss how education is changing. During the course of EDM I have read, watched and listened to many educator's point of views on the changing of education. In my opinion change is good, we may not always like it, but it is necessary. 

  A classroom should not be just a room with four walls, as the video states, it should be the world. There are so many opportunities in the cities around the world to learn in a non traditional sense.   

Scavenger Hunt 

I found a website called Edmodo . It is like Facebook/Twitter. I set up an account as a teacher and I can set up reminders, notes and created discussions with my students and parents. I really like this website because it helps me become more organized. I can talk with other teachers and get ideas from their pages. This website lets me make up quizzes and homework and let students access it from home. This is a great tool for everyone to use to get more organized and on top of their work. 

The webpage I found to make my comic was Make Belifs Comix . Here is my comic: 

A cool tool I found that I had never heard of was Free Stock Photos. This is a website that has tons of pictures for your blog. You have to set up an account, but it is free. It has a lot of different types of pictures that you can use on your blog or website. 

  

Project 9b

Project 10: PLN

My PLN is coming on nicely. It took me a while to figure out what it is exactly for, but now that I have it is very helpful. I will be working on my PLN and putting more useful links into it to help me a long the way. 

Blog Post 7

The Network Student 

    My first reaction to this video was it was like the iSchool initiative. I was a bit confused at the first of the video, but by the end I understood. It made a lot of sense for students to be independently responsible for their school work.  

    The part that I was the most confused on was if students are doing everything on their on why do they need teachers? At the end of the video they stated that the point of the teacher was to teach the students how to make their PLN, to guide them on how to talk to important people, and to be there for any questions. 

    I honestly do not think that I am ready to be a network teacher. I think with time I will be, but as of right now I am no. I think that this class will help me be ready to be a network teacher. 

C4T Assignment #2

This C4T I was assigned Mrs. Krebs. She is a junior high teacher from Iowa at a small catholic school. Her post were so inspiring and interesting I read more than the two that I was assigned. Mrs. Krebs' first post that I commented on was a selection of inspirational quotes put on pictures. I really enjoy reading inspirational quotes, they always make me want to try harder. I commented that I would love to use some of these in my future classroom to help get the student's motivated. Here are some of my favorites:

My second post that I commented on was about her genius hour. A genius hour is a class where Mrs. Krebs lets her student's create, engage and learn.  She said her students were so engaged that they missed several classes in the day! I commented that it is amazing to see what students can do whenever they really put their minds to things and are really into the things they are doing.  

Project 8: Podcast

C4K February

The first C4K I was assigned to was to a fourth grade student in the United States. She was telling us about a story that she was writing about a girl that wanted to run cross country on her high school team. She goes on to tell us about the girl joining her school's team and the great success she had. She asked us to leave our feedback on the story and any suggestions we had. I commented that I thought she did a great job on her story, and I would like to know more about the girl she was writing about. She did a very good job on her writing.

The next C4K I was assigned was a online high school student from Hawaii. Hannah's blog for her AP history class  was quite impressive. This particular post was about her "confessions of an online AP history student." She discussed her favorite parts of the class and the parts that she did not care so much for. I commented that I too can share her pain on the online class part of the post. I said that I really enjoyed reading her post about being in an online school because I went to a traditional high school.

My third C4K was a student from Canada blogging about a skype session that her class had with a class from New Orleans, LA. She described what they learned from the class from New Orleans: mardi gras, the hurricanes, and football. I commented that I lived very close to New Orleans and that I visit it often. I described what I liked about New Orleans and how beautiful the city is.

My last C4K I was assigned was the same AP history class as Hannah was in, but this time it was the class blog. Mike Gwaltney's AP history class based out of Oregon, blogged about a documentary made in the 60's called A Class Divided . The documentary was about a teacher doing an experiment on her third grade students to see if separating them by eye color would effect how they treated one another. One day the teacher treated the blue eyes superior and the next the brown eyes. The blog stated how children that had been friends for years turned against each other in hate. The purpose of this lesson was to teach self worth and no group of people are better than any other. Twenty years later these students got together and remembered how this lesson has impacted their lives today. I commented that I really enjoyed this blog post and would like more information on where I could watch this. Elisa, a student in the class, wrote back with a link of the documentary.  A Class Divided Documentary. 

Blog Post 6

The Last Lecture

Google Images 

    Randy Pausch's Last Lecture video was truly inspiring. He broke down the hour long lecture into three parts: his childhood dreams, how to enable the dreams of others, and useful advice. I found the last section quite useful. The useful advice is something I can take and apply it to my future teaching. In this blog post I will be stating some of the useful advice he gave and try to apply it to my future class. 

   The first piece of advice that I thought was useful was that he learned to never set a specific bar for his students to reach. He learned that if he did not set the bar then the students would go above and beyond the limitations. I think that this is good advice because you do not want your students just to reach the bar that you set and that be it, you want your students to go above and beyond and to succeed in so much more than what you have just set for them to reach. 

   The second piece of advice that Pausch's lecture gave was, "brick walls are there for a reason, they let us prove how badly we want something." This statement is very true, because if we run into a brick wall and we want it bad enough then we will stop at nothing to go over that brick wall. This is good advice to one day use in the classroom because it teaches students to never give up and to try until they have succeeded. 

   This next statement is something that everyone needs to hear, "don't complain, just work harder." This is useful not only to students but also to teachers. People tend to complain about the easiest things, myself included, when things could be so much more difficult. I could use this advice in my classroom by telling my students this when things get tough and they start to complain. 

  Some other useful statements he gave were: "Don't bail, the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap", "Get a feedback loop, and listen to it", "Show gratitude", and "Always be prepared".  This lecture was very inspiring. I can use a lot of these lessons in the classroom in the future. 

Timeline- Project 9

Blog Post 5

Don't Teach your kids this stuff. Please?

Google Images 

    Dr. Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He founded the Center for Advanced Study in Technology Leadership in Education, which is the nation's only center for technology needs for school administrators. He has received numerous awards for the videos and books he has put on and written. 

   This particular blog post was very interesting. I agree with what he is trying to say about how people put a bad name on technology. I believe that there are pros and cons to all technology and as educators we should be teaching the positives of technology. 

The ISchool Initiative

Google Images 

   Travis Allen's iSchool Initiative's video is arguing that schools should trade in their pencil, paper and books for an ipod touch. He believes that schools today are wasting the technology that we have been provided, so we should have an iSchool. This video explains how students would learn using their itouch. Some of the basic uses for this would be, keeping track with homework, using some apps to help them better understand the material being used.  

   My opinion on this video is that is that the iSchool has some high points, but I would not want to use that as my main resource in the classroom. I would use the itouch as a tool in the classroom, but I would not want it to be my only means of teaching students. It is very useful to students and teachers, but I do not see how you could solely rely on the itouch for teaching students. 

Virtual Choir

Google Images 

    Wow is all I can say after watching that video. This video shows the how powerful technology can be. Eric Whitacre used the internet in an amazing way. The way he showed the group as a whole and then zoomed in on a particular person, it really felt like you were watching a choir of 185 people preform live. 

Teaching in the 21st Century

Google Images 

    Kevin Roberts thinks that teaching means to be a filter to students. Students can access information anytime and anywhere, as teachers we should teach them how to filter that information and make it useful. We should teach students how to use all of this technology that they are given access to. I agree with Roberts in this video. I believe my role as a teacher is not just to teach them academics, but to teach them things that they will need to know in the corse of their life. My role as a teacher is not to tell them they can not use certain recourses that I know they have access to, but to help them know how to use it properly. This video really helped me understand better where the educational system is going. 

Reading Rockets

Google Images 

   The Reading Rockets website is a wonderful tool for teachers. One thing that caught my eye was the section that has several apps that helped children with their reading comprehension. In that slide show there were several games and lesson apps for children to practice on. 

   I liked that they had different sections for parents, teachers and principals. I would use the teacher section to browse new books, and have new ideas. I really enjoyed reading some of the tips they had for teachers to help struggling readers.  

Blog Post 4

The Benefits of Podcasting

 

Google Images 

     According to Joe Dale some of the benefits of podcasting is, it is a good way of communicating with the students outside of the classroom, students today are familiar with technology so it intrigues them, it works with the high levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. These are just a few that he mentioned in his video and webpage.
     My thoughts on Podcasting is, it helps keep the students interested in what they are learning and is a very effective in teaching students many things. In my particular podcast I hope to be creative and innovative. This webpage helped me better understand what a podcast was all about.

100 Ways to Use Your Ipod to Learn and Study Better

Google Images 

  I had no idea that you could use your Ipods for so much. I knew that it was for more than just music, but having study guides and podcast? No idea. I believe that this webpage will forever by in my bookmarks. I can use this now and all though out my teaching career. The amount of podcast they have on here is awesome. The ESL podcast caught my eye. For students who are learning english as a second language this could help them tremendously. The Educational Podcast Network would help teachers everywhere. It is used to collect information and help you teach students on all different levels. I will definitely be looking at these podcasts before I do my podcast.

Podcast Collection Judy Scharf

Google Images 

  The Podcast Collection by Judy Scharf was very helpful. It explained what a podcast actually was, gave some examples on how to make a good podcast and a handout on the benefits of podcasting in the classroom. Scharf better helped me understand what podcasting was all about and how to use it effectively in the classroom. I will be referring back to it while making my own podcast later in the semester. 

My Sentence Video

C4T Assignment

I was assigned to David Wees's blog David Wees


Post One
This first post I commented on was on Ipads in the math classroom. David was commenting and analyzing a study done by Stephen Downes that said, 20% of students improved on their state math test scores by using an Ipad loaded with HMH Fuse. David found some pros and cons with this study which he posted in this blog post. One important thing that he pointed out was in this test they did not state what they hoped to accomplish by improving the math instruction. Tests are important, but are they going to remember this beyond the test. That statement is what I put as my comment.

Post Two
The second post that I commented on was a post about MUD, a video game that involves typing. David stated that he played this game in college and unknowingly it made him a better typer. He said that in this game the way you navigate around is by typing on the keyboard, nothing like video games now. He was posting about wanting to incorporate this in the classroom. I commented that this would be a great idea, because the typical typing class is very redundant and boring. This would help the students become faster and better typers without knowing it, like it did David.

Google Presentation

Blog Post 3

Blog Critique
I was assigned Kayla Shepherd's blog to edit in this assignment. Her post on the videos in post two was really good, but I felt like it ended abruptly. I felt like she did not complete her thought that she was writing about in her post. I will be telling her this through posting a comment on her blog, because maybe she had a reason for doing it this way. All in all her post was very good, made sense and flowed up until the end.

Technology in Special Education
This video was very informative. I had no idea that computers could help children with special needs do better in school. The computer seems to be a very handy tool for this teacher. I really enjoyed the students interacting with their computers so we could better understand their excitement about these tools.
The teacher in this video seems to be pretty awesome. I can see her passion for helping these students. As a teacher I can use a smart board in my classroom for special needs children. I have learned different techniques to teach the special needs children while using the smart board.

Apple Apps
The App I found that would be helpful to students with special need is the Intro to Letters, by Montessorium. This app allows the student to choose a letter from the alphabet and learn how to pronounce it, read it and write it. The description on the app store it: "Learn to trace, read, write and record letter sounds, names, and phonograms, based on the proven methodology of Montessori." It is also available in different languages.
This would work great with children with learning disabilities or disabled students. The app talks to the children and allows them to record the way they are saying it to see if they are saying it right. I would use this in the classroom for all types of students.

Social Media Changes
The stats on this webpage is crazy! The amount of time that we spend on social media and on the internet itself is amazing. If it is this large of a number now I can only imagine what it will be like in 5 years. This means a lot for me as a future teacher. This means that there will be new technology and social media for me to implement in the classroom, but it also means that it will be more distracting to the students.
These stats are also not surprising to me, because I live in a world that is consumed by social media and technology. This can be a good and bad thing. The good is that the future of technology and social media has no much to offer. The bad is that is can become consuming and distracting from every day life.

A Vision of Students

I agree and have experienced many aspects of this video, as a college student myself, but I agree, many of these issues the students create for themselves. You could get more out of class by actually paying attention instead of texting,going on the internet for Facebook. College isn't easy, and shouldn't be easy & students need to take it more serious.
This video let me see things form a different perspective. It is very important as students, and future educators, to think about things differently. I sometimes need to check myself on how I am going through college and often see I need to be more serious. This video was great.

Blog Post 2

Did you know?
The video made by Dr. Strage, on YouTube, was very eye opening. All the topics that were pointed out were mind blowing. Knowing that China will have more English speaking people than America made me really think about how our country is so behind on most things, education especially. India having more honers students than all students in America made me want to be a better teacher, and help my future students learn more.
Karl Fisch and Scott McLeo's version was also eye opening. When they said how many babies were born during the corse of the video I was in awe. The text messaging statement was not that surprising to me. The video was done in 2008, so the amount of text messaging sent in 2012 would probably be greater than in 2008.

Mr. Winkle
Mr. Winkle Awakes made me think how much our schools have not changed technologically. Our schools have changed some, but not as much as office buildings or hospitals. Schools should be the first with updated technology, so we can use it in the classroom as often as possible.
Students do not need to just sit and listen to the teacher throw information at them and try and throw it back at them on a test. Mr. Winkle should have seen the same, if not better, technology in the school.

Creativity
Ken Robinson's talk on creativity in schools was ver interesting. When he talks about creativity being as important as literacy I believe he is right. We tend to under-mind and down play children's creativity. As teachers we should be inducing and feeding our student's creativity. When he states that "if you are not prepared to be wrong then you will never come up with anything original", it really got me. As teachers we are so set on our students being right and wrong that sometimes we do not think about them being creative with their answers. We should teach them that it is okay to be wrong sometimes.
The main point that really made me think was the statement, "we do not grow into creativity, we grow out of it". I agree with this statement because we teach children to be a certain way, to live a certain way. Most of the time we make them think that it is not okay for them to be themselves in certain situations. We should, as teachers, let them show their creative side in every subject, not just the arts.

A Vision for 21st Century Learning
The main arguments that I got from this video is that our students really are not learning a whole lot in schools, they need to be more integrated with their learning. The makers of this video seem to think that we should integrate this video game into our schools. By doing that the students will learn more with out even knowing that they are learning, is their argument. My response to this argument is that I do not believe that it will work. Students need to have a more structured learning environment and interaction with other students and teachers, not just a video game.

Vicki Davis

I think what Vicki Davis is doing in Georgia is great! I really like the idea of her student's using their creativity in her classroom. When she states that students get bored with a pencil and paper, I think she is right. She is there to help them whenever they need her, but it is great to see them doing it on their own.
I also like that she has taken a rural town and placed them online so they can experience cultures around the world that they might not be able to experience other wise. It is important to expose your students to different cultures, and she has done that while teaching them something also.

Wordle

Post 1: About Me

Hi! I'm Kaitlin Boatman, a junior at South Alabama. My major is Elementary Education. I have always lived in Mobile. I am attending the University of South Alabama because I did not want to leave home while I was attending school. My family includes, my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my niece and nephew. I love spending time with my family. We go camping, to the beach and we love watching sports together. I decided to enter into the field of education because I have always wanted to be a teacher. I love little kids and love watching them learn. My goal is to become a missionary and teach children English while sharing the Gospel. As I said, my family and I love to go to the beach, if I could I would spend all year there.
My passions I would say would be Jesus,traveling,photography and reading.My number one passion in my life is telling others about Jesus. I would love to travel the world and tell people about Him. Traveling is another passion, I love to go anywhere. Going to new places is always so interesting to me, seeing new people, new things. Photography has always been an outlet for me, I love looking though the lens and seeing beautiful things. Reading always calms me down, cracking open a good book will always put me into a good mood.
Dr. Randy Pausch Lecture on time management was very interesting, the line that got me the most was, "Time is all we have, and you may find one day, you have less than you think". It will hit me hard when I think about this. Whenever you think about this you really want to manage your time correctly. I didn't know anything about Dr. Pausch, but knowing now that he has cancer really makes me want to take his advice on time management.
Reading the article on the Penn State website helped me learn that using a planner is good. I really liked reading the things that they suggested that students do.

Practice Post

My First Post.