Blog Post #10

An Open Letter to Educators by Morgan Bayda
I enjoyed this post. The organization of some classrooms or even entire schools does not encourage the type of environment that students will need to succeed once they leave the classroom. Limited communication with classmates and traditional instruction methods are not indicative of how the world operates outside of the classroom. Our world is becoming increasingly collaborative and global. By not encouraging this type of thinking and problem-solving, we are not fully preparing students to succeed once they get out of the classroom.
Don’t Let Them Take the Pencils Home by Tom Johnson
This post was very interesting. I had to read it a few times to get the full effect. It is human nature to focus on the problem instead of trying to come up with a solution. By giving students tools, we are encouraging creativity and giving them opportunities to excel.
Two Questions That Can Change Your Life
Wow – this video has really made me think. Although coming up with my “sentence” is tough, the harder question was the second one. “Was I better today than yesterday?” is a really hard thing to think about. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our routine and just trying to make it through that we get a little complacent. As educators, it is especially important that we ask ourselves this question. Working with students can be draining, and I think it could be very easy to become comfortable in our routine. My sentence: I am committed to my family and to making a difference in the lives of children through education.

Additional Assignment #3

I really enjoyed this presentation. At first, I didn’t totally agree with where he was going in talking about the assembly-line setup of our school systems. Children need structure. However, after listening to the rest of the presentation, I agree with where he was going.
Overall, our professors in the College of Education agree with most of the points that are made in this presentation. As I have discussed on earlier posts, as educators, we are trying to get through to students who are very visually stimulated. That is why it is imperative that we use technology and keep students engaged in learning. By taking advantage of technology available and thinking about learning on a global scale, we are helping students explore and develop in areas that they naturally excel in. I enjoyed the format of this presentation. If it had to do a presentation like this, I would probably be a narrator or editor.

Project #12

Blog Post #9

Mr. McClung’s post was very enlightening. It was very inspiring to read the comments from a first year teacher. He touched on many different points, but the theme of his post was that you cannot be a perfect teacher. No matter how much you plan the lessons, things are going to come up that you cannot control. No matter how much you want to push students to succeed, sometimes you just need to listen. This article reminds future educators to keep the focus on the students. Although our superiors will be evaluating us, students have to be at the center of what we do.

Project #11 Short Movie

Blog Assignment 8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream
As I have mentioned before, many things in education are different from my first time around in school. However, things have definitely changed for the better. Writing and presenting with multimedia is a MUST for educators. With all of the resources available, it is not difficult to use multimedia in writing and presentations. Sometimes it takes a little time to find age-appropriate information, but there is always information available.
Because of the technology available in our society, students are used to being visually stimulated outside of the classroom. To hold their attention, educators must be creative and appeal to this sense in order to keep students engaged. Educators must be willing to spend the time to include multimedia in their writing.
I am confident that my students will be able to write with multimedia. Children as young and three and four are using computers. So, by the time they get to my class in first grade or so, they should be pros! Students today do not know what it is like to write a report without doing research on the internet. In a few years, I’m sure they won’t know what it is like to write a report without including multimedia.

Chipper and EDM 310 for Dummies
These movies reiterate the fact that EDM 310 is a different kind of class. At first, this class was very intimidating to me, and I was a little frustrated. If we procrastinate, then it only makes things harder on ourselves. It takes a little time to get organized, but it is well worth it. However, I have really enjoyed the way that the class is structured. We receive guidance and direction from our leader, but it is up to us to complete the assignments and learn the material. This class is more indicative of the real world. Once we get into the real world, we are not going to be “taught”. We are going to have some guidance and direction, but we are responsible for our students and our classroom.
A good idea for a short video would be how to use the Instruction Manual to find the Blog Assignments and Projects. On week two, I couldn’t remember how to get to the Blog Assignments. I felt really silly about this. However, I talked to one of my group members, and she had encountered the same problem.

Why Smartboards Are A Dumb Initiative and Why I Hate Interactive Smartboards
These articles presented very interesting perspectives on Smartboards. I enjoyed the comments on school systems spending money on technology just to say that they had spent it. As a future educator, I can appreciate technology that enhances the classroom. However, school systems don’t need to think of Smartboards as the solution to incorporating more technology into the classroom. As the second article states, “You can’t buy change” because it is a process.

Assignment 9b: Instructional Timeline

Additional Assignment #2

     1.What do you think? If learners are motivated, can they teach themselves?

Yes, if learners are motivated, they can definitely teach themselves.

2. If those motivated learners are kids, can they teach themselves?

Children are naturally very curious. They are more apt to explore and teach themselves than adults.

3. What conditions are necessary for kids to teach themselves? For anyone to teach him or herself?

For someone to teach themselves, there must first be a desire and an opportunity to learn. This video proves that other than that, very little is needed.

4. What role do computers and internet access play in the process?

Internet access and computers help to facilitate the learning process. However, these do not have to be involved. For example, small children can teach themselves to put a puzzle together.

5. What role does motivation, a desire to learn?

There must be a desire to learn for someone to teach themselves. In children, there is a natural curiosity to explore and figure things out. I think this sometimes diminishes as we get older.

6. What roles do a problem, a question or multiple problems or questions play in the process?

Questions and problems can help direct a student’s learning and keep them focused.

7. How do you motivate someone to learn?

It is sometimes difficult to motivate others to learn. Sometimes you can motivate others by relating the subject that you are discussing to something that strikes a personal or emotional emotion with the person.

8. How are you motivated to learn?

I am motivated by setting short-term, achievable goals as well as looking at the big picture.

9. Can anyone who is not motivated to learn learn?

Unmotivated people can process information – by memorizing or putting it in their short-term memory. However, if someone does not want to learn, then they are simply trying to get through something. To truly learn about something, you must want to know more about it.

10. Do you teach yourself? When? Why?

Sometimes I teach myself because that is the only way that I can understand things. Some concepts are easier to learn this way. Sometimes I have trouble understanding the way that the teacher is presenting the subject, and I just feel more productive learning about the topic on my own.

11. What role does a teacher (either answer generally or use a specific example) play in your learning?

Teachers help to facilitate learning. At the college level, it is important for students to want to learn and to motivate themselves. It is really encouraging to go through a class where the instructor is passionate about their subject.

12. What is the most important idea, question or emotional response you take away with you as a result of watching this video?

This video was very encouraging to me. It proves the curiosity of children, and that is very refreshing. It was also very interesting to see the “natural leader” of the group emerge.

13. What other questions or issues are raised by this video that should be considered and discussed by aspiring teachers?

This video helps to remind us to not be afraid to think out of the box or try something a little different.

PLN Update

When I started this class, I had no idea what a PLN was. After being out of school for over seven years, I had to adjust my thoughts on being a student. There has been a HUGE learning curve for me as far as using technology in the classroom. Currently, my PLN includes the teacher blogs that I am following, classmate blogs, my gmail for school-related communication, and my yahoo for personal and other professional communication. After watching the 7th grade perspective on a PLN from last week's assignment, I started exploring symbaloo. There is some interesting information available - especially for teachers.

Project 9a: Timeline

Blog Assignment #7

In Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, there were many techniques that he used throughout his presentation to make it "hit home". One of the most impactful techniques that he uses is quotations. The quotes help to tell his story and make it more emotional. People are more likely to remember the lecture because of the emotional elements.

The use of Power Point was also an effective method used to add impact to this presentation. Using a visual like this helps to keep the audience engaged – especially during a long lecture. The use of videos and pictures in the Power Points add to the emotional element of the presentation as well.

Humor is another method used in this presentation. No one likes to listen to a boring, dry speaker. Although the circumstances surrounding his “last lecture” are incredibly sad, Pausch incorporated humor to keep the attention of the audience.

Aside from the different methods used in the presentation, I enjoyed the discussion on indirect learning. I often think about the indirect learning that is going on with my own kids when they are playing games or playing with friends. As teachers, it is really important for us to be cognizant of the indirect learning that is happening all of the time. There are many life lessons that are experienced – not taught – in the classroom.

C4T #2

I was assigned a middle school teacher in Arizona, John Spencer, for the C4T2 assignment. It was very interesting to read this blog compared to the instructor I was assigned on C4T1. John’s blog is incredibly easy to read. He uses some different approaches in his blogs (such as sarcasm, story-telling, and role playing) which make his posts very interesting. The first post I commented on was on education reform. John was role playing himself as Clark Kent when asked about education reform and charter schools. The second post that I commented on was regarding running his classroom like a small town instead of a big city. He was questioning different ways of running classrooms and different results achieved. I found this blog very enlightening. It was nice to read through some of the “politics” in education as well as some of the other day-to-day thoughts that teachers have.

C4K Summary #1 and #2

In the first two C4K posts, I commented on a student's blog. My student was an eighth grade student in a rural area of Missouri. The first post by the student was entitled "About Me" where the student described what activities they enjoyed. The second post was entitled "Learning Manifesto" where the student was supposed to describe how he was going to learn this year, and what he was going to focus on. I really enjoyed reading through my student's posts as well as other students in the class. It really gave me a good perspective on what students of this age talk about with each other as well as how they interact with adults.

Blog Assignment #6

The Networked Student

“The Networked Student” is a very interesting concept. After watching this video and before reading through Ms. Drexler’s blog, I was a little skeptical of the idea. The idea of having students create a personal learning network can be very beneficial to a student’s educational growth. However, students definitely need a lot of guidance teachers – especially in their early educational career (elementary and middle school).

I enjoyed watching the explanation to the question “Why does the networked student need a teacher?” As we have noted in many different discussions in this class, the teacher’s role is changing as more technology is used in the classroom. Teachers are taking on the role of facilitating learning rather than strictly transferring information to students. As more credible resources are becoming more readily available to students, parents, and teachers, it is important for us as educators to help students use the information.

Having a non-traditional classroom (i.e., having classroom meetings less than five days a week) will take some getting used to for students, parents, and teachers. There is a great deal of responsibility and maturity needed to focus outside of the classroom. I would be hesitant to experiment this with middle-schoolers, but I think that high school students could definitely benefit from this type of learning environment.

A 7^th Grader’s Personal Learning Environment

I was quite impressed by the presentation put together by this 7^th grader. I also thought it was ironic that she mentioned responsibility in her presentation. One of my main concerns with using more technology is that it takes responsibility to use it appropriately. This student feels that creating your own personal learning environment actually forces you to be more responsible. I thought this was an enlightening comment from a 7^th grade student. 

The Machine is (Changing) Us

This video provided additional thoughts on how our communication styles are changing. I could relate to the MTV generation. It’s interesting how some of the comments on the MTV generation are the same comments that I would use to describe today’s student – especially the short attention spans and not easily impressed. The “Whatever” discussion was very interesting as well. I also liked all of the videos of people introducing themselves on YouTube. I had not really thought about YouTube as a community, but it makes sense that some people could see it as such. Overall, this video helped reiterate the fact that our world and our communication styles are changing.