Project 16

This was s a collaborative project between Kelsey Robinson and Brittany Hamilton.

Comment for Teachers

C4T #4

Missouri Law on Sexual Misconduct of Teachers

This was a very interesting blog post from Bill Genereux. Missouri has just written a state law that is trying to be passed that will supposedly help students against teachers who could be sexual predators. This law will make it harder for a teacher who gets fired from one job because of being accused of sexual misconduct to get a job at another location until the trial is over. The two different school systems can talk about why the teacher got fired. What is disturbing is that they make a law for this but they don't try to figure out a way to speed up the trial process.

They also will put in effect that if schools don't already have a policy on teacher-student communication, then they will be making one. This includes social networking, texting, and websites. I do think that there needs to be a policy set in place about this issue but I do wonder how far will a school take it? Will they ban technology in the classroom altogether?

Then the bill goes off into some crazy things like strictly watching what websites a teacher is using in the classroom to communicate with his/her students. I do think there needs to be some restrictions but to pick and choose could hinder a child's education. They need to be learning from the internet and gaining knowledge there that they might not could get anywhere else. But to restrict all teachers of this, I think is absurd. Just goes to show you that " the good suffer with the bad" is true. It makes it seem like there is no faith in teachers anymore and I have a problem with this.

They are starting a new procedure to inform teachers on the signs of abuse and teach them on how to report it, etc. This can be a very valuable thing and I am looking forward to this being implemented (even if it is only in Missouri right now). But I will have to agree with Mr. Genereoux that this is something that needs to be taught to the students as well. Since they are the ones experiencing these terrible crimes, they need to be provided information on how to spot the warning signs. If the students were taught this early on then we might could prevent some of these cases from ever happening! I can't wait to see if this bill gets passed and how it will effect other states.

Dissertations and Technology

 This was a post about how Bill Genereux is trying to figure out what he will write his dissertation on. He calls it his KYHOI (knock you head off idea). In the beginning he was thinking about focusing on video literacy but now he is turning more to "Mediated Literacies in Education." He changed his mind after finding a blog by a guy named Paul Bogush. He is the only one in his school that uses these tools the way that he does. His students make videos, post and more. He doesn't get any encouragement or support from his administrators so he has made it into his PLN. This has helped inspire Genereux to write about the connection between what teachers are doing with their own mediated learning and what we want students to do. He has to narrow it down still and frame it into a question that can be studied.

On this post I talked about how I feel that Bogush was making a good choice by having his students involved in a blog even though he has no support on it. It made me really think about how EDM has opened my eyes to how we can use the technology in the classroom to help improve the students education. I don't care if its encouraged at the school I teach at or not, I have already made up my mind that I will be using it in my classroom. I told Genereux that I know he will narrow it down and make it into the wquestion that he is looking for. I also thanked him for his wonderful blog and helping to instill in future teachers lives!

Special Metaphor Assginment (Blog Post 14)

 Wow! After reading the blog post on the metaphors and going back and reading Tom Johnson's post and my response, I feel like an idiot! I just wasn't thinking! It all is so clear to me now. I think that somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't just talking about pencils but then I wrote like it did. I probably missed it because I was trying to get through the reading so that I could write my response. I remember really liking the post about it and how he took a stand against the no "pencils at home" rule. But now when I read it, I see how it was talking about the use of technology.

 I have heard a lot of metaphors since you asked us to start logging them. My fiancee called me a "big baby" the other day because I wanted to see a chick flick and he rented some horror movie. This made me laugh to actually think of an adult with a pacifier and diaper on! Then while watching a TV show, my mom said that "the bad guy was like a rock." What this actually had to do with the TV show, I have no clue but to think of someone round and gray was kind of funny. I also have heard: "she ruffled his feathers," "you are the sunshine of my life," and "his presence warms the room."

As educators, we can teach our students about metaphors by defining them and showing them some examples of them. We can also ask our students to share what they think is a metaphor and we can discuss it as a whole. Metaphors and similes are sometimes confusing so it might be best if we also do a lesson on similes. I know that I sometimes get them confused! We can also do a small project on metaphors by creating some and then portraying them in either a picture or a story that uses them.

We use metaphors to portray a message. Sometimes if we use metaphors it will help grab the audience and keep them intrigued so that we have time to get our point across. I know that I will pay more attention if you add metaphors because it will keep me wondering what the speaker or editor is really talking about. This allows the audience to think! Metaphors need to be used more inside and outside the classroom!!

Final Report on PLN

I am really enjoying adding things to my PLN. This has been something that I will continue to use throughout my teaching career. I have recently added a few new tiles. They are:

• Alabama Virtual Library- I figured this would be something I could use as a research tool when looking into different subject matters and material that I might not have a lot of information on. I will also ask my students to use this.
• ALEX- After doing a blog assignment on this website, I decided this would be an excellent choice to ass to my PLN. This will be a website that I will use frequently as a teacher. I will be able to use it to look into different lesson plans and to make my own. I will also be able to find great resources here. 
• Discovery Education- This was a website that I stumbled across that I found really interesting. It has great learning resources for each grade level and subject. I will be able to use this to get a different perspective on materials and it also has worksheets and projects. 
• Alabama Department of Education- This will be a valuable tool to use because it is a direct link to the Course of Study web page. I will definitely be using this when making my lesson plans for South and also as a teacher. 
•  ACCESS- I added this website even though I will not be teaching high school students. I will be able to use it to access other websites though and it provides great learning tools and opportunities.

This is all that I have added since the progress report but it is something that I will continue to add to. I really enjoyed this project and think it was an excellent choice to add to the EDM assignments.                   

Blog Post #13

ALEX

(Alabama Learning Exchange)

ALEX is a project of the Alabama Department of Education. It is designed to share educational materials and information through a one stop resource for parents, teachers, and students. The resources are connected to the Alabama Course of Study by National Board Certified Teachers. On the website, you can communicate with other professionals through Listservs, find lesson plans, and interactive resources connected to the Course of Study standards, benefit from best practices in Professional Learning, and links to help your students. 

There are eight different link options on the homepage that can take you to a variety of places. They are: Courses of Study, Web Links, Lesson Plans, Search, Personal Workspace, Professional Learning, Podcast Treasury, and ALEXville. When going to these links you will learn many things about the Department of Education and many great resources that will help a teacher in their classroom. 

I decided to explore the Lesson Plan link option. You are able to either make your own lesson plan by using your Personal Workspace or you can find lesson plans by Author, Title, or School. You can also find lesson plans by subject. If you decided to make your own, then you need to log in before beginning. When looking for a lesson plan, you can go as far as searching for one by the subject, grade or even by a keyword. This provides a teacher with an effective search engine for lesson plans. I decided to look into Social Studies on a 2nd grade level. The first lesson plan that came up was to use a picture book with Google Earth to highlight ten major landmarks on the world. This would be such an amazing lesson to show students places that are so important on the Earth!

I also decided to check out Podcast Treasury which is actually called gallery 360. They have featured content that you are able to click on and it will begin automatically. The featured content right now is: My Class 2.0, Oil Spill Science, and Cast In Iron. You are also able to click on different subjects and check out the different podcast for the things you are teaching at the moment. This was such a neat website and I loved looking into all the podcast that teachers downloaded of their lessons. It is an amazing way to help other teachers out and really unites teachers around Alabama.

In my opinion, ALEX is a great tool for teachers. You can find lesson plans and a variety of useful resources. This will help teachers be more effective in providing their students with an effective educational experience. It also allows you to see different ways of teaching a certain topic and what has been useful for other teachers. As a future teacher, I will take advantage of this website and use it in its entirety. I also hope to one day be Nationally Board Certified so that I can help other teachers by providing them with what has helped me and what hasn't. 

Comments for Kids #3

Investigative Reporting

I was assigned to this particular blog post on Mr. McClung's website. This was a story about how James O'Keefe and his investigators went undercover as a Muslim group to find out how Ron Schiller felt about federal funding and the Republican Party (also called the Tea Party). Ron Schiller is the head of National Public Radio. They had him on video talking about how the Tea Party are a bunch of middle class, gun carrying racist! He then goes on to talk about how NPR would be better off without federal funding. He thought this Muslim group was going to donate 5 million dollars to NPR. The video goes on to interview Mr. O'Keefe and why he decided to make this video.

When the CNN reporter asked O'Keefe why he felt the need to go after NPR, he said that since the media wasn't going after these people then he would. The reporter then asked him if he felt like it was wrong to lie to find out this information. This is where O'Keefe said no because thats journalism. That is what the media does. Do I think it is morally wrong for O'Keefe to have lied to get Schiller to admit to this? I really don't know where I stand on it. I believe that it needed to come out one way or another and this seemed like the only way for someone to get it out of him. I see O'Keefe as going after people that need to be exposed. Though his tactics aren't considered "morally correct" he gets the job done and exposes bigger lies and scandals. 

Rocking Around the Clock

I was assigned to Charlotte's blog. She is 6th/7th grade class and lives in Adelaide, Australia. She wrote her blog post on how her classroom is performing a dance called rocking around the clock. She has a dance partner and talks about the different moves they will be doing at the same time. She also states that she is real excited about learning the dance and how it begins with the boys leapfrogging over the girls and then how a couple of them do cartwheels. Her performance was on April 2.

I responded by talking about how dance is a positive thing in our lives and how it can alleviate some of the built up energy from being in a classroom all day. I also talked about the style of dance they were doing and talked about how it is a fun one and its very energetic. I asked her to please post about how it went and asked her was it for a certain class or were they just doing it for fun. She seemed very intellectual and her writing was organized and fluent. 

Mrs. Yollis' Blog

  Mrs. Yollis' blog is well created and easily accessible. She gives information about herself, where her school is located (California), and videos and blog posts of how to do certain things to help her viewers out. It is easy to find out about her students and what they are required to do. She also has a tab called Time Zones of Friends where she has clocks showing what time it is in different parts of the world. When clicking on a link it takes you to her wiki where she explains everything about her blog. Mrs. Yollis has a blog because she loves how it connects the children and parents. She refers to it as Open House. She uses a blog because it helps her students have an authentic audience for their writing, there able to reflect upon lessons, navigate through the Internet,participate and contribute to an online community, and much more!

She involves her students by either assigning them to a post and asking them to comment on it or by allowing them to create a post individually or with another classmate. They can write about what they have learned in class, topics that interest them, a place they have visited, or give tutorials to something they at one time didn't understand or know how to do. They have also posted movies about what they have learned. Mrs. Yollis involves the parents by asking them to comment on the blog post and the students blogs as well. When she creates a new post she will email the parents about it and give them some sample questions to ask or answer about the particular post. She also provides them with a RSS feed. When she started to notice that the comments were coming from the same families, she started the Comment Counters. This is where a student will get a sticker on a chart for each time they comment on the blog and they will also get one for each family member that comments on it as well. This helps plug the parents in because the kids are pushing them to go comment. They involve other classes by participating in their blog posts as well. They leave comments on other students blogs and the same goes for the other students. 

Mrs. Yollis' blog is strictly based on educational purposes. She wants to help her students reach their writing potential. With her blog, she makes sure her students know how to write a comment as well as a post. She has different time zones, and educational links to help her students learn about other things besides what is being taught in her classroom. The How to Comment video was very informative. I like how you can open up the different tabs to collapse other comments or open up the post that you are commenting on. In the video, she gives a great step by step process of how to comment and how to do it properly. I am glad we were able to analyze her blog!

The post on Family Blogging Month was really great. I loved reading all the exceptional comments that parents and students had left. I also loved the fact that Mrs. Yollis asks the parents to be involved. This is something that I want to strive to accomplish in my class and also with my blog. I want to close the gap between school and home for the parents and students. Commenting on her blog had me so worried. I was hoping I wrote everything right so that my comment would get approved. I know I usually do but she puts a lot of pressure on you! I like that because it helps the students make sure their writing is where it needs to be as well.

Adia's Blog: My Brilliant Blog Mascot

 Adia wrote a wonderful blog post about how she has now made a stuffed animal at Build-a-Bear. It has become her mascot for her blog. She named her Angel Face and she loves to practice karate, sing, swim, play the piano,  swing on trees, and of course roller skate. She made a video of Angel Face doing all these activities. It was such a cute video. At the end of the post she asked her readers if they had a mascot and if so what kind.

I talked about how I would like to make a blog mascot from my favorite stuffed animal, Freddie the Frog. He would be a good mascot because I want to decorate my classroom in a tropical rain forest theme. He would be able to watch the students and let me know if they were acting up and also be visible on my classroom blog. I also told her that I have never actually went to Build-a-Bear but that I would love to one day!

Project 15

Final Project Progress Report

For the final project I will be working with Kelsey Robinson. We will be doing an instructional video on how to use Twitter and the benefits of using it as an educator to connect with other educators. We are working on getting material and information about Twitter together and we are excited to learn about Twitter in the process!

Blog Post #12

Pay Attention

Instructions: Watch this video and then comment on the impact that technology makes on students. Do you think technology can be effective in the classroom? How do you feel about using cell phones in the classroom for educational purposes? How do you feel about the high school students answers to the questions? Can we change their outlook on education? 


Answer: This video really made me realize that technology is something that teachers should start incorporating in the classroom. Students use some form of technology everyday. This is something that could help change students perspective of school. They could want to come and learn because they would be engaging in the technologies that they use everyday. Technology could be effective in the classroom if it is used the right way. You could have podcast for the students to learn from, blogs for them to show their writing skills, online test, and so much more! There are so many different things you could do with the technology to help a student learn. This in return could get them excited about coming to school, which could improve their grades.

Cell phones in the classroom would be tricky for me. Like the video said, you could use them for surveys or finding out information about people for a project. But this would be something you would have to watch carefully. It is so easy to send your friend a quick text and you wouldn't want them using them for the wrong purpose. I hated what the high schoolers said about the school and classroom. These are real outlooks from kids who are graduating. It just shows there needs to be a change in the classroom and technology is the way to go. Its the way the world is heading so why not the schools? We can change their outlook on education by providing them a fun relaxing atmosphere when they walk in. By switching things up, the students won't get bored either. One day you could lecture and the following day you could have some expert on the subject your teaching skype your class or they could listen to an educational podcast from another intellectual. The possibilities are endless!

Project 14

    
You have to scroll to see the recipe, but it is there.

Special Assignment #2

Mr. McClung's World

Mr. McClung's blog is an exceptional blog and has allowed me to learn so much about him. By his blog I can tell that he is real passionate about teaching and helping his students become efficient users of technology. I also can tell that he wants his students to feel comfortable in his class and know they can ask a question and not get yelled at for it. He strives to teach them in a positive way while also letting them have fun. I noticed that Mr. McClung really wants to let the parents in on their child's education by having this class blog. The parents are able to access it and see what there child is learning about and share in on their school work. He makes his blog very inviting to the parents and wants them to get involved. As an educator, Mr. McClung strives to be the best that he can be. He tries to engage the students in different learning experiences that will help them when they are in their own careers. By establishing technology into them at a young age, he is showing them that it can be used for educational purposes. This also helps them in learning that they too, will use it one day in a professional setting.

His rules were very short but to the point. He asked his students to basically be an all around good student and to follow instructions in five simple rules.It shows that his teaching is direct and he likes to engage his students in the lessons. His connection with his students is a positive one and it shows that he wants them to be involved. He is definitely big on communication which is excellent! As a student, these rules would make me a little nervous at first because I wouldn't know what to expect from his class. I would be worried that I wouldn't follow the directions quickly or scared I wouldn't make him happy. But I do think after getting to know him, I would see that his expectations are achievable. As an aspiring teacher, I love how creative he was with his rules. He didn't use the usual rules that teachers put up in their classroom. Instead he made his students wonder about him and want to learn from him. He also portrayed that he wanted them to learn together as a whole class and that meant them being involved in the process. The first thing under everyone needs is a day planner-which is sold at school. I believe he put this first because students need to learn to be organized and a planner is the best way to accomplish that. It also will help students to keep up with their work and make sure they have certain things done on the correct days. The penalties for being late on homework assignments in Mr. McClung's class seem fairly reasonable to me. I say this because he states that he keeps homework to a minimum and you have your class period to work on it and as long as you turn it in by the end of the day then you won't be counted off for it. This means when it is not done on time that the student probably didn't work on it in class. That is the students fault for not using their time wisely. When comparing his penalties to Dr. Strange's, I think that we get it better than Mr. McClungs' students. With EDM we have all week to do the work and if were late we don't get a whole letter grade taken off (Dr. Strange doesn't like grades). I love what he has to say about what he hopes his blog will accomplish. He wants to keep everyone informed on what his class is doing while also providing parents, teachers, and students with links they can look into and other sources that will help them out. As an aspiring teacher, I want to establish a secure blog that my students, their parents and anyone else can go to and find out what my class is doing and things that have helped me become a great educator. I want my students to feel like they can find help with their work on my blog as well as show their parents what they have been doing in class. I want to provide other teachers with links to projects, worksheets, etc. that I have use in my classroom.

I decided to look into ConvinceMe.net and kidblog.org.Convince Me is a website set up for people to debate topics that are important to them and to share recent news that has came up. It is a free site and they have three different types of debates. They are: Open, Battle, and King of the Hill. In an open debate you can have multiple debaters all convincing for one side.  In battle it is a one on one debate and King of the Hill is where you are given one main argument and you try to convince members to give you points. The points are given by other competitors siding with your argument and the more points you get, the bigger your photo becomes! You can also link this to your blog and any debates that you give have to restrain from profanity and any personal attacks. You could use this site to have debates with people from around the world or have your students use it in the battle option and debate back and forth on certain issues. I think he put this on his list so that people could have somewhere to go to express how they feel on certain issues and to debate on them. This can help someone make a stand on a certain issue or you could just go read what other people have to say and see what side that you agree with. I think it could also show you the opposing sides argument and why they feel that way. Kid Blog is a website set up for elementary and middle school teachers to create a unique and safe blog. The teacher has total control over the students blog and can access it or restrict things at any time. The blogs are only viewable by the teacher and other classmates. They are no advertisements  and the blogs are simple and easy to use. You could use this to set your students a blog up that is only for them, their classmates, and yourself. It could be about the class homework, assignments, projects, etc. I believe he posted this link to his blog so that teachers and future teachers would have a place to go if they were interested in creating a blog for their students. 

Mr. McClung's rules on internet safety are very detailed. This will help the student to be able to distinguish on what they should put on their blog and what not to put.  They also are told to NEVER put personal information like their last name, address, phone number, etc. He also provides them with an email address if in any case they need to put one on a link they go to. This will ensure that they do not get slammed with spam or anything else. I definitely would not take any of these rules out and if I added one it would be to always ask your parents or teacher for permission to view any webpage that I didn't give a link to. 

The blog post that I had to comment on for C4K was in the categories of social studies and videos. When going and looking in social studies, I found a lot of videos from CNN on current news topics and things that are going on around the world. I decided to look into one of the recent posts about the U.S economy. It more specifically got into the unemployment rates. The post had three graphs in it that talked about unemployment rates between age, gender, and education. The one on age showed true to most statistics. Younger people are unemployed at a higher rate than older people. It also stated that with the economy the way it is, this number is starting to level out! The gender graph showed that men are unemployed more than women because most jobs that have to cut first our industries, construction, warehousing. Most of these jobs are male dominated. The education graph proved that people with the less education are usually the first to be cut. There is a lower percentage of people with college degrees that are cut. This post made me think about how unemployment is still hurting our economy and made me wonder if we will ever get it fixed.

I love how Mr. McClung can have different sections on his blog so that students or parents can easily navigate around. This helps them because there is so much information on his blog. I also like how he has a search engine on his blog where if you can't find something your looking for on his blog, you can just search for it. This helped me a lot when I couldn't find where his safety tips were for Internet use. I would be interested to learn more about Blogger and if we can have these commodities on our blog as well. Mr. McClung makes his blog so accessible to other students, parents, teachers,etc.. As I stated earlier, he seems to genuinely care about helping others navigate around his blog. He makes it easy by having tabs at the top so that people will be able to find what they are looking for. This helps parents find their children's work a lot faster. He also gives helpful links that future teachers, administrators and parents can go to that will help them. All of this makes his blog effective!

Mr. McClung's blog is so different from other 8th grade blogs that I have visited. His blog has more depth to it and really lays out what all the students are doing in his classroom and how he is helping them to understand technology. With his blog you can find something faster than you can on the other blogs that I have visited. His students seem to know what is going on in the society and world around them and their writing is honestly much better than some that I have read on other blogs. I think him really getting his students to think and engage in issues of this world helps make them better citizens. I am very glad that we were able to dissect his blog and learn about what kind of educator Mr. McClung is. This has helped me in a tremendous way and I hope to use this valuable information when I set up a blog for my future students.

Blog Post #11

First Graders In Ms. Cassidy's Class

This was an amazing video that portrayed students working with various types of technology in the classroom. I was shocked to see how many different types they used at such a young age. I love how they talked about each type and then told how it had help them approve on learning skills, writing, and other things that we strive to teach in the classroom. I was taken back with they started talking about their Nintendo DS and how they use them in the classroom. I had never thought about using them in an educational environment. When the students told of how they were used and what they were able to learn from them, I enjoyed seeing this perspective. The teacher really inspired me to use different types of technology in the classroom.

I like the aspect of using these technologies but I have to wonder how do we provide the students with them? I just don't think you could ask  the parents to go out and buy them. I know our school system doesn't have the money to do this either. I think all this sorta depends on the school you are placed at. Though I do like the idea of using all this in my classroom, it will just depend on if the class is given the funding or if the parents can help contribute. I think this is the big issue with technology and anything else, really.

Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy

This was such a great skype interview that really informed me on technology in the classroom. Ms. Cassidy is so passionate with what she does and it really shows when she begins talking about her classroom and students. I loved learning about how she used blogs in the classroom and how she was able to track how many people viewed each students blog and where they were from. This gave the students encouragement. It's nice to see that her principal and school board back her up with the technology. The principal's over time who didn't really like it never discouraged her and that is awesome! I like how she started using technology for her classroom and not personal. I have thought about making separate accounts for my personal and professional sites. She gave so many good viewpoints on why future teachers should respond positively about technology in the classroom. We have a head start on some things and if we start now then it won't be so overwhelming if we decided to use it in the classroom.

I was so glad she talked about twitter. I am definitely one of those students who doesn't take full advantage of  it and doesn't really understand it. It really can be a great learning experience for me and I can get some great ideas from it. I also liked how she talked about how we can use blogs in just about anything we decide to teach by posting assignments, projects, etc. on there. I have never thought about using facebook as an educational tool but you definitely have to be careful with that and do as she said and have your students make a separate account just for school.

I learned a lot about how to keep my students safe in the classroom with the technology. I liked the fact that she talked to her students about technology and how to not put your last name on anything and other types of information that could get you in trouble. I also liked how she taught them to just go to certain websites and not click on the flashy ones on the side. If they have a question they know they can go to their teacher or to their parents and this is a great thing because they know they can trust them. Trust is a major thing that needs to be instilled in the classroom and especially when using technology. Thank you so much for this interview. I hope to remember the things I learned here.

Blog Post 10

An Open Letter To Educators

This was a post about a video that Dan Brown produced on how schools are interfering with education. He talks about how in today's society the world around us is changing and everyone is jumping on board except for our education system. He said you still go into Universities that have one teacher per every 80 to 200 students who doesn't encourage interaction among students and they don't take the time to remember your name or get to know you. You spend an hour sitting in class while the professor is in front of the class lecturing from a power point. You are told to remember the facts that he talks about. Dan goes on to explain that with the use of the internet, all the information is right at our fingers now. We don't have to memorize facts anymore because the professor isn't the only one with this information anymore. The schools just need to jump on board and work with the use of all this information. Dan Brown dropped out of school because he felt it was hindering his education. 

When the video was over, Morgan Bayda goes on to talk about how she agrees with the video and why it had an impact on her. Though she doesn't agree with dropping out of school, she does think that Dan is right about how lecture classes and other things in the school system is being held. There is a need for change or the world will give up on schools. She goes on to talk about how one of her education classes was different thought. She was encouraged to interact with classmates and to use technology such as blogs, twitter, and other articles to improve her education. 

I really enjoyed this blog post. Like so many of the other videos and post we have looked at, it talks about how the school system needs to be changed. This is something that is talked about but when will it be put into action? Like Dan said, if something doesn't happen soon then the use for schools and universities will not be needed. I know that some of my classes are a complete waste of time and money. I pay a lot of money to be in these classes and then we meet to hear these lectures that I don't need to hear. I never open my textbooks; I have even gotten to the point where I don't buy them anymore. Anything I can find in them, I can find on the internet. Now I'm not saying that I would go as far as to dropping out of school because honestly, most jobs now require you to have a college education. Whether I like it or not, I will need a job and a career. I want to influence people to make this change occur and not only talk about it but to put my words into actions!

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

This was a very fun and informative blog to read. It was about pencils and how one teacher did not want students to take them home because she saw a study that showed if a student took the pencils home it would decrease their score on a standardized test. The other teacher makes an argument that the study is only comparing it to standardized tests and does not have any other information proving this but the teacher won't budge. She then starts to talk about how if they take them home they will only play horrible games like hangman and not do productive stuff.  The fellow teacher goes on to explain that what he does is make sure he has something interactive and fun his students can take home and do so that they will be doing something productive but if by chance they do play hangman then he is okay with it. He says that there is something they can learn from this and that he can't stop them anyways.

This post is about how teachers focus on the problem more than they focus on the solution. One teacher is so busy worrying about test scores and what will happen if the students take the pencils home and the other is thinking about how he can allow them to take the pencils home but still be in control of the situation at hand. As teachers we will be faced with many problems but this doesn't mean that we are to just take away something. Instead, we need to find ways to make it better for the students without taking away their rights. If we give them options then it will be a lot more beneficial then just taking things away from them. This will also help us to come up with ideas to keep learning fun so that the students do not become bored and uninterested. I will remember these things when I become a teacher to better help my students!

Comments for Teachers

C4T #3

I had the privilege of being able to read and comment on Ms. Jenny She's blog. She did her blog post about Why Teachers Should Never Give Up On Students? She talked about how even though there are times we want to give up we know that the kids need us. She posted an amazing youtube video on a little boy picking up starfish and throwing them into the sea. A man tells him that he can't make a difference because there is too many of them and so the little boy picks up another starfish and throws it in the sea and says he just made a difference in that ones life. 

This video was such an inspiration to me. When we get down and think we will not be able to make a difference in every child's life we just need to remember that each child we encounter, we can make a difference! I responded by talking about the video and thanking her for posting it for others to see. I will remember this when I am having a bad day!

C4T #4

I had to go back a few post to find one that was relevant to teaching because she hasn't posted in awhile. I found this one on her teaching about the Mighty Mariners. After teaching about them, she asked her students to draw pictures of a waka. A waka is a canoe in Maori. The slide show depicted the waka's in an amazing way. The students used a lot of color and you could see the definite shape of the waka. Her students are very artistic!

 

I posted about how the pictures were beautiful and how I had never learned about the Mighty Mariners or what a waka was. After reading her post, I decided to google it and find out more information on it. This is something that I found quite interesting and that I think I would like to incorporate into a history lesson one day!