Blog Post #5 Part 2

My Personal Learning Networks have grown throughout the semester. I've talked to some teachers that I'd love to stay in touch with. Two of those were met during my observation hours. One taught 1st grade and the other taught 3rd. I loved both of their views and how they taught. Another is the teacher I interviewed for Project #10. I had her for a teacher and she's just awesome. I know I could go to her with any question and she'd give me a very straight answer. Here is my video of her: (Mrs.Anita).
I think I'd like to start subscribing to some blogs to follow. Blogs will be a great way to see how other teachers use their skills and can give me some ideas of how I might want to set up my own classroom. They are also a good way to meet other teachers and contact them. I can comment with questions or even find their e-mail address. I also love the idea of using Youtube. Youtube is a great tool to use. If I don't understand something, there are always thousands of Youtube videos I can refer to. One other website to use is Pinterest. It seems kind of dumb to people who don't use it, but Pinterest is such a great place to keep everything organized, which is great for me because I like organization!
Things I would most likely not use would be Twitter. I very rarely get on my normal twitter anymore. It just really ran its course very quickly. I just know that I would not get on it very often. Also, as much as I love Instagram, I can't see it being a very useful PLN. Perhaps if I search hashtags for teacher's rooms or something, it could give me ideas. I just don't see it being incredibly helpful.
All in all, there are lots of opportunities to form PLNs. Whether it be on the internet or real life. I can't wait to see what the future of my PLNs is. I'm sure I will meet many more teachers, read more blogs, find more things on Pinterest and watch more videos (probably hundreds of those). These will only expand my being as a teacher. They will help improve who I am and what I want to be.

Summary Post C4T Teacher #4

Post #1
I posted on a blog called Ideas and Thoughts. The author wrote about how data and numbers ruin the game. He told a story how he was playing golf and had a great time and played fairly well, but not great. He was so focused on the fact that his numbers were bad that it took the enjoyment out of the beautiful, fun day he had. He said the same applies for people learning. I responded by saying that I do the same thing sometimes. I ride horses competitively and I may have a great round, but make a small mistake and end up with a fifth place ribbon instead of first. So then I'm too disappointed that I didn't take the class to focus on how great me and my horse just worked together and how much fun I had. I then said I see how it applies to learning also. We need to figure out how to take some of the focus and pressure off the grades and keep learning fun and optimistic.
Ideas and Thoughts


Post #2 I posted on A GeekyMomma's Blog. Her post was about how we don't discipline students anymore. Now teachers get in trouble if they try to do anything to make a student behave. I agreed with her. Kids are allowed to get away with everything and teachers can't say anything. We need to change this way of thinking.
A GeekyMomma's Blog

C4K Summary for November

Post #1
I commented on Rohaan's blog. His post was about Halloween and how much he loves it and candy. He also talked about Christmas and what he got for the past two Christmases. His blog post had a lot of grammatical and spelling errors and it was very random. But it was really funny and you could tell he was passionate about what he wrote. I wrote back about how I was a hotdog for Halloween (true story) and how you could tell he really likes candy. I told him his blog was good and he gives a lot of detail, and maybe just to have someone proof read his posts really well.
Rohaan's Blog

Post #2
I commented on Nathan's blog from Mrs.Meyer's Art Room, Period Three GR8. He did a video about Picasso that he posted to youtube. He put in several facts about Picasso, but here's the kicker: He put it all to the tune of The Big Bang Theory theme song and he sang it and played his guitar! It was really cool. I told him he did an awesome job because he did something really different but got the job done.
Nathan's Blog

Post #3
I commented on Laura's blog. She wrote the beginning of a story called "The Day a Part of Me Died". It was about a 17-year-od girl who's mother and sister were killed in a car accident. I will include the link at the bottom, I strongly encourage anyone to read it. It's three paragraphs long, but I think you'll be amazed by the fact that an 8th grader wrote this. She used great descriptions, metaphors, similes and had no grammar or spelling errors. She's a good writer.
Laura's Blog

Blog Post #14

How To Escape Education's Death Valley

I chose this video because I was interested to see what Ken Robinson thought about our education. I've heard many people talk about how education is going in the toilet bowl (especially in Mobile). I wanted to know how to get out of this, how to be a teacher that didn't fail her students.

Diversity
I would love to make sure that my kids don't all have to conform to the same idea as every student before them. Ken made an amazing point by saying that the world says kids are diverse, they recognize it, yet in school they are expected to all learn the same exact way. And then we're are surprised when everyone but little Johnny did great on a test. It's because Johnny doesn't learn well by doing what the other students do to learn. I was talking to a teacher during my observation that said that one thing that may work with all of her students one year may not work with her students next year. For example, her kids this year loved working in groups and excelled with it. But the year before, those students did not benefit from group work. I have to point out that I loved his point about ADHD. My sister is a psychologist, she just graduated with her masters in May. She always talked about how so many kids were diagnosed with ADHD and how she thought it was incredibly over-diagnosed. Ken is saying the same thing: if you sit kids down for hours on end staring at a board, "don't be surprised when they start to fidget." He also says that arts and humanities are important. Some kids aren't great at math or science or English, but can probably play the piano like it's no one's business. I want to make sure I incorporate fun things like songs and lots of visuals into my learning, to keep kids interested and appeal to those with musical and art talents.

Curiosity
People naturally want to learn, but I think education has kind of killed that want by making it boring. I want to be a great teacher by keeping kids wanting to learn on their own. I don't want to have to fight my kids to keep their attention, I want them coming and asking what we'll be learning that day. The best way I'll be able to do that is by using technology, sounds, visuals, things that make get them interested. Ken says standardized testing is important, yes, but does not need to be dominant. When I was in school and even in some college classes I took, you knew you had a test or quiz every week. And it was not fun. I can say that in my geography class I am in now, I have fun. I was leery at first because I had never had a class that was group based or PBL based. But in this class we have sporadic quizzes and three tests (very little testing). We mostly have group projects and it's been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot without cramming my brain and stressing about tests.

Creativity
This one kind of ties with the first two. This focuses on kid's diversity and their curiosity. Creativity helps bring out those two things. I want to be a creative teacher. Like I've said, many visuals and sounds, but also I want to give interesting assignments. I want to give fun and creative projects so the kids want to do it.

To sum up, this video made me want to be a teacher that helps her kids want to learn. I want to plant the seed in their head that they can really love learning and they can have fun figuring things out on their own.

Project #12 Part B

Blog Post #13

What do elementary students think about technology use in the classroom?

A lot of times, people get so focused on what parents and teachers think of technology in the classroom. We even talk to older students about it. But what do the younger kids think? Watch these videos and then answer these questions:
What did the students seem to like most about using technology in their classes?
What did they not like?
Finally, did these videos encourage you more to using technology in your classroom? Why or why not?
(The last video is not exactly from a students point-of-view, but watch their reactions to using technology)

2nd Grade Students at T Clay Wood Elementary talk about Technology
Elementary Student Blogs: Innovative Classroom Technology
Mobile Technology- Benefits for Students with Special Needs at Eastern Howard Elementary School

What did the students seem to like most about using technology in their classes?
The students thought using different devices was fun or entertaining. Almost every kid said they loved using it, it made things fun for them. They liked that they were learning to use many different tools. They love that it's hands on and there are many different exciting ways to learn a new idea. I noticed they all liked different technologies. One liked the Kindle Fire, one liked the iPad, another liked the computer. Overall, they enjoy it much more than just books and paper work. Using iPads or Kindles or the internet opens their minds up and they can explore all new ways to learn.

What Did They Not Like?
Not a thing! I watched several videos, including these. Every kid in every video was obviously very enticed by the use of technology. No one had a negative thing to say and if you watch all the videos, you notice not a single kid is sitting there bored.

Did These Videos Encourage You? Why or why not?
Absolutely! I loved the way the kids were actually interested in what they were learning. It was awesome for a future teacher to see so many children excited about learning. I think that technology use is going to certainly benefit teachers just as much as it will students. With students ready to learn and looking forward to what they are going to use that day to do so, it's less work for the teacher to keep the students attention. They don't have to stand up there trying to make words from a textbook sound remotely interesting. They just have to point them to the webpage where they can discover things for themselves and have all sorts of hands-on experiences!

Blog Post #12

Blog Post #12

Project #10

Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

The Fischbowl

Post #1
I posted on the Fischbowl. The author wrote two questions for us to answer: What do your last five tweets/posts/snapchats/instagrams/fill-in-the-blanks say about you? What do you want them to say about you? I wrote that I chose my Instagram then I listed my pictures: the weather for the weekend, my horse, my boyfriend leading in a foal, my boyfriend watching TV and a picture of me. I wrote that I think they say I love the outdoors, horses, my boyfriend and myself. And then I put that that is what I want them to say, because those things are true.
What do your last five tweets say about you?

Here are two of my pictures I was talking about:




Post #2
I posted again, on the Fischbowl. This time the author wrote about homework. To sum it up, his post basically said homework does not do much for students. They did some research and according to the results, homework only brought up test grades a couple of points and made no significant impact on their overall grade. He says teachers give three basic reasons for assigning homework: 1. Students need the practice. 2.I can't cover the curriculum unless I give homework. 3.It teaches responsibility. He then disputes each of these reasons: 1.They've proved the extra practice makes little difference. 2.Change the curriculum instead of force more onto the kids. 3.There are better ways to teach responsibility. I basically agreed with what he said. I said that I remember the days of tons of homework. I wrote that kids are already putting in eight hours a day at school, then they are expected to go home and do two or more hours of extra work. I said this is why kids don't want to get outside anymore, because after all that they just want to stare at a screen so their brain doesn't have to do much of anything.
Data-Driven Schools: Homework

Blog Post #11

Questions are everything in the classroom. When opening a new lesson, it's important to have a question ready to ask. This gets the kids motivated on answering that and hopefully they'll pay more attention to your lecture to try to find the solution. Also incorporating new ideas, like showing more videos in class is a great idea. When I was in school, teachers would show a whole class period worth of video and by the middle of it, kids were bored. I think it's important to just show a three or four minute video that ties into your lecture to reiterate your point. Review is also important. A lot of times when I was in school teachers would just dismiss the class. It's a good idea to ask some review questions after the lecture and maybe even a few at the beginning of the next class.
The biggest thing I learned from these videos is that teaching is certainly changing. There's so much more technology being used in class. Kids are working in groups much more. It used to be just a few projects were done in a year as a group. Now it's pretty much every project and even many times everyday work. And kids are loving it. It's exciting and fun for them. It's being used from kindergarten to high school. PBL teaches kids to think independently rather than having a teacher tell them what to learn and then having them repeat it all back. It gets them thinking like they are in the real world already, even at a young age. While some people view this as a bad thing, like they are being pushed to grow up too fast, I see it as good. So many people enter the real world having no idea what it's about. Having them doing projects in school that have them actually exploring reality builds social skills, understanding of the world and prepares them for what they will have to deal with one day. I think it takes education to a new level by giving students a brand new, hands on experience. And being in groups gives them help they may not get otherwise. They'll have help forming the project and have peer editing so few to no mistakes are made.
Basically, project based learning is taking over in schools and we don't need to run from it. We need to embrace it. It teaches kids skills they will need later in life, forms bonds they may not have made otherwise, get's them excited about what they are learning, has them using technology, I could go on and on. The great possibilities are bountiful and still growing!

Project #14

Lesson Plan
Calender
Group Rubric
Individual Rubri