Blog Post 14

1. I think that I missed the metaphor in Tom Johnson's post because I was taking the story to serious and literal. Once Dr. Strange pointed out that I missed the mark on this assignment I went back to reread it. I definitely noticed the metaphor this time around.
2. Some of the metaphors that I have encountered are "think outside of the box", "one sided", and "ace in the hole". A common metaphor we use in my family is "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree". I have told myself to "go back to the drawing board" a couple of times. I was listening to a speaker a couple weeks ago and she used the metaphor "be the sunshine", I loved that saying. I have heard things like "you have a chip on your shoulder", "at the drop of a hat", and "a wild goose chase" just by simply listening to people talk to each other. I have realized that all of us use metaphors on a daily bases and my not even realize it. It seems metaphors are a part of our language.
3. Some things that we can do as educators to help our students to understand and to use metaphors would be to point out the metaphor when you say or read them. You could also acknowledge when the student says them aloud. We could encourage the students to use metaphors in there writing assignments and in conversations with others. I always looked at metaphors as something fun to learn. I think if you make the topic of metaphors non-intimidating to the students then they would be more edger to learn what they are an how to use them.
4. I think we use metaphors because they help us get our points across. A metaphor can help you communicate something with a lot of meaning in a couple of words. I think that we also use metaphors to make our writings and speech more interesting and lively to whoever is reading or listening. I think that metaphors are fun to use and I love it when I hear one that I have not heard before. So the question is why not use metaphors?

Final Report on PLN

Let me start of by saying that I am very thankful that I have been introduced to Symbaloo. It has made my life much easier when I am searching for things on the internet. I have all of my most visited and favorite sites on my main webmix page. I love this because everything is right there and I can go to any of my sites by simply clicking the tiles. I also think it is great that I can create different webmix pages to fit my preferences. I can have all of my school things on one webmix and my miscellaneous sites on a different webmix. Another thing that I enjoy about Symbaloo is that I can access it anywhere on any computer. This is convenient because if I make a tile for something that I am working on then I don't have to worry about remembering the web address. I find that Symbaloo is so easy to use and navigate through. I plan to keep using the Symbaloo site and look forward to adding new information to it.

C4T#4

Angela M. Rand

Blog Site

Post done on November 7,2010 titled: Expert & Novice

In this post Ms. Rand is writing about how she became an expert in technology. She states that to be an expert you have to have ten years of experience or 10,000 hours in that particular field. She became an expert by being able to work with the things that she was learning about. She also wrote about how she had the desire to keep learning new things about the technology world. She points out that she was not particularly gifted in math and science, but through her friends teaching her she gained confidence. She makes the point that if you are passionate about something that you should seek out information about it even if their is no one there to help you. Ms. Rand gives the advise to surround yourself with other people who are passionate about the same things that you are.  This could help the learning process because they will be talking about the topics most of the time.
I responded to her post by writing that I thought it was great how passionate she was about something. I told her about how before EDM310 I did not know to much about technology. I have learned a lot in this class and I am still learning. I made the comment that now I don't only look up how to use technology for my assignments but just for fun as well. I agreed that I thought it would be a good idea to surround yourself with people who share the same interest. I thanked her for your post and her ideas.

Post done on January 26, 2011 title: Professional Motivation

In this post Ms. Rand is writing about what motivates her. She says that her main motivation is that she loves learning new things. She writes that it is her passion to read and learn new traits of all kinds. Ms. Rand says that she gets great satisfaction when she learns something new and teaches it to someone else. When that happens she feels that the circle as been completed. She goes on to write about how she has read that humans only use 10% of their brain and how she disagrees with that statement. She feels that she can make the effort to use more than 10% of her brain by always looking at learning as a positive thing and realize that she has not reached her full potential. She goes on to write about how sometimes things get rough. She says that when a mountain is blocking her path then there is usually an alternate way around it. She says that understanding her options means that she needs to learn more about the situation and then she can move on.
I responded to her post by writing that I thought that it is great that learning new things motivates her. I go on to say that I think for the most part everyone is like that. I think that as human beings we should always want to motivate ourselves to move forward not backward. I wished her luck on her learning journey and thanked her for her time.

Comments4Kids Summary #3

Mr. McClung Lesson Two-Club Day:
In the lesson two-club day post Mr. McClung writes about the monthly Wii club meeting. He writes that at the beginning of the year they encourage all of the student to join a club. The club he is in charge of is the Wii club. On the day they meet they spend about thirty minutes hanging out and playing the Wii on the screen in the classroom. He likes that the clubs are in place because it give them a chance to have a nice break from there normal routine. He also thinks it gives them a chance to build on there student teacher relationships.
I responded to this post by writing that I thought that having a Wii club is a great idea. Not only does it get the kids up and moving but they are learning about technology at the same time. I also thought that it was good that there was an opportunity to build on the student teacher relationships. I thought the idea of this club would be great to have in place at any school.

ZM
In this sixth grade Egyptian class blog I read a post about the date January 25th, which is Police day also known as Protesting day in Egypt. The student writes about how they did not have school on this day, and how this was the day that the youth rose up with there decision for their country's benefit. They wrote about how the government did not allow access to any communication devices such as cell phones or internet. The writer goes on to say that on February 8 they got to attend their first day of class with live session on Vyew.com. They said that most of the classmates enjoyed this style of learning over spending six hours at school.
I responded back by writing that I enjoyed reading their blog. I thought it was interesting to get see their point of view of what was going on in Egypt. I made the comment that I was unaware that the government cut off all communication devices. I asked if the decision had been changed or was it still in place. I also told them I thought it was an interesting idea that they can have there classes on Vyew.com. I thought that they seemed to really enjoy it.
The writer responded back by informing me that the government did in fact allow access to communication devices again.

Ms. Yollis' 3rd Grade Class Blog:
I thought Mrs. Yollis' class bog was great. This blog page is so easy to navigate and there is not a lot of clutter on it. I really enjoyed her instructional videos on how to leave a comment and the tutorial of HTML codes. I think these could be beneficial to everyone not just her student. I also thought it was great to include and encourage family members to post onto the blog. Mrs. Yollis accomplishes this by assigning certain months family blogging months. I love this idea because it helps keep in touch with the family members and leaves and open line of communication between her and the parents. Looking through this class blog you could tell that the students are very involved and seem to enjoy all the different components of it. I was happy to get a chance to see a blog page of an elementary grade level. After this assignment I am more sure that one day I hope to have my own class blog.

Grace from Ms. Yollis' class:
In Grace's blog page she wrote about how to write a quality comment. She gave step-by-step instruction about the process. Grace wrote about how you should make a connection, leave a question in your post,  make sure to comment back, and finally to make sure you proof read your comment. She also used great illustrations throughout her post.

I responded to Grace by first thanking her for commenting on our class blog page. I wrote that I thought that they made some great points throughout there post. I made the comment that I hope to one day have a class blog page of my own. I asked for more information about how they earn student blogs. I continued to tell her that her post about how to write a quality comment was great. I told her that the things that she wrote about was things that I was learning about in EDM310. I wished her luck with her future blogging.

Project #16 Final Project

Blog Post 13

ALEX
The Alabama Learning Exchange, also known as ALEX, is basically a one-stop place for educators and administrators to find all kinds of educational materials. Educators are sharing there knowledge on this site with others to hopefully help the students of Alabama. ALEX is accessible for everyone to use. You can simply go to the website and have access to lesson plans, web links, and other useful materials for different subject areas. This site covers all of the core curriculum areas while still incorporating technology into things. One of the best parts in my opinion is that everything on the ALEX website is within the Alabama state standards.

Some of the resources available on the ALEX website is lesson plans, courses of study, web links, podcast treasury, personal workspace, and professional learning. In the lesson plans section you simple choose your curriculum, grade level and any keywords your looking for and click the display results button. A number of lesson plans are right at your finger tips in a matter of seconds. The courses of study resource is something that is very similar to the lesson plans icon. All you have to do is choose the curriculum and the topic that your looking for and scroll through to find what you need. This allows you to see standards and lesson plans that fall into that category. It also provide you access to web links if there are any available. The personal workspace is something that you could use to for storing and submitting lesson plans and teacher web pages. The podcast treasury section gives you access to a number of different podcast in all different subject areas. All you have to do is choose which one you would like to watch and listen to.

I think personally that the Alabama Learning Exchange is something that I will be using during my teaching career. I think this website is useful to all educators but especially new educators. This will help me get different ideas to use in the classroom, as well as see what others are already doing in there classroom. I love the that if I am having problems coming up with an idea for a topic that I can simply go to this website for help. At the touch of a key I can obtain a number of web links, podcast, lesson plans that go with the state standards, and much more. I am happy that I now know about this site I am sure I will be using it in the near future.

Project #16 Progress Report

Amanda Spence and I are going to make a video on how to incorporate technology into the classroom with fun learning games. I look forward to this assignment because it will be something that I can use in my own classroom one day.

Project#15 Book Trailer

Blog Post 12

Watch the video What is the next generation learning?(3mins 32sec). Write 2-3 paragraphs that answer the following questions. What are your thoughts on this video? Do you think this video portrays accurately what the next generation is learning? Would the things that were shown in this video be something that you would like to use in your own classroom one day? Do you think students today would prefer this style of teaching and learning over the more traditional out dated approach that we use today?

My Example:
I really enjoyed this video! I thought it was an eyeopener to see what we could actually do in the classroom with technology. In that particular school everything revolved around technology from there lunch menu to there homework assignments. I think that if schools were like this everywhere the options would be endless of what we could accomplish as teachers. I would love to use some of the things I saw in this video in my own classroom one day. I particularly liked the class answering questions as a whole using voting systems this can allow the teacher to see where the class stands on the topic and allows the more shy students to still have a voice in the classroom.
I think today's students would definitely prefer this style of teaching over how most schools and teachers teach today. Today students love to use technology anytime they can. It seemed in the video that the students were engaged and interested into what they were learning. I also think that parents would prefer this method as well. They could see exactly how there child is doing and what is going on in there school. This would mean no more signed progress reports and also would not allow the students to tell there parents that they have no homework because everything will be online for them to see at anytime. I hope that one day education goes more toward this direction.

Special Assignment-Mr. McClung's World

1. Going through Mr.McClung's World I noticed that he is a very organized person. He has everything in categories so that his students and anyone else looking at his blog can find what they are looking for without a lot of trouble. He also seems very detailed oriented and is involved into many different activities, and seems to like to have his students involved in other things as well.
2. I would say that Mr. McClung is a very interactive teacher. I think he is probably the kind of teacher that thinks outside of the box when teaching his lessons. While reading his blog it seems that his students respond to him well so that leads me to believe that there is a mutual respect in the classroom between him and his students. I believe what Mr. MCclung writes which is that he try's to keep things as fresh as possible and fun for his students.
3. I thought Mr. McClung's class rule were good rules to have in place. I thought that they were not to wordy but they were to the point. I like that he has word phrases in place that mean certain things to the class when said. I personally liked the teach-ok one. I think it is a great idea to have students explain what they just learned to another student. It not only could help the student learning but also help the student teaching. I also believe that his rules set high expectations for his students which I think is great. Usually when expectations are set a child does not want to disappoint the person who set those expectations so the child does what they need to do. I believe the rules that Mr.McClung has in place in his class could be put in place in any classroom setting and work.
4. The first thing under what everyone needs is a day planner. I think that is important for the same reasons we have our checklists in this class. This will allow the student to put in due dates of assignments and see what they have coming up. I know it helps me plan out how much time each day I need to spend on a certain assignment. Overall I think he has it listed as the first thing because the key is to stay well organized in his class.
5. If homework is late in Mr.McClung's class then it results in a loss of a letter grade each day it is late. I think that is fair because the students should already have due dates organized in there day planners. This is similar to the grading system in this class in the way of if classwork is late it results in a lose of a letter grade.
6. I think it is great that Mr. McClung uses his class blog as a way to communicate with students, parents, and other teachers. This allows for an open line of communication for everyone, which is something I hope to achieve in my own class one day. This also cuts back on paper use which saves time and money not to mention better for the environment. Overall it is like Mr.McClung wrote "our classroom blog will be the vehicle that drives majority of the technology in our classroom".
7. The first site I went to was the Biology Corner site. In this site I found all of the worksheets that the students need for different labs that they would be doing throughout the year. I believe that Mr. McClung put this as a useful link because it allows the student to have assess to the lab information at any time. That could help the student come to class prepared to do what ever the lab was that particular day.
Another site I found interesting was the site called Convince Me. In this site you are allowed to start any debate that you would like. At first I thought why would Mr.McClung put this as a useful link. Then I thought maybe he is trying to teach his student to express themselves. This is something that they can use to help argue in a healthy way how they feel about a particular topic. Now I think it is a useful link to have.
8. I thought the internet safety rules he has in place are good ones. I thought that they were very clear to read and understand. There was no need for discussion on any of the rules. They are also easy to remember which is good because the student should not have to constantly go back to check if they are within the guidelines. I personally do not think I would change any of the rules the only thing that I might have added would be to be cautious about phrases you type in to search.
9. I was assigned to the post Lessons Learned/Lesson Two-Club Day. In this post Mr. McClung is writing about there monthly Wii sports club meeting. He writes about how for about thirty minutes they talk and play different Wii sport games on there projection screen. He says that not only does meeting with the club provide a nice break during the week, but it allows to further build teacher student relationships. I thought the idea of this club was great. Not only are the students learning things about technology but they are getting up and moving around. I thought this club idea was interesting and wonder if more schools have something like this in place.
10. To start off with Mr. McClung's blog is wonderful. I feel that I still have a lot to learn about all of the ways to use my blog page. I hope to fully take advantage of a class blog in the future when I have my own classroom. I notice in his blog it has so much information and links to everything. It is also very detailed about his classes, but at the same time he makes it fun for his students still. One thing that I like in particular on his blogger is the visitor location and the live traffic feed bars. This would be something interesting for students or even yourself for that matter to see who in the world is reading your blogger and what they are reading for that matter. I hope to one day achieve a great blogger.
11. Mr. McClung makes his blog useful to everyone in the way of it can be used by everyone not just his student. Parents can use it to get information about what there child is doing in the class. Administrators can use it as a tool to find out what the students and teachers are accomplishing in there studies. Of course students can use it to obtain information about there classes and to use it as a navigation tool. People like me can use it to learn get ideas and advise about all different kinds of topic. All of these thing are possible because the blog is set up in a way that is easy to navigate through and there is no hidden secrets in it.
12. The main way that Mr. McClung's 8th grade blog differ from other blogs that I have seen is that it is not one sided. Like I pointed out earlier, it is useful to everyone not just his students. I think that he has an overall interest in what he does as a teacher. Another thing that he has that some don't is excitement. You can tell in his class blog that there is a level of excitement in his work and his students work. I think the main thing that makes his blog different is that he makes it fun and entertaining for everyone.
13. Mr. McClung's blog is a very useful tool to have as a bookmark. I think that I will more than likely be going back every so often to see what new things his classes are up to. His blog is very inspiring and at the same time it is fun and interesting to go through.

Teach Someone Something Project #14

In this video I am teaching the dance steps to the song "Its Peanut Butter Jelly Time".
Dance Steps to the song:
-Step One 1-16- 8 criss cross jumps
( jump crossing R foot in front, Jump with feet apart, counts 1-2 repeat 8 times)
-Step Two 1-16- Moving to the R- step R, close L, Step R, Tap L.
Reverse, moving to the left, this movement is done during the chorus with the words peanut butter/ jelly.
-Step Three 1-16- Scissors jumps counts 1-6 then hold counts 7-8 then repeat for another 8 count. This is done during “Peanut butter/ jelly wit a baseball bat…”
-Step Four 1-16- Stomp R foot out in front and drag back and tap (counts 1-2). Stop L foot out in front and drag back and tap (counts 3-4). Stomp R foot out in front and drag back and tap (counts 5-6). Stomp R foot out in front and drag back and tap (counts 7-8). Repeat starting with left foot.
-Repeat Step 2
-Repeat Step 3
-Step Five- Free Style for two six counts
- Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 ,4
- Repeat steps 1, 2, 3, 4
- Free style

Blog Post 11

Ms. Cassidy
After I watched the video: First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class, and the skype interview.  I thought wow that was pretty impressive.  Ms. Cassidy using technology in so many different ways in her classroom.  She has her students blog, do videos, skype with other people, and talk with people all over the world and they are only first graders.  In the video it seemed that the students had large interest in learning how to use technology to there advantage.  Ms. Cassidy started using technology in her classroom ten years ago when she received five computers for her class.  She stated that the computers had no programs on them but they did have internet so she figured out what she could use the internet for in her classroom and it just kept growing.  She has not had a tremendous amount of support from administration but at the same time no one is telling her that she can not do what she is doing.  I thought an obstacle would be to get permission from the parents to allow there child's work be posted on the internet, but Ms. Cassidy actually said that the parents have no problem with it.  In fact that they like that they can be able to look at there child's work anytime they are at the computer.  I think what she is doing with her first graders is what should be going on everywhere.  
I can not help but to think about that I did not have my first real computer class until I was in the sixth grade and all we mainly were taught was key placement.  The first graders in Ms. Cassidy's class knew more about the uses of technology than I did until I became a EDM310 student.  Maybe if I would have had a class like hers I would have not have been so stressed out at the beginning of this class.
I hope to use technology in my classroom the same way that Ms. Cassidy does.  I also hope that I keep learning and incorporating new things into the classroom.  One thing I have noticed when I am out at some of the schools is that lack of computers in the classrooms.  I have not been to a school yet that has had more than two computers in there classroom.  I think this is where if it is available to you that the smartboards would be helpful.  One thing I really liked in the video was when it showed the students talking with a geologist about different kinds of rocks.  To me this was such a great idea to bring experts into your classroom via skype to help get your lessons across.  
I know I still have a lot to learn but I am learning.  I think that using my PLN's and things like twitter and facebook will be great resources that I can use to obtain information needed or if I come into something that I could get some help with.  I found Ms. Cassidy's video and interview very helpful and inspiring.  I look forward to having my future students one day using technology in the classroom in so many different ways.