Blog post 10

Blog Post # 10

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture
Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon. Mr. Pausch is famous for the last speech he gave before he lost his long-time battle with pancreatic cancer. . In his video, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, he discusses many of his techniques of teaching. One goal he used was achieving your childhood dreams. He addresses childhood dreams and tells ways that people can achieve them. He tells us how he once achieved his own childhood dreams and how he would like to help others achieve their dreams. In his speech he tells of the importance of having fun, doing the unthinkable, helping others, and overcoming obstacles that people face.
Dr. Pausch used an example of a brick walls in his speech. He believes that brick wall are put into place in life for a reason. One of the main reason they are put into place is to show us how much we want something and to let us know that nothing we want in life is easy. We have to work hard to get the things that we want.
Other methods that Dr.Pausch used in his classroom were the use of technology and team work. He wanted students to teach and learn from themselves. His students were assigned projects with their group, and they completed them and presented them, then moved on to the next assignment together.
This video has taught me to try to help my students overcome the obstacle that they may be facing. The video also taught me to always follow my dreams and encourage my students to follow theirs as well. i also learned that when students come together for a task, they can complete it using teamwork. Teamwork encourages students to work together and learn from each other. Dr. Pausch's video taught me a lot about learning. He taught me that you're never too old to learn and follow your dreams. I was also taught that learning is not always easy, but I will have to work hard for the things that I really want.

project 12 SMART-BOARD PART A

podcast project 9

blog post 9

project 10 green screen

Blog post 8

I believe that there is a lot that can be learned about teaching and learning on Mr. Paul Andersen’s blog. Mr. Andersen has created a blog that he has added hundreds of science videos to. Most of the videos have been translated into other languages. His blog has taught me that teaching is not just for the classroom. Teaching can be expanded to others outside of the classroom. Mr. Andersen teaches in a high school and online using YouTube. His videos help students all over the world understand biology. Anyone that has a desire to learn can learn outside of the classroom using resources such as Twitter and YouTube. I watched a few of the videos from his blog and learned that science can be fun if the teacher makes it fun. In fact, any subject can be fun if the teacher strives to make it fun for his or her students.
THE BLENDED LEARNING CYCLE
Mr. Andersen proves the statement to be true “Teachers never stop learning.” Teachers can learn and gain inspiration from others if they allow themselves to keep learning. Mr. Andersen collects many great teaching ideas from other teachers' videos and from trips that he has taken over the summer. His video about the blended learning cycle has taught me some good ways to get students involved in the classroom. This video has taught me to never stop learning from others. He tells us that a teacher must combine online, mobile, and classroom learning. The teacher then introduces the learning cycle, which consists of engaging, exploring, explaining, expanding, and evaluating a subject. When teaching his students, he starts with a good question. He then allows his students to Investigate and inquire about the question. He allows his students to view videos, followed by a period of elaboration. Once elaboration is complete, he requires a review. He sits down with each student and throughly questions them; he makes sure that they understand the lesson before allowing them to move on. After all of this is complete, the students are given a summary quiz.

C4T 2

http://willrichardson.com/

Education as a Public Good

Mr. Richardson believes that all Americans need to raise their productivity through better education in order to get good future jobs. Productivity should be raised for early childhood on up to high school level students. In order to raise productivity, the public must change how they finance public education. Mr. Richardson thinks that it is crazy that public schools are still funded by local property taxes.The reason he thinks that this is a bad idea is because some cities have more expensive property than others and bring in more tax dollars.He does not think that this is fair to poor school districts.

I agree with him. The state should come up with a better way to fund schools. Maybe they should collect all of the tax money and divide it up among all of the public schools.If they did this then each public school would have the same amount of funds and students could get the education they need to obtain higher paying jobs.

Higher Ed is the Province of the High Achieving and the Wealthy

This blog post raises very important issues with the college systems in America. According to the post, most universities are set up to only accept the wealthy or high achieving students. Although the G.I. Bill and Great Society were originally set up to help middle class students get into good schools, they are doing little to help get these students into good universities. Most state schools are low on funds and private schools are too expensive for the middle class to afford, this situation makes it harder for middle class students to get into good schools.
Although it is wrong to have universities set up this way, it is common in most states. The simple fact of the matter is money talk. This practice is unfair to young deserving students. Students growing up in richer families have better grades and higher standardized test scores than middle and lower class people. I think that standardized tests should be done away with to give all students a fair chance at a higher education.

BLOG POST 7

kabrina
Voice Recognition Software
What is Assistive Technology? Assistive technology is any device that helps disabled children or adults learn. These devices enhance learning, remove barriers, and give hope to disabled students. Without these devices, students would have a harder time participating in class. Voice recognition software is a great assistive tool that helps disabled students keep up in the classroom. Voice recognition software turns spoken words into typed words on the computer screen. This device can be very beneficial to students with visual and mobility impairments. Voice recognition software helps empower students and gives them a sense of independence by allowing them to write their own papers without the assistance of others. This tool can also be beneficial to teachers by giving them written evidence of the students’ progress. Since this tool allows the students to write their own papers, teachers have more time to focus on other important educational areas. I think that this is a great tool that can also be used outside of school in other areas such as work, communicating with others, and creative purposes.
Teaching Math to The Blind

The video Teaching Math to The Blind is very interesting. Before watching this video, I never thought about how blind people did math. If I had to take a guess at it, I would have said that they used Braille. According to the video, I would have been partly wrong because braille is not 2 dimensional and it would be hard to write math problems with it. The professor on this video explains a more helpful way of working out math problems. He suggests that student use little cubes with invisible numbers and braille. The cubes can be placed on a grid and conformed into 2 dimensional numbers on the computer screen. The student can hear the number and place it on the grid to create or solve a problem

PAULA

Assistive Technologies


After watching Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children, there are a lot of assistive technologies that I did not even know about. I actually have not heard of any of them. I did not know that we had this type of technology for these children. Then I watched The Mountbatten video presented by The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, FL. That was when I was introduced to the Mountbatten for the first time.







The Mountbatten


The Mountbatten is the perfect tool for blind students. It is a brailler manufactured in Australia by Quantum Technology. It can type braille as well as send to and receive information from a computer. Along with being able to do all of that, the Mountbatten says the letter out loud while the student enters it. It allows the students to be able to tell if they made a mistake or not. The first time that I saw this, I was amazed. I did not even know a machine that is capable of this existed. It literally blew my mind.







I think this is great for children who are blind. I think it helps them connect to the rest of the class and the rest of the world. It allows them to not feel left out just because they have a disability. The Mountbatten should be given to all blind students to use. According to the mountbattenbrailler.com, the Mountbatten is also helpful for children learning braille. It reinforces the recognition of braille characters. Children are able to type, hear, and read the letter that they are typing. It shows students how to use files and edit documents. I think that it is an amazing product. It gives blind students an opportunity to be a part of the world they live in.




KAITLYNs...

iPad usuage for the Blind





The "iPad usuage for the blind" video was very eye opening. I did not know that the iPad had options for the blind or visually impaired. An iPad has "voice over". Voice over can be used when a person drags their fingers over the iPad screen. As the person does this, a voice tells them what they are dragging their fingers on. If it is a blank page it just makes bumping sounds. The voice also tells them to double tap to open an application when it is needed. Voice over can also be used to read books to the blind in the iBooks application. Nook and Kindle do not have this option. This is where the iPad really stands out from others. It is able to be used by anyone. It does not matter if you're deaf, blind, five years old or fifty years old. The iPad is easy and effective to use. I really enjoyed this video because it taught me things about my iPad that I did not know it could do. This is good to know because I may have a hearing impaired child in my future classroom one day and he or she may need assistance by using a iPad and voice over. Voice over may be just the thing he or she needs to help him or her learn and excel. He or She could listen to books or do things online with the assistance of voice over. I think voice over is a very powerful tool. If needed, I would use voice over in my classroom to assist a child in their learning.

Having a great time teaching a mom what her deaf/blind child is learning on a iPad







This video was also educational. In the video, a mom was taught how to use voice over on an iPad. This was to show her what her child was learning on an iPad using voice over. It was shown in this video that when typing, no letters will be inserted until the user double taps them. When the letters are touched only once, they are read aloud. There are two modes of typing; standard and touch typing. She really enjoyed learning how to operate the iPad so she can better assist her child. The iPad is a great way to assist blind children in their learning. If I have a student who is visually impaired, I would use the iPad to assist them in their learning and education in my classroom. I would also like the student's parents to know how to use the iPad and the voice over option so that they can help their child also at home and to know what their child is doing and learning in school. I think if the teachers and parents know how to operate the iPad with voice over it could be a very helpful tool to help a visually impaired student learn and also feel more independent.

HALEY’s

50 Must-See Blogs For Special Education Teachers

50 Must-See Blogs For Special Education Teachers  allows special education teachers and other teachers access to 50 different viewpoints on special education. The site, edudemic.com, where this information is posted is a great tool for teachers. Edudemic has information for not only teachers, but for students also.

Special Education Strategies And More...

When I first accessed this blog, I was impressed. Special Education Strategies And More... is a blog for teachers or parents of a child with special needs. Different strategies for education that have worked for other people are given in this blog. These strategies explain how to apply them, shows how these strategies worked for someone else and even points out what could go wrong with these different strategies.

Assistive Technology

The Assistive Technology blog is a great resource on different technologies available to be used with children with special needs. The most recent post is iPad Workshop: Using the iPad for Students with Learning & Organization Disabilities. There was a link to where a teacher or parent can sign-up for this workshop right in the post. I did not know there were multiple types of apps on the iPad for children with special needs. This is only the beginning of this blog, there are more technologies and tools that will help anyone with a special needs child.

The Shut-Down Learner

Children with special needs often find school a threatening place. The Shut-Down Learner  has different techniques on how to make school less threatening for children with special needs. There is also a post on how parents can make after school activities more helpful for these children. This blog was created by a child psychologist, making it a good resource for teachers and parents.

I only discussed a few blogs from  50 Must-See Blogs For Special Education Teachers . I encourage all teachers to visit this blog to expand your knowledge.

students to use.

1st progress report on PLN

I use Symbaloo to help me manage my PLN. I love this site because it is so organized, and I have everything I need on one screen. I have added about 14 tiles to my Symbaloo since I began using the site a few weeks ago. These tiles include Google +, Wiki, common core standards, Facebook and Twitter. This site is great because I can store all of the cool site that I come across and access them through Symballo. All of the site help keep me connected to important information that I can later use in the education field.

Blog Post 6

what do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

Asking questions can help involve all the students in the classroom. Question can also show how much students are learning and comprehending in class. Questions also give shy students a chance to talk in front of peers and adults.
Asking Questions to Improve Learning helped me get a better understand of "What questions do we ask? All yes or no responses should be followed up with a “WHY” question. How do we ask? We make sure our questions are clear and specific so no one will get confused. I learned about three types of questions: open questions, closed questions, and managerial questions. Open questions are questions that are good for discussion and active learning because they bring about multiple answers. Closed questions are good at testing comprehension and showing if a student has retained the information well because they have only a limited amount of correct answers. Managerial questions are used to make sure the students have the needed materials and are understanding.


The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom blog by Ben Johnson’s contains a lot of useful information. Ben tells us how to use a simple effective approach to asking questions by Mary Budd Rowe. The approach is to ask a specific question. After asking a specific question pause three seconds for a response then call on someone. Pick different students to answer the questions each time. Pausing allows students the chance to come up with an answer. All students will be forced to come up with an answer because they won’t know who you will call on next.

Effective teachers should never ask if everyone understands. Asking the class if everyone understands is a bad idea. Asking this question makes students think that it’s their last chance to respond before you move on. Some Students will not understand and will not respond out of fear of holding up the rest of the class from moving on. An effective teacher should never allow the students to answer with a simple yes or no. Teachers should always make students tell why the answer is yes or no so that they can check for understanding. Teachers should also try to have the question that they want to ask prepared before they come to class. Being prepared allows teachers to know what kind of answers they are looking for and they want confuse your class. As a future teacher I plan to have the question that I want to ask prepared before I come to class.

After viewing all of the links to the assigned videos, I have learned what I need to know about asking questions to become an effective teacher. I have learned that as a future educator I must know what I am teaching and what I expect my students to learn from my teaching. I have learned that I must also come to class fully prepared. I need to know what types of questions that I am going to be asking and how I am going to ask the questions. . It is also important to ask one question at a time so students aren't confused about which question they are supposed to be answering.

PROJECT 8 BOOK TRAILER

Blog post 5

1st graders create their own read along

Students are pulled out of their first grade class during reading to record their own podcast. The podcast was based on a book from the Magic Tree House series, called Vacation Under the Volcano. The podcast is an audio recording of students reading a book chapter by chapter. Each chapter has a special sound to indicate that it is a new chapter. Once students are done recording they have the chance to hear the podcast and follow along with it while reading a script. Once the podcast is complete it is added to the class blog. There are several things that can be learned from this experiment. One of the most interesting things that I have learned from reading this blog is I can use special sounds to indicate that a new chapter or subject is about to begin. Creating a podcast seem like it can be a lot of fun. I would like to see an interview of the students expressing their feeling about doing the podcast. I would like to know if the students actually uploaded the podcast to their class blog or if the teacher did it. Times sure have changed. When I was in 1st grade I don’t recall knowing anything about a computer or how to use it.

Langwitches Listing- Comprehension- Podcasting

Langwitch believes that students cannot master a word of a language until they hear it at least 70+ times. She also states that students must hear and understand the words that lead up to it and the words that follow it. By hearing those words the student can make meaning of the sentence. In order to master new words students must have an opportunity to practice using the word. Practice allows the student to become comfortable with pronouncing the word. Langwitch also believes that recording a podcast and editing it can help students learn new language sounds. Pod-casting allows the students to see their voices and manipulate the sequence of sentences. I can relate to langwitches’s techique of repeating words to master them. In order to become better at anything you have to practice the skill. A few years ago I wanted to learn how to fish. The first few times that I went I didn’t catch anything. I kept going and tried new things until I was able to catch a fish. It took time and repetition for me to master that skill. I have never tried to learn a new language using podcast. One day I would love to give it a try. I believe that if second graders can master pod-casting, then I don’t see any reason why I can’t learn it. I am setting a personal goal for myself to learn how to effectively use podcast this semester. I don’t know much about it, but I look forward to working with the podcast project that I have coming up in EDM310.

Langwithches- Flat Stanley Podcast

A class of first graders created their own Flat Stanley podcast. Instead of mailing Flat Stanley around to different countries and relatives these students created their own Flat Stanley adventures. The students had to come up with a location for flat Stanley, a way for him to get there, an activity for him to do and a way for him to get back home. All of the students and their parents had to come up with their own adventures for the podcast. Students were allowed to research the location of their choice for Flat Stanley to visit. After completing their assignment the student pieced their stories together using the podcast. I was very interested in some of the location that the students chose for Flat Stanley to visit. The locations ranged from Alabama to the North Pole. I would love to know why the students picked their location. Did they pick the location because they had family and friends there?
Was it because they always wanted to visit or because they have been there before?

project 7

This is my sentence

This is my passion

C4T1

LANGWITCHES BLOG

Get Over It!

The blog was written by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. Langwitch's blog can be very useful to teachers who are afraid of technology. She has spent many years trying to convince teachers that technology will help their students learn more than they will ever be able to teach them. She believes that technology is always changing and teachers need to keep up to become effective in the 21st century. She also stated that good teachers would still be able to teach their students up to a certain degree. After that degree is reached, the students will be stuck at that level unless the teacher involves some type of technology to move forward. Langwitch explains to teachers that it’s OK to make mistakes because they are learners just like the students. The only mistake that could be costly to teachers is not using technology in their classrooms.

MY RESPONSE

I am taking an education media class this summer, and my teacher is teaching our class how to bring technology into our classrooms. I agree with you. Technology is changing so much, and we as teachers need to keep up. Teachers could keep up with technology b constantly searching the web for new educational tools and sites.

Thoughts on fluency and workflow

Langwitche believes that iPod workflow and fluency is directly connected to each other. This is done when the iPod unconsciously helps people decide what app to use in order to accomplish a given task. He also compares workflow to grammar rules. Just like grammar iPod workflow must put things in proper order before communicating what it is told to do. I am not sure exactly how an iPod work because I don’t own one. I agree that iPod should follow proper orders for things to work smoothly. Order in which things are done can greatly affect the outcome if not done correctly.

project 3 presentation

BLOG POST 4

WIKIS

Wikispace is a great collaborative site that can be used by students and teachers. Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit web page content using any web browser. The site allows people to view others work and edit it. This tool reminds me a lot of Google drive. Teachers can give assignments to students and allow them to work on it as a group outside of the classroom. I would use wiki in my class for the purpose of group research projects. I would expect my students to do their own research and share it with their group through wikis. If a group member sees a mistake in someone’s work they could edit it. The benefits I would expect from using wikis are my students will learn to effectively collaborate with each other and edit others work. I chose wikis because its a great collaborate tool that could be used by anyone at anytime. Wiki also promotes group work.

21st Century Learning and Communication Tools by kaitlyn parker

When I begin teaching elementary education with my second grade students I want to utilize technology to keep them interested and engaged, as to maximize their learning. I found two learning tools I would love to use in my classroom to occupy my SMART board. The first tool is the SMART table collaborative learning center. This interactive table lets students work in groups and use visuals, auditory, and physical elements to learn. The table is multi-touch and multi-user which means that more than one student can use it at the same time. Students can use this to help each other learn material and also learn good teamwork skills.



The second tool I found that would be useful in my 21st century classroom is a SMART response interactive response system . This is a wireless handheld device or clicker that students can each have at their desks. It has large, easy to understand buttons for the young minds I will be teaching and is great for all reading levels. Teachers can ask a question on their SMART board and have students choose an answer on their clickers and teachers will receive instant feedback. This allows them to see if all students are engaged in the lesson and to also see where the class is having trouble understanding material. This is also a much more quick and efficient way of evaluating students than giving problems via paper and pencil and then the teacher having to grade the problems and tally up the results that the SMART response interactive response system can give in seconds. I hope to be able to utilize one or both of these learning tools in my classroom in the future so my students can learn and be more engaged in the lessons. I think this is a fun and exciting way to get students interested in the lessons and interacting in the classroom.

21st Century Learning and Communication Tools by Haley Torries

While there are numerous 21st century Learning and communicating tools, I decided to focus on WebMD and Blackboard.

WebMD

WebMD is one of the more popular websites in the medical industry due to the ease of finding the resources located there. All the information on this site can be reached in these categories; A-Z, Drugs and Treatments, Women, Men, Children's Health, News & Blogs and Message Boards. The information found on this site is well-research and comprehensive. Anyone is able to search for what causes certain symptoms or how to treat any disease a person might have. The Message Board allows visitors to discuss remedies and information they have learned from doctors all over the world. I will be able to use this in my classroom to help students learn about different types of diseases. I believe it is important for students to understand that there are many different diseases in the world. They also need to understand that some illnesses can be prevented by good health care; such as lung and heart diseases. Some illnesses people are born with. WebMD can give students an awareness of the daily lives people with these diseases live with. Children with a better understanding of these diseases are less likely to bully. This will help the students lead healthier lifestyles.

Blackboard

Clients from all around the world are using Blackboard to reach students in personalized new ways. Blackboard keeps the educator's educated and involved with different techniques on how to keep students interested. This is a great resource for teachers to use whenever they want to consult the whole class about an update on course materials.

21st Century Learning and Communication Tools By paula lu

As a future elementary teacher, the tool I would use in the classroom is YouTube EDU. YouTube EDU is a similar site to YouTube, but it is for learners and educators. As YouTube EDU calls it, it is a “global video classroom.” It gives students the chance to find short lessons on material they might have missed or do not understand well. It also gives educators the ability to teach without having to be physically there. This also is related to flipping the classroom. (add link) I do not like the idea of flipping the classroom because I believe that kids will not learn that way due to the fact that I believe kids will not take the time out of their day to do the work. In a way it is pretty similar to having homework, which no kid is happy with. But, I like the idea of teaching without having to be physically there. Imagine a child who is hospitalized for whatever reason and cannot attend school. Videos of the lesson will allow the student to be able to learn and keep up with school work at home. One way I would incorporate YouTube EDU into the classroom is by creating videos. I think that a good project would be to have the students group up to learn a specific topic and help them create a video to post on YouTube. I believe that this is a fun way to teach the students and help them learn the material. It teaches students how to work in a group and how to work with others. I chose YouTube EDU because I believe this is a good way to help keep students interested. I think that most elementary students are very visual learners and this would help them in the process. You might ask, “What if the students do not want to watch the video?” I would say, If I were to show a video in class, I would make sure that it is fun, entertaining, and interesting. I know that sometimes educational videos can be extremely boring, so it is my duty to pick the ones I know they will watch.

BLOG POST 3

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

I would provide positive feedback to my peers by pointing out all of the good things that I see in their work before attacking the mistakes. I believe that my peers would be less offended if I say something good about their work. I hate for someone to leave all negative feedback on my blog. When I find a mistake I plan to address the problem with a solution. I think telling a person how to fix an error is more effective than just telling them it’s wrong. People need to know how to fix the problem to become better writers.

WHAT IS PEER EDITING?
Peer editing occurs when you make changes or suggestions to another person's writing. The goal is to help the other person improve their writing skills. There are three steps you must keep in mind when you are editing someone's work.
1. Compliment the person's writing before you tell them what needs to be fixed. Let the person know what you liked about their writing. I believe people will be more willing to except your opinion if you do it in a nice way.
2. Suggestions should be given to the writer about ways to improve their writing. Don’t just tell the person that something is wrong with their writing. Offer the person suggestions on ways to fix the error. For instance you could suggest replacing words or sentence.
3. Corrections are the last step to peer editing. When correcting someone’s work make sure that you check for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

PEER EDITING WITH PERFECTION TUTORIAL
The tutorial is a Power Point about peer editing. The Power Point lists the same three steps to peer editing as above (compliments, suggestions and corrections). I agree with the slideshow, Peer editing is a great way to get to know your classmates as well as sharpening your editing and comprehension skills. These skills can be used to better edit your own writing in the future. It also helps us learn how to properly use constructive criticism. Tearing someone down is not going to help the person's writing. I believe positive reinforcement and praise when deserved is ALWAYS going to be the most effective way to peer edit.

Writing Peer Review (Peer Critique) TOP 10 Mistakes
I thought Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes was an educational and funny video. I know whenever I did peer editing throughout the elementary and middle school years, I definitely ran into people like the ones in the video! The Picky Patty, Mean Margaret, and Jean the Generalizer characters stood out to me the most. I often became angry with their approaches. Nobody likes to hear that things are wrong with work they think is perfect, so you should never be mean or overly picky about the comments you make! The number one rule of peer editing is stay positive! Before you edit someone's work, as put yourself if their shoes.
















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