Blog post 16

My teaching will be technology driven. I still plan on allow my student to use tools such as computers, smartphones, and iPod’s to help them learn. I want my first grade students to be independent learners. I plan to incorporate the use of technology in my future classroom by adding tool such as Google hangout, icurio and discovery ed. I believe that these sites can help me incorporate useful technology into my classroom. I also believe that the students will enjoy using these tools in class.

I believe that add programs such as icrurio and discovery ed will help my student enhance their learning. My students will be able to go online and view video and pictures to help them understand the concept that I am trying to get across. Both of these sites are safe and easy to access.

I also plan on using Skype in my future classroom to gain insight from other educators and important people the students could learn about. One example of a special person might be an author of a particular book we read in class that the students liked. I believe that the students could learn from the experience itself rather than just simply reading about it in a textbook. Hands-on learning can be fun and help get students involved in the process.

My classroom will be fun and exciting. Students will actual want to come to school to learn. I will encourage independent learning so students can discover and research issues that affect them. Instead of spending the whole day lecturing my students I plan on allow to research and obtain their own knowledge. I believe that If students learn things on their own that the knowledge will stick will them a lot longer than someone lecturing to them.

I do not really think that I would change anything that I said in blog post 1. I would add to blog post 1 so that my students could have a variety of tool to use. The more tools that I allow my students to use the better it will be for them. The students may actual find a tool that they like and continue using it outside of class.


PART B

Blog Post 15

Icurio
Dr. Strange's YouTube Video with Anthony talked about iCurio and the benefits it has for students. Icurio is an online tool that allows students to safely search filtered material online. A few of the benefits of Icurio is that students can access the site by themselves, it can be used as a search engine, it allows students to store content that they find valuable, and it helps students stay organized. Students are able to create folders and sort information that they can access later. Icurio offers a great directory tool for history topics. The program can be used for any grade level. The texts, pictures and videos found on this site can be used by students for projects. Another great feature that Icurio offers is read aloud text,which can be very helpful to students with disabilities. Anthony has taught me a lot about Icurio that I did not know. For instance, I learned that Icurio has a program that reads text for the disabled. He also made me aware that students can save information that they find into folders and access it at a later time.

Discovery Ed
Discovery Ed offers texted visual articles to students. The visual articles can help activate background knowledge in students. The visual images from the video can help support the text that students read. Another good feature that Discovery Ed offers is that it can bring other experts into the classroom. Students get the chance to hear information from sources other than their teacher. A good point that this video made was that students remember more when they can see information. I agree with this statement because I am a visual learner. Things seem to make more sense to me when I get to see them. I learned that experts can be brought into the classroom through videos. Teachers no long have to waste time looking for guest speakers.

Use Tech Don’t Teach it
Conversation with Anthony Capps
Anthony tells us that technology is everywhere. All teachers should teach technology when they are designing projects and lessons for their classroom. He also believes that teachers should allow students to use tools such as I movies, Discovery Ed videos, and other useful tools. It is also important to choose one technology at a time. Students have a chance to master it before moving on to the next tool. The benefits that technology offers to students is that they get to express themselves and it is mostly free and mess free. There is no clean up after using it like with markers and it teach them lifelong skills.
The point of this video is to use technology to help get students excited about learning and allow them to share it. Teachers should allow room for mistakes and give students reflection time. They should never teach technology, just introduce it smartly, and should not expect perfection. They should also try using the tools first before their students use it so that they can try to relate to some of the problems that they may face. I plan to introduce technology to my students as often as possible. I plan on staying current with technology so that I can share it with my students.

Blog post 14

A assignment that I think Dr. Strange should have created

I think that a good assignment could have been for us to find a blog or web paper of a teacher that teaches the grade level that we hope to teach. Follow that teach to find out some interesting facts about the grade level that we hope to teach.
I plan on becoming a first grade teacher. I found a good blog called “The first grade parade”. The blog is maintained by a first grade teacher named Cara Carroll. The blog contains a lot of useful information that I can use once I become a teacher. The blog has links to freebies, pintable’s and lesson plan templates. Mrs. Cara also gives a lot of great ideals on topics that First grade teacher have to teach. For example she gives fun and creative ideas on how to celebrate the 100th day of school. She also shares ideals of how to teach certain topics such as alliteration, Cinco de Mayo and earth day. She shares fun activity for many different topics. Once I become a new teacher I would visit this blog often to get ideas for activity for my classroom. I want to keep my students engaged in fun activity so that they can enjoy class.

Final PLN

PLN
Edm 310 has taught me how to successfully uses many different resources. I have enjoyed using Google hangout the most. My PLN is growing more and more everyday thanks to twitter. I follow many different educator on Twitter to see what they are tweeting. Since my last PLN post, I have added a few more tiles. I have added Mr. Will Richardson from comments for teachers, abc news and Teaching Tolerance. The Teaching Tolerance site has great information regarding lesson plans and activities for teachers.
I think that my PLN will continue to grow after I leave edm310. Every time that I add a new tile my PLN grows and become more useful. Each person or site can bring something different to my PLN. I believe to become a successful teacher I will have to expand my circle and add new tools and people, by doing this I can stay current with changes in education and pick up new ideas for my classroom.

SMART BOARD PART B

Blog post 13

"To This Day" for the bullied and beautiful
What can we learn form Ted Talk?
“ 'To this day for' for the bullied and beautiful" is a powerful speech followed by an amazing poem. Shane Koyezah reflects back on his childhood. Throughout his childhood, people tried to crush his dreams and make him feel like he was a nobody. People would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and when he would reply that he wanted to be a writer, they would tell him it was a bad idea. Many people would tell him to just accept the identity that other people had already given him. They told him that he could not be a writer but he overlooked them and went on to live his dreams. This video shows that he is an amazing spoken word artist. His life was a classic case of bullying. Many children today are facing some of the same problems that he went though as a child. I believe that all children should view this video to see that dreams can come true. No matter what people tell them, they can overcome bullying by always believing in themselves. I learned that people should always believe in themselves because dreams can become true. I also learned that children should always believe that others are wrong and not to accept the faith that others give them. People can be cruel at times and crush others dreams if they allow them to. People who dream should always follow their dreams because they never know where those dreams can take them. The most important thing that I learned is to not allow others to control my destiny because only I can control that.

project 15

LESSON PLAN
Grade Level: 2nd
Name: Locating Different Shapes in Our School
Duration: 4 days
Mon- Introduce the project with the driving question. Driving Question: How many shapes can you identify? Spent one hour explaining how to operate digital cameras and how to uploading photos to a computer. Also explain how to create a Google slideshow with pictures.

Tues- Show a YouTube video of different shapes and name of shapes to the students. Allow students to break off into groups and collect pictures of different shapes that they find around the classroom and school. Students should spend no more than 30 minutes collecting pictures of shapes.
Wed- Allow students to upload the pictures to the class computers. Give each group one hour to create a Google slideshow of the images that they collected. Students must also label each picture.

Thur- Allow each group to share the images they found with the class.


Objectives:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

TC2(K-2) Use digital tools to access and retrieve information.
TC2(K-2) Use digital environments to exchange ideas with individuals or groups.
MA2010(K) Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to. [K-G1]

Students will work in groups to publish a Google slideshow with images they collect around the school. Each image must be labeled.
Procedures:
After teaching the math portion of the class, I will introduce the math project.
Today I will introduce an upcoming math project called Locating Different Shapes in Our School. The project will take four days.
1.) Prepare students for the assignment by showing them a YouTube video of different shapes and names. Teach them how to operate and upload images with a digital camera. Teach them how to create a Google slideshow.
2.) Divide the class into 4 groups. Allow students to capture pictures of different shapes around the school.
3. Allow students to upload the pictures to the class computer.

4.) Let students create a Google slideshow and present it to the class.

Materials:
computer and digital camera.

Blog post 12

How to Escape Education’s Death Valley

Sir Ken Robinson delivers a very powerful speech on YouTube called How to Escape Education’s Death Valley. The video focuses on what the United States' educational system is doing wrong and informs us of ways that it can be fixed. To start, Mr. Robinson believes that education is going in the wrong direction. The No Child Left Behind Act is actually leave millions of children behind. Children are dropping out of school because they are disengaged when it comes to learning. Most teachers are focusing on teaching standards and giving tests than actually teaching students so that they can learn. Mr. Robinson believes that the role of the teacher is to facilitate learning and not focus so much on testing. Teachers should be focusing on awakening students' creativity instead of a culture of standardized tests. He does a great job comparing Finland’s educational system to the United States'. Finland’s educational system is different from our system because they do not focus on standardized tests. Instead they focus on teaching and students' learning. They engage students and invest in professional development. They also give the schools control of education, not the government. Mr. Robinson makes a good point about alternative schools in America. He speaks about how alternative schools are personalized, linked to the community, and the teachers have a strong support system. He believes that we should make all schools like this. The last thing he speaks about is a place called Death Valley where nothing would grow, until one year it rained and flowers began to grow there. He believes that if we change the way education is being taught, then students can grow. Mr. Robinson taught me that students can and will learn if given the chance. We should focus more on teaching the students than teaching material for a test. Students want to be engaged and it is our job as educators to engage them. Our government has a lot of control over our schools. I wonder if the government will ever give complete control back over to the schools?

project 14 lesson plan

Link to Rubric
Link to project overview
LESSON PLAN
Name: The Horizons of Soil in My Backyard Project
Duration: One week
Mon- Introduce the project with the driving question. Driving Question is: what do you know about the different types of soils. Allow students to visit the soil game site for 30 minutes. http://www.soils4kids.org/games.

Tues- Allow students to visit the soil game site for 30 minutes. http://www.soils4kids.org/games.

Wed- Allow students to visit the soil game site for 30 minutes. http://www.soils4kids.org/games.

Thur- conducts the project outside of classroom.
Fri- Allow students to blog as a group about what they have found and learned on the class blog. Let each group share their findings with the class during a class discussion.
Subject: Science

Objectives:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
SS(2) Exploring Our Nation and World: People and Places 6. Identify human-made and natural resources in the world.
MA2010(K) 15. Directly compare two objects, with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has "more of" or "less of" the attribute, and describe the difference. [K-MD2]
MA2010(1) 15. Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object. [1-MD1]
MA2010(1) 16. Express the length of an object as a whole number of length units by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end; understand that the length measurement of an object is the number of same-size length units that span it with no gaps or overlaps. [1-MD2]
MA2010(2) 14. Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes. [2-MD1]
MA2010(2) 15. Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen. [2-MD2]
MA2010(2) 16. Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters. [2-MD3]
MA2010(2) 17. Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another, expressing the length difference in terms of a standard length unit. [2-MD4]



Students will work in groups to publish a blog post about the different types of soil that they find and what they learned about the types of soils. Students will work in diverse cooperative learning groups to complete tasks. Students in each group will take turns digging, measuring, collecting or observing.
Procedures:
After teaching the science portion of the class, I will introduce the science project.
Today I will introduce an upcoming science project called The Horizons of Soil in My Backyard. The project will be due a week from today.
1.)Prepare students for the assignment by sharing a link to http://www.soils4kids.org/games.
This site allows students to play games to learn about the different types of soil. Allow students to visit this site for 30 minutes a day for the next two days.
2.)Divide the class into 4 groups and go to the designated place outside where the ground is soft. (Look for a good area the day before where the children will be able to dig.) All of the class needs to be working in this area.
3.)Each group will use an auger and a meter stick to measure every time they dig from the hole. I will make the initial dig to be sure the ground is soft enough. Each auger full of dirt is placed on the tarp to show the layers. As the students dig deeper into the hole, it becomes obvious that the soil begins to change into different types.

4.)Point out the different types of soil as they change while you are digging. Use the meter stick to measure as they dig deeper and compare this to the soil collected on the tarp. Both the hole and the soil on the tarp should be about the same length.

5.)When each group member has taken turns digging in their area and placing the soil on the tarps, collect a sample of each type and place the samples in the clear tennis ball containers to observe the different horizons and types of soil. These will be taken into the classroom to observe later. Make sure you refill the holes when you are finished.

6.) Return to the classroom with soil samples; let the students see the different horizons of soil in the clear canisters. Have students blog with their group about the types of soil that they found and what they have learned. Upload a picture with labels for the different horizons of soil.

Materials:
Augers, meter sticks, clear tennis ball cans or any long, clear receptacle to hold soil, tarp or plastic on which to place soil as it is dug up, wet wipes for cleanup, and a computer.
Students will use the classroom computers to work in pairs to blog about what they have learned and found.
Source for this lesson plan was found on ALEX.

project 13

Link to project handout and rubric
Link to project overview
lesson plan

Name:Weather and you

Duration: One week

Subject: Science

Objective:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.6 Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 3 Language standards 1 and 3 here for specific expectations.)

students will work together using Google doc to create a Google presentation about the different types of weather and how they affect them.

Procedures:

Introduce the Science project

Today I will introduce an upcoming science project called the weather and you. The project will be due a week from today.

I will pass out a handout and rubric explaining the project and my expectations for the project. Read the handout word for word. Ask students if they have any questions and try to address each question.


Material: hand out and rubric

C4T 3

20% Precent Time

The twenty percent tie concept was formed in 2006. when Google started allowing their technical solutions engineers to spend one day of the week working on projects outside of their job descriptions. Many engineers used the time to develop new products and tools. Mrs.Thumann believes that all teachers should adopt the concept of allowing their students to use Google 20 percent time in their classroom. She believes that teachers should set project objectives for the 20 percent time frame. This ensures that the students are using their time constructively.

I think that the 20 percent concept is a great idea. Allowing students to use 20 percent of their time on google gives them a chance to effectively learn how to use a computer. Students will also get a chance to discover new sites. By discovering new sites, they have the chance to expand their education. I believe that the computer skills they will be learning can help them later in the job market.

Untapped apps on Google Drive
Mrs. Lisa Thumann posted "Untapped Apps on Google Drive" to her Thumann resource blog. The blog post list several good apps that can be used on Google Drive. The apps can be easily installed and accessed through Google Drive. A few of the apps are pixler Editor, HelloFax, GeoGebra, TwistedWave and Right Signature.
Pixler Editor is an online image editor. This app does not required registration and can be easily accessed from Google Drive.
HelloFax makes it easy to sign documents and send faxes online. This app saves paper because you won’t need to print, sign and scan documents to send them.
GeoGebra is an math app that help with geometry, algebra, graphing, and calculus.
TwistedWave allows you to edit audio files in your Google Drive.
Right Signature allows you to send contracts, forms, proposals, applications for signature online.
I am thankful to learn about these apps. I plan to use Pixler Editor and GeoGebra in the future. Pixler can be helpful for my EDM310 class. After reading this blog post, I tried out Pixler Editor. It seems like a helpful app. I’m not sure how to fully use it but I plan to play with it until I learn how to use it.

Blog post 11

FIRST GRADERS IN MS. CASSIDY'S CLASS

I really enjoyed watching Ms. Cassidy's students talk about what they have learned in her classroom. Ms. Cassidy taught her first graders how to use the internet and blog. The first graders in her class have shown me how helpful blogging can be to teachers and students. The class blog allowed the students to gain confidence in their writing. One of the students in the video said that his writing gets better and better every time that he writes on the blog. Another great benefit that I leaned about the students' blogging is that their parents and family can see the blog. Parents are able to view their students’ progress in the class by logging on to the blog and viewing their child’s work. Blogging also allows students to connect with other people around the world. These people can leave comments on the students' blog to help them improve their writing.
Ms. Cassidy’s approach to technology is outstanding. She taught her first grade students about wikis, internet safety, how to use a blog, and Skype. She also taught her students how to find out about things that they did not know about by using wikis. The students in her class used wikis to collaborate with other people online. The students in her class created a wiki about traditions and got responses from other people to answer their questions. Ms. Cassidy is not afraid to allow her students to use the internet because she taught them internet rules and guideline that they must follow. She tries to stay current with technology so her students will not get left behind. The video has taught me a lot of good techniques that I can use in my future classroom. One technique that stood out the most to me was teaching digital etiquette. I think that all teachers should teach their students how to comment on others' blogs and what are appropriate and inappropriate things to write online. She teaches her students ways to keep themselves safe online and websites that are appropriate for them to visit. I believe that if I do not teach my students digital etiquette then it could lead to them saying inappropriate things to others and visiting unapproved sites. I would address these issues by talking to the students and letting them know what is appropriate to say online and what are appropriate sites that they are allowed to visit. If the students continued to visit those sites; I would maybe ban them from the computer for a while or send a letter to their parents. One of the benefits of teaching good digital etiquettes is that no student would get their feelings hurt because a classmate left a mean comment on their page.
Skype interview
Ms. Cassidy gives useful information to students in her Skype interview. She believes that there are a lot of great tools online and teachers would be handicapping their students if they did not use them. She believes that teachers need to use some form of technology in their classrooms to help students keep up with the changes of the world. Ms. Cassidy also tells us that all technology is not for everyone and that we should find a form of technology that interests us. Sites that interest us can help put us in contact with others that share the same interests as us. Connecting with other can help us create our own personal learning network.