Blog Post 7

1) I very much enjoyed these videos. I thought it was helpful seeing actual teachers in actual classrooms. I am somewhat good at using technology. I think my weakness would be not knowing enough about technology. Of course, as everyone said, we all learn something everyday. My strengths are knowing as much as I do about the ipad and Apple products. I think, as a future teacher, I will need to learn more how to use all forms of technology and get to know what is out there for students to learn. In my opinion, it is all about experience. It is something you have to play around with and gain different knowledge everyday.

2) The reading center video was neat. I find it so weird such young kids are using technology like this, but it is a good thing. The students being able to listen to themselves re-read is great. Students may learn better by hearing what they say and finding their own mistakes. Poplet was something I have never heard of before. It is somewhat like a thinking map I once did in elementary school, but much more detailed. I found thinking maps very helpful as a kid, so i'm sure being more detailed now, it is even more helpful. It is amazing how one app can teach so much. There were two different videos of children sharing Board Builders, but once again this was something I have never heard of. This is a useful app as well. It gives students a chance to be creative with the information they obtained, but a good teaching tool too. I found the video on iMovie neat as well because this was something we just did. I enjoyed doing the movie trailer because it was different and fun. I find it cool how elementary students are doing the same things we are doing at a university. Technology can have its ups and downs, but it is what we are turning to and it can always teach us something new.

C4KSummary for September

The first child I had was named Jayden. His post talked about the primary colors on the color wheel. I informed him how I was in an Art class and just studied the color wheel. It is great seeing that children across the world are learning the same things we are.
My comment: This post was great! I am in an art class at the University this semester. We just learned about the color wheel. Art can be so much fun and you can learn so much.

The next child I had was Xavier. His post was simple and cute. He said he was awesome because he is a best friend. It is also great seeing how positive kids are because that is rare these days.
My comment: Hey Xavier! I’m Breanna and i’m a junior at The University of South Alabama. I actually like this post because it shows you are a positive person and think very highly of yourself. I think being positive is the best way to be. Having confidence in yourself will also allow others to be confident in you. Being a great friend is pretty awesome too. Very nice post.

My last child's name is Arianna. She also seems to be a positive person. Her post was "This is the best school ever". Her post was very positive. I was glad to see she likes school. I hope she stays that way.
My comment: Hi Arianna! It is very good that you think positive about your school. I’ve always loved going to school to see my friends. Of course I love to learn too! Keep staying positive about school because it will pay off in the end. Great post!

I love reading all of the kid's posts because some of them are so different, but also the same as we are. Kids are so funny with the things they say.

Project #8 Book Trailer

Owl Moon

Blog Post 6

I enjoyed the videos with Anthony Capps. They were very useful and informative. It is always encouraging hearing someone talk about how rewarding it is to be a teacher. In the video Tips for teachers, I thought all the tips were helpful. I have always heard teaching never ends, you will bring it home with you, but like he said you learn to make it fun. If being a teacher is really what you want, creating new ideas to share with your students should be fun. Also in the video Discovery Education, I actually had never heard of this. It sounds like a very useful tool when teaching. I agree with Anthony about visuals helping students learn. Anything visual could help anyone learn better, in my opinion. The other video about technology I found was also informative. He makes a good point to not teach technology, but to put it to use instead. I would, once again, agree with him. The way we should all learn technology is to use it, not just be taught how to use it. Like with everything, practice makes perfect. The use of technology is hands on and she be taught that way. I found all these videos helpful, these three just stood out the most to me. It is always helpful to get to hear of experiences with a new teacher and how teaching for us will be like.

Blog Post 5

PLNs seem to be a great learning resource. I was not too sure what they were to begin with, but looking deeper within, I finally understand. PLNs are great for teachers because the teachers can give each other different ideas. I think it would be great to start a PLN now and keep it throughout my career. It allows people to get together and learn new things or just share ideas with each other about a topic they are all interested in. PLNs seem to be formed just by choosing a topic you are interested in and start finding others on social networks with the same interest. After reading a previous blog post, I was able to get a better understanding of what PLNs are and how they are formed. As it said in the post, you are somewhat of a detective and researching deep to find information about your topic. Michael Fawcett's Video told a good story and example of how you can begin your PLN. It is amazing how people all over the world can communicate and share the same interests and ideas. This 7th grader's video is also a good example of a PLN. This would be great to show younger students to show how interesting it could be. I'm very interested in grammar, as far as teaching goes. Of course, I have a Twitter account. I could start by searching with hashtags, different teachers or students interested in the same subject as me. That could be some sort of start to my PLN.

Project #3 Presentation

My Sentence Videos

My sentence is...


My passion is...

C4T #1 Posts 1 and 2

I was assigned Dr. Joseph McCaleb for my teacher. He refers to himself as Doc Horse Tales. Doc comes from his Ph.D. Horse comes from his love for riding. Tales comes from the stories he loves to tell. He is a very interesting person.

The first post I commented on was something very different. He posted many pictures of nature and wrote something about each one of them. He made the writings something different, from just a simple caption to a rhyming poem. I very much enjoyed reading the poems, just because I love rhyming. He seems to like to take things beyond what they really are and make them into something else.

My comment: "Good evening Doc. I'm Breanna McCormack and I am a junior at the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310 with Dr. John Strange. I love the name you call yourself. It is very unique and seems to describe you well. Your latest blog is also very interesting. I love how you rhyme the words like a poem. Rhyming is something I love, but not very good at. The pictures are very nice. I love to see pictures of the outdoors. Great blog!"

The second post I commented on was also pretty interesting. I did not understand it very well, but I went with what I thought he was trying to say. He took a simple question and made it into such a detailed answer, you really forgot what the question even was. He went into lots of detail about life and what destiny is. He looks at it his own way and makes something so much greater than what it really is.

My comment: "I very much enjoy reading all of your posts. I like how you take a simple question and turn the answer into something much more detailed. Creativity is the key."

Project 15

For my 8 resources I used Bing, Gigablast, Monax, Yahoo, Soso.com, Blekko, Wolframalfa, and Munax. Bing seems to be a lot like Google, but looks more advanced. It could be used for web search, images, videos etc. Gigablast does not seem to be very helpful with searching. It is less advanced than Google, but of course still a search engine. I am not too sure about Munax resource. It does not really have a way to search many things, but rather websites to visit. Yahoo is a very popular website. You can do all kinds of searches, images, videos or even email. I love Yahoo. Soso.com looks similar to Google, but in Chinese. It is literally all in Chinese. Blekko seems to be very helpful. It allows you to search things and also shop for things. Wolfram Alpha was an education search engine. It would be very useful for anything to do with school. It could be used for other searching, but more for education. Yandex was the last resource I chose. This resource looks much like yahoo or something of that nature. You can view pictures, videos or email through it. It looks very useful for all searching or just playing around.
List of resources:

Bing

Gigablast

Munax

Yahoo

Soso

Blekko

Wolfram Alpha

Yandex

Blog Post 4

After reading the article on Three ways to ask better questions in the classroom,I have found it is more about asking questions to the students to let them get a better of understanding of what we are talking about. Playing with the question seems to be a very good idea. According to the article, playing with the question is basically asking the kids a question, not answering it, then waiting until the end of class. This method will leave kids thinking the whole class time about what was asked.

It is very important we teach students to ask questions. This can expand their learning abilities. I know I am one to always ask questions if I do not understand something. Asking questions can be good and really make children want to learn more.

Blog Post 3

I learned a good bit watching those videos and viewing the slideshow. The humorous video was cute and gave good examples of the different kinds of peer reviewers. I did not realize giving generous comments was really that big of a deal. I actually learned about different types of peer reviewers I did not know about before. Always being positive towards someone can really get you a long way.

The slideshow helped a lot wit understanding what the definitions of all the peer vocabulary. When teaching children, I think humorous videos would help them learn better. Slideshows/PowerPoints are very helpful when learning, but to catch younger children's eye, videos would do best. I, myself, learned better with the humorous video just because it was more interesting and gave me examples of what i was learning.
Link to Humorous Video.