Blog Post 11

After watching Back to the Future, I was actually really touched by it. I think it is awesome he includes 2nd language students in so many things to try and help them learn as much as he does. He really has a passion for teaching. Blogging for students at such a young age is great. At first, I thought it wasn't a good idea and was pointless really. In the video when he talked about how happy the students were to see others around the world acknowledge their posts, it made blogging that much more important to me. I also thought it was great how other students wanted their class to teach their teacher how to do something just so they could learn. The way he included the sick little girl in the classroom with the other students really touched me. I think that is beyond awesome for her to be treated as if nothing is wrong.
I watched a video on Paul Anderson's Blog. I like the way his mind is set on learning. He believes it should be something fun and a good experience for the students. I also think it is good how he lets students know it is okay to fail at something. We were always taught to just pass the test and move on. Teachers now, including Paul, want students to learn beyond what the state standards say we should. The Blended Learning Cycle was also a good and informative video. Like I said before, it allows students to learn beyond what they are told. They actually get to have more hands on and get more involved with what they are learning. I do think the QUIVERS is more for Science, but could be used for all subjects.
In Making Thinking Visible Video, they do something like our group is making our students do in the lesson plan part B. Letting the students begin by saying what they think at the beginning of the project. This can get an idea of what they know starting out, then ending to see if they wanted to change their assumption.
Building Comics was a good video/assignment for students now-a-days to use. This teaches them so many things in just one assignment. They learn how to be safe online and how to work better with technology in the classroom. This was a great idea. Both thisPBL Video and this PBL Video are great just to see how teachers engage their students in the classroom by using PBL. It is always encouraging to watch things like this and see how much the students enjoy doing what they are doing. PBL is great.
So overall I think what I have learned from all of these links is teach beyond what you are told to be teaching. Make sure students have fun, but are learning at the same time. Getting students involved and doing things they enjoy is the best way they learn. Having students do more hands-on activities lets the be able to explore things themselves, but also learn what they should be learning at the same time.

Project 14, Project Based Learning Plan #2

Calendar
Lesson Plan
Individual Rubric
Teacher Rubric

Project 12 A

Blog Post 10

After watching The First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's class, I found it very neat to know that they are doing more with technology than I do. Of course when I was a first grader, computer labs were part of a reward for us. We did not use them to learn with or communicate with others from all around the world. It was great to hear a teacher who hasn't always been familiar with technology, to work it into her classroom. For most of us, we weren't taught this way and still learning how to use all of it as well. I think privacy would be a big concern with parents with their first graders using computers and communicating with people around the world. In the first interview, I think it is a great idea to send notes home at the beginning of year with the parents. This lets the parents know what's going on in the classroom. In the first video the kids talked about family members commenting on their blog posts. This could be a great idea because the parents can also see what their children are posting and what other students are posting to their child's blog. Blogging would be my main technique I would use within my classroom. After having this class, I have realized how much helpful it really can be. Seeing what others do is great encouragement and very helpful when doing things and learning. In the second & third interview, I found it very informative to just hear the rest of how she does things in the classroom. My main concern would be the privacy issue, but her idea with the letter is probably the way I would approach the situation. All of the questions the EDM students asked were some I would have also asked. One other concern I would have would be how long does it take to teach a student to use the technology? If a child just doesn't get it, how do you handle that?

Once again, I very much enjoyed this interview because I love hearing other teachers ideas.

C4KSummary for October

The first child I had was Grant in Mrs. Ripp's class. In his post, he talked about his family. He told us his siblings, parents and about his pets.
My comment:
Hey! My name is Breanna and I am from the University of South Alabama, but I live in Mississippi. I have 2 sisters and a brother. They are 12, 10 and 7. They are alot younger than I am, but I love them with all of my heart. I have a puppy (black lab) named Huntlee. She is such a goofy puppy. She is very playful and loves to give puppy hugs. I love animals and wish I could own a zoo. I love your post and your cat sounds very pretty. Cats are sweet and loving.

The next child I had was Caylixx. Her post said she likes school.
My comment:
Hey! I’m Breanna and I’m from the University of South Alabama. It is a very good thing you like school. I like school too. School may get hard sometimes, but always be sure to stick with it. School is very important. Your post is great!

The last child I had was Promise from Pt. England. He talked about how he played basketball the day before he went back to school from the holidays.
My comment:
I am not able to see my actual comment, but I just told the child how great it was that he played basketball. I was very positive with him.

Blog Post 9

After watching/reading the links provided, I can get an even better understanding of what a PBL is and how it works. In the Seven Essentials for PBL article, it was interesting to see how another teacher used a PBL in her classroom. The reading was very informative on how to create one, but also gave examples of what each essential was. It was very helpful. The video PBL for teachers was also interesting and informative. Although the article was more interesting, the video also gave good information. What I noticed they point out a lot in these two links is a driving question. To get your whole PBL started, it must have a driving question. It is like the goal you are trying to reach.
In the article PBL and Physical Education, it had the same points as the first article I mentioned. I think it is great PE is being involved with PBL because being active is so important in our lives. The project they tell us about in this blog post, is great. With our obesity rate rising and children becoming less active, including it in school work is a wonderful idea. It is also something fun and what they would like to do, rather than just a regular school assignment. It also involves middle and high school students, which is also great.
And last, but certainly not least the Motivational Video was very cute and inspiring. Hearing what kids think about school and how they really want to learn to become better in the future is awesome. Also, hearing what they like their teachers to do can give us some examples of what we can do to be a great teacher. They spoke a little on being rewarded too. Being rewarded, verbally or another way, is always a great thing. No matter what the age, we all love to know when we are doing good.

So after summing up everything I have read or watched from the links, I can see PBL is getting better and better. Teachers can teach each other about different PBLs and students can teach each other or teachers about their topic. PBL is great and I think it is an awesome way for students and teachers to get involved and learn.

Project 9

Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning

Part A:
It is obvious smart phones are consuming the lives of teens and adults. There are ups and downs of smart phones, but that is with everything. According to Zogby Analytics, smart phones are trying to make everyday life simpler. I would agree it is making life easier because it is easy to get to and obtain information. This website gives all of the statistics of how smart phones are becoming so popular in the world. Smart phones and technology in general are advancing more and more everyday.

On the EDM310 Class Blog, it also gives us the percentages of the ages from 18-24, what they think about smart phones. From what I can see, all of the percentages are fairly high. Smart phones are really what we rely on for most things. As far as social life goes, we really do too much on our phones (me being a victim too). We never have actual conversations anymore and when we are trying to "spend time" with others, we are always on our phones. As teachers, this could make the job "easier" in a way. Everything could be online or used by smart phone instead of worrying about papers. Since most kids have smart phones these days, they could be used for internet in the classrooms, but this could cause problems. Students could do social things with their phones during class time instead of working. I believe the rates will continue to grow with time and eventually all we will use are smart phones for anything. As the technology advances, I believe this will make more of a positive impact on the world.

Part B:
My stepmother is an elementary teacher. They are given ipads for the students to use in the classrooms. There is an app they have on the ipad used for spelling words. For a kindergarten class, I could call each student up at a time to make sure they know their spelling words for the week. Each week, depending on the lesson, we would have a list of spelling words for each student to know. As I would call each student up, we would pull up the app and begin practicing. The student holds the ipad and I call the word out to the student. The student would then type the word and it would show up at the top of the screen. If the word was spelled incorrectly, it would tell the student to try again. I think this would be a great way for students to learn spelling as well as typing skills. According to ALEX, English and Language Arts 38D standard, it states students should be able to spell simple words. I feel this would be a great way for students to use the ipad in the classroom.

Blog Post 8

Well I can start off by saying after watching Randy Pausch's Video, I am truly amazed by him. He is one of the most positive people I have ever seen/listened to. Hearing his story and the way he achieved everything he did is absolutely amazing. Also, the outlook he has on life is awesome, even if he is sick. What I gathered about teaching and learning is to just go for it. Making learning fun is the best way to teach students and yourself about all things. We are so quick to be so serious and think learning or teaching is about book work and nothing more. The way Randy taught, by doing the videos, was great and could really make learning fun. All of his educators or "bosses" taught him to go for whatever he wanted to do, he did and was very successful in doing so. I think we, as teachers, should really teach that in today's generation. Everyone should go do what they want and that is the way to be successful in life, just go for it! I have noticed now group work is in schools a lot more. I also liked the bar graph he demonstrated for students to go by after working in groups. They are able to see their strengths and weaknesses when working in groups. That can help the student and others around them when learning. So really, to answer the question "What can we learn about teaching and learning?" is to go for it. Strive to be the best as an educator and as a student. If we go beyond our comfort zone we can learn so much more and have fun doing it.

C4T #2 Posts 1 and 2

I was assigned The Tempered Radical for my teacher. In the first post I read, he talked about principals in schools failing to recognize teachers are just as diverse with students. Not all teachers may be the same or interested in the same thing. Some principals may not realize that, so he thinks it should be recognized.
My comment:Good Morning, Bill. I’m Breanna McCormack. I am a junior at the University of South Alabama. I am currently in EDM310 class, so I am new to the blogging stuff. I enjoyed reading your post and thought it was very helpful. I very much agree with you.

Of course I really did agree with what he said. He replied back challenging me to find something in a post I disagreed with. So I took on the challenge for the next post.

As I got to the next post, I honestly agreed with that one too. He explained in the post communication between teachers and principals could be improved. He created a survey for teachers to take, the principals read them and they could be discussed at a meeting during the week. They could all work together to improve the school.
My comment:Hello! You told me a few weeks ago to try to find something I disagreed on in one of your post and honestly I just cannot find anything. That may sound impossible because we all disagree on something, but I love the way you think. The survey was great and could really help in schools. It seems to be based on communication. Principals communicating better with their staff. I like that idea! I will continue to look to try to disagree, but so far they are great posts and I enjoy them all.

I will continue to try and find some disagreements, but it will be hard because all of his posts are great.

Project 13

TT2 Group 2 has decided to do our Project Based Learning lesson on The Solar System. Our students are to construct a project on an assigned planet. Below are the components of our unit.

Lesson Plan
Calendar
Project Rubric
Individual Rubric

Project 7 Part B

Meet the students:


Meet the parents: