Saturday, September 27, 2014
C4K September Summary
The first blog I was assigned to belongs to Kevine. He is in 7th grade at Pt England School in New Zealand. Kevine's blog was really fun, and he seems like a really good kid! In the post I commented on, Kevine wrote about how excited he was for his cross-country meet the next day. He said that he and his team had been practicing all term for it. The comment I left still has not been approved by the moderator. I told him that I was really excited for him and that I hoped he did well, though!
My second assigned blog was for a student in Ontario named Ekisha. She is in 5th grade. Her post was about International Dot Day and the art project she did for it. Her project was a t-shirt that she let everyone in her class sign. They also had other Dot Day activities throughout the day. I actually thought this was really cool because we also had a Dot Day project in Dr. Vitulli's art class. In my comment I told her that I also celebrated Dot Day and told her about what we did. She even responded and asked more about my project.
The last blog I commented on was Ben's blog. He goes to school in Connecticut and is 10 years old. His only post so far just had a few facts about him. I learned that he loves to travel and is visiting Japan next year! I told him that I also loved to travel and was incredibly jealous he was going to Japan. I'm sure that will be a really awesome experience for him!
My second assigned blog was for a student in Ontario named Ekisha. She is in 5th grade. Her post was about International Dot Day and the art project she did for it. Her project was a t-shirt that she let everyone in her class sign. They also had other Dot Day activities throughout the day. I actually thought this was really cool because we also had a Dot Day project in Dr. Vitulli's art class. In my comment I told her that I also celebrated Dot Day and told her about what we did. She even responded and asked more about my project.
The last blog I commented on was Ben's blog. He goes to school in Connecticut and is 10 years old. His only post so far just had a few facts about him. I learned that he loves to travel and is visiting Japan next year! I told him that I also loved to travel and was incredibly jealous he was going to Japan. I'm sure that will be a really awesome experience for him!
Blog Post #6
After watching parts one and two of "Project Based Learning: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher," I learned that project based learning is a great way for students to learn, and it is not hard to place into your lessons. The projects Anthony mentioned sounded very engaging. I especially liked his idea about the culture projects. I love international studies, and I think it would be really fun to do something like that with my students and give them each different countries to study. In addition to the students enjoying their projects, he also said that the parents and administrators think he's doing a great job too. Even if you think things are going well, it's always great to get good feedback from important people.
In the first two videos, Anthony mentioned using iCurio as a resource in his classroom. This was further explained in iCurio: Conversations with Anthony. Anthony said that it allows students to search the web safely. The results from searches are all filtered and appropriate for children to use. iCurio has storage abilities, which I interpreted to be a lot like our ePorfolios or Google Drive. I think this would be helpful for students because it sounds very user-friendly considering it was made specifically for school children to use. I had never heard of iCurio, so this was an interesting video. I'd like to be able to personally see how it works!
Another resource I had never heard of was discussed in this video. Dr. Strange and Anthony talked about Discovery Education, which is good for finding images to go with Social Studies and Science lessons according to Anthony. He mentioned that a video is worth a million words, which I think is a really good point. In a classroom, especially to get the kids' attentions, I could see where it would be very worthwhile to find a video to go along with your lesson instead of just a basic image. Another good point he made about Discovery Ed is that it brings experts into the classroom. Because teachers actually don't know everything, I think it's awesome for kids to have a resource that allows them to search their topic and find documentaries and expert opinions and explanations about these topics. Watching this video taught me about the existence of this website and made me think about the possibilities that can help enhance my own future lessons.
"Strange Tips for Teachers" is a very interesting video in my opinion. Since Anthony was a new teacher at the time these videos were made, all of his and Dr. Strange's tips are especially relevant to us as students and future teachers. The most important things I learned involved learning about yourself and your students and remembering to have fun while learning. Dr. Strange and Anthony both brought up being flexible at one point, but for me that goes with learning about myself. I don't think that will be something I'll![Helpful Tips Clipart]( "Source:www.digitalmarketingsquad.com border=")
learn until I experience it, but I'm kind of excited to find out just how flexible and creative I can learn to be whenever things don't go how they're supposed to. While talking about one of his tips, Anthony said something about several things motivating students. To me, this includes learning about your students. As a teacher I'll have to find out each of my student's personalities and what makes them want to learn so that I can cater to those needs.
While watching Use Tech Don't Teach It, I learned/confirmed that Anthony is definitely a huge advocate of technology in the classroom! The 3rd graders in this classroom barely have to be taught anything and still usually exceed the expectations of the project they were assigned. It is best to immerse students in technology and let them learn how to use it without being lectured on it. Teachers are usually still learning about technology everyday too. The use of technology in the classroom provides opportunities for kids to be creative and have a nearly endless amount of resources to do their research with. In addition, students can share their creations with the world via the internet, or even just with their classmates or family, which is really important to them. Children feel special when others are seeing what they've done and giving them positive feedback, and I feel like it's our job as teachers to let every student know they are special in some way or another.
The last video, "Additional Thoughts About Lessons" I learned that while planning a lesson you have to think about how it's going to fit into four different things: the school year, the unit, the week, and the day. There are standards that have to be met by the end of the school year, and when making a lesson plan, you have to ensure that it is meeting a standard and worth your time. At the end of your lesson, if the students haven't learned what they need to be able to move on to the next chapter, unit, or grade even, then in my opinion, that lesson isn't even worth teaching. Next, while making a lesson plan you have to be sure that it is being taught from the units in the textbooks that the state picks out for you. The plan has to fit in with everything else you're doing in class that week. If it's going to take longer than one day, you have to factor that in. Which comes to the last component, which is fitting it into the day. This is important because time is crucial when you only have less than seven hours to cover every topic you need to that day. For example, if all your lesson plans should take two hours, then you're going to run out of time. Time is something to keep in mind the whole time you're constructing a lesson plan.
In the first two videos, Anthony mentioned using iCurio as a resource in his classroom. This was further explained in iCurio: Conversations with Anthony. Anthony said that it allows students to search the web safely. The results from searches are all filtered and appropriate for children to use. iCurio has storage abilities, which I interpreted to be a lot like our ePorfolios or Google Drive. I think this would be helpful for students because it sounds very user-friendly considering it was made specifically for school children to use. I had never heard of iCurio, so this was an interesting video. I'd like to be able to personally see how it works!
Another resource I had never heard of was discussed in this video. Dr. Strange and Anthony talked about Discovery Education, which is good for finding images to go with Social Studies and Science lessons according to Anthony. He mentioned that a video is worth a million words, which I think is a really good point. In a classroom, especially to get the kids' attentions, I could see where it would be very worthwhile to find a video to go along with your lesson instead of just a basic image. Another good point he made about Discovery Ed is that it brings experts into the classroom. Because teachers actually don't know everything, I think it's awesome for kids to have a resource that allows them to search their topic and find documentaries and expert opinions and explanations about these topics. Watching this video taught me about the existence of this website and made me think about the possibilities that can help enhance my own future lessons.
"Strange Tips for Teachers" is a very interesting video in my opinion. Since Anthony was a new teacher at the time these videos were made, all of his and Dr. Strange's tips are especially relevant to us as students and future teachers. The most important things I learned involved learning about yourself and your students and remembering to have fun while learning. Dr. Strange and Anthony both brought up being flexible at one point, but for me that goes with learning about myself. I don't think that will be something I'll
While watching Use Tech Don't Teach It, I learned/confirmed that Anthony is definitely a huge advocate of technology in the classroom! The 3rd graders in this classroom barely have to be taught anything and still usually exceed the expectations of the project they were assigned. It is best to immerse students in technology and let them learn how to use it without being lectured on it. Teachers are usually still learning about technology everyday too. The use of technology in the classroom provides opportunities for kids to be creative and have a nearly endless amount of resources to do their research with. In addition, students can share their creations with the world via the internet, or even just with their classmates or family, which is really important to them. Children feel special when others are seeing what they've done and giving them positive feedback, and I feel like it's our job as teachers to let every student know they are special in some way or another.
The last video, "Additional Thoughts About Lessons" I learned that while planning a lesson you have to think about how it's going to fit into four different things: the school year, the unit, the week, and the day. There are standards that have to be met by the end of the school year, and when making a lesson plan, you have to ensure that it is meeting a standard and worth your time. At the end of your lesson, if the students haven't learned what they need to be able to move on to the next chapter, unit, or grade even, then in my opinion, that lesson isn't even worth teaching. Next, while making a lesson plan you have to be sure that it is being taught from the units in the textbooks that the state picks out for you. The plan has to fit in with everything else you're doing in class that week. If it's going to take longer than one day, you have to factor that in. Which comes to the last component, which is fitting it into the day. This is important because time is crucial when you only have less than seven hours to cover every topic you need to that day. For example, if all your lesson plans should take two hours, then you're going to run out of time. Time is something to keep in mind the whole time you're constructing a lesson plan.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Blog Post #5
After reading through this document by Dr. Strange, I learned that Personal Learning Networks (PLN) are the people you can contact to help you professionally or within your interests, as well as other resources and activities that you use to learn. The people or activities in your PLN can be anywhere in the world, and you could personally know the people, or they may be from the internet.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Blog Post #4
When asking questions in a classroom, it is good to ask open-ended things. Yes or no questions do not require much thought and don't allow for any discussion. According to Ben Johnson in this article, a lot of children get overlooked because they feel like they are dumb and do not care. When teachers ask questions in a way that doesn't involve thinking, or if a teacher calls on the same group of students every time, the other kids feel relieved that they weren't
In another article, I learned that "leading questions" should be avoided because they assume that there is only one right answer. Students should realize that in a lot of situations, there can be several right answers, or not completely right answer at all. In addition, while planning for each class, take time to plan for each question that you want to ask and at what times.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Project #15 Search Engine Reviews
1. WolframAlpha - To begin with, the best thing about this search engine is the calculating function. I wish I had known about this website when I was still taking tough math classes! Not only does it give you an answer, but it shows every step it took to come up with that answer. Amazing. As far as searching goes, however, I would probably only use this website if I needed quick facts about something. When I hear search engine, I think of something that is going to provide several websites for me to use and search deeper into the subject. WolframAlpha only gives facts and statistics about the word or phrase that you search. Other than that, I do like the layout; it is very easy to read and follow.
2. Yahoo! - The first thing I noticed about Yahoo is the large amount of advertisements all over the page. The ads take up a considerable amount of space on the web page, and are really distracting from the actual search results.
3. Ask - Ask is helpful because it has the Q&A section on the right-hand side of the page. This helps you quickly scroll and find what you were looking for and the answer without having to search around other websites.
4. Ixquick - This search engine claims to be "the world's most private." There is a link on the homepage with ten ways they protect your privacy. Some of these points include that they don't store IP addresses or cookies, and they're based in the Netherlands causing them to have different guidelines than American search engines.
5. DuckDuckGo - I liked that DuckDuckGo provided tabs under the search bar that included meanings and definitions. This would be useful if you were writing a paper (or a blog post!) and quickly needed to know the definition of a word. Other than that, I would say this is another average search engine that has a similar layout to Google and other websites.
6. Bing - Bing is actually not a bad search engine at all. I like that there are website, image, news, and other results for your search in an organized fashion all on one page. The advertisements are at the bottom and are not overwhelming. In addition to the different results on the same page, there are also tabs to go to a more extended page of the results you specifically wanted.
7. DogPile - This website could be helpful because it has a "white pages" function. If you needed a phone number and didn't have a phonebook or other source nearby, you could easily use DogPile's white pages. As far as search results goes, DogPile is also average and gets the job done.
8. HotBot - This was different because I had never heard of it, but I wasn't necessarily that impressed with it. There were no special features or functions that made it stand out besides the robot graphics. The same websites as usual were found, so I would say it is average as well.
In conclusion, most search engines find the same results, in the same amount of time, and have very similar layouts. Some have different sections that are especially helpful in certain situations, however. I use Google most often because it is tried-and-true, but this has opened my mind a little bit!
2. Yahoo! - The first thing I noticed about Yahoo is the large amount of advertisements all over the page. The ads take up a considerable amount of space on the web page, and are really distracting from the actual search results.
3. Ask - Ask is helpful because it has the Q&A section on the right-hand side of the page. This helps you quickly scroll and find what you were looking for and the answer without having to search around other websites.
4. Ixquick - This search engine claims to be "the world's most private." There is a link on the homepage with ten ways they protect your privacy. Some of these points include that they don't store IP addresses or cookies, and they're based in the Netherlands causing them to have different guidelines than American search engines.
5. DuckDuckGo - I liked that DuckDuckGo provided tabs under the search bar that included meanings and definitions. This would be useful if you were writing a paper (or a blog post!) and quickly needed to know the definition of a word. Other than that, I would say this is another average search engine that has a similar layout to Google and other websites.
6. Bing - Bing is actually not a bad search engine at all. I like that there are website, image, news, and other results for your search in an organized fashion all on one page. The advertisements are at the bottom and are not overwhelming. In addition to the different results on the same page, there are also tabs to go to a more extended page of the results you specifically wanted.
7. DogPile - This website could be helpful because it has a "white pages" function. If you needed a phone number and didn't have a phonebook or other source nearby, you could easily use DogPile's white pages. As far as search results goes, DogPile is also average and gets the job done.
8. HotBot - This was different because I had never heard of it, but I wasn't necessarily that impressed with it. There were no special features or functions that made it stand out besides the robot graphics. The same websites as usual were found, so I would say it is average as well.
In conclusion, most search engines find the same results, in the same amount of time, and have very similar layouts. Some have different sections that are especially helpful in certain situations, however. I use Google most often because it is tried-and-true, but this has opened my mind a little bit!
C4T #1 Summary
The blog I was assigned is called Two Writing Teachers. It is actually run by six different women whose titles range from early childhood educators to literacy specialists. The topics of their blogposts are centered around writing in the elementary school classrooms.
![photo of an example of a text feature]( "Source: Anna Gratz Cockerille - Two Writing Teachers border=")
The first post I commented on discussed using "text features" to help students with their expository writing. Text features are a way to organize words and ideas to draw attention to certain details or add to your story. I've attached an image from the blog as a reference. Anyway, whenever I commented I told the author, Anna, that I was still a student and had never heard of a text feature before; therefore, her post was extra informative for me. I really like the idea because it gives students a visual of what their topic is, and it makes it easier to integrate different subjects into writing like in the example.
The second post was really cool for me because as soon as I clicked on it, I saw a really familiar image. The author, Stacey, was writing about something she had seen in Dr. Paige Vitulli's tweets from my class! Stacey borrowed Dr. Vitulli's idea to write post-it notes about art, and used it to write ideas about writing instead. In her post, she also shared five more ideas to help students see themselves as writers including addressing them as writers instead of students. In my comment, I told her that I really liked that idea. Telling students they're writers lets them know that you believe in them, and I would assume would put them in a good mood and mindset to begin writing.
The second post was really cool for me because as soon as I clicked on it, I saw a really familiar image. The author, Stacey, was writing about something she had seen in Dr. Paige Vitulli's tweets from my class! Stacey borrowed Dr. Vitulli's idea to write post-it notes about art, and used it to write ideas about writing instead. In her post, she also shared five more ideas to help students see themselves as writers including addressing them as writers instead of students. In my comment, I told her that I really liked that idea. Telling students they're writers lets them know that you believe in them, and I would assume would put them in a good mood and mindset to begin writing.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Blog Post #3
I have learned that peer editing is working with someone your age to improve their writing. This is useful in EDM310 because we do a lot of writing in our blog posts, and getting feedback from the people in our classes is a great way for everyone to learn. When you peer edit someone's writing, it is important to stay positive and give suggestions and corrections according to this slideshow.
It's important to be polite when you're giving suggestions because you don't want it to seem like you're trying to overpower that person or be better than they are. Everyone has to realize that they are equals, and you're discussing their post as adults. Getting suggestions from people your own age is good because they may notice errors or think of words to add that don't even cross your mind. When making suggestions and corrections, be sure that you are specific in what needs to be fixed to avoid any confusion. In addition, be sure to look for spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and grammar errors while editing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)