Personal Learning Network

I have started building my P.L.N. (personal learning network), in hopes that I will be able to keep in touch with these individuals and learn things from them that will better prepare me for my teaching career. A few of the people I have contacted are old teachers from my high school as well as some from my community college. I am lucky enough to have made friends with several teachers that I have done service hours for. One of which is from the Marietta Johnson school in Fairhope. A place that I hope to work for one day. I am keeping in touch with these people by email mostly, I am trying to convince a few of them to start using twitter and Skype, hopefully i will be able to influence them.

Comments 4kids week 10

I commented on Hannah's blog about her beginning, middle, and end project in class. She read a story called the pot of gold and drew pictures depicting the beginning, middle, and end of the story. I thought this was a great way to teach kids about story structure and creative writing.

My comment to her was :Hannah, I loved your pictures, you are very talented. Having the beginning middle and end are very important parts of story telling.i am a student at USA and I hope to be a teacher one day. In one of my classes we are looking at student blogs to see how students are learning using technology. I hope you keep an interest in art, the world is a more colorful place with it. :)
to visit her blog please click HERE

Week 7: This is how we dream

This is How We Dream
Times are changing and one of the things that is changing is how we learn. Books newspapers and magazines and other print documents are going extinct. As sad as I will be to see my books slowly replace by downloaded texts, it will be better for our world and our environment. The speed at witch information is shared over the web is astonishing. We can inform anyone around the world instantly of new happenings just by pressing send. People can now attend the same class from all over the earth!

Not only are we reaching people from all corners of the globe we can also include so much more in our online writings such as mixed forms of media such as pod casts and videos. As the tasks we take on evolve so must our way of learning. Think about it, we are making so many advancements in technology that half of what a student in a technical college learns will be outdated by the time they graduate. Using the internet also allows you to collaborate with others more easily, instead of having to meet and exchange ideas you can just call the person on skype, send them a quick SMS or email them.

The Networked Student
I cant wait to be the teacher of networked students. I hope that this will lead to brighter individuals as their learning process will become more exciting. Students will be more likely I believe to stay interested in and excited about their work if they are able to do their research online using as many different sources as they want. They no longer have to rely on the volumes provided in the school or local library for information. Students can now find information written by other students and collaborate with them to build a personal learning network.

As teachers of networked students we will have to stay on top of the technology that our students will be using. There is nothing worse than being "schooled" by your student. It is very important to be technologically literate in today's time, we cannot afford to fall behind in this field. As educators we must always be on the cutting edge of new and exciting things. We are helping today's students become tomorrows leaders.

Week 9: ALEX & ACCESS

ALEX
What a fantastic website, I immediately saved it to my favorites after checking it out. ALEX is a website that has almost everything a teacher would need to know. You can find help with lesson plans for all subjects and grades. there is a link to inform you of all grant opportunities! Everything is categorized well and easy to find, its probably one of the more easily navigable sites I have seen on the subject. When you come to the Home page of ALEX you are faced with 8 tab choices, simply choice which one your query would fall under and click!

ALEX is a teachers best friend, one could find most everything they needed for class. From a page of useful web links and its own search engine, to a page devoted to professional development this site is a great resource.i know that I will be using it in the future!

ACCESS
I think that Access is a great idea, students will be able to take online course in high school. There is around 40 something classes that students can enroll in. Students were overall pretty satisfied with the courses and some said they enjoyed it more than there regular classroom courses, but did express an interest in having more face to face contact with their teachers. Teachers find the online courses to be a great way of educating the students and would be willing to continue in teaching the course.

This just goes to show how advanced our civilization is and how far we have come from the first classrooms thousands of years ago. For the longest time the only way to get an online course would be if you were in college. Now our high school students can choose to learn online as well as in the classroom. One day I imagine we wont meet for class at all and people will be able to get their education from anywhere in the world. Which also of course means we will be able to teach from anywhere we want :)

Power Point About Myself

Class Survey

This is a survey I did using Google Docs, on Alice in Wonderland. I sent it to all Spring Edm310 students. Loading...">Click Here

Comments for kids week 9

For week 9 I commented on English with Rosa blog: Oscar Ceremony. She had posted a short promotional video for the ceremony. I think that it was a very exciting video and could be used to get kids more interested in the event.
The comment I left was:Wow, that video really gets you pumped! I love watching the red carpet to see all the stars dressed up and the ceremony is fun because you get to see who preformed the best. Click Here

Comments for Kids Week 8

For week 8 I commented on a charcoal drawing that was accompanied by a poem written by the student. This student seems very artistic, the drawing was a detailed image of a head with no skin. I find that drawing is a fantastic way for kids to express them selves and I think that is a healthy way for them to release excess energy. The comment i left was: Your drawing is very intense, it seems as if your subject is crying out in pain. Is this a self portrait minus the skin? the link to the blog is as follows Click Here

Comment for kids week 4

I know that my comments for kids are a little out of order, for that I apologize, I don't mean to get so far behind. For week 4 of comments for kids, I commented on Annie M's blog about internet safety. I think it is very important that our kids understand how dangerous the internet can be. We should all do our part on educating each other on the dangers of the web. The comment I left for her was :You are right it is very important to protect yourself on the net. There are all sorts of strange individuals out there, you never really know who you could be talking to! Click here

Comments for kids week7

I comment on Jesus' blog for week seven. He is telling a story about a vampire bunny; Bunnicula. He seems very inventive, I never would have thought of writing a story about a blood thirsty rabbit. His class is writing stories on their laptops.This could be a very good way to get kids interested in creative writing. The comment I left him was : This sounds like a really interesting story! I never thought of a Dracula bunny. The link to his blog is :Click Here

Randy Pausch: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randy Pausch is a very admirable person. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and only given a few months to live. And even with all of this on his plate he still felt it important to talk to people about how to achieve their childhood dreams. He started the lecture with discussing his own childhood. Born in 1960, Randy said he had a happy childhood and felt that he was born to two fantastic people. As a child he was a daydreamer and thought since we had made it to the moon that anything was possible, which is an attitude he kept throughout his life.

As a child Randy had six major dreams, most of which he accomplished. The ones he didn't he was able to learn a lot from trying. One of the quotes he uses in his lecture is "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted". He also belives that brick walls were put there for us to prove ourselves, not to keep us out. The people they stop are the ones who didn't want it bad enough.

Randy started a program at Carnegie Mellon University called Building Virtual Worlds or BVW for short. The first semester of the program he assigned his students to build a virtual program. When asked how he wanted it done, he said for them to do whatever they wanted, with only two guidelines. The assignments that were turned in he found amazing. He went to his mentor and asked what he should tell the class, his response was tell them they did a good job but he knows they can do better. This is a great example of constructive criticism. I think that this is one of the best way to get your students to do better in class. You encourage them by telling them they did a good job and then re instill in them the fact that you believe in them by telling them you know that they can do better.

In closing his lecture he leaves the audience with a few parting thoughts that I think should be told to everyone. One of my favorites is something I think can be used with any grade level, and that is are you a Tiger or an Eeyore? are you going to be full of life and take chances and make mistakes or are you going to be an Eeyore and mope about the hard ships that befall you? Remember Brick walls are put there for us to show our determination. When things don't go our way or that class is too hard, we shouldn't complain we should just work harder. This video helped me out not by listening to his teaching methods but from listening to how he worked to get where he wanted to be and he did it with a smile on his face.