Blog Post 9

What I've Learned This Year
by Mr. McClung

Mr. McClung wrote this blog post shortly after his first year of teaching an elementary school class.  He wrote about what he learned in a positive way in hopes to help future first time educators in their new experience as a teacher.  Below I have broken down his main topics.

How to Read the Crowd

Mr. McClung is absolutely right!  I have not started student teaching yet, but already I am concerned with how I will be graded.  This is not something that I probably would not have thought about until after I began teaching.  Right now, we are all concerned with our grades and how well we can do.  We need to begin thinking about how well we can get our students to do.  Otherwise we will never do as good of a job as a teacher as we try to do as students.  Our main focus should be on the student’s comprehension of the material, not it we got it all in on our lesson plan.  I loved how he said “in order to be effective you have to be able to let your audience drive your instruction.”

Be Flexible

There is no way to control every situation.  I know this may be my biggest struggle as a teacher.  I always insist on everything going according to plan, but Mr. McClung is right again.  There is no way to create a prefect lesson plan and have it taught exactly the way you pictured.  I have already begun to learn this with my first grade classrooms.  Some of the teachers have me jump in and finish the lesson even though I did not prepare for it earlier.  This has helped me to understand what Mr. McClung is talking about.  There is no way to completely expect what the students may say or do or even ask.

Communicate

I know communication is another thing that I will need to continuously work on.  Just reading this section made me very uncomfortable.  That is not a good thing.  I understand what Mr. McClung is saying about in the workplace and with students, but I am not the most assertive person.  I am, however, going to have to learn to be.  I honestly know that I have come a long way over the years, but there is so much communication in the teaching field.  The more interaction I have with others, the better at it I will become.

Be Responsible

It sounds so simple to “be reasonable” when in reality Mr. McClung points out yet another important obstacle for teachers to be aware of.  I agree with him that we need to remember that we are dealing with children and we do not need to set our own expectations to high.  I do this now.  I have actually always done this, to myself.  I have extremely high expectations for myself and often I set myself up for failure.  I need to become more aware of what is actually expected and not try to over exaggerate what needs to be done.  You can’t expect for everyone to get everything, every time, flawlessly.  This includes us.  What is most important is to not let your students feel that they will not be able to get what you are teaching.  I have seen teachers who have given up on students because they did not meet that teacher’s expectation.  Mr. McClung points out that we must not do this.  Instead, we are to pick them up, brush them off, and encourage them to try again.

Don’t be Afraid of Technology

This lesson is exactly as it is titled.  Dr. Strange tries to tell us this all of the time by assigning our different blog posts and projects.  We will never know what we can do for our students, until we give it a try.  I have enjoyed getting over a lot of my own fears in this class.  I was one of the people who thought technology would be the end of me.  Yet here I am, still breathing. 

Listen to Your Students

Listening to students goes beyond checking for a correct answer.  It also goes beyond knowing their favorite color and food.  Teachers do not always know what is going on in the life of their students.  We should know as much as possible.  We need to really listen to our students.  Mr. McClung is right; we may be the only ones who do.  I know everyone has known someone who had a hard time outside of school.  Sometimes a little extra attention to a small conversation can make a world of difference in the student’s eyes.

Lastly….Never Stop Learning

Although this was the shortest of the lessons, it speaks out in great volume.  I agree with Mr. McClung that people tend to not want to learn even though they constantly expect others to.  I know everyone has their moments of down time, and that is not what I am talking about.  I have my moments where I am not ready to pick back up my books, school or leisure, but I get past those later on and get something accomplished.  I find it very discouraging when other teachers and students feel comfortable with just doing the bare minimum and think that they have accomplished something.  There will always be new information out there and as educators we need to know what is going on.  This means, never stop learning!

Comments4Kids # 4,5,6

PKA2011's Blog

by a fourth grade student

PKA is a fourth grade student in Mr. Stephen Wolfe's class.   The assignment for this week was Thinking Stem #3.  The instructions for the student were to write about the book they were reading in this general order:

MODEL:

I am reading (name of story) by (author) In my story (tell me an event that is happening in your story).

This next part is the thinking stem. Next, use one of the starters below and write a sentence (or two or three) following the starter. A lot of you forgot this part last time! Make sure you include this too!

(I’m thinking… feeling,… seeing… noticing… or this reminds me of….)

My student, PKA, wrote about a book called Sassy written by Erick Lee.  The student gave good descriptions about how the book made him/her feel as well as how the character felt.  The theme of this book seems to be that a young girl does not like to read and everyone keeps forcing her to read the same book repeatedly so she will become a better reader.  I tried to find this book, but I was unsuccessful. 

I commented to this student letting him/her know who I was and where I go to school.  I told the student that they did a great job on the blog post assignment and to keep up the good work. 

This student had a few grammatical errors, but did a good job getting the main point across to the reader.  Also, he/she seemed excited to report what he/she had been reading for a while.  This is their class’s first year blog posting and they all seem to be doing very well.

Bin It!

by Marvin

Marvin is an eighth grade student in room 20 at the PT England School.  I have visited other student blogs from his school.  Marvin's assignment was to make an animation about one of his school's "Korero" which I found out is a type of discussion.  I am not exactly sure what his animation was about.  It looked like a person running and jumping in front of their school.

I left him a response asking him if this was his first animation.  I thought he did an excellent job on it either way.  I also asked him about his character and told him he did very good!  I still have not received a response back yet.

Rusty's Sickening Restaurant

by Theresa 


Theresa is in Ms. Engelhard's class. Her blog post was a letter to a restaurant owner.  She explained her negative experience that she had there with her father.  She insisted that he hire more help because the food was "foul" and the service was not much better.  I thought she did an excellent job writing a professional letter of concern.  I told her she did very well and encouraged her to continue blogging.  I also thanked her for sharing this experience with her readers.  


I was surprised to read such a well written letter from a fourth or fifth grade student.  Although there seemed to be no set assignment for her blog post, she conducted it in a very professional manner.  I would not be surprised if this was an actual letter she sent to this business.  Overall, I was extremely impressed with her blog post.

Skype Interview Project 12

Blog Post 8

This is How We Dream, Parts 1 and 2

By Richard Miller

 

Professor Richard Miller teaches in the English department at Rutgers University.  Our assignment this week was to observe two of his videos “This is How We Dream” and record our responses.  He began the first video by informing the listeners that he loved books.  He had always wanted to write books, and then one day he wrote a book.  He then began discussing documents online.  I found he made a very good point, books online are freely available to take out at any time and yet they are still available to the next person.   

This made me think for a bit because I really dislike eBooks.  I have an electronic reader that was given to me at Christmas, but I am still having a hard time letting go of my paper books.  Most of my classes at the University are using eBooks.  I still print out every page so that I can take my notes and highlight the text.  Jamie Lynn pointed out earlier this semester that this is easily done on the computer, but I will admit I get tired of looking at a computer screen all day.  Sometimes I just want to sit on my couch and hold my favorite book. 

Through both videos, Professor Miller talked about the many uses with multimedia and how it can help schools.  I found many of his ideas to be interesting, but I began to think if I am ready to use multimedia in my classroom.  The other day, the first grade teacher I shadow was telling me about the difficulties of their grade books.  Since all seven first grade teachers share students, they have to record grades and send them to each other to record grades again.  She said it was the best system they had come up with so far.  Then I mentioned Google docs and told her about sharing the information with the other teachers.  We are going to look into that when I get back from the break.

Other than that one experience, I have found that I am not prepared to use multimedia in my classroom.  I am, however, willing to learn.  I think that it would be beneficial to know how to use the available tools that are out there.  I am an elementary education major, so I am not ready to give up my paper books though.  I think that may be a bit much for younger readers right now, but who knows?  Maybe one day we will all be reading from the internet.

EDM310 For Dummies

The Chipper Series
Both of these videos were produced by EDM310 students

I absolutely loved these videos!  My favorite was by far EDM310 for Dummies.  It was almost as if they followed my friends and me around the EDM310 lab.  At the beginning of the semester I was completely lost.  I was frustrated and aggravated that I could not figure out how to do the materials assigned.  Then I began to research and ask for help in the lab.  Thankfully, I am only frustrated on a few occasions now.

I was talking with a few of my friends who are also enrolled in EDM310 this semester a few weeks ago.  We discussed making a video as our final project on “How to make an A in EDM310” which we all hope to do!  I presented this idea to Dr. Strange and his response was unexpected.  I’ll let that be a surprise later.

As far as our general message, we were aiming on showing the importance of being honest and having integrity when it comes to your classwork.  We could show examples of how to properly find the information and instructions to help students do better on their own.  This is very similar to the two group projects above.  Their messages were motivating in a joking manner.  We wanted to make our movie upbeat and a little humorous.  It will be interesting to see our idea can become a reality.

 

Learn to Change, Change to Learn 

by the Pearson Foundation

This video shared viewpoints from many different educators.  They all had a similar goal in mind.  I’m just not sure their biased opinion is the correct one.  They talk about children being more involved outside of the classroom using technology than in the classroom, but why is that?  Are they really that bored with what is being taught?  Of course not, the technology they may be using could be anything.  A lot of students play video games, watch movies, talk on telephones, or use some other form of technology.  This does not mean that they are more involved with something educational through technology.

I guess what I am trying to say is I believe we should use technology in the classroom, but I do not believe that teachers should depend on that to keep their students focused on what is being taught.  Honestly, have their teachers simply given up on finding new methods to help enrich their experience?  I have found that many teachers are leaning on technology as a crutch.  I don’t think that they should depend solely on technology to keep students engaged in their activities.  There has to be some kind of balance to education involving creative thinking as well as technology.  If not, then what are teachers for?

The Secret Powers of Time 

by Professor Philip Zimbardo



It was weird to me to see this video, because a few weeks ago I was amazed by Changing Education Paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson. In The Secret Powers of time, Professor Zimbardo explains how different time zones affect different children’s’ learning.  I am wondering where he received this evidence and if it was scientifically proven?  I am not quite sure that I agree with this entire argument, but it is hard to disagree with certain parts.  I agree that boys who overly use technology for playing video games are going to be bored in school.  Actually, I believe that anyone who uses any form of technology for pleasure, for long periods of time, will be bored in school.  I don’t think it is simply the lack of interaction as much as they want to see a rush.  Gaming is more of a thrill, just as Facebooking is more of a social circle.  What is the thrill in the classroom?  Where is the conversation?


I agree with Professor Zimbardo that students no longer want to be passive.  Most teachers use this statement to argue whether or not technology should be used in the classroom.  Some say we should rely more on technology because either they truly believe it is the only way to teach anymore, or they have become lazy and do not want to be creative when there is an easier way out.  Other educators blame technology for ruining education.  Those are the teachers who wonder why there are such unbelievable dropout rates, while at the same time blame video games for students’ poor performance in school.


Is there a happy medium in this situation?  I know this video was more than the debate of technology and learning, but isn’t that the more pressing issue?  Yes people are going to learn differently because they are in different time zones, but they are also in different geographic regions, they have different beliefs and customs, and they have different cultural backgrounds. 


The real debate here is what is motivating the students, and what is not.  What are we doing as educators to strengthen our students’ desire for success?  What are we doing to hinder it?  This video seemed to give more excuses to the problem than solutions.  I would be interested to find out more about what we can do as educators to bring all of these factors together to encourage students to want to learn.

Drive: The surprsing truth that motivates us
by Dan Pink


This was an amazing video!  There were so many different ways to help people drive for success.  I think this was a great way to begin the search I mentioned about our last video.


First of all, I loved how he began this video with the statement, “We are not as endlessly manipulable and predictable as you would think!”  Mr. Pink set the bar high and delivered with his message about motivation.  Overall, his message was that people like to be self-directed and naturally have the urge to get better at stuff.  This is very true.  If something interests a person, then that person is going to work as hard as they can to produce the best work they can, to prove, not only to themselves but to others that they can.


He spoke about rewarding people for their accomplishments more than punishing them for their mistakes.  I also believe that this is true.  I have read many studies throughout my college experience as well as witnessed many events where this has proven to be true.


When Mr. Pink discussed that higher incentives led to worse performance, I was very confused.  How can this be possible?  After his in depth explanation, he said that people will be successful with challenge and mastery while making a contribution.  Pretty much, the big picture is that people will have the same want, drive, motivation, whatever you would like to call it if they feel they are being challenged and will try everything to master that challenge.  However, they will only feel successful if they believe that they are making a contribution. 


I honestly feel like this is the only way I am driven.  If I feel that I am doing something to help someone or something else, then I will try my absolute hardest to accomplish my goal.  For example, I was a veterinary technician for the past five years.  I went to every seminar available, took classes to better understand what I had to do, and volunteered excessive overtime without pay just to help out.  I felt that I was making a difference, not only for the pet but also for its family.

This is why I want to be an educator.  It is not for the money.  It is not for the status.  It is because I want to help someone else.  I want to inspire them to do something that will make them feel as accomplished as I do.  This was a great video for me to take a step back and really put things into perspective

SMARTBoard Presentation Project 13

Statistics of SMARTBoard Presentation Questionnaire

Our presentation was on the different forms of clouds.  Clouds can be taught in third, fourth, and fifth grade.  As elementary education majors, we did more of an introductory lesson geared towards the third grade level.  We introduced the four main types of clouds, described their major attributes, and then did interactive games with our audience.  The purpose of the games was to test their immediate understanding of the material.  After the presentation was completed, we asked members of the audience to do a matching game to see if the presentation and descriptions were useful in learning the different types of clouds.


Once the presentation was complete, we had the group audience fill out a questionnaire about clouds.  The statistics and summary is included in the link above.  We had a total of 10 questions.  Four questions were multiple choice, three were true or false, two were fill in the blank, and one was a grid response.  


The group taking our questionnaire consisted of three people.  Out of the three people, one person answered every question correct, one person missed one, and the third person missed two.  One person missed a multiple choice question that two of our presenters had covered in the lesson.  The other question missed was a fill in the blank.  Both of our fill in the blank questions were about the clouds' nicknames.  The first nickname was the last cloud presented, and everyone answered it correctly.  The second question was about the first cloud presented and only one student answered correctly.


What did I learn about this summary?  Overall, it was a successful project.  I learned how to make a lesson on the SMARTBoard using some of the different features it offers.  I learned that repetition and pictures can emphasize the material being taught.  I also learned that interactive games on the SMARTBoard help students learn the material, test their knowledge of the material, and reinforce their confidence of the material.  The SMARTBoard needs to be a hands on lecture for the students to benefit the most.  I found that the material the students worked on themselves consisted of the most correct answers, while the material given only orally hand the incorrect answers.  Therefore, in our experience, the SMARTBoard presentation was more helpful to the students.

C4T Comments for Teachers Post 2

Be careful little mouths what you say...

By Becky Goerend

Mrs. Goerend wrote this blog post to remind teachers not only to watch what they say in front of their students, but also how they say these things.  She realized this while having a conversation with another teacher about their sixth grade students not giving them respect.  She asked the other teacher how she speaks to her students, because with sixth graders respect is earned and lost from them quickly.

Mrs. Goerend then told a story about how a young girl accused her of calling the student stupid a few years earlier.  She had taken the teachers comment of “you may struggle” and twisted it into “my teacher called me stupid.”  Mrs. Goerend explained the complexity of the situation and wrote this post to remind teachers not to take thing so personally.  The main objective of this post is for teachers to remember things look differently to students and we should all act like professionals because we are professionals.

She then asked for other people to comment on experiences that they have had in this situation.  I read through the comments and found that this seemed to be a common problem.

My response to this was about an experience I had recently while doing my early field experience at a local elementary school.  One teacher got onto two boys for “fooling around” in the hallway and it prompted one of them to tell the teacher I follow about someone he knows, and respects, that also fools around.  I am absolutely certain that he did not understand the meanings of what he had said, but this was a good example of how much children hear.

I am glad to have read her post about this because I will admit I was extremely shocked that this had happened.  Because of this post, I have realized that this can happen more often than expected.  This is a good reminder to anyone to watch what you say and the tone you use when talking to students of all ages.

More of the little things

by Becky Goerend

When I first read this post, I had no idea how awesome this was going to be.  Mrs. Goerend said that she noticed that many of her students were bummed about their grades and she could tell that they were stressed.  She had heard about the Interlude Dance and taught it to her students.  She then let them dance it out in the classroom and they began to let go and have fun.

The point of this post is for teachers to realize that students need to “let go” and relieve “stress” sometimes just like the teachers do.  She said that this 10 minute activity gave her and her class freedom and even thought it took them a little while to wind back down, it gave the room a different ambience.

She asked teachers to post what they do in their classrooms to help bring down student’s stress levels.  I had no idea what this dance was, and thankfully she posted a link to it. My response changed immediately.  I expressed my gratitude for having such a great post.  I never thought about what teachers could do in their classrooms for students stress.  I have never had a teacher do anything like this for me before, so the idea was new and exciting. 

Below is the YouTube video for the Interlude Dance that was invented at the University of Northern Iowa.  I would recommend it for a stress reliever in a classroom!

Blog Post 7

I honestly do not even know where to begin.  This video has opened my mind and heart.  I waited so long to watch this video because I was afraid it would be depressing.  Boy was I wrong!  I laughed and cried throughout this entire video.  Dr. Randy Pausch gave the most meaningful and motivational speech I have ever heard.  I am truly blessed to have been given this as an assignment and I have passed it on to my family and friends.

Dr. Pausch’s Last Lecture was not about his illness, his family, or his religious views.  It was also not just about his accomplishments.  His speech was about how he has fulfilled his childhood dreams, as well as how he has been influenced and has influenced others to do the same.  He gave personal experiences to relay his messages about life to the audience.  Dr. Pausch’s speech gives the tools and reality of how to reach your own childhood dreams.

One of my favorite quotes he gave was, “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”  At this point, I stopped the video to reflect on what he had just said because what great assessment of life this statement truly is.  He had previously mentioned, “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game.”  What I took from this is we can only work with what we are given and if that is not what we had wanted, than we will get experience from our new path.  This message from Dr. Pausch connected with my life in so many ways.  I became completely captivated to the rest of his lecture.

What have I learned from this experience? 

I have learned valuable tools which can help me, not just in my future as an educator but as a person.  Dr. Pausch used the example of “brick walls” which will stop people who don’t want what they are aiming for, enough.  He said that brick walls are there for a reason.  I believe this.  It all wraps into his belief of Karma, which I also believe in.  The most important part of his teaching method involving brick walls is to never give up if you really want something.

Dr. Pausch gave a list of Lessons Learned which included:

• Know the role of parents, mentors, and students
• Decide if you are a Tigger or an Eeyore
• Never lose the child-like wonder
• Help others
• Loyalty is a two-way street
• Never give up
• Brick walls let us show our dedication
• Don’t bail
• Set a feedback loop and Listen to it
• Show gratitude
• Don’t complain; just work harder

I listed these to show Dr. Pausch’s personal values as an educator.  If you watch this lecture, you will know how important each one of these life-lessons is.  He used these values in his methods of teaching. 

His methods of teaching were a lot like Dr. Strange’s.  He believed that the teacher is more of a mentor who should guide his students to their highest potential.  He believed in his students and let the student set the bar for their own educational abilities.  Dr. Pausch gave an example of how he learned to do this.  He talked about an exceptional class he taught one semester and after their first project he had no idea what to say to them to motivate them anymore than they already were.  His mentor told him to go into class the next day and tell his students “that was pretty good, but I know you can do better.”  That advice will stay with me forever.  By pushing his students to do better each time, they will have the challenge and drive to put effort into everything they do.  Sometimes, I personally get discouraged in school.  I find it hard to continue to do my best when it seems like so few students are doing the same.  This method of teaching pushes everyone to continue to try harder.  No one is perfect, which is why we should all have this kind of motivation and encouragement to be better than we have ever been before.

Dr. Pausch mentioned that the best thing someone can do to educate another, is to make them self-reflective.  This is a great method of teaching because it pushes the student to realize their own abilities and know when they are doing their best, as well as when they are not giving their all.  This brings me back to his method of never giving up due to brick walls.  He said that teachers and students should never give up if they truly want to succeed.  This means that we should look to others for help and advice.  Dr. Pausch gave a specific list of ways of how to get people to help you.  They were all common sense, but it was refreshing to see that such small acts can impact a person in such a tremendous way:  

• Karma
• Tell the truth
• Be earnest
• Apologize when you screw up
• Focus on others, not yourself

People can only go so far by themselves; this is why we all need direction from others.  Dr. Pausch pointed out “when you mess up and no one tells you anymore, then they have given up on you.”  This means, as a method of teaching, we need to be able to give constructive criticism as well as have the ability to accept it.

Another method of teaching used by Dr. Pausch was the “head fake” where he would have the students learn something while they think they are learning something else.  This was an interesting method.  He said that the greatest learning is done by having fun while learning something hard.  I have never really thought about it in depth before this lecture, but this has to be the most effective method of teaching.  For example, I was extremely technology illiterate.  Thanks to the fun and active projects in my EDM310 class, I have learned so many new ways of using technology by having fun with my classmates, who have in turn become some of my best friends.  I am proud of everything I have learned and completed in this class because I have enjoyed what I have been working on.  Although Dr. Pausch and EDM310 are related to technology, this process can be applied to every subject.  As another example, some of the first grade students I am following are having a difficult time reading.  They have centers of activities that they can work on with partners, groups, or individually.  They also have time in the computer lab where they can play interactive games.  All of these activities are fun to them, so they don’t realize that they are actually learning how to read what they thought was difficult.

The head fake method was what he used to sum up his lecture.  Dr. Pausch gave his first head fake:

It’s not about how to achieve your dreams; it’s about how to lead your life.  If you lead your life the right way, then Karma will take care of itself and dreams will come to you.

He then followed this by his second head fake:

This talk is not for you, it’s for my kids.

I think what really stuck with me the most is how he was truly just a good person.  I have not heard such a moving speech since my dad was inducted into the coaching Hall of Fame.  Dr. Pausch reminded me of my dad in so many ways and made me thankful for the wonderful family that I have.  Without both my mother and father, I would not be the person I am today. I know his goal was to speak to his children so that they will remember the lessons he wanted to give them throughout their lives.  I know that they will never forget the message he is sending to them, because I will never forget the message my father sent to me in his speech.

PLN Project Summary 1

This is a screen shot of my Personal Learning Network.  It is still a work in progress, but so far I have found it to be helpful.  As you can see I have many different blogs, social networks, school websites, and things that I am interested in.  It is also color coded in orange and blue because I am a huge Florida Gator fan.  I used Symbaloo.com to make my PLN.  After watching the video about the seventh grade student's PLN it made me want to work on my own.  Mine is not at her level yet, but as I said before I will keep working on what I should add and replace because technology changes everyday, therefore what I will need will also change over time.