Blog Post #9

Mr. McClung's What I Have Learned This Year 2008-09 and What I have Learned This Year 2009-10

After reading Mr McClung's first experiences as a teacher, I took in everything he said. In his 2008-09 school year post, he mentioned that no lesson plan will ever be perfect and to be completely honest, I believe that I will try to make a lesson plan as perfect as I can and mess up. One of my many flaws is that I try to be perfect in everything I do (which we all know is impossible). I'm excited so therefore I want my students to be excited. I know for sure that is one thing that I will need to remember once I start teaching. I just want my students to have the best learning experience possible.
Mr. McClung also mentioned how not to set the standards to high for your students. Speaking for myself, I can remember as a child how uncomfortable it was to work under pressure. There is nothing wrong for wanting the best for your students, but in my opinion and remembering personally how that felt, if you put a child under too much pressure they will panic. It is our jobs as teachers one day to make the learning process as comfortable as possible. I tend to mentally put myself in other people's situations often, so I believe that I will be good at not putting too much pressure on my students. As I mentioned earlier, I remember the uncomfortable feeling of pressure, so I will do my absolute best to make sure I am not doing the same to my students.
As I always mentioned, communication is the key to any and every relationship, including students and teachers. As educators, we have to listen to our students. Mr. McClung stated that in his post and I completely agree with him. Just because we (teachers) are in control of our classroom, does not mean that our students do not have a voice. The reason why we have this type of job is because of the students, so everything that they say is very important. We have to be able to understand them in order to help them succeed.
Mr. McClung's second blog post was also very helpful to me. As I mentioned earlier, I took everything in that he stated in his post. Out of everything that Mr. McClung mentioned in his second post, one helpful hint really stuck out to me and that was for teachers to leave the egos at the door. This is beyond true. I know that I am not a teacher just yet, but I believe that everything we do as educators is for our students; therefore, our main focus should be on the students. Our job is to help them in every way possible, so anything that has nothing to do with benefiting them should stay outside the classroom. Our students are our future and we have to make sure that they are prepared; educationally and mentally.

C4T#3 With Mr. Fisch

For my C4T assignments for the month of March, I was assigned to Mr. Fisch's blog. Below is the link to his blog and my first comment:



Mr. Fisch's Blog

Mr. Fisch,
Hello, my name is Angela Smith and I am in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama and allow me to say that this was exactly what I needed to read/watch! This blog post not only helped me but was also very factual about students being afraid of failure. Just as you mentioned Mr. Fisch, students have been taught to fear failure, when in reality the only way you are going to succeed higher than before is to know what you did wrong to correct it. I used to be that student; I always wanted to do it right the very first time and conquer it. Now, I appreciate those failures. I honestly believe I would not be the responsible person that I am today if it was not for the mistakes that I have made in the past. Whether it was something dealing with school or not, I am very grateful for my mistakes, and as a future educator I would want my students to know that as well.

For my second C4T assignment, I was assigned to the same teacher, Mr. Fisch. For some odd reason, my post for my second comment published to his first post (which I already completed). Since I was assigned to the same teacher, the link above is sufficient for my second comment. Below is my comment to Mr. Fisch post:


This was simply beautiful, and so true. We indeed need more people who are determined and courageous. I really admired what you stated towards the end, about how life is not all about money but trying to make the world anew. That is exactly how I feel about becoming a teacher. If I can encourage one child out of all the students that I will have in my classroom, I will then know that my mission was accomplished. Knowing that you were apart of a child's success is worth more than all the money in the world. Thank you for this beautiful post, Mr. Fisch.

C4K Summary for March

For the first C4K assignment for the month of March, I was assigned to two students by the names of Cheyenne and Leyla. Below is the link to their blog and also my comment:


Cheyenne and Leyla's Blog Post

For my second C4K assignment for the month of March, I was assigned to a student by the name of Tahibah. Below is the link to the student's blog, as well as my comment:


Tahibah's Blog Post


Hello, Tahibah!
My name is Angela Smith and I am in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. You did an awesome job on your story. I loved the in depth details that you gave about Ann in your story. From what I understood from your story, was that the spiders Ann dreamed about represented her friends becoming her enemies; wonderful metaphor, Tahibah! Keep up the great work!

Blog Post #8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream

The era that we are living in today requires the usage of technology. Not just for our personal purposes, but also for education. At the beginning of this video, Dr. Miller stated that we are living in the greatest time of communication (which is so true). Think about it. We have Facebook, Twitter, Skype, emails, and many other sources of communicating with one another. One source that Dr. Miller talks and demonstrates on is the usage of multimedia. Using multimedia enables the student to explore literature in such a magnificent, creative way by creating sound and visual documents.
I believe that I am ready to write with multimedia. As I was watching the video, I was amazed at the wonderful job Dr. Miller did with Dr. Martin Luther King's pictures and videos. Like any beginner at something new, I know that I will get used to using multimedia with constant usage of it.
I will make sure my students grab the concept of using multimedia. It will be my job to make sure that they gain as much information as possible. I also understand that for me to teach the usage of multimedia and for them to be confident while using it, that I must first try to master its concept.

Blog Post #12 Carly Pugh

Carly did an exceptional job on her blog post. As I read her post, I could see how passionate she was about doing this assignment. She put in time with this and I really enjoyed it. I absolutely love the creativeness she put into her playlist. It is obviously shown that she took her time with this assignment. Carly's assignment was the perfect example of what Dr. Miller was explaining about writing with multimedia. Carly demonstrated sound and visual documents by displaying a title before each video was shown. This type of assignment using multimedia can give the opportunity to create more than one video, and discussions of more than one topic. This can also help a teacher with the idea of creating lesson plans.

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies

Allow me to start off by saying that the videos where hilarious and very entertaining. Naturally, I began taking notes in my head of how I wanted my videos to turn out. The sub-topics in "The Chipper Series" gave me some helpful ideas of how to create my movie. In my book trailer, I actually did create my own sub-topics. I also took note of how each cast member's name appeared before their picture. I applied that same technique in my book trailer. As I mentioned earlier, both videos were entertaining. Chipper really went through some tough life experiences before getting her priorities in order. In "EDM 310 For Dummies", the young ladies were going crazy at first, but I am glad both videos had happy endings! :)

Learn To Change, Change To Learn

Keith Krueger began this video by stating that education was ranked in the 55th place BELOW coal mining. Hearing that being said saddens me. As important as education is, it is placed at such a low ranking. Learning is beyond important and it is up to us, the future educators, to make a difference and to keep the interest of learning high. We have to provide the absolute best for our students. Just as one of the gentlemen in the video stated, technology is not a choice. It has become more of a necessity. It has emerge into a new way for communication in every possible way. School is not just a place where students have to be "glued" to their seats, or with a "bubble" in their mouths; being at school should give a student the opportunity to communicate effectively with their fellow peers. Obviously I would not recommend my students being disruptive, but I would give them that chance of interacting with one another. It is very vital for a child to learn how to communicate; they are going to be interacting with people for the rest of their lives.We have to connect them to many other fundamental resources. They will be better equipped for not only college, but life in general. It is impossible to memorize your way through life. You have to be able to find and figure certain situations out. Synthesizing and learning for yourself is what it is going to take to succeed.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0

I really enjoyed this educational scavenger hunt, which is located here. I found myself searching through this website like a kid in a candy store! I was coming up with so many ideas that I could use in my classroom, I guess I got beside myself! The first thing I did in this scavenger hunt was signing up for a network called "Edmodo". The setup of the profile puts you in the mind of Facebook, except its a social platform for students and teachers. My grade book is available on this site as well as the ability to search for my fellow (future) colleagues. This will be great for my classroom because I'm able to post current assignments as well as quizzes.

Prezi is the tool or one of the tools that created this presentation here. The deal that is offered to teachers and students are really good and affordable. The "Edu Enjoy" is free (which is my favorite price for anything) and the "Edu Pro" is $59.00 per year. The "Edu Enjoy" package offers storage space (500 MB), privacy contents, creation of your personal logo, and premium support in less than 24 hours. The "Edu Pro" package offers just about the same as the "Edu Enjoy" except the storage space is bigger (2 GB) and the use of Prezi desktop for offline editing is available.

I could not decide between the two video tools, so I chose both the Animoto tool and the Gizmoz tool. The Animoto video really interested me because I can actually bring my lessons to life for my students. Animoto analyzes music, video clips, and pictures. This tool also make it very easy to share videos or download for presentations. Gizmoz amazed me because I instantly reflected back to one of the previous blog assignments, where the teacher allowed her students to create their own avatars. Not only would this be fun for the students, but it also gives them another way to learn and communicate with their fellow classmate; not o mention this site just looks like so much fun!

Project #11

Project #12

Project #14 Smart Board

Blog Post #7

The Networked Student

There are so many different ways to learn and this video shows that. Technology offers such a variety on how to learn and the tools to use to learn. In this video, the teacher has done just that. She teaches them how to interact with each other because learning involves social activity. The technical tools to use are not so much as important as the connections made by them between the students. The whole idea of learning this way is to take control of your learning and to build connections with others at the same time.
Since I am now familiar with PLN, it is better to establish that first before venturing into the learning process. Finding sourceful websites helps so much while learning. You can apply those helpful websites to your PLN which will help with assignments. Even though you can connect with your fellow classmates/peers, learning this way also offers the chance to connect with other professors, which is awesome. If there is a question that you have, you can simply ask one of the teachers that you connect with. Learning independently gives you a chance to explore different options via web or anywhere differentiating between good information or not good information.
The networked student needs a teacher because the teacher is the one who will help the students on how to build this type of network. The teacher will also show the students on how to take great advantage of the learning opportunities and offers guidance when the students get stuck. Showing how to communicate properly, organizing information, and showing how to turn a web search into a scavenger hunt are also other reasons on why the networked student needs a teacher. The main thing that a teacher hopes for is for his/her students to apply the information that has been taught to their daily routines.

A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)

The PLN that was created by this 7th grader was really good. She had her tiles that were associated with her school work arranged at the bottom, and non-school tiles arranged at the top. I have my tiles arranged by color. My school tiles and social networking tiles are together, according to color.

Project# 10

PLN is new to me, as it is to many people. After I got the idea of how to create and use it, PLN became helpful. Now since I know how to use PLN, I will apply its use as often as I can.

C4T#2 With Ms. Hadley

In my C4T assignment, I was assigned to Ms. Hadley and the title of her post that I commented on was "Blog Post # 100!". In this particular post, Ms. Hadley discusses how writing (basically blogging) was intimidating at first, but now enjoyable. She mentioned how it takes one day and one step at a time to master something. Ms. Hadley continued by stating that we never know what a child has faced before coming to class, which is very true. Despite whatever a student has faced before coming to class, a teacher must make sure that the environment for learning is fun. I agreed with her saying how it is not only the teacher's job to teach, but to also have communication with his/her students.

In the second post titled "Ungraded Classroom", this post was on the teaching of memorization. Like many of us, memorizing helped me many times in my classes. Ms. Hadley states that there are various of techniques of learning how to memorize, which is true. She states in the beginning of her post how students learning how to memorize also teaches them about themselves. This gives a student an opportunity to see what memorization method best fits them. I agreed with Ms. Hadley and stated how there are many ways for a student to learn anything. The look on a child's face when they have mastered something is priceless and that is what I cannot wait to see!

Project 9B

C4K Summary for February

Feb. 10, 2012

The student that I was assigned to was Hiwarau S. and he goes to Pt. England School were Mrs. Barks is his teacher. Hiwarau had a picture of himself on the first day back to school. I replied to his post that I hope he has a successful school year and to keep up the good work.

Feb. 18, 2012

I commented on Kalay's blog, and she is in Mrs. Yollis' class. Her blog was about her dog, Shari. I told her how much of a dog lover I am, and for her to keep up the good work with school.

Feb. 24, 2012

In this C4K assignment, I was assigned to a student by the name of Liz from Ms. Epple's class. Liz wrote a wonderful blog on good sportsmanship. She basically stated how good it is to have good sportsmanship and how it is important to cheer your fellow teammates on. She continued on saying how wrong it is to yell and scream at someone on the team if the team lost. I fully agreed with Liz. In my comment, I stated how right she was and how it is always good to have a positive attitude while being in teams. I went on by saying how important it is to show a good attitude especially if the team looses. You never know how someone may feel on the inside emotionally. Just showing a smile to someone can make all the difference in the world.

Blog Post #6

Randy Pauch's Last Lecture

Before I begin identifying the key elements in Dr. Pauch's lecture, I must begin by saying how positive he was by this being his last lecture. He automatically started off explaining his health problems and despite him knowing that he was not going to be here much longer, he still welcomed everyone to his lecture with his humor. Dr. Pauch's key elements that he started off in his lecture were the following:
*My childhood dreams
*Enabling the dreams of others
*Lessons learned; how you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of someone else.
One of the many important statements that Dr. Pauch made was that enabling others to achieve their goals is more rewarding than enabling your own. Even though I have so much to learn, I can identify and agree with him on that statement. The fact of you knowing that you helped someone achieve something that was important to them is indeed rewarding in itself. Putting yourself aside to help others is always and will always be the good road to go upon. Especially in the education field. Teachers put themselves aside everyday to make sure their students' academic needs are met. We as future educators need to hold on to that and apply that in our classrooms that we will soon have.
Dr. Pauch mentioned a lesson that he learned while on the football team when he was younger, and he mentioned that his coach always seemed as if he was constantly always onto him. No matter how hard he tried, it just seemed like whatever he did was not enough. Dr. Pauch realized that was because his coach saw potential in him and wanted him to do his absolute best. The same thing happend to me, minus being on the football team. When I was younger, I did not understand why my teachers were always onto me, but now I understand. Just as Dr. Pauch mentioned, if someone sees you doing something wrong and they do not say anything to correct you, that is bad. It is not necessarily because the teacher or whomever is picking on you just because, but merely it is because they care and want you to be the best at everything you do. Children do not really understand, but as they become older and a little more wiser they will grow to understand.
One of the many quotes that Dr. Pauch stated was "Experience is what you get when you did not get what you wanted". If you think about it, this is so very true. I immediately took this statement and applied it to some of my past experiences. As I did this, I found myself agreeing with Dr. Pauch. We sometimes do things in place of other things, and even though we are experiencing some situations we do not want to, we end up appreciating it in the end. I loved the analogy that he used with the brick wall to things that we want. Dr. Pauch mentioned that the brick walls are there to stop those who do not want whatever it is that they are trying to get to bad enough. If your heart is truly set on something regardless of the obstacles that come along, you will conquer it. think about it; if our goals were "easy" to achieve, we would not appreciate them. If something is worth having, you have to fight for it.
Dr. Pauch goes back to his statement about enabling others' dreams. Being an educator is the perfect job for that. How wonderful and exciting is it to look in your students' faces knowing that you are apart of helping them succeed? I cannot wait to experience that! As future educators, that will be our job. We are here to help, encourage, and make sure our students know that the sky is the limit for them. Whatever their dreams and aspirations are it is up to us to help and make sure they reach them.
I can only imagine the wonderful feeling of helping my students have fun while learning a challenging lesson. Experiences like that are what stays with a student for a lifetime. As educators, it is our job to make learning as fun as possible, especially if the lesson is a bit challenging. Dr. Pauch continues to make other key points in his lecture and they are the following:
*Lessons learned
The roles of parents, mentors, and students
As stated by Andy van Dam, who was basically Dr. Pauch's first boss, I would like to think of myself when I become a teacher, of "selling something worthwhile as education". That phrase is stuck in my head! Yes a car, shoes, clothing and all of that is wonderful to have but education is something no one can take from you. Education is so priceless and so valuable. I am very proud to be apart of the education field and I cannot wait to start selling it to my students! Dr. Pauch compared having fun or not having fun to Tigger and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I, myself, am an Tigger. Just like Dr. Pauch stated, I do not know how not to have fun. There should be enjoyment in everything we do, especially in education. Dr. Pauch made more key elements. They are:
*Never lose the child-like wonder
*Help others
*Loyalty is a two-way street
*Never give up (my favorite)
*Brick walls let us show our dedication
*Show gratitude
*Don't complain; just work harder
*Be good at something; it makes you valuable
*Find the best in everybody
*Be prepared
*You can't get there alone
*Tell the truth
*Be earnest
*Apologize when you've made a mistake
*Focus on others, not yourself
Dr. Pauch had "head fakes" through out his lecture. The head fake of this lecture was not, according to Dr. Pauch, how to achieve your dreams; it was about how to live a good life. If you do right, right will follow you, and your dreams will also. The second head fake that Dr. Pauch revealed that touched my heart, was that this lecture was not for us, but for his children. The main thing that I learned from this lecture was regardless of the situation at hand that you are facing, never allow that to defeat you. Dr. Pauch knew how bad his health condition was, but yet he continued to make jokes and enjoy each moment that he had. He is an inspiration, and I truly enjoyed watching his lecture. Life is what we make it; it is up to us to make the best out of it.

Project #8