Blog Assignment #7

I watched Randy Pausch’s last lecture video as well as read the official transcript on his lecture. This way I was able to have a better understanding of what he was discussing. I really enjoyed the lecture that Randy gave. He opened his lecture with a great attitude and audience engaging humor.

He talked about how you should always be a Tigger in life. By saying this, he meant to never loose your childlike wonder and to have fun with every aspect of your life. Although Dr. Pausch only had three to six months to live, he didn’t let that stop him from living his life to the fullest. By him keeping a positive attitude and having his childlike wonder, he was able to keep his dreams alive and strive forward to the things ahead. For children, they believe they can do anything and set their goals as high as they can imagine. We should always try and let the child inside of us come out so that we don’t set limits to our dreams. Pausch taught a class at Carnegie Mellon University that was a project based learning class. He said that "The best way to teach somebody something, is to have them think that they're learning something else." I think this is a great view for teaching students.


In Dr. Pausch’s lecture, he also spent a lot of time discussing dreaming. Everyone has dreams, especially when we were younger. Dr. Pausch never gave up on his dreams, though. By bringing in life stories, Pausch was able to keep the audience interested in what was being said. He describes all the dream that ran through his head as a child such as: Being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, and being an Imagineer.He stated that it is important to have specific dreams to go after. He continued to reach for them until he experienced each of them in a way that satisfied him. When you have a dream, you have to have the mindset that one day they will actually happen and you must keep striving for them, even when the going gets tough. As a teacher, we will have students come to us with dreams that only they could imagine. We must encourage them to never stop chasing their dreams and to never give up on them. When assisting students in reaching their goals, we are helping them take knowledge outside of the classroom and chase their dreams in the real world. We can help them to turn their dreams into reality. Dr. Pausch also talks about a “head fake”. This is the concept of teaching you students a certain game or activity, but in reality they are learning life lessons from it. In these situations, the task is not really about the activity but more about learning teamwork, social skills, or anything else that could be helpful to a child as they grow up.

I learned a lot from Randy about teaching and learning. He let his students create and learn in a way that they enjoyed what they were doing. He gave his students an interesting project and let them be in control which lead to amazing results for the projects. We must learn from our failures and mistakes in order to learn to do things correctly. One example in doing this would be to learn to take criticism well and improve with the advice that is given to us. As teachers, we have to know the right way to give criticism so that it still encourages our students to improve. I thought Randy Pausch did an excellent job delivering his lecture by keeping the topic light and by keeping the audience interested in what was being said.



This lecture was very inspiring to me as a future teacher. In my life, I have had several teachers, friends, and family members encourage me to never give up on my dreams. Without them, I wouldn’t be here at the University of South Alabama on my way to becoming an elementary teacher. We have to teach our kids to follow their dreams and allow them to learn by doing fun tasks that let their imaginations go wild. Dr. Pausch reminding me how important it will be as an educator to do the same for my future students. This lecture was given on September 18, 2007 and he lost his fight to cancer in July 2008. He gave so much encouragement through this lecture and will continue to make a difference in peoples lives through it.

Blog Assignment #6

PLN stands for "Personal Learning Network". A PLN allows you to have fast access to tools or people that could be of help to you. Symbaloo is one example of a PLN in which you can organize what you as an individual use online most often. This website allows you to add links such as social media websites, blogs, and any other type of informational website you visit most often. On my personal PLN to the far left I have links such as social media websites, youtube, pinterest, email links, google app links, and Prezi. In the top center I have links to my EDM310 blog, the EDM310 class blog, and blogger. The top right contains any teacher blogs that I have visited and enjoyed. I plan to add more as I comment on and visit more teacher blogs in the future. In the bottom right I have a link to google, the weather, an encyclopedia, and the University of South Alabama website. As I come across other interesting websites or blogs I will continue to add to my PLN. It has been fun adding to my PLN the stuff that is important to me and that I visit most often. This is a very convenient tool.

Project #8 Book Trailer

Blog Assignment #5

Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher
Anthony Capps is a third grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary School. He was also a professional lab assistant in EDM310. When Dr. Strange asked Anthony how to approach being a project based learning teacher, Anthony stated that his ideas on project-based learning are always evolving. Anthony says the goal now with project-based learning is a means to get students to learn something while doing it. Students are creating a project of some kind as they discover the knowledge of a topic. As a teacher, you have to create a project for the student to do that needs information. So the students have to learn certain information to create this particular project. Project-based learning is driven by content. As teachers, you are given content from the state, so we have to create a project that uses the content that the students are required to learn. One example of a project Anthony did with his class was have his third grade students write a letter to congress. This way he met writing standards, reading standards, and social study standards with one project. They talked about equality and used iCurio to find historic figures that demonstrated success. They could use this information to write to congress and state their opinion on if women should be allow to fight in open combat or not. This was interesting to them because each student knew of someone who was in the military and were able to have conversations at home that dealt with the specific learning topic. He had 28 kids but only sent in eight letters after reviewing. The students used peer review to decide on which eight of their peers’ letters was written with best quality to send to congress. In project based learning students have to be able to revise and reflect on their work.


Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher
Another tells us in this video that some projects go very well, others do not go well. You have to respect the wishes of parents in your classroom when it comes to certain assignments. Sometimes you can give alternative projects. Anthony has given projects where the kids loved the assignment and the parents were impressed with the information gathered as well. Everything students do in the classroom is meaningful with project-based learning. The administration in the school knows that when students are engaged, they are learning. Anthony states to never limit your students. You should always create an opportunity for them to go beyond what you want them to do. Project-based learning involves a lot of planning and hard work. Even if the project as a whole comes out as unsuccessful, there was still learning in the process. Each and every student is a “learner” and when working with project-based learning, the student is engaging in learning. It’s that simple. Anthony gave an assignment where the students read a story and had to create a sequence chart. This chart had six spaces and the students had to tell six important scenes in the story, then they had to choose the three most important ones out of the six that gave the most detail about the story. Then they chose one scene that had the biggest effect on the stories outcome. They got to go online and create a comic strip to recreate the story as a comic. Sometimes things do not go as planned, and the printer wouldn’t work and they couldn’t print off the comics. He had a last minute change of plans and had to tell the students to write an essay instead and then paint a picture of the most important scene. Each student had different scenes because different points of the story stood out to them. They had watercolors and created stories. When students learn about project-based learning, they are excited to tell about it.

iCurio with Anthony Capps
Anthony teaches in Baldwin County and the teachers there us iCurio. This online tool allows students to save research, images, and websites. Students and adults seem to have a hard time staying organized and iCurio helps to manage the struggle. iCurio allows the user to practice organization by using folders saved online. Once you are logged in, iCurio will save everything for you to come back at a later time. Inside the search engine of iCurio, the student and teacher both are taken to appropriate sites unlike what google could lead you to. When a lunch bell rings or there is an interruption in class, the user that is logged in can simply save their work and come back to it later. iCurio has a feature called “Timeline” so that you can search on certain criteria. The user can search for certain time periods, people, and events. It also has a directory with historical figures and you can choose the topic, gender, and race of whom you wish to search for. Anthony tells us it is useful for any grade level, as long as the teacher allows their students to search the web. One feature that is neat is the “read-out-loud” feature for students with disabilities.


Discovery Education
Anthony stated, “If a pictures worth a thousand words and then a video is worth a million”. With discovery Ed you can find several video resources for science and social studies. This site offers great resources for teachers and students. One could be to research plants. This website will take the student beyond photographs and offer them videos to help them learn as well. Discovery Ed enriches the research experience because of all it has to offer. People will remember what they hear, remember more of what they see, but remember most by watching the process of something happen. The videos that Discovery Ed has will help students to learn by watching steps and processes of certain topics. Dr. Strange talked about how students nowadays listen and watch more than read and write. This is all dealing with project-based learning and allowing the students to do more hands on activities in order to learn for a lifetime instead of memorize for a moment.




The Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers- Part 1

Through the Skype video between Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange, future educators such as myself get to learn many different useful tips for our future classrooms. The first thing I learned by watching the video is that as an educator, we are constantly learning. Our whole life revolves around school, and we end up modeling this behavior for our students. Some people may think that revolving your life around work is a bad thing, but it is just the opposite. For example, I have not even started to teach yet, and I pin future projects that I could use in the classroom off of Pinterest. It is just something we love. As an educator, we are constantly on our toes, and by that, I mean that we have to prepared for anything. You never know what is going to happen that could cause your plans to go completely haywire. Also, reflection is the key to teaching! We are constantly trying to improve all parts of our teaching including our lesson plans and the end product we hope to see from our students. In education, we are consistently thinking ahead, and this changes the way we see our work. It is no longer a job; it is a lifestyle.



Don't teach tech. Use it.
Technology shouldn’t be taught; it is natural for kids and everywhere in their lives. Kids are going to like to use technology to prove they are learning. Anthony used an example of Discovery Ed. The first week of school you could use Discovery Ed to teach your students a certain topic, the next week you can have the students use a video portion of iMovie to create a reflection or summary on a story you have read in class. Dr. Strange asked Anthony if his third graders have had any problem using iMovie or learning how to work it and he said absolutely not. They could use research tools and video tools to create a project requiring a movie component to it. Eventually the students will be able to combine all the skills they have learned. At first, you need to choose one technology at a time and focus on it. Make sure the students learn it and are able to use it to the best of their ability before introducing them to a new program or website. Using technology allows students to express themselves and has several benefits. Anthony mentioned that most programs are free and if they do cost it is normally only a one-time fee for membership. Technology doesn’t need supplies and doesn’t have to be cleaned up after, such as messes and spills. The tools that students will be learning in the classroom today will help them to learn the new tools that will be created in their futures. As a teacher, Anthony suggests you to scaffold the learning and let them use one tool at a time. They can share what they are doing with people from all over world and be excited about doing the work. As a teacher you cannot expect perfection, your students are going to make mistakes with their first research project. This is when you set aside a time for reflection to fix those mistakes and the next week those mistakes will be fixed and they will be ready to move a step ahead. The students will love being able to share what they have learned and accomplished while learning new tools. If you are worried about how a certain project is going to work out, do the project yourself first. If any questions arise in class, you will have already done the project and will hopefully be prepared to answer any questions. If neither of you know the answer to a question, this can teach the child problem solving skills and you can work together as a class to overcome the obstacle. In order to learn, questions must be asked.


Addition thoughts about lessons.
How do we as teachers create an effective, successful lesson plan? Anthony explains in this video that developing a successful lesson requires four components. These components are year, unit, week, and daily plans that require the skills of time management and abundant planning to construct. The first, year plan, is to decipher how the lesson will fit into the year and making sure all the expected common core standards will be met and accomplished. Next is the unit plan. The unit plan can be formulated by asking and answering the question, "How will I unfold the unit so that it's relevant and all information and standards tie in together with the unit?" This concept involves beginning with an aspect and continuing to develop the material as time progresses so that by the end of a unit students should be able to accomplish the outcome expected. Next is the weekly plan, in that time must be managed in order to get everything that needs to be done, complete. This involves planning what will transpire through the week, what projects will be constructed, and assessing the student's accomplishments in the short time period of a five day week. The final component of the four, would be the daily plan. The daily plan affects how you deliver information to your students on a daily basis. Being flexible and observing what is working and what is not is key to daily planning, in that you'll know how to plan for the next day, and the next, and so forth. You must hook them, meaning you must obtain their attention with elements that interest them, keep them engaged while delivering content, and then offer entities afterwards to determine and record what they’ve learned for that day so you'll know where to begin the next day. All these components must be equally performed for the outcome of a successful lesson to transpire.

C4T#1

Denise Krebs' Blog


December 11, 2013
"Creative and Authentic – That’s What Parents Save"

Denise's blog post titled "Creative and Authentic – That’s What Parents Save" was such an inspiring read. Denise is on the countdown for her move in 12 days. They have sold there house and are now going through belongings, specifically school work from K-8 of Daughter #1. She easily threw away test results, report cards, Accelerated Reader certificates, and worksheets.
She says "It doesn’t matter if a student is a high achiever or a low achiever, no parent wants to have years worth of test scores and reports cards that give little information about who their child really is." She realized report cards were just meaningless letter grades and worksheets were wasted time that her child wasn't deeply invested in. Denise says "Teachers didn’t understand that what makes a child proud is not papers marked with 100% or “Great Job.” Children are proud when they invest in authentic work and do an excellent job because they are passionately involved." In the end Denise had fun reading her daughters beautiful poetry and the personal experience narratives that made her laugh and remember times.The things she did on her own that we're authentic and creative is what she saved.
I enjoyed reading this post because I am one that says everything from school. I love looking back on my past work, but the ones that stand out are my personal opinion pieces or creative artwork. I agree with Denise because those kinds of assignments show who you were and how you became who you are.

January 14, 2014
"What Changes"

Denise is experiencing major life changes. She has moved from the USA to the small island nation of Bahrain in the Middle East. She is now experiencing a whole new culture. She has taken on the role of an English teacher of two kindergarten classes. She has 50 students in all. She says "The students are beautiful, loving, fun, and I am fully charmed." Denise is learning to eat her words, manipulate her teaching style and is putting all of her trust in God to fill the gaps. Denise inspires me when she says "I am a lifelong learner", I also believe we as people will be learning until the end of time. I look forward to following Denise on her journey and I know this is just the beginning.

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Assignment #4

On the Teaching Reading website, their article on strategies for “Asking Questions to Improve Learning” , suggests that when planning your lesson you should go ahead and come up with specific questions. By doing this, you will already have few questions brainstormed for your exams or paper assignments. A few strategies to responding effectively include: do not interrupt students’ answers, develop responses that keep students thinking, always show interest in a student’s answer even if it is incorrect, wait for students to think and formulate responses. This website also gives you twelve objectives to “Why ask ‘open’ Questions?” It gives sample questions for each scenario.


When reading the article “The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom” by Ben Johnson, he states that the most important question we should be asking is "What does a teacher asking questions of a class expect the class to learn from the questioning process?" Some teachers say that the reason questions must be asked is to see if the students understand what is being taught. Teachers often ask the common question, “Does everybody understand?” This question has become useless because it is said so often, even when teachers can look at a student’s facial expression and see the confusion written all over it. Sometimes when a student doesn’t understand, they do not know what questions to ask in order to have a better understanding so they remain silent. In order to truly ask questions that will really tell a teacher if students understand or not we have to be specific. Ben goes on to talk about the fact that students who don’t know answers to questions, will often tune out the smart kids who answer all the questions all of the time. They are perfectly fine with someone else volunteering an answer and them not have to attempt an answer themselves. If a student is not called on to answer a question, they are too busy thinking, “I’m glad she didn’t call on me” to really be thinking about the answer and to learn. One simple, effective approach to this is to ask a specific question and then pause for a few seconds. This way, no student knows who is going to be called on and they should all be brainstorming for an answer.

In the video, “Asking Better Questions in the Classroom” by Joanne Chesley, she starts off by saying how a lot of times teachers notice that students are unresponsive in the classroom. We fail to realize we are getting the responses that we ask for. When we are not detailed with the question, the students are not detailed with their answers. She tells the difference between an open and close-ended question. An open-ended question lets the student think more and come up with more information. This lets the student come up with a variety of responses and allows the student to think through the situation. A close-ended question can simply be answered with a yes or no response. Our goal as teachers should be the ask as many open-ended questions as possible in order to get the students interested and thinking about what their response could be if called on to answer.


“Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom” by Maryellen Welmer is very short and to the point. The first word of advice is to prepare questions. Maryellen states that for most of her career she spent time preparing content and not questions to use while teaching. Writing out a question in advance helps you to make sure it is clear enough for the students to understand. It helps you to plan things such as, when does the question need to be asked? This way it fits into your lessons and relates to concepts you are talking about right then. The second word of advice is to play with questions. Playing with the question in this sense is meaning to maybe leave the question unanswered for a little while. This way the students stay engaged in the topic and are continuing to think about what the answer could be. You as the teacher could write the question on the board and not discuss it until the period is over. The students could write down their ideas and share with the class their suggestions. The last word of advice is to preserve good questions; good questions can always be kept. It could also be good to write down and keep students questions that trigger the rest of the class to start thinking. It is important for teachers to ask good questions so that students can learn that questions are important and help us learn and to think critically.

Blog Assignment #3

From watching the videos "What is Peer Editing", "Writing Peer Reviews Top 10 Mistakes" and viewing the slideshow "Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial," I have learned several things about peer editing. In the slideshow and in the video, “What is Peer Editing,” they both pointed out that there are three steps: compliments, suggestions, and corrections. All three of these steps are important when assisting a fellow peer. It is also important to stay positive and encourage peers to improve and fix errors. This humorous video that described different characteristics of peer editors had one example named “Pushy Paula”. This character stood out to me because it is a common problem when it comes to peer editing: It’s hard to help others when each of you think you are correct. It is important to make suggestions instead of demanding a person make changes to their work. Helping people can be frustrating because you may both believe you are correct, but in reality one of you is wrong. We must always consider other people's advice and get other opinions before making a final decision. In the first video, it describes what peer editing is by stating "working with someone your own age to help revise and edit his or her writing”. Note the phrase "working with someone". Peer editing can be a group effort, including the author. This way everyone is working together in order to help out an individual peer.

Getting help from others is important. It helps the both of you to learn from your mistakes and receive advice on how to improve your work. I think it is better to correct your peers publicly; this is the way I have chosen when helping my peers. This way, other students can look at your advice and it could help them improve. If you happen to be wrong, others will be able to give their advice if you review it with others. When working alone, you only have one point of view.

As a teacher and correcting your student, I think it depends on the personality of the specific student. Some students get very discouraged and embarrassed when being told they have made mistakes. Some may see the teacher as embarrassing the student by announcing in front of a class they have made a mistake. Considering the points listed in the video (compliments, suggestions, and corrections) is very important. Having a positive attitude while following these steps will help improve peer reviewing and the student's writing.