My Sentence Video

Blog Post #4

First Graders Create Own Read Along Book

In the blog post, it describes what a Read Along Book is. Basically, the children record a script from a book and the students can read along with the recording. What a wonderful idea to encourage children to read! This seems like a great motivational tool for children to read aloud and to themselves. The children that read Dinosaurs Before Dark did a great job! What's more great is that they're only 6/7 years old! The teacher said, "Students started to experiment with their voices: inflection, fluency, pitches, emotions, volume, speed." I didn't start practicing those elements of speech in a formal manner until I was in the 4th grade. The sound effects make it even more interesting for the students. Sounds like a fun and productive way to learn!

Podcasting With First Grade

In this blog post, the teacher writes about her success with 1st graders making a podcast. She says that they were thrilled to record and later hear their piece of work. For this particular podcast the children wrote a pretend interview with characters in a book that they liked. The students came up with the questions and the characters' answers as well. The children were able to take turns being the interviewer, the boy character, and the girl character. However, it got a little confusing because there were multiple voices for a single character. The list of skill addressed:
listening
speaking
presenting
comprehension
storytelling
performance
voice acting
oral fluency
media
technology

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom by Joe Dale

In this video, Joe Dale says that you can use podcasts for students to listen and review the day's lesson at home or make fun and creative projects in the classroom. I learned that the difference between a podcast and a vodcast is that a vodcast uses video. Podcasts can also be very useful if a student is absent from school or if a parent is concerned about what's going on in the classroom.
I wasn't that concerned with podcasts until the suggestion was made about students being absent from school. Students will no longer have the excuse of being behind in school due to sickness, injury, ect. With technology, teachers will not have to worry about make-up assignments or trying to reteach a lesson.

Presentation Project #5

Blog Post #3

Technology in Special Education


     In this video, Lacey demonstrates how technology benefits students in special education by asking them questions about their experience with computers. The students appear to be high school age. Many of the students are in wheel chairs. Her class has a mixture of students with learning and/or physical disabilities.
      I never really thought too much about children with special needs. I went into this program strictly thinking about teaching students with average or above average learning capabilities. However, I had a change of heart just by watching this video! At first, when Lacey spoke with Chris, he didn't show any signs of communication except through his eyes. Later, when Lacey showed what Chris wrote on the computer, I was shocked! He typed a whole sentence using correct grammar! With technology, students can reach their learning potential because they are able to communicate and pay attention more effectively.

Education Application


    The education app I chose is called Fotopedia. In this application, students can see up close up pictures of animals in the wild. Animals in the application include sea turtles, foxes, sea horses, and much more! Children of all ages should enjoy looking at the great quality animal pictures. There are even descriptions about the animals. The application includes interactive maps to show where the animals live. Overall, the application looks fun and educational. The coolest part is that it's free!

Gary Hayes Social Media Count


    When arriving at this <a href="http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/">website</a> I was instantly amazed! Gary Hayes set up a counter of how many things have occurred within the last second, minute, day, and so on. These things include items shared on facebook, emails sent globally, sms's sent worldwide, and ect. I'm stunned that there are more emails being sent than sms messages. I found the Social Media Count most interesting. What's more shocking is that about every second there's an hour worth of videos uploaded on to Youtube.
       Taking this class and watching the counter on Hayes' website, makes me realize what kind of activities I'll have to plan for my students. Even then, I'll have to continuously update myself on new technology so that I can prepare my students for what they'll have to use in the future. I have a better idea of what the world is doing based on this web page.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

   
     This video is filmed in a classroom with college students holding up signs that contain the average facts about the life of college students. I found this video to be very informative. If I averaged my 7 day week out to a day it would be like about 2 hours of classes, 4 hours of homework, 4 hours of work, and the rest would be free time and sleeping.
      Some of the things that were on the papers that the students held up were shocking but some were understandable. I've spent much money on text books that I hardly used and I've read many things for school that would not be relevant for my life. I agree that chalkboards need to be done a way with. Students need more visualization so that their comprehension of the subject being taught improves. We need a system that teaches students for life, not just a semester.


      

C4T#1 Kathy Cassidy

Kids Teaching Kids and  Teaching in Flu Season

      Kathy gave a lesson to her 1st grade students on the differences between needs and wants. After the unit, she assigned the class to make a Common Craft-style Video. A few students were still not understanding the lesson. Kathy saw this need and showed those students the videos of the students who understood. She then reported that the students understood!

     Unfortunately, there was a week of school that hardly any students came to school due to the cold temperatures. During the class time, the students who attended school made a Common Craft-style Video
on the silent "e". A video of a student's Common Craft-style Video was shown in the post. Kathy said that the students really enjoyed making the videos and she hopes that their videos will help to teach the other students who missed school.

My Comment Summary

     In my comment, I said that I was skeptical about children teaching their piers, but now I see it works. I also said that I was glad that the students can teach their piers in a fun way and that I'll use this technique when I'm a teacher.

Nintendo DS: An Assessment Tool?

    In Kathy's bog post, she talks about the class having a BYOD (bring your own device day). The students brought their Nintendo DS units to class. Kathy also had 6 units for those who didn't have a DS. The class logged into a chat room in Pictochat. The agenda was to work on spelling. With the devices, Kathy could quickly tell who needed help with what. The students commented on their classmates work as well. Students quickly corrected their mistakes. This activity helped when the class wrote number sentences to go with number stories. Kathy enjoyed the timely and efficient outcome and hope to get a class set.

Summary of Comment

   In my comment I said that I was amazed at the activities she has for her students. I told her that I could never imagine working with game devices when I was in school. I finished off with a question asking her if the school provided the Nintendo DS units or if she got them from another source.

Blog #2

Did You Know?


   It is always interesting to me to read and hear about interesting facts. Both videos were interesting to watch, however, they were not as enjoyable the second time through. It seems plausible that 25% of the population of India with the highest IQ's out number the entire population of the U.S. However, it seems that whoever wrote this fact wants you to believe that India's population is incredibly smart. But if you think about it, 25% of the population of India with the lowest IQ's also out number the entire population of the United States. The India and China facts got a little redundant because the population of each country is ridiculously high. I was interested to hear that 48 hours of videos are uploaded to Youtube every second. And lastly, it was interesting to hear that so many students have computers in their houses. But I wonder, how many of those students have high speed internet?
    I'm curious to why Dr. Strange made a 'did you know' video because it seems that his video contained a lot of information from the original. I enjoyed the original video better because the facts were more interesting and it appears that a lot more time went into it. However, the background music was enjoyable from Dr. Strange's video. It seems like this would be a great assignment for students to work on researching and practice making enjoyable Youtube videos.

Mr. Winkle Wakes


  My first question is, why is Mr.Winkle wearing that outfit?

Outfit worn around 100 years ago

Mr. Winkle

   Well anyway, the video does make a good point of the school systems being behind in technology. However, Mr. Winkle must not have seen the overhead projector or heard the intercom system which are at least in the schools without smart boards and other high tech teaching tools. Teaching has come a long way since 1912. Yes, there may still be hard copy text books and students still going to class as opposed to a virtual class, but learning is still taking place. I think it is wise to use whatever material that is best for the class. If high technology tools are more useful and produce better results, then I say we use high tech things.

      It is very beneficial to have as much technological utensils as we do, but what about the rest of the world? Don't those children in poverty stricken areas deserve computers? Shouldn't they have the opportunity to talk to children across the world through Skype? I think money should be given to other poor countries so that those students have a chance to catch up to where we are now. There's plenty of money that can be spent on better things. The only thing stopping the good is the greed. Don't feed the greed!

Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity

     I absolutely loved this video! Ken Robinson brings so much interest by his knowledge and especially by his humor. In his talk, he says that there is a great deal of potential in children that school kills. I believe that this is very much true. I know a teacher that says that almost everything she teaches is controlled by district. She says that they have to teach subjects in a certain order and in a certain way. What's the point of having teachers? Aren't teachers supposed to be known for their creativity? Since the teachers can't be creative in their way of teaching, how will students ever grow to their potential?

    Another good saying of Mr. Robinson is, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original". I can't even remember the last time it was okay for me to do something wrong. I was taught to do things in a certain way and any other way of getting the desired result was wrong or unacceptable. I'm very sad to see the school system of the United States. The people who are never in the class rooms are making the objectives and telling teachers what to do and what not to do. When will we see the light at the end of the tunnel?

    If children are going to school training to be professors and there's an academic inflation, where are the job opportunities? Luck and connections? What is there to do? We must take a stand and bring education to education.

A Vision for 21st Century Learning

     Some of the main points in this video are that students are learning facts out of context, reading from text books, and that students are passive through out class. Their solution to these problems is video games!  Go through a 3D game of a place, learn the language, and learn about the culture of the time.
      First, I would like to say that my teachers did not just lecture in front of us all day as we sat passive the whole time. Also, why are they saying that text books are bad? Are they saying that reading is bad? Isn't it the quality of the text book that makes it constructive or destructive?  I think that their idea could be a constructive way to learn, but it doesn't solve all of life's problems. Mentally, this could be a great idea ,but physically, this could be a disaster. Is it healthy to stare at a monitor hours at a time every single day? Will every job in the future require the employees to use the most advance technology? Plus, one has to consider the time children are spending watching T.V., playing video games, and surfing the web at home. No wonder children are becoming obese! I believe that there are other fun techniques to learning that don't require a child to sit in front of a computer all day in class.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students Digital Smarts


    Ms. Davis seems to have good ideas of teaching her students about new technology and software. It is interesting to see how a teacher in a rural town in Georgia can be so well connected with the world and new technology. The children in her class seemed to enjoy what she was teaching as well. I'm still not sure how she does all these new activities and still follows the curriculum.
     I still don't understand why making avatars and learning all these new software programs is beneficial for all the students. It seems like it's teaching a certain way that will not be beneficial to all the students. For instance, Gillian Lynn (choreographer of Cats) couldn't sit still because she had to move in order to learn. What about those children? Are we expecting children with learning disorders to be able to sit down at a computer and be able to take it all in?
     Ms. Davis' idea for children is good for part of the student body, but there needs to be more options for the other children.

Project #2