Blog Post 11

After watching the video assigned for blog post 11 I learned many things. Everyone learned differently and takes things differently. In project based learning, it is a way for the teachers to explain it many different ways and for the student to do it differently and still get a result. There are many reasons in my opinion why the students are learning more with PBL; hands on, collaborative, problem solving, and you get a result right away. PBL is a great tool to teach any subject, when trying to teach about rocks, instead of looking at rocks online get the rocks out and make the children think they are exploring the earth to find and research each rock found. A boring lesson about rocks can turn into a fun adventure using PBL.  It is collaborative, working in groups is always better than working alone in my opinion. When working alone and you do not understand something it can get very frustrating so you just find the shortcut and make it work, when working in a group some may know a solution for one part and a solution for the other part, that way there are no shortcuts needed. PBL is a great way to teach problem solving, you can give the students the material needed and the finished product but let them research on their own how to get to the finish product. When being given the directions, you read them and do what it says and on to the next part. When you problem solve and make the student figure it out, it tends to stick in the students mind better. This can also occur in adults, when being given work and not knowing how to do it you research, after you research it, you feel like you know it and could do it many times. PBL is a great way to get results right away, if you learning about plants and how they grow, why study that in a book when you cannot see the daily result. The students can see what they did wrong or right and what the results were. I can remember growing a plant in 5^th grade and what I had to do to grow it and what not to do to grow it (and that was a long time ago). In PBL it starts the students off early such as; public speaking, real life stories, and broader vocabulary. In one of the videos, a kindergarten class was working on public speaking that is fantastic. Most people hate speaking in front of people.

 Learning public speaking at a young age and working on it at each level will make it an easy task. Also in the video they mentioned that the students love to have people from the community visit and hear their stories. The students like to hear real life stories from the citizens so they can get an idea of what they want to be when they grow up. PBL help broaden the vocabulary of students, because they may be in 1^st grade but they are learning on a 3^rd grade level due to Project Based Learning.

Project 10

This is my interview with Dr. Robert Garcia, where he is a professor at Kansas State University

Project 8

Blog Post 10

After watching the videos of Ms. Cassidy and Dr. Strange, I got a better understanding of how to use technology in the classroom. Ms. Cassidy discussed the many ways her students use technology. Her students love to do anything that includes using technology; it is just something they were born into. Ms. Cassidy states, “The students love writing where others can read what they are writing about and the people can comment, that makes the students feel special.” That is a great statement because it seems to me that the students enjoy working, when students enjoy doing something they get more out of it. Another way Ms. Cassidy uses technology in her classroom is by letting the students have a blog buddy. Having a blog buddy is a way for the students to communicate with other students around the world, and get to know them. With this buddy, the students get many things out of it; they are bettering their reading skills, communication skills as well as audio skills. These skills are all needed to succeed in life. Another point Ms. Cassidy made was parents can see their child’s progress by looking at their blogs.

In my classroom I want to use many of Ms. Cassidy’s techniques such as, blogging buddies, a working blog for the students to get resources, and skyping with the buddy. I love the blogging buddy idea. Students should be able to build a relationship with students in other places that are going through different things and be able to discuss this, such as, math problems. If one student is having problems multiplying and multiplying is the other student’s strong point, they can give each other pointers on ways to solve the question. I think it is great for the teacher to have a working blog for many reasons. The students can access safe educational links from my blog. Also, the parents and students can see what we will be working on in the upcoming weeks and can discuss it with their child. Skype, I love how she allows her students to skype with their blogging buddy to get to know each other better. Dr. Strange pointed out that with this the students are bettering their writing, video, and audio skills.

The impedements for not being able to have my class blog would be to not have the approvable of my peers. Anothers reason not to have my class blog would be the lack of computers. If I had one of these problems while teaching I would see if my class could exchange letters from class to class. I would try and allow my students even if we had limited computers, to have online technology assignments. If a student was on the computer for 20 minutes a week doing an assignment, I believe that is better than not getting any technology knowledge. Hopefully at the school that I teach at, we will not have this problem but if we do, there will be a way to overcome it.

 

By using Ms. Cassidy’s approach to technology, I would be educating students with the technology needed in everyday living. Ms. Cassidy stated that her 1^st grade students blog and do a great job at it. She is educating them with technology as well as what they should be learning in school such as spelling words. The students use technology to type, visualize, as well as hear their spelling words. The benefit of having a class blog, parents could visit the blog to get a better idea of what is going on in the class. The parents also could see what the child is working on and if there was no progress made by the student the parent can visualize it and ask what they could do to help this problem. Another benefit of having a class blog would be by quickly informing the parents instead of trying to send a written note home that was on paper that will get smashed or left in the book bag, because you are depending on a child to transfer important information. By having a blog to inform parents it is done by using adults and it is done by using technology so it can be accessed anywhere.

Blog Post 9

What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning 

1) Establish a need to know. The first step in creating a meaningful project is by finding something that the students have to know for life, or for the class, or simply because they want to know themselves.

2) Ask a driving question. The next step in the article is asking a driving question. This is the format in which the need to know is turned into a question which starts a discussion or lights a fire under students making them want to learn more about the subject in question.

3) Give the students a voice and a choice. Giving students a chance to create their own fun with in a project is crucial in the success of the project and getting all students to learn; however having to many choices may overwhelm the students and degenerate learning.

4) Implement 21st Century Skills.  This step allows students to brush up on and refine their technological skills and allow them to create video presentations for shier groups and make them more exciting presentation for the more outspoken.

5) Encourage Inquiry and Innovation. This step allows students to formulate their own questions and put their own unique spin on learning and allows them to see the project in a way they feel is interesting.

6) Provide feedback and time for revision. Providing feedback and time for revision gives the student a since of how their project is coming together as well as gives them tips from the teacher on how to make it better and how to buff out technological problems.

7) Have public presentations. This allows students to be competitive to try to beat their friends by making a higher grade and also makes students work harder to be prepared knowing they have to do it in front of their peers.

Project Based Learning for Teachers

In this video, Vincent discusses how project based learning is not a quick process but one that takes time to really get students to answer the question that is complex in nature. The student learn by creating a project their own way on an intriguing topic. The project allows student to develop communication, career and life skills by having to meet deadlines, brainstorm, and address an audience, among other things.

Watery Ketchup

This video was interesting to see how creative a PBL project can get and how it allows students to find solutions to problems they find in their daily lives or find solutions to newly interesting ideas introduced to them. In this video, the two students took the PBL across many subjects including math, graphic design, as well as business. By the two students problems they learned how to design a new product with their own creativity, formulate a projected profit margin, and propose the idea to members of the class. This project shows the ability that PBLs have to teach students about subjects that are rarely learned about in high schools. 

PBL High School Math

This video focused on the idea of how to bring projected based learning into math. This video talks about the trials and challenges that the teachers faced in creating this new idea of PBLs in a math class. Although the teachers have not perfected the idea of how to completely install this type of learning in math classes they did find areas to involve PBL in math such as probability where students were allowed to create their own game and then had to figure out the probability of each scenario in the game.

What Motivates Students?

This video shows what students in certain classrooms are motivated by as well as what rewards they like in their schedule of classes. The students were motivated by such things as being recognized for doing good work, future success (money and career), and approval/punishment from their own parents. The rewards they mentioned were food, going outside for class, getting free "cool" school supplies, getting monetarily reward by the classroom money system, and having a themed day for each day of the week.

As teachers, we have to find the answer to this question for our students knowing that each student is different and that we are all motivated differently because we all are wanting different things. This makes PBLs so interesting is that it is not limited by much of anything at all it can cross many subject and bring each students attention in a new way that is interesting to them

Project 7 My Sentence Videos

My Sentence is..






My Passion is...

My Student Video 
Parent Video

Blog Post 8

This week’s assignment was to watch Randys Pausch Last Lecture.  Randy was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He gave his last lecture September 18, 2007. The reason it was his last lecture because he had 3-6 months to live due to 10 tumors on his liver. Randy seemed like a wonderful person who was very enthused about everything in life.

When I first looked at the video, I noticed it was over an hour long, I automatically cringed. Five minutes when by and I noticed I wanted to watch the entire video with no complaints. Randy Pausch has a awesome story. While watching his video not only did I take notes for this post but also for my teachings. One thing that he stated that I just love is, “brick walls are for reasons: they let us prove how badly we want things.” This quote stuck out to me because; while teaching students not everything will be easy, but if you keep trying you WILL succeed. This quote separates many people, the ones who want it and the ones that will just settle. When teaching I never want my students to settle, I want them to succeed. Jon Snoddy also was quoted by saying, “when you stick with someone long enough they will impress you.” This quote is very true and being a teacher as well as a mentor I believe I should practice this quote. Many teachers give up on students after they have misbehaved so many times. As a teacher, I will try and stick with my students as best as I can to help succeed in life the best I can. Randy also mentions think about how you say things. As a teacher, students will feed off of the teachers actions, if the teacher is in a bad mood; the students know it will be a bad day for them. That is not how things should be. Randy was very intrigued about Project Based Learning. The fact that jobs put it in writing that they would hire his students is amazing; Carnegie was the only university to have the privilege. He states, “One way to teach is by thinking they are learning something but really learning something else.” What I took from this is, the students think they are creating a cool project but really they are learning how to do something that we are working on in the classroom. This video was a well-used hour of my time. 

Meaningful Blogging Part 2

The first article I found very interesting was about the escape convicts of the New York prison. The two convicted murderers have been on the run for about a week and a half now and still are nowhere to be found. The prisoners escaped by the help of a guard who brought the two an assortment of tools to free them on their “Shawshank Redemption” style escape. The two prisoners used Hacksaw blades, screwdrivers, chisels, and a punch to make their way free. The two prisoners were helped by guard Joyce Mitchell who brought them the tools for their escape. The most shocking part of this article was the plan of the two men to kill the husband of the guard who helped them escape: he also, was a guard at the very same prison. Joyce Mitchell was also supposed to pick up the two men once they escaped but claimed she had gotten cold feet at the time of the break out. The one question that really arose in my mind was who in their right mind would give up a job making 57,000 dollars per year two help to murderers escape from a sentence that the two rightly deserved. Another question that come to my mind was why would the state put a prison only twenty miles from the United States border? This makes it so easy for the criminals to jump across the border and start a new life. It is hard not to read this article and not give credit to the criminals their plan was flawless. They found the perfect guard to help them along with the easiest yet safest escape route and at the end of the night they were free and found a way out. With reading this article and new story among other articles on the same topic I can only see the escape one way and that is impressive.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/cons-planned-killing-husband-woman-aided-escape-article-1.2257909

The next article I found interesting was about a high school senior who was awarded over 3 million dollars in scholarships to numerous schools around the country including many Ivy League schools.  Arianna Alexander was accepted to 26 schools and offered over 3 million dollars in scholarship which was a life changer for the low-income family. Alexander was honored by receiving Gates Scholars Program Scholarship which helps scholars in low income families be able to afford high education. The top colleges around the nation are becoming more aware of this and are allowing free tution to students who fall under a certain threshold. This is very important to me because I have seen a lot of friends leave school for financial reasons that are not their fault and we see the futures of some kids and young adults never come to fruition due to the lack of funds or academic help they need. The article also mentioned another student Ronald Nelson who was admitted to all eight Ivy League schools but chose to go to the University of Alabama due to financial obligations. Ronald’s father thought that it was not a good idea to send him to an Ivy League school and incur all the debt when he could save that money to spend on Ronald’s Graduate school. Even though the generous financial aid continues to grow the very prestigious schools wealthier students out number lower income student almost fourteen to one. This issue continues to bother lots of writers because of the lack of help that some of the brighter minds get based solely on their socioeconomic status. I personally feel that all students are put on an equal scale academically however no matter what financially no two students will ever be alike because to the diversity of the United States financially.

http://news.yahoo.com/high-school-senior-awarded-more-3-million-scholarships-180601863.html

The last article I found very interesting was about the United States planning to store heavy arms in the Eastern European countries. This decision is coming due to the activities of Russia in the Ukraine area of Crimea. These actions are being considered to deter actions of Russian leader Putin in trying to retake former parts of the USSR like Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Hungary. This action by the United States would store battle tanks, infantry vehicles, and large scale weapons. Approximately 5000 troops could be stations with plans on 150 soldiers in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia and 750 in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and possibly Hungary. Polish and Lithuanian officials confirmed they were in talks with the U.S. about stationing equipment in their countries. The Lithuanian Prime Minister claims he is worried about the threats and the increase in threats on them as well as other Eastern European countries. Poland's prime minister also claims he has had talks the U. S. Officials as recent as May and also expects this to happen very soon. This proposal is coming in wake of the Crimea annexation back in March 2014. This decision is expected to be made before the NATO meeting this month. Over the past few years the U.S. is increasing the number of pre-positioned equipment and will continue to increase in the coming years. Still no decision has been made on the equipment movement. This article to me is very interesting because of the latest Russian movement. It seems as though Russia is slowly but surely becoming one of the biggest world powers yet again. With the economy in Europe in shambles it seems as though this is the perfect time to take over all of Europe which seems to be their plan. This activity always worries me a little because of all of the European Allies the U.S. has and without them where would we be?  

http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-poised-store-heavy-weapons-baltic-eastern-europe-014816500.html

Blog Post 6

After watching Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps video, we were asked the question “What did we learn?”  It was very comforting hearing from someone that has been in our position then moving on to be a successful teacher. Anthony seemed very interested in speaking about Project Based Learning and some of the projects that he teaches his students. I love to do projects but have always been scared to teach them because they consist of many things, but hearing from Anthony eased my fear. I loved hearing what Anthony had to say about technology. Children are like sponges and will soak everything they can in. It amazes me to see children in the buggy playing on phones. Technology has grown tremendously in just the last five years. Having knowledge about technology is an essential tool in today and later year’s society. The Anthony- Strange conversation had many great points that I would like to point out. 1) Always work hard at whatever you do 2) Anything will be fun as long as you let it be 3) be creative 4) Respond to unexpected events 5) Be flexible in lesson plans. I love how Anthony explained some things that go on in his classroom as well as personal experiences.

After watching Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps video ICurio, we were asked the question, “What did we learn?” I have never heard of ICurio until this time. Anthony explains that it is a website that will help with safe searching of the internet as well as organization skills. It is a good site for students that do not have enough time but do not want to lose their work. I feel that ICurio will be used in my class because it is monitored. ICurio is a great site to use in the classroom because students with or without disabilities can use it. If a student is blind there is a read feature, if you press the button I will read it to you.

After watching Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps video Discovering Education, we were asked the question, “What did we learn?” Anthony explains that Discover Ed helps the students explore the material they are studying, so they can see it and it will stay with them. Anthony also states that he uses Discovery Ed to teach the students, so he can show them as well as get more into detail with pictures. This would be great for me as a teacher, because I am not a very good drawer so It would be difficult for the students to see exactly what I want them to learn. This website sounds like a very useful tool for students as well as teachers.

Meaningful Blogging

 The first article I found was about recycling of plastics. I myself never recycle plastics because before I read this article I thought it was a meaningless task and that all recycled plastics went to make more coke bottles instead of actually making something more useful. The article showed me that recycled plastics can be used for an assortment of things like outdoor living furniture, kitchen utensils, as well as living room and bathroom décor. The first item the writer mentioned was a shock to me. I never thought outdoor furniture could be made from recycled plastics, but it can in the form of tables and chair sets and also in Adirondack chairs as well. The second thing the writer mention was made from recycled plastics was kitchen utensils. I never thought about how easy it would be to use recyclables for this idea. The recycled plastics can be used to make mixing bowls, cutting boards, utensils, and tableware. Recycled plastic can also be used in the living room in some of the most unexpected places. We often do not think about where recycled plastics can be used in our living room but there are tons of décor items such as figurines and wall art available made from recycled plastics. The main things that we often see made from recycled plastics are rugs. There are plenty of rugs available to be used for a kitchen or living room made from recyclables that one would never be able to tell unless they were told. I guess I can say I did learn something from this article that changed my life. I now see how important it can be to recycle as well as how useful it can actually be. We are no longer making useless junk from plastic but things that can be valued in our home.

 http://plasticsmakeitpossible.com/2013/06/guest-blog-post-give-your-home-a-recycling-makeover/ 

The next article I found was about being prepared this hurricane season. Here in the south we know all about hurricanes and especially here in Mobile, our Grandparents tell us about Camille, our parents about Fredrick, and we have lived through Ivan, Katrina, and Rita so we know all about the damage they can cause. The one thing I realized while reading this article is that we have lived to tell of all these terrible storms but we just don’t have any emergency plan. Emergency plans are very important, so important that the President issued a week of preparations last week so citizens and volunteers can prepare for these crises. I never realized how detailed being prepared was. According to this article it is a six step process. The first step is refresh your emergency kit and plan, each year our lives change a little different, kids get older, roads close, so refreshing your plan each year is very important. Step two is always remember your pets, find them somewhere to stay or have yourself a place to stay where your pets can go too. Step three; know your exits, when a hurricane is coming it is so important to know your evacuation routes appropriated by the state and county you live in. Step four; Be smart and be safe, know if you are using something producing carbon monoxide and be safe with chainsaws during clean up. Step five; Plan to cope, disasters can be very stressful to people of all ages know the signs and know how to help people around you cope. Step six; Plan for your medical needs, this is the most important step for a lot of us and our elders as well, we need to make sure that we have an adequate amount of prescriptions as well as have a secondary doctor chosen in case of emergency. This article has thought me so much and how important being prepared is from now own I will make sure that my family is prepared.
 http://www.hhs.gov/blog/2015/05/22/6-ways-stay-safe-and-healthy-hurricane-season.html

Blog Post 5

Personal Learning Network (PLN) are tools used in every profession especially teaching. PLN is a great way to communicate with classmates/ colleagues. Twitter is a great PLN, because you can follow things that interest you and follow people who have the same interest as you. If you have a problem or question and you want a quick response from an expert, all you have to do is ask the question and hashtag what it is about. I understand the importance of having working PLN, it can help educate you in many ways. I have found a new interest in blogging; I can get ideas, suggestions, and relax from reading blogs. Many people use blogging to vent, such as like a diary but with less of their secrets. Blogging can help you find people that you can relate to and not feel different. Many PLN have chain effects, if you follow one person more people or things that have the same interest will pop up and ask did you want to follow them as well.

 PLN are a great way to keep parents, students, and facility informed about what is going on. Many teachers have blogs that show what they are doing in their class to give the parents an idea of what their child is doing at school. Teachers also have blogs to give other teachers ideas about projects or lessons that are being studied. Being a student that is studying to be a teacher, looking at teachers blogs helped me see what I will be doing in the class room as well as give me ideas on how to deal with certain things that may go on in the classroom. PLN is a great way to connect with people all over the world and see what they do in different cultures. I plan to use my blog to show my students what goes on in different parts of the world, many teachers call the a “field trip around the world.” It is not realistic to take students around the world and let them explore and talk to people from different countries, but by having Blogger, Skype, Twitter, and many others this is possible. By having students communicate with people there same age but from a different county makes learning fun and exciting. Many students do not know what outside of the state looks like, with PLN you can go one state over it does not have to be across the world. By using PLN we can widen the knowledge of children. I think it is very important that each student have a pen pal from a different country, because they can compare sports, school, home life, traditions, and food. Many children grow up and become adults and never leave the country for many reasons, by having a PLN you do actually leave the country but you learn many ways of life.

 I want to have a PLN because it will give me a new prospective about learning as well as teaching. Not only will my students learn from blogging so will I. Keeping up with the latest technology and finding new ways to educate is a great reason to have a PLN.

Project 3

Project 2- Rubrics

Individual

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X0EyzgwBbTkvNLRdo6o3bwwS68V9yWn1s_yr5YFMS9c/edit?usp=sharing

The Project Rubric

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JNL9wYC481jO6JqGJ4AIzmXlhk8sPvG1UCu24bmvoEE/edit?usp=sharing

The link to the Blog Rubric

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/15iBYWHThy56UMDsyr6sUQvprXUhDHDxxRnuMCFGyeFo/edit?usp=sharing