Blog Assignment #5

The iSchool Initiative
Does technology belong in our classroom? Is a question that many people have trouble answering. This video talks about the benefits of having technology in the classroom and how it can help students process and retain information given to them, By using a tool called the ischool. The ischool will be built on Apples popular itouch platform. With this transformation schools will be able to have a paperless classroom. This is very good for the most part because we will be able to save a lot of trees, and at the same time save money from not having to buy new copying machined or replacing old ones. The ischool touch pads have apps on every subject, making it easy to use and clear to understand for students. Parents and students alike, will be able to email teachers for assignments and due dates.

Travis touched base on how the ischool could help schools today and then he talks about how it will transform education in the schools of tomorrow.For the most part, I can agree with Travis. According to Travis teachers from schools of tomorrow will be able to track assignments, tests, grades, attendance,lunch menus, and interactive school agendas, all by using apps from the iSchool touch pad. Teachers will have instant contact to their classroom, anytime and anywhere in the palm of their hand. Because of this technology student and teacher accountability will be possible for the first time in history. Parents will be able to monitor their child's progress from any phone or computer. To protect students privacy the iSchool will be lockable to the schools and personalized for students. Students will only be able to visit websites that have to do education, and how it relates to their homework. Having the iSchool in schools, will ultimately save money for every one, at least $600 a student. The price of iSchool for one student is about $150. You do the math. This is the link (ZeitgeistYoungMind's Entry ) to the video that Travis made to get more people into the idea of using technology in the classroom. In His first video Travis was only 17 years old, and now he is 21 years old and on the same mission to get schools to adopt his vision, to get people to thrive in this digital world that new students are being born into.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir ( Teaching in the 21st Century) Wow,is the only thing that I can say about this video. Just to be able to put something like this together on the internet with people you've never met before, is amazing.In this video clearly timing is everything. With the internet and technology,anything is possible to accomplish no matter how far away people are from one another. I'm curious to know how other people felt about this video.

In this youtube video Why I flipped My Classroom by Katie Gimbar, Katie talks about what caused her to flip her classroom. This is Katie's fifth year teaching Math, and she has become overwhelmed and frustrated at the reality that she could literally see which of her students were getting the information and which ones were not. Katie felt like she was only teaching to the group of students who could follow along as she went through the materials. While other students were either more advanced and were ready to move on to new information, or really didn't understand the information being given. This lead to 90% of class time being spent on delivery and review of content. Katie felt like she wasn't meeting all of her students needs because of her constant battle for more time to go over information in the classroom. In other words she couldn't reach the needs of all of her students within the class time allowed. So that meant that it was up to students to pick up on what they couldn't catch on to in school, at home.Katie felt like she had to make a drastic change in her teaching methods, which lead her to adopt the idea of flipping her classroom. Now students are able to pre-load classroom content before they get to class, and can now pause, rewind, and watch the videos as often as they'd like. If they have any questions about the materials they covered in class,students are able to post questions to their teacher, or fellow classmates via the internet.

Dr.Lodge McCammon's felt like it was too much lecture in the classroom, which is insufficient and not engaging and a one shot deal. Dr.Lodge took his findings and created an project called FIZZ. FIZZ trains teachers to flip the classroom. That way students can watch fizz video lecture series,created by their teachers outside of the classroom. It is a sufficient way of delivering information to the students, where they can view it as many times as they need, while at the same time creating more classroom time, which gives teachers more time to come up with differential ways of teaching. To be honest I loved both of these videos. They both touched on some good points such as learning habits, and what works and what doesn't work. I would love to learn more about FIZZ and apply it to my classroom, because not every child learns the same. What works for one child may not work for the other, and it is our job as teachers to find out what works best for each student. I truly believe in NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. My major concern to all of this technology is what about the lower income families who may not abe able to afford the internet at home. Would their child still end up being left behind, due to their parents income level?

This Is My Sentence

C4K Summary post for September

Mrs.Corzet 4th Grade Class Students wrote various blogs about What they have learned in school that day. Students are told there is no right or wrong way to write what they have learned. The kids that I were assigned wrote about everything from Christmas gifts they made for their family,foods that their pets eat, and one student even posted Riddles.One of which even puzzled my mind. I am still waiting to hear back from my C4K kid about the answer to one riddle that he posted which was,There once was a man and he had 53 bicycles.He died. How did he die? I just can't figure it out the riddle.I've found that teachers Class blogs are for the parents as well as the students. For example if there are PTA meetings coming up, or school board meetings that the parent could attend they would be able to follow up on them. Parents are able to see and know what their child is learning in school without the hassel of driving up to the school. In short kids blogs are a great attribute to have in the classroom, it is both beneficial to the student and the parent.

Pt England School in Auckland, N.Z. Is the name of the school that I was assigned to for my C4K Post. My students name is Ata F. and she is in Mr.Marks Class 15, with students aging between 8 and 9 years old. Ata F, post read as follows: "Yea I said to myself we are going to be doing paralympics man I wander want it would feel like to become one of them so off we went to the count to try it out as we started we all went to go and grab a ribbon and put one hand in and the other hand out as we ran it felt strange because the ribbon was slowing us down."
The comment that I left Ata was,"I am happy to see that you have found something to be so excited about. I'm glad to know that you and your fellow classmates had the opportunity to see how it feels to be handicap. So I hope you've learned that being disabled can really slow a person down, but the key is to keep going and not to quit. I would however suggest that you proof read your sentences and take breaks in between sentences by putting periods at the ends of each one."

Blog Assignment #4

Out of the seven sources that were given, I found three sources that most interests me to blog about. The first source was Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting
On this web-page I found podcasting to be an especially great tool for teachers teaching Language Arts.Podcasting allows students to hear and see their own voices, which enables them to correct their pronunciation of a word(s).Using podcast in the classroom helps students learn new words and ultimately expand their vocabulary. Not only does the sound of a word account for a child understanding the word but also the words that come before and after the new "learned" word helps the students understand its meaning.I also learned that when learning a word, it helps if students attach a feeling to that word so that they can use that word in future sentences and clearly understand its meaning.One helpful way to help students with their vocabulary is to have them practice saying a word and also hearing their words. The Next source that caught my attention was the Podcasting with First Grade blog.
This source was mostly about encouraging teachers to use Podcasts with their younger elementary students.I loved the teachers Idea of Starting a Story Book reading and allowing her students to do an interview on the two main characters in the story using podcast. The students learned how to edit their voices if they recorded something they did not like, and also how to add sounds like onomatopoeia's to their story book. Because of podcasting students can now look at reading as something fun and enjoyable to do at school rather than something boring. The last source that I looked at was The Benefits of Podcasting In a Classroom. I like how people who were born after the 1980's are categorized as Millenials. These group of people have never experienced the world without technology. Some benefits that I found for using podcast in the classroom were that it allows differentiation in the classroom, recording lectures, and listen to them as a review, or make it more student centered by taking a project based learning approach(letting students write scripts and act out the parts. Podcasting in the classroom promotes creativity and innovation,and what is even better is that it allows parents to see and hear what their children are doing at school. As a future teacher I will for sure, use podcasting in my Language Arts area of learning to better enhance Blooms Taxonomy, and I will do this by assigning my students a book to read and having them do an interview on the main character(s).

C4T Summary Post #1

Greta Sandler (About A Teacher) was the name of the teacher and Blog that I was assigned to and her blog was titled Finding My Voice. In her blog she discussed her love for writing and poetry, and how she has gotten away from it, because every time she tries to write she would get writers block. It wasn't until a teacher and close friend of hers, came to her and asked her to write an Aha Moment blog on her blog site. So with no hesitation Mrs.Sandler agreed to do it. Never mind the fact that she gets writer's block, Mrs. Sandler still managed to write the blog and it was her best one yet. And in doing so she was able to find her way back to writing and even used it in her classrooms. Mrs. Sandler now says that her classroom extends beyound their four walls and now stretches out over the whole world. Thanks to her blogging she is able to share her classroom adventures with other teachers and get feedback as well. I left a comment on her Blog post saying that even After this class is over I intend to check her blogs on the regular not because it is required of me, but because I actually like reading her blogs.

Kids Motivating Other Kids Blog Is a great Blog that Mrs.Sandler has created so that her previous years students could come back and leave posts or comments for her new students to read that suggest helpful tips for writing. I love how she embeds links to previous blogs that she discuss, so that when someone new visits her blog,they can have a Root to what it is she is discussing. When she opened the doors for students to motivate other students, she was over joyed with their responses. Students blogged back and forth with each other sharing great ideas and stories to blog about.What really stood out to me was how excited and amazed the kids were to hear from other students in different countries. I can't wait for my future class to be able to experience the joys of blogging like Mrs.Sandler's class.

Project #5 Google Presentation

Blog Assignment #3

What is Peer Editing?
While watching this youtube video, the most valuable thing that stood out to me most was to Start the comment you leave on a blog, off with a compliment. To me that says a whole lot, Because not only are you acknowledging the fact that they did have some good points, but it lets the person know that you are not coming at them with a negative outlook, but rather a positive one. The next thing that really stood out to me was that you have to take into consideration how would you feel if you were the person being corrected and all you heard back from the reader was the negative comments? I am sure you would feel that your Blog was less then ok.

Peer Editing Tutorial
In this Tutorial on editing with perfection, I've learned that Editing is nothing more than making useful helpful suggestions to better improve ones work, and not at all meant to make the person feel any type of negativity about the work that they have produced. Using great word choices,giving good detailed descriptions of what you are talking about, and also keeping your blog post well organized are great suggestions for having a good blog.It not only makes it easy for the reader to comprehend, but it also makes the blog flow more consistently.

Technology In Special Education
After watching this video I feel like Technology has affected the way Special Education is taught in that,special needs students who could only read and follow a story was if a teacher was there to read the story out loud to them. Now days with the help of technology, students are able to follow along at their on pace on individual headsets that plays the stories for them. Technology has made it easier for students and teachers to communicate better with each other,whereas before teachers had a difficult time understanding their students and students expressing their thoughts to teachers.

With the help of technology Special needs students are able to do classroom assignments and keep up with the teachers instructions and also participate more actively. Students are now being able to build relationships and make connections that without the use of technology would have otherwise been very difficult to express. Students who had trouble reading book text before are not eager to use laptops because it magnifies the small print for them, making reading a breeze for them. Students who had trouble holding a pen or pencil before are now able to type what it is they are trying to relay to the teacher.

I can use technology in my future classroom by letting the students use e-readers to follow along with books that are in the curriculum. I could also use the smartboard to quiz students on topics from subjects we go over in class. Students would be able to come up to the smartboard and touch the correct response, and any student that can not physically come up to the board will use the clicker.


How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism
For my future special needs students I would use both applications for learning to read and also learning to write, since they both go hand in hand. I found a very useful App for writing called "Kids Writing Pad" It helps students with their motor skills while at the same time having fun doing so. Another app that I found to be very useful and fun for learning how to read is called "How Rocket Learned to Read". Using fun apps in the classroom is a great way to get and keep students attention, helping them to learn more and actually use what they are learning in everyday life. These apps would greatly improve a students will to learn and even perhaps make them want to come to school everyday, because they will begin to understand that learning is and can be very fun.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
Right from the start of Mrs.Davis video, when she talks about her accomplishments you can just tell that she loves her job and is very passionate about it. Winning teacher Blog of the World is a very Big Title to hold, and I am quite sure that she spent a lot of time working on her blog. The statement that she made when she said that "children have trouble when you have only paper, only pencil, then only certain types of students are going to succeed." I can really agree with this statement because not every child learns the same way, so being able to produce different ways of learning and also making them more interesting would ultimately open doors that would have otherwise been left shut.

Creating ways for students to think on their own is a great way to help students become independent and self-reliant. A great example that Mrs.Davis uses is that she may use new terminology which enhances the students vocabulary and knowledge. Mrs. Davis motivates and encourages her students to be thinkers, and not to just sit around and wait for the answers to hit them, but to actually go out and find the answers for themselves. Being able to travel to another country through a Blog that Students and teachers administer together and outsource with peers from another country,is a great motivation for me to use Blogging in my future classroom.

Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know 3.0,
This was a great short informative video on many interesting facts. The numbers were higher then I thought they would be, as to how many and how much technology has effected day to day living as opposed to decades ago before such technology existed. The fact that stood out most to me was when the video said India had more honors kids,then America has kids.

Another interesting fact that really surprised me and also has crossed my mind a time or two, was when the video asked, "What did we use to find the answers to our questions B.G.?" (before google).I honestly don't remember using google when I was in school and that was less then six years ago. After watching this very informative video,I think it is only right that I share it with my fellow friends on Facebook and Twitter.

In this video Mr. Winkles Wakes I Could only imagine what was going on in Mr.Winkles head."How long have I been sleep?" would have been the first thing in my mind.How scared he must have been,living in a place you once called home, and is now like a foreign country to you. It's like a deaf person suddenly being able to hear. What is normal to all is strange only to you. What a scary thing it must have been.

Mr.Winkle must learn to adapt or get left behind. Technology is here to stay. We must adapt or suffer the consiquiences of not knowing how to use technology. It is forever changing and growing and improving. It is our job to educate ourselves. If we keep putting off learning more about technology, then one day we will wake up just like Mr.Winkle in a world we can't function in.


Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
Mr.Robinson has a way of catching his audience attention by giving funny examples and real life situations, you can tell he knows what he is talking about is real,something he's found out first hand and not read in a book. Mr.Robinson raised a good point on the unpredictability of what the world would be like 30 or 40 yrs from now.We are preparing kids for a future we aren't sure of. This point right here really raised my eyebrow.

"If you're not prepared to be wrong,you will never come up with anything original" this quote really stood out to me. I am an artist I love art,and I had an art teacher my freshmen year of college and he told me to "Let your mistakes work for you". So to hear Mr.Robinson say this really hit home for me,because I knew exactly what he meant. From my mistakes in my art I've created wonderful artwork. Education and creativity goes hand in hand.If you take the time to get to know your student you will be able to find out what path you need to take to stimulate the mind of that student.

A Day Made of Glass Was an excellent video on how fast technology is growing and how kids are able to keep up and also get involved in new technology. Teachers, Parents, doctors, as well as kids would be using technology in all types of different ways. Touch screen is becoming more and more used not only for cell phones and tablets, but also for televisions. The world of technology is for every changing and changing perhaps even faster then we can keep up. Having glass schools and hospitals and such could be a good or bad thing in the future. I am sure people would love to have a little privacy, I feel as though in the beginning everything would seem all great because it is different and unlike anything we have ever seen, But the draw back would be that people could loose their sense of security and privacy. I know I for sure would love to have concrete walls, and just be closed off from the world because sometimes I feel a little to "in touch" with the world and just want to disconnect from everything.

Summary Post C4T #1

Greta Sandler (About A Teacher) was the name of the teacher and Blog that I was assigned to and her blog was titled Finding My Voice. In her blog she discussed her love for writing and poetry, and how she has gotten away from it, because every time she tries to write she would get writers block. It wasn't until a teacher and close friend of hers, came to her and asked her to write an Aha Moment blog on her blog site. So with no hesitation Mrs.Sandler agreed to do it. Never mind the fact that she gets writer's block, Mrs. Sandler still managed to write the blog and it was her best one yet. And in doing so she was able to find her way back to writing and even used it in her classrooms. Mrs. Sandler now says that her classroom extends beyound their four walls and now stretches out over the whole world. Thanks to her blogging she is able to share her classroom adventures with other teachers and get feedback as well. I left a comment on her Blog post saying that even After this class is over I intend to check her blogs on the regular not because it is required of me, but because I actually like reading her blogs.

Kids Motivating Other Kids Blog Is a great Blog that Mrs.Sandler has created so that her previous years students could come back and leave posts or comments for her new students to read that suggest helpful tips for writing. I love how she embeds links to previous blogs that she discuss, so that when someone new visits her blog,they can have a Root to what it is she is discussing. When she opened the doors for students to motivate other students, she was over joyed with their responses. Students blogged back and forth with each other sharing great ideas and stories to blog about.What really stood out to me was how excited and amazed the kids were to hear from other students in different countries. I can't wait for my future class to be able to experience the joys of blogging like Mrs.Sandler's class.