Final Post

PLN Final Post

So since my last post I have added to my PLN.  I added my banking address, Alabama football, screenjelly, and southhalabama's homepage.  I am a big Alabama fan and it makes it easier to keep up with them.  I also love to use screenjelly to capture pictures.  It has made my life so much easier.  Symbaloo is very practical and I am sure I will continue to use it in the future.

Project # 15

For my project I created a webpage that can help future students with EDM310.

Here is the link: https://sites.google.com/site/edm310hell/

Teach Someone Project #14

Additional Assignment # 3

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms:

This is a pretty intense but well thought out video in my opinion.  Once I started watching it, I could not stop.  All the drawings and the way he was saying things really got me thinking.  His video had a big impact on the way I view some things.  He talks about why would schoosl lower education and that we need to do the opposite and raise education.  In the culture of the Enlighenment or the Industrial Revolution, he said that public education was a revolutanary idea and people objected it.  He also talked about how there was a modern epidemic, the plague of ADHD.  He says that there is no thing as ADHD.  I have to disagree.  I know some students can perfom well in their studies and some simply can not.  I know it is possible for those students who perform poorly to perform just as well with much more work then some other students.  Medicince has been proven to help students that struggle to pay attention, calm them down, and concentrate more on their work.  He says that when children are distracted from "boring stuff" they are given a drug to control ADHD symptoms.  He laughs at this and says it is a fititus epedemic.  I do agree that an aesenthetic does shut off your senses.  But I also feel that some people do need these drugs in order to follow the class on the same level.  Very interesting video.  I am still a little confused so any advice on this video would be greatly appriacated.

Summary Post C4K November and December 5th

C4K#8     The first student I was assigned to comment on their blog was Jackie.  Jackie is a first grade student and she in Mrs. Cassidy's class in Moose Jaw, Canada.  She recorded herself reading the book "Under the Ground" on vocaroo.  I think the book might be by Pascale De Bourgoing but I am not positive.  She did a wonderful job at reading this book.  She spoke clearly and slowly  it was easy to understand what she was saying.  I think it is great that students are using websites like vocaroo.  It is a great start at showing them to the world of technology.  It is going to be amazing to see how advanced they are with technology when they become my age.

C4K#9     Basam is a 6th grade student of Mrs. Gaudet's at Lawfield Elementary School in Hamilton, ON.  Basam writes in the his blog about being scared when he first came to Canada because he did not know English.  He said he was also scared to go to a new school because he wasn't sure if he would make friends.  Well he said after three days he made friends and they helped him out with math!  I am so glad to hear that students are willing to help other students with their schoolwork.  It is important for us to encourage students to make friendships with people they do not really know in their grade.  It is also good to encourage them to help others with their school work if they are able to.  I am so glad they made him feel welcomed and they started a new friendship!

C4K#10     Simon is a student of Miss Byrnes.  In his blog he talked about how he read about Rome's transportation, travel, and trade.  He said they have networks of roads and they suppressed the pirates.  He said that this was like a game he plays called Rome:Total War.  I told him that my brother plays that game and I would have to give it a try next time he is on it.  He asked the question "when where the roads built and how did people know how far away they are from their destination.  I think it is great the students are not just learning what is given to them.  He is taking in his own hands and wants to further his education.  I would have found the answers to these questions but another person had already answered it for him.  I want to encourage students to think out of the box and ask more questions about what they are learning.

    

C4K#11     For the last students blog I commented on Trace's blog.  Trace is in the 2nd grade in Mrs. Huebners class.  He had a short blog post and it said, "What is your favorite basketball team?  His favorite basketball team is the Nuggets.  I told him that I do not really watch basketball but I am a big Alabama football fan!  I am glad that students are interested in sports.  It is good for them to get out and exercise.  There are too many children staying inside playing video games.  Hopefully more children will become more involved in sports then video games.

Blog Post #14 (Commenting on Yasmine's Blog)

For the replacement assignment I was assigned to comment on Yasmine's blog.  She wrote a post encouraging people to comment on her blog posts.  I know it can be upsetting to put a bunch of hard work into something and you feel like no one even sees it.  I told her that I sometimes feel the same way but then I remember that there are lots of blogs and it is hard to comment on every single persons blog you read.  I also told her that a  good idea is maybe to start commenting on your favorite blogs on a regular basis and they may notice and do the same back to you.  I hope she will be able to make connections with others and make friendships and be able to communicate with others from all around the World.

C4T Summary Post: Teacher #4

I was assigned to read and comment on a blog by JF Hadley.  Her blog is titled Middle School Matrix: Exploring the changing world of Middle School teaching and technology.  Her first teaching job was in Los Angeles teaching a 5th grade class.  After her children reached high school she started teaching again.  She taught english and history at an all girls school.  I commented on her blog post titled, "Why we go to conferences."  Hadley went to a conference in Toronto called ECOO (Educational Computing Organization of Ontario).  A good point she made was that while online tools are great for connecting, there is nothing about face-to-face time. I agree with this because you can not really understand a person fully by just reading their words.  It is always better to be face on with a person because you can see their emotion through the sound of their voice and facial expressions.  She talked about how she followed a man on twitter and was a big fan of his posts.  When she was at this conference that same man was also there.  He was chatting in a group with her and some others that were also attending the conference.  After they sat back down there was a twitter update from the man she followed on twitter that included some of the peoples names in the group.  She then realized that just because you know who someone is, it does not mean they know who you are.  Conferences are a good way to potentially meet some of those people you follow on twitter or other sites.  They also give you the opportunity to build friendships with new teachers who you can possibly follow one day to better yourself as a teacher.