Blog Assignment 14

Jose Picardo's list of resources for teachers is very helpful. I had never heard of over half of these websites. This could save me a lot of time when I get into the teaching field. I will definitely add this list to my favorites page so I can refer back to it often.
I love his tips for using technology in the classroom.
Using streaming video is a great way to help kids learn. They get tired of just hearing their teacher repeat the same things over and over. But you can find all kinds of videos to teach them.
The same goes for music. I know elementary kids love learning through music. When I did my observation, the teacher played cute little Alabama history songs. When I was in elementary school, we used the Shirley Method for English. I sang those songs all through high school to help me label sentences.
Teleconferencing tools would be great to help the kids see what other classrooms are doing. We could get ideas from them and maybe share some of our ideas to help them out. Or we could use Skype to do interviews with people who could help us with a certain subject area. It would be much more convenient for everyone than them having to come into the school.
Making your own exercises for the students is also a great idea. Like Picardo says, the teacher knows the students strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else. The teacher can make different activities to help certain students with weaknesses in different areas.
Using the SmartBoard effectively is definitely something that all teachers need to do. When I was in high school, we were just getting them and our teachers barely used them if the used them at all. Now, going back to do my observation, the teachers use them all the time and the students really enjoy it. It keeps them more focused and entertained then just writing notes on a chalk board.
Podcasts are a fun way to keep kids involved. We watched different videos throughout the class of students doing podcasts in their classroom and they really seemed to enjoy it. We also did a podcast ourselves and I enjoyed doing it.
Creating a class blog is a great way to work on writing skills. It allows students to be creative. It also helps keep students and parents informed. I have never created a wiki, but I'm sure it is very useful in the classroom as well. I will try it out on day to see if I would like to use it in my classroom.
Using social networks is another option for keeping students and parents involved, although teachers have to be very careful with them. They do not need to use their personal social networking page as a school network page, too. I will probably create a Facebook page specifically for my classroom.
Using internet tools is again something that I have never tried, but I'm sure it would help students and be easy for them to use. I will research this more and try it out.
Using the gadgets that the students already use daily is probably the most effective thing to do. They don't have to worry about getting into the habit of checking something new daily. They already know how to use these things and obviously enjoy using them or they wouldn't be using them often.

Final Report on PLN

I have thoroughly enjoyed using my PLN this semester and will continue to update and use it for the remainder of my school career and when I get out of school. It is very useful and saves a lot of time. I am so glad that I was introduced to a PLN.

C4K November Comments

Mrs. Yollis' class has a great blog! I hope to have this in my classroom one day. She uses her blog to help her students' writing skills and grammar. She encourages family members of the students to view the class blog and make comments. It is really amazing how many visitors she has on her class blog, so much more than our EDM class blog has. I could learn a lot about blogging from her class blog. I really enjoyed exploring her blog.
I really enjoyed reading the Halloween stories that the kids in Mrs. Yolis' class wrote. I had the pleasure of reading Behyan's story called "Crazy Halloween Day". Behyan's has a very good imagination and is a great writer. Her story was very entertaining and creative.
For my last C4K, I was assigned to Sela in Room 13 Point England School Auckland, New Zealand. She wrote a story about being an astronaut and saving the world from all the "space junk". She also has an imaginary planet call Pizza Planet. She also has a very good imagination and obviously has an interest for outer space.

Blog Assignment 13

I had never heard of Wolfram Alpha until this blog post was assigned. I had never heard of Google Squared either, but did not get to use it because there was an error every time I tried it. 22.88% of China's population equals the United States' population. 89.6% of China's population equals India's population. I think Wolfram Alpha would be very useful in the classroom. Children are always wondering random facts, so when one of those comes up in class all I would have to do it bring up Wolfram Alpha.

Blog Assignment 12

I really had to think hard and do some searching to find an assignment that should have been given to us, but wasn't. I was beginning to think there wasn't anything else to add to go along with this class, but I finally found something pretty interesting.
Go to prezi.com. Create your own Prezi on anything you would like. Make it interesting and have fun! Here is the link to my Prezi. When it comes up, press the right arrow button until the end of the presentation.

Progress Report on Final Project

I guess you could say that our final project is coming along. We are still coming up with ideas to do this project on. Hopefully we will get the ball rolling faster now that it's coming up sooner. I think we will come up with a great project.

Additional Post 1

I did miss the metaphor in Blog Assignment 11. I usually understand metaphors and sarcasm, and use them quite often myself. I guess I was distracted when I read the post or was having an off day. We all have those sometimes, right? I think we use metaphors to keep things interesting and make people think. That's why I use them anyway.

Blog Assignment 11

In the video "Little Kids...Big Potential" there were first graders blogging and using the same things we are in EDM310. They posted a blog regularly, which they say helped them with the writing. They used Skype to communicate with other classrooms and professionals. They even found ways to use their Nintendo DS's. I think their teacher is doing a great job with them and I hope I can do this with my students in a few years. These things help students in more ways than just learning how to use a computer.
Mrs. Cassidy had some great points in her interview. One of my questions about blogging in an elementary classroom was how to protect them and keep them from seeing things that they shouldn't see. Obviously, teaching them not to use their last name, pictures, address, or phone number on the internet is the best way to protect them, but it is so easy for them to get to pages that are inappropriate, whether it is on purpose or by accident. Having links on the class page is a great idea so they will know what pages they can go to for sure. Another thing I have thought about is, when will I have time to get my students to post a blog regularly. I had never thought about doing it during reading sections. I really enjoyed watching this interview. I got a lot of great information! And I loved seeing the snow in her backyard. I would love to have that here every other year or so!

C4K Summary Post 2

These kids amaze me with what they post on their blogs. They have some great ideas and do some wonderful research. One of the kids I got assigned to researched their favorite animal and posted about it. One made a post about their class elections for student council. They had some great pictures and you could tell that they had great presentations. I really loved commenting on these kids blogs and seeing what they have to say.