Blog Post #12

Articles on Assistive Technology
Videos on Assistive Technology
Presentation on Assistive Technology

C4T #3

For this month's C4T, I commented on The Electric Educator, also known as John Sowash. His blog consist of post that provide information on how to protect your data on the internet. The first post I commented on was titled Digital Security for Teachers: Know Your Data". In this blog post he goes over how to view your data, update your privacy settings, and how to backup your data. He concludes by saying once you know how to manage and take control of your account you can reduce the risk of your account information being used incorrectly.

My comment stated how I found his post informative and helpful.

The second post I commented on, Data Security for Teachers - The Basics, Sowash gave a brief overview on some security basics. For example, your password should be at least eight characters long with a mixture of lower case and upper case letters. He also suggest mixing in some numbers and symbols. You should avoid personal information such as birthdays or phone numbers and dictionary words. As in his previous post he strongly suggest backing up your data.

I told Sowash that I enjoyed reading his posts. I also left a link to the class blog. I told him that his post were informative and although I know backing up my data is important, I had never backed up my Google data.

Project #10

Blog Post #11

1. Back to the Future - TED Talk by Brian Cosby

Brian Cosby is a teacher whose class is composed of mainly 2nd language learners. Not only that but they are at risk students. At the beginning of his speech he shows just how little these students are connected to their outside world by asking questions such as "what's your address?", "what country do you live in?", "what's your phone number?"...etc. The numbers that came back were low and shocking. Only three students out of the 24 he taught knew what country they lived in. He goes on to talk about the "schema" of the world and you can not create passion with creativity. His speech goes on for awhile about he got his students connected by technology. The projects he had them start had them engaged and interested because he created buzz around the project. He incorporated science and the language arts to pull a "head fake." They were learning all about science while at the same time they were improving their language skills. He had them writing stories based on what they saw which improved their writing skills. Not only that, their connections grew because of the projects and the blog posts that they created. People from all over the world saw their "High Hopes" project and sent their own "High Hopes" into Cosby's class. As a teacher, I think that is a great accomplishment. Cosby's students got to see how they can change the world. What I learned from Cosby was that there are no limitations to teaching or learning. He created a opportunity for his students to grow and become real learners. As a teacher, I want to make sure my students also have that opportunity to grow and reach other communities around them.

2. Blended Learning Cycle by Paul Andersen.
Paul Andersen is an AP Biology teacher. I have taken AP classes and I can personally tell you the workload in those classes is severe. Not only are students gearing up the take the AP exam at the end of the semester, but they are working with college level material. In Andersen's video, I was already intrigued by the spinning disk. The only thing I could think of during that video was "Wow, when is this disk going to stop spinning and why is it spinning for so long?" Already, Andersen's use of QUIVERS (his acronym that he created) was working. I hope to be able to incorporate QUIVERS (Question, Investigate, Video, Elaboration, Review, and Summary) into my lesson plans as a future educator. He talked about in the beginning of the video how he tried a new style of teaching, but as he thought about it, he realized he strayed away from what the original idea was. He acknowledged those who helped him remix his ideas and helped create what he was explaining in the video. This is a great example of what it is like to be a learner as a teacher. He went to other resources to help improve his skills as a teacher. It's okay to be uncertain about things. I shouldn't shy away from getting ideas or getting advice from other sources. We are all constantly learning and that should not stop once I become the head honcho in the classroom.

3. Making Thinking Visible by Mark Church
Mark Church had his students create a banner that, in a few short words, represented what they had learned already about human origins. He had them discuss and then put their banners on the board. This project was done near the beginning of their lesson. He then revealed that at the end of their lesson they would write another statement based on what they now know. This is a great technique showing students just how much they have learned over a time period. Would their slogan be different from what they wrote before? Why or Why not? What do you know now that you didn't know before? Questions like create a discussion and students can share their opinions and learn from their peers.

4. Building Comics by Sam Pane
This video was my favorite to watch. Sam Pane introduces safety on the internet by having his class create a "Digital Citizen Superhero." He incorporates language arts and the use of technology to teach his class how to be safe on the internet. His lesson is fun and keeps the students engaged. He has them walk around and peer edit students' comics. Is this a safety issue? Was it resolved correctly? As a teacher, I want to be able to incorporate various subjects into one lesson. This teaching style leads me into the last two videos and what I have learned about teaching and learning from these six videos.

5. Project Based Learning by Dean Shareski and Roosevelt Elementary PBL Program
One of the biggest advantages about Project Based Learning is that it takes away the need for segmented subjects. Why not teach science, language arts, and history all at the same time? A school in Canada decided to take on that challenge by combining history, english, and information processing. With the combining of these three subjects, the teachers found that students were able to learn more and understand more because they got the chance to expand their knowledge through several subjects. If this trend continues, could we see classrooms changing? Instead of going to another classroom and having "periods" or "blocks" will it just be an open classroom with different subjects all going on at once? In Roosevelt Elementary School, students were doing projects that involved other subjects as well. Don't we already write for science? We have to lab reports.

I feel as if I have veered from the original question, "What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?" However, I feel as if there is another question to be asked from these videos and it's something we have only addressed once. What is in store for the future of the classroom? With all these Project Based Learning ideas, are we going to find ourselves collaborating more often with teachers from different subject areas in higher grade levels? Do we need to take another look at the standards? Is the classroom size going to expand? In short, I found that after watching these six videos I felt as if I had watched the same six videos over again because I was looking for an answer I had given already in previous blog post.

Project #14 Group 8

For this project our group decided to work with the third grade. We created a project that has students researching extreme weather phenomena. Students will be placed in predetermined groups and create a presentation that explains how these phenomena are predicted, how they affect the world, how they are defined and how to prepare in case of one. We hope that at the end of this project students have a better knowledge of the weather around them.

Calender
Lesson Plan
Checklist
Rubric

Project #12 A

Blog Post #10

What can we learn from Mrs. Cassidy? In her video Little Kids...Big Potential, she shows how she uses technology in her classroom. As a pioneer of technology in her workplace, Cassidy shows us new and unique ways to use technology. While the use of SMARTboards and blogs are common, Cassidy shows how her students expand their personal learning networks through the use of Skype and Wikis. I found it interesting that she used Nintendo DS's and NintenDogs to teach her students responsibility and teamwork. In Dr. Strange's videos, Interviewing with Mrs. Cassidy, he and Cassidy discuss the importance of technology in the classroom. As future teachers, we need to understand that technology is not going anywhere. Cassidy suggest to start with what you like. If you're interested in videos, start with Youtube or if you like writing, start with blogging. She mentions that building your personal learning network is another great place to start.

As far as techniques go, I would take advantage of the technology available to me and my students. The SMARTboard is capable of so many activities as I learned this past week. Some problems I could run into is internet safety or parents who do not want their child being on the internet. If this happens, I will try my best to change the parents mind by showing them just how safe using the internet can be when used properly. Benefits I would reap by following in Cassidy's steps would be that my students might be more engaged. My classroom will be a place of fun and education. Students won't feel as if they're being suffocated by pens and paper and hoards of information.