Special Metaphor Assignment (Blog Post #14)

1. I think I really did not miss the concepts of what the metaphor was actually about. I did understand that the pencils stated in the post was more reflected on some form of technology. There were statements about low-income families and how students from those families tend to think of the pencils as a form of entertainment. When this was stated in the post I did think about the "pencils" as being "computers", but I was a little to afraid that I was wrong. I think that many of the students missed this assignment because they really did not think of "pencils" as being preferred as "computers". I think that if my classmates really analyzed the post and took sentences that reflect to technology everyone probably would have had it right the first time.

2. Sometimes you are really not thinking about metaphors, but you hear them everyday and you even say them when you are talking.  Just the other day I heard a metaphor from my dad stating "beat the traffic". Today my friend said that "it is raining cats and dogs outside". Metaphors is something that is used in our daily language.

3. I think that as educators to help students to actually learn about metaphors and to use them is to challenge them with assignments like Dr. Strange did for my EDM 310 class. As educators we can also incorporate metaphors in our lectures as we talk to our students. The more students are exposed to metaphors the more they will be able to understand how to analyze their own assignments and how to incorporate it into their daily language.

4.In my opinion, metaphors is a way of saying something, but it is much simpler to grasp. For example, if I say that it is raining cats and dogs outside, instead of saying that it is raining hard, I am implementing that their are large droplets of condensation. Metaphors has more effect when it is spoken. Metaphors tend to be more forceful than an analogy it emphasizes the spoken words and grasps the listeners attention.

Final Project #16

Summary Post C4T Teacher #4

Ms. Worrell is the teacher that I have been assigned to for the past two weeks and she seems to have a great outlook on developing her knowledge of learning new programs and technological tools.  I have learned a lot from Ms. Worrell's blog, she explains the concepts of how many people today feel about technology. I also like how she stated that there are people in the world who think that technology is taking over the world, but this is a great time to be living in.  Ms. Worrell discussed her motivations of giving herself room to actually learn more and more about technology.  She is a person who explains that she does not know everything about technology, but she learns and play around with different programs and applications.  There are many teachers who think that someone has to teach them everything about technology, but there is nothing wrong with teaching yourself.  Teaching yourself is also apart of our learning experience.

Final Report on PLN

My personal learning network has been a great organizer for my EDM 310 class.  Since I have been using my PLN I have been able to access different accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and other applications that are needed for class and leisure. I am still learning about different ways to make my personal learning network useful for me as a future teacher and as a current student.  I have discovered that being organized is a great way to keep assignments up-to-date and it saves me time and money.  While keeping organized, I am also able to Google topics that are of interest to my PLN.  Having a Personal Learning Network is a great tool for teachers and students to become better organizers.

Blog Post #13

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)

Alabama Learning Exchange is a great way for teachers to learn more about the subjects that they will teach. Teachers are able to learn the concepts of creating a podcast and the different lectures that they can create by using a podcast. The Alabama Learning Exchange is a website that helps teachers to create lesson plans, and to be more organized. The Lesson Plans include things that you should be teaching to students by their grade level. For example, if I wanted to know about a lesson plan for a 12th grade instrumental class, I click Arts in Education, then I check the Instrumental box and it describes in the lesson plan that the students for that particular grade should be learning about different classical composers like Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven.  This gives me an incite of what I will be teaching and what I can do to help my students to excel.

There is also a great way for teachers to get training through the online website. This website informs teachers of the latest technological tools that are available for them to use in their classrooms. ALEX helps teachers to be aware of tricks, and tips that can be performed when using different technological tools. This website has tutorials for multimedia tasks like podcasting, iMovie, PhotoStory, and many more applications.  Even though ALEX provides tutorials for Microsoft Word and other office productivity application, the application that was mentioned was outdated. Teachers can also find professional development programs through this useful website.

The Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide (ACCESS) program is a great tool that informs students and teachers. Students are able to find classes that may be suitable for their learning experience through the websites catalog. Students are able to find test preps for AP Exams and other testing preps that prepares them for college.This website helps teachers who want to expand their school's courses and it connects them with ACCESS teachers and staff members.  ACCESS program is an opportunity for students to find the resources that will help them to become college students and will help them to choose the classes that will prepare them.

Summary Post C4K #7, 8, 9 and 10

Geeking XC tryouts was a post that I thought was very interesting for Mr. McClung to have in his blog.  Geeking XC tryouts is a post that talked about cross country running and what students will be learning while in cross country camp. The blog that Mr.McClung has created is interesting and full of informative information for students, parents, and random viewers. During the time that I spent analyzing his blog I learned about websites that translated words to different languages. I thought that it was also fascinating to see the daily music song in his class blog. Mr. McClung helps his students to be more responsible for their work, which is seen clearly in his syllabus and the students work that is posted on the class blog. 

Mrs. Yollis blog is very captivating for learners of all ages. One of the tabs that Mrs. Yollis has on her blog is a post about California. In her post she talked about the highest mountain and California's driest locations. Learning about California was a great way to understand the life and experience that she has had living there. Mrs. Yollis expects excellence form her students and from people who leave comments on her class blog. Mrs. Yollis has been the first teacher that I have left a comment for who understand that to make a student achieve excellence you have to tell them even when it may be a little embarrassing.  While I was scrolling through her class blog I found many interesting concepts and facts that would help me to be a better student and future educator.

Year 6L (Week in review with Mr. Lowe) was a unique class blog that put many interests towards history and historic events that have happened. The post that was interesting to me was the definition of WTO and the UN organizations. The review was a topic that this class has reviewed and studied. The students were reviewing the roles of these two organizations and how it is of interest to their life.  The second part of this weekly review is that the students learned about the Carrol Diagram and the Venn Diagram. The students seems to have learned many things about the government and how it works through a continuous process.

Grace is a student blog that expressed the things that she likes to do in terms of school, play, and home.  Grace decided to bake some cookies and she used a cookbook for instructions on how to make this delicious sweet. With her mothers help, Grace was able to go to the store and buy ingredients, such as sugar and eggs. In my opinion, children who cook is another method of teaching and it helps the students to be more disciplined, patient, and it teaches them how to read instructions. With cooking Grace has to use a measuring cup, cooking utensils, and she has to know how to use a timing method. Grace is another example of a student who is achieving excellence by using a blog.

Blog Post # 12

Instructions for Blog Post #12:  Read the Post Which one is "Write" by Leila Viss. Also Read the comments that have been left for this post. In one or two paragraphs comment on Leila Viss post in your blog and explain if you thought Leila post was interesting or was it complicated to understand, even if you have never studied music. 




Which one is "Write" by Leila Viss:


In this post I was able to find other ways to compose music instead of just using Finale, which is much more expensive.  I like how Leila explained that musicians should not always have to look at the printed scores of other composers and not express their ideas of what they feel on the inside. Leila has found two programs that would help students to become better composers and to help them compose professional scores. The first program that she introduced in her blog is MuseScore and here is the Link for a tour of the program for people who are new to the program and for those who are not musicians.  There are many reasons for why I like this program, it is free, and it helps me to mix and match different instruments to make wonderful sounds.


The second program that was introduced in her blog is Noteflight.  Noteflight is a web-based program and is not a download-able file.  With this program you can copy and share your finished compositions via email and you can embed into your website for viewers to listen to. This is the Link for this program if you want to learn more about the program and the other features that it is capable of doing.  I really like how this piano teacher is finding new and innovative ways to help composers with their musical compositions and studies.

Project #15

I am doing the "Giving Back" project and it will be posted at a later time.

Teach Someone Project #14

C4K #7 Special Assignment

1. One of the ways that reflects Mr. McClung through his blog, is that he makes things interesting to look at and he says in his blog he likes his students to be in a fun environment. The way that he has constructed his blog is to create something interesting where students will want to know what song his has posted for the week or what blog post that reflects to what they are likely to encounter.

2. I think that Mr. McClung as an educator is doing something that many teachers think is redundant to their teaching. That something is making sure that students are enjoying their learning experience in his classroom.

3. I think that Mr.McClung is an open-minded teacher when it comes to his class rules. One of his rules included that he expects his students to talk in his class, and his students will be doing a lot of that during the classroom period. Many of the teachers today do not let students speak and discuss things that are happening in the classroom, therefore students get punished for talking and to avoid this teachers should have a discussion hour.

4. The first thing that was listed in his syllabus that each student needs is a day planner. Since the students will be doing many different projects and different assignments that are given to different individual's, a day planner will help them to be organized with schoolwork and will help with their school time limits.

5. His late work policy is not to harsh, but it makes students pay the ultimate price for not being responsible high school students. Dr. Strange grading policy is a little different even though Mr. McClung took a letter grade off for each late assignment, Dr. Strange's grading policy includes if that person is late on an assignment they have already blew that chance for having an A in his class. Well I just think that when you are college students things should be a little more harder than it is for a high school student.

6. I also would like a blog that is another way of saying a newsletter to parents, teachers, and students. This will help everyone to know more about what their kids are learning and what have been a great success to them as students. I like how Mr. McClung's blog is a resource based blog where students, parents,and teachers can find valuable information.

7. The two useful links that I reviewed were Discovery Educator Network and Translation Website.  With the Discovery Educator Network teachers, parents and students are able find resources for projects that would be helpful in many ways. On this site you can find resources like summer activities, worksheets to go, lesson plans for different grade levels, and also contests where students can win prizes. The translation website is a great tool to learn the basic words for different languages like go in Spanish is translated to the word ir. You are also able to hear someone say the word so that you will know how to pronounce it.  This program is able to translate words for many different languages.
   
    I think that these two links made Mr. McClungs list because these are some of the tools that are used in his classroom.  These sites helps teachers in a great way, and it helps students to be more creative when it comes to learning something new. 

8. Under Mr. McClung's internet safety I think that many of the rules are good, especially when you have students doing assignments and posting their latest projects and special assignments.  It seems like the rules are a great way to keep students on a steady path of enriching their education and not diminishing their learning experience. I think that I will use many of Mr. McClung's rules to help me engage my classroom and to enforce rules that should be obeyed.

9. The post that I commented on was under that category Cross Country. I found some very interesting things, the cross country category was all about sports.  In the cross country category I found dates where people can participate in this event.  There was also a survey for those who experienced the cross country activities and it includes questions like "the best part of the cross country was." This part of the site included the winners of different cross country events at the school. One of the posts that I reviewed was summer workouts. In the summer workouts the students run in a variety of places, like their neighborhood, track, and steep hills.  The students that he coach go early in the morning to run, so that they would not get dehydrated and faint.

10. One of the things that caught my eye that would be interesting to include in my blog is the chat box that he has.  That is so interesting to me because I will be able to answer questions from students and whomever views my page. The second thing that I would like to have in my blog is the song of the week feature. I am a music lover and adding something on my blog that I enjoy doing and listening to would be a tremendous way to show who I am as a person and what I like.

11. He makes his blog so much easier to navigate around and you can find things that are important to different individuals. For this assignment I would have not been able to find all the different things that were assigned to me if Mr. McClung did not have a blog that categorized different things like the work that some of his students has done is under the Student Work tab.

12. The blogs that I have commented on before can not compare to the blog of Mr. McClung. Mr McClung's eighth grade blog helps not just students to find resourceful information, but he has links that would help parents and others to learn a little more. The other blogs that I viewed only had links for the things that they were discussing that day, but Mr. McClung goes in depth with his blog and show more things that are interesting to his viewers.  Mr. McClung's eighth grade blog does not look like an actual kids blog.  Most of the blogs that I had reviewed had the entire sight focused on just kids, but Mr. McClung puts a focus on all of his viewers and he posts things that would be helpful to any of his viewers.

Blog Post #11

First Grader's in Ms. Cassidy's Class

      Ms. Cassidy used many different ways for her first grade class students learning experience.  These students were able to learn about the different technological tools that are available and they are using it to interact with other students and know and understand when they are in need of more instruction.  The approach that Ms. Cassidy used for technology was very astounding.  The students are able to use the class web page to check and see what are the next assignments and what they need to work on more.  I think that this approach allows kids to learn responsibility before they reach adult stage.  There were just so many approaches to educating the kids, she used wiki, skype, Nintendo DS, blogging, and twitter.

     The technique that I might use in my classroom will be blogging.  I think that the students not only learned to blog and post assignments, but this increased their writing skills.  On each of the kids blogs the students became better and better each time they posted something on their blog.  Blogging helps the students to intellectually think quicker and to become much better learners.  Not only are they learning, but the teacher is learning also from the kids ideas.  It was so great that these first graders could check their blogs for comments and they are able to post things that are pertaining to their schoolwork within the classroom.

     The benefits of Ms. Cassidy's approaches are greatly influenced through technological skills.  The kids in her classroom will be ahead of many of the schools that do not use technology at all for any of the students assignments, and when I say ahead they will know more than most first graders would know about technology and the different tools that were introduced to them.  The Nintendo DS is a great way for kids to compete against each other through a gaming system and it helps students to get better in their school work. Games like Brain Quest helps kids to be more knowledgeable about math and reading problems, and they will be able to have higher test scores.  By using Ms. Cassidy's approaches I think that my students will be able to learn responsibility, learn how to share, and also learn how to think on a greater scale of learning.

Blog Post #10

Open Letter To Educators by Morgan Bayda

In Morgan Bayda's blog post she covered many areas of the educational arena that would help many future teachers and teachers who want to be a good educator.  Morgan included a video in her blog by Dan Brown and he explained how he dropped out of school because he was not being educated at all.  Morgan discussed many things that college students of today are facing.  She talked about how professors have long lectures and they are just throwing facts to students, but the students are not learning and most of the time the lectures are so uninteresting and students tend to fall asleep.  In the video that she posted on her blog Dan Brown explained how he bought text books that he never used and in this case many college students have experienced this.  It is not that the students do not want to learn by using their textbooks, but the internet has more information than a textbook would or you can say that a textbook is a limited source and students can go online and get the information for free.

Many of things that Morgan has gone through in college has been some of my experiences as a college student also.  It is great to know that students are discussing their college experiences with other students so that they would know that their is a better way to cope with this frustration.  Their are many professors who should try these new methods that Morgan has talked about and they should change their schooling to educating the students in the institutions.  Students should not be so overwhelmed by the lectures until their bodies are exhausted from the rambling of the professor and the clicking that professors do when they use PowerPoint slides, I think that it is not educating teaching, but burp teaching.


Tom Johnson: Don't Let Them Take The Pencils Home

Even though, as I begin reading the post I did not fully understand what this post really meant. It took some thinking and analyzing to get it. I realized that this post is actually talking about solving a problem and what many teachers do when a problem occurs amongst their students test scores. In this instance, the post was referring to students test scores and the problem was that students who took their pencils home had lower test scores. The point of this blog was to explain how teachers focus on the problem instead of trying to figure out some kind of solution to stop the problem.

Summary Post C4T Teacher #3

Ms. Angela Rand was the teacher that was assigned to me for the last two comments for teacher assignments. Ms. Rand calls her blog "My Mind Gap", and she talks about the cognitive thinking and the conceptual processing of the human brain.  Ms. Angela is currently taking a research class that requires cognitive thinking, cognition, and reading. She uses an iPhone app called SimpleMind and it is a mind mapping program and she can export mind maps to this program to help her to understand the concepts of cognitive learning.

Ms. Angela also uses tools like twitter, and she discovered #PhdChat where she can read a theory and other things that would be helpful to her major.  She found that the information discovered has provided her with some descriptions of information coding like alphabets and learning that may have something to do with learning.  Now she is researching to figure out if systematic encoding of a particular students writing reveal indications of learning.