Final Post #15 (Video Reflection)

Progress Report on Final Project #16

     For my final project me and my group decided to do a project based on an interview that would inform people about different technological tools that we used in our EDM 310 class and also technological tools that we use everyday. I think that we did a great job on this particular project we used analysis and cognitive thinking to make this video. One of the first things that was helpful for this project is that we was able to make a script and then we elaborated things that would be helpful to our viewers. At first we were a little unsure of what would be a good video, but we wanted our viewers to learn also. So, we put our thoughts on paper and picked the best topics for our project that would have an overview on all the things that we were trying to accomplish.

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.

Blog Post #9

What I've Learned This Year by Mr. McClung

Mr. McClung is a tremendously down-to-earth person who shares his experiences as a teacher with others. Sharing his experience about his first year of teaching and what new teachers can expect and to not expect was so helpful to me. Mr. McClung explained in his post that teachers are not going to be perfect with each lesson and sometimes the lesson will not go well, but as a teacher we have to deal with it and know that there are other ways to improve their lectures. In other words, a teacher need to learn how to be a flexible teacher who creates new and better ways to explain a lecture.

One of the things that Mr. McClung talked about was that teachers should not be afraid of technology. As Mr. McClung stated, some adults feel that technology is something that is taking over the world, but technology is a tool that is more like a friendly neighbor who lends a helping hand. Even though, technology is a continuously growing tool that never stops evolving, it creates many new functions for the creativity of a teachers lesson.

One of the most important things that I feel is very crucial to whether a teacher exceeds in the classrooms or not is to listen to their students and what they are saying. Even if it is rambling things, I think listening to a student talk about different things helps that student to get an understanding that you as a teacher cares about them, and you want them to exceed and most of the time that student will respond in a positive way.

C4K Summary 4-6 (March)

I was assigned to comment on three blogs that were blogs by kids. The kids blogs that I commented on was Crusader, Damien, and Grace. Crusader is a very outgoing young boy and in his blog he talked about how excited he was to get a new Netbook for school. Crusader said that this Netbook would be a tremendous help with his studies at school and he is so grateful. The second kid's blog that I commented on was Damien. This particular blog post was about volcanoes and it was very interesting and was filled with many instructive facts. One of the main points that I remembered about his volcano post was that the Roman god of fire was called Vulcan. The third kid's blog that I commented on was Grace, and she talked about Blocky and Talky. Blocky was the person who built things and talky was the person who talked a lot. In her post she called the two persons blockhead and talkhead, which I thought was very interesting and funny.

Skype Interview Project # 12

Project #13 Summary and Analysis

The responses that I have received so far have been very interesting and overall good. The form that I made was a quiz that was given to the students after they have viewed the lecture from my Smart-board Project presentation. The summary of my responses were ninety-four percent correct. The lecture was mostly based on the basic concepts of music theory. The students seemed to understand the concepts once my group finished our lecture and they were very enthusiastic about learning something that was new, which included pictures of stave's, various notes, and a keyboard.  My lecture was aimed towards students who are in middle school are in the freshman or sophomore years of high-school.

What did I learn from this? Teaching a student takes planning, time, and creativity. If a teacher wants to be successful, he/she needs to think about what type of lecture should be given to their particular age group. I learned that explaining the concepts of what you are talking about, and showing the students the facts visually can be combined to make effective learning students. Some students can learn by what they hear, and others can learn by what they see, so as a teacher I should be willing to make these adjustments at anytime. Another thing that I learned is to be patient, if a student asks me a question during my lecture, I should thoroughly explain the concepts to that student in a way that the second time that it is explained that student will understand the concept well.

Blog Post #8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2

The video that I watched described the different ways that will help people and students to research and find results of different things on their own. Without even leaving your house students can research and find academic facts about Virginia Tech like Richard Miller did.  With multimedia tools we can now do print documents, visual documents, and sound documents. The different things that can be done with your computer is compelling. Richard Miller talked about how recordings can be done by using ITunes U and students can follow professors that are giving academic lectures. With multimedia you can find what city is the happiest city in the world, when Richard said this, my jaw dropped.

I think that I am somewhat prepared to write with multimedia. Since I am familiar with the basic skills of making something creative on the web, I think that this digital material will enhance the quality of my school work that is based on multimedia. When I begin teaching I will like to teach my students the basic concepts of doing things that are with multimedia. Even though, most students who I will teach may not know anything about multimedia, I think that I am responsible for giving them the insights of how it should be used and what they can do with it.

Composing with this digital material helps people to be more creative in their work. This digital material makes compositions beautiful and much more compelling. I think that this tool is a great innovative tool to help students to become better educators and to share what they have created or have learned with others. I think that people should not just have a desktop or laptop that sits and they do nothing with it. With a computer people can do more than what their minds may not even think that could be possible to do.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies

I really enjoyed these two projects, they were very interesting to watch and had a very positive outlook for students who will take EDM310 and for current students in this type of class. I would like for my video to be about students not giving up so fast. I have many friends who have felt that the work load in many classes is just to much and they just stop coming to class and say that they don't care about their grades anyways. Sometimes students will say things like I don't need any of this stuff that these teachers are talking about, but they don't understand that in their future lives all of these things that the teachers are discussing will be dominating in the classrooms. There are many students who think that learning should be quick and easy, but learning sometimes takes time and practice until you get the concept. As a musician if I say that I want to play an instrument, but I don't want to learn. Well, a church or group is looking for a musician and they tell you to play amazing grace, whether you are playing by ear or notes you have to learn and you have to practice, there is no other way out of this. Students should be more of a role model so that others can see their accomplishments as they continue their journey in life.

The two videos that were presented for this lesson was a great example of why staying in college is important and how EDM for dummies can relieve the stress that students may face in their EDM310 class. As in the video chipper, the young lady thought that the teacher is suppose to teach in a way that she does not have to learn. Life is all about learning, and taking things and analyzing it. When you were a baby you had the courage to learn how to walk. That is just what we suppose to continue doing throughout life is to learn and to never stop learning.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

I think that many of the arguments stated in this video describes things that could help students to become smarter and to help teacher to become better educators. Schooling to me should be connected through the communities, because this is where the kids come from. I agree that if teachers are provided with the tools to make great things happen and they are taught how to effectively use it than the students will be able to succeed. Schools are now looking for ways to build a school society that develops brave children and genius learners. Schooling should be about children understanding the concepts, working in groups or teams, being around other cultures, and using their artistic abilities.

The Secret Powers of Time by Philip Zambardo and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by David Pink

The Secret Powers of Time is a great example of what is happening in schools today. As in the video it stated that a child drops out of school every nine seconds, which in my eyes is a disaster and this needs to be changed. In the video boys tend to be the ones who are most likely to drop out of school than girls, and their time is mostly used on videos games and other leisure stuff. So, for a boy to be productive in a classroom he needs something where he can be continuously active. One of the key things that I learned from this video is that children minds have been digitally rewired and the traditional schooling will not work. This message will help teachers to understand and to develop newer concepts in their classrooms. If teachers of today can start doing these things, I think that they will be more successful as an educator and as a person.

The experiments that were done seemed that it could be something that could be used in the classrooms. As people say, the better the award the better the student will perform. Well, that did not go well in this video, the more rudimentary the award, the students performed poorly. When students had to do more and the work began to get more complicated the work was done poorly. They have found that people who are willing to do things instead of receiving big pay and they do it for free do great things and sometimes the things that they do are incredible. This purpose motive helps them to be more innovative and to be better at what they are doing. These things are done to make the world a better place. I think that these ideas and facts can make educators to become better in their work ethics, and will help people to be more successful even when they may not understand it.

Project #13 Smartboard presentation

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

This video was very interesting because it was talking about Randy's Childhood dreams. You may think that listening to someone talk about their childhood dreams is not worth to even listen to, but if you really think about it, childhood dreams can be a motivation to students who have always had a dream to become someone popular and they thought that they never could. I am going to discuss three of Randy's childhood dreams that has made him to become the person that he is today. In those childhood dreams their were people to correct him at times, which made him to become a hard worker.

The first childhood dream that Randy talked about was "Zero Gravity". Well, you can somewhat assume that it has something to do with space or a prototype of a space shuttle. Randy always wanted to float, not necessarily going into space to the moon. When he got older he was able to form a group and float in a space shuttle called "vomit comet". This particular dream came true because he kept believing in the things that he wanted to achieve.

Randy's second childhood dream was to be in the NFL, which is very typical for boys. Even though, he did not go to the NFL he went to the little league. While in the little league he had a coach who was really hard to deal with. Randy said that a guy was at his practice one day and said that coach is being really hard on you, Randy replied and said, "Yes". That guy told Randy when coach stops being hard on you when you have screwed up, then he has stopped caring about you. This particular saying should be a lifelong lesson to all teachers who really care about their students and they want them to excel. Randy said even though he did not go to the NFL he learned a valuable lesson.

The third childhood dream that Randy discussed in his video is to become an author of an encyclopedia.  Being an author to him would make him feel that he was on top of the world. This is a dream that many people think about, but they do not believe. Randy got a little older, but he never stopped dreaming the dream, and one day he was able to publish his first encyclopedia that was actually a virtual book. Randy went beyond his child dreams to accomplish the things that he has today. Dreaming the dream and believing is the key to achieving the dream.

C4T #2 Summary Post

The teacher that I was assigned to was Dianne Krause. Her blog was very helpful in many ways, especially when she found new and innovative ways to teach subjects and new ways for students to do their homework.  The first post that I commented on was about students using Evernote. Before reading her post I had never heard of Evernote, not even for my college English classes. Evernote is the ultimate research tool for students who are in classes that require research and the usage of writing research papers. In Evernote students are able to spend less time on researching and more time on writing their papers. Evernote users are able to type in key words for their research papers and evernote finds all the best quality sources and sites that would fullfill the requirements of what they are researching.

The second post that I commented on was about Digital Discoveries. Dianne Krause found websites and games that would help students and teachers to learn more and to have more fun while doing their work. One of her Digital Discoveries was the music games. Games like Classics for Kids helps younger children to begin naming notes while keeping a steady rhythmic beat. Another game that was mentioned in her post was MyBytes music mixer, this game has students to begin their lessons by composing a five track composition, which can include different instruments like Bass, Drums, or a Keyboard. Skype usage in the classroom was another digital tool that was discussed in Dianne's blog. She explained how students and teachers are able to interact with other students and teachers that are from another country and they can ask questions and talk to each other.

Project #10 Personal Learning Network (PLN)

When I first heard about a PLN, I did not get the full understanding of what it was. Now that I know, I have had a wonderful experience with my progress in developing a good PLN.  Even though I am still learning more and more about the Personal Learning Network it is easy to understand, especially if you are someone who has heard about it, but did not know what it was.  A PLN is a very helpful tool for teachers and students who want to make their teaching career more successful and more organized. PLN's helps you to be a better organizer and it helps you to find things on projects that can be saved in personal folders. The things that I found that I could do with a PLN is incredible. Having my Twitter, Facebook, and Skype accounts organized in such a way that it is much easier for me to access and I am able to embed websites into folders that I can personally name. You can have all the top websites right in front of you like one of your favorite news highlights. You can store all of your favorite encyclopedias, books, and music in folders that you can access at anytime. Having a PLN is a great tool that will help teachers to continue their journey into the future.

Project #11

Blog Post #6

Networked Student by Wendy Drexler

The networked student in this particular video is majoring in American Psychology. He uses his knowledge to find sites that would be valuable while he is still grasping the information about the real facts of American Psychology. Wendy Drexler explained in this video that the networked students will not be effective learners without the connections that makes all of this possible. This student is apart of the 21st century high school, and is using the internet and other ways to connect and find facts.

Google Scholars is one of the important gateways for this student to find scholarly articles that would support his lesson topics. This student is also apart of the social bookmarking site, which helps him to search for blogs that would disagree are agree with any particular argument and where he can post new informative ideas that he has found.  He also found that his mp3 player is much more than a music box, but it enables him to use iTunes U to find actual professors giving scholarly lessons at Yale University. He also uses wikispaces to create story boards and other things that would help him to enhance his experience as an American Psychology major.

One of the questions on this video that was very debatable, asked why does he need a teacher to network? Well, he needs a teacher for guidance, to learn how to communicate properly, to learn to differentiate good information from propaganda, and to maintain the continuation of networking to navigate properly. Teacher should always be the navigator and should always help you to learn about new tools.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

Compared to the PLN's that we should be working on for class, I think that I am on the right track. The 7th grader PLE was very interesting, I like how she had her school work and important info in folders at the top and at the bottom she organized all of her accounts like Facebook and Twitter. Even though these technological tools are very efficient and less time consuming, she said that is easily to get off focus. I was very fascinated about how she was able to find different ways to access things that pertained to her project. For those who are not as technologically literate, she even explained how she could ask a scientist a question and they can reply back, and she could also use Skpe to talk to the scientists over the web. Since I already knew that you could do this, I will try and use my PLN very effectively with added modifications that were not mentioned in her video.

Critiques of Smartboards 

Michael Staton, Why Smartboards are a Dumb Initiative

Michael thinks that smartboards are a dumb initiative because administrators to him are buying these tools to point at and count. Michael Staton says that using smartboards does not give kids the correct environment to actually learn something.  To him it is a dumb investment because it does not reduce the teachers work load, it does not enable social networking and it does not make the lesson plan efficient. Michael Staton is trying to say that if it can not help in theses areas of learning than it is a waste of his time.

Bill Ferriter, Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards

Bill says that Whiteboards are just sitting up in the classrooms for decoration. Bill said that this gizmo did not help his teaching curriculum to be any easier than it already was, to him the computer was much more helpful than the whiteboard. Even with a teacher who has taken out the time to learn and who have had training, Bill says that it is just an irresponsible purchase.  When companies say that whiteboards are the bridge to technology, to him they are saying it is just a replica of the traditional instructional practices.

http://medt3401.blogspot.com/2010/04/smart-board-smart-idea.html

C4K summary post

Jordan L, was the first student blog that I commented on and his blog title was "My Opinion". He stated that him and other fourth graders were having trouble with the third graders during lunch time. For lunch, instead of the fourth graders going to the cafeteria they have to eat at their desks. Jordan thinks that it is unfair because the fifth and third graders makes the most noises and gets in trouble the most, but the cafeteria employees blames the fourth graders for everything that happens.

Aimee S, was the second student blog that I commented on and her title was about riddles. Aimee in my opinion thinks about the riddles a lot before she post them on her blog. The riddles made a lot of since and some of the riddles were very fascinating to read. Understanding the concepts of a riddle and what it means is very crucial and tells whether it is fascinating or if it does not make any since.

Zach B's, was the third student blog that I commented on and his title was "My New Airsoft Gun".  Now I really don't know if this gun is real or fake, but he seemed very excited about his new gun.  He explained and said that it shoots straight line shots, and is great for entering and winning the airsoft war. 

Project #9b

Blog Post #5

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better

Reading all the different applications, podcasts, and study guides informed me of all the things that I can do with my iPod. I know now that this apple device that I invested in can help me with almost everything that pertains to college work. It is so wonderful that people who are not English speakers can take ESL classes on their iPod. One of the Applications that is very useful for a college student is the iGadget application. In the iGadget application I am able to make presentations, study guides, and class notes. The PodGourmet 2.0 application seemed to be overwhelmingly flabbergasting because a person is able to make a gourmet meal and teach themselves to be a master chef. The Apple iPod is a great investment and I encourage my fellow students and colleagues to get one of these magnificent digital tools.

Judy Scharf Podcast Selection

I learned a lot from this reading because it discussed almost everything that pertains to podcasts. As a person who has used podcasts for musical reasoning's, I like how the suggestions for podcast projects could be on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I learned that the term podcast cross between the meanings of iPod and broadcast. The podcast is a great way to broadcast something that is important to you to where millions of people can get it and listen to. This is a tool that I will need when I begin my student teaching, and it will help the students to show other people the things that they have accomplished in school. I also like how Mrs. Scharf made up a grading sheet and a podcast rubric, which a a great guideline to what I should look forward to when I begin to teach.

Practical Principles with Melinda Miller and Scott Elias

In this particular reading about the principals of using podcasts I learned more about syndication and Feedburner. In the principals discussed in the postings by Melinda and Scott, they reviewed some of the things that were discussed in my C4T blogs, for example, evernote is the tool that is great for writing research papers. So what Melinda and Scott has done is that they use the different applications and tools for podcasts and their show.  Then they discuss different issues of what technical problems they had and how people can benefit from these valuable tools. They also posted links on their website so that people are able to view and understand the significance of technology. I was also able to learn how to create my PD plan, which will help me with my teaching skills.

Blog Post #4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?  

I think that Dr. McLeod discussed some very important issues that face the kids of today's society. Kids are very vulnerable to get on the internet and look at websites that are not for their appropriate age group. I know that children can get in trouble by using the internet and other technological resources, but if the adults block those websites or use the tools that are available then kids will be much safer when using these technological tools.  Everything that was stated in Dr. McLeod blog is what is actually happening to today's kids.

So who is Dr. McLeod?  Dr. McLeod is an associate professor in the Educational Administration program at the Iowa State University, he is currently located in Ames, Iowa. Dr. McLeod is also the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (Castle).


The iShcool Initiative


I think that this video may be the future of what schools could become in today's society. Using the iSchool to help students with their school work and to bring the school budget costs down can help the students, teachers, parents and go green companies. If each student can approximately save six hundred dollars than I think this would be a plan that can turn the downfalls of the school systems budget to where teachers will be assured to keep a job in the educational field.

Since I have an itouch I would agree with this high school senior that the iSchool will be worth the students money. Students will not have to by expensive books, graphing calculators, or paper anymore. I think that this invention will not only help students to save money, but it will help them to be more interested in doing their school work. Even when I use my email I am much more interested in doing my work then writing my teacher a note on a piece of plain paper. 

The Lost Generation


I agree with what the video was stating, because I do refuse to say that I am apart of a lost generation.  To me a lost generation is where people do not care about the importance of life and everything should be a quick fix. Even though, things may seem that way in today's society but we can reverse it by doing what is most important for us as teachers and the students of the future. Teachers may not be doing there best to teach students the importance of learning, but all of this can change. If the people of today's society reinforce the true facts that will drive this generation into the right direction, then we will not become that lost generation.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

Being a musician who has actually performed this exact piece last year is actually exciting. Listening to this performance was very interesting, especially when a choir that has 185 members that has never rehearsed in a group. In Eric Whitacre's 'Lux Aurumque', the technical things in this piece makes the piece sound so beautiful. With each of the choir parts contrasting against each other, the virtual choir makes it sound much more easier to sing, then the actual work that has to be put into this piece to make such a wonderful glorious sound.

Virtual choirs to me is very debatable because even when each individual is working on their own parts there can still be a few uneven pitches that can be out of tune in virtual choirs, to where the audience does not hear it. Knowing this piece so well there were a few moments where the dynamic quality was not as intriguing as it would be in a regular performing choir. It seemed as if the dynamic quality of soft was rapidly shifting from different sections to loud where there is actually soft written in the music.

Teaching in the 21st Century


I think that the suggestions expressed in this video can help teachers to be more aware of what students already know and what they need to learn. Students already have the knowledge of using Google, Wikipedia and other popular internet sites. But the question for teachers is, are we teaching technology in a way that is resourceful to the students that we teach? It does not matter if your are a teacher who teaches skills, subjects or content, knowing and learning the resourcefulness of technology can be absolutely critical to a students daily learning experience in your classroom.

I think that to teach in the 21st century means using the latest technological tools in a way that you are reproducing students abilities to access resources in the correct way. Using daily questions is a perfect example of what students and teachers use these technological tools for. For instance, you type into Google, what is the nearest gas station? This is an example of what students of today already know how to do, but they need someone to teach them how to use Taxonomy's Law correctly.

Project #6 This is My Sentence

C4T#1

The teacher that I was assigned to was Ms. Jenny She. The first post that I commented on was about teachers not giving up on students. I think that all students should be able to get a second chance no matter how bad they are. This post was so touching because the example used was a starfish that was given a second chance to live and not die. The child said that saving one starfish can make a difference. To me saving one child from being left behind makes a big difference. It should not be about me, but it should be about the students, and making sure that they are excelling in their school subjects.

The second post that I commented on was about Ms. Jenny She's cultural activities that was used to help her students interact with the world. These students not only interacted, but they learned about a different culture. Cultural activities should be apart of every schools teaching plan. These students had fun playing the roles of another culture that was diverse from their own. Learning should be done in different ways and I think that Ms. She did a great job of helping her students to interact with the world.

Blog Post #3

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

Some of the interesting facts in this video reflects to a portion of my college experience. I buy textbooks that I have never used during the entire semester. I think that it is just a waste to even use books in classrooms that are not useful for book users. When the video stated that technology is a turning point for the better of educating students in the classrooms, it is somewhat a question that can not be answered. If students say that they are using facebook while in the classroom, then what are they learning, I say nothing. It is very true that the costs of these computerized machines exceeds some of the job salaries. There are many of my classmates who have payed for a class and they never attend, which usually results in a failing grade.

As I watched this video some of the statements were not related to my college experience. Most people say that the average college student makes less than a dollar per day, but in my case I have a job that pays more than a dollar.  If I have my computer with me in class, I am not the type of person to get on my facebook page while the teacher is lecturing. College is important to me and learning is my main goal to succeed in my field. Students have to learn to choose between what is best for them when it comes to learning.

"It's Not About The Technology" by Kelly Hines

Ms. Kelly Hines has some very good points about teachers not getting the concept of teaching students to where they can learn. Kelly is trying to say that technology will not create an easy way for students to learn without being taught. As she stated in her writing, most teachers think that if they have gone over the material a hundred times and the students do not understand, than it is the students problem, but according to Ms. Hines it is the teachers problem.

Ms. Hines also stated in her writing that many teachers misuse technology. They think that technology can teach the students, but teachers can only teach students. Their were many valuable points for why teachers who are not innovative does not do innovative things with their students. Ms. Kelly also said that teachers must be learners. We as teachers must be up to date on the latest of innovative technology and should be willing to learn something new every day.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count


I was flabbergasted as the media counts for the different social networks changed so quickly.  Their were so many things happening at one time that I could not keep up with the numbers. This is an important example of how fast the world is changing. Every second someone has sent an email or has sent a tweet to another person. As a teacher this is telling me the things that I should know before I start teaching and what I should expect from students. Even though people are using technology at a substantial rate, students in schools are being forced to be on lock down when it comes to the classroom. I am not saying that their is something totally wrong with not having some type of technology, but their are some students who will use their digital smartness for unwise things.

Project #5

Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know 3.0?

I think that watching this video helped me to know what the world is becoming. Using technology to perform everyday skills will make life much easier. As in the video the number of people using technology grows each day. There is so much technology being created every year that it is hard to keep up. One moment you are using a computer, the next month an Ipad has been invented.
Seeing that technology is evolving into different ways is kind of scary, but it is helpful in many ways. Computers that will be smarter than the human brain is a very powerful tool and can sometimes be used for other informal reasons. As the world becomes more technological literate more people will be dependent on these computerized devices.

Mr. Winkle Wakes 

As Mr. Winkle walked around the city he saw that everything has changed. Mr. Winkle did not like this change and wanted everything to be like it was a hundred years ago. He saw business people talking to each other through the computers. Everywhere he turned their was some type of technology machine. People were sending fax papers from distant countries to their employees. People were kept alive by machines in the hospitals, but one place that was not technology literate was the nearby school.
I think that this shows how today's students are lacking the education needed to know about technology. Each classroom should have computers so that students can do their homework and socialize with other students across the world. Technology should be the basis of the classrooms for today's society. This video explains how schools are still lacking to provide the proper tools, so that kids want be so bored in the classrooms.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

When children are being creative we should not tell them that they are doing it wrong. As in the video a student was drawing God, but the teacher said that no one knows how God looks. When a teacher tells a student to not be imaginative and creative by using their ideas they are actually keeping many children from excelling.
Just like the girl who always moved all the time and could not stay still the teachers underestimated her ability to learn. Most teachers would say that children who move are ADD, but these students are smart and use movement to think quickly. Underestimating students abilities to learn can cause mental damage because they will always think that they are to slow to learn and are disruptive to the classroom.

Cecelia Gault (Young Student in Finland) Interviews Sir Ken Robinson

I think that Cecelia Gault discussed a lot of things that are pertaining to the schools and the students themselves. Some of the things that Cecelia interviewed Sir Ken Robinson about, were the three methods that he talks about in his book. His first method was that everyone is creative and he feels that no one lacks the knowledge of being creative. The second method was that people can be creative about certain things like design or advertising. His third method was that if a person is not creative they can be taught to become a creative person.
When Sir Ken Robinson talked about technology being more prominent in today's society, children should be able to perform those technological abilities that they have while they are in school also. Using technology for the basis of student learning can also improve their intellectual understanding of wanting to be more curious about what certain applications can do. Another topic that was stressed in this interview was that Sir Ken Robinson considered intelligence to be diverse, intelligence is a word that has many definitions and is very arguable. While diverse has been stated, subjects like science and art should be balanced in the child's every day life. Balancing different subjects helps children to be quick thinkers and they can be smart in every subject.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

I really like how Vicki Davis is using technology to connect her students to the world. She teaches her students the fundamental basics of using gaming programs to create characters and those characters move around. The students are taught to do blog posts and enhance their use on famous networks like twitter. As these students understand technology these students' are harnessing their digital smarts. These students are constantly learning and they are learning at a faster pace.
One important thing that Vicki talked about was that most teachers think that if they do not know everything about using technology than they can  not teach it. Vicki said that she is not totally the smartest geek person on computers and sometimes her students' show her different ways to use technological applications. What Vicki is trying to say is that there is nothing wrong with not knowing everything about technology and their is nothing wrong with learning form your students.

Blog Post 1

I am a person who has lived in Mobile, Al for 20 years and was born here. The major that I have interests in is Music Education. I attended USA because I felt that I would get a good education and I would learn the important things about being a professional teacher. Being a musician for many years has inspired me to teach other youth the importance of music. As a pianist I have tended to grasp interests in strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments.

I chose Music Education as my major because it is a field that challenges your inner person when practicing and performing. Teaching students to learn and to understand music is a key concept as they grow up to become adults and enter the world of professional musicianship.

Playing the piano is something that I have loved doing since I was five years old. By the time I entered the tenth grade I won the spot as a professional pianist for the GNOYO Philharmonic Orchestra. When I obtain my B.M. degree I would like to go to graduate school and be a professional teacher and teach piano and other instruments that I have learned.

Practice Post

My first post.