Project 13

   My EDM 310 group designed a lesson using the Project Based Learning format.  We decided to teach a third grade class about natural disasters.  In order to teach the students about natural disasters, we created a project that engaged the students in the learning process through individual and group research as well explained the real world application of their activity.  The project has the students use technology in order to describe a specific natural disaster, explain the cause and warning signs of the disaster, then create and demonstrate a safety plan.  Here is our lesson plan, calendar,checklist, and two rubrics (group project and individual assessment) describing the project and how the students will be graded.

C4K Summary for September

C4K Summary for September

    I had the opportunity to read three great elementary student's blog this month. The three I read were from Nathaniel, Morgan and Noah in that order. Nathaniel wrote his blog on President Barrack Obama visiting Stonehenge. I was impressed how he used his punctuation marks. He used a direct quote and exclamation points. I think not many people use enough exclamation points. It really helps make the blog interesting. Megan wrote about her birthday weekend. She was excited about staying up late and texting her friends. Megan's blog was the shortest of the three. The last one I read for the month of September was Noah's blog. Noah was given the task of "What would he change about his school?" Noah explained how he wished the school was more flexible. I think Noah did a great job of giving supporting evidence for his opinion. It was really cool to connect to other people around the world through blogging. I enjoyed it and look forward to next month's C4K comments. 

Project 8 Book Trailer

Blog Assignment #6

What did I learn from these conversations with Anthony Capps?

   Teaching is hard. You have to be a learner. This thought really stood out to me. I think most people's initial thought is as a teacher you are not learning anymore. Anthony discusses how you have to be learning the different programs. Programs can only be used if you can teach them to your students. So, you have to be able to learn how to use these programs. Technology is there more importantly to help your students and not the teacher. Icurio is an excellent program that is a search engine. A search engine that only shows you information that is factual and can be used in a education setting. I did not know a program like this existed. Icurio also has a storage capacity. The storage capacity is will help promote organization. Organization is a key for getting anything accomplished. I'm glad I learned about this program because it will make sources for projects easier to find. The video of Icurio is a great watch for any body that does not know about it. 

  

  

   Technology is every where. I know every body knows that. I learned from Anthony that technology is natural. It should not be taught. He does not set aside days to teach technology. Instead, slowly present the technology to your students. They will learn by just using the technology given to them. Have you ever watched a four year old use a smart phone? They can get to the apps. They want to use. Point being technology is so natural it is like learning to walk. Practice with new technology will lead to knowing that technology. The flexibility of teachers is something you expect a teacher to need but Anthony gives you a clear definition of it. I thought the example used in the video, "Strange Tips for Teachers Part 1," is shows you exactly what is flexibility and more. Flexibility is being able to teach when surprises occur. They will occur so be ready. I took away that if I have my four things that is most important for teachers prepared then it should help me with my flexibility and surprises. The four things are year, unit, weekly, and daily. It should be organized with what you want to teach on a yearly basis to the exact unit and so on and so forth. 

  

 The most important thing I took away from the Anthony conversations is learning has to be fun. The students need it to be fun. I have in the past hated group projects because I never saw the meaning of them. I saw a whole different world when I watched, "Project Based Learning Part I." Group projects is a great way to make learning fun. They are not easy. You have to make sure each project is content driven. The content has to be interesting to you and the students. Group projects is a great tool. The students get to learn the best way. The best way being by themselves. The project has to be in the situation that they are creating something by learning how to create it. Discovery Ed is an awesome program. It gives the students a visual. Discovery Ed will give you an illustration and background information. I loved history. I found out I like it more on the history channel. I think that was mostly because it gave me a visual of history. If you want to learn more on Discovery Ed, I provided a link to it, "Discovery Ed." 

  

  I learned so much in each video. It was hard to decide the key points to me. I would like to know other people's key points. Every person thinks differently and might have a different perspective on the video's. I know all of which I learned will benefit when It is my turn to take the reigns of a classroom. 

My Sentence Videos

My Passion

My Sentence

Blog Assignment #5

What are Personal Learning Networks?

Personal Learning Networks is a set of people and tools you call upon as a teacher to help you grow and deal with problems as teacher. The tools can be twitter or any other social media outlet.

How can they help you as a teacher?

A teacher is like any other career you need help from people. Teacher is a trial and error job. You have to learn by experience to deal with situations that you are not accustomed too. You have been taught how to deal with situations in college, but they are many situations in which you you are not prepared for. Your PLN will help you overcome this situations. They do not have to be teachers because sometimes the best advice come from unpredictable sources. The tools such as twitter can help you stay connected to the people. Twitter or Facebook will help you deliver information fast.

How are they formed?

PLN is formed by the person who developing their own PLN. The PLN is formed by people you respect and listen too. It can also be college student or teachers that you have connected with during your college career.They are just peers who you value their opinions on subjects. They have to be highly valued because you are dealing with your career. You will pick your number of people. It can be a large number or small. I think the smaller is better because if it is large many opinions can make your decision harder. Do you feel like the bigger the number, the better PLN will be?

How can you create your own PLN? You create your own PLN by deciding who is in your PLN. I would add three to five people to my PLN. I would go ahead and tell them that they are my PLN. It will help the members to know why I keep asking their opinion on my career decisions. PLN is very easy to create because everyone has peer or should have peers or tools that will help you. The tools of twitter handles or phone numbers need to be exchanged so information can flow fast.

What will be the first additions to your PLN? My first additions to my PLN would be my mother and my friend Grant. My mother has taught school for twenty five years. I think she would be really good addition to my PLN. My other addition Grant is also becoming a school teacher. Both his parents taught school for over 30 years. Grant has always gave me straight advice. I think these two addition would help me almost instantly.

Summary of Developing My PLN

My PLN is quickly coming together. I have two members already in my PLN. The two are my mother and my friend Grant. I will be adding three more people. I am adding a teacher that taught me in high school. He is Marty Hanks. He is currently the principal at my former high school. He has been in the classroom situation and in the office situations. I will also be adding my friend Matthew Rowell. I respect his opinion very much. We always have the same look on things but we arrive there differently. I believe this will help me very much so and he has no teaching experience. He can speak as the best outside source of information. I will also add another teacher that influenced me a lot. Angelia Harrison who was my junior college math teacher. She brings the college voice to situations. All of these people will help me in my PLN. I will be always looking for ways to improve my PLN. I need more college students in my PLN. I will be looking to make some more connections.

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Assignment #4

Asking questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

I have never thought about how this topic before. I read the "Right Way to Ask Questions," by Ben Johnson. The main points I took away from the article was the open ended questions and how kids get left behind in class. I have been a student for seventeen years. The article made me think about the teachers I have taken. The teachers that asked questions that provoke thought and those that asked simple yes and no questions. I was never one to ask questions in school because I thought the questions did not pertain to me. I think the open ended question are good but they have to be asked to pertain to the whole class. The article showed me the importance because the students will become lost. I though of myself getting lost in high school when I thought the question did not pertain to me. The question needs to make at least over half of the class provoke real thought about something.

I now have found out the importance of the teacher being prepared to ask the class questions. I watched the youtube video, "Questioning Styles and Strategies." I wanted to see the different styles techniques. The video was really interesting for me. I watched the teacher use all of the different style and techniques to get the whole class participating. I think the one style called "random name calling," can be the most effective. It keeps all of the students listening in the class room. They have to pay attention in case they are called on. The kids listening for their names make them listen to the question very intently. They start thinking of their answer immediately.It causes thought provoking every time and deep answers because most kids are competitive.

I found out that teachers need to be prepared to ask questions. Anything said in the classroom is important. Every word is used to teach. The teacher's question is as important as the book and the presentation. The student's have to think about the subject in order to learn. You learn things because you think about the things being taught to you. The teacher has no plan for the questions than he or she loses the students. The technology has now become a distraction to every student. The teacher is now battling that as well as the attention span of their students. The questions that are being asked by the teacher has never been this important. Once the students become disinterested with you they become disinterested in the subject also. Questions are the answer to thoughts.

Work Cited

1. Question style and straties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uKqs3D0Z0M

2. Johnson, Ben. The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom

Project #15 Search Engines

Search Engines Review

Ixquick search engine is supposed to be the most private engine. It provides people with privacy on their search. It also will help block you from cookies. I ran four searches on different things. The only question is how private is the search engine. It advertises that it is the most private. I think there is not really a good way to tell. I think you would have to run this search engine for months to see how the privacy works.

About is an index search engine. The search engine provides expert's advice. I searched for some top restaurants in Mobile. The results came back very great. It gave you a few web sites where they offer you their top ten places to eat in Mobile. I think ask is a very helpful search engine. The expert's on the side gives you comfort. It is almost like having a guarantee.

Bing is becoming one of the most popular search engines. It is the search engine used for the new xbox systems. Bing provides you with quick and effective search based on your history and your social media history. I found Bing very useful because most of the time when you search for something you have to scroll because the search provider does not know what exactly you were asking. The social media aspect also helps because every one in the world uses social media now.

Excite was one of the most popular search engines in the 1990's. It is still feeling the affect of a company called, "Google." Excite was an ok search engine. I searched for south alabama university on one of the practice searches. The results came back for Phoenix University. I would not use this search engine. It should have ended in the 90's.

Lycos.com is one of the oldest search engines. It advertises accurate information. Lycos is a really great search engine. I ran some practice searches and found it the accuracy to be true. It also when I got to the site it had Mobile's weather dead center. Lycos is still a great search engine. The only negative to Lycos is only having four links to a page pop up on your search. I think it might be Lycos trying to show off it's accuracy too much.

Yahoo search engine is the cousin of google. It advertises to have the most relevant information for you. I have used yahoo search for the relevant information before for paper's. I found it a better news provider than google. Yahoo too me is like an iPhone to an Android. Yahoo being close to google. Google is just made by Apple. Yahoo can try to keep the race close. Yahoo relevant news and searches with less advertisement is why I would use their search engine again.

Mywebsearch.com is a search engine powered by google. It will bring you to their site because of the less advertisement and the quick links on the home page. I found it to be very efficient. It just felt like Google with another website. I did not care for this site too much. I feel if I wanted to use google I would have went to Google. I do not really understand how this search engine can stay alive because it is Google in another wrapper.

The last search engine I reviewed was Info Space. Info Space has been around since 1996. It offers one of the fastest keyword searches on the internet. I searched for "roll tide." The results were fast and effective. It brought up two Alabama web sites. It was helpful. I just think it could have been better if I had a link to the history of roll tide. Info Space has been around for a while and will continue too because of the keyword searches.

After reviewing the search engines, I have come to the conclusion that everyone is fighting for seconds. Google is the best most effective search engine ever. I know my project was to review eight search engines not using google. It was tough not to compare everything to Google. I used Google to find my eight search engines. The search engine is no longer a race for the best. Google is just waiting for everyone to finish the race.

Teacher Comments Summary #1

Teacher Comments Summary #1

I was assigned Dr. Fryer's blog. Dr. Fryer teaches at STEM school in Oklahoma. He teaches the fourth and fifth grade at the school. STEM stand for the following: science, technology, engineering, and math. Dr.Fryer is very much up to date with the new technology.

The first post I read was about the mini maker fair coming to Manhattan, Kansas. The fair is the technology version of the DIY channel. It features small companies selling products such as robots, 3D printers, and many other things. It is a great way to learn new things about technology. It also will teach you creativity. The second post I read was about Dr. Fryer's fourth and fifth grade popsicle catapult project. Students were given four days to complete it. Two days for creating the catapult design. The other two days for testing. The end of the four days the students will have a competition to see who has created the best catapult. After reading the two posts Dr. Fryer stresses creativity and imagination. The two are integral part of discovering and learning.

Blog Assignment#3

How Can You Provide Meaning Feedback to Your Peers?

I think I can provide meaningful feedback to my peers by being positive. I am a very positive person. I think I can help my peers by just encouragement. I feel when you go to college you do not get much encouragement. College can make you feel alone. You feel as if you only have yourself. The classmates are my peers. We are on the same team. Peer editing is meant to improve your team. Negativity will only bring down your team. I think encouragement will also bring unity to my peers because we are all in it together. Everyone needs improvement but no one needs negativity.

The video "What is peer editing?", offers great idea on how to comment on your fellow peer's blog posts. I loved the word peers because if you have a peer. The peer is on your team. You have to stay positive when working with your team. I know I have grammatical errors or sentences that does not sound right. It is hard to put your thoughts from your head in words.Peer Edit with Perfect Tutorial slideshow really helps you improve your peer editing by showing you the steps. It is a good way for me to improve my peer editing because I know I have never had to read other peer's work. Peer editing is brand new to me.

The video "Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes," was really great. It was a fun way to show how not to act when peer editing. The video was fun to watch. The slide show was great because it gave you instructions but this video actually showed you how you sound when you edit someone's post. It is a fine line between being mean and helpful. I hope will not sound like a "Picky Paty!"