Blog Assignment #15 (Final Reflection)

C4T#4

For the last C4T I was assigned Kim Cofino as my teachers blog this week. Her blog is called "always learning." The first post I commented on was about how her school was making a blended learning environment with the use of WordPress and Google Apps. WordPress is a blogging site and Google Apps are another way to keep everything organized as I have learned this semester in EDM310.
My comment: Hey Kim,
My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310 a class for future educators. I enjoyed reading this post. I have always loved using Google as a search engine but just this semester I have learned about its many other features. I love Google Docs! I have used them for many group projects and its a great tool when collaborating with others! I am excited to get out and use all these wonderful tools I'm learning about in my own classroom! I will be looking forward to reading more on your blog!

Then the second post I commented on was about how her school is trying to get an evaluation program set up to evaluate how their school is doing and what other people think they can do better! This post was great and they seem to be on a good journey and are very excited about it.
My comment: Hey Kim,
I am a student at the University of South Alabama and enrolled in EDM 310 a class for future teachers. I really enjoyed reading this blog post and thought it had a lot of important information. I think its great that so many people and big researchers have taken the time to help you in the process to start evaluating your schools programs. Evaluations are great since they not only tell you where you came from and how much you have achieved, but also what you want to do next or where you want your program to go.
Thanks for the great post!
Kimberly Lefferson

C4K Summary (November)

C4K #9
For this C4K I was assigned Mr. McClung's eighth grade world blog post 17 (October 17th). This post was a picture of a brainstorming assignment on the middle ages "that said it all." This picture said "Life in the Middle Ages sucked."
My comment: Mr.McClungs 8th Grade World,
My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310 a class for future teachers. I think this post is rather humorous. In brainstorming you have to get all of your thoughts out in the open. Good Job! Keep up the good work and I look forward to reading more on your blog!

C4K #10

This week I was assigned to Mrs. Yollis’ class blog. Oct #10. This post was about her class was learning a new type of word problem. It was a great post. One of her students explained the way to solve the problem. Mrs. Yollis class blog is very exciting. I looked at a lot of her posts. The kids look like they’re having a great time.
My comment:--- Mrs. Yollis and class,
My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310 a class for future teachers. I think it's a great idea to share word problems with others! Word problems are fun when you know how to solve them in many ways! You seem to be doing a great job in solving the word problems! Keep up the good work! I look forward to reading your class blog some more.
--Kimberly

C4K #11
For this C4K I was assigned Esrah’s blog from 4th 5Th grade PT England School Auckland, New Zealand. His post was a story about his experience at one of his schools Immersion assemblies. He stated that "an immersion assembly was where each team of teachers had an item they had to act out or do something with." Like he said "his favorite team was the team his mom was on, and they rapped about the planets."
My comment: Hi Esrah,
My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I attend the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310 a class for future teachers. I really enjoyed reading your story! I found it funny and interesting. I really could imagine being in the crowd watching this assembly going on when I was reading you post. Great job, keep up the good work!

I was surprised this week Esrah commented back to mine on his blog.
Esrah commented back to what I posted on his blog, on November 20, 2011.
Thank you for commenting on my blog.What is EDM310.Thank you for commenting on my blog.
please reply.

So I replied again.
Esrah,
EDM 310 is a college course, microcomputing systems. It is a class for students who want to be teachers in the future. We learn about different ways to integrate technology in the classroom among other things.

Final PLN report

My Personal Learning Network has gotten so much bigger than when we first started learning about what a PLN was. I have recently added to my Symbaloo the website that was given in blog post #14 Technology and Education| Box of Tricks. This website has so much to offer and has a great resources tab that could be great for future educators. This website also keeps you up to date on the new technology and things you can do in your classroom with it. That is among many other websites and blogs that I have added on my journey through EDM310. I think that PLN's are great and very useful!

Blog Post # 14

I would like to start by saying I have already added this site Box of Tricks to my symbaloo! I think it is a great resource not only in itself but it has so many doors to other resources. This website has so many great ideas, and great things for you to do in your classroom. The video was something that I think could help so many teachers with their material they are teaching. It would definitely give it a little life, more so than it has already. I really liked the idea of using iTunes because I know that it is used by so many people. I believe its a great idea to be interested in what type of music your students listen to and maybe surprise them with a song is power point if it is relevant sometime. I know that would have caught my attention in high school. Another great thing that was brought up in the video was using interactive activities. We have learned about interactive activities in EDM310 and EDU301 when dealing with the smart boards. I have enjoyed putting together different games for all the projects we have had to do. The one thing I really like seeing in the video was how Mr. Picardo talked about using what the students already have their "gadgets." I think that if we give the students opportunity to use their own gadgets then they would not be so focused on texting their friends but also about learning how to use they phones or media players for an educational use. I really enjoyed this blog assignment and like I said before I will be using this resource in the future if not only to keep me up to date on new technology but also different things to use in my classroom.

Blog Post #13

My Teacher is an App

For this blog post I chose option #2. Which is to read this article My Teacher Is an App. I really enjoyed this article. This article is about how schools are changing. Students of all ages have many options of where to receive their schooling from of course with their parents permission. This article describes the full-time online schools, integrated online classes within in school classes and then just the regular traditional full-time in school. These online schools offer classes for students starting in Kindergarten all the way up through their senior year of high school. This article describes many advantages and disadvantages to all three types of schooling. They talk about how each school's students do on their standardize tests. This article taught me many things I did not already know about these types of schools. I think that kids need to have the opportunity to make friends on their own and learn social skills. I agree with having high school students required to take online classes to introduce what they are like to them. I believe that if they do require students to take online classes in high school at least one they get an understanding of how they work and wouldn't get stressed out if when they go to college with some classes only offered as an online course. I also agree that to each its own and online schooling is what the child makes of it in the end.

Project #16 (FINAL PROJECT)

Missed Metaphor Special Assignment

I do not understand why I didn't get the metaphor. I kind of understood it wasn't really about "pencils", but I guess I didn't understand how to word what I was trying to say. So I'm glad to do this extra post about metaphors.
As educators I think we can review and teach more in depth about metaphors and make sure our students understand them. I think that when learning and teaching about metaphors we should use them very often. Not just teach them one week and then don't use them or talk about them. If they're used in a book or something and the students didn't notice or say I think that us as teachers should make sure to point it out to them.
I believe we use metaphors to make reading more enjoyable. Not only reading we use metaphors in daily life also. I think we use metaphors to make things more interesting.

Project #15 SmartBoard Instruction Part 2

Blog Post #12

For this blog post I want you to explore YouTube Teachers's Channel.
Watch this video You Tube Star Teacher Academy Interview w/ Enrique Legaspi(3:07)
Write a paragraph or two about how this can help teachers organize their lessons they are teaching and how YouTube can be integrated in the classroom and help the students.
I really think that this channel is very interesting and has a lot to offer us. This is another way to integrate technology in the classroom.

Part # 1 C4K #10 Mrs.Yollis' 3rd Grade Class

This week we were assigned to examine Mrs. Yollis' class blog. Mrs. Yollis has been teaching for twenty-five years. She is a 3rd grade teacher in Los Angeles, California. She has taught a variety of classes and has also taught fifth grade. I also found on her part of the blog Meet Mrs. Yollis that she is also a student. She just recently finished her masters degree in Integrating Technology in the Classroom. In Mrs. Yollis' class this year she has 22 students 11 girls and 11 boys.
The most recent post on Mrs. Yollis' class blog caught my eye. Skyping with Australia . This post is a great example of how to use Skype within the classroom. I think that was a great opportunity for both of the classes especially since it was the afternoon at one end and the other it was the morning of the next day! Another post that I enjoyed was the one I was assigned for this week C4K. This blog post was posted October 10, 2011. Bloggers submit word problems, This post was about Mrs. Yollis' class learning a new type of word problem and actually showing us how it is done. This post was interesting because it wasn't only Mrs. Yollis' class doing the word problems. Other classes from around the world were sending Mrs. Yollis' 3rd grade class word problems to solve.
Mrs. Yollis' class has had 2,746 visitors since the cluster map was put up in October of 2010. Our EDM cluster map tells us that we have had 48,860 visitors since January 2010!
I will definitely be looking forward to seeing more on Mrs. Yollis' class blog. I really find everything they do in her class very interesting and fun! I hope the school I teach at is this technologically inclined!

Project #12 Skype Interview

Progress Report on Final Project

For Project 16, my group is going to do a survival kit for EDM 310. It will explain a few things to help future students of EDM310. We have met quite a few times and are getting everything ready. We have some great ideas we just need to make sure we have all the specifics and we are excited about the survival kit!

Blog Post #11

Little Kids....Big Potential
This video was great! It really makes me excited that kids that young are starting off with all this technology. Like Ms. Cassidy said "Kids and technology go hand in hand". I believe that is so true considering we have 3 year olds that are playing games on their parents phones and all. I think this video is showing us a great way of how Ms. Cassidy uses technology in her class. She uses blogging and Skype and even has a great class webpage for her first graders.

Skype Interview with Ms. Cassidy
This Skype interview was great. Ms. Cassidy talked a lot about how technology has helped her in her classroom. I think technology is a great aspect to schooling to get kids interested in coming to school. Its a new way to do all of the things you did before in school. With technology kids don't have to write they normally type, but writing still should be taught. Web pages and blogs are great tools to use in the classroom also. I will definitely have a class blog when I become a teacher. I like how Ms. Cassidy has a web page with lots of different learning games and links to sites to help her kids out. I like that idea of them knowing what to do on that one site and it has all these different places it takes you, so I will have to remember a web page also to use in my classroom. I think Skype is a great learning tool. I think its great that Ms. Cassidy's class has used Skype with a class in Alabama and did skits or something through that. Its a great tool for the kids to see other children their own age and how they do things in their classrooms too.

C4K Summary (October)

C4K#5

I commented on room 3's wallwisher this week which is post #10. Their blog is Kids with a view and they're from New Zealand. Their wallwisher was all about questions to ask another class from Kentucky.
This is my comment: Hey room 3, my name is Kimberly Lefferson and I attend the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310 a class for future teachers. I like the wallwisher with all of the questions for Kentucky. You all have some great questions. Keep up the good work, learn as much as you can and have fun! I look forward to reading your new posts!

C4K#6

This week I was assigned to read Walker's blog. He is in period 6. His post is about why we had school on Columbus Day. He explained because Christopher Columbus wasn't the first person to discover America the Native Americans were.
Here is my comment: My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I am a student at the University of South Alabama, and am currently enrolled in EDM310 where I was assigned your blog. Walker, I really enjoyed reading this post. You are right to say you wouldn't make friends or people who were in a spot before you move just because you wanted it. I definitely wouldn’t do that either! Great job writing and I understand why I as well as you had school on the tenth! Keep up the good work!!

This class blog also had a name generator. The name that was picked for me was Dalton period 5. His post was about the human esophagus. He is really interested in Science and how the body works.
This is my comment: Dalton, my name is Kimberly Lefferson and I attend the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310 and I found your blog by the name generator. I like science and health as well. I think that the human body (as well as the esophagus) is really interesting! You seem really exited about the human body as well! Keep up the good work and keep up with what interests you the most!

C4K#7

This week I was assigned Anna's blog. All she had to say was that "she writes because she wan'ts to."
Here is my comment: Hey Ana, My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I am a student at the University of South Alabama and currently enrolled in EDM 310 a class for future teachers. It's great to hear you like to write and just because you want to. I hope you keep enjoying to write! Keep up the good work!

C4K#8

Stevenson's Blog Post
This week I was assigned to right on Post #17. This post was an animation of the Australian Outback by Stevenson. As the animation video went on he states some facts about the animals he has illustrated.
This is my comment:Stevenson,
I am a student at the University of South Alabama and currently enrolled in EDM310 a class for future teachers. I really liked how you created and animated The Australian Outback. It was very colorful and looked great! I also liked that you narrated it and added some fun sounds at the end. Good Job and keep up the great work!!

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

This video made me think about the meanings of teaching and educating. As the video showed us there are many different ways to define both terms. To teach is always described as you doing something to cause someone else to learn. To educate is like you being there for the student not only teaching them one subject but giving advise and guiding them along their journey letting them open their eyes to different views.
I really like the quote that was used in this video by Peter Brougham-- " Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave." -Peter Brougham.
This quote says that Education makes the person who they are, so if they have a someone who teaches them and not educates that makes the difference in who that student becomes and what they do with their life. I became an education major to make a difference in many lives whether it be the students I have in my class, their parents or others in the community. I want to be the reason they love school and they are excelling because they are engaged in the material and are understanding what they are doing.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home!

This is a great article and I am glad that we got to read this blog. I believe Mr. Johnson is right and more often than not teachers fight the problem rather that finding the solutions. Yes, a pencil can be used as entertainment but if teachers were keeping their students engaged with what they are teaching "pencils" wouldn't be the issue of low scores on standardized tests. I think teachers need to stop trying to control what goes on outside of their classrooms and worry about what could keep the students attention. If the teachers are worried about why their students aren't doing the homework assigned they might want to change that up as well and make sure it is keeping the students entertained and engaged in the material. Although, I think writing to a pen pal and playing Hangman is a way of learning also.

C4T#3

I was assigned iLearn Technology for my thrid C4T.

This is a great blog! This blog is about all different kinds of new technology or websites that you can incorporate into your lessons and use in your classroom. It’s a fun way for students to learn and a way for them to understand with interactive pictures and audio. This blog has great information and ideas of how to integrate these sites into the classroom.

Oddizzi

Oddizzi is a great tool to use in your class when talking about geography and places around the world. You can also use Oddizzi for teaching about different cultures. Students can see the physical features and global features of places all over the world and it will give them information about each place and if they want to know something specific. With this website there are also fun characters that help students through the site “Odd and Izzi.” I went and took a look at this site it was pretty cool and looks like it would be really interesting to kids. I believe that this site can help teachers teach geography and get kids interested in how things are in different countries. This site you have to pay for but they do have a free trial to test and check out to see if you like it and all. I think it would be worth the money to help the kids learn using a different tool!

My first comment left on iLearn Technology's blog.
My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I am a student at the University of South Alabama and currently enrolled in EDM 310. I have read your post and looked at Oddizzi's page also. Its a great site, and just the demo itself got me so interested. I am glad I got to read about this new technology. I believe this is a great way to help our students especially with geography. Im glad I have come upon your discovery. I will definitely pass this on as a great suggestion for teachers.

Draw A Stickman

This site is a great tool to use in Language Arts/English! It works with problem solving, story building, and following directions among other skills. This site is called Draw a Stickman. It is a cool website. I went and created a stickman and went through a whole story. It’s a good way to have kids list or find the parts of a story (the beginning, climax, ending)etc. It’s a great tool to get kids excited about writing/ creating a story. This site starts where you draw a stick figure and then goes through a few challenges and has you draw different things the stickman would need. It’s a great way to have kids work together and decide what they should do to help the stickman (problem solving).
I have bookmarked these different pages and I will have to remember to try and incorporate these tools into my lessons in the future as well as keep up with iLearn Technology’s blog!

My second comment left on iLeran Technology's blog.
My name is Kimberly Lefferson and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310. This site "Draw a Stickman" is very fun and inviting for kids. I went and did one myself. Its a great way to have the students problem solve and think about what they can do to help their stickman. This site is another great way to incorporate technology into the classroom. This would be a great tool to use in a Language Arts/ English class. I am glad that you found this site and shared it with everyone.

Blog Post # 9

What I've Learned This Year (2008-2009)

I have been inspired by what Mr. McClung has told us about his first year as a teacher. When thinking about teaching and getting into student teaching and such I think about how administrators and supervisors will think of me, but just like Mr. McClung said "its not all about you (as the teacher) its about the students and what they are comprehending." I also know that no lesson is perfect. Just remembering times in high school when teachers would be ready to move on to the next thing and we would have to spend more time on something maybe a little confusing the teachers would have to adjust their lessons to what us as students needed to work on more. Teachers definitely have to set high standards for their students. I believe this is a great teaching philosophy because this way the students know you believe in them and have faith that they can succeed with you helping them get there. I have learned so much in EDM 310 so far about all the new technology not only new things like computers, iPads, phones, but also about twitter and blogging lots else. Like making book trailers I feel that is a great thing to get kids excited about books. I believe just like we need to talk to friends and such, you students also like to talk to you. Students look up to teachers so much. Listening to your students mean so much to students also. I believe that there is no way to just stop learning. Without a doubt I learn something new everyday not just because I'm in school but in life in general.

What I've Learned This Year (2009-2010)

Adapting to anything is going to be work, but it seems like Mr. McClung has done a good job to adapt with moving to another school. It was a big change for him to go from teaching science a subject he knows well to teaching three subjects all in one year with two very new subjects he had never taught. It sounds like he did a great job of adapting. As I stated in the last post there is not a perfect lesson. We all as teachers will have to overcome the fact that some things just don't work out as planned and lessons are one of those things. It may not be every lesson but most of them. So we just need to learn to accept it and not stress about it. Manipulating the way and style you teach is a different aspect also that has to be worked on but once you get it and see that the students understand better it makes it all the work worth it. It is great advice that Mr. McClung gives us about "finding your school mom." It is great to find a 'mentor' that will be there when you need help and is there to guide you in learning all the things you need to know about your new school. I believe that teachers should not show or act like they are the best they can be. We are always learning something new and it shows our students that its okay to act like that. Students look up to teachers so much so that the way we act and show ourselves is the way they're going to think that's how I want to act or what I want to be like when I grow up. I think its a great idea to give students roles throughout the class. It does give them ownership and leadership qualities but it also gives them that respect of what your doing to help them learn and to be respectful. Being a "control freak" I believe gives off the vibe of let's act up and try and push the teachers buttons. Nothing ever goes perfect as planned. I haven't learned much about scope and sequence yet but since I have read this post and Mr. McClung said its important I will definitely be paying attention when this topic comes up as well as any other topic because our teachers are here to help us as well as we will be there to teach and guide our students. The topic of "not losing site of what's important" is a big deal. It is something that pushes me through school.

I had a friend that was talking about quitting school and I talked to her about it, and told her not to lose site of her goal to be a teacher. We talked about how she will influence so many kids and how they need great teachers to look up to. I told her that if she quit school that she wouldn't ever accomplish her goal to be a teacher and help influence and form any students. I believe that she is going to stick it out, and I am very proud because that is something for us all to think about when we are having a bad day or are just down. That if we finish and accomplish our goals to be teachers we will be influencing so many children and making sure that we teach them to the best of our abilities! As a student I am learning so much and am excited to get out and into my very own classroom. I am glad I read these posts about Mr. McClung's years of teaching it gives me hope and shows me it will all work out we just have to keep our heads high and do our best to give our students the best education.

Project # 13

Project # 11 Short Movie