Blog Post #14

Teacher Knows if You Have Done the E Reading



Texas A&M has several professors using e-readers. These special text books allow the professors to see when the text book is open, when notes are taken, and when things are highlighted. This is the students "engagement index." Things can be noticed by professors like if a student making good grades only opens their book once before the test. This could show a student needs to improve studying habits instead of cramming. A "c" student can be given their index and realize their priorities may need to be different. These books are called CourseSmart. They also provide information for book companies and help them make new editions. There is also a downfall to this system. A student could easily just leave there book open or game their highlighting to raise there scores. Also, a student with good grades may have a low index only because they take notes on paper.

As a teacher I am amazed at this new technology. If I didn't have too, I would not tell my class I could see their index. I could get a general sense of how my class was. I would use this information ONLY to their advantage to help them if I could offer some study advice. I think their could be inaccurate results if I used this information for anything else!

If this applied to me now, I think I would feel more accountable for my study actions. I would just make sure I took notes in the text book for it to show up. The only thing I could see being a problem is how easy it would be to cheat. I am not a perfect student, so if I thought my index would be low I might would leave open my book. I feel though that I am in college so my study habits shouldn't be my teachers concern.

Questions to a Teacher
1. Do you use the engagement index in any type of grading?
2. Does the engagement index affect how you view your students?
3. Have you found any problems?

Questions for Students
1. Is your engagement index accurate for your study habits?
2. What is the downfall to the system?
3. Has this type of learning been helpful?

I would leave a comment on this blog thanking them for the information on this topic. I have never learned about it and I feel like it was very educating. I liked seeing the pros and cons on this topic.

Final Project #16

PLN

PLN Final Report

My PLN, or personal learning network has become one of my favorite things I can take away from this claass! I use Symbaloo,
to organize everything in my PLN. In this semester I have added, deleted, and kept several things in my symbaloo. I have found things I think I will use as a teacher, as well as others I had no interest in. I really like TeacherTube and Edublogs. I don't think I would have found those on my own. On my PLN I also have a section for my own personal social websites. I am not a very organized person and Symbaloo has made it very easy for me!

Last C4T

C4T #1

The first blog I read this month was by Mrs. Kathleen Morris. It was titled, Benefits of Blogging by Linda Yollis and Class. It was about how both of these teachers started there class of blogging at the same time and the journey and benefits of it. I left a comment to her about the school I was from and how I was in edm310. I told her how that topic had went along perfectly with what we were taught in this class. This video can help me tremendously when I have a class of my own one day!


C4T #2
The second post I read was also by Kathleen Morris. I have loved reading and looking on her blog! Tjis blog was titled, Student Blogs: Digital Portfolios. She discusses how she used to make students earn a blog in the classroom. This way did work for her. She has now changed it where they set them up at the beginning of the year. This develops a community in the classroom and helps parents learn along the way as well. I commented and said how I liked the ways she started of slower with blogging and making them earn it! It was her first try at blogging with a class too, so it was a learning experience for her too as well. I feel that will be a great technique for me as well.

Progress Report on Final Project

Me and my partner, Rachel McGuff, have worked very hard and planned a lot in advance on our final project. We used Skype to connect with each other. We also communicated through e-mail, Facebook, and twitter. We met in advance to plan our final project twice before recording our movie. We each took equal and fair parts in our final project.

Blog post #13

Back To The Future
I love seeing videos like this one of Mr. Crosby. They inspire me to be a great teacher. It also want me to put out the extra effort to make my students be able to learn in such advance ways. It is up to the teacher to provide these ways and want the best for my students! How much effort put in the video alone shows how dedicated he is! His students used all kinds of technology from blogs to Skype! The students skyped children from other places and could see how to do projects. I think kids teaching kids iss a great idea. They listen to each other better and they have to know what there talking about to teach it! I hope to research on Mr. Crosby more!




Blended Learning Cycle


Mr. Paul Anderson is a high school AP biology teacher in Bozeman, Montana. He describes the teaching style in his classroom as blended learning. This is when teachers use online material, mobile, and the classroom all together as one learning technique. The cycle he uses in his science class is engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. He also uses the acronym QUIVERS. This stands for Questions, Investigation/Inquiry, Video, Elaboration, Review, Summary quiz. He says that since he videos his lessons, he has more time to answer students questions.

I love seeing a teacher like this! I hope to one day be this inspiring and will do whatever it takes for my students to truly learn. I love this technique. I was first introduced to flipping a classroom earlier in the semester, and have become a major fan. I think this method is going beyond just teaching and actually letting the students learn.

Project #15 SMARTboard instructions part 2

Blog Post #12

Dan Meyer


My area of specialty is math, so that is what I created an assignment about!

I think math can be one of the most important subjects, but some students just can't understand why! The phrase, "This will never help me outside of this class," always comes up. I am very passionate about math and would hate my students to think this. Dan Meyer also strongly feels this way. He presents math lessons in real life scenarios to make them, "irrestible." Watch Dan Meyer on Real-World Math. Write an 1-2 paragraphs of how you can use his advice in your own classroom. You could apply this to any subjects. Also, feel free to research on him; he has MANY great videos.

Dan Meyers is obviously such a passionate teacher. I hope to be like this one day. Some things I learned in his video, were simply to put in the extra effort in teaching and maybe the students can put in the extra effort to learn! Dan Meyers has been a math teacher and that is also what I want to be! His first example was about shooting the ball into the net. He took videos of himself, and played them with different shot angles. I think this made it personal and more interesting for the students. I want to do things like this in my future classroom! He also recorded himself on an elevator, and made a problem out of it! He is definitely an inspiration!

C4K March

The first students blog I read was Celicia. She was in the 5th grade. Her blog post was about the first amendment and how her life would be very different without it. She said she was happy the have rights like freedom of religion, speech, press, and etc. In my comment I left I told her I also think we are lucky and it's great she is appreciative. I told her how great her blog is and to keep up the good work!

The next post I read called Life 101, was written by a girl named Zouria. Her teacher set up a simulation game of life. They had a gross salary of 3,000 dollars and drew a number of kids they had. Taxes and things like that were also taken out of their money. In my comment I mentioned how good Zouria's writing was. I also asked her how the game ended for her and encouraged her to keep up the great work!

The next post I read was by a student named Studamyer. He wrote about driving with his mom and a possum went in the middle of the rode and she moved it over. I think this might have been a writing prompt. Is it rude to ask that? My comment said how well his writing style and choice of words was! I also encouraged him to keep up the good work!

Tristen K. wrote the last post I read. She answered the question, "What do you think you as a student gain from blogging with students and others outside of the school? Is it worth the time? Why/why not?" She thinks it is worth it and fun. She also thinks it will help her in the future and talk to people she hasn't met. I told her to keep up the great work and that I agreed with her!

C4T #3

Jennys Learning Journey

This month I have read posts from Jenny She. The first post I read of hers went along perfectly with what we have talked about in EDM 310. Her class was chosen to experiment with iPads. She used the iPads in several ways. She used them for educational activities in downtime, ways for positive reinforcement, and for teaching tools. She used it for it to read to her class and they also traced letters on it. She thought they were super easy to use. She also asked for advice from anyone.

I asked her about the pros and cons she found while doing this experiment and thanked her for the article. One of the comments left on her blog made me appreciate iPads even more. One was from a boy who was older but, told about when he was younger he had a reading disability. His teacher had to read aloud to him. He said how much he appreciated the iPad to help student's like him!

Mrs. She didn't post any newer post so I went to the most recent I had not read. This was a very refreshing post with the moral, "The happiest people don’t have everything, they just make the best of everything." Her teacher once told her this! He took beautiful pictures of flowers with only his camera phone but that made him happy and he liked the pictures. Mrs. She also started taking pictures of flowers on her phone and posted some!

In my comment I thanked Mrs. She for this reminder. I could always complain about what I don't have, but what is the point? i just want to be happy and make the best of everything!

Blog Post #11

Mrs. Cassidy and Her Classroom

I am so inspired by Mrs. Cassidy and her classroom! You can tell she enjoys what she is doing and she truly teaches to her full potential. The kids in her classroom seem to be using every technology possibly available. They use blogs, Wikis, SMARTboards, etc. They seem to know how to use these tools and apply them to their lessons. I feel like these children know how to use these tools even way more than I would. I also noticed using these things also helps with grammar and communication skills. These kids have inspired me to do extremely well in this class so I will be able to tech my future students how to learn to use all of this technology.

I love Mrs. Cassidy's approach. She fully believes that children should learn technology as soon as possible. I have to admit before this class and some the things I have seen, I thought learning all this about technology was stupid. I fully believe like Mrs. Cassidy that children should learn about technology soon and how to apply it because this is the world we live in today. I also love the fact that with using blogs it is not only the teacher viewing their work but many others. She also thinks it is a great way to communicate with parents. I completely agree we can't teach our children the way we did 5 years ago!

I do see a few problems with technology. I think some students might abuse it. There are ways to play distracting games and use social media and I would not want this to effect their learning. I also see a problem with myself and technology. There is an endless amount to learn and teach and I want ti provide my students with the most current information. I am going to try to learn as much as I can and the most currents to help my students succeed!