C4T #4

For this C4T assignment I was given the chance to read David Wees' blog. He writes about mathematics in schools and for children. I find all of his posts very interesting.

The first post of his that I read is titled "Why Teach Math?". This instantly caught my attention. In this post he asked why schools taught math to every student, even though many would not need this skill.

My comment was: This is a very interesting post. I have always wanted to know why I had to learn math. I am currently studying Elementary Education and have absolutely no use for algebra or calculus. This is a very interesting way of answering that question. Having math taught in schools so that students could gain a different understanding of the world seems probable. The one point that I can see as extremely important in math is problem-solving skills. This is always helpful and is found in every grade level's math class. A third advantage to students learning math that you did not mention is simply for them to be well-rounded individuals. I'm not sure this is a real reason, but it was something my school always stressed. This was a very interesting blog post and helped me to be able to finally think of an answer to that question.

The second post of his that I read is titled "Learning About Shape". This was a very interesting post. He describes how his 20 month old son is learning to match shapes in a puzzle. He explains how his son went from guessing to looking at each shape to match it to the correct hole.

My comment was: This is extremely interesting. I have seen many children play with this type of puzzle and only seem to be able to match certain shapes, but then not understand at all to recognize a circle or square somewhere else, like your son. Your last comment is extremely interesting. You said, "It makes me wonder what concepts my students may not have fully developed, even by the time they arrived to me in high school." This is very troubling and true. I personally know that I could not always use information from one area in a different area, even though it is the exact same concept. As an elementary education major I find this fascinating and worrisome because many students, especially young children, would seem to have this problem.

Blog Post #14--What was left out?

Blog Post: Are traditional projects still functional and compatible in the 21st century? Can you transform one of you're old projects?

Create a quality blog post explaining a typical day in YOUR old elementary school classroom (K5-6th). You can describe a typical day with something you learned or a project you enjoyed. Then create a Google Presentation where you recreate this lesson plan/project using a 21st century technology tool to enhance the lesson/project. DO NOT BAD-MOUTH OR PUT DOWN A TEACHER!!!!

4th Grade Science Project--The Digestive System

In fourth grade we were studying the human body in science. My teacher, Ms. Spenser, created an amazing project! We made digestive system t-shirts. This became a huge project for us. We drew our digestive system on the t-shirt and got to have a "party" in class that Friday; this day was called "Inside-Out Day. We all wore our t-shirts and we each brought some excellent, and healthy, food. While we ate, Ms. Spenser told us how the food we ate affected our digestive systems. For many of my classmates and I this was the first nutrition lesson we had and the first time we really began to understand how our bodies worked. I can still remember this lesson today and keep her nutritional information in mind.

4th Grade Science Project--The Digestive System

Project #12 Part B

Blog Post #13--What Can We Learn from the TED Talks?

Video #2 Turning Trash into Toys for Learning By:Arvind Gupta By:Alyssa Sherman

In Arvind Gupta's talk he shows different toys that children can make themselves for very little or no cost. Many of these toys are based on a scientific priciple, such as a motor or a whistle made from a straw. These toys can be used in a classroom as tool to teach with while keeping students interested and active. The main thing that any teacher or soon-to-be-teacher can learn from this talk is that while it is important for students to be active participants in the learning process, this does not mean that classrooms must use the latest technology. Many schools are not able to afford computers or tablets for that classrooms and the students often don't have access to these devices at home. This is when it becomes important for teachers to get creative and use the resources they have available, such as straws, paper clips, batteries, and newspapers. Arvind Gupta proves in his demonstration that computers are not neccessary to teach and engage students, but rather for teachers and adults to be creative and show children what can be done with the simplest things.

One of the most striking statements that Arvind Gupta said was how "the best thing a child can do to the toy is to break it." This is interesting because most people would think the opposite, especially if resources are scarce. What good is a broken toy?Many people use the phrase "you learn more from failure than you do from success". The same applies when children create toys. They can better learn how it works and the science behind their invention by breaking it apart and testing different situations. In the video Gupta demonstrates how the sound changes in his straw whistle when you cut off the end. This would never have been discovered if not for testing it and "breaking" the original toy. Children are naturally curious so it makes sense that they would want to try experimenting with their home-made toys.

http://explaining-science.co.uk/arvind-guptas-science-toys/

Video #5 A Girl Who Demanded a School By: Kakenya Ntaiya By:Raven Williams

There is a group of people in Kenya called the Maasai. Boys are meant to be warriors and the girls are meant to be mothers. Kakenya Ntaiya was engaged at five years old and was supposed to be married when she hit puberty. At the age of puberty, Maassai women participate in a ceremony that the community considers a rite of passage. Female circumcision is part of the ceremony. Kakenya realized that after the ceremony she could no longer peruse her dream of being a teacher because she would have to quit school. She made a deal with her father: She would undergo the traditional Maasai rite of passage of female circumcision if he would let her go to high school. Her father agreed to avoid shame from the community. After she finished high school she received a scholarship to Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia. After she arrived in America and began college she learned that the ceremony she went through involved genital mutilation and was illegal in Kenya. When she returned to Kenya she decided she wanted to find a way to give back to her community. She built a school for girls because she wanted them to have a place to feel safe. Because of Kakenya Ntaiya, there are 125 girls that will never have to be mutilated or be married at the age of 12. At the end of the video Kakenya says " be the first: people will follow".

Video #6 Teach Arts and Sciences Together By: Haley Marrs

For this assignment I chose to watch #6 Mae Jemison: Teach arts and sciences together(2002). Mae is a very intelligent and inspirational woman. She begins her lecture by stating what she believes is most important. She says that we need revitalize the arts and sciences. She points out that what we do today will be vital in the future. In the future the world will be building on the basic knowledge and discoveries that we come up with today. Just like now, we are building off of ideas that are from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. We have to ask ourselves: What are we contributing to that legacy right now? Jemison says she is skeptical that we are doing much of anything. In a sense, we are failing to act in the future. We are purposely lagging behind. "Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill or betray it." - Frantz Fannon Our mission should be to reconcile science and the arts. We think of science and arts as two separate things, which probably dates back to centuries ago but it is critical now. We make decisions every day and if we don't bring them back together we may have problems in the future. Jemison claims some people say science and scientists are not creative. Some people may say artists are not analytical. When these concepts underly our teaching we have a problem. No one wants to be uncreative. No one wants to be illogical. Jemison also states that back in the 60's people had hope for the future. People had wonderful ideas. Many things that are cool today are based on those concepts. Jemison took certain objects with her when she went into space and when asked why her answer was simple. The items that she took represented human creativity. "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." - Albert Einstein

Video #7: Teaching One Child At A Time By:Kayla Szymanski

Shukla Bose presents a presentation about a foundation she started at her kitchen table called, "Educating Our Poor, more than just a number game." She went and visited some of India's slums and found tons of poverty stricken children who would never have the opportunity to attend school. This breaks my heart, I recently took a mission trip to the Honduran slums and this video reminds me of all the children I came in contact with. In the city I was staying in, the life span of a Honduran man was 50 years of age. As a teacher we will never know what are students are going through. Mrs. Shulka talks about how daily they would play with the children and be exhausted, but when they went home they would have the memory of each smiling face they came in contact with that day. She talks about millions of children who actually attend school but cannot do basic math, and have problems in other academic areas. But Shulka says they are not in the number game. She wants to focus on one child at a time, getting them into college and into a successful job. She taught 165 children in a roofless building, she also teaches their parents in an after schooling program. Mrs. Shukla has an amazing story and an awesome love for teaching, she is truly an inspiration. I admire her for so many reasons, one being that I have been there and saw how these children live day to day. Being a new teacher we need to keep in mind that all of our students will not be perfectly dressed, groomed, or even have a stable home. This is why we have to make sure and help each child individually, some children might need extra attention that others will not. Shulka states that children have to believe that change is possible. In a poverty stricken world she has given each of these children hope, hope in becoming more than their parents could ever imagine. This, in my opinion, is the definition of a true teacher.

C4K November Summary

Stacking Bottle Tops

Last week I read a post on Ms. George's class blog where two young girls made a bridge by stacking bottle tops. They posed the question of how many bottle caps were used. This is a great activity for the girls because it let them be creative and think about the best way to construct a model bridge.

My comment was:Hi, my name is Alyssa. I'm a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. This bridge is wonderful and a great use of bottle tops! I think you used at least 200 bottle tops. Keep us the fantastic work!!

Ghost Story

The week before I read the post of a young boy who told a ghost story. This was fantastic! This short story let him be creative in school while promoting writing. This was one of the best C4C posts I have seen all year. He really got into the short story and wrote very well for his grade level.

http://www.babble.com/celebrity/halloween-jokes-15-clean-jokes-you-can-share-with-the-kids/

Project #7--This is My Passion Video

Project #7--This is My Sentence Video

Blog Post #12--Collaborative Assignment

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson?

Changing Education Paradigms: By: Kayla Szymanski
Sir Robinson starts his video by describing several changes that are taking place in our public school systems across the globe. He talks about our economic future, and our cultural beings. Mr. Robinson simply states that people today are trying to meet their future needs by following in the footsteps of the past. Today in our society an educational degree will not guarantee a good career. In fact technology is becoming so rapid in our school systems, teachers will almost be obsolete in the future. Mr. Robinson also states how students diagnosed with ADHD are constantly distracted by their electronic devices. This makes you wonder, if we could channel our teaching strategies to match their technological lives maybe they wouldn't be so distracted? Bringing technology into the classroom is the best way to fill the gap between your teaching techniques, and the way they live their everyday life. Technology gets your students involved, they are no longer bored, and they arIn e always engaged. This video is a great inspiration to all starting out teachers, it will open you eyes and show you that the old ways of teaching are not acceptable anymore. Why would you teach in a outdated way, your only hindering your students ability to learn? Near the end of Mr. Robinson's lecture he says that the most great learning experiences come from group activities. This video basically is trying to portray that the school systems need to get away from standardization and go to divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the essential capacity for creativity and to see multiple answers, not just one. Instead of teaching memorization skills, teachers should try and enforce the importance of using your imagination and creativity in everyday life. This video will open your eyes to the problems of how student are being taught in our educational school systems today. The entire idea of EMD310 I think, is to stop this cookie cutter mold that society has put on teachers, and teaching methods.

How to Escape Education's Death Valley By: Raven Williams

How to Escape Education's Death Valley
By: Ken Robinson

In this video, Ken Robinson speaks about the problems with No Child Left Behind and the educational system in America. He says that No Child Left Behind is ironic because millions of children are being left behind. 60% of kids are dropping out of school in some parts of the country, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. He believes that education in America is going in the wrong direction. No Child Left Behind is based on conformity instead of diversity. He says that human beings are naturally diverse and that no two children are the same. NCLB focuses on standardized tests instead of focusing learning in all subjects. He believes that standardized tests are important, but they should not be the dominant part of education.

He also said that the role of a teacher is to facilitate learning. Education cannot be improved if you do not pick great people to teach and give them constant support for professional development. At the end of the video he compares the educational system to death valley. It is hot, dry, and nothing there will grow. Death valley received 7 inches of rain in the winter of 2004. The floor of the valley was covered in flowers in the spring. He concluded that death valley isn't dead, it is only dormant.

The Importance of Creativity By: Alyssa Sherman

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

In this video Sir Ken Robinson explains how modern education standards effects children's creativity. This video was very interesting and informative. Sir Robinson says that because the standards of education and intelligence are aimed at the typical "acedemic" subjects, such as math, science, language, and social sciences, children are steered away from any creativity or talents they may have in the arts. The lesson he tells listeners is that teachers should allow students to be creative and do what they are naturally talented in. A student who is a dancer should not be forced to sit still in class to study math and science. This is an extremely important lesson to learn as future teachers. Not every student will succeed by siting and listening to a lecture on science, or other acedemic class. Teachers must be ready and willing to encourage students to be creative and do what they feel is right. Sir Ken Robinson makes an excellent point that everyone involved in education should be aware of and follow.

Sir Ken Robinson - Bring on the learning revolution! By:Haley Marrs

There are two types of people in this world: People who enjoy what they do and endure it and people who love what they do and speak to their authentic selves.
Education keeps people from their natural talents. Talents must be searched for because they will not be lying on the surface. In education we need change. We need a revolution - it needs to be transformed into something else. Abraham Lincoln is quoted saying "We must rise with the occasion; not to it". I like this quote because he is saying we must be engaged. Ken points out that most teenagers don't wear watches because adults grew up in a time when if you needed something you wore it. Kids these days are growing up in a digitized world - the time is everywhere. Life is not linear it is organic. By linear, Ken means we are on a track that we follow and if we follow it correctly we end up set for the rest of our life. By organic, Ken means we create our lives symbiotically as we explore our talents in relation to circumstances they help to create for us. He says the pentacle for education is getting into college, although not everyone needs to go to college. The heart of the challenge is to reconstitute our sense of ability and of intelligence. He discusses the fact that parents are competitive and kindergardeners are being interviewed these days. It is a bit ridiculous that such young children have to compete for a place in kindergarten. Human talent is tremendously diverse. People are often good at things that they don't really care for. Passion is to love the things you are good at. Ken says that we need to understand that learning is an organic process. The outcome cannot be predicted.

C4T#4 Post #1

This week I read an extremely interesting blog by David Wees, titled "Why teach math". This was so interesting because as a student I never understood why I had to learn math. I am an Elementary Education major who wants to teach 1st-3rd grade. Why do I need to know algebra and calculus. David tries to answer this question in his blog. He gives several possible reasons why teaching math is important: showing students a different way to think, problem-solving skills, and to "see the beauty and elegance of mathematics". I agree with these reasons as possible answers.

In response to his post I commented:

This is a very interesting post. I have always wanted to know why I had to learn math. I am currently studying Elementary Education and have absolutly no use for algebra or calculus. This is a very interesting way of answering that question. Having math taught in schools so that students could gain a different understanding of the world seems probable. The one point that I can see as extremely important in math is problem-solving skills. This is always helpful and is found in every grade level's math class. A third advantage to students learning math that you did not mention is simply for them to be well-rounded individuals. I'm not sure this is a real reason, but it was something my school always stressed. This was a very interesting blog post and helped me to be able to finally think of an answer to that question.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this blog and finally have an answer to my question!

http://mathgames.4you4free.com/

Project #15-Project Based Learning Plan #3

C4T #3 Summary

This month I have read a lot of interesting blogs by teachers. Today, however I read the most interesting one.

Today I read Michael Kaechele's blog, Concrete Classroom. In his most recent post Reboot Buggy he shows how in today's society people are more likely to buy something than to make it themselves. He shows a video where he makes a care himself. This process makes it more important. I couldn't agree more that making something adds value and meaning.

I commented: "Hi. I’m a student at the University of South Alabama studying Elementary Education. This idea of things that are important to us were not just bought in the store. Like you stated, so many people just buy stuff, but never make anything. I cannot imagine building a car, but I can see how that would make it truly special. I hope to one day use this idea in my classroom. Many students will buy or have their parents buy them toys. I remember making silly putty in a science class and it was the best! This was because I made it myself. This idea you posted is really important!"

http://www.michaelkaechele.com/

C4K Summary for October

This month I have read and commented on various students' blogs. While the students, grade level, and subject matter are all different there is one striking similarity between them: none of the students are using proper grammar in their posts. While this is understandable in lower grades the question remains, are they really learning how to properly write? Many elementary teachers say that blogging helps students to learn to write and be creative. How can this be if the students aren't writing properly? I have not seen any comments from anyone, even the teacher, correcting spelling, punctuation, or grammar. I feel that these issues should be addressed so students can learn from their mistakes in order to properly write in the future.

While younger students will inevitably make mistakes, older students should have better writing. Today I read a post by a 7th grader. In his most recent post, he shared a picture he drew of his favorite book's cover. He also wrote a few sentences about it. Unfortunately, he did not capitalize the beginning of each sentence. This is fairly basic grammar that a 7th grader should understand.

While I feel like this is a major issue with his post, I did not want to comment on it. It is not a guest's place to correct grammar, but should he go on not realizing? This is a issue for me. You want to be polite when visiting someone else's page, but you should still be truthful and helpful.

http://www.wintertree-software.com/app/gramxp/

Project #12 Part A Smartboard Instruction

Blog Post #11

In Ms. Cassidy's video, Little Kids...Big Potential, the students show us viewers everything they have done in class. They use blogs, a class webpage, Wikis, videos, skype, and Nintendo DS. The students discussed what they used each tool for and how they liked them. When I begin teaching I will also like to try some of these tools. I will definitely use a class webpage. Ms. Cassidy's webpage has links to any helpful tools or educational games she would like her students to use. This is a great idea because it keeps all the safe and useful Internet sites in one place so that the young students do not get where they shouldn't be. After seeing this video I can see how tools such as blogs can be good. I was very hesitant to use blogs with young children due to safety concerns. Ms. Cassidy's skype interview with Dr. Strange helped with that concern. She says that she tells her students not to put any pictures of themselves or their last names online. While this aspect may be safe what about other people's comments? Would students end up in a situation where they were talking online with strangers? This still has be worried. Skype also seems like a very useful tool. I will try to use this in the future so that my students can speak to experts in whatever subject we're studying and other students so that they can learn together.

However, I am unsure about using some of these tools in a 2nd grade class. Her use of the Nintendo DS was very creative, but it doesn't seem to really teach anything. I played Nintendogs when I was younger and from what I remember there was absolutely no educational value. I'm sure the children learned how to work together and take care of a pet, but this same lesson can be achieved through group projects and a class goldfish. I feel like the students will focus more on playing the game and beating high goals or other groups than thinking about lessons learned. Ms. Cassidy also mentioned using Twitter and Facebook in her class. Again, my concern here is about safety. Anybody can get on these websites and see what the children are doing. The kids can also speak to anybody. A second concern here is that I know my parents would never have allowed me to have a Facebook or Twitter as a kid if they existed. I wasn't allowed on the Internet until 4th grade and I couldn't have a Facebook until 8th or 9th grade, and they had to be friends and watch. What if one of the student's parents felt this way and refused to allow their child to participate? Ms. Cassidy said that she sent home a letter at the beginning of the year, but what if they didn't like the idea?

These videos have shown me many different tools that can be used in a classroom that I never thought of. I will keep all these in mind while continuing my education and proceeding to my teaching career.

http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org/

Project #10 Interview Movie