Project #3 Presentation

Why Podcast? How do we do a podcast?

"1st Graders Create Their Own Read-Along Audiobook"

I really liked Langwitches' idea of having the first graders make their own audiobook of the Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs in the Dark. This is a fantastic way of making reading fun and personal. In addition, those students who may have trouble understanding a word are able to hear a classmate read it to him or her. There is also the availability of a dictionary on the computer. This allows for faster reading and better understanding.I really While reading Langwitches' post I did notice that small groups would work on this project with the teacher. What were the other students doing during this class time? Were they making good use of the limited class time allowed? Also how can you keep all students active in this project? I'm not sure just focusing on one group of students for a class period is the best way. Won't other students be lost and not sure what to do during class? There may be part of the lesson that was not on the post and I did not see. Overall I am fascinated with the idea of having students make their own audiobook and hope to one day use this in my own classroom!

"Flat Stanley Podcast"

"Crafty Moms Share: Virtual Flat Stanley." Crafty Moms Share: Virtual Flat Stanley. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. .

I am completely amazed at how these first graders wanted to make their own podcast and stories of their personal Flat Stanleys. I really like the idea having each student find a place to go to, figure out how to get there and back, and what they did there. This gives reading a very creative and personal feel. Every child will have a different dream place and favorite activity. Through this activity students are able to express their unique creativity through their Flat Stanley story. I also like how senses were brought into the project. I know that even as a college students I don't think about what is felt or smelled in my writing. This is a very important aspect of any creative writing, at all levels. In addition to the creative aspect of this project, students learned how to research at a young age. From experience, I know that learning how to properly research different material for a class takes a lot of practice! In fact I started to really learn how to research in 3rd grade and am still learning now as as sophomore in college. The teacher's idea of having each student look up a place and activities to do there. This will give students an advantage later in their school careers. Whether they are asked to give a report in a 6th grade geography class about the Amazon Rainforest or about Mid-evil England in an English class in high school. This is a fantastic way to modernize Flat Stanley and let children's creativity flourish!

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

Peer editing is a very useful tool in any stage of the education system. Unfortunatly, it is also often feared and not done properly. Students of all ages should learn proper peer editing techniques, such as those stated in the video What is Peer Editing?. This video simply explains the simple steps neccesary for peer editing. This video, along with the powerpoint Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial , show the steps to properly peer edit in a very basic fashion. They state the steps with a basic expanation. This is very useful for students that need a basic explanation, especially older students.

But what about students that need clear examples? Many younger students, and even older students, need to see what not to do. That is where the video Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes is useful. This video shows young students helping each other review their writing. The children each make a major peer editing mistake. The video also shows the effect bad peer editing has on the other student(s). For me, this video is the most useful in learning how to better peer edit.

While peer editing may often seem one sided, that the only student who benefits is the one whose paper was reviewed, this is the complete opposite. The act of reading someone else's paper critically greatly benefits the reader too! When looking for any mistakes, limitations, or execptional writing the reader can see mistakes to avoid or ways to improve his or her own writing. After reading my peers' posts I can see that I need to better explain my points and avoid simple spelling and gramatical mistakes by simply proofreading.

Through these videos and assignments I have learned how important peer editing is. I used to feel that it was a waste, especially if you are paired with someone who does not care or understand. But now I see how beneficial it is for students especially if everyone in the group is dedicated (or even if you are in a bad group work situation).

Blog Post 2: What Will Teaching in the 21st Century be Like?

"Mr. Dancealot" Video

This video shows how lecture teaching does not lead to any actual learning. In the video the teacher stood behind his desk and lectured the entire semester, without once actually properly demonstrating the dance steps to his students. While he did try to show his class the steps he did so behind his desk where nobody could see his feet. In addition, he would not allow students to be active participants in class. The teacher quickly stopped students who tried to ask each other about the class or who tried to follow along with the dance steps. While this video may seem a bit extreme to some it does show some very crucial aspects of the education system as needing improvement. The main problem that is shown in this video is how the standard lecture class does not work. In the video while Mr. Dancealot was teaching students had no way of engaging in the class. While some people may argue that students should ask questions during the lecture as a way of engaging, this does not work. Many teachers do not like to be interrupted with questions and so will not answer any during class. In my own experience some teachers feel like questions are only asked as a means to get them off track so that the lesson will not be finished. Because of this false belief many students are forced to just listen and wonder. A second problem shown in the video is students being so bored that they fell asleep. This is also caused by lack of student involvement. Students need to be active participants in class. Humans are only able to listen attentively for about twenty minutes; no student can just sit and pay attention to the teacher for an entire class. The primary problem with Mr. Dancealot's lack of student involvement is that nobody can learn. When it came time for the final not a single student could dance. It would not matter how many facts Mr. Dancealot gave them, such as the test being open book and open note, students learn by doing. This is the same for any age student. Overall, Mr. Dancealot truly failed to teach his students and give them any useful information or skill.

"Flipping the Classroom--4th Grade STEM

Alyssa Sherman

Ms. Manofo states in her video several reasons why flipping is being implemented in her school. At first glance her ideas sound fantastic; every child will get the most out of his or her education. However, while the idea of teaching students their lesions the night before class seems like a great idea, there are some major flaws that cannot be overlooked.

First and most importantly how can students learn new information, especially in math, if they cannot ask questions while learning? In the video Ms. Manofo says that the idea behind flipping is so that students can come to class prepared having already done some problems. But what if a student does not understand? It is crucial, especially in math, for students to ask questions as soon as they do not understand something. How can a student do any practice problems if he or she does not understand how to solve the problem? While some students may feel more prepared for class after already hearing the lessons, this will not work for everyone.

A second flaw of the flipping system, as mentioned in the video, is that not every student has a home computer. While students would be allowed to use a school computer in the morning, this plan is not very effective. Students in this situation would have a major disadvantage since they cannot do their homework the night before. Also, the main idea of flipping is to have students prepared for class lessons; this cannot be done when not every student can hear the lesson and prepare the night before.

While the idea of flipping does have its bad sides, there are some benefits that were mentioned in the video. Students would have the opportunity to see and hear the lesson ahead of class. This would allow students to come to class ready to work, and, hopefully, with questions. This would allow for better use of class time. Another benefit of flipping is that students could watch the lesson as many times as necessary for them to understand. This would allow students to learn at their own pace.

Ms. Manofo makes some very excellent points in her video about the benefits of flipping, but she does not mention some crucial aspect of this plan. For this system to work some changes need to be made in the plan. However, the idea of flipping could be very beneficial to students overall.

"Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Haley Marrs

Vicki Davis is an outstanding IT director and teacher in rural Georgia who has used digital citizenship to teach her students about technology. As stated in the video, Davis likes to call herself a “teacherprenuer” because she customizes her curriculum according to the students she has in the classroom, based on their strengths and interests. Davis is focused on teaching her students to learn how to learn, teaching them new software, how to blog and communicate effectively using online resources and how to generally be comfortable with technology as a whole.

She mentions several times that she is teaching her students to learn how to learn. This is evident in the video where you see the students individually interacting with technology and she is watching and participating herself by asking questions to challenge their thinking and skills. Davis has her curriculum and introduces it to her students then it is expected of the students learn how to complete the request at hand. In this particular case these high school students are learning about terraforming, which is a new term to them, and she expects them to look it up and learn to learn. This reminds me of a popular motto by Dr. Strange, “Never tell, always ask”. This is an effective way of teaching because the student has to seek the answer rather than just being told. This allows the teacher to motivate the students to think, just as I did when I personally had to Google the term terraforming for this video.

Not only does Mrs. Davis have these students searching for information but they also have the opportunity to teach one another and in this case they have taught the teacher. Davis justifies teachers do not always have to be educated on what they want their students to learn because it is a chance for the student to be a teacher, as this empowers them and they can share with each other. As you see in the video, the students have an opportunity to stand in front of the class and teach their peers which promotes networking skills. These students are blogging with people from around the world and really collaborating with them to learn about other cultures and ways of learning. She has proven herself to be effective by empowering them to embark outside of this rural Southern community by connecting them to the world.

http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-teachers-vicki-davis-video

The Network Student: Network Student Video

Kayla Szymanski

What a simple, yet powerful video. Kevin Roberts did a great job at compiling the reasons why PLN's are such vital parts of our students educational growth. The question is asked after watching this video, why do students even need teachers anymore in the 21st century? Even though students can basically teach themselves using tools offered by PLN's today there are a few things that teachers can also offer that are beneficial as well.

Teachers are the ones who help students build their PLN's and help the students take advantage of these great learning opportunities. Without the teacher showing their students these tools they would never know they existed. Also teachers can offer their guidance when the students get stuck on a particular problem. It is so much easier when you can just ask questions and get results back, this is the teachers job.

The teachers also show the students how to communicate properly and ask respectfully for help from experts. If the students did not have teachers to show them what grammar mistakes they were making the world would be one huge error. Teachers are still needed in the 21st century even though there are plenty of teaching tools free on the web. This is why it is so crucial for teachers of the 21st century to be computer and technologically literate.

And lastly the teacher shows the students how to sort out good information and propaganda while they learn on their personal network system. Also the teacher must show the student how to turn a web search into a fun excited way to learn. Students can be self taught all day long, but they need that encouragement to keep going. This is almost the same instance as the last blog post we did. The children were teaching themselves English and other things way above there time, but yet they still needed encouragement every now and then to keep going. It is a proven and tested fact, teachers will be around in the 21st century and even after that.

"Teaching in the 21st Century"

Katy Mehrer

: What does it mean to teach in the 21st century? Teaching in the 21st century, according to the video “Teaching in the 21st Century”, was talking about how computers have such an impact on children of today. I don’t believe that to be completely true; however, I do feel like it is important for children to learn about computers and how to use them. What I don’t agree on is them having to use them in elementary school. Google has been a big part of looking things up for kids, but I believe that most kids that are using these tools are the children in upper schooling. Most kids learn from themselves with using computers. Teaching in the 21st century is a lot like it was in the 20th century. When I was in school, we still had computer labs, and different things to do with computers. I don’t believe it is a must do to teach with computers. I know quite a few things about computers. That is why we have computer classes in college. If you would like to know more about computers, than take a class. That is my opinion on the 21st century teaching

Blog Post 1: If I Built a School, What Would It Be Like?

When I think about my dream twenty-first century classroom I imagine a very small class of second graders. I would want to teach my class English and reading and other teachers will teach math, science, P.E., art, music, and forging language. Like Krissy Venosdale I would not determine grade levels by age, but by ability. All children progress at a different pace, so they should also progress through grade levels at diffent times. In order for a student to pass a class and go to the next grade he or she must take a test. This test will be given four times a year, at the end of each quarter. The test will be in every subject but like on the ACT students will get a different score for each subject. If the student does well in one subject but not others then he or she can be in a different grade for each subject. For example, if a 1st grade student achieves an A in reading,English grammer, and spelling but only gets a C in math and science he or she will move into 2nd grade reading, English grammer, and spelling, but stay in 1st grade math and science. This should allow students to better reach their full potential. Every classroom in the school will equiped with the latest technology and necessary equipment for the subject. Each class will have a maximum of twenty children. While Venosdale's idea of having professionals come during lunch to speak to the children, I do not think that young kids should be learning for a long period of time without a break. Instead, they will have small breaks in between each class to relax and let what they just learned to better sink in. Lunch would be a time to socialize, because socialization is a large, and important, part of being a child. The cafetaria would be filled with healty, good-tasteing foods to give students nutrition to power their brains. There will also be a huge library for students to enter whenever they please. There will also be a huge playground for students to play during recess. Young children still need a chance to play and just be kids, but there will also be an area outside for children to read a book or color if they desire.

"Roosevelt School." Roosevelt School. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2013. .

What do I want my students to know?

My main focus as an English and reading teacher would be speaking properly. My biggest pet peeve is bad grammar. Students will be expected to learn proper English. In 2nd grade they should know how to read at least simple chapter books such as the Magic Tree House series and not only how to write properly but also how to speak. In today's world there has been a loss of proper grammar due to the increase of texting. While the use of technology is very important and will be used in class, I believe that children might be at a disadvantage if they only know how to communicate online or via a cell phone. Many people have very poor grammar and I believe that this is due to the lack of emphasis on proper English in elementary school. This becomes a serious problem later in life when applying for jobs or college and students cannot speak properly. Teaching students while they are young is key to solving this problem in modern society.

What do I want my students to be able to do?

My students will be expected to be able to write gramatically correct sentences both in pen and typed on a computer or iPad. Dictionary skills will also be taught both on an online dictionary (or dictionary app) and in a real dictionary. They should also be able to read at a proper level for their grade.

What will be my primary way of teaching my students what I want them to know and to do?

I will teach my students how to read and write in proper English with class activities, fun worksheets, and educational apps on the iPad. There are many apps for children to learn to read and write with currently on iTunes. There will be plenty of class time for students to work together in small groups to play these games. Learning will be made fun with these educational apps helping them learn. There will also be class time spent not using the iPads because writing is very important at this age. Class work like this would also be done in groups. To keep students interested these activities would also be made into games with rewards, such as stickers or candy, for doing well. Students will naturally want to learn and do well if there is a reward for doing such. Working in groups will also make students interested in learning. They will have more fun with their friends and so learning will not seem like a chore. It will be more like playing a game with friends.

What tools will I use in my classroom?

Computers and iPads will be available for every student to use as needed. There will also be a smartboard in every classroom. This will allow for better participation during class. I will use powerpoint presentations to give students information then allow them to use the iPads, computers, or even the smartboartd to better understand what was taught. Traditional tools, such as pens, pencils, paper, and crayons, will also be used. Young children need to be creative. Art projects will be given whenever possible. Arts and crafts supplies will be available for every student.

What role will students play in my classroom? How will they participate in the learning process?

All students will play a very active role in the classroom. My teaching style will primarily be focused on group work and group learning students must participate in every activity, every day. The use of technology like iPads and smart boards will allow each and every student to participate in every activity. For example, before an English grammar test the entire class may play a game where they divide into small groups. Each group must work together to correct the sentence I have incorrectly written on the board. Whichever team earns the most points wins. This will keep every student active and also interested in the class activity. Students will also be able to help each other learn. If each student is sharing an iPad with one or two fellow students he or she will be working with the other students as one. Each individual student will have a strength and a weakness. Students can help their partners with parts that they may not fully understand. This allows not only students to learn but also to help others to learn.

Second Test Post

Test 2

My Test Post Title

This is my first post. I clicked the HTML button which I should always do in EDM 310. Now I'm a Blogger!