Project 13 Summary

My partner, Melissa Willis, and I had to come up with a lesson plan for the smart board without meeting face to face. This was hard to do considering we see each other all the time. It was cool though to get to use Skype a few times to talk to her about this project. Our most useful tool, in my opinion, was the telephone. We communicated with that a lot. We tried using Google Chat, but it was difficult to keep the conversation going and the ideas coming. Another useful tool we used was our emails. This helped because Melissa found some of the websites incorporated into our lesson. So instead of having to talk to each other, she just emailed the link which was easy to put into the lesson. We were also able to email each other pictures that we thought would fit into the lesson. I found that it was better when we were talking to each other through Skype and the telephone. Skype almost feels as if you are meeting face to face because you can see the person and keep the conversation going. While on the telephone, it was easy to keep the conversation going as well, even though you can't see the person. It became more difficult when we would try to use things that required us to type what we were thinking to each other. We had a great time doing this lesson, and I feel as if we both learned to appreciate the power of technology more.

Smart Board Project 15

PLN Final Report

My Personal Learning Network has been interesting. I have got to sit around and play with it and adding a lot of widgets to it. I have a lot of widgets that deal with school on there. I have things that link me to all of my classes that requires a lot of online work, like EDM. I also have websites that I have found over the course of this class that I have found interesting on there. Some other extra widgets I found had to deal with math, which I found very interesting since I want to be a math teacher. My emails are all connected because of this network. I also have access to my jobs. I coach volleyball and it is nice to have access to it because we find out a lot through the internet. I have enjoyed getting to add things to my PLN as the semester has gone along. The picture below is a picture of my PLN.

Blog Post 13

This assignment was TOUGH! There is no better way to describe it. I did really well when it came to no TV or computer, but when it came to my cell phone I failed miserably! This assignment in today's world is almost impossible. I think the reason it was so hard is because cell phones are how the majority of people connect with each other on a daily basis. I also had damily who was in the hospital so my phone was attached to me at all times just incase I got some news. I had read the assignment for this blog last week and tried once last week and failed, and then I tried today and yesterday, and, again, it was an epic fail. I did not realize how dependent I am on my phone to keep in touch with everybody including family members, friends, boyfriend, etc. I thought I would be able to do it for 24 hours, but I was not able to. I can understand why students will want/need some form of technology in the classroom. They will have grown up using it and will have become accustomed to it. It would be easy for them to become bored and not interested if you did not have some sort of technology in the classroom.

C4T #4

I was assigned originally Angela Rand. But I had to email Dr. Strange and get a new person to comment on because her link was not working. He assigned me a student named Muhammed. He did not have a lot of blog post on his website. I commented on one he had wrote about visiting other blogs, and i encouraged him to keep doing so, and told him that I hope he learned a lot and enjoyed doing what he was doing.
I also left a comment on Caren Carrillo's blog post. I did this earlier in the week before we got the other teacher assigned to us. I really enjoyed her blog post about using the power of assigning homework wisely. I believe that teachers sometimes abuse the power, and they think that their class is the only class the student has and assigns way too much homework. I liked how Caren put it in her post about assigning it wisely. The second time I posted on Caren Carrillo's blog again. She talked about the question some students tend to ask, :when will I ever use this?" I thought it was a great post by her. I would suggest people to go read the post because the answer was surprising to me when I read it. I have enjoyed reading her blog post tremendously these last few weeks. I feel as if she post relevant things, and she also puts things on her blog that others can learn from. I have really enjoyed all the C4T's this semester but her post had to be my favorite by far.

Progress Report On Final Project

Me and my partner, Melissa Willis, have talked trough Skype, on the telephone about our final project, and met a couple times to throw out some ideas for the final project. We have thrown out a few suggestions but have not decided on anything definitely. We hope to have what we are going to do for sure early this week, and ideally start our project later this week so it will be done in time.

Blog Post 12

The first thing I would say is to read an an article titled "Why Be a Math Teacher?". Then look on a website for math teachers and find a lesson that would work for your classroom and some classroom resources. Write about what you found on the websites.

I think the article is encouraging and explains that being a math teacher is a great thing. I liked how it was very encouraging. It talked about that today's students need more than the basics. They need to learn how to apply it and do it for their future in the workplace.
The lesson plan I chose was about significant numbers. I think the reason this website is helpful is because it has great suggestions in each lesson plans on how to approach teaching the subject. The resource I chose was The Math Forum. It gives helpful suggestions for math teachers and what they can do to keep up their credits and all kinds of things that could be useful for a math teacher.

Creativity and Curiosity: My thoughts- Special Post #12A

I think that schools do systematically destroy the development of curiosity in students. I know that I am not the most creative person, and I think that is because I have never had to be creative. I do not know if a curriculum could be created or not to increase the curiosity of students. Maybe if art classes were offered at younger ages, that would increase intrest in being creative and doing things that aren't "normal" or "typical" of schools. I feel as if it is the teachers approach to how he or she teaches and presents the material that can increase or decrease the students' creativity. In almost every class I have ever been in, there have been projects assigned. I feel as if projects are the one of the best opportunities for the students to show off their creativity because no project is exactly the same. Some things that could help me become more curious is being encouraged to do things that are not normal of students. Maybe when a project is assigned giving free range to what can be done, but still give what the teacher wanted. I think teachers have a huge contribution to pushing a students creativity. I feel once I become a teacher, I will need to incorporate ways for students to be creative in a math class some way.

Eli is a writer for GoodMeasure.net. You can get to know her through Google+. I will probably not try to contact her because I do not feel like it is that important to right now. I have a lot of school work getting ready for finals coming up, so I am focused on getting everything I need done, done.

C4K for April 2012

The student I was assigned was a girl named Maddy. She is apart of the Blogging Challenge. I commented on her post she wrote about where she is from. She is from Texas. I also read her about me post from earlier and I found out that she was born in Japan but neither of her parents are Japanese, which I thought was a fun fact about her.

Her second post that I commented on was about using CC license. I asked for a little more information because I was not completely sure what it was. I had an idea from what she wrote but did not know a lot about it.

The third comment I left her was about a post she had written about the Holocaust. She seemed like she was interested in the topic, and knew what was going on. I encouraged her to look up more information from different websites because she stated that the website she was reading, made it seem as if it wasn't a big deal.

The fourth assignment was a video of a class doing a Skype interview with a class from the USA. The entire blog had many stories of what their classes are learning and what they are doing. I thought it was really cool to get to see kids using technology in the classroom and learning what it is all about.

Bog Post 11

Mrs. Cassidy

I think Mrs. Cassidy has a great thing going for her kids. She is so encouraging and such a great teacher for those kids. I love that she is engaging her students in technology as a first grader! In first grade, I used a computer but not very much at all. I used it to take test, and to play learning games on it. Today, kids use the computer for so much more than what I used it for as a kid. Technology has developed so much and is such a bigger factor in the learning process. Technology is not foreign to kids in todays world, it is apart of their lives.

I think some benefits in using Mrs. Cassidy's approach is that it will keep the students interested in learning. If I use technology, they will be more attentive, and they will be willing to do the work because it isn't just sitting listening to someone talk. I think that kids once I am teaching, will expect technology and would be really discouraged if there wasn't technology in the classroom. Another benefit, is it gives the students another source than just the teacher. A student can look up what I am teaching, and maybe that will help a student learn something better. I can see parents being against all the use of technology. I would address this situation by explaining the benefits of the use of technology in the classroom and how it is helpful to the child.

Blog Post 10

The video "Do You Teach or Do You Educate" made its point very clear. I thought the music was overwhelming but overall the message was good. I intend to educate students in math once I am done with school. I intend on doing this by trying to make it the easiest I can because math is a hard subject. I need to be clear in my teachings and do more than the typical teacher and just read off problems to students, but instead really explain what they mean.

Another way I can be an educator is being there for the students and not just there in the class period. If I am able to reach out to the students outside the classroom, students will know they can trust me, and I am there to help them when they get stuck with a problem. I think I will do well as an educator, and I can not wait for the day when I get to start my career.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencil Home!

I felt as if Mr. Johnson approached the situation excellently. Instead of making a big commotion about the kids taking the pencils home, he tried to find a solution for the problem. This is a big thing I believe. Instead of just taking the pencils away, he gave them task to use the pencils for. He tried to come up with a reasonable solution instead of doing things drastically and taking away the children's pencils. It was a good post, and I think it is a great read for anyone who wants to be a teacher.