Thanks!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

Thank you so much for a great opportunity to get to know each and everyone in my class. I have enjoyed our time together and I hope that we have classes together in the future. Good Luck and Merry Christmas!!

Thank you Dr. Strange and I hope we all get AAAAA's!!!!!!!!!!!

What I learned..

Wow... where do I being. I thought I was so good with computers and technology until I got into this class and realized I really did not know that much about technology. I learned so much in this class. I learned to do spreadsheets, blog, set up a google page and search for different sites to put on my google page, and all about podcasts. This was a very fulfilling class and I am glad i took it so I can carry it on with me as I go through school. This was a very educational class that I think everyone should be required.

Outlook on Our Blogs

There are many pros and cons of blogging. This was my first time learning about blogging and it is very interesting, but also alot of work. I looked over one of my class mates blog and its alot of work.

Blogging is very time consuming and I do not see me being able to have that much time in my classroom to be able to blog all the time.

I would like to have a blog eventually when I have my clas though, so parents are able to access it and be able to view what their children are learning and having like a weekly calendar put up showing what we will be studying and going over that week and different projects we will be doing.

Blogging is a lot of fun once you learn to do it. And I hope I get even better at it so I will be able to set me up a new page for my parents to view.

International Talk

I got in touch with a second grade teacher in Chicago. We chatted about all the different ways of teaching and how we do things different. She tried to warn me not to go into Elem. education unless I really like it because it was really hard. The school she teaches at is a low income area and most of the parents at her school do not really care if their kids are in school or not. Which is sad because all parents should want their kids in school. And how the crime is so much greater up there. She taught me a few good techniques for when I have a classroom of my own. She told me i needed to reach out to my parents of all my students and let them know that I am here for them whenever they have questions or concerns and let the parents be apart of the learning process. So, that was a great tip. I am glad I got in touch with her. Now I will be able to go through school and have a friend I can email and see her opinion on things also.

Class Podcasat

Well of course all of our podcast were not great, but I do think we all did a very good job. That was my first time doing a podcast and when I listened to it again, it sounded so funny. I sounded so different and you could tell in my voice I was nervous. In our podcast my group consisted of Brooke, Kellie, and myself. We did outs on ACCESS and ALEX. We were not perfect and we did have a little too much reading. You could tell when we were talking that we weren't really having a conversation we were just stating facts about the program. So, I think we should have made it a little more communicating through one another and getting others opinions.
The second one that I really like was the Randy Pausch podcast. They did a very good job and they kept their conversation going and kept it interesting. His lecture was already amazing and then being able to hear what other people say about it and how it inspired them to do certain things is inspirational. They did a great job.
And I know this is kind of rude, but the others were real boring. You really could not get into what they were talking about. It just seemed like a bunch of talk and not making any sense. That is just my opinion though.

Overall, everyone did do a good job for their first podcast. I think we all were a little nervous. But it helps alot being over a mic instead of on televisin or something.

"Growth vs "Fixed" Minds

This was a podcast done from a Stanford University psychologist. This was a great podcast. I think people are really like that. You know you set your mind to something and you can do that something, but some people set their minds that they aren't going to do something and they end up not doing it.
I think it was amazing how the students had no clue they were in the program, but the teachers knew exactly by the way they acted and how there minds were.

In one point it made which struck me as surprising at first was that people with a fixed mindset often have had lots of praise. It makes the point that just telling your child they are clever, or wonderful, or whatever, sets up a belief system in them which can become fixed and she recommends instead praising children for their effort, for what they’ve learned. This is a key point really - that when you have a mindset about loving learning you can grow, but when you have a mindset where you think talents are fixed then you get stuck.

If this is what will help out students then why are we not all doing this.

Podcast

As I was searching through different podcasts I came across a teacher from Texas that did a podcast with her students. The students were in groups of four and they each had a topic they had to research and do a presentation about. The teacher explained that they would have to research their topic and they had to know they topic well enough to be able to speak about it and debate it.

Some of the children had great topics such as politics and the reasoning behind democrats and republicans. I guess with the election near they were comparing the electors.

I also came across another podcast that was speaking about what infrared light was and how fire fighters can find people lost in the woods. It was very cool and interesting. It was talking about how the cool and hot send off different lights and just very interesting.

"The Edible Schoolyard, in collaboration with Martin Luther King Junior Middle School, provides urban public school students with a one-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom. Using food systems as a unifying concept, students learn how to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce. Experiences in the kitchen and garden foster a better understanding of how the natural world sustains us, and promote the environmental and social well being of our school community.
Children learn about the connection between what they eat and where it comes from, with the goal of fostering environmental stewardship and revolutionizing the school lunch program."

"A growing movement has emerged to transform school lunch into a vibrant expression of education for sustainability. The Center for Ecoliteracy has launched the Rethinking School Lunch initiative as part of the national effort to restore the connection of farms to communities, meals to culture, and health to environment"

A Night in the Global Village is a video that documents Heifer International's Global Village project that simulates lifestyle typical of developing countries. At Heifer International’s Global Village, in Perryville, Arkansas, Colorado middle school students experience firsthand the living conditions typical of developing countries.

After listening to the different podcast they were all very informative and very interesting. Some seemed to be more informative than others and some it seemed as if they were just having a conversation.

My favorite one was the Kid cast because it gave the students the opportunity to do presentations and to me that makes me think that they enjoy it more. I think its a great idea for students to be able to podcast. It is a different way of learning and being able to brainstorm with one another.

Another one I listened to that was interesting was the Photography. It was four men talking about photography and the techniques of it and pointing out great ways to do things and tips on how to get a good photo. This was interesting because it didn't seem like a speech, it seems very informative and interesting.

All of the podcast were interesting. I think being able to podcast and then go and listen to the conversations you have is amazing. Some people sound really good and other you can tell are very nervous, but its a good way of learning how to make speeches.

Access Lab

I visited the Access lab at Daphne High School. I met with Mr. Rohe who told us all the pros and cons of this new program. Access is a great new program that is set up in only a few high schools in Alabama right now, but by 2009 all high schools in Alabama will have it. Unfortunately we could not sit in on a class because of the schedule, but we did get some one on one time with the teacher to really see how he feels about this new technology.

It was a great program to develop, but with everything there are always problems. Having different schedules at all different schools, glitches in the systems, and trying to schedule all different schools all on the same time. ACCESS is a great program and I really hope they can fix the problems because this gives students the opportunity to advance themselves in higher classes and not be limited to only what that school offers.

Randy Paush

This lecture was so uplifting, inspirational, caring, and funny. His lecture has changed so many peoples lives and now I know why. Randy Pausch was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, but that did not get him down. He spoke in his last lecture about his childhood dreams and what would you do if you only had six months to live and how would you live your life. Pausch wanted to live each day to the fullest and in his lectures he spoke of his dreams and how he had to overcome many obstacles.

I learned a lot from his last lecture. In our world today we take everything for granted, even our lives. It makes you sit back and really think about all you have and what if something was to happen to you what would you do. He did not dwell on his cancer, he spoke up and he inspired millions of people to follow their dreams and do not take anything for granted.