Blog Post #9

What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

First up this week was Seven Essential Elements for Project-Based Learning by John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller. Larmer and Mergendollar say, "A project is meaningful if it fulfills two criteria. First, students must perceive the work as personally meaningful, as a task that matters and that they want to do well. Second, a meaningful project fulfills an educational purpose. Well-designed and well-implemented project-based learning is meaningful in both ways." This page taught me about how to structure project-based learning lessons as a teacher. We have already made one lesson, and I got some idea of it, but I really felt like I had no idea what I was doing. This website help me clearly see the difference between doing projects and learning through projects, something every teacher who wants to use project-based learning must realize. This not only teaches us how to present project-based learning as teachers, but it also presents how to make learning meaningful to the students.

Seven Essential For Project-Based Learning:

1. A Need to Know

This is the entry event for every PBL lesson plan. Without a need to know, students do not feel compelled to truly learn in the project. They are doing it for a good grade or because it will be on the test, not because they want to take up the challenge of learning about something.

2. A Driving Question
This gives the project a clear purpose. This should not be a question with a simple answer. Higher level critical thinking should be evoked through this questions. It can be abstract or concrete, but it should always drive the students to do some serious thinking.




3. Student Voice and Choice
This makes the project feel meaningful to students. If a project does not feel meaningful, the students will not want to learn or take up the challenge of answering the driving question.

4. 21st Century Skills
This one was not knew to me. We have already learned quite a bit about building these skills in our future students. These skills are essential for being successful in this technological world.

5. Inquiry and Innovation
This drives students to form new questions on their own. Since questions are the basis of all learning, these students are truly using their skills to become better learners. With new inquiries come new answers. Instead of finding someone else's answer in a book or online, students can come up with their own answers when they begin asking new questions.

6. Feedback and Revision
These two are very important to the learning process. Students must learn that the first time something is done, it probably isn't of the highest quality. We are always revising things, not just in school. Revision is a part of life, and feedback must be taken and used to improve what we are doing.

7. A Publicly Presented Product
When students realize that their work is going to be seen outside of the classroom, the work they does tends to be of much higher quality. Higher quality work is typically a product of higher quality learning.

Next up was the video Project Based Learning for Teachers by Tony Vincent. This video emphasizes Project Based Learning's ability to utilize technology and make students the center of their own learning. It addresses the need for a driving question, an audience, and extended amounts of time for students to work. According to the video, "Common Core Standards are the What", and "Project Based Learning is the How." This really struck me as something new and important. We have learned about both Common Core and PBL, but until now, I had not consciously seen them this way. When putting together our first lesson plan, obviously this is what we did. We used a project based learning lesson plan to achieve certain standards. I just really enjoyed the way Tony put this into perspective for me.

In the video, What Motivates Students? by Suzanne Ball, Suzanne conducts real interviews with students to answer these questions. She asked these two questions, and underneath are the answers she received:

What Motivates You To Do Good In School?
- pointing out you did well, recognizing the effort, makes you feel accomplished
-looking to the future, good job one day
-good grades for college and a degree for a future job
-success
-parent approval, extracurricular activities, avoid punishment


Rewards That Work:
-surprises, eating lunch with teacher, classroom money, charts to keep track, money for stores-combining money
-candy, outside, work outside, music monday etc.
-food, school supplies (cool pencils), stickers
-brownie points

This video showed how students perceive their own progress in school. By knowing how students feel when they are complimented and why they want to do well in school, we as teachers can really focus on how to better our students. How to enhance our students learning in general is highly based upon the students themselves. Trying to further a child's education is a hard battle to win when they are not motivated or do not feel that their work is significant. By looking at these two questions and their answers, we can learn not just about Project Based Learning, but learning altogether.

Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in Project Based Learning can be found on Michael Gorman's blog. If you want some amazing sites for PBL, then check these out. Some of them are most definitely going in my bookmarks for later use. These websites taught me how broad Project Based Learning really is. There is some technological advancement for every aspect of learning that you could imagine, and if you can think of something there isn't a website for, I'm sure there will be one for it soon. These websites are great for motivating students to use technology instead of playing with it:


1. Titan Pad
2. Wall Wisher
3. Corkboardme
4. Google Docs
5. Microsoft Live
6. Today's Meet
7. Will You Type With Me
8. Linoit
9. Skype in Education
10. Quick Screen Share

Lastly, I looked at the story of Two Students Solve the Problem of Watery Ketchup by Designing a New Cap by journalist Lindsey Foat. This is the story of two seniors at North Liberty High School who both had one thing in common, ketchup. Together, the two boys used their school's technological capabilities to design and 3D print a new design for ketchup tops. This article is a great example that student motivation and engagement has the power to create wonderful products if the students are just given the opportunity to create something meaningful. The boys said they always started their projected with the phrase "It really bugs me when..." It may not be a driving question, but it surely does provoke critical thinking. This article shows that obviously, Project Based Learning can be extremely fun.

"But it is the process of students' learning and the depth of their cognitive engagement— rather than the resulting product—that distinguishes projects from busywork."-John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller

Project #9

Video Book Conversation:

Blog Post #8

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

Randy was a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In this video, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, he discussed many aspects of his life including:

• His Childhood Dreams
• Enabling the Dreams of Others
• Lessons Learned: How You Can Achieve Your Dreams or Enable the Dreams of Others

As I walk through Randy's lecture, I will be be relating what Randy believes as well as how I am applying it to my future career as both a teacher and a learner. As a child, Randy was always smiling. He did a great deal of dreaming. No matter what, we should never lose the passion for dreaming; furthermore, having specific dreams is important. 

His Childhood Dreams:

• Being in zero gravity
• Playing in the NFL
• Authoring an article in the World Book encyclopedia
• Being Captain Kirk
• Winning stuffed animals
• Being a Disney Imagineer

Zero Gravity:

All of Randy's dreams were quite specific dreams, but this one was very specific. He didn't want to be an astronaut. He just wanted to have the feeling of weightlessness. In this dream, he encountered several brick walls, but he pushed right past them. 

Football:

In not achieving this dream, Randy learned more than he would have had he accomplished it. This dream taught him fundamentals. If you don't have fundamentals, nothing else you try to build will work. He also learned that it's a good thing to be criticized by those who are trying to teach you. When you screw up and no one is saying anything anymore, that person has given up on you. Critics still show that someone cares. When you are messing up and no one notices, you're in a bad place. He also realized that when you do something young enough, it becomes a part of you. If we can instill good educational habits and new ways of learning in our children from young ages, it will become part of them. Randy says, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." In terms of learning in general, we tend to learn things indirectly. The "head fake" is when we teach and learn things in this indirect method. We may be having fun doing a project, but all the while, we are learning hard skills. People learn best if they think they're learning something else, such as learning teamwork skills through football. We all tend to enjoy learning hard things if we are having fun while doing it. We send our kids to play sports in order to learn more important skills, but we should be teaching our students in ways that instill these same skills as well as necessary 21st century skills. 

Being Captain Kirk:

Dreaming of one day meeting Captain Kirk actually turned into Meeting Captain Kirk. Randy did not get to meet him as a child but met him as an adult. As Randy thought about why he had so greatly looked up to this man, he was perplexed. Captain Kirk was not the smartest guy on the ship. There were others with much more obviously skill sets that he, but out of all the people surrounding Captain Kirk, he was the leader. Leadership is key in both teaching and learning. We are leaders of our own learning, whether we are designated a student or a teacher. As future teachers, we will be the obvious leaders, but we must instill in our students great senses of leadership.

Being an Imagineer:

Randy was rejected from the job of becoming an Imagineer for Disney. He met huge brick walls, but brick walls appear for a reason. They are not there to keep us from the goal we are pursuing. They are there to see how badly we will work for our goals and how badly we want them. They're there to keep those who are not willing to work hard or dream big enough out. Randy did actually get an opportunity to work with the Imagineers on a virtual reality project where he met a man who gave him some great advice. This man said, "Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you." You must give people time. We must give our students time. Two people can say the same thing to someone, but it's all about how they say it. We are to be encouragers at all times. No matter what is being said, typically there is some encouraging way to say it. When people are negative, we realize that some brick walls that we encounter are unfortunately made of flesh. This project brought together artists and engineers. We must learn to do this in classrooms. It is our job to be guides in collaboration, and collaboration cannot be limited to people who are molded from the same clay. People from all sorts of backgrounds with various personalities need to be taught to collaborate and compromise with one another. 

Thoughts From Me:

Our dreams can teach a lot, especially when we don't realize it. Skills we would not have ever thought of learning can be wrapped up in our dreams. As education moves forward, we should be teaching and learning through our passions. Passion keeps everything exciting, engaging, and fun. Each child will be so much more interested in furthering their life if we can only make each and every education personal. This was my group's topic in our Video Book Conversation, and I am a firm believer that passion-based education is the best way to develop any child's interest. It's not just about learning through passion. We should teach through passion. Our passion should be to seek to better our students and understand each of their needs. Randy Pausch's video has only reiterated by belief in this. 

Enabling the Childhood Dreams of Others:

There is no better place to enable the dreams of others than being a teacher. We encourage dreams, and we teach skills that will help others throughout their entire lives. No matter how good the work we receive from our students, we should always encourage them to do better work. Even if we are blown away by the work, obviously we must be behind on something. They were able to achieve something that we couldn't fathom them doing, so we must start dreaming bigger dreams for our students. Never do we want to discourage a student from doing something bigger and better. Freedom is essential to have true, innovative project based learning. People will ignore feedback or they will take it. Either way, we must instill self-reflection.

All of these things Randy experienced for himself and imparted his wisdom on to us through this video. All of those things were about students learning, but he also had plenty experience on teaching. If you're going to do anything that is remotely pioneering in any field, you're going wind up with arrows in your back from someone. We cannot let those discourage us. We also must learning to deal with coworkers, amazing or terrible. We can never forget the importance of giving credit where credit is due. Randy deserves so much credit and admiration for these lessons and they way he lived his life. Everyday of his life was fun. He poses the question, "Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?" He most definitely was a Tigger.

Lessons Learned: 

Randy lists some lessons at the end of the lecture that we should all learn. These are not about just teaching and learning, but they are about living life in general

• Never Lose the Child-like Wonders
• Help Others
• Loyalty Is a Two-Way Street
• Never Give Up
• There Are Moments That Change Your Life
• How to Get People to Help You: Tell the Truth, Be Earnest, Apologize, Focus on Others
• Get a Feedback Loop and Listen to It
• Show Gratitude
• Don't Complain; Just Work Harder
• Find the Best in Everybody, Even If You Have to Wait a Long Time
• Be Prepared

All in all, education is not a job. It's a lifestyle. This whole lecture was not just about his life or the lessons we can learn from it. It was not about how to achieve your dreams, how to teach, or how to learn. This lesson was truly about how you live our own lives each day. 

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. 

Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning

Implications:

A recent study by Zogby Analzytics has uncovered staggering, yet not really surprising, statistics concerning young people aged 18-24 and their smartphones. Of these statistics, Dr. Strange specifically pointed us to six.

1. 87% say their smartphone never leaves their side.
2. 80% say the very first thing they do in the morning is reach for their smartphone.
3. 78% say they spend 2 or more hours per day using their smartphone.
4. 68% say they would prefer to use their smartphone instead of their laptop or personal computer for personal use.
5. 91% say that having a camera on their smartphone is important (61% very important)
6. 87% say they use their smartphone camera at least weekly. 59% use their smartphone camera at least every other day. 44% use their smartphone camera for still or motion picture taking every day.

Of these six, I would have to agree with at least five of them, or I would be lying. So if smartphones are so important to my generation already, what are we as student now going to be facing when we become educators? Our students will have spent their entire lives with these devices, cameras and all. What will the implications be for educations from the use of these phones and their cameras?

Obviously, there is no denying there will be implications. Anyone who believes that we can successfully combat this smartphone revolution and ban them from education should consider rethinking his or her platform. I believe there is no way around this but through acceptance. I personally was not allowed to use my phone for school, and many of my college professors still attempt to ban them from the classroom. I do not mind being without my phone. I can go for some old school learning, but I know that people who feel this way along with me are becoming scarce. While students are embracing, educators are denying. These data show that this denial is going to become more and more futile. The idea that we must embrace technology in education is only reiterated by these data. We must find a use for ALL aspects of new technology. Smartphones can't just be mini computers. Their wide range of capabilities must be utilized, or educators will be fighting an uphill battle against the students. Embracing this won't be a bad thing though. If the students are required to know these skills for a job, then obviously they need to be taught in classrooms how to use technology professionally.

Applications:

How can smartphone cameras be used in the classroom?

• Taking photos to make iMovies and other presentations
• Recording self-reflections
• Recording video for iMovies
• Send photos of assignments to other group members
• Send pictures to students of important dates on a calendar
• Send pictures to students of project instructions
• Work on photo filtering and manipulation to teach how to use them professionally instead of childishly
• Take pictures of projects to upload onto blogs or other websites for the class

This is only the beginning! There are so many ways to be discovered to embrace technology in the classroom!

C4T#2

C4T#2

This week, I was assigned to Karl Fisch and his blog, The Fisch Bowl (clever, right?). Karl has been a math teacher for twenty-five years and currently works as the Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. This week, Karl posted a powerful video to his blog. I cannot summarize this video, as it is immensely to powerful to put into words. The video portrays a story, but that is all I can say about it. You MUST watch this video for yourself. It is more powerful than anything I could ever say! Not only is a wonderful portrayal of digital storytelling and poetry, but it is also contains a powerful subject that should be discussed.



C4T#2, comment 1

In my comment, I truly did not know what to say. I immensely enjoyed watching. I told him that I am supposed to summarize his post on my blog, but I would not be able to do this video justice; therefore, I am just going to include this video in my post. I went on to tell him basically what I said above, and that maybe once I watch it a few more times then I will know exactly how I feel. Lastly, I thanked him for posting this video.

C4T#2

In this short and simple post, Karl asked his students as colleagues to post what their last five tweets or other social media posts were and what they hoped those tweets or posts said about them. Although it was short and simple, the comments he received on it were quite interesting. Over one-hundred people commented.

C4T#2, comment 2

Oddly, I have quite a few social media accounts, but I do not post to any of them. I use them to explore what others are doing. I don't do this in a nosy way, but I enjoy reading the ideas of others and looking at what is important to them. Because I am in EDM310, I told him about my blog posts and described what they contain. In regards to what I hope they say about me, I hope they show that I am serious about my schoolwork and that I am creative in my use of technology.

Project #13

This link below is connected to our Google Site that we created to share our lesson plan: Lesson Plan #1 Created by Heather Howton, Justin Thompson, Alex Odell, and Adrea Fust

Our lesson plan is directed at a tenth grade English class. In our lesson plan, the students will be learning about propaganda and its various categories. The students will explore examples of propaganda on their own as well as making a group ad on a their assigned category.

Project #7 Part 2

Classroom Introduction for Parents:



Classroom Introduction for Students: 

Blog Post #7

How Do We All Become Learners?

Schools are turning more and more towards Project Based Learning lately, and by all means I think this with wonderful based on what I have learned so far; however, by no means do I feel anywhere near ready to teach in this way. I myself have just become a learner on how to educate. Gladly, I have at least two and half more years to figure out how to become a teacher. I know that I will be able to embrace being both a teacher and a learner in a setting where technology has such importance. Although I am not prepared yet, I would still say that I have some strengths that will be very useful in becoming a project based teacher.  I have a strong desire to learn that leads me to being open to trying new things. I am not afraid to be a learner with my future students. I do not expect to gain all the knowledge I need during college and then never learn anything else. I expect to and hope that I will learn something new every day of my life, so I am not ashamed when I do not know the right answers. I also love exploring new technology. I could sit and click around on a computer all day long just to see what it can do and be perfectly happy. Of course with strengths come weaknesses. I have had no exposure to any type of learning such as this before this class. Technology and learning while teaching are very new to me. I can honestly say right now I have no idea what I am doing, but I feel as I go through videos such as the ones below and our other assignments, it is becoming clearer how to utilize technology to its fullest.

QR Codes:

Since QR codes have become a popular thing, I think I may have scanned two? Needless to say, I don't know much about them. I thought I had the basics covered, but then I realized at most all I knew was how to scan them. I had no clue what they could be used other than advertising and no idea how to create them. In the video How to Make An Audio QRCOde, Michele Bennett gives a great overview on how to make audio QR codes; furthermore, she gives a great example on how they can be used. Many kindergarten and elementary teachers make QR codes of themselves reading books. The students can then have the teacher read the book over and over to them, so the teacher essentially also becomes a tutor for the child. Wow was my mind blown over this idea. I would have never in my life thought of this! Maybe that's why I'm not going to be an elementary teacher? Regardless, what a fascinating and practical function for technology!
With the website http://www.recordmp3.org/, anyone can record an mp3 that is transferred into a URL . Once it is recorded, it can be played back and accepted, or it can be redone. Then, the URL is transferred into the website http://www.qrcode-monkey.com/. When the URL is pasted into the website, the QR code is generated and can be copied and pasted. Not only does this website support URL generations, but it can also generate QR codes for text, email, phone numbers, and many other things. This is a multifunction website and a great one to have. Not only did this video provide me with the basic knowledge for generating a QR code, it got me thinking on how I could possibly use them in my classroom one day. Although I'm not exactly how I would, I am definitely going to keep them in mind and bookmark this generator for future reference and pondering!

iPads and Reading:

In this video iPad Reading Center with Ginger Tuck, her students are reading and recording in a center for kindergarten. In this exercise, the students read a story while recording themselves on an iPad. Then, once they are finished, they play the video back and read along with it to see if they made any mistakes. This is a very easy exercise and is a great reinforcement tool for students. I had not heard of this method before. I observed a kindergarten class recently, and they did not do anything close to this type of exercise. They all seemed to be pretty good readers, but this is a good independent exercise to increase learning. I love that this exercise is independent and only guided by the teachers. This early on in schools students are being taught 21st century skills. This is excellent! I not only learned a new method for enforcing reading in this video, but I was also reinforced with the need to build these skills such as independent in these up and coming generations.

Popplet:

Ginger Tuck and two of the children in her classroom help to explain the free app Popplet in this video Popplet with Ginger Tuck. Popplet is a way to develop virtual thought webs that include both pictures and text. I actually got out my iPad and downloaded this one for myself. Ginger uses this app of her reading centers, so that the children can read a book and then transfer it into a Popplet. This enhances both the reading skills and typing skills of her students. Students also practice taking pictures of the book when they are making their webs. I was a little confused on exactly what all this could be used for just from watching this video, but when I downloaded it for myself, I decided to not even delete it when I finished exploring it. This is just a great app in general for brainstorming. Its text and picture features provide great tools for all types of brainstorming.

Alabama Virtual Library:

This video, AVL and Kindergarten Students, is such a reinforcement to me of how advanced our kindergarteners can be these days! These children are logging into libraries, choosing what to look up, watching videos and audio on what they find, and then report back on what they have found by writing a sentence about each thing. These students are accountable for their own work. These are pure twenty-first century skills being taught! The abilities of children who are being taught today and how they are being taught just blows my mind.

Board Builders: 

These three videos, Tammy Shirley Discovery Education Board Builder Moon Project, Mrs.Tassin 2nd Grade students share Board Builder Project, and Mrs.Tassin students share Board Builder Project are about Board Builder for Project Based Learning and explain what Board Builder is and how students can use it. Board Builder is a feature of the Discovery Education program. Students can use it to organize their research into an simple but effective presentation. Boards can be built on just about any topic. Through this, these children are truly taking charge of their learning. The teachers are there to guide them, so the children to their own research. I am learning about how education from just watching these children, and they inspire me to continue to have a passion for learning.

iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten:

Kindergarteners are making iMovie Book Trailers. Wait, didn't I make one of those last week for the first time ever? How behind do I feel? It is uncanny how these children can grasp technology so easily. I said it in my last post, and I will say it again. Technology is a second language for children. All of these videos reinforce my belief in this! Dr. Strange, Michele Bennett, and and Elizabeth Davis discuss iMovies and AVL in Kindergarten in Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten. Making these iMovies doesn't only give them experience with technology, but it also improves their editing skills, something that most people my age don't really care about as far as I can tell. Michele Bennett says that once the mechanics of a program are established, the students take off and run with it, and this could not be any more true. Almost always, students exceed our expectations, so we should never put limits on what they can achieve! With the Alabama Virtual Library, students can search and learn to do basic research at a very early age. At this age, they are excited about using these abilities and are proud of what they have accomplished. It's like pulling teeth around a college most of the time to get students to do research!

We All Become Learners:

In We All Become Learners, Dr. Strange, Michele Bennet, and Elizabeth Davis continue their conversation about technology in elementary schools. By using technological devices in classrooms, everyone become both a teacher and a learner. Using these devices can help to lower to the barriers in classrooms between teachers and students. In this way, everyone is learning from one another. Classrooms become personal learning networks within themselves.

Blog Post #6

What can we learn from Anthony Capps?

What CAN we learn from Anthony Capps's conversations with Dr. Strange? Apparently, we can learn a great deal, or at least I surely did. Anthony and Dr. Strange covered a variety of subjects: Project Based Learning, iCurio, Discovery Ed, tips for teachers, and correctly utilizing technology.

Project Based Learning:

In the videos Project Based Learning Part 1 and Part 2 , I discovered many insights to Project Based Learning. Projects are not something to be done at the end of a lesson to show what children learn. Projects are an approach to learning. In Project Based Learning, students can own their own learning and create while they are discovering. I learned how to approach designing projects so that they will be productive, good projects. Projects must motivate, be relevant, involve community, and meet state standards. Reflection and revising is also key to good projects. Everything is not going to go as planned when doing some projects, but in order to not limit students, never underestimate them! When you give students a chance, they will occasionally go far beyond your expectations. Collaboration is hard for people, but if we incorporate it in our teachings, it can only get easier with practice. In Project Based Learning, students will always know that what they are doing has meaning.

iCurio & Discovery Ed:

iCurio is an awesome online tool that I had never heard of. It is an ingenious idea that allows children to do online web searches through filtered websites. Not only is it great for research, it teaches virtual organization through its bookmarking features. It could be useful for all grade levels. Discovery Ed helps students to further their research as well as helping teachers bring their lessons to life. I had also never heard of this tool. Because people remember more of what they hear and see, this tool provides illustrations and expert videos.

Tips:

In the video Anthony-Strange Tips for Teachers, together Dr. Strange and Anthony compile a few great tips for new teachers. Of course, we as teachers must be learners. As we continue through EDM, I believe this more and more. Teachers can never have all of the answers nor think that they do know everything! Teaching also becomes a way of life, not just a career. Surprises also happen, so teachers must be willing to adjust their plans. We also must be able to make sure that we are not leaving any children behind in our teaching. Everyone must be actively engaged. Students must also be able to reflect and share their projects.

Technology:

In Use Tech, Don't Teach It, it is obvious, our world is now staunchly planted in technology. There is no refusing it anymore. We must embrace technology, and this idea is a new one to me. I had never thought about purposefully using technology instead of teaching it. Students know how to use technology now. They no longer need to learn how to use anything. Technology is like a second language to most all children. In order to utilize technology, I see how to incorporate and design assignments around using technology. Most importantly, always do the assignments before you introduce them to your students. This way, you will have a decent understanding of the questions the students ask when they do the project.

Additional Thoughts:

In this last video, Anthony gave me good insights into what a lesson plan should be. I have not been introduced to lessons plans much yet, as this is my first semester in the College of Education. When preparing my future plans, I am going to definitely keep these ideas in mind.

Regardless of the specific subjects of these videos, all of them have one thing in common: building essential 21st century skills!

Project #8

C4K Summary for September

September 9-14

Joseph:

Joseph is a year seven student at Pt England School in Auckland, New Zealand. In his first post, Joseph told of his trip to Ambury Farm. His literary group was taken to the farm where they got to see sheep, chickens, cows, and a bull. They even got to see the cows being milked. He also learned that the brown cows are Friesian cows, and the black cows are Jersey cows. In my comment to Joseph, I told him who I am and where I attend school. I find it awesome that they got to go to a farm and experience the animals. I am from a farming community, so I was raised around many of the animals he got to see. My grandparents had chickens throughout my childhood, and they even once had a bull. He even taught me something new. I had no idea that those were two types of cows! I am looking forward to reading more of what he and his classmates learn throughout this year.

September 15-21

Zakiah:

Zakiah is in Mrs. Schraml's fifth grade class in Independence, Ohio. Zakiah's blog post was a poem she had written about herself. She wrote about her personality, her hobbies, her family, and her interests. I told Zakiah that her post was a great blog post. I always enjoyed writing poems in my classes in school. They really are hard to come up with sometimes, but she did a great job! It’s
wonderful that she loves her family and likes to help others. Those two things are very important in life. I could also tell she's very creative, and I asked her what type jewelry do she likes best, since liking jewelry was part of her poem. Lastly, I told her I look forward to reading more from her and her classmates.

Kamar:

Kamar is part of Madame Thomas's senior class in Virginia. Kamar and several of the other students were assigned to write about how they would like to leave their mark on the world. Kamar admitted that when they thought about it, he, to be honest, really did not know how to make his mark on the world. My response to Kamar was simple. I told him that to be honest, I believe that none of us truly know how we’re going to make our mark on this world, but we all wish to leave some legacy behind us. The great thing is, we all have time to figure it out, and sometimes, achievements or opportunities that we would have never dreamed of present themselves. Life if full of possibilities. If he is great at helping, then pursue that. That’s one of the reasons I decided to major in education. His mark will be a product of his personality and passions, whatever he decides he wants to do, he should enjoy every moment of it.

September 22-28

Garret F:

Garret is a part of Ms. Allison Freitag's class at Iowa High School. Ms. Freitag assigned her class to write about which is more important, talent or hard work. Garret believes that it is hardwork that is the more important one of the two, because hard work is about setting goals and achieving them.
Garret does still believe that talent is important. I told Garret that I believe that hard work and talent do not have to oppose one another. They are complimentary to one another. Talent is something that you are naturally good at and usually provides a hobby that you enjoy doing. It is through hard work
that you can make something out of your talents. If someone’s talent is playing a musical instrument, then it is through hard work that they take that talent to the next level. Both talent and hard work are important in life; however, even if you don’t exactly have the talent for something, you should still work hard at it. Thus, in a way, hard work is more important, because whether you love or hate to do something, you should always work hard at it and do your best.

Project #3 Presentation

Project #7 Part 1

This Is My Sentence...



This Is My Passion...

Blog Post #5 Part 1

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs):

PLN, just another acronym we can add to our bag of tricks in education. They sound fun don't they? Actually, I thought building a personal learning network sounded quite scary. I didn't know what one was much less how to build one! The name is self-explanatory, right? It's a network that you learn in? How in the world would you even begin to look for this network? Well, thank goodness for the internet, not only is it one place that these networks can be built, but it is also provided the amazing resources for me to figure out what in the world this idea of a PLN is. Teaching in the twenty-first century really has begun taking on a whole new meaning for me as I began my search through the web of networks out there.

According to Tim Wilhemus in Building Your Personal Learning Network, "A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is an extension of the self that enables a learner to harness the knowledge and experiences of many voices through a collaborative connection that may take many forms. Our PLNs represent all of the people with whom we've created a social connection, physically or virtually, and upon whom we can call to enhance our learning." Creating PLNs can help to break down the educational isolations of both teachers and students! According to Dr. Strange in Developing a Personal Learning Network, the information for creating a PLN is everywhere. Just as we once went to the library to do research, we now look to the clouds to find information. No, I don't mean start looking at the sky hoping the answers will rain down on you! Look to the wonderful clouds others before yourself have formed on the internet.

Five Reasons Why Educators Should Network by Tanya Rascorla

1. To Learn With Others Teachers: 
Teachers do not know everything and cannot educate their students alone.

2. To Serve Your Students:
Networks provide ways to bounce ideas and make sure you are being the best teacher you can be.

3. To Access A Dynamic Resource:
Within a network, teachers can see what others are doing to improve what they are doing.

4. To Extend Your Learning Base:
When we graduate, we may have a working knowledge of the classroom, but we do not have hardly   as much experience as most all of the teachers out there in PLNs! Find them and utilize their experience.

5. To Stay Engaged In Education:
If we stop learning, we can become burnt out on teaching. Other teachers can help you stay inspired. Personal learning networks should always start with questions! They should not be something we do, but they should how we think. We should want to grow our networks with each new question that comes to mind.

In PLN- Michael Fawcett Offers His Insight, Michael offers us an interesting view on PLNs. To him, they are a network of teachers and educators that we can utilize to draw us out of our established comfort zones into new areas and ideas. They give teachers and students opportunities to collaborate and connect that are not there otherwise. Through them we are able to attend workshops across the world and participate in them through video conferences, chats, and twitter. The teachers are out there waiting for us to join in with them with our networks! Our use of an substantive PLN will encourage our students to build and grow their own.

Personal Learning Networks aren't just for teachers. In Personal Learning Networks are Virtual Lockers for Schoolkids, Vicki Davis says, "Constructing a PLN is the essential skill that moves my students into the driver's seat of their own learning." Assessing and analyzing information skills are necessary for the amount of knowledge we have access to. Having the skill of creating a PLN is an organizational skill that will help kids throughout their futures. The PLN is never complete!" This is so important. The PLN is always changing and evolving! 

My PLN:
I have begun to create and build my own PLN using Symbaloo. My page includes links to many blogs as well as twitter. I also have links to many tools that I believe will be useful in growing my network. Right now, I have been exploring Twitter and the blogosphere. My explorations have been quite interesting and exciting, but I had no real grasp on what I was doing. I was creating a PLN without even realizing it!
My first edition to my PLN was a link to my Twitter so I can continue following the EDM staff and others in the Education College. Next added was my first C4T's blog and his Twitter, and I am going to be adding each one of my new C4T teachers as I am assigned to them. I also hope to find many more blogs on my own as I continue to explore, and hopefully I will also be able to add learn about and add new tools to further my exploring. I plan on digging deep into some of Dr. Strange's own material in his educational PLN that he listed in Developing A Personal Learning Network. I am also going to delve into his other two examples of PLNs, MacIntosh and Photography, as those are two of my interests also.

Altogether, I am going to remember that PLNs stem from questions, and I should grow those questions into my own Personal Learning Network.

Blog Post #4

Asking Questions: What questions do we ask? How do we ask?

What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

The Goal of a Question

According to Ben Johnson on The Right Way to Ask Questions in The Classroom, teachers do not know everything and student are not always ignorant. In the questioning process, we expect students to ask questions if they are not understanding the material; however, sometimes students don't even realize that they do not understand! I have been on this side of the questioning process too many times to not agree with that statement. Students don't understand that they don't understand, or many times some students are embarrassed to ask questions in front of their classmates. The Right Question Institute believes that strong critical thinking skills are fostered by the questions that are asked in the classroom. Unfortunately, the process to asking good questions is rarely taught. Teachers and students both should now how to ask questions. In Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom, Maryellen Weimer says, "Good questions make students think, they encourage participation and I think they improve the caliber of the answers students give and the questions they ask."

Open Ended Vs. Close Ended

When questions are asked that do not provoke critical or thoughtful responses, the answers tend to be exactly what we would expect, dull and shallow. The videos Asking Better Questions in the Classroom and Open Ended Questions discuss two types of questions, one which promotes thought and one that does not. These two types of questions can be categorized into close ended questions and open ended questions.


Close Ended Questions- When a question is close ended, it is typically structured so that it almost
answers itself. Students do not have to give much thought to these questions. One word answers typically suffice for these. Close ended questions typically take the form of asking why, what, or where.

Open Ended Questions- When a questions is open ended, it leaves the student to form the answer to the question. Students must respond and think about the question before they can answer it. Open ended questions can be phrased in ways such as for what reasons, in what ways, describe in detail, or generate a list.

Three Approaches to Bettering Questions:  according to Maryellen Weimer in Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom

1. Prepare
Preparing questions will keep the students from getting confused. When questions are not prepared, sometimes they do not come across correctly. In order to maximize learning, questions should be refined as you ask them. Making notes on what worked and what didn't further optimizes the questioning process for future classes. When teachers actively work on improving their questions, it can show students the importance of the questioning process.

2. Play
Playing with questions promotes the students to think about them. Ask a question at the beginning of class and leave it unanswered for a while. Students can come up with marvelous answers if just given the time and encouragement to think.

3. Preserve
Teachers should preserve not only their own questions but also the questions of their students. The questions asked by the teacher should be revised and saved, and those that did not work should be trashed or tried again in a different form. The most important part of preservation is saving the questions of students. Questions asked by students are questions about something the student realized they did not understand. It also shows the students that teachers value what their students say, especially if you get the student to write the question down so you can keep it.

Simple, Effective Approach

We have seen what questions to ask, but how do we ask them? In my experience, most teachers just ask a question and wait for sometime to answer, but what is the most effective way to ask questions? Many times teachers get in the habit of always asking questions the same way or calling on the same children to answer those questions. When the students know who is going to be asked to answer, many students tune out the question and never give any thought to an answer. There are many simple, effective approaches to asking questions that will promote the entire class to think. One of these approaches is asking open questions, but the students need to know that they are all expected

to formulate an answer. The video Questioning Styles and Strategies shows a combination of different questioning methods, each being highly effective. Changing how you go about getting an answer each time provides the classroom with just enough spontaneity to show the students that all of them are expected to analyze the question to discover an answer. One example described in The Right Way to Ask Questions in The Classroom includes asking a question, pausing a few seconds, and then calling on someone to answer. Once that child has answered, call on them to answer again at some point. This way students will know that once they have answered their turn is not over; therefore, they cannot zone out and stop thinking of answers.

Responding Effectively

When it comes to questioning, last but definitely not least is knowing how to respond to your own questions as well as responding to student questions. Asking Questions to Improve Learning emphasizes this importance. Key goals when responding to questions are to never answer your own questions, never interrupt, show interest when students respond, and to point out the wrong or weak areas in a response while leading the student into the right answer. Altogether, teachers should lead their students to appreciate the questioning process by the way they ask and respond to questions. Questions should never hinder learning or deter children from interest, but they should only further the learning process.

Remember: 
Questions Are More Important Than Answers!

Project #15

Search Engines

With the power and far reaching arms of Google these days, it is hard to imagine using any other search engine on a regular basis. Even finding different search engines seemed to be an impossible task. I actually used Google to find other search engines mentioned in this post! Surprisingly, I did find some very intriguing search engines.

1. WoW Search

WoW Search gives the user many options when it comes to what websites they want to search. With WoW, you can search human edited websites, other search engines, or reference pages, all from one simple, easy search page. This would make a wonderful home screen for an internet browser if you are prone to search often. I especially like the reference function, since I am often searching for the meaning of words and their synonyms. The layout is very user friendly, but unfortunately this search engine does not do anything special that other engines cannot do.


2. IceRocket

IceRocket is an Internet search engine specializing in searching social media. This website allows you to search blogs, twitter, facebook, or all three at the same time. This is wonderful for those of us who are learning about utilizing technology in new forms to further education. Being able to search social media easily without having to navigate unrelated pages that most search engines such as Google include is an absolute blessing. This would give us easy access to new education blogs to read. Plus, you can search key terms, blogs from a specific author, or blogs on a specific page. I am most definitely going to be using this in the future!

3. ChaCha

ChaCha is an Internet and human lead search engine. This engine can be accessed by text message, internet, or a mobile app. Although it seems appealing to be able to search something and get a response from a human, sometimes they do not provide enough information or can be unreliable. For those who enjoy getting information directly from human interaction, this search engine has great use. I believe that this engine was at its best when cell phones did not have ready access to a user friendly internet interface, it was wonderful to be able to text questions and get answers texted back, but now that most all mobile phones have user friendly internet access; therefore, ChaCha has stopped offering this service and has lost a substantial portion of its edge.

4. Blekko

According to Blekko's about page on their website, "At Blekko, our mission is to create a differentiated search experience by delivering high quality, curated results and organizing content into categories. Our sophisticated search technology powers our suite of products – a web search engine, mobile app, and social news platform." Blekko is great in its organization. When a term or phrase is searched, the results are categorized into domains on the left hand side of them page. These domains include terms such as top results, latest, jobs, music, and lyrics. Blekko has the potential to rival Google, but it does not provide many of the search services such as videos, news, books, and shopping. I still enjoyed playing around with it and will definitely experiment with it some more.

5. DuckDuckGo

According to DuckDuckGo's website, their mission is simple. They provide a searching service without tracking the user. They also pride themselves on fewer adds and reduced spam to provide a "clutter-free" look. This website also provides only one page of results, so it is a one click search engine. Like many other apps today, it continues to load results at the bottom of the page. This search engine does include other areas to search such as videos and news. While this could be appealing to some people through their no tracing policy, it was not my favorite search engine to use; however, I did enjoy the one page search results.

6. Yippy

Yippy is an Internet search engine that provides clusters of results. Related search results are filtered under the domains of cloud, sources, sites, and time. You can also browse by web, blogs, news, wikipedia, and more. This is actually quite an interesting take on categorizing searches. This would be great for deep searches that require refining to produce the results you want. Although I find this approach interesting, I do not foresee myself using it much, but who knows? Maybe it will come in handy for someone else!

7. Webopedia

According to Webopedia's website, "Webopedia is an online tech dictionary for IT professionals and educators, providing definitions to words, phrases and abbreviations related to computing and information technology. Our goal is to provide easy-to-understand definitions, avoiding the use of heavy jargon when possible so that the site is accessible to users with a wide range of computer knowledge." In this ever-changing technological world, this online collective knowledge of tech terms is great for those of us who aren't as tech savvy as we would like to be. I am constantly confused by technical terms. This website provides easy to understand definitions in a user friendly layout. Webopedia's definitions are also constantly updated as the technological world changes, and new words are added every day. This website is definitely going to fulfill its potential in my life. 

8. WolframAlpha

WolframAlpha blows my mind. It is a computational knowledge engine, meaning it computes systematic knowledge into one easily accessible form. Rather than providing related web pages as the answers to search terms, this website compiles the answers to the terms into one web page; therefore, this website appears to be more geared towards producing facts and computations of mathematical or scientific problems than towards general how to questions or finding abstract information. Still, if I need the facts about a subject or to do a computation, I am forever turning to WolframAlpha. I am only scared that one day this website's math and science features will deter students from truly learning the process of solving problems for themselves. Altogether, this computational knowledge engine has clear advantages and more than enough potential to be one of the best engines out there.

C4T#1

C4T#1

John Spencer is a teacher and writer who loves to help his students find their voices. John's blog is entitled Education Rethink. On September 4th, John made the post You Will Make Enemies. In this post, John shares a life lesson that he wants his boys to learn as they are growing up. John argues that no matter what we do in life, there will always be people who dislike us. Yes, it could be our fault that they don't like us, but sometimes people just don't like you for no reason at all. At the beginning of his teaching career, John thought that if he minded his own business and avoided conflict then he would not make any enemies. He thought he was his own biggest critic, but he found out he couldn't have been
more wrong.

John found that those horrible things we think about ourselves sometimes are on someone's mind more often than they are on our own. Whether it be your personality, your weaknesses, your likes, or you dislikes, someone will always be there to hate you worse than you could ever hate yourself, but being caught off-guard by it is the worst part of it all. In conclusion John poses the questions, "Will you let them define your story? Will it push you to become someone you are not? Will you engage in slander? Will it push you to seek out revenge? Or will you choose to love them even when you don’t feel like it?" When it all comes down to it, what will we choose?


C4T#1, comment 1

I began my comment explaining to John who I am, where I'm from, and why I'm commenting on his blog. I feel that this blog was truly a great piece of advice from an experienced teacher and agree that we truly never know how we are seen in other peoples' eyes. In my personal experience, I have had several teachers act this way towards not only other teachers but also to their students. Just because some people makes one big mistake, they are branded as trouble for the rest of their high school careers. I also told him how intriguing I find his ending questions, especially "Will you let them define your story?". This is a wonderful post to keep in mind as I begin my journey to become a teacher. I also left him a link to my blog and the class's blog.

C4T#1

In John's last blog, The Upside of Wasting Time, he discusses the fact that the world needs more "time wasters." No, the world does not need to waste time, but wasting time means being encouraged to explore and create in areas that you are interesting. John doodled and wrote throughout his childhood, and now that is exactly what he is doing with his life. Many times, our childhood escapes develop practical applications in our lives, so we should not discourage creative children. Yes, sometimes it bothers us when a child is not paying attention because he or she is daydreaming, doodling, or humming, but classroom should not just be about practical, utilitarian learning. Classrooms should also involve fun, creative ways to accomplish the standards and expectations of the school.


C4T#1, comment 2 

John could not be more right on this subject! Individuals need to realize that wasting time definitely has its perks. It is the activities and hobbies that we do and keep that make us who we are. As a child, I always felt so pushed to stick to my schoolwork and and think about the future that I usually felt guilty anytime I started wasting time on something I liked to do; however, as I read his post, I realized it was the things I enjoyed doing as a child that I am pursing now in my life. Kids need to be encouraged to do what they love and to focus on other subjects besides just the subjects that schools tell them they're supposed to learn. Teachers should provide creative outlets for students and encourage them to think for themselves. In essence, school standards sometimes need to be associated more with fun and less with utilitarian purpose.

Blog Post #3

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

What is Peer Editing?

In order to define what peer editing is, we must first define the individual words in the phrase. According to nrpatric's video Peer Editing, the word peer means "someone your own age", and editing means "making suggestions, comments, compliments, and changes to writing." What does it mean when we combine these two words into the phrase peer editing? The video tells us that it means "working with someone your own age to help improve, revise, and edit his or her writing."

Yes, this seems like a pretty general, simple concept. Most all of us have peer edited something at some point in time, whether we have been assigned to or not, and I'm sure we have all had someone peer edit something of our own. Peer editing makes us feel more secure about our work. If it's correct, then there is someone else that agrees with you. If it's wrong, then there is someone to catch your mistakes. Teamwork is taught to children at a very young age, so why not use that teamwork to aid you and your classes? No, I don't mean pair up to swap test answers, but pairing up to peer edit can not only help your partner earn a better grade, it can also improve your own overall writing skills by seeing what others do well and the mistakes others make . So, we may all know how peer editing is supposed to work, you'll check my paper and I'll check yours, but what are we checking? How do know where to start?

Steps to Peer Editing
Both the video Peer Editing by npratric and the slideshow Tutorial Peer Editing by Adriana Zardini present three steps to peer editing.

1. Compliments
When peer editing, start with compliments. This means to state what the person did well. If the person for whom you are peer editing feels as if you are just tearing them down with the mistakes they made, they won't want to continue improving their writing. Rather, it is more than likely that they will just want to give up.

2. Suggestions
Giving suggestions means telling your peer editing partner what could have been done better. What they did may not have been wrong, but sometimes there is a better way to express those ideas. Topics such as word choice, organization, and amount of details could all be improved through suggestions; however, you must always be extremely specific when giving suggestions. If something needs to be fixed, tell your partner exactly what it is.

3. Corrections
Corrections are also specific things that need to be fixed, but corrections should be made about punctuation, grammar, spelling, and other word errors.

Bring Them All Together

Bring all three of these steps together and we get the perfect formula for peer editing! Peer editing is not meant to hurt feelings or undermine motivations. The task of peer editing is to improve writing skills through positive feedback. Focus on those last two words, positive feedback. POSITIVE. The most important concept of the entire peer editing process can be found in that word. Stay positive under all circumstances, whether it be in giving compliments, suggestions, and corrections or in receiving these things. No one likes a mean, overbearing peer editor, but no one likes a sore writer either. To avoid both cases, peer editing should be kept a positive process by both parties. We are here to help one another! This brings us around to our next subject, peer editing mistakes.

Mistakes

In the adorable video Writing Peer Review Top Ten Mistakes, several children discuss and enact the top ten mistakes that can be made when peer editing by giving those mistakes names. These names encompass the general idea of each mistake:

• Picky Patty 
• Whatever William 
• Social Sammy 
• Jean the Generalizer 
• Mean Margaret 
• Loud Larry 
• Pushy Paula 
• Off-Task Oliver 
• Speedy Sandy 
• Defensive Dave

Overall

After looking at these videos and slideshow, I feel as if I am ready to begin the peer editing process with confidence. Before, I never knew where to start or how to provide advice that was appropriate without feeling mean about it; however, I have learned that there is no need to feel mean. Peer editing is all about bettering yourself and your partner. If you both stay on task, stay positive, and are specific, each of you should feel motivated to change and do better. The three steps provide an easy way to give meaningful feedback each and every time!

Remember: Stay Positive, Be Specific, and Follow All Three Steps!