Project 16: Final Reflection

Project 16

Blog Post 13

This week we are required to create our "own" blog post.

Directions to blog post: Write about the most important lessons you’ve learned in your life – What is more kind than helping others and analyzing yourself at the same time?

My Post: Growing up, I have learned many things and been through many tough situations. One of the hardest lessons in life to learn is figuring out which bridges to cross and which to burn. I have always been a person who had trouble with making big decisions on my own. When it would come down to making a decision on my own, I would usually freeze up or ask a lot of other people for advice. I know it is good to ask others for advice but sometimes you have to go with your own state of mind and do what you think is best. As I've gotten older, I have learned the hard way through some situations but I appreciate them because they taught me a lot. One of the biggest lessons that I have learned from is choosing my friends wisely. I know we all can relate to this one but I know everyone has or will come across this one day in life. Sometimes you think you may know a person really well but you soon find out who they "really" are once they show their true colors. This was a situation that I learned the hard way. At the time, I didn't understand why it was happening but now that I look back at everything I understand why I GOD chose a different route for me.

C4K Summary

C4K#1: My student's name is Bradley and he is a 5th year student. In his blog post, he posted a picture of a math worksheet that had his answers on there as well.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. As I was viewing your blog, I could tell that you enjoy math. Math is actually my favorite subject. Growing up, I hated math with a passion but as I got older I began to love it. C4K#2: My student's name is Germaine and he is a 4 year student. In his blog post, he created a video on a butterfly animation. It showed how they lay eggs and turn into a caterpillar caterpillar.

My comment:My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed watching your butterfly animation. Your pictures are very colorful and pretty. Keep up the good work!

C4K#3: My student's name is Roimata and she is a year 5 student at Pt England School in Auckland, NZ. In her blog post, she put up a picture of a dog. She said that she looked it up on the internet and copy and pasted it to her blog.

My comment:My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I really love your picture. I used to have a dog that looked almost like the one in the picture, but he passed away when I was younger.

C4T Summary

C4T#1:I had the pleasure of reading the blog of Silvia Tolisano. In her blog post, she was discussing how to get students and teachers excited about poetry. Her page was full of tweets with poetry lines in them. She felt like this would be good practice for students to develop better writing skills.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am actually a fan of poetry myself. Back when I was in elementary school, I enjoyed the different activities on learning new poetry. I never liked writing papers but writing poetry was always an excitement for me.

C4T#2: In her blog post this week, she discussed an event that she created for her students during earth day. This project includes creating an image of earth from the ground up and collecting portraits of the people of earth. Once they have gathered all their information and pictures, they will then create a mosaic image of earth.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I think this is a really good idea to get students involved with earth day events. A lot of people look over this day but I feel like it is important because it is a great opportunity to raise money to help save the earth that we live on. This is our home so we should cherish it and be willing to do whatever it takes to keep it clean and alive.

Project 12: SmartBoard Part B

Project Overview

Project Calendar

Blog Post 12

After watching the Video Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children, I found it to be very inspirational to me. Seeing how the teachers were very active and embracing their students with care and guidance was amazing. I feel like it is only fair that students with disabilities should get as much proper education as the normal students. Using these technologies can really benefit children and help them develop many learning skills. These tools can really change and inspire a person's life. The next Video, Teaching Math to the Blind, was also another inspiring video on teaching students with hearing and vision disabilities. I have never heard of this board before in my life but soon as I watched the video I was very amazed at how someone had developed such a helpful tool for these students. This device will really help the students with beginning algebra and further on. Another Video I watched was The Mountbatten, and I learned many cool things about this piece of technology. This tool can do just about everything a regular computer or laptop can do. It saves files, receives files from a computer, and transfer files from a computer.

Project 10

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Video3

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C4K Summary

C4K #1: My student's name was Meliana and she is in the second grade. In her blog post, she talks about how she thinks fitness is fun and healthy.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. You drew a very pretty picture. I think fitness is very important as well because it keeps you healthy and in shape.

C4K #2:My student's name was Wakatere and he is in the 6th grade. In his blog post, he has created a bio poem. It talked about his family, things he enjoy, how he dislikes his siblings, and things that describe him.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your bio poem. I am actually an only child in my family. I wish I had siblings to fight and play with. I agree, dying is definitely a scary thought to think about. I would say that we have a couple of things in common because I am also a kind, fun, and energetic person too.

C4K #3: My student's name was Dhara and she is in the 7th grade. In her blog post, she created a video saying when the holidays come around she eats all the food.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I enjoyed watching your food animation video. I enjoy the holidays myself because you get to eat home cooked meals and spend time with family members.

Blog 11

Power Point

C4T Summary

C4T #1: I enjoyed reading the blog of David Wee. In his blog post, he discussed how a new invention called the PARCC which is computer based, that is set up to make math test a lot easier and less stressful for students. Even though computers are a big distraction when taking a test, this new invention will eliminate these issues as much as possible. This assessment will still require a math teacher present in the classroom. The majority of the questions on the test are multiple choice questions and some created where you type in the answer. This is a new program that Dan Meyer and his company have put together and they are still trying to add and fix things to make it better. The purpose of this program is to develop a new function that is better than just basic standardized test.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter. I am a student at the University of South Alabama and I am an elementary education major. I am currently taking the EDM 310 class and I am required to comment on your blog post. As I was reading over your post, this new program seems very unique program that will develop many new ways to get students engaged in the lesson and help them want to learn everyday. Trying new things is always a good idea because kids learn so many ways and you never know what may really help a student succeed.

C4T #2: In this blog post, there was an old video taped of a scientist who was explaining an invention that had been created. Under the video, Mr. Wee's stated no matter how many times you rewind it you still will not understand what is going on in the video. I think the point he is trying to make here is that it is good to expand your vocabulary skills so that you will be knowledgable to a lot more and understand the concept of things. Also, I feel like he is stating how science is a subject that should not be just lectured but have experiments and activities that go along with it so the students can get hands on to understand it better.

My comment: I feel like this was a good example to post in your blog. Many people think it is only one way to teach something for others to understand it. This clearly shows that this video is a bit hard for some to understand. Lecturing is not always a big help to some people. People learn many different ways whether it's hands on, listening to an audio, visual, or just plain lecturing.

Project 12: Smart Board Part A

Project 15

For this week, my lesson plan is desgned for 1st graders. The students will create a PowerPoint presentation using one of their photographs they chose to talk about. Each student will present their PowerPoint narrating the story behind the photograph to the class. Listed below is the lesson plan, calendar, and rubric.

Project Overview

Project Calendar

Rubric

Project 14

For this week, my lesson plan is for 2nd graders. The students will describe one of the four similar objects to their classmates. The class will then try to guess which object it is. Listed below is the lesson plan and calender.

Project Overview

Project Calendar

Blog Post 10

As I watched the video on Sir Ken Robinson, he stated some really positive points about the learning process for children today. One of his points was how some of the teaching methods that teachers are using today in the classroom have been outdated. I actually agree with this because everyday something is being created to help better future teaching and learning for the upcoming students. This is something that teachers need to be aware of because they never know what methods they could come across that will really help some of their students. Another point he focuses on is how students should build their own knowledge and skills by themsleves. They should be open to ideas and explore their thoughts and dreams. As a future educator, I plan to be open to all ideas and teaching methods for my students. I want to do everything I can possibley do to make their learning experience a successful one.

Project 13

My group is the Boston group. For the lesson plan we created, the students will describe how their family culture is different from the countries watched on the documentary. Next, students will research on a selected country and present the country to the class by using a trifold board. Listed below is the calender, lesson plan, and rubric.

Project Overview

Project Calender

Rubric

Blog Post 9

While watching Ms. Cassidy's video, I was extremely impressed by these first graders and how they were very knowledgable with technology. I remember back when I was in the first grade and we were only using chalk boards and dry erase boards. These students were very bright and eager to learn new things. They were excited about using new pieces of technology to help better their learning skills. They learned how to create a blog, write out an acutal blog, use skype with other students, and explore the internet for things they may need. What really caught my attention was when one of the students stated that using their blog has helped them become better with their grammer. You never know what may be an advantage to students when it comes to learning. This video was definitely an inspiration to me because it really shows how technology can have a big impact on children's lives.

As I watched the interview videos, I learned that Ms. Cassidy was first involved with technology about 10 years ago. In her classroom, they only gave her five computers to start with. This was not enough for her students and she wanted more. So she started her journey with technology and created a blog, web pages, and other social networks. She also talks about how you need to start out with what interest you the most. What you want to get more involved in. Everyone likes different things so its important to find out what best fits you. Another thing she stated was that she feels like the internet is not cheating. It's actually benefical to the students and helps students collaborate with other students. I must say that Ms. Cassidy's journey has been a big success and she stresses how important it is for teachers to be technological literate in the classroom to better their students knowledge.

Blog Post 8

Adapted Mind is a website that children can use to expand their learning skills. This website goes up to grades one through six. There are many different activities your students can use to help them do well. This website is set up where it will show them videos on the lesson first. Then it will give them a couple of practice questions to work on. At the end, they will have to complete a worksheet that will be graded. Also, they provide a progress report of their graded work showing what they did well on and the areas they need help in. It also tells you their average each time so you can compare whether they did better or worse that time. Another fun thing they do is give out badges each time the students perform well on an assignment. This is really great because this rewards the students and makes them feel good about themselves.

C4T Summary #2

Summary #1: I enjoyed reading the blog of Tyler Rice. While reading his blog post, he talks about how important it is to ask better and understandable questions to your students. He expresses that his goals this year are to improve the questions he asks during lecture and developing one on one time with his students. Asking better questions will help develop better thinking skills, understanding, and discussions. He also feels that this technique will help his students rather than lecturing the entire time.

My comment: I am a student at the University of South Alabama and I am a elementary education major. I am currently taking the EDM 310m class and we are required to comment on your blog. While reading your post, I agree that it is important to make your students think deeply about the lesson that is being taught in class. Also, I think it is a great idea to ask better understandable questions because this will help impact the students learning.

Summary #2: As I listen to the song Mr. Rice shared on his blog, I could tell that it had a lot of meaning towards how some people felt about the education system. This song is definitely rated for an older crowd due to the language and being able to understand what it is talking about. It mainly discusses how each generation is very different from each other. Some children want to learn and some just want to be class clowns. Also, how some teachers actually take the time out to teach and how some just do whatever to make the time go by. It also talks about the teachers who care are underpaid when the ones who dont care deserve to be underpaid. Each generation gets lazier and lazier and it's not fair to the students who come to learn. Another thing it talks about is the motivation that some students have to learn and succeed in life verses the ones who come to school to waste other people's time and be a disruption in class.

My comment: My name is Sydney Potter. I attend the University of South Alabama and I am required to comment on your blog for this week. I really did enjoy the song. It’s more for an older crowd because youngsters wouldn’t be able to understand it that well. I could kind of see why it shouldn’t be played in schools because it is very opinionated and some people may get offended by the things that are said in the song. I agree with what you said, people should be more open to ideas and help improve the education system to become better instead of waiting on others to do it.

C4K Summary

C4K#1: My student's name is John and he is in the fourth grade. In his blog, he talked about his goals he had set for this years New Years Resolution. He wanted to help more around the house with chores, help his brothers and sister, and do good in school. My comment: You have some really great goals for this year. I think it is really sweet that you want to help your family out around the house. My New Years resolution for this year is to focus on my grades and graduating from college. If we both stick to our plan, I believe that we will accomplish our goals.

C4K#2: My student's name is Mariana and she is in the third grade. In her blog, she wrote a poem about puppies. She talked about how they are very fluffy, sweet, hyper, and fun to play with. My comment: I really enjoyed reading your poem. Puppies are definitely good pets for people. I have a puppy for a pet myself and I really enjoy having him around the house.

C4K#3: My student's name is Taylor and she is in the fourth grade. In her blog, she talked about herself and things she enjoyed doing. She said she has 11 brothers and sisters, she likes to sleep, play on her skateboard, and play outside. My comment: My name is Sydney Potter and I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am currently a junior and I am also an elementary education major. I am the only child in my family. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, playing volleyball, shopping, and reading.

C4K#4: My student's name is Janaya and she is in the third grade. In her blog, she talked about how important her mom is to her and how she really looks up to her. She expressed her feelings about how she felt towards her mom. She talked about how her mom is her hero and how she can depend on her for any and everything. My comment: As I was reading your blog, I could tell that we have a wonderful thing in common and that is having a great mother. Your mom reminds me a lot of my mother. She is very caring, loving, patient, and outstanding. Whenever I am in need, she is always there to guide me through. My mom has always been my number one role model in my life.