C4T #4

In Andrea Hernandez's blog Personalized Learning in a 1:1 Classroom: A Tour Through My Inbox, she explains briefly how 1:1 classroom works. She explains how she reaches her students through email and conducts lessons. All of the students work is done online. Mrs. Hernandez critiques their work and give hints and suggestions on how to make it better. I feel this is a good way to communicate with students since the students can not be in the classroom all the time. This provides a way for the teacher to always be available.

My name is Katherine Harvey and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I think using your email is a great way to interact with your students. It's provides the students with a way to contact you immediately. You can receive these email updates through your phone so that you can really from anywhere.



In Mrs. Hernandez's blog 5 Things I Wish Everyone Understood About Educational Technology, she explains that technology plays a big role with today's young students. Several students are more technologically advanced than middle aged people. Even still these students need guidance to learn how to utilize the technology to further their education. This means that as teachers, we have to get caught up with technology as well. She does not blame technology when it gets misused. This makes sense because the student is choosing to post hateful things on the internet. Mrs. Hernandez is a big fan of technology, but does believe that it has a dark side. There is a fine line between overusing technology and using it to expand students' minds.

My name is Katherine Harvey and I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I agree with the comments made in this blog. There has to be a balance between using technology in productive ways. I agree with the point made about younger students knowing more about technology than most of the older people. I believe that we have to keep them engaged in learning technologies so they can continue to learn.

C4K Summary for April

Kyan is a student in Mr. Somerville's class. He wrote his blog on BMX riding. There was a boy named Matthew who dreamed about riding a BMX bike. He wanted to race and do tricks like the older boys. He went home and begged his mom for a bike, so they went and looked. His bike was fast, shiny, and smooth. On the second day, he went to the track to try out his new bike. He tried to do some tricks, but was unsuccessful. He then met a boy named Josh, a professional biker. They then began their lessons.



Kali is a student from Auckland, New Zealand in Miss. Nalder's class. She wrote her blog about her chromebook. She likes to play math and typing games. She has a Xbox and PSP which she thinks is fun. She also has Call of Duty Black Ops 2.

Blog 13

What kind of apps on your iPod, iPhone, or iPad would help you develop a healthy lifestyle? Search the app store or internet for ideas for your blog.

Nike+ Running will map your runs, track your progress, and get the motivation to keep you going. It will track your distance, pace, time and calories burned with GPS, which will give you audio feedback when you run. You can activate Powersong which will help you reach your goal.



7 Minute Workout Challenge has 12 exercises that are performed for 30 seconds with 10 second intervals. It is a high-intensity training that requires little rest to result in higher daily metabolism. It only last 7 minutes long, but is equivalent of an hour long workout. This app requires no equipment so these exercises can be done anywhere.



MyFitnessPal is the fastest and easiest calorie counter. This is used to keep count of the calories you eat throughout the day. It is used to help you lose weight and stay healthy.

Blog 12

The Mountbatten

The Mountbatten is a device that is used for blind students. It writes in brail, which is the language used by the blind, and then a voice recorder says what the blind student is typing out loud. This is used so that the students can learn the brail language much faster than normal. This technology is very advanced and can also save and receive files. This technology allows the student to be involved in the classroom and receive feedback from the teacher. This technology sounds like a great idea to me. If I ever have a blind student, I would gladly incorporate this into my classroom. It would allow me to communicate with my student so they can learn everything I have to teach just like the rest of the students.



Teaching Math to The Blind-Professor Art Karshmer University of San Francisco

Professor Art Karshmer of the University of San Francisco,began this video expressing the difficulty of mathematics for blind students. He states that learning mathematical brail is much more difficult than learning words in brail. This is due to the fact that brail is read from left to right just as words are seen by people who can see. In the mathematical world it is much harder to read math problems from left to right. It is much easier to read them up and down instead. Professor Karshmer built a device using small blocks that have brail numbers and visual numbers on them. The student will be able to choose blocks and scan them using a barcode scanner. The scanner will them say the number out loud so the blind student knows what number they have in their hand. They will then place the number on a board, when this is done, a voice recorder will call out the row number letter and column number so that the student will know where it is. They will continue to put numbers down in there appropriate positions so that they can line their math problems up and down instead of left to right. This allows the blind students to learn math a lot faster. Professor Karshmer believes that this board can be used to teach addition and subtraction and everything in between all the way up to basic algebra. I really like this math board. Not only will it help blind students learn math, but also visual students. I would definitely use this technology in my classroom to help all of my students. I would allow my students to get into groups, and work together to learn basic math problems.

Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children

The video begins with examples of how partially blind and deaf students go through life every day. I couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to go through this. I found this video to mostly be a motivational video directed at teachers who could potentially have blind and/or deaf students in their classroom. The video show many examples of how deaf and blind students go through their day. Throughout the video, questions pop up such as, “Are you prepare?” and “ Are you doing enough to support these students?”. These questions speak directly to me as a teacher because I realize how important assistive technologies are to the hearing and vision impaired. It is our duties as teachers to ensure that all students, regardless of disability, have the opportunity to succeed and make the most of their lives.

Project #12 Part B

Project #10

C4T #3

C4T 1

In Mr. Jones's blog, GoPro in PE, he found out that using GPS data loggers would be useful for analyzing player movement when in games. Personally, he has used it to record for his cycling adventures. During that process, he found out he could use GoPro for his Physical Education classes and analyze the player’s point of view. A GoPro is not a requirement, but it is usable for physical activity. He hopes to use if for a student portfolio. It will demonstrate their participation is school activities and outside physical activities outside of school.

Hey Mr. Jones, this is Katherine Harvey from EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I think that a GoPro camera would be useful for group projects. The kids can see what they did right or wrong. They can log their activities so they can keep up with what they are doing. I hope you continue to use this in your class. Best of luck!



C4T 2

In the blog, “Emulator? Or Assimilator?”, Mr. Jones struggles when preparing for his upcoming semester. He is teaching several classes and has to come up with lesson plans. He also is expected to lead the staff team for the upcoming semester. Mr. Jones struggles with either coming up with new ideas to teach the students, or referring to old ways to teach the same material. Using the same old ways that are already established is known as emulating. In this section of the blog, Mr. Jones claims that the advice he has received is to “not reinvent the wheel”. This means to reuse old methods of teaching and project ideas for the upcoming year. He believes that emulating is the easiest method, but it is not the most satisfying, nor the longest lasting in the long run. He also has to be careful about making too much change and scaring the staff off when he presents his new ideas. He states that if the real world is drawing its influences from diverse places, the kids should be exposed to these new ideas to better prepare them for the real world. The other method, assimilation, is the development of new ideas and tools to reach students. One risk that the assimilation method takes is that if an idea or tool works in one situation, that doesn’t mean that it will work in another. Implementing new ideas and tools takes time to develop and change if needed. Many policies in today’s schools work very well now because it took years to make minor changes to make it as good as it is today. This is the problem with assimilation. We can’t throw a new idea or tool at unsuspecting students without making sure that this new tool will work. Unfortunately this may take some time. Personally, I believe that there has to be a balance between implementing new ideas and using old, established methods. While bringing new ideas and tools into the school system is a great idea, there should always be a back-up plan in case the new idea does not work. At the end of the day, making sure that the students understand the required material is the most important job of a teacher.

Hey Mr. Jones, this is Katherine Harvey from EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I believe that there is merit to both methods of teaching. I definitely agree that coming up with new ideas to present information is key to getting students to learn. Students learn in different ways, therefore we have to teach in different ways. At the same time though, there are established ways of presenting information that have worked for several years now. I believe that a combination of these two ideas must be incorporated depending on the situation of the students.

Blog 11

In Brian Crosby's video, we learn that he makes students accountable for their own education. He makes and assigns fun projects to keep his students interested. A fun project he created for his students was the High Hopes Project. This project allowed the students to take full responsibility and complete this project independently. They had to contact other students from different schools through only blogs. One of his main points from his lecture was to empower students to learn on their own. He mentioned that throughout a classroom, there is always a way for students to not only learn, but participate as well. The most important thing we learned from Mr. Crosby was when he lectured about high test scores. He believes that high test scores do not mean a more fun classroom or better education. He believes that a great education comes from birthright, rather than students attending a school with high scores.



In Blended Learning Cycle video, I learned that there are 5 E’s to learning science: engage, explore, explain, expand, and evaluate. The five E’s can be blended with online resources and classroom instruction. The learning blended cycle is created by combining the blended classroom and the 5 E’s. The video instructs us that it is okay to stop and make sure we have an understanding of what is going on. As a future teacher, we want our students to be able to take what they have learned and apply it to daily experiences. Mr. Paul Anderson states that blended learning is taking the techniques of online, mobile, and classroom learning and blending them together. Two things were presented in this video. One was the power of the question and the other was the power of learning. There are many ways to do it, such as start with a good question and/or hook. You have to have something that will get the students attention right off the bat. Next, you want the students to investigate, experiment, and use inquiry learning. You have a video, elaboration, review, and summary quiz. Mr. Anderson had several good points in his video. We think the Blended Learning Cycle is a great tool that will be very helpful in the classroom. It is a great approach for students to learn something and to help the students who are not so engaged in learning become more engaged.

After watching Mark Church's video on "Making Thinking Visible," we have learned that by giving students a driving question to focus on is a great way to begin a project. I believe it is very useful to actually give a question and have the children research and collaborate as a group. I really like how Mark Church had each group come up with a headline and share it with the class. By doing this, it allows the students to hear from each other and look into the topic in different perspectives. I also think that by looking at their headline two weeks from the beginning of the project really let's the student focus on how things change after hearing more about the subject. I believe it is a very good learning tool for students to have an idea about how something will happen, and then when the lesson is over they get to look back and make a new conclusion on the topic presented.

From Sam Pane's video, we learn how to be a Super Digital Citizen. I like how he used Superman as he began his lecture. It is very important to begin a lecture and capture the students attention. We can do this by associating the topic with something they all know about. Sam Pane really got his class involved when he used a Superman quote at the beginning of his lecture. The students in this 5th grade class are asked to create their own Super Digital Citizen comic character. From Sam Pane, we can learn that it is important to talk about internet safety with the class before a project like this is started. He incorporated internet safety into a Super Hero character. We can also learn that it is important to create your own Digital Citizen to show the class how to prepare one before setting them loose on their own. I agree with Pane in that using the students own picture gives them a sense of ownership with their comic. By building comics, students can analyze structure and really build a complete narrative. We can learn that it is important for the students to be able to go around and look at their peers to get ideas about their own citizen. I really enjoyed watching this video, and we can learn a lot about teaching from Sam Pane. Some take home messages from this video include: analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to text, write narratives to develop imagined experiences or events, and ask and answer questions.



In the video, Project Based Learning, we learn in the beginning that the students were having a tough time engaging in their work and were disinterested. The teachers do not have enough time to cover all the necessary material. Using Project Based Learning, they get a deeper understanding of the material. Prior to using Project Based Learning the teachers ran into several roadblocks while teaching their students. These roadblocks include trying to cross curriculum. As explained in the video, Canadian History and Canadian Literature should not be hard to do, but due to limited time the teachers could not go into enough detail on these subjects. Incorporating Project Based Learning into the classrooms the teachers were able to spend more time with their kids. By combining curriculum, the students gained more time in the classroom and were better able to go into detail about their projects. This made the students engage in their work and produce something they could be proud of. The students also learned a great deal of Canadian culture that was not a part of the curriculum. For instance, the students learned about poverty, giving back to the community, and how to become a better citizen. I agree with the teachers in this video about the fact that the time in the classroom is limited and that as teachers we have to get our students to enjoy the subjects we are trying to teach. Project Based Learning is a very helpful strategy that should be incorporated into all the classes. It allows the students to work together and do the research, and really go into detail about the subject.

According to the video, Roosevelt Elementary’s PBL program, PBL consists of five different things: in depth learning, integrated thematic instruction, based on a real world problem, research based, project and presentation. The teachers at Roosevelt Elementary collaborate together to come up with projects for their students to do. They always make sure to use the state standards as guidelines for what they want their students to learn. On top of that, skills such as teamwork, doing research, and developing real world problem solving skills are learned. That is what makes PBL so successful and special to the students. The parents of these students really like this program and think that it is a very good program for their kids. The PBL program at this school also allows their students to make their own decisions about how to do their project. All students learn in different ways and allowing them to make their own decisions, allow the students to think critically on their own and learn the material their way. The teachers also incorporate public speaking into the presentations. They recognize that in the real world, being able to communicate with one’s workers and speak correctly in front of them is a great way to get a job or a promotion. Getting the kids to be able to speak correctly in front of people at such a young age will only benefit them in the future. All teachers agree that PBL gets all the kids involved in their school work. They all agree that PBL is much better than having students sit in their desks for hours on end. Using PBL they get involved in a subject and with each other. They find out that other students have different learning styles, and the learn how to work together. PBL is also a good way to combine the curriculum of different subjects. For example one topic might include a state standard from the writing section, reading section, history section, and speech section. This allows more material to be learned in a smaller time frame and the students seem to enjoy PBL more. All the parents that send their kids to this school agree that PBL is the best way to teach them is through PBL. I really enjoyed hearing about the success that PBL is having at Roosevelt Elementary. It is inspiring to hear about these kids dedicating themselves to their school work and learning as much as they can. I believe that PBL is a great teaching strategy, mostly because it can incorporate different subjects into a small time frame. Also within the small window, the students learn how to work together and put together presentations.

C4K Summary for March

Faauiga's is a student in Mrs. She's class in Auckland, New Zealand. She attends Pt. England School. At Ambury Farm, they go into the chickens house and feed them. They put the eggs down and the chickens look at them.



Calvin wrote a blog on his goals that he wants to achieve for the year. He was most proud of joining the rugby team and taking part in after school activities. He wants to move up a whole year in reading by reading a lot more books. By posting more things on his blog will not move him backwards in writing. The most important learning area he wants to improve on is math by learning basic facts because he is struggling. He wants to show that he is caring by helping people that are struggling and to cheer them up. He hopes to have self-management by completing all the tasks that he is supposed to complete. Keeping on track and being responsible for his decisions is his goal around the school. His parent’s goal is to keep moving forward and to be teachers favorite.



Mosa talked about Sir Edmund Hillary in his blog. Edmund Hillary was born July 20, 1919. in Auckland, New Zealand. He and his partner Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach the top of Mount Everest. As a child he was shy, but loved to work. He found out that he loved climbing on his trip to Mount Ruapehu. At the age of 20, he climbed Mount Ollivier. Math and science were his favorite subjects. During World War ll he joined the Air Force and suffered a serious burn in a boating accident. He was determined to climb the world’s highest mountain. In 1953, John Hunt led the ninth British expedition to Mount Everest. They carved a route to South Col and the Khumu Icefall. Hillary then had his chance to climb the mountain after Hunt turned back. Hillary and Norgay were the first to reach the top of the 29,029- foot peak on May 29, 1953, at 11:30 am. While they were up there, they dug a hole in which Norgay filled with sweets and Hillary buried a crucifix. The conquest of Mount Everest was announced on the eve of Queen Elizabeth ll coronation. She then knighted Hillary when he returned to Britain.