Project #16

Hochiminh Group EDM 310

Savannah Price, Kelsey Sigler, Annie Nguyen, and myself were apart of the Hochiminh group. For our final project we chose to create an iBook instead of a Prezi. None of us knew how to make one at the beginning, but we finally figured it out. The final project was our journey as a group through EDM 310. Our iBook was made up of many different pages such as an autobiography of each group member, sentence videos, passion videos, book trailers, favorite blog posts, photos of each member, annotated photos, and a reflection of technology tools to use in the classroom.

I thought creating an iBook was neat and enjoyed making it. I liked the idea of putting all of our work we have done throughout this semester into one big project. I had never used a Mac before this class, much less iBook. With this project being done as a group, we did have trouble with getting everyone together at the same time, but we made it work. I have learned so many different things in this class and have really enjoyed it.

Blog Post 15

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.

Blog #10

I really enjoyed Sir Ken Robinson’s video, Bring on the Learning Revolution. It was a powerful message that spoke directly to me. He states that we need to revolutionize our teaching efforts to reach our youth better, instead of reformation. In today’s school systems, it seems that most teachers just go with flow and teach their curriculum with no enthusiasm and with no creative methods. Mr. Robinson states that the education system is giving into conformity. This means that teachers and students are just going with the flow and barely scraping the surface of their academic potential. As teachers, we have to be able recognize that students have different talents in different subjects. Each student is different and learns in different manners. It is our job to reach the kids in different ways so that they can reach their full potential. Also, as teachers, we must work with our students to find out what they enjoy the most. Many people in today’s world just skate through life without finding their true passion. They basically have nothing to live for because they haven’t found their passion or inspiration. Mr. Robinson compares today’s educational system to a fast food restaurant due to the fact that fast food does not provide nourishment to the body. We have to nourish our students so that they can grow and potentially become something great.



I found this video to be very inspiring to me. I got inspired to continue pursuing my goals to become a teacher and help my students reach their goals. My ultimate passion is helping young students reach their dreams. There are some days when I feel lazy and don’t feel like doing my work, but then I remember that one day my students will be counting on me to educate them and help them prepare for the real world. I feel that it is my responsibility to help my students in any way possible.

Project #15

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Project #12

Blog #9

Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Canada. In her video, "Little Kids... Big Potential", the kids love posting in their blogs. Not only do the students know how to blog, but they can do so much more such as videos, Skype, and WebPages. One of their favorite things about blogging is the comments they receive. It can be people they know and are close to, or people they don’t know. When commenting on other blogs, remember to be positive because you do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings. They use WebPages to find information and to help themselves learn. The students can make videos and use Skype to express what they learned about. I think it is awesome that young kids know so much about technology. They know way more than I ever knew when I was in the first grade.

I believe that the main idea of Ms Cassidy’s interview on blogging is the fact that she has her students do them regularly. The students are able to receive feedback from their blog post just as often as they post them. Blogs are available to essentially anyone that owns a computer; this makes the blogs more likely to receive a comment back to whatever the students post. The students really enjoy receiving comments and compliments on their blogs, and make them eager to do more with them. They enjoy being connected to the world. Through this video I can see that blogging can be a very useful tool and a fun way to engage my students in computer work.

Ms. Cassidy does not use much technology in her personal life. In Part 2 of her interview,she thinks that people should start in the area they are most interested in. It can be from blogger, Twitter, YouTube, or iMovie. There are so many tools out there that can be used. You can connect with so many people and learn so much through Twitter. She says if you are interested in making videos, then to start with YouTube or iMovie. I think these are all great educational tools for teachers to use.

Part 3 of the interview, Ms.Cassidy is asked questions from former EDM 310 students. She blogs about once a week with her classes now because she has a small class. It depends on what is going on during the year on how much her student’s blog. She does not think cheating is a problem when students look at each other’s blogs; she refers to it as collaborating. Ms. Cassidy talks about student’s safety when using technology. She encourages her student’s not use last name, post pictures of themselves, and being positive to others. The student’s should know which websites are okay to click on and not okay to click on. They should make sure not to click on things in the middle of a website or blinking/flashing things on the side. She explains to only look at educational things. I would definitely take into consideration these things when teaching.

Blog #8

Moodle is a learning stage designed to provide educators, administrators, and learners to create personalized learning environments. It has many tools for both teaching and learning. It focuses on interaction among the individuals. Moodle is easy to learn by using drag and drop features and documented resources. There are many things that you can use on Moodle such as chats, blogs, grading, assignments, online quizzes, forums, and sharing resources. By using this, it will allow my students to interact with each other, help each other with projects, and study for tests. There will be further resources for the students that I will post. If they have questions for the teacher, they can post online. More than one student may have the same question, so it will be up for everyone to see.

Socrative is a student response system. It allows teachers to engage in their classrooms by using educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. It is very easy to use and takes seconds to login. Teacher’s login and they can select the activity and control the flow of games and questions. The students respond by multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. The students can use this as a study tool. You can even use it as extra credit if they do the work on it.

C4T #2

The blog, Student Led Game Setup, was written by Jarrod Robinson. He used an interesting app called CoachNote, which I had never heard of. It is a coach whiteboard that includes all types of equipment that you might find in your storage room. One thing the app can do is take a picture that you can draw over. Once the teacher completes that, he shows it to the students at the beginning of the class. With this task, it shows the teacher how well the students work together. CoachNote is also used for communication with other teachers, so that the instructions are clear.

I have never heard of CoachNote before, but I think it would be very useful to teach in a Physical Education class. It seems that CoachNote has different things to do on it, not just one tool. I think this is a smart way to include technology in your class. It seems clear for the students to understand and would be effective. I will have to check it out sometime!

Jarrod Robinson shows different apps in his blog, Top Apps for PE Teachers- Part 31. Jump It is a task card resource for the teacher. It allows the student to develop their skills at their own pace. Army Fitness Tester is used to track the students’ progress with the fitness components. The United States Army Physical Fitness Test is used to test the muscular strength, endurance, and cardiovascular respiratory fitness for the soldiers in the Army. IceBreaker Games is designed to break the ice between groups of children and even adults. Sworkit Pro requires no equipment for up to 60 minute circuit training. All you have to do is choose the workout and how long you want to do it. There are a variety of workouts such as strength training, cardio, stretching, yoga, and a custom made workout.

Hey my name is Katherine and I am in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I think these are some useful apps to incorporate in P.E classes. They can help the students keep track of their fitness. I like the Jump It app because the student can develop their skills at their own pace and not having to feel left behind compared to another student.

Project #14

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Project #9

Project #13

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C4K Summary for February

Alex is a student in Ms. Toal’s class and wrote a blog about playing for Woodlawn football club. He started out as a striker, but he couldn’t score no matter how hard he tried. Then, he tried playing midfield, and wasn’t good at that either. The next year, he tried playing defense. He thought he had found his dream position and played defense for about half a year. Everyone was groaning about playing goalie, so he finally stood up and said, “I’ll do it”. His team had scored and was up 1-0. The other team tried to score, but Alex made an outstanding save. He got player of the game and till this day he still plays goalie.

Eric is a student in Mrs. Caddy's class and made an “About You” survey that consisted of ten questions. There were a variety of questions including favorite color, games, and cartoons. They had mentioned two questions about Mine craft, but I was not very familiar with it. He also asked what we liked and didn’t like. I am not sure if he was going to do anything with our answers or not. I have not seen anything else that is similar to this post.

Cynthia is a student in Ms. Ruiz’s 3rd period. She did her reflection on the book, Of Mice and Men. The title of the book should be “The Struggle”, because Lenny and George are having a hard time. When Lennie makes a mistake things become worse for them. Curley is the mean man and likes to pick on Lennie for not being smart or just for fun. George tells Lennie to stay away from Curley. Cynthia would not like to work with people like Curley because it would make her cry or lose her temper. She would get along with Lennie more than George though because he is nice and kind. George gives Lennie three rules to follow: stay away from Curley and his wife, speak when he is spoken to, and to go hide in a bush if he gets in trouble.

This student,thathippykid135, believes that the beach is not fun from personal experience. Some people enjoy the beach and some simply do not. One of their bad experiences occurred when they went with their older sister and her boyfriend. There were just too many people there and it was very loud. Their sister got a headache and had to sit in the car until it went away. They got sick and threw up from the salt water and got too much sun. They are scared of sharks, jellyfish, and other types of sea creatures.

Blog #7

Randy Pausch is known throughout the United States as a very inspirational speaker. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He has given many inspirational speeches throughout his life that are made to help you better your own life as well as pass the torch and make other people’s lives better.

In Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, the mood is a little bit different. We learn that Pausch has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; the doctors give him very little time to live. Even though he has been diagnosed with what will eventually lead to his death, he finds the strength to give his most powerful speech. Pausch will go into detail about his childhood, his dreams that become reality, his time as a college student, worker at Disney Imagineer, and professor.

We learn that during Randy’s childhood, he had several dreams which included going into space, playing in the NFL, meeting Captain Kirk off of Star Trek, becoming an Imagineer at Disney, and winning big stuffed animals at fairs. Throughout his life he eventually accomplishes all of these things except for playing in the NFL. Even though he did not play in the NFL, Pausch learns many valuable lessons while playing football as a nine year old boy. The first quote presented during his speech is: “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want”. This means that while Pausch did not make it to the NFL, he did learn about working hard during practice and finding out how bad you really want to achieve your goal. Another phrase that Pausch came up with is: “Brick walls are there to show how badly we want something”. Often times in life we are faced with challenges that may seem to overwhelm us when we are trying to achieve our goals. We learn that we have to learn how to push through this wall and overcome adversity to achieve our goals. We have to push ourselves if we want to be successful in this world. Nothing in this life comes without working hard for it. As teachers, we have to push our students to push themselves as hard as they can. Most students, in my opinion, don’t realize their full potential until they get out of their comfort zone and try to accomplish something once thought of as impossible. My goal as a teacher and coach is to push my students to be the best they can be. Another important concept Pausch introduces us to is called “head fake”. A head fake, in Pausch’s own words, simply states that the best way to teach someone something is to make them think they are learning something else. For example, take a group of kids to play a game of basketball. They think that they are out there to learn the game and learn the strategies behind it, but in retrospect, they are really learning communication skills and teamwork by speaking to each other on the court and passing the ball around trying to score. Also, by making learning fun helps keep your students engaged on the topic of communication and teamwork without them noticing.

In my opinion, the most important lessons that Pausch teaches us is toward the middle of the second half of his lecture. The first thing is that we cannot be successful in life on our own. We must help others out as much as we can along the way. He believes that karma is real in the fact that we get in return what we give. This means that if we help others out as much as we can, we in turn, will receive help from others when we most need it. He also states that we should not be afraid to ask for help. Second, we should always be honest in everything that we do. Not only should we take credit for the work that we do, we should also admit when we make mistakes. The best way to earn the respect of other people is to be honest. Personally, I like this concept the best. I appreciate when others are honest with me, therefore I must be honest with them to gain mutual respect. The last point Pausch makes is that we should focus on other people, not just ourselves. This is very important to me as a teacher because I will be engaging in young students lives every day at school. My students will look to me for guidance and leadership and it is my personal duty to help them out as best I can each and every day.

I really enjoyed listening to Pausch speak. He is very inspirational and opened my eyes to several key ideas that I can use daily while I teach and coach.

Blog #6

In Steven Alexander’s blog, Building Your PLN- A Primer For Anyone, he talks about how many people are familiar with PLC’s. The school based groups meet to collaborate and work on learning for the kids. PLN, Personal Learning Network, is the same concept, but taking it to a global scale and expanding it outside of your school. Developing PLN’s help extend your thinking. You don’t have to know everything, but there is a network with thousands of educators to ask questions and converse with.

As a teacher I will encounter many questions throughout my life. Getting the answers will be through PLN’s. A PLN is a network that consists of people that interact together to exchange and receive information. I think PLN’s will be useful for when I am an educator. We don’t know everything so having a PLN will be helpful to get other information and to ask questions.

I have started my PLN’s, but it is not that big. I think having a Twitter, Blogger and doing C4K’s (Comment for Kids), would be very useful for my students. On Twitter, the students can get to know different things by what others tweet out. Also, they can learn from other professionals such as two teachers in EDM, Dr. Strange and Dr. Vitulli. Blogging is another tool I would use for my PLN. By blogging, it helps reach out to other students and teachers and get their feedback. I think the C4K’s are an awesome idea. The students will get to interact with each other on the internet and see what they are doing in their classes. Symbaloo is a great tool to have while organizing your PLN’s so that you can flip back and forth on the computer, but still have all your PLN’s up.

Project #8

Project #7

My Sentence



My Passion

Blog Assignment #5

In the video, Project Based Learning Part 1: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher, Anthony Capps says projects are what you do at the end of a lesson to show what you learned. The goal now is not a means of what the students have achieved, but a means of getting them to learn something. The goal of a good project is to have an authentic audience, student interest, involve the community, and driven by content. Whenever he creates a project he thinks of something that will fit into the content standards. By covering the writing, reading, and social studies standards, he let his students send a letter to Jo Bonner. He also let the students use iCurio to research a female or minority historical figure that was successful when uncommon.



In this video,Project Based Learning Part 2: Experiences of a 3rd Grade Teacher, Dr. Strange interviews Anthony Capps. They discuss the teaching practice of Project Based Learning. Anthony Capps gave a great example of how he uses Project Based Learning in his third grade classroom. He had his students write a narrated script as if they were a child in Afghanistan. This gave the students the chance to explore their interests, state their point of view, and broaden their use of technology. I agree with Capps when he says that Project Based Learning is a way to really engage students. Their work is meaningful, and not just another worksheet to keep them busy. There was positive feedback from students, parents, and administrators. It wasn't just a learning process for the students, but also for Anthony Capps. I thought it was a great teaching strategy to use the feedback of students to help him develop the next project.



The third video, iCurio, an online tool which allows students to safely search websites for educational purposes. It allows the students to stop, and then pick right back up where they left off when they were researching information. Also, it can be used as storage for valuable content. The audio and video accessibility allows students with learning disabilities to prosper as well.



"If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a video is worth a million," Anthony Capps said about Discovery Education. Discovery Education is an online tool that uses audio, video, and pictures with textbook materials. Capps is very fond of Discovery Education, and believes that it helps students keep the information given to them in the videos. It is an amazing way for students to learn about social studies and science.



The video, The Anthony - Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1,Dr. Strange and Anthony Capps discusses what you can do as a teacher. This first thing is to be a learner. Dr. Strange stated that if you're not a good learner, then you cannot be a successful teacher. Being a teacher is hard work as well as exciting. The second thing to do is to be flexible; teachers will learn as they go meaning that their learning continues. They learn from their mistakes, and their successes to produce better instruction for the future. Finally, teachers need to figure out how to engage their students, and teach them to reflect on their own work. I feel like all of these goals are essential to be a great teacher. Teaching is not just reading off planned curriculum or handing out busy work; it is about how you can change the student’s life through learning while making them want to learn, and to be interested. Dr. Strange said there are more goals they need to cover in a later interview, and I looking forward to hearing those as well.



In the video, Don't Teach Tech - Use It Technology is still a controversial topic in today’s world. It should be part of your curriculum and shouldn’t be on your list of things to get. When designing projects, scaffold the technology you’re using. Technology is clean, sharable, and it’s real. The students will get used to using technology for later on in life when they are older. Let them use the technology for experience! They are not going to be perfect and are going to make mistakes. They are learning what they did wrong by reflection.



In the video, Additional Thought About Lessons, it says a lesson is at least four layers thick. How the lesson fits in with your year is the first layer. That means you are going to cover all of your content standards, and write a curriculum map to make sure that all contents are all covered. The second one is unit size. Devise unit projects to show that it meets the outcome that you are looking for. The third is that you want to be able to get everything done each week that you had planned. The last one is just as important as the other three; and that is how you are going to deliver the lesson each day. You want to keep them engaged while delivering the content. I think those are four important steps when creating lesson plans.

Blog Assignment #4

After reading, "The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom" by Ben Johnson, I realized that when teachers ask questions they aren't giving the students a chance to learn all the information. When teachers ask their students if they have any questions, it will benefit them more than the students. Many students will not raise their hand to ask questions when they really do because either they get embarrassed easily or they do not want to get made fun of. Because of this the teacher often moves onto the next lesson leaving students behind in the curriculum. A good way to make sure that the students understand the material is by calling on them. This allows the students who don't ask questions an opportunity to show that they understand the material.

The blog, "Asking Questions to Improve Learning", gives many different recommendations about asking questions, and also provides different ways to respond effectively. The article states not to ask lead questions so that the students will think on their own. Teachers should ask questions that are direct, clear, and specific. Making sure that students know the answers to these types of questions will help them with more in-depth questions. One strategy that really caught my attention is following an additional question to the "yes or no" questions. This makes the students explain their answers and show that they know and understand the material.

In the blog, "Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom", tells us too prepare questions, play with questions, and preserve good questions. Preparing questions will really benefit the students. The teacher will come to class ready with content, but when asking questions off of the top of their head, the students will not know the answer. Thinking the questions through more thoroughly will help make the question clearer. Playing with the questions gives the students a chance to think about the question and come up with several different answers. Preserving good questions shows the importance of questions. It shows how they make us think and learn. Through this, the students will start asking better questions.

Project #3 Presentation

C4T #1

Reflections and crystal balling is a blog written by Brendan Jones, a Physical Education teacher. Jones has just finished his 7th year of teaching. The blog begins with him explaining how he struggled after going back to school after being away at an office. He explains that he felt like an inexperienced teacher in front of all the classes he taught. However, by the end of the year he was able to feel more comfortable. In the blog, you see that he taught using ideas that were inspired by other educators. Jones also described how he would watch PEPLC and PEPRN to grow and stimulate global thinking and collaboration. Throughout the blog, Jones states about how he used videos, twitter, and ect to help him with his teaching. At the end of the blog, Jones talks about how his school will be using BYOD/ eTech and Google Apps for Education. Also, he is very enthusiastic about the new software and he will be trying to get the staff to like it as well. He ends the blog saying that he is passionate about engaging kids in Physical Education and he will be making their learning his core purpose.

Hi Jonsey, I was very intrigued by your post. I really did not know how much there was to being a Physical Education teacher. I admire how you praise other passionate operators like Bianca Hewes and her husband. I can see that you have a great deal of passion towards your work. I love that you care about wanting the kids to learn about Physical Education. I hope you have a great year of teaching!



Brendan Jones was wondering what types of things Physical Education teachers did in a blog called marking and feedback in P.E. He created a survey worldwide for the teachers. He collected the data that he received and turned it into a visual presentation using Spicynodes. By clicking on each node, it will give you a type effect. Only 14 people responded to his surgery. Though it was not a lot, it got responses to the questions he asked. There was not a lot of data about the task, homework, or tests from practical or theory classes. Marking and feedback mainly came from theory classes. He then posted an image that was a link to his Spicynode visualization.

I thought the Spicynode visualization was really cool. I found that it is a great way to get feedback from other teachers. There were many examples of feedback, I particularly liked the one about explaining to students how to improve their answers.

Blog Assignment #3

The video “What is Peer Editing?” explains that peer editing occurs with someone your own age by making suggestions, comments, compliments, and changes. There are three important steps to peer editing. The first is complimenting the peer by staying positive; make compliments by saying how well the person did. The second step is making suggestions like word choice, details, organization, sentences, and topics. The last step to peer editing is corrections by checking the punctuation, grammar, sentences and spelling.

Peer editing is fun, but you have to learn how to do it first. In the slideshow “Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial”, I learned that the definition of peer editing, just like in the first video, that it is working with someone your own age by helping them improve, edit, and revise. When giving compliments, make sure to tell the person what you thought they did well on. Give the author of the paper specific details in suggestions. Lastly, make sure you make corrections on the paper.

In the video “Writing Peer Reviews Top 10 Mistakes”, shows 10 things that you should not do when peer editing. Picky Patty picks out every single detail in the paper. Whatever William does not care what is wrong in his paper. Social Sammy is too busy talking to other classmates instead of getting his work done. Jean the Generalizer does not give specific details in the peer’s paper. Mean Margaret criticizes her peer by making the other person feel bad about their mistakes. Loud Larry is just too loud. Pushy Paula needs to make sure her facts are correct before correcting other people. Off- task Oliver is worried about everything else he can think of instead of doing peer editing. Speedy Sandy needs to slow down and take her time to help out her peer. Defensive Dave needs to be respectful toward his peer editor, and not get defensive when he tells him something is wrong.

Blog Assignment #2

Mr. Dancealot

The central message of this video must engage with his students about the material he is teaching. Different teaching styles are required for different subjects, thus making student-teacher interaction a vital part in instructing ones' students. For example, students cannot simply learn dance moves without a proper example and practicing the moves themselves. The author makes this point very clear, as shown throughout the video. During the video, the students became confused with dance steps; and as a result, became disinterested and were unsure how to prepare for the final dance. I completely agree with the message the author is sending throughout the video. The teacher must be able to master the craft he or she is teaching and be able to get the students involved through hands on activities and encouraging questions. The teachers goal should be to broaden their students knowledge of the material as much as possible.

Teaching in the 21st Century

After watching the video by Kevin Roberts, Teaching in the 21st Century, I have a better understanding on how different learning styles are now than they were in the 20th century. Due to this fact, Roberts explains that teaching is no longer the same either. In the beginning of the video, Roberts explains how everyday questions such as, "What is the capital of Alabama?" or "Who is the 35th president of the United States?", can simply be answered by going on the internet. With technology making huge strides forward everyday, all information a student will ever is just a click away. However, Roberts explains that teachers are "filters"; meaning that teachers are able to go into more detail when a student asks a question. Teachers are able to engage with students and teach them through experience, which cannot be gained from the internet. Technology is great in the aspect that it helps obtain information faster; but teachers are there to make it easier to understand. Roberts states the he wants schools to revert to online teaching. I do not agree with this. As humans, we are social creatures, we like to learn from one another, engage, make bonds, and share life lessons. Online teaching takes us away from the instinct to be social with other humans. Students will not be able to advance and fully grasp the aspect of what they are learning through visuals; they have to experience it themselves.

The Networked Student

During the video, The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler, I was very intrigued by the learning approach connectivism. Connectivism states that one can use a network of students to help with finding resources. I feel that the video is trying to show that teachers are not there to teach information, but to help build a student's network. Some people ask, "Why do we even need teachers?", my answer is we need teachers to help students be able to filter the information needed. Also, the main focus should not just be a technology aspect; life experiences can help students learn too. Watching a video online does not help a student feel the emotion or understand the content. Even though some students are able to fully understand the content, they don't fully grasp why they are getting the information. In this case, the student needs a teacher to guide them to full understanding.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Davis' thesis explains that the empowering students provide a better classroom. Davis believes that teachers should give students the chance to explore and broaden their knowledge on their own. It really shows the student that they are smart and important. Davis uses the internet to spark the students' interest and gets them to connect and share their knowledge with other students worldwide. With technology growing fast, I feel that it is a good idea for students to get involved in this manner.

Flipping the Classroom

Flipping in the classroom is somewhat new to me. I have seen this in college, but not in high school nor grade school. I can see this approach being very useful to me as a teacher to an extent. I say that because there will be some families that are not as technologically up to date as others. Some of the kids will have to go to school to get the lesson, but one has to take into account that some students will focus on other things rather than online instructions. In all, there will always be problems with flipping.