Sunday, December 9, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Blog Post #13
Brian Crosby- Back to the Future
Mr. Crosby is an elementary school teacher who teaches to at risk children. Many of the children in his classroom do not know basic information such as: what city they live in, what country they live in, or even their home address. However, with Mr. Crosby's help not only will they learn that information, but they will be exposed to teaching and learning like they have never seen. In Mr. Crosby's classroom he has a laptop per student and they use it for almost all of their activities. Not only do his students use laptops, but they each have their own blog (sound familiar?). They conduct science experiments in the classroom and then conduct their own. After they have conducted their experiment and videoed it, they must then write about the experiment. So just in this one assignment alone, these students are learning science and language arts without even cracking a book. Mr. Crosby wants to take these kids who are "in the box" thinkers and take them out of that box.
One of the coolest experiments that Mr. Crosby spoke about, is when the students, with the help of local college students, sent a balloon to outer space. They attached a camera to the balloon and were able to get some amazing pictures of the earth from outer space. After the balloon returned to earth, Mr. Crosby had his students write a story as if they were the balloon. Here, he hits on language arts again. They were also able to make a wiki page about the balloon and design trading cards with the images from its journey. Along with the balloon, students were told to make high hope notes. These were notes about what they hoped they could accomplish in the future, and what they hoped the world would be like in the future. Through the use of their blog, the students were able to get other peoples high hopes from around the world as well. Everyone's high hopes were sent up with the balloon, which I think is a really awesome idea. Just from this one experiment, Mr. Crosby's students were able do many activities that were encouraging them to learn without making them even realize it. You know, it's amazing how fun learning can be when you can actually interact with what you are studying.
My dad always says that the best way to learn something is to do it, not just read about it. You can read all you want about changing oil in a vehicle, but until you get under it and make a few mistakes, you will never truly learn how to change oil properly. Mr. Crosby has made his learning hands on and I'm sure his students appreciate him for it. They may not conduct an experiment perfect the first time, but that is what learning is about. He doesn't believe a kid should be taught, but rather, they should be empowered to learn. Welcome to 21st century learning, kids. Now, go and learn!
A Vision of Students Today
This is one of many videos made by Michael Wesch. In this video, he shows that in a classroom today, class sizes are too large and outdated. Universities, for the most part, teach students in the same manner that they have been teaching for the last 200 years. It shows that many of the students who bring computers to class are not even using it for educational purposes while in the classroom. Rather, students are searching Facebook or some other social networking site instead of paying attention. Another point that was brought forth was that many students pay for expensive books but never even have to crack them. That may be because the teacher likes for the students just to take notes, or because the student feels it is unnecessary to read for the class. Either way, whether its the student's prerogative or the teacher's not to use the book, it is a complete waste of money.
I can very much relate to the students point of view. We are in the 21st century, yet education is still in the 19th century. I'm not saying that students do not learn anymore, because we do. If the professors and teachers at universities really want to run an excellent university, then get rid of this old teaching style. Bring technology into the classroom and stop being so afraid of it. If students had interactive lessons on their laptops that can be used in class, then maybe the students would be more interested in learning. As Mr. Crosby said in the earlier video, teachers teach kids how to be taught in this old way of teaching. Instead of teaching kids how to be taught, teachers should empower kids to learn. In other words, teachers need to adapt to the students and get on their level and really interact with the students. This might sound like a childish type of teaching, but it is the best form of teaching. Would you rather read a book on how to change oil in a vehicle, or learn by actually getting under the car and changing that oil?
I feel that universities are terrified of technology in the classroom. Lecture halls can seat up to 200 people and that is perfectly fine with the administration. Class sizes need to be smaller if universities really want to make sure that their education really "hits home." In a lecture hall, students are being taught "burp-back" information and will leave that hall really learning nothing. It is time for universities to flip the classroom and make the students empowered to learn.
Mr. Crosby is an elementary school teacher who teaches to at risk children. Many of the children in his classroom do not know basic information such as: what city they live in, what country they live in, or even their home address. However, with Mr. Crosby's help not only will they learn that information, but they will be exposed to teaching and learning like they have never seen. In Mr. Crosby's classroom he has a laptop per student and they use it for almost all of their activities. Not only do his students use laptops, but they each have their own blog (sound familiar?). They conduct science experiments in the classroom and then conduct their own. After they have conducted their experiment and videoed it, they must then write about the experiment. So just in this one assignment alone, these students are learning science and language arts without even cracking a book. Mr. Crosby wants to take these kids who are "in the box" thinkers and take them out of that box.
One of the coolest experiments that Mr. Crosby spoke about, is when the students, with the help of local college students, sent a balloon to outer space. They attached a camera to the balloon and were able to get some amazing pictures of the earth from outer space. After the balloon returned to earth, Mr. Crosby had his students write a story as if they were the balloon. Here, he hits on language arts again. They were also able to make a wiki page about the balloon and design trading cards with the images from its journey. Along with the balloon, students were told to make high hope notes. These were notes about what they hoped they could accomplish in the future, and what they hoped the world would be like in the future. Through the use of their blog, the students were able to get other peoples high hopes from around the world as well. Everyone's high hopes were sent up with the balloon, which I think is a really awesome idea. Just from this one experiment, Mr. Crosby's students were able do many activities that were encouraging them to learn without making them even realize it. You know, it's amazing how fun learning can be when you can actually interact with what you are studying.
My dad always says that the best way to learn something is to do it, not just read about it. You can read all you want about changing oil in a vehicle, but until you get under it and make a few mistakes, you will never truly learn how to change oil properly. Mr. Crosby has made his learning hands on and I'm sure his students appreciate him for it. They may not conduct an experiment perfect the first time, but that is what learning is about. He doesn't believe a kid should be taught, but rather, they should be empowered to learn. Welcome to 21st century learning, kids. Now, go and learn!
A Vision of Students Today
This is one of many videos made by Michael Wesch. In this video, he shows that in a classroom today, class sizes are too large and outdated. Universities, for the most part, teach students in the same manner that they have been teaching for the last 200 years. It shows that many of the students who bring computers to class are not even using it for educational purposes while in the classroom. Rather, students are searching Facebook or some other social networking site instead of paying attention. Another point that was brought forth was that many students pay for expensive books but never even have to crack them. That may be because the teacher likes for the students just to take notes, or because the student feels it is unnecessary to read for the class. Either way, whether its the student's prerogative or the teacher's not to use the book, it is a complete waste of money.
I can very much relate to the students point of view. We are in the 21st century, yet education is still in the 19th century. I'm not saying that students do not learn anymore, because we do. If the professors and teachers at universities really want to run an excellent university, then get rid of this old teaching style. Bring technology into the classroom and stop being so afraid of it. If students had interactive lessons on their laptops that can be used in class, then maybe the students would be more interested in learning. As Mr. Crosby said in the earlier video, teachers teach kids how to be taught in this old way of teaching. Instead of teaching kids how to be taught, teachers should empower kids to learn. In other words, teachers need to adapt to the students and get on their level and really interact with the students. This might sound like a childish type of teaching, but it is the best form of teaching. Would you rather read a book on how to change oil in a vehicle, or learn by actually getting under the car and changing that oil?
I feel that universities are terrified of technology in the classroom. Lecture halls can seat up to 200 people and that is perfectly fine with the administration. Class sizes need to be smaller if universities really want to make sure that their education really "hits home." In a lecture hall, students are being taught "burp-back" information and will leave that hall really learning nothing. It is time for universities to flip the classroom and make the students empowered to learn.
C4T #4
Post 1
I was assigned to read Mary Worrell's blog, See Mary Teach, for my C4T #4 assignments. Ms. Worrell is an American teacher in the Netherlands. In her most recent blog post, Embracing the grey area, Ms. Worrell discusses many grey areas that she has recently encountered through writing her Middle Years Programme (MYP) curriculum. In her first year, Ms. Worrell was excited about being given the opportunity to write her own Language Arts and Technology curriculum without state mandated standards to follow. She decided not to order any textbooks which shifted her focus to online short stories and her sister school's library. Ms. Worrell quickly learned that she made a huge mistake! She found the process exhausting, rather than enjoyable, like she thought. She didn't have any guidelines to follow and spent more time researching than she had hoped. In her second year, Ms. Worrell decided to order textbooks, which she thought she would dread, but it turned out that it was one of the best decisions that she could make. Ms. Worrell discovered how to effectively use textbooks in the classroom... using textbooks as a teacher's guide. The textbooks saved Ms. Worrell a lot of time and allowed her to create more effective lessons for her students. It also made her fall back in love with teaching.
In my comment for Ms. Worrell, I agreed that there are many grey areas in education. Teachers in the United States have come to rely on textbooks as their main instruction. I agreed with Ms. Worrell in that textbooks can be extremely effective tools in our classroom if they are used correctly. I believe that textbooks should be a guide to our instruction, not our means of instruction. I can't imagine teaching without having a textbook to go off of to get reliable information to incorporate into my lessons. Textbooks and technology should be used together to create effective instruction in our classrooms.
Post 2
Ms. Worrell did not have any new posts after my original comment, so I went to one of her previous posts that caught my attention. Experimenting with gifs was posted on July 25. In her post, Ms. Worrell shares about the opportunity she had in one of her graduate level classes to create a GIF that explains the feelings she had during her summer semester. The feelings included nervousness, freaking out, confidence, and accomplishment. Please follow the link attached to each feeling to see the GIF that Ms. Worrell and her classmates created for their class. Be sure to let the GIF fully load before you watch it.
In my comment for Ms. Worrell, I shared how much I enjoyed watching the GIFs that were posted. I would like to learn how to make a GIF, but she failed to share how she created them. I asked her what website she used to create her GIF because I am interested in creating one for my blog. I googled free GIF generators, but I never found one that I really liked. I thanked her for sharing her GIFs on her website.
I was assigned to read Mary Worrell's blog, See Mary Teach, for my C4T #4 assignments. Ms. Worrell is an American teacher in the Netherlands. In her most recent blog post, Embracing the grey area, Ms. Worrell discusses many grey areas that she has recently encountered through writing her Middle Years Programme (MYP) curriculum. In her first year, Ms. Worrell was excited about being given the opportunity to write her own Language Arts and Technology curriculum without state mandated standards to follow. She decided not to order any textbooks which shifted her focus to online short stories and her sister school's library. Ms. Worrell quickly learned that she made a huge mistake! She found the process exhausting, rather than enjoyable, like she thought. She didn't have any guidelines to follow and spent more time researching than she had hoped. In her second year, Ms. Worrell decided to order textbooks, which she thought she would dread, but it turned out that it was one of the best decisions that she could make. Ms. Worrell discovered how to effectively use textbooks in the classroom... using textbooks as a teacher's guide. The textbooks saved Ms. Worrell a lot of time and allowed her to create more effective lessons for her students. It also made her fall back in love with teaching.In my comment for Ms. Worrell, I agreed that there are many grey areas in education. Teachers in the United States have come to rely on textbooks as their main instruction. I agreed with Ms. Worrell in that textbooks can be extremely effective tools in our classroom if they are used correctly. I believe that textbooks should be a guide to our instruction, not our means of instruction. I can't imagine teaching without having a textbook to go off of to get reliable information to incorporate into my lessons. Textbooks and technology should be used together to create effective instruction in our classrooms.
Post 2
Ms. Worrell did not have any new posts after my original comment, so I went to one of her previous posts that caught my attention. Experimenting with gifs was posted on July 25. In her post, Ms. Worrell shares about the opportunity she had in one of her graduate level classes to create a GIF that explains the feelings she had during her summer semester. The feelings included nervousness, freaking out, confidence, and accomplishment. Please follow the link attached to each feeling to see the GIF that Ms. Worrell and her classmates created for their class. Be sure to let the GIF fully load before you watch it.
In my comment for Ms. Worrell, I shared how much I enjoyed watching the GIFs that were posted. I would like to learn how to make a GIF, but she failed to share how she created them. I asked her what website she used to create her GIF because I am interested in creating one for my blog. I googled free GIF generators, but I never found one that I really liked. I thanked her for sharing her GIFs on her website.
Final Report on PLN
C4K: The Month of November
C4K #7- Special Edition
The blog I was assigned to was made by Dr. Paige Vitulli and Dr. Susan Santoli and they kept us, students at the University of South Alabama, updated on their trip to Ireland. Unfortunately, I was given their very first post to comment on and all it said was: "We have created this Blog to share our journey through Ireland in October."
Here's the comment I left Dr. Vitulli and Dr. Santoli:
Hi, my name is Michael Morris and I am a student in EDM 310 at USA. I think it is really great that you took the time to blog about your trip to Ireland. I'm sure that you learned a lot about the country and I hope that you had a great time. Thanks for blogging to keep everyone in the College of Education updated on your trip!
Hey Laycee! The book you are talking about, “The Witch of Blackbird Pond”, sounds really interesting. What made it just okay? Was it written in a boring style? The plot that you described sounds like it would be a good book. Comment back!
P.S. Your blog is really good. keep up with it more if you can!
Well I don’t really like to read about the Salem Witch Trials. Also it never got to the point. It was a long book!
Oh! I didn’t realize it was about the Salem Witch Trials. Over time I've actually become more and more interested in that time period. Those people were crazy back then! Also, I know what you mean about a book never getting to the point. It sounds like every book I was ever assigned to read for class. Hope all is going well and I’m sorry that it took so long to get back to you!
World War II. Possibly one of the most deadly battles in the history of the world. Could it have been even more deadly (or fun for the soldiers) to have lightsabers? If there was this type of technology back then, this is what the war would've been like…….
I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. First off, I love the prompt you were assigned! It makes for a great post. I like how you even brought up how Jewish people would be able to defend themselves. They could even form somewhat of an “underground army” to try and overthrow the concentration camps. It is an interesting thought, sadly it didn’t happen. I’ll be sure to keep checking in on this blog and I hope to see more interesting posts! Keep up the good work!
P.S. What other kind of movies do you like? You seem to know a good bit about Star Wars. I have hope in your generation! Haha.
The blog I was assigned to was made by Dr. Paige Vitulli and Dr. Susan Santoli and they kept us, students at the University of South Alabama, updated on their trip to Ireland. Unfortunately, I was given their very first post to comment on and all it said was: "We have created this Blog to share our journey through Ireland in October."
Here's the comment I left Dr. Vitulli and Dr. Santoli:
Hi, my name is Michael Morris and I am a student in EDM 310 at USA. I think it is really great that you took the time to blog about your trip to Ireland. I'm sure that you learned a lot about the country and I hope that you had a great time. Thanks for blogging to keep everyone in the College of Education updated on your trip!
C4K #8
I was assigned to comment on Laycee R's blog for this C4K. Her most recent post was a short one about a book she read called "The Witch of Blackbird Pond". She explained the plot of the book in which a girl moves from Barbados to the United States to live with her Puritan aunt and uncle. She said she thought the book was "just ok." Expert analysis right there folks!
Anyways, here's the comment I left Laycee:
P.S. Your blog is really good. keep up with it more if you can!
She actually commented back, which I was very excited about. Here is what she wrote:
I commented back to her but have yet to see the comment approved. Apparently Laycee hasn't checked in on her blog in a few weeks. Nevertheless, this is what I wrote:
C4K #9
This blog was probably one of my favorites to comment on all semester. The blog was made by Charlie who is in an IB World History class at Robertsdale High School. He was assigned a blog post and his prompt was:
World War II. Possibly one of the most deadly battles in the history of the world. Could it have been even more deadly (or fun for the soldiers) to have lightsabers? If there was this type of technology back then, this is what the war would've been like…….
So, I totally love this teacher. Charlie went on to analyze the war and how it would have changed with the use of lightsabers. He concluded that with the use of lightsabers the war would have had the same, or possibly more, amount of deaths. I recommend reading this post, it was fantastic.
Here's the comment I left Charlie:
I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. First off, I love the prompt you were assigned! It makes for a great post. I like how you even brought up how Jewish people would be able to defend themselves. They could even form somewhat of an “underground army” to try and overthrow the concentration camps. It is an interesting thought, sadly it didn’t happen. I’ll be sure to keep checking in on this blog and I hope to see more interesting posts! Keep up the good work!
P.S. What other kind of movies do you like? You seem to know a good bit about Star Wars. I have hope in your generation! Haha.
Sadly, he didn't comment back.
C4K #10
I was assigned to comment on Ms. Nelson and Ms. Yim's blog that they created for Daphne East Elementary 4th grade. The post that I commented on was a slideshow presentation that they made about a recent "Fun Run" that they have annually at the elementary school.
Here is the comment I left them:
I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I thought that the pictures you posted were wonderful! The kids looked like they had a great time. What does the fun run help raise money for?
Sadly, they didn't comment back.
C4K #10
I was assigned to comment on Ms. Nelson and Ms. Yim's blog that they created for Daphne East Elementary 4th grade. The post that I commented on was a slideshow presentation that they made about a recent "Fun Run" that they have annually at the elementary school.
Here is the comment I left them:
I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I thought that the pictures you posted were wonderful! The kids looked like they had a great time. What does the fun run help raise money for?
Sadly, they didn't comment back.
Project #13
In Project #15 we collaborated as a group using Google Drive and Skype Specifically on Google Drive we used the Google Docs feature the most because it made it the easiest way to share information quickly. We also exchanged countless text and calls from each other on a near daily basis. We worked very hard on this project and this video is from only one exchange that we had. This was a great project, but at times I absolutely wanted to pull my hair out. Thankfully though, I had a great group of people to work with and I made it through it!
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