Blog Post #7

1. Watching these videos this week has opened my eyes and mind even more to using technology as a tool for instruction in the classroom. I believed that I will have to continue to learn and use various different types of technology. This includes different softwares, programs, devices, search engines, and much more. In order to get the most use out of this technology, I must know not only how they work, but how well they flourish in a classroom setting. Some type of technology might not be suitable for a kindergarten class, and some technology might not be suitable for high school classroom. We as teachers must always be continual learners, but we are the device through which students master their learning experiences so we must also be well versed in technology. I think that being able to see first hand how a teachers applies technology to project based lesson plans will be crucial to my future classroom as well. Being able to see the advantages and even participate in these technology driven projects will not only encourage me to use them in my own future classes, but to also learn what does/did/has/ or hasn't worked for other teachers and their students.

2. I learned about how valuable and easy it is to use the Alabama Virtual Library, as well as iMovie from watching Using iMovie and the Alabama Virtual Library in Kindergarten. Dr. Strange has an exciting conversation about how these tools have really helped and encouraged kindergarten students in both Daphne and Gulf Shores Elementary schools. Both Mrs, Bennett and Mrs. Davis were very excited to share their experiences with this technology in kindergarten classes. I honestly couldn't believe that these young students were using so much technology on a weekly basis!
In their continued conversation video We All Become Learners, Mrs. Bennett tells about how thrilling it was to have her students teach her how to use some of the technology in their school. She tells of how more and more teachers are turning to their own students to learn how to navigate new tools, websites, and other technological advancements in Gulf Shores Elementary. She states that it is much easier to teach when everyone is learning, because there are no barriers and learning has the potential to become limitless.
In the videos iPads in the Classroom and Top 10 Reasons to Use Technology in Education, we can see how new technology is not only useful and convenient for all teachers, but can also engage students in exciting and hands on learning processes. Students get excited about new technology  and enjoy using it. I have learned that when students become excited about using technology and about learning, they are more likely to retain what they learn and are able to use it in real-world application.  Technology offers a wider variety of resources and opens the students minds to real-world application of the information they find and the technology they are using to find it. Not only are students more engaged and excited about learning, but teachers are also able to give more instruction in class, have less classroom disturbances (such as behavioral problems), and can answer more problem-solving questions in class. This type of learning experience also resolves the resentment that students often feel towards homework, which could potentially motivate any student to push forward in their academic career (completing high school and even college).

Overall, I can say with my experience from this class and the knowledge I've gained through my PLN, that technology in the classroom will never be a disadvantage, not to our teachers, and definitely not to our students. The sky is the limit when we have limitless access to limitless information.






Check out this video on YouTube. I would love to have a classroom full of technology one day!

Project #8 Book Trailer

I really enjoyed this project. This is such a creative and entertaining way to get kids excited about reading!

Blog Post #6

What I love most about this class is that I am continually learning and continually discovering that I truly love the things I'm learning about. This was most prominent to me in this weeks blog assignment. After watching the interview videos with Anthony Capps, a third grade teacher at Gulf Shores Elementary, I have been able to see EDM310 content applied and been successful through Anthony Capps's classroom recollections. The biggest thing I will take away from these videos is that teaching really is about learning. Anthony explains that when you interest your students in project based learning, you are not the expert on the information they are looking for. However, you are the expert on how they FIND this information. Allowing them to make choices in their learning experience, giving them the ability to choose what they learn and how to interpret what they learn is an amazing learning experience for you and your students. This gives your students the ability to go above and beyond what you thought you wanted for them, and also teaches you, as an educator, something completely new or gives you a newly found perspective. I think that in itself is the joy of project based learning: facilitating your students learning experience so that everyone can learn and everyone can improve together. I also learned that it is important to have a project/lesson plan that builds upon itself and covers all that you need to in that given school year. Anthony also explains that this might not always go according to plan and that you must be willing to improvise and be fluid with your students needs and wants. This is why reflection and peer critiquing is essential. This allows you as a teacher to make changes based on what your students are driven to accomplish, where they think they might need improvement, and how they can do better next time. Lastly, this also supports the method of allowing your students to present their projects to a valuable audience. Not only does this technique inspire more creativity and pride in your student's work, but allows for reflection and the ability to see how much your children have learned, what they can improve on, and how it relates to or differs from their classmates work.

Here are the links to these awesome videos featuring Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange:
Project Based Learning Part 1
Project Based Learning Part 2
iCurio with Anthony
Discovery Ed
Tips for Teachers
Use Tech Don't Teach It
Additional Thoughts

My Sentence Videos

My Sentence Is...




My Passion Is... 

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post #5

This week we are learning and discussing how to create and take advantage of PLNs (personal learning networks). I wasn't quite sure what a PLN was, and honestly it took me a couple of days of digging through sources and websites to really get a grasp on how advantageous personal learning networks can be. A PLN is a set of websites, blogs, tools, videos and relationships in your content area that can provide information, answers, questions, guidance, advice, opinions, and also a sense of community. PLNs promote continual learning and help you to find resources and information quickly. PLNs require dedication and time, especially if you want to get the most relevant and useful information out of them. PLNs are not just about "taking". It is important to also contribute to your PLN, because even in those moments of sharing with others, you too can learn something new.
PLNs can help future educators by providing real time and real life information. The more you add and cultivate your PLN, the more sources and information you can accumulate to create engaging assignments for your students, as well as keep your classroom constantly moving and flowing. Not only do PLNs benefit your students, but they also can save valuable time for teachers. Giving encouragement, seeing progression, building a community, and offering insight are all things that educators can greatly benefit from in their PLNs.

PLNs are formed by connection. The easiest way for me to start was to go to twitter and find pages and people that interested me and were related to my content area. I began to add people on twitter. I began to dig through their tweets and retweets, which led me to videos, blogs, websites, and podcasts that interested me. Not only were these videos, blogs, and websites interesting, but they provided valuable and usable information to me that I can potentially use in my future classroom. On top of that, most of the information I found came from educators, like myself, all over the globe! I can create a virtual relationship with them through following their posts and asking questions when I am in need. Twitter was a great place for me to start my PLN. My first addition to my PLN was my teacher that I was assigned to for C4T, Dr. Dean Shareski. I honestly enjoyed his blog and his ideas about technology and teaching. I have already favorited many of his tweets and enjoy many of his videos (@shareski). Then I began to follow the teachers and pages that Dr. Strange had suggested, which led to more wonderful suggestions by twitter on other related topics that I could follow. I've found several websites and resources that I love. One of these websites is The Lie of Community at budtheteacher.com. I found myself listening to a 30 minute podcast on how beneficial PLNs can be, and how to get the most use out of them. I also found and followed EdTech Talk, which is "collaborative open webcasting community" about educational technology. I also added several search engines, shared drives, news related sites, shopping sites, email accounts, and other resources for finding information.

How can so much information be organized and easily accessible? Simple! I used Symbaloo. This website helps you to organize your PLN through a homescreen full of tiles that contain links to websites, blogs, emails, accounts, and resources. You can access any site without ever having to type the address into the search bar! You can move the tiles, separate similar tiles by webmixes, and customize your viewing settings to your liking.

This is my Symbaloo. You can also make your Symbaloo your homepage. 

I can say that Symbaloo has helped me to become more organized and use my time much more efficiently. I've learned so much from this week's blog post assignment and I cannot wait to continue growing and cultivating my PLN for my future classroom.

Click here if you would like to hear the podcast with David Cormier about the importance of PLNs and community. This can also be found on the budtheteacher.com website link I posted in the above paragraph.

Project #15: Search Engine Evaluation

In this project, I will be evaluating 8 different search engines, not including Google. This will give me, as well as my readers, a better understanding of how to find relevant information, where to find this information, and what qualities within these search engines are useful for research.

1. Bing

Bing is a search engine that helps to better define or better expand what you are searching for. It gives suggestions and different topics that are related to what you are looking for. For example, I typed into the search bar "technology in the classroom" and similar to Google, it gives you the option to define your search through images, web, videos, maps, news, and more. What I really like about Bing is that this search engine helps you to narrow down or broaden your search possibilities. I clicked on each tab (images, web, videos, maps, news, and more) after I typed in "technology in the classroom" and Bing gave me suggestions like "integrating technology in the classroom", "using technology in the classroom", and "New Tech 2014". Bing also has a "Related Topics" list on the right side of the screen that seems very useful for finding many sources for research through different mediums. This search engine is very easy to navigate and provides plenty of visual stimulation, making it user friendly. I also really enjoyed using Bing because it provides current and up-to-date news on its' home page, as well as an awesome home page picture that changes. Overall, Bing would be great for researching a topic that requires you to have different viewpoints, different mediums, and would be able to give a "down the rabbit hole" possibility for whatever topic you may choose. I found this search engine very useful for finding images, videos, and news. I would recommend this search engine be used for a science project or a current issues project. 

This is the home page for Bing. The transparent box gives facts about the photo in the background.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see current news stories.

This is the results page for "technology in the classroom" under the tab "videos".

2. WolframAlpha

This search engine is completely new to me for I have never used it before. At first, I had difficulty navigating WolframAlpha because, unlike Google or Bing, this search engine is used to find and help explain calculations, theories, and definitions. What I really liked about this search engine is how it gives you a simple and organized explanation for the material you are looking for. WolframAlpha has a feature that allows you to view examples of the topic you are searching. I typed in several questions like, "how do you find the area of a circle?","what is an allegory?', "how to ride a bike?" and these were among the most successful for which I found answers for. When I clicked on "examples", it showed me how the topic I was searching for related to measurements, charts, science, dates & time, people in history, step-by-step solutions, and countless others. I found this search engine extremely useful for finding calculated answers and definitions that pertain to complex ideas and theories. Great for math homework!

This is the "Examples" page where you can find more detailed information related to your topic.

These were some of my results for when I searched for the circumference of a circle. 

3. DuckDuckGo 

The first thing I noticed about this search engine was the tutorial that was offered as you first enter the site. It was nice to have a preview of how to navigate this site. This search engine is really for personal use and lets you customize your searching experience based on your location, style, and wants. This search engine offers many features such as a stopwatch for working out, music selections, a dictionary, a weather update feature and many more features that can be customized to your specific likes and dislikes. For this search engine, I searched for "award winning pie recipes".  

My results for "award winning pie recipes".

4. Ask

Ask.com is a website and search engine that I have used before. This search engine is used to ask questions. There is even a forum for popular questions and answers that are commonly asked on this website. You can type in a word and "ask" will provide popular questions that have been associated with that word. This website would be useful for everyday questions, as well as difficult questions in literature, critical thinking questions, and problem solving questions. This website is very useful for anyone at any level, not just students or professors.  

This is the homepage of Ask.com. Here you can see the questions of the day, which gives viewers an idea of what kind of information Ask,com can provide.

This is the Q&A forum for Ask.com.

5. Mahalo 

This search engine offers a combination of Google and Ask features. This website features editors that sift through all the incoming information to give its users a higher quality of relevance to the information they are trying to find. Mahalo features intimate and personal answers to questions about health, fitness, emotions, human relationships, music, food, and much more. This would be the perfect search engine for any college student who needs to compile personal information and tips for a healthy life style, emotionally and physically. This is a great tool that can be widely used for personal blogs, as well as advice columns. 

Mahalo offers a wide variety of tips and advice for the everyday user.

6. Yippy 

This search engine was the most unique to me. Yippy has been around since about 2000, originally known as Clutsy. Yippy uses "clouds" to help better define your search into more specific areas. Yippy also combines other search engine's results to give you complied answers to find what you are looking for. These "clouds" contain similar results together so that you can sift through the aspects of your topic, choosing what information you want to view and avoiding the information you find unnecessary. This would be useful if you are trying to find information on a specific author about his or her accomplishments and famous writings, rather than personal or biographical information.  

To the left, you can see how Yippy has divided the results for the Empire State Building into "clouds".

7. Webopedia 

I feel as if I will definitely be using this website for this class, as well as my future courses. This search engine is designed to help people navigate the ins and out' of the tech-savvy world. Webopedia allows it's users to find information about their technology by defining commonly used vocabulary and giving tips on how to successfully  use software, programs, graphics, networks. operating systems and much more. I feel like this website is a very important tool for navigating technology in the world today, and I am very thankful to have found such a commodity as a resource. I will definitely be using this for all my technological needs in this class, and even when I am a teacher with my own students.  

8. The Internet Archive 

I chose this search engine last because it is basically the big daddy of all search engines! It doesn't necessarily work in the conventional way like Google or Bing, but the Internet Archive has the ability to allow us to view web pages from as early as 1996! I had no idea that this information was available to us! I wish I had done more research about search engines before this class because I could have been so much more successful in my research as a student in my earlier years. The Internet Archive is more than a valuable place for free information. This archive allows us to see how technology has changed overtime and gives us access to information and digital artifacts that have been long gone. This search engine gives you the ability to browse the history of the internet. I did a search for google.com and my results informed that google.com has been saved 48,399 times between today and November 11th, 1998. The archive can even show us how politicians used the internet to campaign back in the late nineties. Even better than that, the archive allows us to reach into the past and view old movies, cartoons, speeches, and so much more that cannot be made available to us through any other search engine!  This is definitely a fantastic tool that I will use in my future classroom.  

The "wayback machine" on the archive's website that allows us to view internet campaigning from 1996.

#1 C4T Dr. Dean Shareski

For my C4T these past two weeks, I was assigned to view and comment on Dr. Dean Shareski's blog Ideas and Thoughts. Dr. Shareski is the Community Manager for Discovery Education Canada and has spent many years as a classroom teacher and a technology consultant. He also has a Masters of Education in Communications and Technology which allows him to share his passion for technology in the classroom all around the globe. I really enjoyed reading through his blog. Dr. Shareski was inspirational in sharing a little of his personal life and beliefs, as well as giving interesting and relevant information about the benefits of technology in the classroom.
The first blog post of his that I commented on was an awesome video that Dr. Shareski had put together called 2014: My Year in Numbers. In this video, Dr. Shareski shared some great pictures of his travels, holidays, family gatherings, and teaching opportunities. He incorporated simple statistics of all the places he had traveled, the rounds of golf he played, and even a random sock drive he had participated in! It was a simple and entertaining way to share information while including technology. This presentation could easily be incorporated into any lesson plan, on any subject, and could use multiple technological resources while maintaining a fun and exciting element of creativity.
In my comment, I shared with Dr. Shareski a link to my blog, as well as our class blog so that he could see how we have used technology in our learning experience. I also told him about our class assignment and how easy it would be to use the idea of "My Year in Numbers" for multiple projects in my future classroom. I admired his family and his passion for his career. I really enjoyed this particular post.

(Dr. Shareski and his family.)

For my second comment on Dr. Shareski's blog, I chose a post from December 19th, 2014 entitled Future Ready is Overrated. In this blog post, Dr. Shareski shares a video clip from 60 minutes on the concept of "Mindfulness". This lead him to share another video called Live Fully Now which contained so much information about how children and students are pushed to be better, do better, and reach for the next step without actually living and appreciating life. I really valued Dr. Shareski's ideas for this blog post because I know that this idea of "future ready" is a constant and distracting concept that I deal with everyday in my own life. Dr. Shareski believes that as future educators, that it is important that we tell and show our students the value of their work and life, and how to appreciate the "right now" before it is too late. In a society full of technology, sometimes we are not even aware of life as we are living it because we have the access to unlimited connectivity which can distract us from enjoying, experiencing, and appreciating life in the "here and now".
In my comment for this blog post, I showed great appreciation for that fact that teachers and educators like Dr. Shareski recognize this problem in our society today. I mentioned how I constantly feel like I'm waiting for the next step, or thinking, "if I can just get through this semester I'll feel so much better...". I really connected with Dr. Shareski on this concept because I feel overwhelmed on a daily basis and it magnificently helps when I am able to stop and just take some time to breathe and be thankful for where I am in my life at that exact moment in time. My comment must have been appreciated because Dr. Shareski actually responded to my comment on his post. He encouraged me to maintain this mindset as I continue on my path to become and educator. He said,"We'll always be in the business of preparing students but without the ability to enjoy today, it won't matter." 

This project has definitely given me hope for my future students that I will be able to guide them toward a successful path in their life, which will include the ability to use technology while still maintaining self-awareness and happiness. I believe the balance of those two things are so greatly important and can be so greatly distorted. I think that Dr. Shareski has found the great balance, and I hope that he realizes his inspiration to me in my pursuit of my career as an educator.

Blog Post #4

This week's blog post assignment has really changed my perspective on how students are able to thoroughly grasp concepts in the classroom through effective questioning. I believe that asking the right questions and in the right way is crucial to the success of the students in the classroom. As future educators, we must evaluate what concepts we wish for our students' to master and ask questions that engage, analyze, and challenge every aspect of that concept. Not only do we strive for our students to master the material, we want our students to be involved physically and mentally in the learning process. We can accomplish this by presenting provoking questions in the classroom.

 I believe that one way we can have effective questioning in our classrooms is to prepare. Preparing questions and expected answers can give us as educators a perspective on the ultimate goal for that day's lesson. This allows us to mold our questions in a way that we can know what our students do and do not comprehend. Preparing our questions helps to eliminate confusion in our students and can provide clarity on the concepts covered (Three Ways to Better Ask Questions in the Classroom by Dr. Maryellen Weimer). We should also prepare closed-answer questions. These questions are usually easily answered by students with a "yes" or "no" answer. This gives our students a chance to warm up to the material just covered and also gives us as teachers a chance to see who has or hasn't made themselves familiar with the material. Once student's feel comfortable with answering closed-answer questions, the open-answered questions should begin. Students may feel unsure of their answers and might be hesitant at first. One strategy to stimulate the classroom is to ask your provoking question, give about 5-10 seconds of "thinking time", and call on a student randomly for their response (See The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom). Beginning your open-answered questions with phrases such as:

"Describe in detail..."
 "In what ways..."
"Make a list of..."
"What would happen if...." and "How would you explain...".

To get the students to dig deeper with their answer, ask them to explain why they chose their answer or to give an example of their answer. Making sure the students feel as if their answers are valuable is crucial to asking effective questions. Being sure to look at the students while they are answering and giving positive body language can help keep them relaxed. Another method to engage students in answering these questions would be to have them ask their classmates their opinion or compare answers to see how they were the same and how they were different. I believe this technique would encourage students to find numerous answers in multiple ways without discouraging students who could have given a wrong answer. Including students' opinions can also be valuable to their learning experience. Asking, "How do you feel about..." or, "What did you like about..." encourages a deeper understanding and a connection with the student to the material.  This includes allowing students to also ask questions and introducing those questions to the class. This is what creates classroom discussion!( Watch the video Questioning Styles and Strategies to see how this technique is used in the classroom.)

Asking these types of questions is vital to a healthy learning environment and to a child's progress. The goal for us as teachers is help student's explore the idea of metacognition. Metacognition, according to Mary-Anne Neal, author of Engaging Students Through Effective Questions, is "the ability to stand back and observe oneself." I'm choosing to use all of these techniques in my future classroom so that both me and my students can fully grasp the idea of metacognition, enabling us to grow, learn, and experience together.

Works Cited:
Engaging Students Through Effective Questions
Questioning Styles and Strategies
The Right Way to Ask Questions in the Classroom
Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom